120 



CHINA. 



promised to yield their quota, but it was all 

 extra taxation; they were in many cases unable 

 to wring it from the people, and had to borrow 

 money from bankers on their personal security 

 to complete their remittances. In the more pros- 

 perous districts some of the mandarins squeezed 

 much more out of the people than their quota, 

 and thus disaffection and indignation against 

 the foreigner and the Imperial Government 

 spread throughout the purely Chinese provinces 

 that have never been contended under the Man- 

 chu rule. 



The taxes that had to be raised for the in- 

 demnity increased in the same proportion as the 

 fall in the gold price of silver. This was felt 

 to be a fresh extortion of the foreigners. In 

 Chili province and throughout northern China 

 the continued occupation of Tientsin and reten- 

 tion of the railroads in violation of the treaty 

 of peace kept alive or revived the anti-European 

 sentiment. 



In February disturbances broke out in Kuang- 

 tung and Kuangsi along the French border. Two 

 French officers were murdered. A German mis- 

 sion was destroyed. The Imperial Government 

 enjoined the local officials to use every effort 

 to suppress disorder and punish the offenders. 

 Although foreigners were the first victims, the 

 movement developed into an antidynastic rebel- 

 lion. Su- Yuan-Chun, a general who had main- 

 tained order along the French frontier for many 

 years, was sent back to the post with an army. 

 He encountered and defeated a body of rebels at 

 Langchau. 



Gen. Ma led another army out from Canton, 

 but had to retreat from Fangcheng, where the 

 rebels put the mandarins to death. The move- 

 ment spread rapidly and extended into Yunnan. 

 The most active and troublesome of the rebels 

 were discharged soldiers. The objects of the 

 rebellion were the downfall of the Tartar dynas- 

 ty, the establishment on the throne of a Chinese 

 line of monarchs, and the relief of the suffering 

 people. These objects are always cherished in 

 the Kuang provinces and kept alive by the Triad 

 and other secret societies. Robberies were fre- 

 quent and countrymen joined the rebellion for 

 food and plunder because drought prevented rice- 

 planting. The imperial troops were checked at 

 Seng-Chin in Kuangtung and at Popak in 

 Kuangsi. The rebels captured Liuchau in Kuang- 

 si, Yungning in Kweichau, and Fuchuen in Yun- 

 nan. Many of Su's troops deserted and joined 

 the rebels. The Viceroy of Canton asked for 

 reenforcements from Pechili. He could not save 

 the town and arsenal of Kanchau from capture 

 without exposing Canton to danger. Gen. Ma 

 and Marshal Su joined their forces in Kuangsi 

 and in the beginning of April fought a battle 

 at Kongchuen, where the opportune arrival of 

 (Jen. Wong with quick-firing and machine-guns 

 turned defeat into victory and compelled the 

 rebels to retreat to their mountain strongholds. 

 The imperial troops, however, were unable to 

 make headway, and sat down at Lienchau and 

 Kuchau until reenforcements arrived, a regiment 

 of the foreign-drilled troops of Yuan-Shih-Kai 

 with artillery and one of Black Flags for Nan- 

 ning-Fu, which was protected by torpedo-boats, 

 while gunboats were sent to protect Wuchau. 

 The reiwls obtained arms from outside and their 

 ranks wore strengthened daily. The antiforeign 

 agitation at Ningpo led to the despatch of Ger- 

 man war-ships. The rebels in their proclama- 

 tions enjoined the people to spare and protect 

 the foreigners and their commerce, but to drive 

 out the mandarins who ground them down with 



oppressive extortions. They charged Manchu 

 nobles and corrupt mandarins in control of the 

 Imperial Government with having sold parts of 

 China to Occidental nations and with having 

 declared war without the concurrence or knowl- 

 edge of the true Chinese of the south, upon 

 whom they now imposed increased taxes to pay 

 the war debt. The revolutionary program set 

 forth as the objects of the movement the over- 

 throw of the Manchu dynasty, the founding of 

 a new dynasty under a Chinese Emperor, relief 

 for the oppressed; the introduction of reforms, 

 protection of commerce, the establishment of 3 

 governments in Kwangsi, Kweichau, and Kwang- 

 tung with an emperor at Canton and viceroys 

 in Kwangsi and Kweichau, and protection of Eu- 

 ropeans and their trade. The center of the move- 

 ment was the cradle of the Taiping Rebellion, and 

 the revolutionists took the name of Hung from 

 Hung-Sau-Chuen, the leader of that rebellion. 

 The reformers Kang-Ju-Wei and Sun-Jat-Sen 

 had no connection with the insurgents, who num- 

 bered about 10,000 armed men supplied with 

 Mausers and revolvers by pretended opium mer- 

 chants coming from Annam. The prefect of 

 Nanning-Fu alienated the people of his district 

 by destroying whole villages in his hunt for the 

 rebel chief. All the country surrounding and 

 beyond that city was dominated by the rebels. 

 They held over 30 towns and villages, making 

 prisoners of the mandarins. 



In most places the people received the rebels 

 with open arms. A force of 2.000 imperial troops 

 sent by Marshal Su to dislodge the rebels from 

 a village was ambushed and cut to pieces in a 

 narrow defile. A sufficient force of imperial 

 troops was sent into Kwangsi to hold the insur- 

 rection in check. A large body of rebels was 

 dispersed near Wuchang, and Hung-Yung-Seng, 

 their leader, was captured. Nanning-Fu was at- 

 tacked by the rebels on April 27. A few days 

 later a large insurgent force sustained a severe 

 defeat. The political movement subsided, but 

 well-armed predatory bands, largely composed 

 of braves of Su's frontier force, who, receiving 

 no pay, had deserted with their rifles and ammu- 

 nition, and numbering hundreds and even a thou- 

 sand in a band, continued to infest the moun- 

 tainous districts near the West and Lunchau 

 rivers and roam on the borders of Yunnang and 

 Tongking, raiding and plundering villages, hold- 

 ing officials to ransom, and collecting salt and 

 likin duties. 



In southern Honan, exasperated by the collec- 

 tion of taxes for the indemnity and demands of 

 the French missionaries for compensation for their 

 converts, the people murdered some of the con- 

 verts. The Government degraded the local offi- 

 cials, and then directed the Foreign Office to 

 arrange with Bishop Favier and with the foreign 

 ministers rules to control the interference of 

 Catholic missionaries in litigation between con- 

 verts and other Chinamen. Outrages on Chris- 

 tians in northern Kansu committed by Gen. 

 Tung-Fuh-Siang's troops, who numbered 3.000 

 or 4,000, armed with modern rifles, compelled 

 missionaries to flee. The Viceroy complained 

 that he could not cope with the disturbance, his 

 own troops having inferior arms. The French 

 minister pressed for the capture and punishment 

 of Prince Tuan and Gen. Tung-Fuh-Siang, and 

 the Government promised energetic measures. 



The inhabitants of Mongolia resisted the severe 

 taxation levied in order to raise the indemnity. 

 The troops of northern China betrayed an anti- 

 foreign feeling caused by the continued occupa- 

 tion of Tientsin, the imposition of the indemni- 



