Back to Burma 245 
hundred picked troops and ten guns to their succour, but 
by the time these reached Tali, the T‘eng-yueh rebels had 
already been soundly thrashed. Be this as it may, the 
T‘eng-yueh troops were recalled, and on December 22 
I watched them march through the city, between four and 
five hundred strong, all that was left of the thousand who 
had gone forth to battle three weeks previously. 
Meanwhile telegrams had been sent to Tali, inquiring 
as to the fate of my caravan, and on December 20, a wel- 
come answer was received from the revolutionist leader 
saying that it was safe, and already on its way under 
escort. 
Impatient as I was to get down to Burma, it was an 
interesting situation, and I walked about the city almost 
daily, immune from interference but by no means immune 
from close observation. A wave of military enthusiasm 
had swept over the place and even small children were to 
be seen playing at soldiers. On the broad city wall, inside 
the temple courts which had been converted into barracks, 
and on the downs beyond the city, recruits were drilled 
daily; and sentries, as slovenly in dress as in carriage, were 
posted with fixed bayonets in front of the chief yamens, 
banks, and barracks. There was not a queue to be seen 
in the city. Yet business went on in the market as usual, 
and save for the sound of the bugles, the numerous soldiers 
in the streets, and the revolutionist flags flapping idly above 
the south gate, there was nothing to suggest untoward 
events. Perhaps in no other country but China could 
such a distracting state of affairs exist with so little dis- 
location of business. 
Chiang, the leading spirit of T‘eng-yueh and the sur- 
rounding region, was simply a rebel, and as such it was 
impossible for anyone to treat with him. Why the army 
of Tali did not in turn descend upon T‘eng-yueh and exact 
retribution from the man whose inordinate greed and am- 
bition had stirred western Yunnan, is a mystery. He was 
repudiated by the revolutionist leaders of the province, and 
the city was for the time independent, so that no one knew 
what the man would do next, and though a settlement with 
Tali was actually arranged while I was there, it appeared 
likely to prove only a truce. 
