THE YEN-PING REBELLION
On Sunday, June 18, we went to the bat cave to obtain a new supply
of specimens. Upon our return, just as we were about to sit down to
luncheon, four excited Chinese appeared with the following letter from
Mr. Caldwell:
Dear Roy:
There was quite a lively time in the city at an early hour this
morning. The rebels have taken Yen-ping and it looks as though
there was trouble ahead. Northern soldiers have been sent for and
the chances are that either tonight or tomorrow morning there will
be quite a battle. Bankhardt, Dr. Trimble and myself have just made
a round of the city, visiting the telegraph office, post office and
other places, and while we do not believe that the foreigners will
be molested, nevertheless it is impossible to tell just what to
expect. It is certain, however, that the Consul will order all of
us to Foochow if news of the situation reaches there. Owing to the
uncertainty, I think you had better come in to Yen-ping so as to be
ready for any eventuality.
After talking the situation over with Dr. Trimble and Mr.
Bankhardt, we all agreed that the wisest thing is for you to come
in immediately. I am sending four burden-bearers for it will be out
of the question to find any tomorrow, if trouble occurs tonight.
The city gates are closed so you will have to climb up the ladder
over the wall behind our compound. Best wishes.
Harry.
P. S.--Later: It is again reported that Northern soldiers are to
arrive tonight. If they do and trouble occurs your only chance is
to get to Yen-ping today.
H. C.
The camp immediately was thrown into confusion for Da-Ming, the cook,
and the burden-bearers were jabbering excitedly at the top of their
voices. The servants began to pack the loads at once and meanwhile we
ate a roast chicken faster than good table manners would permit--in
fact, we took it in our fingers. We were both delighted at the prospect
of some excitement and talked almost as fast as the Chinese.
In just one hour from the time Harry's letter had been received, we
were on the way to Yen-ping. It was the hottest part of the day, and
we were dripping with perspiration when we left the cool darkness of
the ravine and struck across the open valley, which lay shimmering in a
furnace-like heat. At the first rest house an the top of the long hill
we waited nearly an hour for our bearers who were struggling under the
heavy loads.
Three miles farther on a poor woman tottered past us on her peglike
feet leaning on the arm of a man. A short distance more and we came to
the second rest house. We had been there but a few moments when three
panting women, steadying themselves with long staves and barely able
to walk on feet not more than four inches long, came up the hill. With
them were several men bearing household goods in large bundles and huge
red boxes.
The exhausted women sank upon the benches and fanned themselves while
the perspiration ran down their flushed faces. They looked so utterly
miserable that we told the cook to give them a piece of cake which Mrs.
Caldwell had sent us the day before. Their gratitude was pitiful, but,
of course, they gave the larger share to the men.
It was not long before other women and children appeared on the hill
path, all struggling upward under heavy loads, or tottering along on
tightly bound feet. Probably these women had not walked so far in their
entire lives, but the fear of the Northern soldiers and what would
happen in the city if they took possession had driven them from their
homes.
Farther on we had a clear view across the valley where a long line
of people was filing up to a temple which nestled into the hillside.
Half a mile beyond were two other temples both crowded with refugees
and their goods. Hundreds of families were seeking shelter in every
little house beside the road and were overflowing into the cowsheds and
pigpens.
At six o'clock we stood on the summit of the hill overlooking the city
and half an hour later were clambering up the ladder over the high wall
of the compound, just behind Dr. Trimble's house. We were wet through
and while cooling off heard the story of the morning's fighting. It
seemed that a certain element in the city was in coöperation with the
representatives of the revolutionary organization. These men wished
to obtain possession of Yen-ping and, after the rebellion was well
started, to gather forces, march to Foochow, and force the Governor to
declare the independence of the province.
The plot had been hatching for several days, but the death of Yuan
Shi-kai had somewhat delayed its fruition. Saturday, however, it was
known throughout the city that trouble would soon begin. Sunday
morning at half past three, a band of one hundred men from Yuchi
had marched to Yen-ping where they were received by a delegation
of rebels dressed in white who opened to them the east gate of the
city. Immediately they began to fire up the streets to intimidate the
people and in a short time were in a hot engagement with the seventeen
Northern soldiers, some of whom threw away their guns and swam across
the river. The remaining city troops were from the province of Hunan
and their sympathies were really with the South in the great rebellion.
These immediately joined the rebels, where they were received with open
arms. It was reported that the _tao-tai_ (district mandarin) had asked
for troops from Foochow and that these might be expected at any moment;
thus when they arrived a real battle could be expected and it was very
likely that the city would be partly destroyed.
We had a picnic supper on the Caldwell's porch and discussed the
situation. It was the opinion of all that the foreigners were in
no immediate danger, but nevertheless it was considered wise to be
prepared, and we decided upon posts for each man if it should become
necessary to protect the compound.
Hundreds of people were besieging the missionaries with requests to be
allowed to bring their goods and families inside the walls, but these
necessarily had to be refused. Had the missionaries allowed the Chinese
to bring their valuables inside it would have cost them the right of
Consular protection and, moreover, their compound would have been the
first to be attacked if looting began.
On Monday morning while we were sitting on the porch of Mr. Caldwell's
house preparing some bird skins, there came a sharp crackle of rifle
fire and then a roar of shots. Bullets began to whistle over us and
we could see puffs of smoke as the deep bang of a black powder gun
punctuated the vicious snapping of the high-power rifles. The firing
gradually ceased after half an hour and we decided to go down to the
city to see what had happened, for, as no Northern troops had appeared,
the cause of the fighting was a mystery.
We went first to the mission hospital which lay across a deep ravine
and only a few yards from the quarters of the soldiers. At the door of
the hospital compound lay a bloody rag, and we found Dr. Trimble in the
operating room examining a wounded man who had just been brought in.
The fellow had been shot in the abdomen with a 45-caliber lead ball
that had gone entirely through him, emerging about three inches to the
right of his spine.
From the doctor we got the first real news of the puzzling situation.
It appeared that all the men who had arrived Sunday morning from Yuchi
to join the Yen-ping rebels were in reality brigands and, to save their
own lives, the Hunan soldiers quartered in the city had played a clever
trick. They had pretended to join the rebels but at a given signal
had turned upon them, killing or capturing almost every one. Although
their sympathies were really with the South, the Hunan men knew that
the rebels in Yen-ping could not hold the city against the Northern
soldiers from Foochow and, by crushing the rebellion themselves, they
hoped to avert a bigger fight.
As we could not help the doctor he suggested that we might be of
some assistance to the wounded in the city, and with rude crosses
of red cloth pinned to our white shirt sleeves we left the hospital,
accompanied by four Chinese attendants bearing a stretcher. In the
compound we met a chair in which was lying an old man groaning loudly
and dripping with blood. Beside him were his wife and several boys. The
poor woman was crying quietly and, between her sobs, was offering the
wounded man mustard pickles from a small dish in her hand! Poor things,
they have so little to eat that they believe food will cure all ills!
The bearers set the chair down as we appeared and lifted the filthy rag
which covered a gaping wound in the man's shoulder, over which had been
plastered a great mass of cow dung. Just think of the infection, but it
was the only remedy they knew!
We took the man upstairs where Dr. Trimble was preparing to operate on
the fellow who had been shot in the abdomen. The doctor was working
steadily and quietly, making every move count and inspiring his native
hospital staff with his own coolness; the way this young missionary
handled his cases made us glad that he was an American.
On the way down the hill several soldiers passed us, each carrying four
or five rifles and slung about with cartridge belts--plunder stripped
from the men who had been killed. A few hundred yards farther on we
found two brigands lying dead in a narrow street. The nearest one had
fallen on his face and, as we turned him over, we saw that half his
head had been blown away; the other was staring upward with wide open
eyes on which the flies already were settling in swarms.
There was little use in wasting time over these men who long ago had
passed beyond need of our help, and we went on rapidly down the alley
to the main thoroughfare. Guided by a small boy, we hurried over the
rough stones for fifteen minutes, and suddenly came to a man lying
at the side of the street, his head propped on a wooden block. An
umbrella once had partly covered him but had fallen away, leaving him
unprotected in the broiling sun. His face and a terrible wound in his
head were a solid mass of flies, and thousands of insects were crawling
over the blood clots on the stones beside him. At first we thought
he was dead but soon saw his abdomen move and realized that he was
breathing. It did not seem possible that a human being could live under
such conditions; and yet the bystanders told us that he had been lying
there for thirty hours--he had been shot early the previous morning and
it was now three o'clock of the next afternoon.
The man was a poor water-carrier who lived with his wife in the most
utter poverty. He had been peering over the city wall when the firing
began Sunday morning and was one of the first innocent bystanders to
pay the penalty of his curiosity. I asked why he had not been taken to
the hospital, and the answer was that his wife was too poor to hire
anyone to carry him and he had no friends. So there he lay in the
burning sun, gazed at by hundreds of passers-by, without one hand being
lifted to help him.
Our hospital attendants brushed away the flies, placed him in the
stretcher and started up the long hill, followed by the haggard,
weeping wife and a curious crowd. On every hand were questions: "Why
are these men taking him away?" "What are they going to do with him?"
But several educated natives who understood said, "=Ing-ai-gidaiie="
(A work of love). They got right there a lesson in Christianity which
they will not soon forget. It is seldom that Chinese try to help an
injured man, for ever present in their minds is the possibility that he
may die and that they will be responsible for his burial expenses.
We left the stretcher bearers at the corner of the main street with
orders to return as soon as they had deposited the man in the hospital
and, under the guidance of a boy, hurried toward the east gate where
it was said seven or eight men had been shot. Our guide took us first
to a brigand who had been wounded and left to die beside the gutter.
The corpse was a horrible sight and with a feeling of deathly nausea
we made a hurried examination and walked to the gate at the end of the
street.
A dozen soldiers were on guard. We learned from the officer that there
were no wounded in the pile of dead just beyond the entrance, so we
turned toward the river bank and rapidly patrolled the alleys leading
to the _tao-tai's yamen_ (official residence) where the firing had been
heaviest. The _yamen_ was crowded with soldiers, and we were informed
that the dead had all been removed and that there were no wounded--a
grim statement which told its own story.
The _yamen_ is but a short distance from the hospital so we climbed
the hill to the compound. The sun was simply blazing and I realized
then what the wounded men must have suffered lying in the heat without
shelter. We returned to the house and were resting on the upper porch
when suddenly, far down the river, we saw the glint of rifle barrels in
the sunlight, and with field glasses made out a long line of khaki-clad
men winding along the shore trail. At the same time two huge boats
filled with soldiers came into view heading for the water gate of the
city. These were undoubtedly the Northern troops from Foochow who were
expected Monday night.
Even as we looked there came a sudden roar of musketry and a cloud of
smoke drifted up from the barracks right below us--then a rattling
fusillade of shots. We could see soldiers running along the walls
firing at men below and often in our direction. Bullets hummed in the
air like angry bees and we rushed for cover, but in a few moments the
firing ceased as suddenly as it began.
We were at a loss to know what it all meant and why the troops were
firing upon the Northern soldiers whom they wished to placate. It was
still a mystery when we sat down to dinner at half past seven, but
a few minutes later Mr. Bankhardt rushed in saying that he had just
received a note from the _tao-tai_. The mandarin's personal servant
had brought word that the Northern soldiers, who had just entered
the city, were going to kill him and he begged the missionaries for
assistance. Bankhardt also told us of the latest developments in the
situation. It seems that the city soldiers supposed the Northern troops
to be brigands and had fired upon them and killed several before they
discovered their mistake. A very delicate situation had thus been
precipitated, for the Northern commander believed that it was treachery
and intended to attack the barracks in the morning and kill every man
whom he found with a rifle, as well as all the city officials.
The story of the way in which the missionaries acted as peacemakers,
saved the _tao-tai_, and prevented the slaughter which surely would
have taken place in the morning, is too long to be told here, for it
was accomplished only after hours of the talk and "face saving" so
dear to the heart of the Oriental. Suffice it to say that through the
exercise of great tact and a thorough understanding of the Chinese
character they were able to settle the matter without bloodshed.
The following day twenty brigands were given a so-called trial, marched
off to the west gate, beheaded amid great enthusiasm, and the incident
was closed. In the afternoon a messenger called and delivered to each
of us an official letter from the commander of the Northern troops
thanking us for the part we had played in averting trouble and bringing
the matter to a peaceful end.
An interesting sidelight on the affair was received a few days later.
A young man, a Christian, who was born in the same town from which a
number of the brigands had come, went to his house on Monday night
after the fight and found seven of the robbers concealed in his
bedroom. He was terrified because if they were discovered he and all
his family would be killed for aiding the bandits. He told them they
must leave at once, but they pleaded with him to let them stay for
they knew there were soldiers at every corner and that it would be
impossible to get away.
While he was imploring them to go, a knock sounded at the door. He
pushed the brigands into the courtyard, and opened to three soldiers.
They said: "We understand you have brigands in your house." He was
trembling with fear, but answered, "Come in and see for yourself, if
you think so."
The soldiers were satisfied by his frank open manner and, as they knew
him to be a good man, did not search the house, but went away. The poor
fellow was frightened nearly to death, but as his place was being
watched it was impossible for the brigands to leave during the day.
At night they stripped themselves, shaved their heads, and dressed like
coolies, and were able to get to the ladder down the city wall just
below the mission compound where they could escape into the hills.
The day after this occurrence, about four o'clock in the afternoon, a
breathless Chinese appeared at the house with a note to Mr. Bankhardt
saying that his Chinese teacher and the mission school cook had been
arrested by the Northern soldiers and were to be beheaded in an hour.
We hurried to the police office where they were confined and found that
not only the two men but three others were in custody.
The mission cook owned a small restaurant under the management of one
of his relatives and, while Bankhardt's teacher and the other man were
sitting at a table, some Northern soldiers appeared, one of whom owed
the restaurant keeper a small amount of money. When asked to pay, the
soldier turned upon him and shouted: "You have been assisting the
brigands. I saw some of them carrying goods into your house." Thereupon
the soldiers arrested everyone in the shop.
The police officials were quite ready to release the teacher and the
other man upon our statements, but they would not allow the cook to go.
His hands were kept tightly bound and he was chained to a post by the
neck. The soldier who arrested him was his sole accuser, but of course,
others would appear to uphold him in his charge if it were necessary.
The cook was as innocent as any one of the missionaries, but it
required several hours of work and threats of complaint to the
government at Foochow to prevent the man from being summarily executed.
We were not able to get any mail from Foochow during the rebellion
because the constant stream of Northern soldiers on their way up the
river had paralyzed the entire country to such an extent that all the
river men had fled.
The soldiers were firing for target practice upon every boat they saw
on the river and dozens of men had been killed and then robbed. The
Northern commander told us frankly that this could not be prevented,
and when we announced that we were going to start with all the
missionaries down the river on the following day, he was very much
disturbed. He insisted that we have American flags displayed on our
boats to prevent being fired upon by the soldiers.
Although it had taken eight days to work our way laboriously through
the rapids and up the river from Foochow to Yen-ping, we covered the
same distance down the river in twenty-four hours and had breakfast
with Mr. Kellogg at his house the morning after we left Yen-ping. In
two days our equipment was repacked and ready for the trip to Futsing
to hunt the blue tiger.