620
Journal of Occurrences.
Nov.
About this time the expectant prefect, Shi-poh had brought up three hundred mili- tia, and Sa Sung-ah, commanding the advanced brigade of the force under the Tituh, three hundred regulars; and these joining two hundred regulars of the San-kiang brigade, which were already in the field, stationed themrelves within the walls of the town of Fuh-kang district. Information here reached them that the party of banditti which had been lying in Sin-ché for some ten days, were preparing once more to issue from their lurking-place and recommence their disturbances; upon which the Judge in concurrence with the tituh, detached the tsan-tsiang, Tai Ching-ngih, acting ad- jutant-general to the tituh, and K‘áng Ki-siu, ex-commandant of the Tsingyuen brigade, with five hundred regulars, to make a circuit and take the enemy in rear. As they were making these arrangements on the 12th of the 8th moon (17th September), a thousand or more of the country people of the vicinity of Hwang-tien in Fah-kang, volunteered to form their advanced guard, and aid in the attack. The civil and mili- tary authorities and their subordinates accordingly put themselves at their head, and led them on with the troops to give battle to the banditti; but just as they reached the neighborhood of the town of Shui-t'au, the latter opened a fire of musketry and artil- lery, which so alarmed the villagers that they fell back in great confusion, and from their want of discipline broke into, and disordered the ranks of the regulars: these and the militia had killed some ten of the banditti with their fire, but the paths in which they were moving were so narrow, that they could not extend their front with sufficient rapidity; the subaltern Wu Kia-yu was killed on the spot, dying in the ranks, and Hung Ying-yung, another subordinate to him, was severely wounded. Shi-poh and the rest did all in their power to bring their troops up to fight; but the banditti swarmed on in numbers so great, that the expectant prefect, Shi-poh, the police inspector Ku Han, and the subalterns Tsiang Chau-mang, Hang Ta-tsiuen, Hwang Shun-tsiuen, the sergeants Yau Lien-fah, Wang Ting-siang, Hwang Hiung-tai, and the sergeant-elect Sin Mau-fang, were all surrounded. Some few of the troops and militia at the same time fell upon the field and some were wounded. Shi-poh loudly reviled the banditti, and plunging into a deep torrent, was severely injured in the head, face, hands, and feet. The banditti were awe-struck and did not venture to kill him, and on the 15th (20th Sep- tember) he and [the officers who had fallen into their hands] all returned into camp.- At the time they (the Judge, &c.) were writing, the different parties of banditti were dis- persing one troment and uniting the next; they had not however any particular station, but were appearing and disappearing on the confines of contiguous districts, roaming here and there and hiding in the numerous defiles of the ten thousand hills of the coun- try. It would therefore be necessary so to reinforce the troops and militia that they might be ready to take steps, as opportunities should occur, to check the advance of the different bands and exterminate them.
Such was their report ; and seeing that these gangs, which had moved flankwise across the western border of the province, would now have difficulty in returning by the way they came, from the increased strictness with which all the passes by land or water were guarded; and that they were hemmed in an every side, and all driven into the depths of the hills; it appeared to your Majesty's servants, that, unless the troops and militia were well reinforced, the banditti might work their way into impracticable positions, where their destruction would be still harder to achieve; and it therefore became their duty to intercept their supplies, and by cutting off their communications, so that they could not force people to act under them, to keep them in a state of blockade, until the troops could penetrate [into their fastnesses] and attack them. Your servants have ac- cordingly detached from the city three hundred of the Governor-general's division, four hundred of the Governor's, and one hundred of the brigade of the prefecture of Kwang- clau, while the Tituh Siang-lin, has sent on four hundred more of the brigade of the de- partment of Hwui-chau, and one hundred of that of the cantonment of Yung-ngån (a dis- triet therein); and being still apprehensive lest the above force should not be adequate to the occupation of all the approaches, your servants have called out two thousand tried and able-bodied men to serve as militia. The above forces will proceed (or are proceed- ing), one body after another, [to a point where] they will receive their orders from the tuh, who, in concert with the Judge, will adopt, according to the nature of the ground, measures for the defense of the country, or advance to destroy. They are on no account to adhere to any preconceived notions which might induce them to shun danger or to be oversparing of expense; nor are they to be misled by idle rumors, nor are they to color, be it ever so little, the facts which they may witness, and so leave uneradicated the root of future evil. If such of the civil and military officers, and of the troops and militia employed, as are zealous and exert themselves, be immediately recommended for promotion, to encourage others; and those who show theinselves afraid of risk, sus- pended, denounced, and punished; rewards being distributed with good faith, and punish- ments inflicted with certainty,-this inatter will soon be brought to a conclusion.
With reference to the expectant prefect Shi-poh, his determination to sacrifice him- self, not yielding though surrounded, is an extenuating circumstance; still he sustained a defeat by his want of caution in advancing, and it would not be expedient that his rash
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