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Most were mounted on Manchurian ponies, and were rough, brutal and, beyond the bounds of towns, unrestrained. Occasional bandit-suppression campaigns and schemes to tame or buy off thugs were only temporary checks. There were two generic names for bandits in Manchuria, one mainly reported across the south, was Red Beards, Hong Huzi (in the romanisation of the day - Hung Hutse) while the less well-known term for those across the north was Chunchuse. Red Beards included a mixture of seasonal bandits who came over to rob and pillage from Shandong. This mutated into the Red Beards, local criminal thugs, both individual groups and those part of a larger network, thieving as a way of life due to endemic poverty.

Any act of brigandry in southern Manchuria was blamed on the Hong Huzi; hence, sketches in British illustrated journals of Chinese robbing the dead and dying on the field of battle all bore the caption naming the robbers as Hong Huzi.

One of the better-known Chinese "brigands," a seasonal worker from Shandong, was Wang Delin.* By 1899 he had established a considerable following among Chinese workers in Manchuria opposed to Russian encroachment, and in 1903 he openly declared his opposition to both the Russians and the non-Chinese Qing dynasty. His band operated along the eastern part of the China Eastern Railway, attacking trains and Russian shipping on the rivers. His men had a code of conduct based on three rules:

They were forbidden to harass or harm Chinese

They should not kill captured Russians without reason

And, they should assist the poor and helpless.

His band was typical of the gangs roaming Manchuria with their various motives, some simply thugs and robbers others political, but all were generically referred to as Hong Huzi.

Westerners writing about their travels in Manchuria were not slow in providing valid reasons for their nickname. Harvey Howard in his Ten Weeks with Chinese Bandits [1927] explained that 'during the 18th and 19th centuries roving bands of unshaven, red-bearded Russians
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the Russian military with a major headache. Russian attempts to destroy brigandage inadvertently increased the dislike with which they were regarded by the local inhabitants. It was not long before Chinese peasants supported the bandits who also received secret encouragement from Chinese and Manchu officials. The native officials hated the foreign usurpation of their power, but were impotent to openly protest against it.

The Russians tried to avoid any interference with the Chinese provincial administration in Manchuria which remained intact, continuing in the hands of Chinese officials, though the Russians instituted their own police service. However, the Russian occupation was distasteful to the official class as a whole, as it diminished both their prestige and, consequently, their emoluments. So that from the official class the Russian met with a hostility which took the form chiefly of passive resistance.

A number of snippets in the illustrated War in the East refer to the 'Chunchuses' operating alongside Russian troops on the road to Mukden. One such reads 'On 15th June 1905 took place the battle of Telissu while on the 12th General Kuoki reported the occupation of Huairen Xian by a detachment of his (Japanese) troops, who expelled a force of six hundred Russians and Chunchuses.'

The Red Beards were to all intents and purposes soldiers of fortune, and as such fought for whomsoever they wished but only for as long as it suited them. In view of their general attitude towards the Russians it was surprising that they ever co-operated with them in the field. However, the Red Beards resembled the Cossacks with their habits of free life and distrust of military discipline, a common love of their horses and a shared prowess at horsemanship.

Bandits serving with Japanese forces

The Japanese were quick to appreciate the potential of the Hong Huzi as guerrillas. The large contemporary two-volume Japan's Fight for Freedom, a contemporary illustrated popular history produced in Britain, included several references to the Hong Huzi, describing them in the text as 'Hunhuses, serving under Japanese command.'
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recruit Chinese labour for the South African mines had been discussed and taken before the outbreak of the war).

NOTES

i The Russian's naval port at Port Arthur was built beside the small Chinese town of Qingniwa now part of greater Dalian (called Dalny by the Russians). The Chinese town was known to the Russians as either the Chinese town or the Old Town.

ii Mukden was Fengtian in Qing times; also Shengjing.

This consisted of revolutionary agitation, with strikes, riots and mutinies in the army and navy - including the mutiny on the Potemkin in Odessa in June 1905.

iv The IG In Peking: Vol. II: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: 1971: Hart's Letter 1319 of 28 February 1904

* Ernest Brindle: With Russian, Japanese and the Chunchuse - The Experiences of an Englishman during the Russo-Japanese War: John Murray: London: 1905 (A number of observations provided by Brindle have also been quoted within this article)

v Sakuya Takahashi: International Law Applied to the Russo-Japanese War: Stevens and Sons, Ltd: London: 1908 - Chapter IV: Section I

vii Newchwang [(Niuzhuang) is a town some 30 miles inland and connected by the River Liao with its port, formerly Port Newchwang, and known to the Chinese as Yingkou. Newchwang had been a Treaty Port with Western resident businessmen and missionaries since 1861.

viii Some four months after the outbreak of the war foreign newspaper correspondents were complaining that neither the Russians nor the Japanese allowed them to see much of what was going on. Both belligerents claimed that war was too serious an affair to let plans be spoiled by correspondents. Japanese reports were considered more reliable and Russian accounts were not taken seriously.

ix [C]hun[c]huse was probably the Russian romanisation for Hong Huzi.

x Shao Yuchun: Minzu Lao Yingxiong - Wang Delin: (Wang Delin, Old Hero): in Tan Yi [ed] Dongbei Kangri Yiyongjun Renwuzhi: Vol 2: 1981

xi Mancall and Jidkoff: Les Honghuzi de la Chine du Nord-Est: 1970

xii War in the East: Virtue and Co.: London: Volume VI

xiii International Law Applied to the Russo-Japanese War: Chapter IV: Section II

xiv Illustration in Japan's Fight for Freedom H.W. Wilson: The Amalgamated Press: London: 1905 - Volumes I and II.

xv * Hart's letter No. 1387 dated 29 October 1905
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