The Mohammedan Cause, Important As It Was, Did Not
Afford Scope For The Ambitions Of Two Such Men As Ma
Julung and Tu Wensiu.
The former availed himself of the favorable opportunity to settle this
difficulty in a practical and,
As he shrewdly anticipated, the most
profitable manner for himself personally, by giving in his adhesion to the
government.
This important defection did not bring in its train any certainty of
tranquillity. Incited by the example of their leaders, every petty officer
and chief thought himself deserving of the highest honors, and resolved to
fight for his own hand. Ma Julung left Yunnanfoo for the purpose of
seizing a neighboring town which had revolted, and during his absence one
of his lieutenants seized the capital, murdered the viceroy, and
threatened to plunder the inhabitants. Ma Julung was summoned to return in
hot haste, and as a temporary expedient the priest Ma Tesing was elected
viceroy. When Ma Julung returned with his army he had to lay siege to
Yunnanfoo, and although he promptly effected an entrance into the city, it
took five days' hard fighting in the streets before the force in
occupation was expelled. The insurgent officer was captured, exposed to
the public gaze for one month in an iron cage, and then executed in a
cruel manner. Ma Tesing was deposed from the elevated position which he
had held for so short a time, and a new Chinese viceroy arrived from
Kweichow. The year 1863 opened with the first active operations against Tu
Wensiu, who, during these years of disorder in Central Yunnan, had been
governing the western districts with some prudence. It would have been
better if they had not been undertaken, for they only resulted in the
defeat of the detachments sent by Ma Julung to engage the despot of
Talifoo. Force having failed, they had recourse to diplomacy, and Ma
Tesing was sent to sound Tu Wensiu as to whether he would not imitate
their example and make his peace with the authorities. These overtures
were rejected with disdain, and Tu Wensiu proclaimed his intention of
holding out to the last, and refused to recognize the wisdom or the
necessity of coming to terms with the government. The embarrassment of Ma
Julung and the Yunnan officials, already sufficiently acute, was at this
conjuncture further aggravated by an outbreak in their rear among the
Miaotze and some other mountain tribes in the province of Kweichow. To the
difficulty of coping with a strongly placed enemy in front was thus added
that of maintaining communications through a hostile and difficult region.
A third independent party had also come into existence in Yunnan, where an
ex-Chinese official named Liang Shihmei had set up his own authority at
Linan, mainly, it was said, through jealousy of the Mohammedans taken into
the service of the government. The greatest difficulty of all was to
reconcile the pretensions of the different commanders, for the Chinese
officials, and the Futai Tsen Yuying in particular, regarded Ma Julung
with no friendly eye.
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