and Mongols in Uliassutai. We fully realized that it was only necessary
to fire one single house at the right part of the town and the entire
settlement of wooden buildings would go up in flames. The whole
population prepared to defend themselves, increased the sentinels in the
compounds, appointed leaders for certain sections of the town, organized
a special fire brigade and prepared horses, carts and food for a hasty
flight. The situation became worse when news arrived from Kobdo that
the Chinese there had made a pogrom, killing some of the inhabitants and
burning the whole town after a wild looting orgy. Most of the people
got away to the forests on the mountains but it was at night and
consequently without warm clothes and without food. During the following
days these mountains around Kobdo heard many cries of misfortune, woe
and death. The severe cold and hunger killed off the women and children
out under the open sky of the Mongolian winter. This news was soon known
to the Chinese. They laughed in mockery and soon organized a big meeting
at the nagan hushun to discuss letting the mob and gamins loose on the
town.

A young Chinese, the son of a cook of one of the colonists, revealed
this news. We immediately decided to make an investigation. A Russian
officer and my friend joined me with this young Chinese as a guide for
a trip to the outskirts of the town. We feigned simply a stroll but were
stopped by the Chinese sentinel on the side of the city toward the nagan
hushun with an impertinent command that no one was allowed to leave
the town. As we spoke with him, I noticed that between the town and the
nagan hushun Chinese guards were stationed all along the way and that
streams of Chinese were moving in that direction. We saw at once it was
impossible to reach the meeting from this approach, so we chose another
route. We left the city from the eastern side and passed along by the
camp of the Mongolians who had been reduced to beggary by the Chinese
impositions. There also they were evidently anxiously awaiting the turn
of events, for, in spite of the lateness of the hour, none had gone to
sleep. We slipped out on the ice and worked around by the river to the
nagan hushun. As we passed free of the city we began to sneak cautiously
along, taking advantage of every bit of cover. We were armed with
revolvers and hand grenades and knew that a small detachment had been
prepared in the town to come to our aid, if we shou