was to prepare the road for the
advance of the main body, to lay in at stated places stores of fuel and
water, and to erect temporary fortifications. So thoroughly was this
portion of the task performed, that General Kin Shun, now known as Liu
Kin-Tang, gave the order for a general forward movement on the 27th of
September.

The infantry followed the main road, while the cavalry, under the
immediate orders of the general, proceeded by by-paths in the same
direction. On the 2nd of October the Chinese army south of the Tian Shan
was assembled at Kuhwei. Its numbers were probably about fifteen
thousand men all told. On the 24th of September a small force of
Kashgarian troops threatened General Tang Jen-Ho's communications, but
on the appearance of the Chinese they "turned tail and dashed away." The
very next day after his arrival at Kuhwei General Kin Shun continued his
forward movement. Two brigadier-generals, whose names it is not
necessary to mention, were entrusted with one division, 6,000 strong,
with which to perform a flanking movement against Korla. The commander
in person led his main body against Korla, arriving at the River Kaidu,
which flows into Lake Bostang, half-way between Karashar and Korla. But
his advance was here checked, as Bayen Hu, the rebel leader, had flooded
the country by damming up the course of the river. The depth of the
inundation was said to be in the deepest parts over a man's head, and in
the shallowest it came up to the horses' cruppers. The Chinese march was
then changed to a northerly direction, in order to strike the river
higher up, where the obstruction raised by the enemy would be more
easily overcome. A cart-road was carefully constructed along these
alkaline plains, and the Kaidu was dammed to stop the flow from the
upper course, and a bridge was erected over it. This detour had caused
some delay, yet Karashar was reached on the 7th of October, four days
after Kin Shun had set out in person from Kuhwei. The inundation from
the Kaidu had spread as far as here, and the town was several feet under
water. All the official and private residences had been destroyed alike,
and the Turki-Mussulman, as the _Pekin Gazette_ styles them, population
had been compelled by Bayen Hu to follow him in his retreat. It would be
interesting to know whom the Chinese meant by Bayen Hu, but it is almost
impossible to say. As it was not Hakim Khan, the most probable personage
would be one of the Tungan le