trategy on the part of Tso Tsung Tang that the
Chinese found themselves before the walls of Aksu, with an overwhelming
army, at the very sight of which all thought of resistance died away
from the hearts of the Mussulman peoples and garrisons. Tso Tsung Tang
appeared before the walls of Aksu, the bulwark of Kashgar on the east,
and its commandant, panic stricken, abandoned his post at the first
onset. He was subsequently taken prisoner by an officer of Kuli Beg, and
executed. The Chinese then advanced on Ush Turfan, which also
surrendered without a blow. As we said, the Chinese have not published
any detailed description of this portion of the war, and we are
consequently unable to say what their version is of those reported
atrocities at Aksu and Ush Turfan, of which the Russian papers have made
so much. There is no doubt that a very large number of refugees fled to
Russian territory, perhaps 10,000 in all, and these brought with them
the tales of fear and exaggerated alarm. We may feel little hesitation
in accepting the assertion as true, that the armed garrisons were
slaughtered without exception; but that the unarmed population and the
women and children shared the same fate we distinctly refuse to credit.
There is every precedent in favour of the assumption that a more
moderate policy was pursued, and there is no valid reason why the
Chinese should have dealt with Aksu and Ush Turfan differently to Kucha
or Turfan. The case of Manas has been greatly insisted upon by the
agitators on this "atrocity" question; but there is the highest
authority for asserting that only armed men were massacred there. This
the Chinese have always done; it is a national custom, and they
certainly did not depart from it in the case of the Tungani and Kashgar.
But there is no solid ground for convicting them of any more heinous
crime, even in the instances of Manas and Aksu, which are put so
prominently forward.

Early in December the last move of all began against the capital, and on
the 17th of that month the Chinese took it by a _coup de main_. Beg Kuli
Beg, according to one account, fought a battle outside the town, in
which he was defeated; according to another report, he had withdrawn to
Yarkand, whence he fled to Russian territory, when he heard of the fall
of Kashgar. It is more probable that he resisted the Chinese attack on
Kashgar, for he certainly reached Tashkent, in company with the Kirghiz
Chief, Sadic Beg, who was wounded