On the 6th inst, a sergeant and a dozen men belonging tv one of the inland river salt revenue guard boats, landed ata village afew miles distant from Woosung where there happened to be a passing cargo boat moored alongside the banks, and proceeded to search it for contraband, This high-handed proceeding was objected to by the cargo boatmen and the passengers, on the ground hey had nothing on board of the sort bed by the sergeant and his men. At this moment the villagers, who are more or less smugglers of some sort, came to the aid of the cargo boatmen and' the revenue men ware soon compelled to beat a hasty retreat into the friendlyshelterofaricedealer's shop. But seeing only a couple of men and some women in charge of the shop, which, by the way, had its back entrance facing the creek, and having signalled to their boat, the sergeant and his men attempted to take away fifty piculs of rice as well as silver. The alarm was then given and the villagers exasperated at this audacious robbery in broad daylight, got hold of the sergeant and some of his men and fairly thrashed them, although knives were afterwards freely used on the robbers because the sergeant in trying to defend himself shot a villager in the shoulder with revolver. The sergeant and most of his men were eventually taken to the Paoshan magistrate where their case will be tried.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.