The story of the rout of the Northerners from Siangtan is already known, but the persistent and widespread rumours of the execution of Generalissimo Chang Ching-tang at Siangtan deserves an emphatic denial. Your correspondent saw General Chang embark on a gunboat, of the monitor type, on June 10 at, Siangtan. This gunboat conveying the entire Northern forces went down river at 10 a.m. on June 11 with Chang Ching-tang still acting as Generalissimo.
On the afternoon of that day a man—now said to have been a connexion of Tuchun Chang Chin-yao—was seized and executed. The soldiers who butchered him appear to have thought him to be General Chang. The execution was marked by ferocious savagery. First one ear was cut off, then the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.
