The ola city wall is sbout 401i, This new city wall, as it is called, is about 100 li. It is six or seven high and about three fect ide.
In some places these breastworks are within one li of the old ity wall. In other places it would be as much as seven ey eight Ti away. Behind this embankment there are said to be about 150,000 men. On the whole of the north, on a part of the cast, and a part of the west, there are the Red Spear and Bandit forces of the ex-Bandit Leader Wong Lao-wu—from Honan, This man is said to have taken his forces into Shensi to avenge the cruelties of the Shensi soldiers when Honan. He is out for blood and is chafing to get' into the city. When' he once enters, he declares that he will not allow a. person above 10 years old to escape alive. He threatens to break at all costs, but admonishes and ch him. Just! now Wong is (he and Liu are not on speaking terms) 80! he has gone to Lintung, 701i to the northeast, to recuperate. He is said to have a large force of men under and they are! described as "very bad." The other Generals, Wong Hsueh-ling, Tsai Yuen-shen, Wa Hsing-tion, Han Yi chen, (a younger brother' of Han Vu-kun) Teng Chuen-fan and others, are more ready to receive, orders from Liu Chen-hua. And thus the city is surrounded and has been for five long, long months.
Within the city there are two Generals, Li Hu-chen and Yang Hu-cheng. The former is of the Second People's Army and the latter of the 'Third People's Army. These men' are both Shensi men, and both are said to have been bandits at one time. There seems to be no fric-! tion between them. They have about 20,000 men, Early in the siege the grain from the shops and wealthy families was commandecr-' ed. But it was not until about the! middle of August thatthe Mission people were asked to help with food.
Seeing that food was getting very scarce, arrangements were made to allow an exit of those who wanted to leave (This as we understand did mot include giving the privilege to foreigners). So on Thursday. Friday and Saturday, September 2; 3 and 4 some 50 to' 60,000 of the city's population left. The crops. outside of the war zone are good, and these people will likely find some way of living, Preference for Troops 'The two Generals in the city are quite determined that they will stand to the bitter end. When one lof them was asked what were*his plans for the future, he replied "As the troops are' Government troops they must have preference in food and everything else. When all grain is eaten then the horses may eat the horses, and the people may eat the people." Fuel very searce, 'The regular coal and kaoliang stalks supply is exhausted, Many of the beautiful trees in the city have been cut down for fire wood, and in some eases the wood work' in houses has been used, Wheat and grain are very scarce, two catties sell for one dollar, whereas sugar can be had at four catties to the dollar. Kerosine oil is six dollars a tin, Foreigners' Situation When asked how long could the defenders hold out, my informant replied "twenty to thirty daye"™ but the foreigners had food enough for two months or more. He said that the foreigners wer well looked after, but there was very little hope of their being allowed to leave the city. His idea was that when those in the city came out they would certainly have the foreigners placed strategic positions in the line of, march so ay to ensure that the besiegers would not fire on those retiring. On September 24 our informant had a talk with Mr, Shields, at General Liu Chen-hua' Military Headquarters at the East Gate of the city. Mr, Shields had sent a letter into the city to Mr, Watson four days previously and was waiting for a reply.
Dr. Wheeler and party were at Tankwan, going westward, about. October 2 "The Shantung teacher said that General Liu Chen-hua and those outside of the city would do all possible to get the foreigners out, but the Generals in the city, was very confident, would not release them. We shall all wait with interest to see what success Mr. Shieds and Dr. Wheeler's party: have.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.