The Kiangsi troops that have been passing through Chenchow to the south are now coming back. The writer met 100 or more men recently coming back from the Kuangtung border.
'A serap took place between the Kuangsi and Kiangsi troops not far from Ichang several days ago. Ten men were killed and six of the wounded were brought to the Chenchow hospital.
It seems that about 10,000 Kuangsi troops were travelling back to Kuangsi and rather unexpectedly met these Kiangsi men in a large village 40 Ji from Pingshi. The Kiangsi men were not prepared to fight so they retreated and cleaned up the village in their flight. One officer was missing so they asked the magistrate of Ichang to produce the man. The magistrate spent several days at the village on a tour of inspection, but the man was not found.
The road to Canton is reported open and Hunan produce has already started to move southwards. Salt has already dropped in price, though salt has not yet come through from Canton.
A Destarptey Ovrrace, The burning of Lochang was a piece of dastardly work, The soldiers went to one of the oil hongs to get oil or money or both and since the head of the shop was not in, were refused by the clerk. The soldiers fired the place and 208 shops were burned.
The latest word is that the troops at Saochowfu have mutinied and declared their independence.
The paper money is almost no use here now. *No pork was killed for several days because the butchers were unwilling to take paper money at all. Most of the stores refuse to take the notes at all, and some at a very great discount.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.