An Exchange of Bullets but No Casualties: Silver for Lead From Our Own Correspondent, Kueitelifu, Ho., July 2.
There is slight perception of suppressed excitement prevailing within the city walls due to the fact that Lao Yang-jen, the bandit chief of last winter's fame, and now an army officer, has been ordered by Wu Pei-fu to berake himself and his men to Szechuan to act as cannon fodder in that troublous district. Lao Yang-jen and his men refuse to go and they have appealed" to Peking against Wu Pei-fu's order, The result of the appeal known, but one can se: gine Peking issuing anything contrary to) General Wu's will However, should the latter p sist in enforcing his order, it will he interesting, at least, to what the result will be. Will Yang-jen and his men obediently submit or will they revert to their former occupation This morning, at Kueiteh state ion 1 witnessed three "/ieu" of soldiers returning from an attempted encounter with bandits. The solidiers were all well armed and had with them two heavy machine guns. There are supposed to be 3,000 bandits—the number is ly exaggerated-—ating nei ast of Kueiteh.
Solidi were sent out from ity. and the bandits fled as the former ed. Having disperse the thus, the soldi returned by train to Kueiteh and thi: morning were enjoying an early morning meal on (he stati form. Of course, the return and no doubt. this little game of chess will be played all summer with "no casualties' on both sides.
Thave just met a Chinese gentle man who lives near the scene of this last little feted-tete, He says that the battle between the soldiers and the bandits was fought in the following fashion ~-The bani presented the sold jets with generous amount of silver dollars and in" return the i ived a good supply of.. Thus, much ammunition was expended but not in the usual and bullets instead of lodging in "tufei's bodies, are reposing peacefully—in' their pockets for future use on inno cent and helpless citizens. 1 questioned this gentleman on his report of the battle' and he assured me, in the presence of other Chinese, that it was no fable but a genuine fact. The fact that there were no casualties, even when machine guns were carried by the soldiers. tends to confirm this report.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.