General, Chang, to speak in the mildest possible way, is a strict disciplinarian, He ordered the execution of two brevet-brigade commanders, General Kung and General Liu, the latter a young man of about 30, and also a regimental commander, Colonel Chi. Further more, he saw that the orders we carried out and the headless bodies of these three unfortunate officers were taken back to Taiyuanfu about a week ago. No official information has been vouchsafed as to the reason for this drastic punishment, the information coming through private sources is too vague to port. There may have been some insubordination, but it is clear that in dealing with it the formalities of courtmartials, ete., were brushed These executions have ocyned_a profound a good deal of What the effect will upon the moral of the Shansi troops remains to be seen.
The despatch of these troops from Taiyuanfu led to the calling up of soldiers from all corners of the province, As usual, these movements of troops have led to plentiful crop of rumours and to much uneasiness in business circle This has shown itself in the of exchange. The dollar has gone up to above 300 coppers, but both dollars and coppers are pretty muth in hiding. The only currency in circulation is copper notes. Evidently the cart-loads of old cash going up to the capital have been "minted" into something other than Copper cents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.