The encouragement from Gen. Lai has stiffened up the opposition from Liu I-chin, who has demanded 500,000 silver taels from the city as the price of retirement. All the city gates are closed and have been for several days. On Monday, Liu I-chin's forces under Gen. Lai inflicted a local defeat on Gen. Dan's troops, several officers and men being killed on both sides. Wounded men who reached the city from Dan's command were given short shrift by Liu's men. They were instantly killed and their bodies thrown into a hole, so it is reported by_survivors who escaped.
Yesterday Liw I-chin's men suffered a reverse at Hsintu, 40 li from the capital. The writer saw thousands of the troops retreating on the capital, with mudstained clothes and faces. Some had thrown their arms away, some were ragged and all looked woebegone and hungry. The sick were many. The lightly wounded were lying all over the place in farmyards outside the city walls. They had plenty of ammunition, mountain battery guns, and! several machine-guns. They had evidently retired without much of a show at fighting and seemed to be in anything but fighting trim.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.