This district has been free from actual fighting now for more than two months. Gen. Yang Sen, after his betrayal and defeat near Chengtu, seems to have been wounded and retired to Luchow. Severe fighting has again commenced on two fronts, viz: Tsi-chow and Suining.
A junction of forces has been effected between Teng Tien Ca. and Gen. Yang Sen, while on the northern front Liu Tsen-hou and his Shensi troops have been driven back to Kuangyan and beyond, and: may be considered "out of the picture" for the present.
I should think and my Chinese friends hope that you message from Peking that Wu Pei-fu was transferring his support from Yang Sen to back up Liu Tsen-hou is inaccurate. It would certainly be a blunder. Most people speak well of Yang and his enlightened administration, whilst very few people have a good word to say for Liu Tsen-hou. Reliable news of the renewed fighting is difficult to get hold of, as we are in "enemy'' country. The censor is busy, and most Chinese letters and some foreign letters are being opened and examined.
In the meantime, while we are in peace, the whole district is overrun by brigands! I met some coolies the other day carrying silk waste. They were the tail end of a convoy of 200 coolies who had been escorted by 400 soldiers. Occasional skirmishes take place between militia and brigands and recently we have had some of the militia in for treatment of gunshot wounds. The largest concentration of brigands seems to be on the main road from here to Chengtu.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.