Word quickly reached Changchow, and the whole of Chang Chih-ping's army prepared to leave for Amoy, but the afternoon of Aug. 5. and the morning of the 6th. were spent by the soldiers in plundering the city prior to their departure. General stores and jewellers suffered most. Some silk shops were completely cleared out, and it has been pitiful to see the empty shops and smashed up show cases. Most of the banks and cash shops had iron doors which resisted entry and so escaped plunder; in some cases the safes were taken out into the streets but eventually left there as the efforts to force them proved unavailing. When the retreating troops arrived they were too exhausted and afraid of the Cantonese at their heels to do any plundering, and passed quickly through the city.
The Cantonese troops devastated the country through which they advanced. The people in_-the Ping-ho - district have suffered terribly; they fled before an army which had to provision itself upon what it could seize. The growing rice was neglected, tied up, and was lost, and the men dared not return to plant the second harvest; so both have.been lost. They plundered the country through which they passed, churches and church workers without any discrimination After the battle of Siokhe the church, mission dwellings, and hospital belonging to the Reformed Church of America Mission in that village were all looted, ana the spoils subsequently sola by the soldiers in the streets of Changchow. When the Cantonese were advancing through Yunsiau they met with determined resistance from the local people who had combined to form a defensive volunteer force under General Chang Chen, which greatly delayed the advance on Changese general promised his soldiers a specified time during which they might do as they pleased if they captured the city of Yunsian. When it fell there was a general butchery of the men and raping of the women and girls, and the wells in the neighbourhood were filled with the bodies of women and girls who committed suicide by jumping down them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.