On Wednesday morning at the temple on the cliff, we found a dozen fair sized boats ready to transport soldiers across to get them to Lukcu, which they told us they were under orders to occupy at once. The sentry squad and the lieutenant and his company were stil] occupying the same positions below Lukou in which I had left them on my up journey. At Chuchow, I found the colonel had left the day before, and everything was packed and prepared for evacuation. All went well as far as Ma-chia-kou where another company had taken the place of my former acquaintance four days earficr. A little below that, we had shots fired at us from the left bank. We at once got into the little boat and were turning off to the left, when rifles spoke to us from the right and we found that we had drifted right into the battle front. For the next six or seven miles we had an expemence which very certainly no one had in the European War: we passed right between the contending armies stationed ~actually on the riverbanks, in no place a quarter of a mile from each other. We had to come to instant decision, and the fact that We were nearer the right bank than to the left caused us to turn away from the left. A couple of angry whizzes was the instant result of our decision. It was not until we got back to the launch that we found that both bullets had hit the mark, one being imbedded in a door in one alley way, and the other splintering some boards on the opposite side. agreed that the best way would be for one of us walk down the right bank with the Chao permit.and the other on the left with the Hsieh permit. I got ashore on the right bank and my companion er over in the little boat. Until he reached the other bank, the steamer kept her anchor down. Meanwhile, I walked on down the bank with some of the soldiers, There was some amount of firing, but none of us was hit. I suggested that my white helmet was a bit provoking on the sky line, and so we walked on the inner side of the embankment. For the next three miles, I only came to three squads of Chao men, some 40 or 50 all told. But on the other bank there was the fair sized town of I-ssu-ho with one battallion in its neighbourhood and a second a.few miles above at the mouth of the Siang-siang river. That is to say, the men were holding the right bank against some 800 on the left.
On the Sian, side of the river mouth, Lu Ti-ping's soldiers were holding the ground as neutrals. Chis, however, did not prevent their cracking off their rifles at us in order to inspect us. They did not come on board. It was nearing sundown when we reached Siangtan; so we stopped there the night. Martial law was in force and the streets were closed after about 9 p.m. We got very little information as to the state of affairs below Siangtan—and the little we id get, all wrong. We were told that the Tan soldiers were within 10. li of the city, whereas they were not twice 10 li beyond the Jevel of Changsha.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.