Tan Yen-kai left this city for Kuangtung on November 12. he following day some of his soldiers broke open the doors of several large shops and robbed them. The officer in charge had a couple of the soldiers shot for robbing.. 'i'he people were in fear that the city would be sacked. On November 14 about nine o'clock at night there wag a lot of rifle fire, Everybody thought the sacking of the city had started, but it proved to be the entering of Chao Hong-ti's troops. The few hundred of Tan's men who were still in town fled. They had not expected Chao's men to enter until the following morning.
The 10,000 or more of Tan's troops retreated through this city toward Kuangtung. Day after day for several days they entered the city all hours of the day and night. Most of them stopped only for a meal or two. Of course they forced the poor people to house and feed them. They took the people's bedding, rice, chickens, pigs, ete., and when there wag no coa] they used the wooden stools and other articles of furniture as fuel. Men and boys, rich and poor, educated and illiterate were conscripted to carry heavy loads, and many of the women and girls suffered unspeakable outrages.
Chao Hong-ti's troops have been in possession of the city since the evening of November 14. Everybody thought matters would improve when they arrived. But they are even worse. In fact they are the worst behaved soldiers the writer has ever seen. he very night they entered the city, they opened all the doors of the jail, forcing the 90 odd prisoners to leave before they had time to take clothing. The soldiers took possession of the contents of both the yamen and the jail. Some of the prisoners were murderers, and others were highwaymen and thieves. Al] are still at large. These soldiers are allowed to go up and down the streets snatching from pedestrians umbrellag and whatever else they want. They enter homes and search every nook and corner, and take what they wish. One can see them all hours of the day walking off with their large bundles of booty. If they merely took bedding, etc., for their own use it would be bad enough, but they even send to their homes by parcel post large packages of their stolen goods,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.