Part 2 (1/2)

Nor were those special trades for which Kashgar had in prosperous lected The leather-dressers of Yarkand and Aksu, the silk-ar and Khoten, were never so busy as in the warlike days of Keen-Lung, and the great es, was equally prosperous and well governed Trade was fostered on all sides, and the conquering poas content to stand aside and witness the steady progress of its subjects towards hitherto unattained and unattainable prosperity

Lastly, the Chinese directed their attention to the improvement of the means of communication between one part of the province and another It was absolutely necessary to the security of their rule that there should be an easy and always open road between Ili and Kashgar Therefore, a as cut, at great expense, through the Tian Shan, north of Aksu, and this pass was known as the Muzart, or Glacier So difficult was the country through which it passed, and such the danger from ice-drifts and snow-storms, that relays of etting out of repair for a day The construction of this road was, in the first place,wasachieveh fifteen years of neglect If China is to regain Ili, it will, no doubt, be restored The passes west of this, by the Naryh Terek to Khokand, were those selected by Yakoob Beg to supply its place

The next object to which the Chinese specially paid attention was the preservation of their road home to China Thus the road in Tian Shan Pe Lu, and the other in Tian Shan Nan Lu, were kept in the most effective state possible The forh Manas and Uruh Aksu and Kucha to the saar and Yarkand, through Maralbashi+, was also much used, more especially, however, by those who desired to break off at that outpost in the desert to reach Khoten and Sanju In each city there was appointed a committee to superintend the roads in the district, and this Road Board was a highly important and useful corporation It was by suchto Kashgar and Jungaria for more than fifty years Of course, there was the fiscal side of these schemes of public utility Roads could not be opened up and , the state could not administer justice, promote trade, and make itself respected abroad, without an assured revenue, and this revenue, after the first ten years, was very productive

The principal taxes were the tithe on the produce of the land, called ”_ushr_” and the _zakat_ (fortieth), on merchandise and cattle Then, in the cities, there was a house tax, which was essentially, like our own inco in accordance with the n or civil war Froe annual suenerally devoted to some object of public utility There was also the tribute hiz nomads, whose flocks and horses were numbered and taxed at a low rate, in return for which they were taken under the protection of China

In addition to these great taxes there were several smaller ones, such as a fee on fuel sold in the market, and another levy on ar has said that these ”proved a ready means of oppression, and a prolific source of that discontent which left the rulers without a single helping hand, or sy heart, in the hour of their distress and destruction” But this assumption of cause and effect is scarcely just

Of course, all taxes can be atherer, who, in this case, was a Mussulman and fellow-countryovernment, and e consider what China did with her revenue, hat public spirit her representatives laid it out in plans for the advantage of the state, can we pronounce an opinion that she imposed unfair burdens on the subjected race? Moreover, no one denies the prosperity general throughout Kashgar in those days, a period looked back to with regret by the inhabitants during the 's rule It is not in accordance with facts, then, to iar under them by severe taxation, and whatever petty tyranny there as carried on not by the Khitay As

In the hour of distress and destruction the people, indeed, proved traitorous to their best friends, or, etic Andijani ele swords with Buddhist rule, to which the hostility of these ihtedness of the Kashgari played the game of the more fanatical and ambitious people of Khokand; but the rule of China did not pass out of Eastern Turkestan until the disturbances of forty years had generated ill-feeling that foroverning and governed, that what had coovernn despotism Even then China did not fall until there was dissension within herself, when, split into three hostile camps, her sword dropped nerveless from her hand in Central Asia, 2,000 miles away froar down to 1820, is to observe theprosperity From that year to 1860, the tale is of a different complexion, less monotonous but also less satisfactory

In 1758 and 1760 Chinese armies entered Khokand Tashkent fell in the former year, and the capital in the latter The Chinese then withdrew, after in of Keen-Lung--that is, down to 1795--the tribute was regularly paid After that year, however, the payular, and border warfare of frequent occurrence between the two neighbours At last, in 1812, Khokand, then under an able prince, refused to pay tribute any longer, and the Chinese acquiesced in the repudiation Nor did the change in the relations between China and Khokand stop here; for, a few years afterwards, the Chinese found it expedient to pay Khokand an annual sum to keep the Khoja fa in Khokand, froainst them The amount of the subsidy was 3,500 of our money In addition to this, the Khan of Khokand was permitted to levy a tax on all Mahoh Andijan merchants This tax was collected by the Aksakals before mentioned, and was a very profitable source of income for the impecunious khans But even these concessions and perquisites did not satisfy the Mussulmans of Central Asia, who saw in Chinese moderation an evidence of weakness and decline The Aksakals, in these years of Mahoreatest iave a point to all the discontent there ar; it was they who attributed to the Chinese the blame for whatever evils this world is never wholly free froitated for the return of the old Khoja kings, ere always destined, in their eyes, to bring the most perfect happiness With such causes at work both within and without their position, the Chinese had not to wait long before their authority was ed

Sari the massacre by the Chinese, had fled, as a child, into the impenetrable recesses of Wakhan Froone to settle in Khokand, where he married This prince had three sons--Yusuf, Bahanuddin, and Jehangir, the youngest and best known In 1816, the first outbreak against Chinese authority occurred, when a s took place in Tash Balik, a town to the west of Kashgar This was speedily put down, and its leaders executed It was but the forerunner of the storir resolved to reassert his claiar, and, while his eldest brother continued to reside in retirehiz With a party of these, under the coir raided up to the city of Kashgar He was there repulsed in the suburbs, and cohiz of Bolor round Narym, ere nominally feudatories of China, and, with their aid, commenced a petty sort of border war A sainst hihiz up as far as Fort Kurtka On their return from this successful attack, they were, however, surprised in one of the defiles, and almost all were destroyed This was the first reverse the Chinese had ever h all parts of Central Asia It gave a life to the Khoja cause which it had hitherto lacked, and adventurers froir now raised on the borders of Kashgar The Khan of Khokand so far assisted hieneral, Isa Dadkhwah, and extended over his cause that protection and sanction which Khokand has ever since thrown over the Khoja fair advanced in force against Kashgar, and the Chinese, despising their assailant, left their fortifications to encounter him in the open A battle then ensued, of which the particulars have not come down to us, but which resulted in the defeat of the Chinese Jehangir entered Kashgar in triued on by the Aksakals, and proclain of the country, under the style of Seyyid Jehangir Sultan His first act--the arian people there well could be--was to order the execution of the Mahoar, by nanal to the Aksakals throughout Altyshahr to begin that work for which they had been long preparing In Yangy Hissar, Yarkand, and Khoten risings at once took place The Chinese, surprised and unarhs, as the visible token of the foreign rule, were razed with the ground

The Gulbagh of Kashgar itself alone held out, but it at last fell, after sustaining a long siege, into the hands of Jehangir His triumph completed, he had to concern himself more with his relations with Khokand than about the Chinese, ere ht that Jehangir's success was solely due to him, laid claim to a certain historical superiority over his vassal of Kashgar, to which the Khoja prince was not willing to assent A large Khokandian ar 1,000 h, and its withdraas the signal for plots and counterplots to break out in the palace of the new ruler These he proeneral, Isa Dadkhwah, in rank, and had emancipated himself from his thraldom to Khokand, when the news cah the western portion of Altyshahr had fallen away from the Chinese, Aksu and Maralbashi+ reiance The Chinese still possessed the military keys of the country Moreover, their possession of Ili gave thean population they possessed an al” armies It is apropos here to state that China retained both of these advantages down to the ti as she possessed thee of the Khojas could do was futile against the arrest of fate During sixsix months the Chinese viceroy e An arani, the Calarrison, was despatched froades were concentrated, and the Viceroy, in conjunction with the general under hin, which was as follows:--A sainst Khoten across the desert through Cay Yoli, while the remainder of the host advanced on Maralbashi+ Here another detachainst Yarkand, while the ar by the banks of the Kizil Su

Their advance was unopposed until they reached Yangabad, or Yangiahere Jehangir had concentrated an army computed at 50,000 hted each other they pitched their camps in preparation for the decisive contest that was at hand In accordance with i day its chaantic Calir an equally formidable Khokandi The forun of son, and while the Khokandi was busily engaged with his intricate apparatus, the Chinese archer shot hih the breast Of course, neither army would have acquiesced in the decree of the God of Battles as shown by the fate of its champion, but, in this case, it was true that--

”Who spills the foremost foeman's life, His party conquers in the strife”

After a sharp, but brief, skirarian ar day the Chinese surrounded Kashgar on three sides During the night the heart of Jehangir ave him, and he fled to the Karatakka mountains But here the snow had rendered the passes i for a few days in that difficult region, he was captured by the Chinese His fate was that usuallysent to Pekin, he was executed after torture In this war Ishac wang, of Ush Turfan, played a great part against the Khoja prince, and was rewarded for his good service by being appointed wang of Kashgar The Chinese constructed a fresh fort, Yangyshahr, in the place of the destroyed Gulbagh, and left a large Khitay garrison under Jah Darin But Ishac wang, as given soar, was soon afterwards deposed and recalled to China

The Chinese authority was re-established without difficulty in the three cities, and peace settled down over Eastern Turkestan But the repressive and punitive measures that the Chinese felt compelled to adopt raised a bitterer sentiment in the minds of the people than had previously existed The Chinese were, indeed, only eainst themselves, but none the less did these reciprocal atrocities dissipate whatever friendshi+p there had been A other acts the Chinese rear to Ili, and these, destined to play an important part in the history of that province, became known as Tarantchis, or Toilers

The Chinese resolved to punish Khokand as well They broke off all trade with that state, and happy would it have been for them if they could have continued to preserve a closed frontier But the Khan of that time was Mahomed Ali Khan, the most ambitious, as he was the ablest, of the princes of that country He had just annexed Karategin, and had acquired so, of Kundus, had absorbed about the same time It was not probable that he would put up with the Chinese defiance He was prudent enough to delay his advance until the main body of their army had been withdrawn But, as soon as he was inforone back to Ili, Maho Yusuf, Sarimsak's eldest son, from his retirement in Bokhara, placed hie of his own brother-in-law, Hacc Kuli Beg The Chinese orsted at Mingyol, and all the cities west of Aksu turned against the Chinese, as before, and proclaimed for Yusuf Khoja Then the massacres were repeated, and the invasion of Yusuf was that of Jehangir over again in exact detail

But Yusuf's triuir had ruled for nine months, Yusuf only swayed the sceptre for three

The Chinese movements were delayed by s of 1831, but then, when they returned, they found that Yusuf and the Khokandian army had retreated some months before The facts were that the ar, Bokhara attacked Khokand, and Hacc Kuli Beg had to be recalled to cope with eneral had gone Yusuf, far from anxious to encounter the Chinese alone The return of the Khokandian arer from Bokhara, and, a few months after, Mahoainst the Kirghiz under Chinese protection The Chinese were thoroughly sick of these petty disputes, and made a treaty with Khokand, by which that state acquired fresh coes, in addition to the old ones, and by which the importance of the Aksakals rather increased than waned Mahoed the Khoja party, as, indeed, the ters under Jehangir and Yusuf were undoubtedly a great blow to Chinese prestige To all appearance each had nearly been successful, and the Chinese, whose prestige was enorreat as that of Russia is now--had been, on one or two occasions, openly defeated But, after all, this was a littleby sixty happy years, had received Between Buddhist and Mussulman, between Chinaman and Central Asiatic, all the old antipathy was revived in the butcheries of Yarkand and Kashgar The Kashgari showed that they could not appreciate the benefits they had received frohter of their countryratitude evinced towards them, retaliated in kind They did not appreciate that moderation, which Europeans have not always shown under sie in their own ancient fashi+on It is absolutely necessary that the reader should reir and Yusuf forar Up to that epoch it is difficult to find words sufficient to do justice to China's beneficent government there; after that year it would be absurd to ee the chief blaari the Andijanis The Chinese are justified, at least, in saying that, having for more than half a century ruled this people with justice, they only relaxed in their efforts to pro when their unarmed countrymen and soldiers had been surprised and butchered by thousands

Strange, and almost contradictory, as it s seeroove of happy prosperity; and the chief credit for this overnor of the Chinese viceroy Zuhuruddin, such was his naar, a post never before held by any other than a Khitay By birth he was of Kashgar, but he always represented hiht up in Khokand, where he had been iht years he governed Kashgar to the perfect satisfaction both of the people and of the Chinese, and a some of his public acts may be mentioned the reconstruction of new forts outside the cities, in the place of those destroyed in the recent revolts These were kno as Yangyshahr instead of Gulbagh But in 1846 Zuhuruddin's rule was disturbed by hostilities on the part of Khokand and the Khojas

In 1845 Khudayar Khan had been called to the throne after the death of Mahomed Ali, but his authority was not without its rivals In the state of confusion that then ensued, Khokandian adventurers urged the Khoja princes, ere now represented by the sons of Jehangir, to renew their old attacks against the Chinese To these advisers the Khojas turned a willing ear, and preparations were accordingly made for the enterprise At that time Khokand was full of adventurers to whoive constant employment, but who now under the more peaceful rule of Khudayar idled their ti these and the ever willing Kirghiz, it was not difficult for the princes of Kashgar to raise an army, formidable in numbers, if not remarkable for cohesion At that time there were seven prominent Khoja princes in Khokand, of e may hereKhan, and Wali Khan This inroad did not take its name from any one of these, but froan, or that of the Seven Khojas

With his brothers and relations and a considerable following, Katti Torah advanced upon Kashgar, always the first object of these invaders, which fell after a siege of thirteen days through treachery This was the only success they achieved; the other cities would have nothing to do with theence in unbridled licence the Chinese beat theht at Kok Robat, and drove them out of the country For the first time there was an air of ridicule thrown over these Khoja invasions in the eyes of the Kashgari, while the outrages they had cos still Zuhuruddin, who fell under the displeasure of the Chinese, was removed from his post, and fresh Ambans, once more Khitay, were appointed For nine years the Khojas remained passive, but in 1855 Wali Khan and his brother Kichik Khan, began to bustle once arian frontier It was not until 1857 that Wali Khan succeeded in forcing the advanced guard of picketsaccoar fell into his possession by a _coup de main_, and once ar Artosh and Yangy Hissar fell into his possession, and he threatened Yarkand But everywhere the Chinese garrisons re the exhaustion of their foe and the arrival of reinforcements After a rule of nearly fourbeen then defeated by the Chinese, the Khoja fled to the remote state of Darhere he was surrendered to Khokand by its chief Ismail Shah This ruler, the most tyrannical, bloodthirsty, and licentious of all the Khojas,afterwards at the hands of Yakoob Beg His temporary tenure of power is still remembered with dread by the people, who consider him to have been the most incarnate monster who ever held the destinies of their country in his hand The Chinese were n than they had been after any other, but, notwithstanding the part Khudayar and his people had played in Wali Khan's affair, the old relations between ”these incompatible people,” as Dr Bellew aptly calls them, were restored

After this event there was but one hiz nomads, headed by the sons of one of the principal victieance, but this had no political importance