Once more we found ourselves in the whirl of events. During ourfortnight away a great deal had happened here. The ChineseCommissioner Wang Tsao-tsun had sent eleven envoys to Urga but nonehad returned. The situation in Mongolia remained far from clear.
The Russian detachment had been increased by the arrival of newcolonists and secretly continued its illegal existence, althoughthe Chinese knew about it through their omnipresent system ofspies. In the town no Russian or foreign citizens left theirhouses and all remained armed and ready to act. At night armedsentinels stood guard in all their court-yards. It was the Chinesewho induced such precautions. By order of their Commissioner allthe Chinese merchants with stocks of rifles armed their staffs andhanded over any surplus guns to the officials, who with theseformed and equipped a force of two hundred coolies into a specialgarrison of gamins. Then they took possession of the Mongolianarsenal and distributed these additional guns among the Chinesevegetable farmers in the nagan hushun, where there was always afloating population of the lowest grade of transient Chineselaborers. This trash of China now felt themselves strong, gatheredtogether in excited discussions and evidently were preparing forsome outburst of aggression. At night the coolies transported manyboxes of cartridges from the Chinese shops to the nagan hushun andthe behaviour of the Chinese mob became unbearably audacious.
These coolies and gamins impertinently stopped and searched peopleright on the streets and sought to provoke fights that would allowthem to take anything they wanted. Through secret news we receivedfrom certain Chinese quarters we learned that the Chinese werepreparing a pogrom for all the Russians and Mongols in Uliassutai.
We fully realized that it was only necessary to fire one singlehouse at the right part of the town and the entire settlement ofwooden buildings would go up in flames. The whole populationprepared to defend themselves, increased the sentinels in thecompounds, appointed leaders for certain sections of the town,organized a special fire brigade and prepared horses, carts andfood for a hasty flight. The situation became worse when newsarrived from Kobdo that the Chinese there had made a pogrom,killing some of the inhabitants and burning the whole town after awild looting orgy. Most of the people got away to the forests onthe mountains but it was at night and consequently without warmclothes and without food. During the following days thesemountains around Kobdo heard many cries of misfortune, woe anddeath. The severe cold and hunger killed off the women andchildren out under the open sky of the Mongolian winter. This newswas soon known to the Chinese. They laughed in mockery and soonorganized a big meeting at the nagan hushun to discuss letting themob and gamins loose on the town.
A young Chinese, the son of a cook of one of the colonists,revealed this news. We immediately decided to make aninvestigation. A Russian officer and my friend joined me with thisyoung Chinese as a guide for a trip to the outskirts of the town.
We feigned simply a stroll but were stopped by the Chinese sentinelon the side of the city toward the nagan hushun with an impertinentcommand that no one was allowed to leave the town. As we spokewith him, I noticed that between the town and the nagan hushunChinese guards were stationed all along the way and that streams ofChinese were moving in that direction. We saw at once it wasimpossible to reach the meeting from this approach, so we choseanother route. We left the city from the eastern side and passedalong by the camp of the Mongolians who had been reduced to beggaryby the Chinese impositions. There also they were evidentlyanxiously awaiting the turn of events, for, in spite of thelateness of the hour, none had gone to sleep. We slipped out onthe ice and worked around by the river to the nagan hushun. As wepassed free of the city we began to sneak cautiously along, takingadvantage of every bit of cover. We were armed with revolvers andhand grenades and knew that a small detachment had been prepared inthe town to come to our aid, if we should be in danger. First theyoung Chinese stole forward with my friend following him like ashadow, constantly reminding him that he would strangle him like amouse if he made one move to betray us. I fear the young guide didnot greatly enjoy the trip with my gigantic friend puffing all tooloudly with the unusual exertions. At last the fences of naganhushun were in sight and nothing between us and them save the openplain, where our group would have been easily spotted; so that wedecided to crawl up one by one, save that the Chinese was retainedin the society of my trusted friend. Fortunately there were manyheaps of frozen manure on the plain, which we made use of as coverto lead us right up to our objective point, the fence of theenclosures. In the shadow of this we slunk along to the courtyardwhere the voices of the excited crowd beckoned us. As we took goodvantage points in the darkness for listening and makingobservations, we remarked two extraordinary things in our immediateneighborhood.
Another invisible guest was present with us at the Chinesegathering. He lay on the ground with his head in a hole dug by thedogs under the fence. He was perfectly still and evidently had notheard our advance. Nearby in a ditch lay a white horse with hisnose muzzled and a little further away stood another saddled horsetied to a fence.
In the courtyard there was a great hubbub. About two thousand menwere shouting, arguing and flourishing their arms about in wildgesticulations. Nearly all were armed with rifles, revolvers,swords and axes. In among the crowd circulated the gamins,constantly talking, handing out papers, explaining and assuring.
Finally a big, broad-shouldered Chinese mounted the well combing,waved his rifle about over his head and opened a tirade in strong,sharp tones.
"He is assuring the people," said our interpreter, "that they mustdo here what the Chinese have done in Kobdo and must secure fromthe Commissioner the assurance of an order to his guard not toprevent the carrying out of their plans. Also that the ChineseCommissioner must demand from the Russians all their weapons.
'Then we shall take vengeance on the Russians for theirBlagoveschensk crime when they drowned three thousand Chinese in1900. You remain here while I go to the Commissioner and talk withhim.'"He jumped down from the well and quickly made his way to the gatetoward the town. At once I saw the man who was lying with his headunder the fence draw back out of his hole, take his white horsefrom the ditch and then run over to untie the other horse and leadthem both back to our side, which was away from the city. He leftthe second horse there and hid himself around the corner of thehushun. The spokesman went out of the gate and, seeing his horseover on the other side of the enclosure, slung his rifle across hisback and started for his mount. He had gone about half way whenthe stranger behind the corner of the fence suddenly galloped outand in a flash literally swung the man clear from the ground upacross the pommel of his saddle, where we saw him tie the mouth ofthe semi-strangled Chinese with a cloth and dash off with himtoward the west away from the town.
"Who do you suppose he is?" I asked of my friend, who answered upat once: "It must be Tushegoun Lama. . . ."His whole appearance did strongly remind me of this mysterious Lamaavenger and his manner of addressing himself to his enemy was astrict replica of that of Tushegoun. Late in the night we learnedthat some time after their orator had gone to seek theCommissioner's cooperation in their venture, his head had beenflung over the fence into the midst of the waiting audience andthat eight gamins had disappeared on their way from the hushun tothe town without leaving trace or trail. This event terrorized theChinese mob and calmed their heated spirits.
The next day we received very unexpected aid. A young Mongolgalloped in from Urga, his overcoat torn, his hair all dishevelledand fallen to his shoulders and a revolver prominent beneath hisgirdle. Proceeding directly to the market where the Mongols arealways gathered, without leaving his saddle he cried out:
"Urga is captured by our Mongols and Chiang Chun Baron Ungern!
Bogdo Hutuktu is once more our Khan! Mongols, kill the Chinese andpillage their shops! Our patience is exhausted!"Through the crowd rose the roar of excitement. The rider wassurrounded with a mob of insistent questioners. The old MongolSait, Chultun Beyli, who had been dismissed by the Chinese, was atonce informed of this news and asked to have the messenger broughtto him. After questioning the man he arrested him for inciting thepeople to riot, but he refused to turn him over to the Chineseauthorities. I was personally with the Sait at the time and heardhis decision in the matter. When the Chinese Commissioner, WangTsao-tsun, threatened the Sait for disobedience to his authority,the old man simply fingered his rosary and said:
"I believe the story of this Mongol in its every word and Iapprehend that you and I shall soon have to reverse ourrelationship."I felt that Wang Tsao-tsun also accepted the correctness of theMongol's story, because he did not insist further. From thismoment the Chinese disappeared from the streets of Uliassutai asthough they never had been, and synchronously the patrols of theRussian officers and of our foreign colony took their places. Thepanic among the Chinese was heightened by the receipt of a lettercontaining the news that the Mongols and Altai Tartars under theleadership of the Tartar officer Kaigorodoff pursued the Chinesewho were making off with their booty from the sack of Kobdo andovertook and annihilated them on the borders of Sinkiang. Anotherpart of the letter told how General Bakitch and the six thousandmen who had been interned with him by the Chinese authorities onthe River Amyl had received arms and started to join with AtamanAnnenkoff, who had been interned in Kuldja, with the ultimateintention of linking up with Baron Ungern. This rumour proved tobe wrong because neither Bakitch nor Annenkoff entertained thisintention, because Annenkoff had been transported by the Chineseinto the Depths of Turkestan. However, the news produced veritablestupefaction among the Chinese.
Just at this time there arrived at the house of the BolshevistRussian colonist Bourdukoff three Bolshevik agents from Irkutsknamed Saltikoff, Freimann and Novak, who started an agitation amo............