Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/68

 afterwards: finally, the foreigners had stated by proclamation and letter that their intention was to exact ports for trade, not saying one word about YÜK'IEN. And it may here be mentioned in anticipation that, the following year, when ILIPU at Cha-p'u asked the British chief why he was again invading us, the letter of reply contained not one word alluding to YÜK'IEN, whose only fault was that his capacity was not equal to his ardour. [The British losses at Ting-hai and Chên-hai were 17 killed and 36 wounded.]

The Emperor now appointed the imperial clans- man YIKKING as Generalissimo, with two other Man- chu dignitaries as advisors. NIU KIEN, Governor of Ho Nan, was appointed Viceroy at Nanking, and ILIANG was made Imperial Commissioner for Fu Kien. NIU's idea was to hire as many bravos, robbers, and scoundrels of all descriptions as could be got together from the provinces; to keep up a harassing guerilla warfare; and to station agents in the places occupied by the foreigners, so as to propare for rendering assistance when a suitable time should come. The Ningpo people, like the Cantonese, were put down as "disloyal." All this was approved by the Emperor, who ordered YIKKING to put the enemy off guard by discharging his functions in the first instance from Soochow. There his staff behaved so