Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/155

Rh cases plundering, are punishable by death. But where crime is so widespread, it seems rather to be aggravated than diminished by severity, and year by year the Chinese soldiers become more demoralised. But the picture we have drawn of the defenders of the Celestial Empire is still incomplete. The most striking trait in their character is cowardice, innate in all Chinese, and not considered a disgrace; far from this, the discretion of the soldier who runs away is sometimes highly praised. The tactics of warfare consist in frightening the enemy, never in hazarding a resolute attack. The order of battle is a semicircle threatening the front and flanks simultaneously; the troops open fire at a distance ten times further than the range of their guns, utter fearful cries after every round, and altogether behave in a childish way, which of course would produce no effect on superior troops. A bold well-armed enemy might march into any part of the Middle Kingdom with perfect confidence of the result. He need not trouble himself about the number of his opponents; one wolf will put to flight a thousand sheep, and every European soldier is a wolf In comparison with Chinese soldiers.

This was the state of affairs in Kan-su for ten years. The Chinese garrisoned those towns which remained faithful to them, while the insurgents ravaged the country, neither of the belligerents taking more