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confusion. The battle became a scene of butchery. Wou Sankwei's troops gave no quarter, and more than twenty thousand rebels encumbered the plain. The news of this preliminary disaster came as a warning to Li Tseching; but, as he still possessed an army greatly exceeding that of his adversary in numbers, there was no reason why he should yet despair of the result. So far as we are aware Li Tseching then knew nothing of Wou Sankwei's arrangement with the Manchus, or of the concentration and approach of a Tartar army.

Li Tseching left Pekin in person at the head of 60,000 men, the pick of his army, and taking with him the two eldest of the Ming princes and Wou Siang, the father of Wou Sankwei. On the news of the advance of this formidable force, Wou Sankwei halted at Yungping, near the scene of his first victory, where he made all the preparations he could to resist the enemy, and whence he sent urgent messages to his Tartar allies to hasten their advance. The town of Yungping is situated only a short distance south-west of Shanhaikwan, and lies a few miles from the northern bank of the Lanho, a stream difficult to cross at certain seasons of the year. The details of the battle that have come down to us leave obscure the part which this river played in the fortunes of the day, but it must have been considerable. Wou Sankwei's army was greatly outnumbered, and it is probable that he had to meet threefold odds, while the Manchu troops although known to be near at hand had not joined him. Under these circumstances it was Wou's policy to defer the action, but Li was no less eager to commence the attack. The latter adopted the traditional tactics laid down in the standard military treatise of forming his line in the shape of a horn or crescent and overlapping the wings of the enemy. By compressing the extremities, the opposing force is not merely outflanked but almost surrounded. Wou Sankwei was no inexpert or craven captain to allow a foe to acquire an advantage which either skill or courage could prevent; but here he found himself unable to check the movement of his more numerous enemy, who had soon the satisfaction of perceiving, from the hill where he had taken his stand with

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545 his state prisoners, that his army completely surrounded Wou Sankwei's small force. Victory seemed to be within his grasp, for, although Wou's troops resisted valiantly, it was clear that they could not long hold out against the very superior numbers of their assailants; when the fortunate arrival and impetuous charge of a Manchu corps carried terror into the ranks of Li's troops, and converted what promised to be a decisive victory into a signal overthrow. Li Tseching escaped with a few hundred horsemen from the fray, but thirty thousand of his best men had fallen. The defeat of Yungping destroyed at a single blow all the plans which Li had been forming for the consolidation of his authority. throughout China. He escaped to Pekin, where his authority was still recognized; but it was evident that he was in no position either to stand a siege at the capital or to risk a second battle in its neighbourhood.

After the victory of Yungping, the arrival of fresh Manchu troops was continuous, and Wou Sankwei, who still retained the principal command, was able to follow hard upon the traces of the defeated Li. Again did the baffled robber strive to induce Wou to detach himself from the side of the Manchus, but the latter received all his overtures with silent disdain. When Wou reached Pekin and pitched his camp over against the eastern ramparts, he was greeted with the spectacle of his father's head upon the wall, Li having wreaked his vengeance and disappointment on the person of Wou Siang. From that time a new bitterness was imparted to the struggle, and thenceforth any reconciliation between these two leaders became altogether impossible.

Li Tseching made no attempt to defend the city which had witnessed his coronation and brief reign, but confined all his efforts to escaping from Pekin with as much of the plunder which he had accumulated there as he could collect and convey. Li's flight was precipitate, but it was not conducted with sufficient rapidity to enable him to escape the attack of his vigorous and energetic opponent. Wou Sankwei pressed hard upon the retreating force, and, making a detour round the city, came up with Li Tseching's rear-guard at the bridge of Likao. The soldiers of Wou Sankwei and their

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Manchu allies threw themselves with fury on those to whom the charge of the unwieldy baggage train had been entrusted, but the resistance they encountered was made with only a faint heart. More than ten thousand of Li's followers were then slaughtered to the manes of Wou Siang.

Li's line of retreat lay along the main high-road into Shansi, and, as he retired, his ranks were strengthened by the junction with him of the garrisons which he had placed in the different fortified towns of Pechihli. At Paoting in particular he was joined by a considerable detachment, but it was not until he reached Chingting that he felt able to make a fresh stand and to face his pursuers. The reasons which induced Li to again tempt fortune on the field of battle, when he held in his possession so advantageous a scene for renewing the contest as the western provinces, were more probably due to disappointed vanity than to any fear of his force disbanding. The latter danger was the more remote, because his followers knew that little sympathy was felt towards them by the mass of the Chinese people, in whose eyes they were nothing more than marauders and swashbucklers. When Wou Sankwei discovered his enemy in position near Chingting, he was not grieved to find him ready and willing to accept battle, for his own army had been raised by the arrival of eighty thousand Manchus and by numerous Chinese levies to close upon two hundred thousand men. Li's troops began the battle by a desperate charge led by their chief in person, and then the contest became general. Both sides fought with extraordinary courage and marked bitterness, and even Wou himself was compelled to express admiration at the fortitude of his adversary, who, after three reverses, appeared as eager for the fray as ever. Night closed on the struggle without leaving to either party a decisive advantage over the other; but the loss of forty thousand men, among whom were numbered many of his bravest and most faithful officers, compelled Li Tseching to order a retreat during the night. From Chingting he retired with such rapidity that he and his exhausted troops gained Shansi without further molestation.

With his defeat at Chingting Li's fate was virtually

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decided, and the closing scenes of his career need only be briefly touched upon. From Shansi he was driven into Honan, and from Honan into Shensi. Several times he ventured to engage his pursuers, but Wou Sankwei was ever at his heels, and always the victor in these encounters. The fortress Tunkwang, on the easy capture of which Li had been wont to congratulate himself, fell now not less easily into the hands of his opponent. These repeated defeats, and this rapid flight from one extremity of the country to the other, destroyed the confidence of his followers, and when Li wished to make a final stand in his western metropolis of Singan, to which he had given its historic name of Changnan, he discovered that his troops would not obey his orders, and that they were only anxious to obtain terms from Wou Sankwei. Li Tseching then fled to the mountains with a mere handful of men, and after having effected the overthrow of a dynasty, and for a time indulged a reasonable hope of establishing his own family as its successor, he was thus compelled to return to the old robber-life of his youth. Even in this fallen state he was not destined to enjoy any long lease of personal safety. An active pursuit was still kept up on the traces of the arch-rebel; and his band lost heavily in repeated combats with the pursuers. The necessity of procuring food obliged him to frequently quit the mountains, and it was while on one of these foraging expeditions that he was surprised in a village and surrounded by a superior force. Li Tseching was one of the first to fall, and his head was carried in triumph to the nearest mandarin. Such was the end of this remarkable man, who, with no other redeeming quality than courage, so nearly subjected the Chinese to his brutal and unenlightened rule. One of his sons attempted to revive his party, but the design fell through without meeting the slightest support. The Chinese might be divided in their predilections as to other parties, and might regard the Manchus with tolerance or aversion; but they were unanimous in their detestation of the robber Li. He had very

nearly attained success, but it is most improbable that any mere robber chief, such as he was, with no redeeming motives and representing no party save that of plunder, will ever

again be in a position to so nearly menace the liberties and dearly prized privileges of the Chinese people.

Wou Sankwei had performed his task nobly. He had avenged the Ming, and had crushed the most formidable of public enemies. His invitation to the Manchus had been the means of attaining these results, but as soon as he found, that Li had ceased to be formidable he began to show anxiety for the departure of his Tartar allies. The Manchus, it is hardly necessary to say, were fully resolved not to comply with his solicitations. They had taken possession of Pekin, and they meant to stay there. On the other hand, they did not wish to give umbrage to Wou Sankwei, whose ability they respected, and whose co-operation would be invaluable to them in the task of extending and consolidating their authority throughout the Empire. All their efforts were, therefore, directed to the object of keeping Wou Sankwei in good temper, and they also sought to popularize their government with the people. In both these respects their tact and good jndgment were conspicuous. Wou Sankwei, half won over by his animosity to Li, and gratified by the receipt of honours and titles-among which may be named that of Ping-si-Wang, or Prince Pacifier of the West-was rendered still more disposed to throw in his lot unreservedly with the foreign House, because he found so much in its conduct to approve. As a practical man and experienced administrator, he felt bound to ask himself the question—what preferable candidate could he name for the throne to the young Manchu prince, who was evincing a sagacity beyond his years, and who was surrounded by wise ministers and tried soldiers? Wou Sankwei had to confess that he knew of none; but deep in his heart there existed a patriotism too pure to leave him well satisfied with himself at having been the means of introducing the foreigner into the Empire. For the time he kept his peace, and confined himself to the duties of his government in Shensi; but his mind was evidently ill at ease. We shall hear much more of this gallant soldier later on; but for the present we can leave him resting on his laurels in his provincial capital of Singan while we describe the course of events in the eastern provinces of the country where the Manchus were rapidly extending their sway.

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