Читать книгу China's Revolution, 1911-1912: A Historical and Political Record of the Civil War онлайн

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A well-built fellow, some five feet six or seven, with hard, determined mouth, and a chin of iron, was Chang Piao; his jet-black eyes looked suspiciously out at us. By the side of the General as he sat, one leg up under him in real Chinese fashion, stood a guard of soldiers with loaded pieces; in front of us as we talked were seated the dishevelled officers and staff of the General, some on upturned boxes, some on the settee (which had been the General's resting-place), some on the floor, all busy with their rice-bowls and chopsticks.

At first Chang looked at me in apparent unconcern. Then—

"Where do you come from? What do you want? What nationality are you?" These questions came from him as quickly as he could put them.

"I shall not do any fighting at all to-day," he said. "My scouts are all around the country-side, and my troops, some three thousand of them—and all good men, far better than the rebels—are lying in ambush away at Niekow. I shall wait for the arrival of Yin Chang,[ssss1] who is coming with twenty thousand troops, and Admiral Sah, who is waiting for more ammunition."