In early February 1870, Chinese and Miao forces fought a particularly bloody skirmish at the village of Jiaba Niuchang, some 25km from the Sichuan Army base at Chong’an. Mesny wrote two slightly different accounts of the campaign, so Li Maoqing and myself once again set out to see if any stories had been handed down from the time. Modern Gulong …
Monkeys and Fire: Jiuzhou, 1869
There’s a local saying in southeast Guizhou: “If you want to enjoy your New Year, don’t argue with the people at Jiuzhou”. The population must be a fiesty bunch then. I wondered if this was why my bus ticket included insurance coverage of up to ¥20,000 medical expenses, or ¥4000 for personal injury. Known as Huangping in Mesny’s day, I …