They made a ghastly picture when hung over the gate of the city to put
the fear of death into the hearts of their brutal compatriots. The
officials, hard-worked and themselves feeling the strain of the whole
business, and incidentally fearful for the safety of their own heads,
were perturbed all this time by rumors coming from Weining, the
mutineers of which were alleged to be the fiercest of the three bands.
Up to now the officials had been playing a conciliating game. They had
been trying vainly to pacify, but now they found that they had to prove
their energies and their benevolence by acting the part of tyrants
rather than of administrators of mercy, by warring rather than by
peace-making, by fighting and forcing rather than by conciliating and
persuading.
On Easter Tuesday, fighting took place on the main road to the north,
when the _pen-fu_ and his men achieved a creditable success. The rebels
almost to a man were taken, and among the prisoners was a girl who had
been distributing the beans, a lovely damsel of eighteen, said to have
been the fiancee of the leader of that band. Both her legs were shot
through and she was considerably mutilated; but although the _pen-fu_
thought this sufficient punishment, instructions came from the capital
that she must die.
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