At the end of March, however, these events were still unknown in Uliassutai.  We knew neither of the fall of Urga nor of the destruction of the Chinese army of nearly 15,000 in the battles of Maimachen on the shore of the Tola and on the roads between Urga and Ude.  The Chinese carefully concealed the truth by preventing anybody from passing westward from Urga.  However, rumours existed and troubled all.  The atmosphere became more and more tense, while the relations between the Chinese on the one side and the Mongolians and Russians on the other became more and more strained.  At this time the Chinese Commissioner in Uliassutai was Wang Tsao-tsun and his advisor, Fu Hsiang, both very young and inexperienced men.  The Chinese authorities had dismissed the Uliassutai Sait, the prominent Mongolian patriot, Prince Chultun Beyle, and had appointed a Lama Prince friendly to China, the former Vice-Minister of War in Urga.  Oppression increased.  The searching of Russian officers’ and colonists’ houses and quarters commenced, open relations with the Bolsheviki followed and arrest and beatings became common.  The Russian officers formed a secret detachment of sixty men so that they could defend themselves.  However, in this detachment disagreements soon sprang up between Lieutenant-Colonel M. M. Michailoff and some of his officers.  It was evident that in the decisive moment the detachment must separate into factions.

We foreigners in council decided to make a thorough reconnaissance in order to know whether there was danger of Red troops arriving.  My old companion and I agreed to do this scouting.  Prince Chultun Beyle gave us a very good guide—­an old Mongol named Tzeren, who spoke and read Russian perfectly.  He was a very interesting personage, holding the position of interpreter with the Mongolian authorities and sometimes with the Chinese Commissioner.  Shortly before he had been sent as a special envoy to Peking with very important despatches and this incomparable horseman had made the journey between Uliassutai and Peking, that is 1,800 miles, in nine days, incredible as it may seem.  He prepared himself for the journey by binding all his abdomen and chest, legs, arms and neck with strong cotton bandages to protect himself from the wracks and strains of such a period in the saddle.  In his cap he bore three eagle feathers as a token that he had received orders to fly like a bird.  Armed with a special document called a tzara, which gave him the right to receive at all post stations the best horses, one to ride and one fully saddled to lead as a change, together with two oulatchen or guards to accompany him and bring back the horses from the next station or ourton, he made the distance of from fifteen to thirty miles between stations at full gallop, stopping only long enough to have the horses and guards changed before he was off again.  Ahead of him rode one oulatchen with the best horses to enable him to announce and prepare in advance the complement of steeds at the next station.