At other times, the Communists tied bombs around the bodies of men and women, carted them to thickly populated areas, lighted the fuses and left them to explode. This invariably happened at night, when the effect was more terrifying. These human torches were supposed to be the unreliable Quislings. The method of their disposal by the Reds shows how the latter are running true to form. In the days of Genghis Khan a Quisling was despised. When he had served his purpose, he was taken out and his throat was slit. As an example, there is the story of the Battle of Samarkand, when thirty thousand Kankali Turks, seeing that the victory was going against them, and hoping to save their lives, deserted to the Mongols. They were received in a friendly manner and shown every courtesy. Equipped with Mongol military dress and weapons, they felt welcome and honored. But, alas, after being royally wined and dined, they were massacred to a man. Like Stalin, the Mongols had utter contempt for such people. Conquering armies, however, sometimes get a dose of their own medicine, and, when they do, it is apt to be fatal. At least it proved so in the case of the forty Russian soldiers who looted a Japanese hospital near Mukden. Finding a large vat of alcohol in the basement, they spent a riotous night, drinking and carousing. The next morning an officer found all forty of them dead. Evidently they had never heard of “rubbing” alcohol. Today, in Manchuria, the Chinese Communists, aided by Russian technicians and advisors, are rebuilding the country for their own advantage. It is said that Stalin will use Manchuria as an experimental training station for Communism. He now controls the reconstructed railways in and out of this highly strategic area and requires banks to give them fifty to sixty per cent of their loans for industrial developments. Some private businesses were told that they would not be molested, provided they would do all they could to boost production under Communist supervision. During the last three years of civil war in China, the Manchurian farmers turned over 4,500,000 tons of grain to the Communists. In spite of this, they are being urged to PRODUCE FOR THE PEOPLE!—to raise more and more grain to be exported to Siberia. In Russia’s grandiose scheme of developing Siberia with Chinese slave labor, the wealth of Manchuria is her greatest industrial asset. In contrast to Stalin’s close personal supervision of Manchuria, experts seem agreed that he will leave China pretty much alone, for the time being, and let Mao and other leaders of the moment believe that they are solidifying their positions. Sometime within the next one, two or three years, he may “liquidate” or “retire” them all and replace them with the out-and-out Russian Commissars. How soon Stalin will be able to accomplish this, time alone will tell. CHAPTER VII _The Tragedy of the Generalissimo_