Anyway, without further ado I’ll introduce the The White Hyacinth Tong.
The inscrutable Yu Lon Chi the head man of the White Hyacinth Tong based in Ürümqi - capital of Xinjiang Province in North West China, pictured here in the Tianshan Mountains 1926.
Urumqi was ruled by the warlord Yang Zengxin from 1911 to 1928, it was a wild and dangerous place. It grew to prominence due to its position on the Silk Road and every bandit, con man, bully boy, and lowlife was attracted by its easy money and fast living.
The White Hyacinth Tong were the top of the pile, they say scum rises. They were bad men and none badder than Yu, he ran protection and prostitution in the downtown area, and also the cities most influential bank in the uptown area, he had fingers in many pies.
The Tong could easily be recognised by the White Hyacinth embroidered on their clothing. Recognised and then avoided - unless they came up behind you, in which case you were normally washed up on the banks of the Urumqi River or left to rot in some remote corner of the Tianshan Mountains.
This is a photograph of Chang - bodyguard and general enforcer to the inscrutable Yu Lon Chi the head man of the White Hyacinth Tong based in Ürümqi, in North West China taken here in the Tianshan Mountains 1926.
Changs mother died of typhus when he was 6 months old and his father of an equally deadly virus, an unpaid gambling debt to the Rickshaw Drivers Union who ran gambling and racetracks on the north side of town. Rickshaw racing was the hottest sport in Xinjiang Province in the 1920’s.
Chang wandered the streets stealing and fighting until he was spotted by Yu Lon Chi one day when he had just beaten a boy twice his age in a fist fight for a stale loaf of bread.
Chi took him in, fed and clothed him and now Chang reveres Chi as the father figure he never really knew.
Everyone knows that to get to Chi, you have to go through Chang, and no one goes through Chang.
The deadly but beautiful Mai Ling the second most powerful person in the White Hyacinth Tong, pictured here in the Tianshan Mountains 1926.
The triumvirate of Yu Lon Chi, Chang and Mai Ling maintain a grip of iron on the White Hyacinth Tong (note the symbol of the Tong discreetly embroidered on her pantaloons) and through the Tong a stranglehold the on vice and crime in Xinjiang Province, North West China.
The silk road may no longer carry silk but there are darker goods traded along the road in the 1920’s and the White Hyacinth is in the trade up to their necks, with Mai Ling masterminding most of it.
No one knows for sure where Mai Ling came from – she drifted into town and naturally gravitated to the centre of power, rising quickly to the top, leaving a trail of broken men behind her.
The leaders of the White Hyacinth will not be here alone, they have a small army of thugs, murderers and lowlifes at their beck and call. For them to be so far from Ürümqi there must be a very good reason that I expect will come to light some time in the future.
We will just have to be patient.
Sorry for the short and rather lacklustre post but I’m off the Scandinavia tomorrow and wanted to keep up my ridiculously low self imposed target of a post a month and I should get back in time to make June’s post as well.
I will have a host of Viking pictures from various sites but not the ship museum in Oslo because it’s closed until 2027 for renovation, would anyone be interested in seeing that sort of thing. It’s not why I started the blog but over the years Mrs V and I have visited many European sites of interest to a wargamer building his or her own scenery, it could be quite a resource!
Cheers
