despite repeated offers of amnesty, many muslims continued to resist at suzhou (jiuquan), their last stronghold in the hexi corridor in west gansu. the city was under the command of ma wenlu, who was originally from xining. many hui people who had retreated from shaanxi were also in the city. after securing his supply lines, zuo zongtang laid siege to suzhou in september 1873 with 15,000 troops. the fortress could not withstand zuo's siege guns and the city fell on october24. zuo had 7,000 hui people executed and resettled the rest in southern gansu, to ensure that the entire gansu corridor from lanzhou to dunhuang would remain hui-free, thereby preventing the possibility of future collusion between the muslims of gansu and shaanxi and those of xinjiang. han and hui loyal to the qing seized the land of hui rebels in shaanxi, so the shannxi hui were resettled in zhanjiachuan in gansu.