ningyuan immediately fell to the dungan and turki rebels, but a strong government force at huiyuan made the insurgents retreat after 12 days of heavy fighting in the streets of the city. the local han chinese, seeing the manchus winning, joined forces with them. however, a counter-offensive by qing forces failed. the imperial troops lost their artillery while mingsioi barely escaped capture. with the fall of wusu and aksu, the qing garrison, entrenched in the huiyuan fortress was completely cut off from the rest of empire-controlled territory forcing mingsioi to send his communications to beijing via russia.