Early in 1889 reports came in from Bhamo and other sources that Saw Yan Naing and Hkam Leng had agreed to unite forces and make simultaneous attacks on various points in the north. They were reported to be enlisting the aid of Kachin tribesmen, Chinese bandits from across the border, and Burmese outlaws. Risings were to be organized in the Upper Sinkan township and a descent made on Möng Mit. Even the date for the rising was fixed. Whether there was any systematic concert or not was never ascertained, but a good many outbreaks occurred without any visible connection and of no great magnitude, but enough, taken all together, to harass both soldiers and police, as well as those responsible for the administration. From the Ruby Mines district as early as the last week in December had come reports of a gathering, headed by Saw Yan Naing, at Manpun, in the hills, three marches from the town of Möng Mit. A detachment from the Hampshire Regiment was sent from Bernard Myo, the Cantonment of the Ruby Mines, to Möng Mit, to garrison the town, while the State levies went out to act against the body of rebels at Manpun.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Nugent, who was in command at Möng Mit, hearing that there were some dacoits a few miles off, went with sixteen men of the Hampshires to attack them. The dacoits were strongly posted. Lieutenant Nugent and one private were killed and six men wounded. The remaining nine men, encumbered with the wounded, had to retire. This disaster happened on the 14th of January. Lieutenant Nugent was a young officer without experience of the country, and he ought not to have been left without some one capable of advising him.
It was promptly retrieved. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Archibald Colquhoun, getting together troops and police, renewed the attack on the enemy's position and drove them out with much loss. On the 20th of January the village or town of Twingé, on the Irrawaddy, was taken and burnt by one of Hkam Leng's adherents. No attempt was made on Möng Mit after that date, and no formidable bands were encountered, although the Ruby Mines districts and the adjacent parts of Möng Mit were harassed by small gangs of robbers. A feeling of anxiety, however, prevailed and begat alarming rumours. The imagination of Shans, Burmans, and perhaps of other nervous persons, is fertile in the matter of numbers, and loves to deal in large figures. At the end of January hostile gatherings at different points, amounting to nearly two thousand men--a quite impossible number--were reported from Mogok, the headquarters of the Ruby Mines district. With a view to allaying these apprehensions the garrisons there and at Möng Mit were strengthened.