Explanation From Original OP:

The Chinese Warlord Era was absolutely bonkers and I’m still surprised that there’s new absurdity that I’m discovering every now and then. This particular tale relates to Ma Zhongying, a rather young Hui General from the Ma Family that was an infamously brutal upstart. During the Kumul Rebellion, which had some zany participants in its own right, his forces laid siege to the city of Hami. In this battle, he sent a European named “W. Petro” to get the opposing garrison to surrender. However, apparently & supposedly, the commander, under the advice of a goddamn sorcerer, stubbornly declined due to Zhongying’s youth.

Now it should be said that the only source for this is from W. Petro himself, so I can’t exactly say just how sensationalist it is. China at this point in time was already wild enough though, and there were a slew of figures about that at least make a goddamn sorcerer look tame in comparison.