The Dali government created policies to encourage locals to protect trade caravans and ordered officials to guard the main passes into Yunnan and to provide free lodging to traders. Du Wenxiu himself set up a trading company in Burma and also established two cotton trading bureaus in Ava, one of them operated by his sister. Religious instructions called upon Yunnanese Muslims and traders to not contradict Islamic Law: "It is not permitted to transgress [the teaching of the legal schools by] acting [out of] subjective will; to foolishly [pursue] personal benefits; to despicably chase privileges; to act eccentrically or absurdly; to embrace heterodox [thoughts]; to claim supernatural [powers]; or to boast a connection with the spirits. Nor [it is permitted] to deceive common [people, in order to] pursue profit and fame; or to falsify rites and ceremonies, and to confuse different teachings. [This would be like] disguising [metals for] gold or counterfeiting silver; [or] selling dog meat [after] labeling [it] as “sheep”; [or] exaggerating [things] in order to deceive people. For those who fall prey to confusion, the harm is hard to undo. These kinds of things compromise cleanliness and truth [qingzhen], as do a poison or a big plague."These instructions indicate the Yunnanese Muslim concern for the preservation of Islamic Orthodoxy and their belief that Qing rule had corrupted their traditions with decadent habits and beliefs like Shamanism. Islam, Confucianism and Tribal pagan animism were all legalized and "honoured" with a "Chinese-style bureaucracy" in Du Wenxiu's sultanate. A third of the sultanate's military posts were filled with Han Chinese, who also filled the majority of civil posts. Defeat and legacy During his last offensive in 1867; Du Wenxiu declared in his "Proclamation from the Headquarters of the Generalissimo", that:"this army expedition was caused by the Manchus' taking China from us and staying in power for more than two hundred years, treating people as oxen and horses, having no regard for the value of life, hurting my compatriots, and wiping out my fellow Hui (wo Huizu)."He styled himself "Sultan of Dali" and reigned for 16 years before Qing troops under Cen Yuying beheaded him after he swallowed a ball of opium. The Qing eventually battled their way to Dali and on December 25,1872; thousands of Qing troops encircled Dali. Du's top general Yang Rong advised him to surrender fearing disastrous consequences for the populace if resistance continued. Du concurred and