Governor Henry Arthur Blake took a conciliatory stance towards the punti clans, agreeing to acknowledge their land rights, which continue to be recognised into the present day.

Feeling abandoned by the government of the Qing dynasty and fearing the loss of their traditional land rights, several punti clans mobilised a force of 2,600 militiamen which had been trained and equipped to defend against longshore raids by pirates and attempted to resist the British takeover of the territory.

[5] On 17 April, British forces launched an attack against the militia in Lam Tsuen Valley and chased them up nearby hills, eventually defeating them.

Most prominent of the villages in the resistance Kat Hing Wai, of the Tang clan, was symbolically disarmed, by having its main gates dismounted and removed.

Suspicious of the Qing government's support for the punti clans during the war, British forces entered the Kowloon Walled City in May 1899 and expelled the Chinese garrison.