With the battle lines now drawn between Tunku Kudin and Raja Mahadi, it was only a matter of time before the rival Malay chiefs sought alliances with the leaders of the various Chinese factions to gain control of key tin-mining areas. The most notable of these leaders was Yap Ah Loy, who had only recently been appointed the new Kapitan Cina following the death of Liu Ngim Kong in 1868. He took the side of the Tengku Kudin, and tried to maintain some kind of order among the various Chinese clans. There had already been bitter rivalry among the various Chinese clans for control of the tin mining fields even before the war among the Malay chiefs and the situation could only get worse. The two largest Chinese factions were the the Hai San (based in Kuala Lumpur) and the Ghee Hin (based in the Kanching and Rawang area) and they would eventually join opposing sides in the civil war, with the Ghee Hin siding with Raja Mahadi, and the Hai San with Yap Ah Loy siding with Tengku Kudin.

The headman at the Kanching mines was Yap Ah Sze, an ally of Yap Ah Loy's. However, Ah Sze was suddenly murdered and it was suspected that this was on the orders of Chong Chong, another Hakka headman. Yap Ah Loy sent a force to Kanching - ostensibly to collect a debt owed to the Malay chiefs - Raja Asal and Sutan Puasa. However it is more likely this was intended as a show of armed strength to bring Chong Chong to heel. The force sent to Kanching consisted of 200 Malays led by Raja Asal and Sutan Puasa, with another 400 of Yap Ah Loy's Chinese, who were held in the rear as a reserve, in case they were needed. Raja Asal and Sutan Puasa marched into the settlement and demanded the tin ore owed to them. When they were told that no tin had been taken from the mines, they ordered their men to fire their guns and muskets on the settlement. On hearing the cannon fire, Yap Ah Loy's Chinese in the rear marched to join the fight and a massacre ensued. 136 of the Kanching miners were killed, for the loss of 12 Chinese and 3 Malays.

The so-called Kanching Massacre gave Yap Ah Loy complete control of the Kanching mines, while Chong Chong fled to Rawang nearby and pledged his allegiance to Raja Mahadi's forces. It was at this point that he met and befriended 'Che Soho' - the redoubtable warrior Syed Mashhor - and the two plotted an attack on their enemies. Syed Mashhor had gathered an army in Ulu Selangor numbering about 400 men and marched south to Ulu Klang, where he built his stockades. Chong Chong, in the meantime, proceeded to Batu Ampat, just west of the confluence of the Klang and Ampang rivers, and just four miles away from Yap Ah Loy's camp in Kuala Lumpur. In time, a few thousand more local men joined Chong Chong's and Syed Mashhor's forces, bring their total force to over 2,500men. Yap Ah Loy's forces, together with Raja Asal's and Sutan Puasa's, were rather fewer, at about 2,000 men.

The main mass of Chong Chong's men were concentrated in stockades near Kg Dato' Keramat, while Syed Mashhor's force were in stockades further east in Ulu Klang, protecting Chong Chong's stockade from any flanking attacks from the north and to support his right flank when he advanced. The camps built by Chong Chong and Syed Mashhor were protected by stout stockades built of the trunks of saplings held in place by rattan lashings. The walls were surmounted by spikes of sharpened bamboo and were further strengthened on the outside by a palisade of banana stems, placed there to prevent the passage of musketshot. Beyond the walls were lines of defensive pits, dug to cover all the possible approaches to the stockade. These were filled with more sharpened bamboo spikes.

The fighting men were usually dressed in coarse cotton cloths, with their feet in straw sandals. They generally carried capes of dried palm leaves slung over one shoulder in case of heavy rain. Some of them were armed with long swords, and others armed with muskets or primitive guns, with a pouch for the powder hanging at their wrists. The commonest weapon was a dagger tucked into their waist belt. Many had dried skins strapped to their chests to act as breastplates or carried wooden shields. Some wore split coconut shells as helmets to ward off blows to the head.

As soon as Yap Ah Loy learnt that Chong Chong was massing his forces at Ampang, he dispatched a force of 600 men to Ulu Klang, with the aim of threatening Chong Chong's right flank and cutting off any line of retreat. The force made contact with Syed Mashhor's stockade at Ulu Klang and launched an attack on it at about 10 in the morning. By the late afternoon, Syed Mashhor's men were routed, with the loss of over 100 killed. Yap Ah Loy's losses were 5 killed and 20 wounded.  Bukit Dinding, north of Taman Setiawangsa, as seen from Ulu Klang. Syed Mashhor's men withdrew from Ulu Klang to Chong Chong's stockade at Ampang. They decided to launch an immediate counter-attack before Yap Ah Loy's men could consolidate their position. As night fell, Syed Mashhor and 1,000 men marched from Ampang directly to Ulu Klang, south of Bukit Dinding (on the left of this picture), while Chong Chong led another 1,000 men through a longer route west and then north of the hill towards Ulu Klang, through what is today Wangsa Maju.

Later that night, Yap Ah Loy's men at Ulu Klang were awakened by the sound of gunfire and shouting, and discovered Syed Mashhor's men advancing uphill on their position. They launched an immediate attack on Syed Mashhor's men. However, some time later, they suddenly found themselves attacked in their rear by Ching Chong's men who had just arrived and found themselves trapped between the two attacking forces. Fortunately, Yap Ah Loy had sent 400 men to Ulu Klang as reinforcement for the captured Ulu Klang stockades and these men arrived in the rear of Chong Chong's encircling force. After many hours of confused fighting, Yap Ah Loy's forces had suffered over 40 killed and 100 wounded but they managed to force Chong Chong and Syed Mashhor to retreat back to their stockade at Ampang.

The next day, Raja Asal sent a force of Malays from Damansara to help reinforce Yap Ah Loy's forces in Ulu Klang, These were later joined by 400 Malays under Sutan Puasa. Another 500 Chinese were sent up the Ampang Road to attack Chong Chong's stockade at Ampang, with another 300 held back in reserve. Yap Ah Loy's forces on the Ampang Road opened their attack on Chong Chong's stockade at 10 am and, by the afternoon, they were joined by Raja Asal's and Sutan Puasa's Malays from Ulu Klang. Chong Chong had by now lost over 500 men and he was being attacked on two flanks. By nightfall, Chong Chong and Syed Mashhir ordered a retreat northwest through Setapak and onto Ulu Selangor. Yap Ah Loy's forces lost an estimated 30 killed and 100 wounded. Chinese sources record that "the dead bodies of men and horses lay in piles in the waste, and blood was flowing like streams."

After their defeat at Ampang in October 1870, Chong Chong and Syed Mashhor wasted little time in gathering more troops in Ulu Selangor - about 1,000 Malays and the same number of Chinese. In June 1871, they began an advance south towards Kuala Lumpur. The northern approach to the town was defended by a camp of about 500 men under Yap Voon Lung in Rawang. Syed Mashhor's forces were the first to make contact with Yap's foces and by the time Chong Chong's forces arrived at noon, Yap was forced to retreat to a second defensive line in his rear. He managed to hold this position when night fell, suffering losses of 40 killed and 40 wounded.

Yap Ah Loy had by this time received word of the attack and sent reinforcements of 500 men to assist Yap Voon Lung. He also had a plan. Yap Voon Lung was ordered to attack Mashhor's forces and then, after a short struggle, feign defeat and retreat rapidly. Mashhor's men followed in hot pursuit. However, 200 men from the reinforcing force then suddenly emerged from their hiding places and attacked the Malays in their rear. Yap Voon Lung's force turned around and began to attack again - trapping Syed Mashhor's men between two fields of fire. The remaining 300 men of the reinforcing force, in the meantime, attacked Chong Chong's men, keeping them trapped in their encampment. Syed Mashhor and Chong Chong had to yet again admit defeat and, suffering heavy losses, fled back to their bases in Ulu Selangor.

Encouraged by their victory in Rawang, Tunku Kudin and Yap Ah Loy hatched a plan to quickly destroy Syed Mashhor's forces it could again reach dangerous proportions. In August 1871, Yap Ah Loy sent 500 Chinese north towards Ulu Selangor, while Tunku Kudin sent about 500 men to Rawang to support him. ap Ah Loy's forces, under the command of Chung Piang, encamped at Ulu Yam and sent a small force towards Kuala Kubu to make contact with Syed Mashhor and draw him out of his stronghold. The advance force attacked Syed Mashhor's stockades and, after a fierce engagement, were driven back and had to retreat back to their camp at Ulu Yam. Chung Piang then moved his whole army forward towards Kuala Kubu but, this time, Syed Mashhor was well-prepared and dug-in. Chung Piang launched probing attacks on his stockade in order to lure Syed Mashhor out of his fortified position and come out into the open. However, Syed Mashhor was content defend his very strong position and Chung Piang was compelled to retreat back to his camp at Ulu Yam.

A further assault was made on Syed Mashhor's Kuala Kubu stockade, this time by a combined force of 1000 Chinese under Chung Piang and 1000 Malays under Raja Asal. Setting out from their camps in Ulu Yam, they were both beaten back from Kuala Kubu, with the loss of 88 Chinese and 51 Malays killed, and many men wounded. They retreated past their base camp at Ulu Yam and all the way to Rawang that night. However, unknown to Tunku Kudin and Yap Ah Loy, Raja Asal was at this time already contemplating switching sides to the Raja Mahdi camp. This betrayal was to have disastrous consequences for them as the war approached its next stage in the coming months - an all-out assault on Kuala Lumpur itself.

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