Head-quarters at Lanfang--Entry of troops into Pekin to
be opposed--Murder of the Chancellor of the Japanese
Legation--Conciliatory visits and orders to slaughter--Customs
buildings wrecked--European graveyard desecrated--A specified
date--Danger of the relief force being cut off--The advisability of
capturing the Taku forts--On June 13--A skirmish of Americans and
Boxers--An attempt to destroy the armoured trains--An Italian picket
cut off--Chinese vitality--Rushing quick-firing guns.
Head-quarters were made at Lanfang for the night, and on the 13th the
railway was found to be so broken up that in the next twenty-four
hours, although there was no fighting, an advance of only three miles
was made by the relieving force. The Boxers were reported in great
numbers two miles ahead of the Allies, and a courier arrived from the
capital reporting that hostile preparations were being made by the
population and Imperial troops, with General Tung-Fu-Hsiang at their
head, to oppose the entry of the foreign troops into the city, and that
Mr. Sogiyama, Chancellor of the Japanese Legation, had been barbarously
murdered by the soldiers of General Tung’s cavalry when on his way to
the station, while European Legation Students had had narrow escapes in
several parts of the Tartar and Chinese city, being obliged to defend
themselves with their revolvers.
[Sidenote: BODIES DISINTERRED]
There was no doubt that the lives of all foreigners in Pekin were
in great danger, notwithstanding the assurances given by the Yamên
that if no more than 1200 men were sent, the Chinese Government would
not oppose their march to Pekin. When these conciliatory visits of
the Yamên Ministers to Sir Claude MacDonald took place (on June 12),
it was already well known by the Chinese all over the country that
the Empress-Dowager had issued orders to the Boxers to destroy the
Legations and murder all foreigners. The British Summer Legation on the
hills some 12 miles from Pekin had already been burned (June 13), and
on that same evening the old Custom-House buildings, the grand stand of
the Race-Course, and various mission schools and residences had been
entered by Boxers, looted, and burnt to the ground, many defenceless
servants of Europeans, converts, and Chinese Christians being
mercilessly massacred. Even the European graveyard was desecrated, the
bodies disinterred, and the tombstones smashed. The date specified for
the destruction of the Legations was June 16.
When this alarming news came from the capital, Sir Edward Seymour and
his plucky force made superhuman efforts to restore rail communication
with the Tartar city as speedily as possible, little knowing that
behind them, in Tientsin itself, the situation was becoming serious.
The force was in imminent danger of being cut off by the Chinese, who
were concentrating their Imperial troops in such great numbers in the
surrounding country of Tientsin and Taku, that the Admirals deemed it
advisable to take immediate possession of the Taku and Tong-ku forts
before a complete and formidable concentration was allowed to take
place.
In America and Europe the Admirals were much blamed for coming to this
conclusion; in fact, they have been even accused of unduly treating the
Chinese without tact or respect. But few people seem to consider that
had the Chinese been able to concentrate a great force of well-armed
men, whom they had ready, at these forts--the key, as it were, of the
Pei-ho river--not only the Legations in Pekin but the large settlement
of Tientsin itself would have been at the absolute mercy of the
Celestials.
On June 13 the relief party was still hard at work on the railroad
beyond Lanfang, half-way to Pekin. A party of Americans had a skirmish
with a hundred Boxers and killed a number of them, while some
British marines of the advance were fiercely attacked six miles from
headquarters by a horde of fanatics armed with knives and waving large
banners. The marines duly repulsed them, killing over one hundred.
On June 14, the Boxers made a most determined attempt to seize and
destroy the armoured trains. It was at about 10 +A.M.+ and some of
the Allies were resting, or washing their clothes, while others were
working on the line. The Boxers managed to conceal themselves until
they were about two hundred yards from the trains, when they sprang out
yelling their war cry, and rushed on the Allies. Our men emptied their
magazines upon them, but still they rushed on with astounding bravery,
fully exposed to the fire of the Allies, careless of their lives, and
waving their swords and knives. A Maxim gun was turned on them when
they were but sixty or seventy yards away and the execution it did
was terrific as its thousands of shots rattled into the solid mass of
human beings rushing on towards the Allies under this murderous fire.
Notwithstanding this bravery--due, no doubt, to the more or less firm
belief in their own invulnerability--when the rows of fanatics behind
trod on the rows of dead and bleeding fallen in front, their courage
failed them, and dropping pitchforks, swords, and matchlocks, they
bolted for dear life.
[Sidenote: CHINESE VITALITY]
[Illustration: LIEUT. SIRIANNI, SUB-LIEUT. PREMOLI AND ITALIAN MARINES
FROM THE “CALABRIA” AND “ELBA” WHO ACCOMPANIED THE SEYMOUR EXPEDITION]
Several chasing parties were sent out to pursue them in all directions,
and to clear the nearest villages of the enemy. Unfortunately, a picket
of Italians was cut off and surrounded by the Chinese, and one petty
officer and four marines were killed. Their bodies were found fearfully
mutilated.
The vitality of the Chinese when wounded by small-bore bullets was
remarkable. Some struck by one or two projectiles would continue
running towards the Maxims, and on examination several dead had no
less than four or five wounds. The bodies of a few of their braver men
were found only forty yards from the position of the Allies, and fully
150 of their men lay dead around the battlefield, victims of their
foolhardy attempts to rush our quick-firing guns.