Haphazard shooting--Mr. Campbell wounded--A lake of sugar--French
troops--Refugees--Chinese shells--Attempting to seize the pontoon
bridge--Russian gallantry--Women and children--A reconnaissance--The
enemy’s Krupp guns--Two 12-pounder guns--A serious attack on
the railway station--The Settlement heavily shelled--Exodus of
refugees--Accurate Chinese fire--Arrival of Japanese troops and two
4-inch British guns--Artillery available in Tientsin--Temperance Hall
the chief target--A reconnoitring party--The Wei-hai-wei regiment
under fire--More guns arrive.
July 2 was a fairly quiet day but for haphazard shooting upon the
Settlements by the Chinese entrenched some seven or eight hundred yards
north-west of Temperance Hall. They were reported to be 3500 strong,
and to belong to General Ma. Only a few shots were fired from the
Chinese big guns.
Unfortunately these bullets, although aimed at no one in particular,
were a constant danger to any one who ventured out of the house. Mr.
C. Campbell, of the Consular Service, a great Chinese scholar, who had
rendered valuable assistance with the Seymour Expedition, received
quite a serious wound in the ankle on that day, while walking about the
Settlement.
An exciting fire broke out in the sugar go-down adjoining the barracks
of the _Barfleur_, and great concern was felt until the considerable
stores of ammunition and explosives were removed out of reach of
the flames, and taken to a place of safety. The fire was eventually
overcome, but the several thousand pounds of sugar that were in the
building all melted, and flowed in a boiling torrent along the Bund
and into the lanes and back-yards. It was quite a unique sight to
have before one a regular lake of burnt sugar some sixty yards in
circumference and five or six inches deep, and to tread on its surface
was worse than troublesome. The photograph here reproduced gives a fair
idea of its size.
[Illustration: A LAKE OF BURNT SUGAR]
About 350 Frenchmen and a number of picturesque Annamites, with their
peculiar flat hats, were welcomed into the Settlements, having marched
seven and a half miles from the terminus of the railway, to which the
trains were still running from Tong-ku.
[Sidenote: SHELLS]
The tug-boat _Fawan_ took down the river a lot of refugee women and
children, and the Cossacks started upon a reconnaissance, from which
they did not return in the evening.
The rainy season having now arrived, there were heavy showers in the
afternoon, and a gloom was cast over British naval circles by the death
of Midshipman A. P. Donaldson from a severe wound.
[Illustration: THE SALT MOUNDS IN TIENTSIN]
As usual, on the morning of the 3rd the residents were awakened by the
rumbling report of heavy artillery all round them. Shells were whizzing
in every direction, and causing considerable damage to the houses of
foreigners. Shells would very easily penetrate a single wall, but
seldom passed through two.
During the night a fearful fusillade had been opened on the Russians
and the French, especially near the Railway Station. The Chinese made
an attempt to seize the pontoon bridge. The Russians behaved not only
with gallantry, but also with amazing coolness, and drove away the
enemy, who took cover behind the numerous salt hills on the opposite
bank of the river, and blazed away at the French for some two hours.
The French held their own, notwithstanding that the Chinese had brought
their two largest guns, which had been located in the city fort, down
to the banks of the stream.
These guns caused much annoyance, segment-shells being poured into the
Settlement in uncomfortable quantities.
A thunderstorm increased the pleasures of life in Tientsin on that
particular afternoon. An order was issued by the Admiral, Sir E.
Seymour, that all women and children, some 300 in all, must be sent
down river at the earliest opportunity, and that, while the Settlement
was being shelled, the cellars of the Gordon Hall were to be used as
shelters by those who had no cellars of their own.
The Japanese relieved the British and Germans at their pickets to the
south and west of the defences.
A reconnaissance cost the Russians and Japanese 50 men, 16 killed and
34 wounded.
Sniping went on all through the night, and by the morning of the 4th
the enemy had mounted a number of modern Krupp guns, nine of which were
plainly visible, on the south wall of the city. The enemy had been
strongly reinforced, and in the afternoon came out of the South Gate in
great numbers, apparently meaning to attack the Settlement.
Two 12-pounder guns had just arrived with eighty marines from the
_Terrible_, and two more of these guns were placed in position and
opened fire on the Chinese, while the Japanese infantry kept up a smart
fusillade, and poured in lead from Maxims and from their old-fashioned
pieces of artillery.
[Illustration: THE NORTH FORT, TIENTSIN]
[Sidenote: A CHINESE FEINT]
This move was only a feint on the part of the Chinese to draw the
attention of the enemy while a more serious attack was being made
on the Railway Station. The Chinese had shown great anxiety to take
possession of the Railway Station, and having been unable to do so, had
shelled it heavily, wrecking the greater part of the principal building
and destroying several engines and a quantity of rolling-stock.
The men of the _Barfleur_ were not strong enough to cope with the
determined attack of the enemy, and were so hard pressed that strong
reinforcements were sent for. The Russians, under the brave Colonel
Shirinsky, and the French, immediately went to their assistance, as
well as the Hong Kong and the Wei-hai-wei Chinese Regiments. The
fighting was unflagging on both sides, and the casualties many--over
sixty on the side of the Allies. A violent storm of hail and rain
eventually put an end to the fight.
Early the next morning (July 5) the Settlement was heavily shelled,
the French Concession suffering more severely than the British. There
was an exodus of 160 refugees, mostly women and children, on the tug
_Fawan_, with a lighter in tow. They were accompanied down the river by
British and German volunteers, and by some German sailors--in all 100
rifles.
The Chinese fire was extremely accurate, and their guns so well
concealed that, although they were believed to shell the Settlement
from the city fort (Shui-tze-ying) and to have mounted fresh guns on
the Lutai canal, it was really beyond the power of the Allies to locate
the guns with precision and silence them. Many attempts were made
unsuccessfully.
A thousand Japanese infantry and 200 cavalry arrived, as well as two
4-inch quick-firing guns from H.M.S. _Algerine_. Besides these four
large guns, there were now in Tientsin, altogether, a third 12-pounder,
on Captain Scott’s mountings, 28 field-pieces of more or less
antiquated patterns, and some Gatlings, Colt Automatics, and Maxims,
quick-firers of small calibre.
[Illustration: A SOLDIER OF THE WEI-HAI-WEI REGIMENT]
Things became hot in the Settlement on the 6th, when shells poured in
like hail the whole day, especially on Temperance Hall, which appeared
to be the chief target--probably because General Dorward had his
headquarters there.
A reconnoitring party went out to try and find the position of the
Chinese 3-pounder guns, two of which were shelling the Settlement.
The Chinese were cleverly trying to outflank the defenders from the
south-west and west, where they had brought up a battery of Krupp guns
near the Racecourse. The Wei-hai-wei Regiment, with Major Bruce in
command, was sent out twice into a Chinese village on the Taku road,
with A and B companies of the _Barfleur_ as supports, but unfortunately
the enemy, well under cover, kept up such a hot fire on them--and
they were fully exposed to it--that their gallant efforts met with no
success. Alas! they even had to retire with a heavy list of casualties,
Major Bruce himself receiving a serious wound in the abdomen, and
Midshipman Esdale, who behaved with great pluck, being also severely
injured.
The guns, as was discovered some days later, were on the opposite side
of the canal.
The Wei-hai-wei Regiment is said to have behaved with considerable
coolness and courage on this trying occasion, and it speaks volumes for
the officers who have in so short a time succeeded in training such
excellent soldiers. There had been much speculation beforehand as to
the probable conduct of this new regiment, and it was felt with some
apprehension that to make them fight against their own kith and kin was
rather unfair and hard on them. However, whether against kin or no, it
cannot be doubted that they fought well whenever they had a chance.
[Sidenote: THE CHINESE REGIMENT]
On the same day a tug brought up two more 4-inch guns and a 6-pounder,
with plenty of ammunition, and positions were assigned to these upon
the “mud wall,” at a spot just skirting the British Extra Concession,
and commanding the plain towards the Racecourse. An attack was feared
from that side (south-west and west), and on the 6th the unprotected
houses of Messrs. Detring and Dickinson, which had so far miraculously
escaped destruction, were looted by Chinese soldiers and burnt to the
ground.