_SOLDIERS._
Tiger Soldiers.--Woosung Drill.--General's
Gallantry.--Japanese War.--Admiral Ting.--Dominoes with a
Sentry.--Viceroy's Review.
At Ichang, a thousand miles up the river Yangtse, there is a regiment
of soldiers dressed as tigers; but I never could persuade any of the
foreign officials to escort me to see them manœuvre, the European
opinion being that not even the presence of an inspecting general
would awe the Tiger soldiers sufficiently to make it safe to take a
foreign lady to see them. I was told that the Tigers were not really
soldiers at all, but that some officer drew pay for them as if they
existed; and then when the General came to inspect, all the beggars
and riff-raff of the city put on the Tiger uniform over their rags,
and turned out in so disorderly a condition that even their officers
were afraid of them. And so it turned out that, except from a passing
steamer, I never saw Chinese soldiers drill till I did so at Woosung,
the new Treaty Port, at the junction of the Whangpoo, on which
Shanghai is situated, with the great river Yangtse.
It was a Sunday in autumn, and the early morning air felt keen as we
steamed down to Woosung, and landed at the fort. Eleven gunboats in a
row, all decorated with large flags, the biggest flag in each boat a
different arrangement of black, red, yellow, and white, had prepared
us for its being a gala day, but hardly for the pretty sight we found
upon the parade-ground, where five hundred men were being drilled with
a hundred banners among them, not to speak of bannerets, many of the
banners being ten feet square. The men formed in square, in rallying
groups, fired altogether, one after the other, all to the sound of a
bugle, without a single order being given. Drill sergeants in huge
straw hats stood before them, and inspected them; and the men's own
dress was picturesque enough--loose jackets with large characters upon
them behind and before placed in circles like targets, and large
loose-flapping leg-guards of decided colours. To the bugle's note the
men folded their banners round the spears they carried, to the bugle's
note they again flung them loose to the wind, executing both
manœuvres with a singular adroitness. There was never a hitch, and
the drill appeared admirable, recalling that to be seen from Birdcage
Walk in a very curious fashion; for it was every now and again
diversified by a primitively savage jump forward with spears pointed,
to the sound of a terror-inspiring yell, and then a sort of goose-step
retreat, after which the banners that had been tightly wound round the
spears were shaken out again, and the men became civilised soldiers
once more, admirably drilled.
[Illustration: JUNK.
_From a Picture by a Chinese Artist._]
After this I saw no more of Chinese soldiers for some time, only
noticed that the one Chinese mandarin who showed anything approaching
to gallantry towards me was a Chinese general, who, calling upon the
Consul with whom we were staying in all his war-paint, was kind enough
to take off his necklace for me to admire, when I had broken the ice
by praising his embroideries; drew up his gown for me to admire his
boots, which, like his necklace, were insignia of his official
standing; and finally invited us, whenever we could succeed in
effecting a landing there, to spend a long and happy day at new
Kweichow. Unfortunately this city, built by order, is so situated,
with all the worst rocks in the river just at the foot of it, that
hardly any one ever can land there; and we never have succeeded in so
doing, which I the more regretted as he was kindly careful to inform
me that, though his own wife was dead, his daughter-in-law would do
the honours to me. I flattered myself at the time that I had made
quite an impression upon the General, who was over six feet one, and
fully broad in proportion, and who presented a most gorgeous
appearance in long brocade gown embroidered for about a foot round the
bottom with waves of the sea and other Chinese devices. He wore also a
long satin coat with embroidered breast-plate, and a similar square of
embroidery on the back, with the horseshoe cuffs, forced upon the
Chinese by the Manchus when the present dynasty came to the throne,
falling over his hands. High official boots, an amber necklace of very
large beads reaching to his waist, and aureole-shaped official cap
with large red tassel, completed his costume. And when he first
advanced into the room, and found me seated there with the British
Consul, on whom he was paying a visit of ceremony, the huge creature
turned back, growing crimson and giggling like a schoolgirl, as he
said to one of his attendants (a numerous retinue of pipe-bearers and
the like followed him), "Here is one of these foreign women. Whatever
am I to do? I never was in a room with one before, and have no notion
how to behave." Yet such is army training all the world over, that in
five minutes the General was doing the polite in the most finished
style.
There must be something in being a soldier--even in being a Chinese
soldier. When we travelled with some thirty or so coolies and
attendants, it was of course necessary for me to decide upon one man
whose duty it was, whenever I got out of my sedan-chair, to follow me
with the camera, help me to set it up, and generally attend upon me.
Twice I picked out my man, without knowing anything of his
antecedents, and in each case found I had selected the one ex-soldier
of the company. It was idle for our man-servant to say they were
probably bad characters, for a man did not go away from home and
become a soldier for nothing. They were so handy and obliging, that,
though both, alas! have come to grief since then, I have still a soft
corner of my heart for my two Lao Liu's; for curiously enough both
rejoiced in the same name, and mightily jealous of each other they
were when they ultimately met. When it is considered that their
duties varied from carrying my little dog, the untiring companion of
all our wild travel, to carrying me myself pick-a-back across a
mountain torrent, and included choosing the picturesque view-points
for photographs (at least they both thought themselves mighty fine
judges on this point), as well as defending me from infuriate
peasantry when they rushed at me with mattocks, and regularly carrying
me in a sedan when that was the mode of progression, together with
collecting and caring for all my little odds and ends of wraps, boots,
and the like, it may be seen what a very handy creature a Chinese
soldier is, when he--shall we say is after a soft billet, or wants to
oblige a lady?
Of course, we had unpleasant experiences with soldiers sometimes. On
the S.S. _Kuling_ they stole every portable bit of brass off the
steamer whilst making a little voyage in her. On the S.S. _Yling_ they
managed to eat up or carry off all the food that had been intended to
last for months, whilst their officers were being entertained by my
husband at a dinner party.
Then came the Japanese War, and all the river between Ichang and
Hankow became gay with most picturesque junks laden with Chinese
soldiers going to the war. Their flags flew upon the breeze; they
themselves, in their motley and decorative uniforms, sat in groups
mounted up on top of the junks. Occasionally the old-world, almost
antediluvian music of their long, somewhat mournful trumpets sounded
across the water. "Nous allons à la boucherie, à la boucherie, à la
boucherie," sang the French recruits in their train-loads hurrying to
fight the Germans. These Chinese levies might well have sung the same.
But they sat impassive and yellow-faced beneath their high black
turbans, apparently in nowise excited or discontented with their lot.
How mercifully the future hides from us what may be in store for us on
the morrow! And how terrible would it be, could some
"power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us"!
[Illustration: CAPTAIN OF CHINESE GUNBOAT.
_By Mr. Cecil Hanbury._]
These Hunan soldiers evidently looked upon themselves as "braves,"
sure of their rice; good, honest fellows they looked most of them,
well grown and well fed. But to us they appeared as victims upon the
altar of Chinese corruption and ineptitude. Yet is it our hearts
harden in China? There are so many victims in the world one
contemplates with more of sorrow than these Chinese soldiers as they
floated down the great river in their red and orange, with the black
kerchiefs of Hunan binding their yellow brows. To the butchery! To the
butchery! Float on, Chinese soldiers, all unconscious of your doom,
and convinced beyond the power of argument and canon that there is no
race like the Chinese race, and that all other nations are your
subjects born--rebellious, perhaps, but to be subject to the end! It
is a somewhat similar conviction which carries the Anglo-Saxon race
forward--indeed, each nation in turn, till it meets its destiny in the
God-appointed hour.
The story of the Japanese War has been written for the Chinese by Dr.
Allen, and read with avidity by them. For the English public it has
not been written. Contradictory telegrams arrived till people began to
look in doubt upon any news emanating from Shanghai. But, indeed, the
truth was incredible. It was impossible to believe that the Empress
and Li Hung-chang between them had brought their nation to such a pass
that no regiment was properly armed. If they had got the guns, they
had not got the cartridges that fitted them; but generally speaking
they had not got the guns. The men stolidly appreciated the situation;
they made no complaint; but when they could they ran away, which was
about the only thing they could do under the circumstances. Did not
six generals bolt before one battle? Or was that one of the telegrams
that reached us in the west of China, where we were even less well
informed than people in England? People talked of the feats of Chinese
soldiery under Gordon, forgetting always that these feats were
performed by Chinese soldiers properly armed, and against soldiers who
were also Chinese, and not led by Gordons, nor properly armed. It is
still a question whether Chinese will ever stand against a European
army. They have the greatest contempt for their own soldiery, call
them by a title of contempt--Ping Ting!--regard fighting altogether as
barbarous, and long ago were of the opinion now enunciated to the
world by the Russian Czar.
[Illustration: SOLDIER.
_By Mrs. Bishop._]
[Illustration: SOLDIER.
_By Mrs. Bishop._]
After the war was over, the poor soldiers were certainly as badly
treated as they could possibly deserve. Their officers pocketed their
pay, and then decamped, leaving their men in many cases completely
destitute, out at elbows, and far away from their homes. No wonder
that they misconducted themselves! Comical enough incidents occurred
during the war; as, for instance, when a company of Cantonese soldiers
stopped for food and rest at a little village. The villagers willingly
disposed of food at good prices; and the soldiers were about to leave,
when a village elder informed them that the Japanese were in the
neighbourhood, and he would advise them to leave their weapons and
ammunition in the village; for if the Japanese saw them armed, they
would think they had come to fight, and would kill them all. This
seemed good advice to the soldiers; so they requested that they might
be allowed to leave their weapons in the village till some future day.
The villagers consented, and the guns and cartridges were stacked
together; but no sooner had the soldiers started on their way, than
the villagers seized the guns, and commenced a deadly fire on the now
disarmed braves. Many were killed, and all were robbed of everything
about them, until their costume was scarcely as extensive as that
usually worn by a Swatow fisherman.
Here is a sad little account of one detachment, taken from a Chinese
paper:
"The first batch of Hunan men who are without occupation, property, or
income is three hundred and seventeen in number. H. E. ordered them to
be taken by gunboat to their homes. Those who belonged to Hengyang
were to receive $3 (6_s._) each as expenses for their land journey,
and those of Changsha $2 (4_s._) each. On the day of debarkation, they
were marched from the city to Shakuan; but on reaching that place
their number had diminished to one hundred and eighty, the others
having fallen out, complaining of sickness and fatigue, though the
distance they had traversed was only about six miles. These invalids
were handed over to the guardhouses along the road for safe keeping,
and will be deported with the next batch. The crusade is being
continued with great vigour, and no doubt the ultimate number of
deportees will amount to many thousands."
When a general intended to review the four battalions of troops that
do duty on the Grand Canal, he found that, instead of numbering
sixteen hundred, as they ought to do, they practically did not exist,
and that, "as was universally the case in the army," the pay of the
skeleton force that was maintained was three months in arrear. Their
number was simply made up against the general in command holding a
review, and as soon as he left the old system of corruption was
resorted to.
One of the few men who distinguished himself on the Chinese side in
the late war was Admiral Ting; and as illustrating the career of a
Chinese soldier, it may be as well to relate his history, for this
noble admiral was in reality a Chinese brave. Born of poor parents,
and having had to work hard for a living, he entered the army as a
private at the age of sixteen; but after a few years was promoted to
be an officer. In the war against the rebels in the Western provinces,
he fought as a captain in Li Hung-chang's cavalry, and after that was
promoted to be colonel of the same regiment. During the Taiping
rebellion, he again distinguished himself as an officer.
But when China began to form a fleet in 1880, not having any naval
officers, she had to look for some one amongst the officers of the
army to take command of her squadron of alphabetical gunboats, and
Ting was ordered to fill this post by Imperial Decree. At first, in
all matters of navigation, he had to seek help from his subordinate
officers, some of whom had been brought up in foreign military and
naval schools, and by doing so lost much of his authority. But by
degrees he learnt to know as much about navigation and seamanship as
any of them; and when in 1884 some one was wanted to go to England to
bring out two new cruisers, it was again Ting who was selected.
Western civilisation seems to have made a real impression upon him;
and after returning from Europe, his great wish was always to form a
navy that might be sufficient to defend the Chinese coast, and with
this object in view he adopted as far as possible European customs.
Many Europeans came in contact with him whilst at Chefoo, and all seem
to have been most favourably impressed by him. When the Japanese War
began, Ting's views often differed from those of his Government; but
he knew that his duty was to obey, and so with resolution he awaited
the fate that he clearly saw must one day befall him. For he knew that
by the laws of his country his life would be forfeited by the loss of
his ships and Wei-hai-wei. After the fall of Port Arthur, he had been
deprived of his honours, and ordered to proceed to Peking and give
himself over to the Board of Punishment; but owing to the
remonstrances of all the European officers of the fleet, this edict
had been cancelled, and the brave old soldier reinstated as admiral in
command. After the fall of Wei-hai-wei, he knew there was nothing for
him but death, and he preferred to perish by his own hand, and thus
save his family from dishonour, rather than to be decapitated. All his
countrymen approved his action; and so this man, who had risen from
the lowliest position, died, as he had lived, respected. Kind and
fatherly to his soldiers as to his family, he had been greatly
beloved. But in the condition to which Li Hung-chang and the Empress
Tze Hsi had brought both fleet and army, what other end could there be
for a brave soldier?
The army was, indeed, divided against itself. At Kiangyin, on the
Yangtse, where there were German instructors, the main powder magazine
on the left bank of the river blew up; it was never known whether by
accident or design, although it looked like the latter. Two hundred
lives were lost, and there were many wounded. The foreigners on the
right bank were afraid to cross, as the Anhui soldiers were in a state
of mutiny, holding their general prisoner, and intending to kill him.
They were decided, should the mutiny spread, to move over to the Hunan
men, on whom they could rely, and who would not assist the Anhui men.
They knew that the general was keeping back his men's pay; and
although the intervention of the Literary Chancellor had been asked,
no reliance was placed on his power of pacifying the soldiery, his
corruption was known to be so great.
The German officer who had been acting as General at Woosung close to
Shanghai up to the spring of 1898 gave a most amusing, though somewhat
disheartening, account of his handing over his command. The Chinese
did not want to have German officers any more, so a Chinese General
was to take command; and first he did not arrive, although the men
were all drawn up under arms waiting for him, because he had suddenly
found out it was an unlucky day; so he had had his boats moored up a
creek, and was quietly waiting there. The German was indignant, and
required him once more to fix his day. A Sunday was appointed, and the
German sent to inform him that all the men would again be drawn up,
and that when he saw the Chinese General riding forward he would give
order, "Shoulder arms! Present arms!" then the Chinese General must
say, "Order arms!" and then the command would be given over. "But
surely I am not expected to ride? I cannot possibly ride," replied the
Chinese General. The German persisted he must ride. So on the
appointed day there appeared the Chinese General huddled on to a very
small pony, with two men holding it one on each side, and a third
holding an umbrella over him, for it was raining hard. He at once
shouted out his word of command; but as the previous order had not
been given, it could not be followed. The German tried to explain
this. "Oh," said the Chinese General, "I cannot believe it does any
one any good to be kept out in rain like this. Just tell the men they
can go away. This will do for to-day." So the men dispersed, and the
German cavalry officer felt there was the end of his efforts for many
years to uphold discipline.
[Illustration: GUNBOAT SOLDIERS.
_By Mr. Cecil Hanbury._]
Of course, the story is well known of Admiral Lang going off to a
Chinese man-of-war to see if discipline were well maintained, and
finding no sentry outside the Chinese Admiral's cabin. Going in to
protest, he found the Admiral and another playing dominoes. "Really,
Admiral," he began, "I thought you had promised me to maintain
discipline. How is it, then, I find no sentry outside your door?" "Oh,
well, I am very sorry," replied the Chinese Admiral. "But I really was
so dull, I just asked him in to play dominoes with me."
The days of old-time Chinese reviews must be numbered, and so I will
conclude this chapter with an account of the one great one I have
seen. The Viceroy arrived the day before. Great was the show of flags,
and the whole city was in a white heat of excitement. We foreigners
were all going about, each guarded by two soldiers in front of us,
intelligent-seeming, very civil men, in beautiful new clothes, their
bright-red waistcoats giving them a very festive appearance. There
were besides numbers of men in orange coats, who seemed to have some
duty as regarded keeping order; whilst _tsaijen_ (messengers), with
pale, anxious-looking faces, sprang forward in dozens to protect me,
when I went to examine the parade-ground. All the houses had been
removed from it, and a mock city wall with five gates built across it
by means of dark-blue cotton, with white chalk lines to simulate the
joins of the blocks of stone. All the world (without his wife) had
been out drinking tea at tables there, and the scene was what
Chungking people call _reh-lau_, or "really jolly."
The next day we were all to get up at five o'clock, we understood, and
dressed in Chinese clothes; for places had been arranged for the
foreigners to see the sight, but we were requested if possible not to
shock the populace by our queer foreign dress. The city was full of
strangers, many of them with very flushed faces--a great contrast in
their _insouciance_ to the stream of extremely grave, anxious-looking
mandarins in chairs coming back in full dress from waiting upon the
great man. The review was beautifully set upon the stage; the
Viceroy's entrance could hardly be improved upon:
"Behind him march the halberdiers,
Before him sound the drums!"
In the band there were men with long trumpets, such as those before
which the walls of Jericho fell down. They blew, and men advanced
through the gates of the city wall, built up of blue cotton, with
white chalk marks; other men carried boards with titles; others came
following after, and then stopped and stood in front of them, and so
on, and so on; executioners with conical scarlet caps, boys with long
Reeves' pheasant feathers in their caps, and all the curious insignia
so well known in China, till at last there was a long line of them on
either side all the way from the mock city wall to the tribune where
the Viceroy was to sit, on one side of which was the Chinese
bandstand, beside it again the box very politely set apart for
foreigners, all hung with green reed-blinds to shield us from the
people's stare.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS.
_By Mrs. Bishop._]
Some of us really had been there since 5 a.m.; but not till about 9.30
did the trumpets sound. Then the great green Viceroy's chair with its
multitude of bearers appeared through the city gates, forty banner-men
all drooped their beautiful silken banners in the wet before him,
whilst the army as one man went on its knees. The Viceroy entered the
tribune, and the review began. But that entry could not have been
better, if so well done, at Drury Lane. And the rest, too, was
excellently staged. There was the usual extraordinary mixture of
foreign and native drill,--fours about, hollow squares with the
cavalry inside, the "thin red lines o' 'eroes," and volley-firing,
with, in between, wonderful advances of the banner-men, shaking the
long poles, round which their banners were rolled, and shouting
defiance at the foe. Then in and out and round about darted the
Tigers, in ochre-yellow cotton made almost in the foreign fashion,
coatees cut short, and trousers not baggy, and tucked in at the boot,
as it seemed, at first glance. Then they turned round, and revealed
the tiger stripings on their backs and on their ochre-yellow hoods.
They came on with long catlike strides, then leapt, then hid behind
shields painted to represent the tiger's open jaws, then strode
stealthily again, and went through many cotillion figures, their round
painted shields sometimes forming a tent for all the tigers, sometimes
a series of ladders. Then for a very long time men singly or in twos
danced before the Viceroy, showing their skill with two-pronged forks
made to catch the enemies' clothes, and rakes, and what in the end
looked like a highly painted japanned table-top. Then suddenly, from
opposite corners of the parade-ground, darted wild horsemen, each in
fantastic attire and on a dashing pony, representing an attacking
force of savages; and the army fired on every side at once. Then the
artillery appeared with the most marvellous of cannon, slight and
somewhat dragon-shaped, and muzzle-loading of course, requiring to be
laboriously wheeled round after each volley, and resting on some
strange, outlandish supports, that had puzzled us foreigners much
whilst carried round upon the shoulders of what now proved to be the
artillery.
We all felt somewhat mockingly inclined, we Americans, English, and
Japanese, looking on from behind the blinds we so often pushed aside
to see better. But the worst of it all was, it was all well done; the
men appeared well drilled; and though, as the rain fell more and more,
the Tigers no longer bounded as at first, and even their stride lost
somewhat of its stealth in the general slipperiness, yet the
heartrending thought to all of us was, the thing was meant to be real.
As a spectacle it was so successful! But those poor men down there
would march in that style against modern weapons of precision, used in
accordance with modern tactics, and of course had _run away_! "Poor
old China! Poor old China!" rose like a chorus from the pitiful ones.
And we wondered, Did the Viceroy realise what he was looking on at?
Did his cheeks burn, as our own did? Or did he really know no better,
and think it a fine sight, as it was?
The whole wound up with a display on the part of the archers.
Silken-clad young men with official red silk-tasselled caps, and the
corners of their long gowns tucked up, followed each by a
soldier-servant holding above the heads of the crowd a quiver full of
arrows, made their way up to the Viceregal tribune, and shot at a
target white and long-shaped with three red bulls'-eyes one above the
other. Each time they did so a big, very big drum was beaten, and a
man sprang forward, and picked up the arrow, holding it very
ostentatiously at arm's-length. The theatrical effect again was very
good; but as far as we could any of us see not one hit any of the
bulls'-eyes, and through opera-glasses the paper surface appeared
intact, when the Viceroy got into his chair and went off in much the
same state as he had come; only every one was wet through now, and the
poor little boys with the Reeves' feathers looked particularly
deplorable. On a rough computation, on this occasion at Chungking five
hundred soldiers turned out, three hundred of whom, including forty
banner-men, were versed in foreign drill and wore scarlet waistcoats.
The others were either tigers or orange-clad.
As to the Viceroy, he must have been used to it; for was he not going
round the province from Fu city to Fu city reviewing troops? and did
it not always rain? He therefore must be accustomed to the archers'
consequent failures. But we wondered somewhat sorrowfully whether we
had had the great privilege of assisting at one of the last Viceregal
reviews of the kind, one of the last survivals of antediluvian
periods. All nations have passed through similar stages, as the
Scottish sword-dances, Highland flings, and English beefeaters remind
us. Or could it be that China is going to persist in living still
longer in the Middle Ages? In the one case--for we Europeans are
nothing, if we are not practical--let us at once buy up one of the
painted shields, and Tiger uniforms, and too often brandished banners
with their tribes of attended bannerets. In the other, let us stand
back, and look aside, lest our hearts should be too much torn by pity
when the great catastrophe comes, and China meets a foe who follows
his thrusts home, and is determined to reap the full fruit of his
victories.