TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
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Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
THE WORLD’S NAVIES IN THE
BOXER REBELLION
(CHINA 1900)
[Illustration: DEFENDERS OF LEGATIONS.
_Frontispiece_]
THE
WORLD’S NAVIES
IN THE
BOXER REBELLION
(CHINA 1900)
BY
LIEUT. C. C. DIX, R.N.
_With Illustrations_
LONDON
DIGBY, LONG & CO.
18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1905
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
CONTENTS
Chap. Page
I. PRELUDE 9
II. THE BOMBARDMENT AND STORMING OF TAKU FORTS 27
III. FIRST SIEGE OF TIENTSIN 46
IV. SEYMOUR’S DASH FOR PEKIN 70
V. RELIEF OF TIENTSIN 95
VI. RELIEF OF SEYMOUR 113
VII. PEI-YANG—SECOND SIEGE OF TIENTSIN 130
VIII. CAPTURE OF TIENTSIN NATIVE CITY 155
IX. SCENES IN THE CAPTURED CITY: TIENTSIN LOOTED 176
X. SUMMARY: FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR ADVANCE:
FIGHTING AROUND TIENTSIN 193
XI. ADVANCE TO PEKIN 211
XII. CAPTURE OF PEKIN AND RELIEF OF LEGATIONS 228
XIII. STORY OF THE SIEGE OF THE LEGATIONS 247
XIV. THE TROOPS COMPARED 270
XV. RETURN OF NAVAL BRIGADE—PEH-TANG AND SHAN-HAI-KWAN 301
DEDICATED
BY
KIND PERMISSION
TO
The Right Honourable Earl Spencer
K.G., P.C.
(_Late First Lord of the Admiralty_)
IN GRATITUDE FOR HIS HAVING GIVEN ME A NOMINATION
FOR THE NAVY, AND FOR THE GENEROUS PATRONAGE
OF HIS LORDSHIP, AND HIS LATE FATHER, TO MY
GRANDFATHER AND GREAT-GRANDFATHER, WHO
HAD THE HONOUR MEDICALLY TO ATTEND
THE HOUSEHOLD AT ALTHORP PARK,
FOR NEARLY A CENTURY.
PREFACE
In placing this little book before the public I well know its many
shortcomings. The notes from Which it was compiled were made on the
spot, and in the feverish excitement of the times. But the subsequent
duties and examinations of a British Midshipman left me very little
time to devote to its completion. Hence the delay in publication, and
the probability that some mistakes may have crept in. It has no claim
to be historical, but rather to be interesting and anecdotal, being
largely interspersed with incidents which occurred between June and
October 1900. Names have been excluded as far as possible for the
very best reasons, and an endeavour has been made throughout neither
to overstate the mistakes and excesses of other nations, and our own
share in the proceedings, nor to understate their gallantry and our
own discrepancies. The personal pronoun is, I know, objectionable.
My excuse for using it as often as I do, is that one man has but one
pair of eyes, and I plead some little interest on the occasions when
I feel compelled to use it. I believe that chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11 (more or less) and 14 will be fairly free from errors, as
I was present at the events which took place in them. For the other
chapters I cannot personally vouch, but trouble has been taken in
compiling them from either letters or narratives of eye-witnesses.
I take this opportunity of thanking all my fellow-officers and
others who have very kindly helped me in this way, or in the no less
important illustrative work. The latter are mostly from photographs
by officers with the Brigade. In conclusion, I trust that in my
endeavour to get interest into incident, I have not, however
innocently, trodden on the corns of any one associated with our
Brigade.
C. C. DIX.
The World’s Navies in the Boxer Rebellion
(CHINA, 1900)
CHAPTER I
PRELUDE
I do not propose to do more than touch lightly on the causes which
led up to the great Boxer outbreak in June 1900 A.D., but some
misapprehension may be removed, and the reader of this volume may be
led to more easily understand the state of affairs which obtained
immediately before hostilities broke out, if a short explanation be
given.
One hears many different opinions as to the reason of the Boxer
outbreak, which every one will admit was the most important “casus
belli” between the European Powers and China, and which eventually
plunged the north of China into a sanguinary war which was waged on
both sides with great fierceness.
The missionaries, the Dynasty, and the universal hatred of the
“foreign debbel” have all come under notice as the possible causes of
the trouble, but there is no room to doubt that the last is the real
one, and in fact the only one at all supportable.
Everything seems to point to the fact that the Empress had long since
desired to see the back of the troublesome foreigner, and although
she sent her troops for the apparent reason of putting down the
Boxers, there can be no doubt that she saw in the new movement a
splendid opportunity for “ousting” all Europeans, thereby gaining a
new place in the affections of her people, and a new lease of life
for the Manchu Dynasty.
If this supposition be correct, she played her hand with marvellous
cunning.
Imperial troops were sent against the rebellious(?) people, and in
the middle of the fight that ensued, half of them would change sides,
while the other half would amuse themselves by firing heavily into
the mob with blank cartridges.
One General indeed did attack and defeat the Boxers, but he was sent
for to Pekin, and was lucky to only lose his rank.
A very common question is “who were the Boxers?” and the answer
is almost invariably, “Oh, some society or other which was formed
for the expulsion of foreigners.” This may be all right as far as
it goes, but they were more than that. At the beginning of June
they were about 90 per cent of the male population in the affected
provinces, between the ages of fourteen and sixty. They were fanatics
of an extraordinary type, and declared that by virtue of certain
drills, which they assiduously practised, they were immune from harm
at the hands of their enemies.
In this belief they were in no wise shaken by their first defeats,
for they said that those who fell had not been sufficiently attentive
to their ritual, and they exhorted each other to further efforts,
lest a like fate should overtake others. It is only half right to
say that they were formed for the expulsion of foreigners, for the
movement was quite semi-religious, and their doctrine violently
anti-Christian in the first place,—ergo, anti-foreign in the second.
There is no doubt that considerable numbers of Chinese may be among
the long roll of martyrs which China gave for the Christian faith,
a short eighteen months ago; and doubtless their only half-human
captors would serve up something quite devilishly exquisite by way of
torture to those native converts who fell into their hands.
The headquarters of the society was in Shantung, but thanks to an
enlightened and powerful Viceroy, in the person of Yuan-Shi-Kai, they
had to move from his province, and so became the more numerous and
powerful in the neighbouring province of Chihli, in which is situated
the capital.
They soon succeeded in completely terrorising all the inhabitants
who did not join their standard of their own free will, or rather of
the madness born of mob violence. Here let it be understood that no
one is more addicted to secret societies, or less addicted to mob
violence, than a Chinaman. This sounds anomalous, but is nevertheless
true. But once let loose a Chinese mob on the object of their hatred,
and they compare very favourably with an Abu Klea Dervish, that is
to say, that it is necessary to have “Maxims” to stop them. Again,
a Chinaman would much rather argue any contested point out to a
finish, knowing his own ability to “save face”; but once let him get
pig-headed or obstinate in an unobtrusive sort of way, and it is well
to go for a poleaxe.
The over-running of Chihli province brings the time of year up to the
end of May, and it was not till then that the ministers of the Powers
realised what a formidable movement was on foot. As a matter of fact,
the ministers met on the 28th of May to consider the necessity of
taking steps for their own safety, also for the protection of all
Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and native Christians who were then
in Pekin.
The outlook was far from reassuring. Fengtai, a station on the
Pekin-Tientsin line, in close proximity to the capital, was in
flames, railway communications with Tientsin had ceased, and it was
believed that Boxers were even then employed in tearing up the rails.
The ministers decided to inform the Tsung-li-Yamen that they were
asking their respective naval and military chiefs for Legation
guards, and to beg them to afford the means of transport. The
Tsung-li-Yamen, as usual, attempted to gain time by lies and
procrastination; but in view of the uncompromising attitude of the
British minister, they gave their grudging assent on the morning of
the 31st May.
On the 29th May the general feeling of suspense was somewhat
alleviated by the discovery that the line itself had not yet been
damaged, and a train arrived from Tientsin with some officials who
insisted on the resumption of traffic.
However, the attitude of the populace did not become any more
friendly, and the soldiers who had been looked upon as possible
protectors, now showed their true colours, by their bombastic and
menacing demeanour. At length some Europeans were stoned, and
threatened with weapons in broad daylight in the streets; and it
was with feelings of relief that the foreign residents welcomed the
guards, who to the number of 337, with several machine guns, arrived
at the station at about 7 p.m. on May 31st.
Their arrival had an immediate effect, and for a day or two the
situation became tolerably bearable.
Unfortunately their presence only intimidated the rowdies of Pekin
and its nearest suburbs, and people kept flocking into the Legations
from outlying districts, each with some tale more pitiable than the
last.
On the 2nd of June news came of the desperate flight of the
thirty-three Europeans from Pas-ting-fu, which resulted in the safe
arrival of twenty-six of their number at Tientsin, and the still more
desperate plight of Mr Norman, who, after the murder of his fellow
missionary at Yung-Ching, had been taken prisoner to a village hard
by, there to be dealt with by perhaps the most fiendishly cruel
people on earth.
Everything that was possible under the circumstances was done
to save the unfortunate Englishman, but we know that protests
were of no avail, and that he was done to death in a manner only
to be conjectured. On the 4th June the storm broke, and railway
communication was again interrupted,—more stations were burnt, and
the whole countryside was ablaze.
Another meeting was convened, and after the Russian Minister had
explained that a party of Cossacks, which had been allowed to go out
to meet the Pao-ting-fu refugees, had been repulsed, and compelled
to retreat to Tientsin without meeting the fugitives, the step was
taken which gave the name to this volume. The ministers decided to
telegraph instructions to their several Admirals, and inform them
what turn they thought the present crisis would assume, and also to
ask them to take the necessary steps for the relief of the Europeans
should all communication be stopped. On the 5th June Sir Claude
Macdonald had an extraordinary interview with the Tsung-li-Yamen,
and during the conversation one of the illustrious body fell asleep,
while the Legation interpreter was explaining something to the
minister. Nothing was to be got from such men as these, who, even
though they were headed by no less a person than Prince Ching, were
at this juncture unable to make headway against the mob, and who,
in fact, no longer voiced public opinion. Contradictory rumours
emanating from the summer palace, where the Empress was, concerning
the whole question, were freely circulated, and the Empress herself
sent General Nieh against the Boxers, and followed up her order
with another one, telling him that on no account was he to allow
the Imperial troops to fire on them. A member of the useless
Tsung-li-Yamen went so far as to taunt the minister by saying that
he expected all the army would be Boxers in a day or two. In view of
what occurred so soon afterwards, it was a significant statement to
make.
It was eventually decided to petition the Throne, but after
considerable discussion, it was resolved to wait until the 9th of
June, as it was deemed inadvisable to demand an audience until
the ministers had received the necessary authority from the home
governments, to insist upon compliance. On the 8th June there was no
change for the better in the situation, and Sir Claude telegraphed to
Admiral Seymour to ask him for a further detachment of seventy-five
men. It was on this day that definite news was received that General
Nieh had withdrawn his troops to Lu-Tai, where there were immense
stores of rice, and that the Boxers, finding themselves unopposed,
had reached Yangtsun, an important walled town on the river, about
30 miles from Tientsin. Here they burnt the bridges, and began to
tear up the rails, and it was finally realised that all hope of
further communication with Tientsin was delayed for weeks. On this
same day a massacre of native Christians took place at Tung-Chow, and
some students were attacked out by the racecourse.
In consequence of these acts, and sundry trustworthy rumours that
Tung-fu-Hsiang, the general commanding the Kansu troops then in the
district, had given out in public that he was only waiting for orders
from his superiors—meaning the Empress,—on receipt of which he would
proceed to treat the foreigners in the same fashion as he had treated
the unfortunate Mohammedans some four years previously, the ministers
immediately telegraphed to the Admiral, and informed him that the
situation was extremely critical, and that unless reinforcements
immediately advanced on Pekin, it was within the bounds of
probability they might arrive too late to save the Europeans.
Even at this stage, the foreign ministers strove to put off the
inevitable, and at a meeting that afternoon the majority of them
supported the view that all available news pointed to a more
favourable issue than Sir Claude Macdonald had been led at first
to suppose. They agreed, however, to telegraph to their respective
Admirals at 2 o’clock on the following afternoon, if no signs were
forthcoming that the ferment was subsiding.
Sir Claude, on his part, telegraphed to Sir Edward Seymour to inform
him of the decision of his colleagues; but so certain was he about
the turn of events, that he sent another telegram at 8 p.m. to Mr
Carles, the British consul at Tientsin, which informed him of the
deadly peril of the situation, and begging him to urge the senior
naval officer to make all arrangements for an immediate advance on
Pekin.
That evening, the 9th, all the outlying mission stations were handed
over to the Chinese Government for safe keeping, till the troubles
were over; the British Legation again became a place of refuge for
many Europeans, and all possible means were utilised to put the place
in a state of defence. While this drama, with, as it turned out, such
a tragic sequel, was being enacted within the capital, a no less
interesting one was taking place at Taku. As early as May the 30th,
ships representing nearly every nation were collecting at the seaward
gate of the capital.
The British representatives were the “Orlando” and the “Algerine,”
and a hundred marines were landed from the two ships by four o’clock
in the afternoon. At half-past nine that night eighty more men were
dispatched to Tientsin by river, a distance of some sixty odd miles,
in answer to a telegram which demanded further reinforcements.
By this time Tientsin was trembling with suppressed excitement,
and a most enthusiastic scene took place on the occasion of the
already mentioned Pekin guards’ departure. The next three days
passed comparatively quietly, but a feeling of unrest pervaded the
atmosphere, and some incendiaries attempted the destruction of the
Chartered Bank. The attempt was foiled.
On the 1st June the unfortunates who were endeavouring to escape
from Pao-ting-fu were heard of for the first time, and there was no
lack of volunteers to seek them and bring them back. Besides the
twenty-five Cossacks, two search parties, composed of civilians,
were formed and succeeded in bringing them in on the 2nd. Safe the
majority of them certainly were for the present, but their condition
was pitiable, and the affair was not altogether satisfactory, as it
was found that the reverse sustained by the Cossacks would act as a
further incentive to all the rowdies in the neighbourhood.
On the 3rd, Admiral Seymour inspected the guards at Tientsin; and,
being aware of the necessity of preparedness, he sent up a field gun
and caused considerable numbers of bluejackets and marines to hold
themselves in readiness for service. Outside the bar was gathered a
huge fleet, and as each ship arrived, so did the guards in Tientsin
increase in numbers.
On the 4th the native servants and others began to leave the
settlement, and several of them besought their masters to go while
there was yet time. “For,” they assured them, “the foreigners are
to be utterly exterminated on the 19th,” which was, it will be
remembered, the date of the last massacre of Tientsin in 1870.
In spite of these gloomy assurances, no general exodus took place
from the settlement, and civilians, many of whom held posts under the
government, and whose opinions were listened to with respect, were
among the most positive that there would be no general rising. Even
the most pessimistic clung to the hope that the Imperial army would
protect them, if ever matters came to a head.
On the 6th an adventurous party determined to reconnoitre the line
in the direction of Pekin, and managed to reach Yangtsun without
hindrance. Here the train was boarded by General Nieh, who, it will
be remembered, had been sent to deal with the Boxers armed with all
sorts of contradictory orders.
The train proceeded for another fifteen miles, until, on reaching
Lo-fa, bodies of Boxers were descried vigorously hacking down the
telegraph poles, whilst others were burning sleepers and other
railway material, in a similar energetic manner. This was enough for
the cautious old Chinaman, and he politely but firmly refused to go
further. His manner on the return journey betokened great alarm, and
it was evident that he quite believed, in common with the majority
of Chinese, that the Boxers were invulnerable. Be this as it may, an
extraordinary rumour reached Tientsin on the following day, to the
effect that he had engaged and defeated the Boxers with a loss of
four hundred killed. An air of truth was given to this theory by the
statement that he had been censured for his act, and had retired on
Lu-Tai, where he was sulking with his army. This last is probably
entirely untrue, for no traces of any engagement were to be seen
when the British Commander-in-Chief arrived on the scene a few days
afterwards, except three harmless villagers, who were probably shot,
not because they belonged to the rebellious faction, but for the
opposite reason. Hundreds of bullets, with the appearance of being
newly extracted from their cartridge cases, were found buried by the
fires where Nieh’s men had evidently encamped; and on the whole there
are no grounds for hoping that he taught his, at that time supposed,
opponents, such a salutary lesson as had been stated.
The next day another train left for the same purpose as the last,
and it was found that during the night the Boxers had rendered it
impossible to advance beyond Yangtsun without large repairs. However,
it was surmised that the track was safe up to Yangtsun, and that a
way might be forced along the line to Pekin by a sufficiently large
force with the necessary repairing tools.
[Illustration: TAKING THE ADMIRAL TO THE FINAL CONFERENCE ON H.M.S.
“CENTURION.”
[_page 22._]
In consequence of this report it was decided by the various senior
naval officers, at a conference on board the “Centurion,” that it
was no use waiting until matters got worse, and that the Powers
would therefore land brigades early next morning, and that the
whole force under Sir Edward Seymour would try to push their way
through to the aid of the beleaguered Legations. Amidst immense
enthusiasm the sailors got ready for service, and the tugs belonging
to the ‘Taku Tug and Lighter Company’ having been requisitioned,
the force was landed at an early hour on the morning of the 10th.
They left Tientsin on the same morning, and during the day more
reinforcements were poured into the settlements from the now almost
denuded fleet. On this date also fifty bluejackets were sent to
Tongshan to protect the important railway works at that place. The
work of the Naval Brigade was beginning.
On the 11th, trade in the settlement practically ceased; once busy
thoroughfares were now desolate, and a sort of hushed expectancy took
the place of the usual busy stir in the town. Armed men, however,
were at this time of more importance than any number of Chinese
hawkers, and a valuable addition to the powers of resistance arrived
in the person of Commander Beatty, D.S.O. and a hundred and fifty
men, shortly followed by two “Maxims.” The day was spent in drawing
up a more elaborate system of defence than had been thought necessary
before, and an attempt was made to overawe the natives by a march
round the suburbs.
In the afternoon there occurred the first piece of official
interference on the part of the Viceroy, who refused to allow a
train to proceed up the line, which was packed with German troops.
Now the Germans, when on active service, don’t understand this
sort of treatment, and the disorderly mob which, as is usual on
these occasions, quickly gathered, was swept out of the way by the
display of fixed bayonets, backed by the evident intention of using
them if needs be. On this display of force, the Viceroy no longer
withheld his permission for the train to proceed, and the Germans
reached their destination without further molestation. From this date
communication practically ceased with the fleet, but 1770 Russians
just managed to arrive in the nick of time, before ingress was
finally barred.
Naturally the landing of a brigade, and the supplies necessary
for its maintenance, entailed a large amount of work on the sadly
depleted crews of the fleet outside the bar; but nobody was idle, and
the work of equipping a further force was steadily proceeded with.
Orders for stores, ammunition, men, and even cruisers followed one
another with astonishing rapidity, and it was decided to telegraph
to the General commanding troops at Hong-Kong to hold part of
the garrison in readiness for immediate shipment to the troubled
province. Meanwhile the Chinese were by no means idle; large stores
of rice and munitions of war were daily poured into the strong forts
at the mouth of the river. As a further step, they proceeded to
mine its mouth, and it became apparent that they intended to block
the only means of communication with the interior, and with the
soon-to-be-allied gunboats, which were already anchored some distance
up the waterway.
On the 15th a tug was dispatched in charge of a midshipman about
thirty miles down the coast, to rescue some missionaries who were
reported to be in distress; and in the evening the expectant fleets
heard that Sir Edward Seymour had been in touch with the Boxers.
The Naval Brigade’s work had commenced!
Conferences had been a matter of daily occurrence for some time,
and on the morning of the 16th, on board the Russian Flagship, at a
conference which proved to be the most momentous of all, the Admirals
agreed that the situation was such as to demand immediate action,
which should take the form of an allied occupation of the Taku Forts.
Accordingly an ultimatum was sent to the general in command, to the
effect that if they were not evacuated by midnight 16th June, the
allied forces would bombard and storm them.
During the morning the tug returned, the officer having successfully
performed his task, and having reached his destination just in time
to baulk the Boxers, who were in pursuit, of their prey.
Such, then, was the situation at noon on June the 16th, and it may
be doubted whether any host of peasants, for whatever reason, had
ever raised such a hornets’ nest about their ears before.
Let it be remarked before closing this prelude that the date was
ill chosen. Those in the plot had meant that matters should reach
a climax in the middle of November, when the river would have been
frozen, and all hopes of sending aid futile. Their scheme failed for
two main reasons. One was the drought which threatened starvation
to thousands of the poorer classes, and which was, as a matter of
course, laid at the door of the hated foreigner; the other was that
not only the ringleaders of the movement, but even the Government
themselves, had lost all control over the minds and bodies of the
fanatical Boxers, whose placards, which contained a great deal about
“killing foreigners,” were now posted up broadcast in every village.