Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume II)

by Augustus F. Lindley

I cannot do better than give a few extracts from the summons to surrender sent into Soong-kong by Ching, the chief in command of the besiegers. General Ching, after a preamble setting forth the object of the Ti-ping revolution, stated:—

"Now, having received our king's commands to hold the city of Soo-chow, we had intended to remain there, and give the Heavenly[19] soldiers rest, and not to take your place, not imagining you would league with the foreigners and attack my cities, forcing me to rise up and retake them. For this causeless misfortune, for this injury to the people, who then is to blame? Had you not invaded my territories, I should not have troubled you; the people would have remained undisturbed. Would not this have been better for both sides?

"Again, all the officers, both military and civil, all the soldiers, too, and the people, are without exception Chinese; and you eat the bread of the Tsing[20] dynasty, serving a stranger....

"As for you, O foreign troops, you had best return to your native country, as quickly as may be; for, being a distinct race, AND SEEKING TRADE ONLY, why should you contend with me, or why should I be compelled to overcome you?... If you are resolved and will fight with me, I fear, indeed, your trade will suffer."

Upon the l0th of June the Mo-wang succeeded in recapturing Tsing-poo, the garrison of Ward's Chinese, a British force 600 strong, with six guns, evacuating the city after almost completely destroying it by fire! The filibuster officer (Colonel Forrester) in command of Ward's force having, in his hurry, forgotten to carry off some of his loot (gathered during the late successful campaign against the Ti-ping cities), ran back for it, and was captured by the Mo-wang's men just as he was rushing away loaded with sycee and dollars. This man, whom the Europeans captured at Soong-kong, as also eleven British seamen taken prisoners at the evacuation of Kah-ding by the allies, were all liberated by the Ti-pings. In vain I represented to the Chung-wang the policy of retaining them as hostages for any of his own chiefs who might fall into the hands of the enemy, and most probably be delivered over to the reeking execution-shambles at Shanghae and elsewhere. He would not retain them, but had them released, so as to exhibit his unalterable friendship for Europeans.

I would not willingly screen a single fault upon the part of my Ti-ping friends; but, after viewing all events calmly, when many thousand miles away from aught that could bias or warp the judgment, I must confess that I can scarcely find the slightest grounds for censure upon any point.

I had certainly intended to blame the Tow and Mo-wangs for the severity of their measures towards the people of those villages, which, upon the successful raids of the allied forces, had proved renegade, and had given in their allegiance to the Manchoo. But, consideration of the primary cause of the destruction of many Ti-ping cities and villages, and the subsequent devastation of some that had been left whole by the allies, conclusively fixes the guilty responsibility upon the latter, by reason of their wanton attack upon the Ti-ping territory. After the recapture of some places, people who had been well known as subjects of the Tien-wang were found with the shaved head (the badge of the Manchoo) and other strong and irrefragable proof of their traitorous conduct; many of these were decapitated, and their property confiscated. In like manner, some of the villages that had, with Chinese apathy, at once gone over to the Imperialists, were burned down, and the people compelled to labour as coolies. These measures may appear harsh; but, if events had occurred otherwise, and the Imperialists had occupied the position of the Ti-pings, fresh evidence would be given that there were prototypes of the notorious Yeh in every Manchoo official!

The Shanghae district had been captured by the revolutionists; after that event, the people were gradually settling down to the new state of affairs, while those who had naturally fled from the shock of war were fast returning to their homes and giving in allegiance to the dominant power. In fact, so well were the lately disturbed departments recovering from the effect of the civil war, that in a short time they would certainly have attained the high state of prosperity enjoyed by the silk districts, then thoroughly settled under Ti-ping rule. The question as to the relative right of each belligerent has nothing to do with the present argument. Each party to the civil war had their own causes and reasons, and these certainly concerned no one but themselves. The simple question is this:—After the Ti-pings had proved their power to successfully dispute the Manchoo authority, and had wrested large tracts of land from their foreign yoke, who became responsible for again carrying the horrors of war, with its attendant misery and desolation, into a country which would otherwise have remained happy in its freedom, peaceful and nominally Christian? Who other than England?

Upon the suppositional "mights" elsewhere described, Admiral Hope and his colleagues captured the cities and villages within a radius of thirty miles from Shanghae, burning and destroying (as proved in this work by the words of the Admiral himself) everywhere. These places were then captured a second time by the Ti-pings, and subsequently recaptured by the allies. Now, for the cruelties and devastations inflicted four times over by the sword of Asiatic warfare, in the words of the Ti-ping general long since in the presence of his God, I ask, "For this causeless misfortune, for this injury to the people, who then is to blame?"