After waiting for some time, two Boxers, armed only with swords, ran round a corner about 100 yards away, and appeared to be endeavouring to urge the Imperial troops to charge. Their instant fate, however, must have had a diametrically opposite effect!
When everything became quiet, the force marched back to barracks, very sick at the non-success of their venture. However, the gun did not again fire from this position, so it may be supposed that the Allies had succeeded in frightening the enemy pretty badly, even if they did not inflict any very great loss upon them.
The next two days were spent in mounting two 4-in. guns which arrived from the “Algerine” and “Phœnix,” while the Chinese endeavoured to drive the Allies’ guns off the mud wall near the wool-mill. Although shelled from five different places, the guns were excellently served, and succeeded in silencing three of the hostile guns which had advanced to within but little more than 2000 yards’ range.
On the 8th poor young Esdaile was buried, and laid close to Donaldson, the other midshipman who had died from wounds a few days previously—whose greatest friend he had been. The two had been inseparable in life, and by some fatal decree it was ordained that death should claim them alone, out of all the midshipmen landed, many of whom were more or less severely wounded.
The cemetery was but 200 yards from the gas-works, and during the funeral service, the Chinese were most persistent in trying to destroy the light supply. Luckily, they could not see the gasometers, and so had to fire by guess-work; and although the houses and walls in their immediate vicinity suffered heavily, the gas-works themselves were untouched.
Now for the first time it was noticed that the enemy were threatening the river, and as the importance of keeping this only means of communication open was vital, the Japanese General proposed to intercept the movement, drive the enemy back, and if possible let the day’s work culminate in the capture of the Hi-Kuan-Su arsenal, which it will be remembered was a small arsenal about a mile and a half to the westward.
Accordingly, at half-past two on the morning of the 9th, a force of 2200 men, comprising Japs, British, and Russians, left by the Taku gates to endeavour to surprise the enemy in his advanced positions.
At about four o’clock the first shots were fired a mile before the racecourse was reached, and in a few minutes the engagement became general. After a brief struggle the Japs shelled them out of their trenches, and driving them back across the plain, managed to get into them with their cavalry, who, despite the paucity of their numbers, charged through and through the fugitives, and slew some 240.
Much surprise and chagrin were felt at the total disappearance, for a time, of the enemy’s guns, which had been located the evening before, but after a brilliant bayonet charge in a village—in which not a shot was fired, but 150 Chinamen lost their lives—the guns were discovered, half hidden under some rubbish.