With the Allies to Pekin: A Tale of the Relief of the Legations

by G. A. Henty

The British guns were not very satisfactory until the arrival of the Terribleʼs twelve–pounder. The Hong–Kong guns were obsolete, and the British troops had none others, with the exception of some very old–fashioned naval six–pounders. Indeed the scandalous fact was brought to light that none of the British ships on the China station were equipped with modern quick–firing guns.

The Welsh Fusiliers, after joining the Japanese, pushed through the city up to the north gate, and advanced beyond it to the Grand Canal, where they captured two hundred junks and a small steamer. The Japanese captured also a number of guns, all of which proved very useful in the march to Pekin.

After the city was captured the Chinese had still a strong defensive position. They had fallen back to the railway and to the fort near the Viceroyʼs yamen; but they had no heart left in them, and in the afternoon the Japanese entered the fort without a fight and took possession of that and the yamen. Forty–five guns were found in the former, among them the big Krupp that had done such harm to the settlements in the early days of the bombardment, and several fifteen–pounder guns of recent pattern.

The first thing to be done was to extinguish the fires that were raging in several parts of the city. This was a difficult matter, and was not accomplished until a considerable part of the city had been consumed, the amount of property destroyed being enormous. The rest of the city was systematically looted. The Russians had not entered the town, but remained on the other side of the river. They had at once demanded that a military governor should be appointed, but as they and the Japanese were much superior in force to the other nationalities it was evident that they intended that a Russian should be nominated. The matter was discussed with considerable acerbity at a council of commanding officers, but the proposal was finally rejected, and three commissioners, Colonel Wogack, Lieutenant–Colonel Bower, and Lieutenant–Colonel Aoki were appointed to govern the city of Tientsin, which was divided into four sections—British, American, French, and Japanese. A number of Chinese were enlisted to act as police under Captain Mockler of the Indian army, and though they were drilled by a Madras sepoy, who could not understand a word of their language, they became a very serviceable body.

Yu Lu, the Viceroy, managed to effect his escape from the yamen, but a few days later he and the whole of his family committed suicide. His fate was certainly a hard one. Up to the outbreak of hostilities he had done his best to suppress the Boxers and protect the foreigners. On June 9 he had tendered his resignation, but all his efforts in that direction were thwarted by the governor, and he was ordered to remain where he was. The hostility of his enemies at Pekin was carried beyond the grave, for an order was made for his posthumous degradation, a very terrible thing for a Chinese family, simply because he had failed to hold Tientsin against its assailants.

Many small forts round the town were captured without resistance. These mounted many guns, and the fact that the garrisons abandoned them without resistance showed the complete demoralization of the Chinese. If only the assailing force had been in a position to follow up their work, there is little doubt that they could have arrived at Pekin almost without striking a blow.

After extinguishing the fire the troops set to work to render the town habitable. Great numbers of dead were removed from the houses that had been destroyed by shell fire, and from the streets, and in a very short time the town was brought into a satisfactory sanitary condition.

There was now a long pause. While the British and Americans were eager to advance towards Pekin at the earliest opportunity, the Russians fell back. There were but two of their people in Pekin, and it was evident that they were far more desirous of getting political advantages out of the situation than of reaching the Legations. They maintained that it would need an army of sixty thousand to force a way up. The differences between them and the other nationalities became more and more acute, and matters dragged on painfully. It was true that there was still an immense deal to be done before a force of even twenty thousand men could be ready to advance, but in spite of disagreement between the commanders, work was carried on vigorously. Junks and carts were collected, guns, and great stores of provisions and ammunition were brought from the coast, and troops poured in; but still no day was named for the advance.

The anger and discontent among the merchants and traders who had friends in Pekin increased daily. Men talked angrily and despairingly at the corners of the streets, and cursed the hesitation and bickering on the part of the military. Rex went about with his hands deep in his pockets and his head bent down, raging and pouring out abuse against the generals. His father in vain tried to calm him.

“My dear boy,” he said, “you may be convinced that the five thousand or six thousand men that we have here are sufficient for the advance, but even I, anxious as I am to see an expedition set out, cannot agree with you. I quite believe that if on the day after we had taken Tientsin we had been ready to start, five thousand men might have done it. The news taken by the flying Chinese would have sufficed to demoralize the enemy all over the country. But we were not ready, and the delay that has occurred having been sufficient to allow the Chinese to get over their scare, an expedition of only five thousand men would inevitably terminate in a fiasco, as did that under Seymour.