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

by G. A. Henty

IN PEKIN

All were hard at work on the following day making preparations for the advance. Rex acted as interpreter to the major, and got on quite familiar terms with his officers. The start was made early the next morning in four troop trains. The men cheered lustily as they started, and the residents of the town all gathered to give them a hearty send–off. Rex managed to get a place in the train for Ah Lo, and took with him in a small bundle the disguise he had worn at Chafui. He was perhaps the only person in the train who did not feel absolutely confident of a triumphant march to Pekin, but he had made up his mind that should they have to fall back he would himself pursue his journey with Ah Lo.

For a time the train passed through cultivated ground, but the work of the enemy was very soon visible. Portions of the line were torn up in many places, and attempts had evidently been made to destroy the bridges. Several times the train had to stop in order to make repairs, but owing to the large number of hands available the work was performed so rapidly that there was only a short delay at these points. At Lo–Fa for the first time the Boxers were seen actively engaged. The plate–layersʼ cabins were in flames, and the telegraph poles had been cut down, and men were engaged in destroying them. The villages bordering the line were also in flames, and the inscription, “Kill all foreigners,” was posted up everywhere. The Chinese troops alighted and fired several volleys at parties of Boxers, but apparently without doing any execution, their ineffectual efforts exciting much merriment among the allied troops.

A mile farther smoke was seen rising from several villages, and General Nieh refused absolutely to continue the journey, declaring that the whole country was evidently swarming with Boxers, and that it was highly dangerous to advance. He insisted on returning to Lo–Fa. Admiral Seymour strongly urged him to remain there with his men, but without success; he and his soldiers were firmly convinced that it was useless to try to fight the Boxers, who, they believed, were invulnerable to shot. After the Chinese had left, the troops were detrained. The work of repairing the line had for the last few miles been very heavy, and as it was already late they halted there for the night.

So far their work had been altogether unimpeded by the enemy, who had apparently fallen back as soon as the laden trains were seen approaching in the distance. The troops had grumbled a good deal at the cowardice of the enemy, but consoled themselves with the idea that they had not yet gone half–way, and that no doubt the Boxers would make a stand later on.

There were plenty of materials for making camp fires, and these were soon blazing, and as night closed in, songs in various languages rose from the bivouacs of the different nationalities. The officers gathered round their own fires and chatted on the prospect before them.

“Your anticipations have not been fulfilled thus far, Bateman,” one of the lieutenants said to Rex.

“No, but it is not yet time for them to be fulfilled. It was only during the first half of my journey down that I saw the Boxersʼ fires all over the country. They will become thicker and thicker as we near Pekin, and in the end I expect that the whole Chinese army will come out to meet us, swollen by the rabble of the town.”

The expedition moved forward again in the morning. It was soon evident that in the country through which they were now advancing the Boxers had carried out their operations more thoroughly than in that through which they had already passed. In many places the railroad had been taken up for some hundreds of yards, and the sleepers carried off and burned, while the whole of the telegraph poles had been cut down and the wires carried away. The troops were very soon all detrained again and employed in the work of restoring the line, an operation which was only carried on with great difficulty.

In the meantime Lieutenant Smith of the Aurora went forward with a party of three officers and forty–four men to try to reach Neting, thirteen miles ahead, to prevent more damage being done to the line and to hold the railway–station there. He was attacked soon after he started. At three villages in succession he drove the enemy out with ease; but at half–past ten a determined attack was made on him by about four hundred and fifty Boxers, who charged in line with great courage. His little force, however, repulsed them with heavy loss; but as ammunition was then beginning to run short, and the enemy was still increasing in strength, Lieutenant Smith retired. As great bands of Boxers could be seen in the distance, Major Johnston was sent forward with sixty men to examine the line ahead.