At this Prince Tuan arose and angrily asked the Empress whether she proposed to listen to the words of a Chinese traitor? Her Majesty rebuked him for his loud and violent manner of speaking, but ordered Yüan Ch’ang to leave the Audience Hall. No one else dared to say anything.
She then ordered the promulgation of the Decree, for immediate communication to all parts of the Empire; at the same time announcing her intention of sacrificing at the ancestral shrines before the commencement of hostilities. Prince Chuang and Duke Lan were appointed joint Commanders-in-Chief of the Boxers, but Tzŭ Hsi gave them clearly to understand that if the foreign Ministers would agree to take their departure from Peking this afternoon Jung Lu was to do his best to protect them as far as Tientsin. Finally, the Empress ordered the Grand Council to report themselves at mid-day for further orders. All were then permitted to retire with the exception of Prince Tuan and Duke Lan; these remained in special audience for some time longer. Hsü T’ung was present at the general audience, having made good his escape from the Legation quarter, and was congratulated by Her Majesty on his safety.
They say that Duke Lan told the Empress of a vision in which, the night before, he had seen Yü Huang, the Jade Emperor. To him, and to his company of Boxers while drilling, the god had appeared, and had expressed his satisfaction with them and their patriotic movement. The Old Buddha observed that the Jade Emperor had appeared in the same manner at the beginning of the reign of the Empress Wu of the T’ang Dynasty (the most famous woman ruler in Chinese history); the omen, she thought, showed clearly that the gods are on the side of China and against the barbarians.
When, at the hour of the Sheep (1 P.M.) Kang Yi returned to the Palace, he found Prince Ch’ing in the anteroom of the Grand Council, greatly excited. It seems that En Hai,[77] a Manchu sergeant, had just come to his residence and reported that he had shot and killed two foreigners whom he had met, riding in sedan chairs that morning, just opposite the Tsungpu Street. As orders had been issued by Prince Tuan and Ch’i Hsiu to the troops that all foreigners were to be shot wherever met, and as one of these two was the German Minister, he hoped that Prince Ch’ing would recommend him for special promotion. Prince Tuan had already heard the news and was greatly pleased. Prince Ch’ing and Kang Yi discussed the matter and decided to inform the Empress Dowager at once. Kang Yi did not think that the death of one foreign devil, more or less, could matter much, especially now that it had been decided to wipe out the Legations entirely, but Prince Ch’ing thought differently and reiterated his opinion that the killing of an accredited Envoy is a serious matter. Until now, only missionaries and their converts had been put to death, but the murder of a Minister could not fail to arouse fierce indignation, even as it did in the case of the British negotiator[78] who was captured by our troops in the 10th year of Hsien-Feng (1860).
The Grand Council then entered the presence. Prince Li, as the senior member of the Council, told the Old Buddha the news, but added that the foreigners had brought it on themselves because they had first fired on the people. Upon hearing this Her Majesty ordered Jung Lu to be summoned in haste, but Kang Yi, being extremely busy with his work of providing supplies for the Boxers, did not await his arrival.
Now, even as I write, they tell me that bullets are whizzing and whistling overhead; but I am too deaf to hear them. En Ch’u says that already the Kansuh braves have begun the attack upon the Legations and that Jung Lu’s endeavours to have the foreigners escorted to a place of safety have completely failed.
Liu Shun has just come in and asked for leave to go home for a week. People are leaving the city in all directions and in great numbers.
24th Day of the 5th Moon: the Hour of the Dog, 7-9 P.M. (June 20th, 1900).—En Ming has just come in to inform me that a foreign devil[79] has been captured by Tung Fu-hsiang’s troops. They were taking him, wounded, to Prince Chuang’s Palace, prodding at him with their bayonets; and he was babbling in his foreign tongue. He will be decapitated, and his captors will receive good rewards (Prince Ch’ing has just been given command of the gendarmerie). “The rut in which the cart was overturned is just ahead.” Let this be a warning to those puny barbarian ruffians, the soldiery encamped at the very gates of the Palace. (This alludes to the proximity of the Legations to the Palace enclosure.) Jung Lu was all ready to escort the foreigners to Tientsin; he had with him over 2,000 Manchu troops. Doubtless he means well, but the Old Buddha now says that she will not prevent the Kansuh braves from destroying the Legations. If the foreigners choose to leave with Jung Lu, let them do so, and they will not be attacked; but if they insist upon remaining, then their punishment be upon their own heads, and “let them not say they were not forewarned.”
Duke Lan sent over to invite me to breakfast with him to-morrow; he is sore pressed with business cares just now; nevertheless, he and his brothers always treat their old teacher with politeness and respect. Though bellicose by nature, he is singularly gentle and refined. Chi Pin[80] sent over to ask whether we would like to move to his house in the north of the city, because the noise of the firing is very great in our quarter, but I am so deaf that I hear not a sound of it all.[81]
Chi Pin is writing to his father-in-law, Yü Hsien, about the audience in the Palace.