Part of Author’s Diary
July 12. The Chinese kept up a heavy cannonade all day, mostly from the guns on the imperial city wall, but did very little damage to us. A flag, white ground and black characters, was captured by the French in the morning, and in the afternoon Mitchell captured a big black one in the Hanlin Yuan. He got up on a Chinese barrier and wrested the flag from a Chinese soldier by pounding him with sand-bags until he let go, while five or six volleys were fired at him. He secured the flag and got down without a scratch.
July 13. A Chinese prisoner taken by the French marines this morning states that the Emperor and Empress Dowager are still in the palace here. Prince Tuan, Jung Lee and General Tung are in control of public affairs. Prince Ching takes no part in them. Many Boxers are still in the city. Their principal patron is Prince Tuan. In his palace they are registered, fed, and paid.
These Boxers are ridiculed by the soldiers because they dare not go under fire at the front, in spite of their pretensions to be bullet-proof.
General Tung’s troops are facing us on the wall and along our lines on the south. Jung Lu’s troops are behind the French legation. Several of them are killed or wounded every day. The prisoner declares that he was one of several coolies (hired at twenty-five cents a body) to carry off and bury the dead. There are about three thousand of Tung Fu Hsinang’s troops in the city.
The Empress has forbidden the use of guns of large caliber against us, because of the harm they might do to her loyal people and their houses.
Direct attack having failed, and our rifles being better than theirs, it has been decided to starve us out. Two weeks ago news came that foreign troops from one hundred warships at Taku had captured the Taku forts, and occupied “East Taku,” opposite Tangku railway station. Tientsin city was in a panic on this account.
Ammunition is being brought here from the Hunting park. Imperial edicts are issued as usual. Business is going on in the north part of the city, and market supplies are coming in. The four “chief banks” are closed. The soldiers believe that we have several thousand troops under arms here. The prisoner thought we had at least two thousand.