The enemy divided in flight from Feng-hwang, some going to Mukden, others to Hai-tcheng, and others to Taku-shan. Most of the generals fled to Mukden. As the last fugitives left Feng-hwang it was set on fire, and the flames wrecked the village before the Japanese could extinguish them. Cold had set in among the Manchoorian hills by this time and some snow had fallen. The victorious army therefore took pains to make itself as comfortable as possible, advancing slowly, living off the country, and driving all enemies before it.
In Peking at this time the authorities were busy attempting to devise means of safety for their armies, and to provide for their own escape from threatening danger. Li Hung Chang was deprived of all his decorative honors. Liu Kunyi, viceroy of Nanking, was made viceroy of Tien-tsin. Chang Chi Stung, viceroy of Wu-chang, was appointed viceroy of Nanking. Hu Yuff, a judge of Kwang-hsi, and Captain Von Hannecken were ordered to enlist and equip a force of troops after the German model, as the nucleus of a new grand army of China. Finally Prince Kung was appointed Chief Controller of Military Affairs, with Prince Chung to assist him, thus further centralizing the power.
Another imperial edict gave executive effect to the sentence passed by the military courts upon General Wei. It declared that by his withdrawal from the battle of Ping-Yang he caused the defeat of the entire army. Furthermore, he was adjudged guilty of embezzling public funds entrusted to him for the specific purpose of paying his soldiers, and of gross incompetence and violation of duty in that he permitted the troops with whom he retreated to maltreat and rob the people along the line of route, thereby lowering the national character. For these offenses General Wei was degraded from military rank and deprived of all his honors. It was also announced that Admiral Ting kept from the knowledge of the throne many important matters connected with the naval battle of the Yalu, and that while losing some ships and getting others crippled he inflicted scarcely any damage upon the enemy. The admiral was therefore deprived of all the honors recently bestowed upon him under a misapprehension of the facts.
How despondent was the view of the situation held by the Chinese authorities may be judged by the first action taken by Prince Kung after his promotion. On Sunday, November 4, before the news of the Japanese success at Talien-wan had reached the Chinese, owing to the cutting of the telegraph wires, he invited the representatives all the powers to assemble at the Tsung-li Yamen to hear what the Chinese government had to say respecting the critical situation. At this audience Prince Kung calmly avowed the complete impotence of his country to withstand the Japanese attack, and appealed to the powers to intervene. He made an appeal for their assistance in bringing about some agreement for the termination of the war, indicating as a basis of negotiation a willingness of China to abandon her claim to the suzerainty of Corea, and to pay a war indemnity to Japan. This appeal was made formally and officially, and marked for the first time the fact that China recognized her utter defeat.
Having concluded his speech, Prince Kung handed to each minister a note embodying his remarks. The ministers were favorably impressed, and they applauded the frankness of China’s confession. They promised to support her appeal to their respective governments, with a view to the restoration of peace, and in order to avert the dangers threatening all interested. Simultaneously with this action of Prince Kung, the Chinese minister to Great Britain and France endeavored to enlist the assistance of the foreign offices of those countries, but again the effort to secure peace for China by the intervention of western nations met with little encouragement.
A diplomatic complication arose between Japan and France early in November which had an element of comedy in it and is of interest here. Two American citizens, John Brown and George Howie, of British extraction, offered their services to the Chinese government in the capacity of torpedo experts. They claimed to be in possession of an invention capable of most destructive effects in naval warfare, and having succeeded in convincing a Chinese agent of the validity of their claim, they were engaged to employ the invention against the Japanese navy, in consideration of a payment of $100,000 down, $1,000,000 for each naval squadron destroyed, and a proportion of the value of each merchantman sent to the bottom. With their contract in their pocket, they sailed from San Francisco, and at Yokahama transferred themselves to the French steamer Sydney. Meanwhile the Japanese authorities, having obtained intelligence of the two men’s proceedings, telegraphed instructions to Kobe, and in that port the alleged inventors were taken off the ship, together with their Chinese companions. The French minister inclined to push the case in their favor, but diplomacy and international law was so clearly on the side of the Japanese that he withdrew his efforts. After their arrest however, the two men signed a stringent guarantee binding themselves not to assist the Chinese during the present war, and this with the representation of the American minister secured their release.
The Japanese forces occupying Talien-wan used their time to advantage in strengthening their positions, completing the telegraph line along the north shore of Corea Bay, to a junction with the line which had already been built across the Yalu River from Corea, and in preparing for their investment of Port Arthur. Admiral Ito’s sailors and marines destroyed all the torpedoes placed by the enemy in the bay and its approaches. They also captured several torpedo boats and apparatus. The fleet and the transports all entered the bay, and there remained to act in harmony with the land forces. A few days after the occupation of Talien-wan, the advance column of the first Japanese army, pursuing from Feng-hwang that portion of the divided fugitive Chinese who were seeking Port Arthur, met the outposts of the second invading army, and communication was thereby established, both by telegraph and by messenger service, through Japanese garrisons, in a chain extending the full length of the Corean peninsula and around Corea Bay to Talien-wan.
Consternation was caused in Peking by the discovery, which one would have supposed not difficult, that the Pei-yang squadron was caught in a trap at Port Arthur. Li Hung Chang had made efforts to bring all the damaged war ships out of that harbor, ordering the squadron to keep within range of the guns of Wei-hai-wei. But on account of somebody’s violation of orders, a dozen Chinese vessels of war were now within the Port Arthur harbor, hemmed in by the neighboring Japanese fleet. The responsible Chinese officials appeared to be callous to the fate of the empire, giving their chief attention to matters of personal interest and gain.
PORT ARTHUR—JAPANESE COOLIES REMOVING CHINESE DEAD.