CHAPTER XII
DELAYS
On the thirteenth the allies began a heavy bombardment of the nativecity, the guns being placed on a mud wall enclosing both the nativecity and foreign settlements. The British had sixteen guns ofvarious sizes, and four Maxims; the Americans three guns and threemachine–guns; the Japanese twelve mountain guns; the French sixmountain guns; and the Austrians two Maxims and a Nordenfeldt. TheRussians and Germans, who were encamped two miles away on the otherside of the river, did not share in the bombardment. The cannonadewas kept up with tremendous vigour, the British guns alone pouring infifteen hundred shells in the course of the morning. So terrific wasthe fire that the Chinese batteries soon ceased to play.
Meanwhile an allied army of some five thousand men, under the commandof the Japanese Brigadier–General Fukushima, the senior officerpresent, advanced under cover of darkness on the western side ofthe Peiho to a little arsenal about two miles to the north–westof the settlements. This force was composed of fifteen hundredJapanese, with two batteries of artillery, a British contingentunder Brigadier–General Dorward, comprising one hundred and fiftyblue–jackets, one hundred and fifty marines, one hundred and sixtymen of the Welsh Fusiliers, one hundred of the Chinese regiment, onehundred and fifty of the Hong–Kong regiment, the Hong–Kong artillery,and the naval guns, also forty–five Austrian marines, nine hundredAmericans under Colonel Meade, and nine hundred French under ColonelDe Pelacot. The remainder of the Welsh Fusiliers and a number ofblue–jackets were despatched at the same time to hold the enemy incheck at the railway–station, while from their camp the Russians andGermans advanced in force on the east banks of the river to attackthe batteries on the Lutai Canal. The best point of attack was thesouth–west angle of the city, as in this way they would have avoidedthe concentrated fire from the whole of the crenellated wall; but acanal intervened, and there was no means of bridging it, the Chinesehaving opened the sluices and flooded the country on both sides of it.The advancing force, moreover, would have been exposed to the fire ofthe Chinese fort two thousand yards away, on which were mounted severalmodern guns. It had been decided, therefore, to attack at the southgate, to which a narrow paved pathway ran in a straight line from thearsenal.
The troops were drawn up, the French on the right, the Americans on theleft, and the Japanese, British, and Austrians in the centre.
The canal was formerly crossed at the arsenal by a small woodenbridge, but this had been burnt in order to keep the Chinese gunsfrom going from the city to the race–course, from which they had forsome days maintained a galling fire. The arsenal itself was not heldin strength, being too much exposed to the Chinese fire, but a Maximhad been stationed in one of the houses by the bridge, to prevent theChinese from repairing it. The French were the first to reach theremains of the bridge in order to take up their place on the right ofthe attacking force, and when they found that there was no means ofcrossing, they had to halt under cover of a very heavy fire from theJapanese sappers, until they had made it passable. The French andJapanese troops then crossed together, and proceeded along the pathwayuntil they reached a ditch six feet wide, running at right angles tothe pathway, and filled with stagnant water.
This ditch was about nine hundred yards from the wall. Crossing itthe troops took shelter in a number of small houses a short distancebeyond. Forty men were left to hold them, and two hundred more advancedalong the causeway until they got under the shelter of the Chinesehouses, situated a couple of hundred yards outside the city wall. TheJapanese sappers threw up an entrenchment with great rapidity, andplaced bridges across one or two ditches which obstructed the advance.
The attack was then developed as had been arranged. The Welsh Fusiliersand the Americans on the extreme left proceeded towards the westernangle of the city wall, the advance company taking cover in a creeksome three hundred yards from the wall, and the remainder settlingthemselves a little to the rear behind mud walls and any inequalitiesin the ground. Their position was an unpleasant one, for in additionto being exposed to the fire from the wall, they had to keep an eyeupon a large body of Chinese horse which had drawn up just out of rangein readiness to charge if opportunity offered itself. Unfortunately,two hundred of the American infantry, under Colonel Liscum, instead ofcontinuing forward, turned almost at a right angle and marched directlyacross the front of the attack until they reached a position near theFrench settlements. They were in formation of sections of four, andwere exposed to a terrific rifle fire from the whole line of the citywall and also from the Chinese houses lying between the wall and thesettlements. They changed their line of advance, but did not bettertheir position, and were obliged to take shelter behind the Chinesegraves, with which the plain was studded. These graves are only smallmounds of earth, and though they found protection behind them fromdirect fire from the walls, they were still exposed to a flanking firefrom the houses. Colonel Liscum, while gallantly steadying his men, waskilled, and four officers and seventy–two men were wounded.
An attempt was made to send them fresh ammunition. Captain Ollivant ofthe Chinese regiment was killed in a gallant attempt to draw off theline of fire with some ammunition mules, and the Americans were forcedto lie where they were until nightfall, when they fell back to thearsenal with their wounded and dead, which amounted to just one–half oftheir whole number. In the course of the day Lieutenant Phillimore ofthe _Barfleur_ had managed to get out to them with a few blue–jackets,and had assisted them materially, both in holding their position andin carrying back to the arsenal those who had fallen. Major Pereira ofthe 1st Chinese Regiment, who was next to them, went out to them twiceto bring in their wounded. He was hit himself in so doing. His regimenthad nineteen casualties, including two officers.
When the bombardment had somewhat weakened the Chinese fire, GeneralFukushima ordered the general advance. Unfortunately he received wordthat his men had effected a lodgment on the city wall, and had actuallygot inside the town, and he therefore requested General Dorward to stopthe fire of the British guns, which was, of course, instantly done. Hadthey been kept in action half an hour longer the loss to the Japanesewould have been considerably less, for the gunners had the exact range,and were causing great destruction. However, the whole line of attackpushed forward and took shelter in the houses outside the walls, andas soon as it was discovered that the Japanese were not in the city,all the guns again opened fire. This was maintained steadily allthe afternoon, the fire of the large naval guns being particularlyaccurate. While the Americans were being retired from their advancedposition in the evening these guns were ordered to sweep the Chinesebarricades and line of defended houses, from which Colonel Liscum?sforce had been so much harried all day. The Americans were lying aboutthree hundred yards from this fringe, and if they attempted to movethey were in great danger of being hit, but the fire of the Britishguns was so accurate that the retiral was carried out without onecasualty.
Early in the afternoon a company of marines was ordered to reinforcethe Japanese and French, and the Austrian marines went with them. Thefire was so heavy and accurate that a number of blue–jackets underCaptain Beattie hurried forward to their support. A heavy cross–firewas poured upon them, and several of the men fell, among them beingan able seaman named M?Carthy. Basil Guy, one of the _Barfleur?s_midshipmen, ran back and bound up his wounds. He then tried to liftthe disabled man and carry him in, but, finding the weight too heavyfor him, he ran forward again, got the stretcher, and returned withanother seaman to assist him. As the rest of the party were all nowunder shelter, the whole fire of the enemy was concentrated upon him,and the ground was literally ploughed up with shot. M?Carthy was placedon the stretcher, but as he was being carried in, he was again hit, andthis time killed. For this gallant action Guy was awarded the VictoriaCross, being the only midshipman who had ever gained that honour.
BASIL GUY RAN BACK AND BOUND UP HIS WOUNDS.]
The troops then advanced across the causeway, suffering heavily fromthe incessant rifle fire, and
from the shell and shrapnel fire of twoguns which the Chinese had posted near a water–mill at the right ofthe road. The causeway was not more than thirty feet in width, so thatthe troops were unable to extend, and being therefore in close order,afforded an excellent mark to the enemy. Unfortunately by this time theJapanese and British guns had expended all their ammunition, but oneof the Hong–Kong guns had still a few rounds left, and directing itsfire upon the Chinese guns which were doing so much mischief, broughttheir fire on itself, and so succeeded in enabling the column to passalong the causeway with far less damage than it would otherwise havesuffered. The Chinese fire was on the whole surprisingly good, andshowed that their artillerymen had been well instructed. While our ownguns were for the most part using black powder, the Chinese were usingsmokeless, and consequently it was very difficult for our artillerymento locate their exact position.
The troops were glad enough when night came on. The day had been hot,and though heavy showers had fallen in the early part of the morning,their water–bottles were soon exhausted, and they were compelled todrink the green stagnant water in the ditches, with the result that agreat number of them afterwards suffered from dysentery. The losseshad been very heavy, and the question of retirement was mooted, only,however, to be at once rejected. To retire would be to add enormouslyto the prestige of the Chinese and to lower the spirit of the troops.It was therefore resolved that the ground won must be held at allhazards, and the attack recommenced in the morning. All through thenight the enemy kept up a desultory fire, which was a trying ordeal forthe troops, fatigued as they were by the long day?s fight, during whichthey had been exposed for hours to a blazing sun, with but a very smallsupply of food. The Japanese suffered most severely, as the ground theywere holding on both sides of the causeway was two feet deep in water,and they had therefore to remain standing all night.
Just before sunrise the Japanese sappers stole forward to attempt toblow in the outer city gate. They were met with a tremendous volley ofmusketry, and one ball cut the electric wire which was to have beenused for firing the charge. Lieutenant Inawe, however, pluckily rushedforward with a lighted fuse, and escaped, almost miraculously, unhurt.Meanwhile one of the Japanese soldiers had pluckily climbed the innerwall and unbarred the inner gate, and the Japanese poured into thecity, the Chinese flying before them in all directions. The Japanesewere followed by the Welsh Fusiliers, the rest of the troops marchinground on the broad city walls to keep as many of the enemy fromescaping as possible. There was a good deal of fighting in the streetsand firing from the houses, but the greater part of the Chinese troopshad retired during the night, having lost heart when they found thattheir assailants maintained their position and would recommence theirattack in the morning. The Chinese loss was estimated at about fivethousand; that of the allies was under eight hundred, of which fivehundred occurred in the ranks of the Japanese.
The streets were littered with Chinese uniforms and the red sashes andbadges of the Boxers, of which they had divested themselves as theyran. Numbers of bodies of people killed by the shells lay about, butonly two women were found among them, which seemed to show that thegreater portion of the inhabitants had fled before the attack began,leaving the city to be defended by the Boxers and the Imperial troops.The effect of the lyddite shells from the heavy guns had been terrible;indeed the Chinese looked upon lyddite as a sort of death–dealing magic.
The tactics of the attacking troops had not been good, owing probablyto the divided command. Had they been marched during the darknessthey could have gained their position in the houses under the wallswith comparatively slight loss, and could have blown in the gate andassaulted the city at once, instead of which they were halted a longway in front of the wall and then marched in broad daylight across anopen plain devoid of cover, and halted for a couple of hours under firewhile the bridge over the canal was being repaired. Moreover, almostall the troops were engaged in the operation, only a handful being leftto guard the settlements, while a large body of Chinese cavalry kepthovering about some little distance away, and had they been under acompetent leader, might have effected an entrance into the settlementsand swept them from end to end. Still, the capture of Tientsin wasworth the risk; it opened the road to Pekin, and relieved both Peihoand Shanghai from a danger that was every day increasing. It alsoconduced to the safety of every foreigner in the interior of China.
While the fighting had been going on, the Russians and Germans on theother side of the river circled round and stormed the batteries on theLupi Canal, taking them with comparatively little opposition. Duringtheir advance one of the Chinese shells fell into a building inside theRussian line, in which, unknown to its occupants, dynamite was stored.The explosion was terrific; the windows of most of the houses in thesettlements were shattered by it, although it occurred some way off onthe other side of the river. The Russian general, who, with his staff,was close by at the moment, had his hand damaged by a falling building,his trumpeter was killed, and a number of men were knocked down by theforce of the concussion. The total German and Russian loss was aboutone hundred and fifty killed and wounded. The Russians were aided bya four–inch gun from the _Algerine_ and a twelve–pounder from the_Terrible_, which rendered most valuable aid, as the Russians had withthem only seven twelve–pounders of an old pattern.
The British guns were not very satisfactory until the arrival of the_Terrible?s_ twelve–pounder. The Hong–Kong guns were obsolete, andthe British troops had none others, with the exception of some veryold–fashioned naval six–pounders. Indeed the scandalous fact wasbrought to light that none of the British ships on the China stationwere equipped with modern quick–firing guns.
The Welsh Fusiliers, after joining the Japanese, pushed through thecity up to the north gate, and advanced beyond it to the Grand Canal,where they captured two hundred junks and a small steamer. The Japanesecaptured also a number of guns, all of which proved very useful in themarch to Pekin.
After the city was captured the Chinese had still a strong defensiveposition. They had fallen back to the railway and to the fort nearthe Viceroy?s yamen; but they had no heart left in them, and inthe afternoon the Japanese entered the fort without a fight andtook possession of that and the yamen. Forty–five guns were foundin the former, among them the big Krupp that had done such harm tothe settlements in the early days of the bombardment, and severalfifteen–pounder guns of recent pattern.
The first thing to be done was to extinguish the fires that were ragingin several parts of the city. This was a difficult matter, and was notaccomplished until a considerable part of the city had been consumed,the amount of property destroyed being enormous. The rest of the citywas systematically looted. The Russians had not entered the town, butremained on the other side of the river. They had at once demandedthat a military governor should be appointed, but as they and theJapanese were much superior in force to the other nationalities itwas evident that they intended that a Russian should be nominated.The matter was discussed with considerable acerbity at a councilof commanding officers, but the proposal was finally rejected, andthree commissioners, Colonel Wogack, Lieutenant–Colonel Bower, andLieutenant–Colonel Aoki were appointed to govern the city of Tientsin,which was divided into four sections—British, American, French, andJapanese. A number of Chinese were enlisted to act as police underCaptain Mockler of the Indian army, and though they were drilled by aMadras sepoy, who could not understand a word of their language, theybecame a very serviceable body.
Yu Lu, the Viceroy, managed to effect his escape from the yamen, but afew days later he and the whole of his family committed suicide. Hisfate was certainly a hard one. Up to the outbreak of hostilities hehad done his best to suppress the Boxers and protect the foreigners.On June 9 he had tendered his resignation, but all his efforts in thatdirection were thwarted by the governor, and he was ordered to remainwhere he was. The hostility of his enemies at Pekin was carried beyondthe grave, for an order was made for his posthumous degradation, a veryterrible thing for a Ch
inese family, simply because he had failed tohold Tientsin against its assailants.
Many small forts round the town were captured without resistance. Thesemounted many guns, and the fact that the garrisons abandoned themwithout resistance showed the complete demoralization of the Chinese.If only the assailing force had been in a position to follow up theirwork, there is little doubt that they could have arrived at Pekinalmost without striking a blow.
After extinguishing the fire the troops set to work to render the townhabitable. Great numbers of dead were removed from the houses that hadbeen destroyed by shell fire, and from the streets, and in a very shorttime the town was brought into a satisfactory sanitary condition.
There was now a long pause. While the British and Americans were eagerto advance towards Pekin at the earliest opportunity, the Russians fellback. There were but two of their people in Pekin, and it was evidentthat they were far more desirous of getting political advantages out ofthe situation than of reaching the Legations. They maintained that itwould need an army of sixty thousand to force a way up. The differencesbetween them and the other nationalities became more and more acute,and matters dragged on painfully. It was true that there was stillan immense deal to be done before a force of even twenty thousandmen could be ready to advance, but in spite of disagreement betweenthe commanders, work was carried on vigorously. Junks and carts werecollected, guns, and great stores of provisions and ammunition werebrought from the coast, and troops poured in; but still no day wasnamed for the advance.
The anger and discontent among the merchants and traders who hadfriends in Pekin increased daily. Men talked angrily and despairinglyat the corners of the streets, and cursed the hesitation and bickeringon the part of the military. Rex went about with his hands deep in hispockets and his head bent down, raging and pouring out abuse againstthe generals. His father in vain tried to calm him.
“My dear boy,” he said, “you may be convinced that the five thousand orsix thousand men that we have here are sufficient for the advance, buteven I, anxious as I am to see an expedition set out, cannot agree withyou. I quite believe that if on the day after we had taken Tientsin wehad been ready to start, five thousand men might have done it. Thenews taken by the flying Chinese would have sufficed to demoralize theenemy all over the country. But we were not ready, and the delay thathas occurred having been sufficient to allow the Chinese to get overtheir scare, an expedition of only five thousand men would inevitablyterminate in a fiasco, as did that under Seymour.
“I think myself that at least ten thousand men will be necessaryto relieve Pekin. That force will require a large transport train.Besides, though we have taken a great number of Chinese guns, few ofthese are field–guns, and, as you know, we are at present terriblydeficient in artillery. Even for the guns we have there is noammunition, for nearly every round we had was fired away the other day.We have no provisions for the troops, and must wait till a sufficientsupply is collected and brought up here, together with the guns andan ample supply of ammunition. All this cannot be done in a day. Igrant that we do not seem to be pushing on matters as quickly as weshould wish, but already five trains a day run down to Taku, and animmense deal of work has been quietly carried on. Besides, the militarycommanders are convinced that Pekin has already fallen, and that thereis no occasion whatever for haste. Troopships are expected in every daywith reinforcements from India. Japan, Germany, and France, and whenin another week we may have twenty thousand troops here, the militaryauthorities may be well excused for not deciding upon making an attemptwith a quarter of that force.”
“Well, Father, I hope that when we do go you will get me attached tothe force as interpreter.”
“Certainly, Rex. I have no fear that when the force does go on therewill be any hitch this time. Which section would you like to beattached to?”
“Well, I think, Father, if I have the choice, I should like to go withthe Japs. They are awfully good little fellows, and as plucky as lions,and I fancy that as they are so strong they are certain to be well infront. I should really like to go with them.”
“Very well, I have been supplying them with a great many goods, andhave spoken to their general several times. He talks English verywell. When I tell him that you have been twice into Pekin since it wasbesieged, and brought down the last message that got through from theBritish Minister, I should think he would be glad to take you.”
Two days later Rex learned that he had obtained an appointment asinterpreter with the Japanese troops, and that the general requestedthat he should begin his duties at once. It was a great relief to himto be employed again, as it took his thoughts off his friends at Pekin.There was not, however, much to do. The Japanese arrangements were allso perfect, the men so quick and handy, that there was no occasion forhis services except in making small purchases, and in arranging withChinese coolies to man the junks, and with country–people for carts.There was some difficulty in obtaining provisions, for the Russianshad carried fire and sword among all the villages to a considerabledistance on their side of the river, burning the houses and generallykilling the inhabitants. The consequence was that no supplies could begot on that side of the river. The villagers, however, began to come infrom the north side, very timidly at first, but more boldly when theyfound that they were unmolested by the soldiers, for American, British,and Japanese all treated them well, and, after the sack of the city wasover, resumed their ordinary discipline.
Stores were now accumulating fast. Every train from Taku brought uptroops, guns, ammunition, and provisions. The greatest difficulty wasthe disembarkment of these from the ships thirteen miles away. Some ofthe merchant ships of light draught were able to come in and unload atthe wharves. The blue–jackets and marines in the men–of–war aided inloading up the trucks, and the work went on with great rapidity.
Many of the Japanese officers spoke English, and Rex was soon athome among them, and found them very cheery, pleasant companions.Their general was a very agreeable man, with charming manners, andimmensely popular among his troops. The greater portion of these werestationed in Tientsin, where they maintained perfect order in thedistrict assigned to them, and Rex found that the natives returnedmore fearlessly to their districts than to those occupied by othernationalities.
On July the 20th a letter came down from Mr. Conger, the United StatesMinister at Pekin, saying that they had been besieged for a month undercontinuous shot and shell from the Chinese troops, and that quickrelief only could prevent general massacre. This woke up the militarycommanders. General Gaselee, who commanded the British contingent, andGeneral Chaffee, who commanded the Americans, insisted that an attemptat relief should be made at all hazards. To wait until sixty thousandmen were assembled would be simply to sacrifice the Legations, and theyinformed the other commanders that they were determined to start evenif they had to go alone.
There was still much to be done before arrangements were completed, butthe work went on with increased life and spirit now that it was certainthat the Legations were still holding out. It was not, however, untilAugust 4 that all was ready. Even then jealousies had arisen; both theRussians and the Japanese wished to lead the advance, and none wishedto accept a position behind the others. General Gaselee then saidthat the British would take the rear–guard, as he only wished to getto Pekin, and did not care in the least which of the columns got therefirst so long as they reached it in time to relieve the Legations.After this act of abnegation it was very satisfactory that the Britishforce was the first to enter the Legations.
The force was made up as follows:—Eight thousand Japanese underLieutenant–General Baron Yamaguchi, with Major–General Fukushima asChief of the staff; four thousand five hundred Russians under GeneralLinievitch; three thousand British under Lieutenant–General Sir A.Gaselee, Major–General Barrow being his Chief of the staff; twothousand five hundred Americans under General Chaffee; eight hundredFrench under General Frey. The total force amounted to eighteenthousand eight hundred. No Germans took part in the ex
pedition, and itwas generally supposed that they preferred taking care of their ownpossessions at Shantung to rescuing the Legations. The total Japaneseforce, if they had all arrived, would have been twenty–two thousand.The Russians had three thousand men at their camp between Tientsin andChefou, and a few British troops were left in Tientsin. It had beenoriginally intended that Sir A. Gaselee should have a force of overseven thousand, but half the troops he brought with him had stopped atShanghai by telegraphic instructions from home. This, though no doubtthe presence of so large a force at Shanghai was useful in preventingtrouble in the south of China, caused us to assume a very subordinateposition in the expedition to Pekin, the Japanese, with their largeforce, doing the principal work of the campaign.
As the time advanced, Rex, whose despair at the long delay had drivenhim almost distracted, began to fear that the expedition would arrivetoo late. He was, of course, ignorant that the capture of Tientsinhad had a powerful effect on the position at Pekin. The Chinese hadbelieved that the place was impregnable, and so long as it was there tomenace the rear of an invading army they felt perfectly safe. It wasa tremendous blow to them therefore to learn that this city, with allits forts, guns, and supplies of ammunition, had been captured after asingle day?s fighting, and the consequence was that their indecisionincreased.
The war party were confused, and the peace party, headed by PrinceChing, gained vastly greater influence in the councils of the Empress.The consequence was that for twenty days after the arrival of thenews something like a truce prevailed. The besieged were even able topurchase small supplies of provisions and fruit, and their conditionbecame much more tolerable. It was probable that the Empress wouldhave thrown herself altogether into the hands of the peace party hadit not been that the delay on the part of the allies had enabledthe panic–stricken Chinese soldiers to recover their _morale_ anddiscipline. They had been very strongly reinforced, and it wasconfidently hoped that they would be able to defeat the allies whenthey advanced. Thus the miserable delays caused by the jealousy of theallied commanders were not as prejudicial to the Legations as theyotherwise would have been.
When hostilities were renewed, had the Chinese attacked as activelyas they had done before the fall of Tientsin, it is morally certainthat the defenders of the Legations would have found it impossible tocontinue their resistance, and that they would have been massacred.
“The Russians are at the bottom of all this hateful delay,” said Rex.“I am convinced that the Japs, though the strongest in numbers, wouldgive in willingly were it not that the Russians are always making freshdemands. We and the Americans only want to get there, and the Frenchare in such small numbers that it does not matter a rap what they thinkof it. It is the Russians who are to blame.”
“There is no doubt about that, Rex,” his father said. “I believethey are playing a double game. They want to pose as the friends ofChina and thus obtain concessions and an overwhelming influence atPekin. This, it would seem, they try to do by all sorts of delays, byadvancing petty claims, and by generally putting their spoke into thewheel. They have already got Manchuria under their thumb, and they willcertainly stick to it unless China is backed up by the other powersand they unite in insisting that China shall not suffer further lossof territory at the hands of the Russians or anyone else. There is noquestion that that is our best policy. It is to our interest that Chinashall remain whole and united and capable of holding her own againstRussia. Neither Britain nor Japan can have any desire for territory,and after the war is over, an alliance offensive and defensive betweenthese two nations would be worth all the loss of life and property wehave incurred.”
“That would be grand, Father. There is no doubt that the Japs arebeggars to fight. The way they smashed China showed that, and the otherday they certainly did at least as well as the other nationalities.With their fleet and ours combined we could hold our own with thegreatest ease against Russia and France, even if Germany were to jointhem. We are showing them now in South Africa what an army we can putin the field, and with our Indian army and that of the Japs we could,if pressed, drive the Russians out of Asia.”
“That would be a big order,” his father laughed, “but we couldcertainly effectually prevent them from meddling with China and makethem keep within their own boundaries. Besides, we should have Chinato count with also. China has wakened up since the war with Japan,and has gone in for the best modern guns and rifles. If she had lettwo more years pass before beginning this row we should have foundher a very formidable opponent. Her troops would then have become aswell–disciplined as ours.”
“Well, then, I am very glad, Father, that they did not wait for anothertwo years. We found it pretty hard work as it was to take Tientsin, andif the greater part of their army had not moved out during the night Idoubt very much whether we should have captured it. It was lucky indeedthat we stuck to it during the night; it was only that that turned thescale. You know the old story, Father, of a Chinaman who excused defeatby saying: ?Two men cannot be in one place; if one must come the othermust go.?“
His father laughed.
“Well, I have no doubt it is something like that, Rex. When the Chinesesaw that we were quite determined to get into Tientsin, our obstinacyand fixedness of purpose told upon them, and they began to say: ?Thesepeople have made up their minds to come, therefore we had better go.?Certainly they showed a great deal of pluck during the first day?sfighting; even the tremendous cannonade to which they were exposed didnot seem to shake their courage at all, for they fought as stoutly atthe end of the day as they did at the beginning. We can hardly saythat we gained any advantage whatever. We certainly have every reasonto congratulate ourselves on the fact that they lost courage when theycame to think it over after nightfall. Well, I have not the least fearthat the force that is starting to–morrow will fail. If the Chinesedid not stand when fighting behind strong walls, supported by a circleof strong forts mounting a prodigious number of cannon, it is hardlylikely that they will make anything like a determined resistance inthe open. I anticipate that the difficulties will rather be in gettingto Pekin than in defeating the enemy. We know that the banks of thePeiho have been cut and a large stretch of country inundated, andconsequently the river is so sunk that it is very doubtful whethereven the lighter craft among the junks will be able to get up. If theycannot, the expedition will be in nearly the same position as that ofAdmiral Seymour. They can?t march without provisions, ammunition, andguns, and certainly the amount of land transport they have collected isnothing like sufficient for that. They must chiefly depend upon theirjunks, and if the river fails them they are brought to a stand–still.”
“I am afraid that is so, Father,” Rex said; “but at any rate we musthope for the best.”