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

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XV

  RELIEF IN SIGHT

  On the afternoon of the 4th of August the British and American troopsmarched out from Tientsin to Hsi–Ku. The route led through the almostdeserted and ruined city, and through villages which straggled away formiles on the northern road. The weather was threatening when the startwas made, and heavy rain began to fall when they were half–way out.The roads soon became soft and slippery, and all felt that they wouldhave a bad time of it if the weather continued to be wet. The rainceased, however, when they reached their destination. They halted at avillage near the fort. Here General Gaselee took up his head–quarters,while the British troops bivouacked to the left and the Americans tothe right of the road. Orders were issued for an early start, and thetroops lay down on the wet and miry ground to get what sleep they could.

  The enemy were known to be entrenched in a position extending acrossthe river and railway, their right resting on an embankment runningfrom Hsi–Ku in a westerly direction, their left being five miles awayon the other side of the river, at a camp near a railway bridge. Beyondthis the country was inundated. The main body of their force was in thecentre, where the line crossed the river. Here the position was coveredby a series of rifle–pits and trenches, which, being partly concealedby the high crops, would have been very difficult to capture from thehand of a determined enemy. A grove of trees on the left bank of theriver, and within the loop made by a double bend, marked the centre ofthe position. A battery of artillery was posted on the embankment, anda line of entrenchments across the plain. On the left bank of the riverthe position was protected by a canal running along its whole length.

  It had been arranged that the Japanese, British, and Americans were toadvance against the enemy?s position on the right bank of the river;that the Japanese were to lead the attack, with the British in supportand the Americans in reserve; while the Russians and French, assistedby the guns of the British Naval Brigade, were to operate on the leftbank.

  The British and American troops had not a very long period of rest, forbefore the night had passed, the Japs arrived, having started afterdark. They marched straight through the village, and the troops there,by no means sorry to leave their uncomfortable quarters, at once gotunder arms and followed them. All moved forward to the westward undercover of the embankment upon which the Chinese battery stood. It wasnecessary to capture this before advancing against the main position.

  When the orders were issued for the Japs to leave at eight o?clock, Rexhad been rather disposed to sleep comfortably at home, and join them inthe morning, for he knew that his services would not be required, andas a thunderstorm was coming on just as they formed up, that feelingincreased. Finally, however, he made up his mind to march with thetroops, and when he found that they were not to halt, but were goingstraight forward to the attack, he rejoiced that he had not given wayto his first impulse. He had brought with him a waterproof sheet andcarried his rifle. Ah Lo, who of course accompanied him, had a largebag of provisions slung over his shoulders. His waterproof, which hewrapped round him, kept him dry during the thunder showers, and thebrisk march which the Japanese kept up prevented him from feeling thecold.

  “You are not going forward to the attack, are you, master?” Ah Loasked, as they approached the scene of action.

  “No; my father only allowed me to come with the force on condition thatI would not take part in the fighting unless the position became socritical that I could not help myself, and really I have no desire tofight. I want to be able to see what is going on all round, and if Iwere to go forward I should only see the little that happened near me.”

  Presently bright flashes broke out ahead on the embankment, and thesespeedily grew into a storm of musketry. As it was still dark theJapanese did not suffer heavily, the majority of the bullets goingoverhead. Rex climbed up on the embankment, and from there he couldsee, by their fire, that the Japanese advanced steadily till they wereclose to the guns. Then they suddenly stopped firing, but two or threeminutes later a volley flashed out, evidently but a few yards from theChinese line. For a moment the two lines became mixed; then, even abovethe roar of musketry, Rex could hear the cheers of the Japs, and heknew that the guns were won. For some distance the fire drifted awayalong the embankment, showing that a hot pursuit was being kept up.

  It was now three in the morning and there was a cessation ofhostilities for an hour and a half. Then, when the Chinese positioncould be made out, the Japanese and British guns opened fire upon itfrom behind the embankment. The Chinese replied energetically, but inhalf an hour their fire began to relax, and soon ceased altogether; itwas evident that they were already withdrawing their guns.

  Meanwhile the Japanese had been advancing. Supported by a mountainbattery on their right, and taking cover in the high maize, they workedup close to the position held by the enemy on the river bank. A littleafter five o?clock they burst out from their cover with a cheer, anddashed at the outlying trenches. As they crossed the open they sufferedheavily from a flanking fire poured in upon them from the grove oftrees on the other side of the river. The Chinese in front also stoodsufficiently long to inflict severe loss upon them, for they hadleft the maize in too close formation. Without a halt, however, theyheld on, sweeping the Chinese before them, and carrying entrenchmentafter entrenchment. Their cavalry cut up the flying Chinese wheneveropportunity offered.

  The British and Americans had now come up, and with the Japanese on theright, and the Americans on the left, the combined force worked theirway along the river bank.

  Occasionally the Chinese offered some slight resistance at long range,and it was expected that they would make a stand at Peitsang, wherethey had a number of strong positions. But, as at Tientsin, the panicof the first fugitives speedily communicated itself to those behind,and position after position was evacuated, without an effort to retainthem, before the steady advance of the allies. The troops moved alongthe river, clearing out the villages and quickening the pace of thefugitives. At nine o?clock they occupied Nangsung, and as all firingceased pushed on to Peitsang, which they found deserted, and haltedthere.

  On the left bank of the river the Russians and French had failed toturn the Chinese right in the early morning, as they found that thewhole country was flooded there, but the defeat of the Chinese leftinvolved, of course, the retirement of their right, and at nineo?clock the Russians were able to occupy the position on the railway.

  Almost the whole of the casualties involved in the battle wereamong the Japanese, who lost sixty killed and two hundred and fortywounded. The British had four killed and twenty–one wounded, while theAmericans, being in reserve, had not suffered at all. The loss of theChinese was very small. At one point they had lost fifty killed, butvery few had fallen in the rest of the entrenchments, owing to theirhurried flight. They had been defeated simply because they had lostheart, a fact which promised well for the success of the expedition,for in their flight they had probably communicated their fears to thetroops behind them. That in an army of twenty–five thousand men thereshould have been only a hundred killed was a proof that the couragethat had evaporated after their first day?s sturdy defence of Tientsinhad been by no means restored during the interval that had sinceelapsed.

  The Russians and French joined the rest of the force at ten o?clock,and that day the baggage came up. It was of the most miscellaneousdescription. There were pack animals of all sorts—horses, mules,ponies, and donkeys; there were carts of all shapes and sizes, fromthe great American wagons, each drawn by four mules, down to littlevehicles like costers? barrows, drawn by little Japanese ponies. Eventhe Japanese, whose arrangements were far better than those of therest of the allies, were but poorly provided. They had only intendedoriginally to take a brigade to Pekin, and had brought transportsufficient for that; but when so large a portion of the Britishforce was detained for work in the south, they were obliged to takea division, and consequently a double strain was thrown upon theirtransport.

  THEIR CAVALRY CUT UP
THE FLYING CHINESE.]

  On the following morning the main body of the Japanese advanced alongthe right bank of the river, repairing the breaches that had beenmade in it. The British and Americans, with two battalions of Japsand a battery of field–artillery, were to advance upon Yangtsun; theRussians and French were also to march upon that bank. An early startwas made, the Russians and French going on ahead of the British. Theyfollowed the line of the river. General Gaselee marched by more directroads, and, getting ahead of them, came into touch with the enemy athalf–past nine. Their position was a strong one, their right restingon a bridge close to the river, in an angle made between it and therailway embankment. Near this bridge were the ruins of Nangsungrailway–station, which formed the centre of their position. Their leftextended far to the eastward, where the town of Nangsung lay hiddenbehind a number of villages. Generals Gaselee and Chaffee took up theirposition on a high sand–hill two miles away from the railway–station,from which they were able to direct the operations.

  The enemy?s fire was first drawn by a company of Cossacks, who had beensent on ahead of the Russian force to reconnoitre. The main body of theRussians had not arrived, nor had the Japanese detached to co–operatewith the British and Americans. Nevertheless, the general decided toattack at once. The 12th Field Battery was brought up on the left, andopened fire on the villages near the railway–station. Under cover ofthis the infantry attack developed, the British advancing in extendedorder through the high maize, and the Americans on the left of therailway embankment, covered by the fire of Rally?s battery.

  While the preparations were being made, General Linivitch came up andexplained to General Gaselee that the Russians were advancing on theenemy?s right, along the road running parallel with the river. TheJapanese detachment also came up. The advance now became general,the British in the centre, the Americans on the right, and theRussians on the left. The British led the direct assault upon theenemy?s entrenchments. The 1st Sikhs, who were at the head of theline, moved steadily forward in the face of a very heavy rifle fire,which was maintained until they arrived at a short distance from therailway–station. As usual, however, the Chinese lost heart when theysaw that they were about to be charged with the bayonet, and retreatedto the top of the railway embankment, from which for a short time theykept up a fire upon the American regiment next to the Sikhs. The frontentrenchment was carried just about eleven o?clock, and a quarter of anhour later the fire ceased, the enemy retiring towards Yangtsun.

  The Russians passed out to the rear of the captured villages, seizedthe railway–station, erected a battery, and bombarded the villagesround Yangtsun and the town itself. Meanwhile the force on the rightwere engaged in clearing out the villages in that direction, the BengalLancers scattering the demoralized enemy in every direction. Yangtsunwas occupied without resistance during the afternoon. The losses hadbeen comparatively slight. The British casualties were under fifty, ofwhich twenty–four were among the Sikhs. The Americans lost seventy–fourand the Russians twenty–seven, but these proportionately large numberswere accounted for by the fact that both these detachments advanced insomewhat closer order than the British, who, keeping their line wellextended, suffered comparatively little loss, though they were exposedto a heavier fire than the others. The Japanese had taken no part inthe engagement, as they had been on the other bank of the river.

  The troops were very much exhausted after their two days? marchingand fighting in the great heat, and the next day they remained atYangtsun, partly for rest and partly to give time to the junks to comeup. A council of war was held, and it was decided that the road shouldnow be left, and that the whole force should proceed on the right bankof the river. The Japs were to lead the advance, the Russians were tofollow, the Americans to come next, and the British to bring up therear.

  During the day Rex went out to look at some of the captured villages,but he was so horrified by the number of peasants whom he found lyingdead that he soon returned to Yangtsun. The Russians appeared to havekilled everyone they met, whether soldiers or quiet peasants. TheAmericans, in the villages they had taken, had acted very differently.In these places he found that the peasants had not been molested. Hehad himself been with the detachment of the Japanese that joined theBritish, and had therefore been a witness of the fighting.

  “I cannot say much for your countrymen, Ah Lo,” he said. “If they arenot going to fight better than they have done, they had much betterhave cleared off the road altogether and left it open for us to goquietly to Pekin.”

  “Chinaman no good to fight,” Ah Lo said contemptuously. “Fight wellenough at distance, but no good when they see that Europeans alwayscome on in spite of their firing. Very good to kill missionaries, nogood to fight soldiers.”

  “Do you think we shall find the Legations safe, Ah Lo?”

  “I hope so, master; but if they go on fighting all the time, insteadof same as when we were there, Chinese must have taken nearly allthe Legations. I expect all the people are crowded up into BritishLegation; they make great fight there.”

  “That is so, Ah Lo; the less space they have to defend, the strongerthey become, but they will have a terrible experience if they areall crowded into the British Legation. The place was full enough whenwe left. Still, I can hardly hope that, if the Chinese have gone onattacking all the time, we could hold more than our own Legation. TheFrench Legation was almost destroyed before we came away, the RussianLegation could only be held with difficulty, and more than half theFu had already been captured. I try to think that it is all right,but I am horribly anxious. All the time that was wasted after we hadtaken Tientsin I was regretting that we had not stopped at Pekin. Ourtwo rifles might not have been of much good, but we should certainlyhave been of some use, and above all, I wanted to be there in case theLegations were captured. My cousins have their Chinese dresses ready,and I cannot help thinking that there must have been some points thatwere not attacked where I could have lowered them down from the walland so escaped into the city. Once away from the fighting, we ought tohave been able to find some place of concealment among so many ruinedand deserted houses.”

  “Perhaps they stand out all right,” said Ah Lo.

  “I hope so, Ah Lo, I hope so with all my heart, but I am terriblyanxious, and I grudge even this day?s halt, knowing that every houris of importance, and that even while we are staying here to–day, themassacre may be going on.”

  Ah Lo had no consolation to offer. He felt that what his master saidwas true, and that at any moment the catastrophe might occur.

  The Japanese started early on the following day. They were alreadyin advance, and for this reason they had been chosen to lead. A haltwas made at Tung–Chow, ten miles distant, no resistance having beenencountered on the way. The Japanese arrived long before the rest ofthe allies. They were very fast marchers, and their transport was lightand handy, and able to keep up with the infantry column. The Russians,on the other hand, were very slow marchers. They slouched along as ifhalf–asleep, made very frequent halts, and their average pace rarelyexceeded a mile an hour. Consequently the Americans, who followedthem, were frequently blocked. The Russians, too, always stopped at avillage, thus compelling the Americans to halt on the hot and sandyroad. This accounted for the great number of casualties from sun–strokeamong the American troops, for the very slow progress made by theAmericans and British, and for the great amount of marching which theyhad to do during the hottest hours of the day, instead of completingtheir journey before the sun had attained its full strength.

  The Japanese generally completed their marches before the sun was high.The Americans seemed to suffer most from the sun, but they marched fastin the early morning and when the heat of the day was over. The Britishmarching was good, and the Indian troops carried themselves well andmarched in good order even in the hottest part of the day, though manyfell out. As regards uniforms, the British were better off than theothers. The Japs wore white, and consequently they were visible formiles, while the British khaki c
ould scarcely be seen at a hundredyards. The Russians were also in white, but their uniforms being alwaysextremely dirty the disadvantage was not so apparent. The Americans,like the British, had khaki, but they seldom wore their coats, andtheir blue shirts rendered them visible for considerable distances.

  On the following day a mixed body of Lancers, Cossacks, and Japanesecavalry scouted the country ahead and came in contact with the enemyhalf–way to Ho–hsi–Wu, where it was expected that the Chinese wouldmake another stand. The main body halted and encamped, and the Japsthrew out outposts. During the day two squadrons of Bengal Lancerscame upon a force of four hundred Chinese cavalry, whom they charged,killing forty or fifty and capturing their standards.

  The British always came in a long time after the rest of the force.They followed the winding of the river to protect the junks which werecarrying up the heavy guns intended for the siege of Pekin. It wasfortunate that forage was plentiful for the cavalry and the animalsof the artillery and transport. The millet was standing high, and asfrequently a large extent of this grain had to be cut down to make aclearance for a camping–ground, there was abundant fodder to supplyall the demands. The junks came up very slowly, towed by lines ofcoolies on the bank, and their late arrival frequently excited greatexasperation among the troops, who were dependent upon them for theirsupplies.

  Ho–hsi–Wu was a small village, near which was situated an arsenalstored with an enormous quantity of gunpowder as well as a supply ofguns of the latest pattern. The Chinese had made an attempt to divertthe course of the river by digging an enormous trench in the directionof some lowlying ground. Fortunately they had not had time to completethe work, for not only would it have still further lowered the river,but it would have rendered an attack on the village difficult, as thetrench was twenty feet deep, and from twenty to thirty feet wide. Asit was left it was still above the level of the water, and could becrossed easily. The village was therefore captured after only a slightresistance.

  The scene on board the long lines of junks was interesting, and, to alooker–on, amusing. Two or three times Rex handed his horse to Ah Loand took passage in one of the junks. These, of course, were guarded bysoldiers of the various nationalities whose supplies were on board.All did their best to urge on their coolies, and as collisions werefrequent, and boats every now and again ran ashore, the hubbub ofshouting in five or six languages was appalling. Rudders were smashed,bulwarks crashed in, and damage done in every way, but the crowd oflubberly craft pushed on in spite of the confusion that everywherereigned.

  The Japanese had unquestionably the best of it. They were comfortablysettled down with their hospital erected before the Russians lumberedup. Everything they did was as well arranged as if they had been athome, and Rex could not but admit that these little soldiers werefar ahead of those of any European country in point of organization,discipline, and the quickness and cheeriness of their movements. Nolooting was allowed among them, and very few outrages indeed werecommitted by them on the unfortunate peasantry. In this respect theycompared very favourably with the troops of all other nationalities,even including our own, although General Gaselee set himself stronglyagainst such acts, severely punishing such offenders as could bebrought to justice.

  On the tenth the Japanese again pressed on, their outposts getting towithin a mile of the retreating enemy. General Fukushima, the movingspirit of the pursuit, was asked in the evening if his troops were notvery tired.

  “Yes,” he said grimly, “and so are the enemy.”

  This was the spirit in which he carried on the movement. The enemy wereto be kept on the run, no time was to be given them to recover theirspirits. They were even worse off than their pursuing enemy, for theyhad no commissariat, carried no provisions with them, and had to feedupon what they could gather at their halting–places, which was seldommore than melons and millet from the fields.

  The Japanese cavalry and infantry halted about three miles in advanceof the main body. When the rest of the infantry came up, they wereextended and searched all the villages near the line of march. Thisdone, the cavalry again went on ahead for some distance, and theprocess was then repeated.

  In this way the army marched down to Matou. It was a long march, andthe troops all suffered terribly from the heat, with the exception ofthe British, who were wisely kept at their last halting–place untillate in the afternoon, and came on in the cool of the evening. The mainbody of the force bivouacked at Matou, the Japanese camp being threemiles farther ahead.

  The next morning the Japanese arrived at Chan–Chia–Wan. The day wascooler than the preceding one, and some rain fell, affording greatrelief from the heat. The Japanese reached the place at eleven o?clock,and sent on a strong detachment of cavalry, infantry, and artillery toreconnoitre. They discovered the enemy in a position south of Chungtaw.At about two o?clock the Japanese brought up some more artillery andshelled the place, whereupon the enemy retired into Tung–Chow, a largeand very wealthy city only thirteen miles from Pekin. The next morningthe Japanese entered Tung–Chow without meeting with any resistanceand took possession of half of the city. The rest of the allied armyarrived somewhat later, and at once began to loot their portion of thetown.

  All the river trade down to Tientsin passes through Tung–Chow, whichcontains even richer pawn–shops than Pekin itself. These are veryimportant institutions in China, not only because of the richness ofthe securities on which money is advanced, but because they are used asstoring–places for valuables by the general public, and contain immensequantities of jewellery, costly furs, jade, and works of art of allsorts and descriptions.

  The greater part of the lower class of the population had remained inthe city, and they joined in the general looting, which was carried oneverywhere whenever they saw a chance. Officers in vain tried to keeptheir men in control in the narrow streets, but in the Russian sectionthe soldiers were allowed to do just as they pleased, and they gavethemselves entirely to looting, rapine, and crime of every kind. Thereports of the flying Chinese soldiers had aroused in the people anintense fear of the foreign devils, and so when the troops arrived ata town or village many of the inhabitants made away with themselves toavoid the outrages of a licensed soldiery. Women threw themselves outof windows or drowned themselves in wells, indeed whole families oftencommitted suicide in order to avoid a worse fate. Thus, although verymany terrible outrages were committed, these accounted for but a smallproportion of the deaths among the Chinese people.

  The British camp was at the edge of the river, and the soldiers werenot allowed inside the town, and stringent orders had been givenagainst looting. Had the other generals taken the same view of thematter, the campaign would not have been disgraced by the plunderingand murder of innocent people. The British general was proud of histroops, and justly so.

  Rex had secured a room in the quarter held by the Japanese and enjoyeda good sleep. He was greatly grieved at the awful destruction that wenton in the town, and he could not but wonder at the cowardice of theChinese in evacuating, without striking a blow, a place whose wallswere at least as strong as those at Tientsin, and leaving its enormouswealth to the enemy. He got up early in the morning and rode out. Thesun had not yet risen, but the narrow streets were filled with thescum of the town, who, invisible the day before, had now returned innumbers, bent on looting the houses of their more wealthy countrymenwho had forsaken them. Filthy beggars and coolies staggered along underthe weight of furs and rolls of silk. The front of nearly every housewas broken in and its contents turned topsy–turvy. The allies had takenthe pick of the goods, but vast quantities remained for any who choseto carry them away.

  The changes of fortune that twenty–four hours had wrought wereextraordinary. Rich men had become beggars, beggars had acquired thatwhich made them wealthy.

  Rex let his horse help himself at the grain shop; the day was likely tobe a heavy one, and the rations served out were but scanty.

  “Now, Ah Lo,” he said, as he joined the Japanese troops, who as us
ualstarted before daylight, “this is the last day of the march. Byto–night our suspense will be over and we shall know what has happened.”

  The Japanese had reason to be proud of themselves. General Yamaguchi,on entering the town, issued a proclamation promising protection tonon–combatants, and telling the people to remain in their houses. Itwas unfortunate indeed that the Japanese had not occupied the whole ofthe city. If they had, the scenes that have disgraced the nations wouldhave been avoided.

  The Japanese advanced by an old stone causeway leading to the easterngate of the Tartar City, the Russians by a road more to the south, butnorth of the canal, and leading to the northern gate of the Chinesecity. South of the canal were the Americans, and still farther tothe south the British. It had been arranged on the previous evening,at the meeting of the generals, that the column should halt a shortdistance from the city. This arrangement, however, was broken by theRussians, who marched close up to the city walls, and, meeting with noopposition and thinking that a surprise might be effected, advancedup to the gate. Here, however, they were met by a heavy rifle fire,which killed and wounded many men. They could not well retire, andtheir message begging for reinforcements was the first intimation ofwhat had occurred. A subsequent rumour stated that they had succeededin entering the city, and the other generals, annoyed at the trickby which the Russians hoped to have the glory of being the first toget into the city, at once marched forward with all haste and withoutconsultation.

  The Japs had, as agreed, halted at a village three miles from theeastern gate, and in one of the dwellings attached to a joss–house,or temple, Rex and a few Japanese took shelter. As night came on, adrizzling rain began to fall. At nine o?clock desultory firing washeard to the east, and half an hour after, a few shots somewhat nearercame from the direction of the eastern gate. Later, the fire increased,and the Japs got under arms. As the night was very dark it wasimpossible to tell what was going on, and, mindful of the arrangementthat had been made, they could not attempt to advance. Just beforedaylight they started again, and then Rex learned of the trick theRussians had played, and that a messenger had arrived begging Fukushimato send reinforcements. The officer who brought the message said thatif the Japanese joined the Russians the combined force could succeed inmaking an entrance through the wall into the city.

  Fukushima replied: “What about the Americans and the British?”

  The Russian officer shrugged his shoulders and said: “Why should wetrouble about them when we can do without them?”

  Fukushima replied angrily that he had undertaken to attack at a certaintime, and that he should stick to his undertaking.

  “This is a pretty bad beginning to the day?s work,” Rex said to theJapanese officer who was marching alongside.

  “I wish we had come without the Russians at all,” the officer replied;“they have brought disgrace upon us all by their infamous doings. Theyhave worked on their own account since they started. They are surlybrutes, and I would infinitely rather fight against them, as I have nodoubt we shall have to do some day, than against these poor beggars ofChinese. It is perfectly scandalous that, after making an agreementonly last night that we were to hold a council this morning and arrangefor an attack in unison, they should sneak forward and try to get allthe glory themselves.”