CHINA. 



99 



this fight the allies concentrated at Yangtsun, 

 where the decision was taken to retreat, aban- 

 doning the trains because the line was cut prob- 

 ably beyond repair, and camps of Chinese troops 

 as well as Boxers had been seen between Yangtsun 

 and Pekin. 



They started on June 19 to march down the 

 Peiho, placing the wounded and stores on four 

 junks that had been seized by a German recon- 

 noitering party. The march was exceedingly slow 

 on account of the difficulty of managing the junks 

 in the eddies of the river. On the second day the 

 Americans at the head of the column encountered 

 Boxers and drove them away with a cannon. 

 After that every village wall, every dump of 

 trees, and every ditch gave cover to the enemy, 

 who contested the whole way with rifles and can- 

 non. When the Chinese appeared in the open they 

 were easily scattered by fire from machine guns. 

 The villages were cleared by bayonet charges. 

 They were scarcely half a mile apart, and at every 

 one there was a fight, while in the intervening 

 spaces the men were constantly exposed to the 

 fire of the Chinese, who were armed with Mann- 

 lichers, using smokeless powder, and had a small 

 gun, fired with smokeless powder also. Peitsang 

 was taken from a garrison of Chinese troops after 

 a stubborn battle. Below that place they had to 

 fight Chinese regulars having field guns and cav- 

 alry. Capt. McCalla and Cadet Taussig were 

 wounded. They turned a village from which the 

 enemy could not be dislodged, and on July 22 

 approached the old city of Tientsin, having seized 

 three more junks, on which they put their heavier 

 guns as well as the wounded. They attempted 

 a night march, but were checked by a heavy fire. 

 The junk with the guns on board sank. In the 

 morning they came opposite a walled inclosure 

 on the other bank and were hailed by soldiers of 

 the viceroy, who were told that the troops were 

 going to Tientsin and had no trouble with any- 

 body but Boxers. To the surprise of the allies, 

 the Chinese opened fire with rifles and guns all 

 along the wall. They knew nothing of the cap- 

 ture of the Taku forts by the fleet. All the force 

 sought; cover and returned the fire. The French- 

 men on their junk stopped close to the wall and 

 began firing on the Chinese, while a party of 

 British and one of Americans and Germans crossed 

 the river above and below and stormed the low 

 wall at different points. The British entered first 

 and turned on the Chinese one of their own guns, 

 causing them to run in surprise and consternation. 

 The Germans and Americans took two other guns 

 and turned them on the garrison, and soon the 

 place was abandoned by its defenders. It was 

 the great Hsiku arsenal, with a garrison of about 

 500 men, who were not more surprised by the 

 attack than the captors were when they found, 

 besides 7 guns mounted on the walls, 60 odd 

 stored in the buildings, all of the most modern 

 design, and Mannlicher rifles by the thousand, 

 with millions of rounds of ammunition. The 

 Chinese, with 5,000 native troops, had field guns, 

 seconded by guns of position in Tientsin. The 

 expeditionary force therefore determined to re- 

 main there, and brought over the troops left on 

 the other side of the river and the wounded from 

 the junks. Large guns were mounted at every 

 corner, with smaller rifles and machine guns along 

 the walls. By rocket signals they found that the 

 Europeans still held Tientsin, and they were con- 

 fident of being able to hold out with their superior 

 artillery against the incessant attacks of the Chi- 

 nese until relief came. On June 25 came a relief 

 column of Russian troops, and on the following 

 morning they marched unopposed down to Tien- 



tsin after destroying guns and war stores in the 

 arsenal worth 40,000,000 taels. The expedition 

 had lost more than GO killed ami 2<M) wounded. 



Reduction of the Taku Forts. As soon as 

 the extra guards under Admiral Seymour set out 

 from Tientsin, Yansu soldiery marched from 

 I 'ckin to oppose them and cut the railroad, and 

 large bodies of Boxers congregated at points along 

 the line. On June 6, when the railroad between 

 Admiral Seymour's party and Tientsin was rut. 

 the American, British, French, German, Austrian, 

 Italian, and Japanese admirals held a council of 

 war for the purpose of arranging combined action 

 if required. There were 25 ships in the harbor 

 and 900 men oh shore. Each government in- 

 trusted its naval commander with discretion to 

 decide, in consultation with the other commanders, 

 what action was required by the necessities of the 

 case for the protection of its legations and citi- 

 zens. The Boxers and troops that cut the railroad 

 in the rear of Admiral Seymour immediately in- 

 vested Tientsin. Until then the officers at Tien- 

 tsin did not know definitely that the relief force 

 was cut off, and after that they knew no more 

 about Admiral Seymour until they saw the rock- 

 ets sent up from the Chinese arsenal. When Sey- 

 mour's expedition started, the Government at 

 Pekin gave orders to the Viceroy of Pechili to 

 resist by force the landing of any more troops. 

 Gen. Liu had been sent to garrison the Taku forts 

 with about 3,000 well-trained soldiers from Hunan 

 when the additional guards started for Pekin 

 against the protest of the Chinese Government. 

 The works at the mouth of the Peiho, partly of 

 modern and partly of older construction, mounted 

 200 guns, half or more of them of modern pat- 

 terns. 



On receiving information that the Chinese were 

 re-enforcing Taku and were sending troops to at- 

 tack Tientsin and occupy Tangku and preparing 

 to mine the mouth of the Peiho, the admirals 

 determined to seize Taku. They first held a naval 

 council on board the Russian flagship on June 15, 

 and resolved to land 300 Japanese marines to 

 guard the railroad station at Tangku, but not to 

 assume the offensive unless the 2,000 Chinese re- 

 ported to be coming should advance to seize the 

 station. On June 16 they resolved at another 

 council that although the Chinese Government, 

 when the Boxer disturbances began, had seemed 

 sensible of its duty and anxious to restore peace, 

 its troops were now engaged in laying torpedoes 

 in the Peiho and advancing against the railroad, 

 and were plainly co-operating with the insur- 

 gents; therefore, since the responsibility of pre- 

 serving communication with the land forces de- 

 volved upon the naval commanders, it became 

 necesary to occupy temporarily the Taku forts, 

 with or without the consent of the Chinese author- 

 ities. This intention was conveyed to the Viceroy 

 of Pechili and the officer commanding the forts, 

 who were notified that unless these were evacu- 

 ated hostilities would begin at two o'clock in the 

 morning of June 18. 



The admirals designed a combined attack on the 

 forts by land and water, and for this purpose 

 1,200 men were landed on June 16 to take the 

 forts in the rear while the gunboats bombarded 

 them from the river. The Chinese did not wait 

 for the time "of the ultimatum to expire, but 

 opened fire on the vessels a quarter before 1 

 in the night of June 17. The storming parties 

 came into action only on the following morning, 

 and the operation was therefore more costly than 

 it would have been had the original plan been 

 carried out. The large ships outside the bar could 

 not assist, as no vessel drawing 20 feet of water 





