The days following the forcible occupation of the Taku Forts were spent in destroying all useless and superfluous Chinese stores, such as small-arm ammunition, loose powder, or shells for the guns, which were too old for use; in fact any war material which might prove useful to the Chinese in the very improbable event of the forts again changing owners. The South forts were occupied by the Russians and Germans, the North fort by the Japanese, and the North-west fort by the British and the twenty-five Italians who had fought in the line with our men on the day before.
More gruesome work than the destruction of stores had first to be attended to. The Chinese dead, some of them hideously mutilated by shell fire, had to be buried, and the necessary hurry with which this was carried out, rendered it impossible to do it in a more decent manner than to throw their corpses into the river. In addition to this work, the forts had to be put into a state of defence, as it seemed impossible to imagine that the Allies would be left in peaceable possession of the much vaunted “impregnable Taku Forts”! All modern guns not seriously damaged were prepared for instant use, and when necessary, fresh magazines were dug for each of them. The magazines were perhaps the one radically bad part of the internal arrangements, and it will be remembered that two had been exploded during the bombardment. Even more important than defensive qualities were the health and cleanliness of the men, and steps were immediately taken to ensure both. All rubbish and dirt, of which there was a supply now too great for the demand, but which had decreased with the change of masters, was burnt. A new system of washing was arranged, and the cleanest houses were used as barracks. The officers took the Chinese officers’ quarters, and an idea may be got of the state of the other buildings when it is stated as a fact, that sleep, even in the officers’ rooms, was quite impossible on account of the numberless specimens of the nimble flea. Water and provisions were easily obtained from the fleet, and all water-communications being now open, the procuring of these luxuries soon became a matter of mere routine.
The life was not altogether without excitement. On the first evening the Japanese did not turn up to take over their fort, so forty-four English bluejackets had to go and pretend to defend a position nearly half a mile in circumference. Naturally their position was the cause of the greatest anxiety to Commander Craddock, who was indefatigable in his efforts, and was busy all night mounting Maxims, getting ammunition, and making plans with the commanders of the gunboats to repel any possible attack. However, no attack was made, and the Japanese arrived during the next day.
One evening during this period, some nervous Italian sentry discovered an imaginary enemy, and for some time after the report of his rifle, and the hasty retreat of the foe (a dog), one of the gunboats—not the “Algerine!”—indulged in heavy-gun practice at apparently nothing! As one can imagine, this kind of life began to pall on men who were eager to see more fighting, and all hands heartily wished that the much talked of advance to Tientsin would commence. Of this there seemed to be but little likelihood, for the total forces at the disposal of the Allies did not exceed a thousand men, and even then, a garrison for the forts had to be deducted from this number, in addition to which there seemed to be a very general idea that the detachments at Tientsin were having a right royal time of it; or even supposing that they were fighting, they were in all probability capable of looking after themselves.
So much for ideas, which were not allowed to last long, for one morning Mr Watts rode in with his dispatches, which explained the desperate fight the garrison were maintaining, and asked for more men, more guns, and more ammunition. The authorities, already rather alarmed by the somewhat incoherent yarn of the men who had tried to come down in the “Spray,” immediately grasped the situation, and the “Terrible” happily arriving at the same time as a shipload of Russians, a relief force was forthwith formed. The adventures of the “Spray” party had been extraordinary. At the time when urgent need of communicating with the outside world became manifest, these brave fellows, seven in number, volunteered to take a little steam launch and endeavour to run the gauntlet by river. They seemed doomed to failure at the outset, for they ran ashore, and stuck fast when only just a few miles past the lines of the Chinese army. All their efforts to get the boat off were unavailing, and in due course they were discovered by some Boxers, who immediately went off to rouse the neighbourhood. When night fell there were quite a large number of these blood-thirsty gentlemen on the bank, and it was decided that it was better to desert the boat than to fight with practically no chance of success. Accordingly, taking advantage of the gloom caused by the disappearance of the moon behind some clouds, the whole party slipped quietly over the gunwale, and swam to the opposite bank to that on which they could just distinguish the Boxer sentries. Hardly had they done so when the Boxers dispatched a body of men over to the stranded launch, and, having poured paraffin all over it, set it ablaze. By means of this light the fugitives were spotted, and an extraordinary chase ensued. Luckily the Boxers were absolutely without firearms, while the little party were all armed with rifles and bayonets, without which all of them would doubtless have been killed within an hour or two.
The distance to Taku from where the Europeans had landed was about twenty-five miles, but this was quite doubled eventually, by the necessity of having to avoid villages and other parties of Boxers, which were to be seen in all directions. The narrowest escape of all the many that befell this little band, occurred when in desperation they hid in a large clump of rushes to get some rest. Evidently they were suspected of being in the vicinity, however, and a party of Boxers searched the rushes, thrusting their pikes into all likely corners, but luckily without discovering the runaways. An attempt to get food also nearly proved disastrous. One of the civilians, who used to shoot a great deal in the neighbourhood, said he knew a Chinaman whom he had often befriended, and who would perhaps give them some native cakes and tea. On arriving at his hut, however, and making his request, backed by the promise of many dollars, the man turned scarlet with rage, and said, “What? tea and cakes indeed, why I’m going to kill you;” and immediately sped off in the direction of the nearest village to get assistance. After many other similar vicissitudes, the party arrived at Taku on the morning of the 20th in an utter state of collapse.
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To revert to the relief force: The “Terrible” had on board 300 Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and 40 of the Royal Engineers; and these, with 250 English bluejackets from the North-west fort, and 23 Italians, entrained for Tientsin on June 21st under the command of Commander Craddock. An hour or two previously, about 1000 Russians, 150 Americans, and 250 Germans had entrained for the same destination, bringing the total force up to just 2000 men. With the British train was a specially constructed water tank, and provisions sufficient to last five days. Bad luck pursued the train from the beginning, for not five miles from Tong-Ku the engine left the rails, and a mishap occurred which might have had extremely serious consequences. In the course of its erratic wanderings the engine upset the first two trucks, on one of which was the water tank, the other being full of officers and men. The damage to human life and limb was happily nil, beyond a few more or less severe contusions, but the precious water tank had to be left, and it was only by dint of hard work, and the loss of a couple of hours’ time, that the expedition was able to resume its journey. Without further incident the train arrived at a point eighteen miles from Tientsin, where the line had been slightly destroyed, passing on their way the garrison of Russians at Chin-Liang-Ching. This place, it will be remembered, had previously been the object of a train expedition from Tientsin which failed at first owing to the state of the line, but which had succeeded at length in reaching it. They had remained undisturbed during the whole of the past very exciting week. Here the force spent the night, and received the news that the Russians and Americans, who had attempted to push their way through to the settlements without waiting for the British, had been defeated and repulsed with the loss of an American machine gun and some men.
The next morning the force was engaged in clearing all the neighbouring villages, which were full of Boxers. These it was not safe to leave on the rear of the column’s advance, which had been fixed for the morrow (23rd). The trains also managed to get six miles nearer Tientsin, reducing the distance to be marched to twelve miles. On the same day another train left Tong-Ku with two 6-pr. Q.F. guns, a quantity of ammunition and provisions, and with orders to convey details to the respective forces. It was a mixed crew who took their places in it; five British, with a naval engineer officer running the engine, five American marines, and seven Russians, the whole under the charge of an English midshipman. They stopped at the scene of the disaster of the previous day, and took on board the eleven men who had been clearing the line, and who had done wonders, even to the righting of the overturned water cart. Some six miles further on Boxers were seen burning the line; fortunately they did not see the train until too late, when they bolted into some rushes near the line. A lesson was necessary, so the train was stopped, the midshipman and several men detrained and, after a short search, discovered and slew one of the delinquents, who had a can of oil on his person besides several boring implements for damaging the sleepers. From the moment of re-starting till Chin-Liang-Ching was reached, nothing happened worthy of recording; but on arriving there those in the train could for the first time hear continuous firing, and the burning villages, and dense clouds of smoke, proved to be an infallible index to the position of the main body.
On reaching Commander Craddock’s force, which had just returned from a hard day’s skirmishing, the men were engaged in cooking a meal preparatory to a few hours’ rest before the advance next morning. The position chosen for the night’s bivouac was a splendid one. On the right was the railway embankment and a canal, in front was another canal spanned by a substantial bridge, on the left was a high bank, and in rear was a village which unfortunately was burning. The Russians and Germans under Major-General Stoessel were two miles in advance, and lay in the open; but the English and Americans, after having first seen to the comfort of their officers, built themselves extremely comfortable shakedowns. During the day a Mohammedan priest had been captured, and on being assured of his safety, told Mr Watts, who was returning to Tientsin in the capacity of guide and interpreter to the column, that eight miles in front lay General Ma and 15,000 of the most efficient Imperial troops; which piece of news seemed likely to militate largely against the expressed intention of dining in Tientsin on the morrow.
The only diversion during the night was a pleasant surprise. The camp was roused about midnight by a train’s whistle, and it proved to be 150 men of the 1st Wei-Hai-Wei regiment, and a 12-pr. Q.F. gun under Lieutenant Drummond of H.M.S. “Terrible.” Having detrained, the Chinese regiment accompanied the force when they started at 3 a.m. on the 23rd; a guard of about fifty men and the gun being left behind to guard the camp, so that there might be somewhere to fall back on in case of a reverse.
The British and Americans and Italians were on the left side of the railway embankment, and when in extended formation, their left flank rested on the river bank, where several villages were situated, which had to be cleared on the way.
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The Russians and Germans deployed on the other side of the railway, in a large plain which extends from the coast nearly to Pekin, and with them went their artillery, a six-gun battery; the only gun on the British side being a 12-pr. from the American man-of-war “Monocacy.” As usual the transport was the great difficulty, and the officer in charge expresses himself as follows:
“The arrangements, although as good as possible under existing circumstances, were meagre in the extreme; I can speak feelingly on this matter. I happened to be in charge of the impedimenta, which, although it only consisted of a big water cart and a heavy load of ammunition, and could be stowed on two Pekin carts, was nevertheless much too heavy for the mule and the donkey which were the only beasts of burden obtainable. In a civilised country I should have certainly been summoned by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for the mule had been more or less severely wounded by a bullet, and eventually died. However, war is hardly a civilised game, and I determined to do my best. Before a mile had been passed the convoy—a high-sounding title, which in this case applied to myself, two men, and two beasts—had grown extremely unpopular with the commanding officer, who can have had no idea of the difficulties to be contended with; and had, in addition, fallen half a mile astern of the fighting line, owing to the incapability of the united efforts of us three men and the two animals to drag the carts through sand nearly up to the axle bars. From our point of view the situation was first ludicrous and then alarming; from the commanding officer’s standpoint, it must have been more than aggravating the whole time, for he was a man who took the greatest trouble to perfect every detail conducive to success, and had in this case been baulked by the necessity for quick action, which rendered it impossible to improve on the existing arrangements.
“Before we had gone four miles, a desultory musketry fire was heard on the right, which soon increased to a tolerably heavy fusilade. As yet the main advance was unimpeded, but as no forward movement became apparent from the wing on which the firing was going on, and as it was essential that touch should be kept along the whole line, it was decided to await developments in that quarter. By this time we were almost out of sight of the fighting line, and a bad sand-storm was sweeping in our faces. Suddenly a mounted man was seen to cross the railway embankment and gallop in our direction. He proved to be a Cossack, who by his gestures seemed to want us to reinforce some one. Perhaps we were mistaken; perhaps he was the possessor of a pretty wit, or the third alternative suggests itself, perhaps he was mad. At any rate I pointed to my two men, and violently shook my head, then to the mule (now just at the point of death) and said “can do,” whereat the Cossack seemed offended, and then as a few men commenced to snipe at us, I lured him off his pony, took his place, and galloped off to report the situation to Commander Craddock. He very kindly rode back with me, and instructed me as to the best path to take, and gave me instructions to do the best I could for my convoy. I accordingly got permission from the major in command of the Fusiliers to take an officer and twelve men of his regiment, and a similar number of Royal Engineers under Lieutenant Browne, R.E., as a rear-guard. These were perforce turned into packhorses, and we started again. In about two minutes from our new start one of the escort got a bullet through the knee, and added materially to the weight of the ammunition cart until a stretcher was got for him, when we at last picked up the force, who were temporarily checked opposite the Pei-Yang arsenal.
“We found that the Germans and Russians had tried to take this position, but had been repulsed and driven over on to our side of the railway line. From the embankment their guns vigorously shelled the arsenal, and so far succeeded in keeping down the enemy’s fire, as to allow of our men crossing a canal, and continuing their advance. From this moment the state of the roads was so much better, that we managed to keep our proper distance from the firing line, and the thirsty men refilled their water-bottles at the first halt.”
Underneath the bridge nearest to the arsenal, the Chinese had placed two 500lb. observation mines, upon which two tired American marines thought fit to sit; but the Chinese did not explode them, and the wires were cut before any damage was done.
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It now became impracticable for the German and Russian troops to continue their advance along the right of the line, as they would have been in the open, with a hostile force of three times their number operating on their right flank, as well as being subjected to the fire from the field guns in the arsenal; so they covered the advance of the rest of the force who were engaged with the enemy in some entrenched villages in front. The Chinese were in force and under excellent cover, when suddenly the red ensign was distinguished flying over the Tientsin town hall, the sight of which proved to be a magnificent stimulant to the allies. Several men fell in the open, but the village was rushed without heavy loss, and the work of clearing the streets was begun. For some time it was warm work, and two companies of our sailors were placed in a difficult position from which they were cleverly extricated. As the men passed through the village it was burnt, which completely nullified the possibility of an attack in the rear, and as the houses began to grow fewer, and the open country appeared, the Imperial troops broke and fled. The few last streets were like a battue, and in this instance the much vaunted fearlessness of the Boxers, who at last had the courage to remain to the end, was severely tested.
Some fanatics certainly “came” for the companies with swords, and one man had the temerity to hurl a ‘stinkpot’ at a lieutenant, but these were quite the exceptions, and were quickly dispatched. For the most part the Boxers had remained only to run at the last, or die; often the former, more often both. Quarter was neither asked for nor given, for in the Boxer proclamations were passages relating to European women and children which put them on a par with incarnate devils without human feelings.
At length the work was finished, and once more the men left the village for the open. But before departing two incidents happened, one pathetic, the other weird. An old man was led right down the fire-swept street towards one of our companies by a little boy aged about four. The poor old fellow was blind, and his grandson seemingly preferred to trust our men rather than any one else. Who knows? perhaps he was right. Needless to say he was unharmed, and led out of the burning village safely. In the other case, a bluejacket just about to bayonet a man in the back, who had rushed at him with a sword and then fled, remarked, “No, I’m blowed if I do, it’s a dirty way of doing it,” and shot him instead.
When clear of the village the settlements were in full view, and the intervening mile or so was soon passed. Some of the staff crossed the river in sampans, while the rest of the force made their way up the bank, and arrived at the ruined military college, just in time to catch the last of the Imperials, who were by this time in full flight from our extreme right, where they had attempted to rally on deserting the left and centre. A raft of logs was swung over the river, and the tired but elated men scrambled over into the relieved town, amid cheers and general congratulations. The pleasure of the meeting was mutual, for it was doubted if the garrison could hold out so long, in addition to which, the gratification of the relieving force, at meeting old shipmates and friends, was quite as keen as that of the defenders. The twelve miles had been traversed in eight hours, which seems an unconscionably long time, when the fact of the fighting, not having been very severe, is taken into consideration. But it must be remembered that the ground over which the march had taken place was mainly sand, that a blinding sand-storm had been blowing in the men’s faces, and that the opposing force was greatly superior in point of numbers and position. Only those who have experienced a heavy sand-storm in the middle of a hot summer day, can sufficiently appreciate the second cause of our tardy march.
In view of the after events, “The relief of Tientsin” seems almost a misnomer, but by this action much-needed guns and reinforcements had been brought in, and the communications to Taku had been cleared, and henceforth, through the military incapacity of the Chinese generals, they remained open.
The Russians encamped on the left bank of the river, and, in consequence of their presence, the station could in future only be attacked from two sides instead of three. Instead of the terrible uncertainty which the Allies had felt about themselves on the day before, there was now a conviction that the eventual relief of Pekin was only a matter of time. But as Seymour was still unheard of, and his whereabouts unknown, his relief would evidently have to be their next task.
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