Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh Part 6

Now, it is utterly impossible that Mr. Bruce can have received the instructions to _employ_ the naval force so soon as the 23rd of April.

The first despatch of Lord Russell, authorizing Admiral Hope to defend the treaty ports against the Ti-pings bears date March 11, and has already been noticed; but even supposing it left England on the same day, it could not have reached Pekin when Admiral Hope and General Staveley had taken the offensive, and made incessant attacks upon every Ti-ping position within some thirty miles of Shanghae. The last instructions from Earl Russell were those suppositional ones, dated 7th September, 1861:--

"It _might_ be expedient to defend the treaty ports, _if_ the Chinese Government would consent not to use them."

Referring back to the only definite order of Her Majesty's Government at the time of the unparalleled breaches of neutrality, we find it to be that bearing date August 8, 1861:--

"Her Majesty's Government desire to maintain, as they have done hitherto, _neutrality_ between the two contending parties in China."

Thus, it cannot fail to be seen that hostilities were established against the Ti-pings, not only in violation of the pledged faith of England, but also in direct opposition to the _public_ orders of her Government. Eventually the Government sanctioned and authorized a continuance of these raids, although they carefully avoided making any straightforward announcement of their policy. Their plan was always to approve the aggressive action of the officials in China, but never to order them publicly. The despatches approving General Staveley's unjustifiable attack upon innocent men respectively bear date--"Foreign Office, July 7, 1862," and "War Office, July 23." These doc.u.ments, however, which take the odium and responsibility of the ma.s.sacres from the active agents, and place them upon the British nation, could not have reached Pekin, and been communicated to the naval and military commanders at Shanghae, until late in September. We shall see what unauthorized and unnecessary hostilities were perpetrated previous to their arrival.

General Staveley, having a.s.sumed the princ.i.p.al command of the raiding expeditions, finding that the friendly Ti-pings would not come and fight him, went to fight them. Upon the 3rd of April a strong force of 2,207 British and French troops, with naval detachments under command of Admirals Hope and Protet, and thirteen pieces of artillery, moved out from Shanghae to continue "taking the offensive." The place doomed to destruction was a large, and for Chinese warfare, strong, entrenched Ti-ping camp at Wong-ka-dza, garrisoned by about 4,000 men. After a hot day's march, the whole force, including some hundreds of Imperialists dragging the guns, carrying portable bridges, extra loads of ammunition, and every requisite appliance of modern warfare, arrived at a deserted village within twelve miles from Shanghae, and about two from the Ti-ping camp. Here they encamped for the night. Early on the following morning the combined forces,[5] taking advantage of the cover afforded by a thick mist, moved on the position of the Ti-pings, establis.h.i.+ng themselves within a few hundred yards of the defences just as the fog cleared away. The entrenched camp consisted of some ten or twelve stockades, each surrounded by a ditch, yet communicating with the others. The Ti-pings, as usual, waited for those they invariably looked upon as "foreign brethren" to take the offensive. They had not long to wait. Having taken up a position fairly within range of their Enfield rifles and artillery, but safely out of range of the useless gingalls and matchlocks of the Ti-pings, the "foreign brethren" opened a murderous fire upon the line of entrenchments. The devoted defenders replied as well they could, without artillery or effective fire-arms, and bravely held their stockades for nearly an hour, amid the storm of shrapnel-sh.e.l.l, rifle-b.a.l.l.s, &c., poured in upon them with terrible effect. At length the irresistible foreign artillery drove them from the stockades with heavy loss, and played upon their retreating columns with deadly accuracy. During the attack and retreat the Ti-pings lost upwards of 600 killed and wounded (the wounded falling into the hands of the Imperialists were all put to death), while the allies had _one_ man killed and another wounded.

Admiral Hope, who grounded his precious _casus belli_ upon the _possible_ destruction of supplies _by the Ti-pings_, states in his report of this and the following actions:--

"All these camps, which contained large quant.i.ties of rice collected from the surrounding country, were burnt, AND THE GRAIN DESTROYED."

A few days before the attack upon Wong-ka-dza, H.M. gunboat _Flamer_ attacked and destroyed a fleet of 300 Ti-ping boats, "_deeply laden with rice and live stock_." Who, then, proved to be the devastator and marauder; the uncivilized Chinese, or the civilized Christian? Yet the princ.i.p.al pretence given for attacking the Ti-pings was that they _might_ do what Admiral Hope and his colleagues so effectually _did_.

After chasing the fugitives so long as the Enfield would reach them, the allied force gave up the pursuit, and retired to the village of Che-poo, where they had rested the previous night. Meanwhile, those who escaped from this slaughter met with another enemy, in the shape of a strong contingent of the filibuster Ward's disciplined Chinese. This ally of Admiral Hope, chagrined at having lost this opportunity, determined to attack another fortified camp with his own men. The position a.s.signed to this respectable person during the first engagement was to cut off and kill the Ti-pings as they fled from the fire of the British and French artillery. Fortunately for those unoffending people he arrived too late.

When he did honour his worthy friends with his presence, history telleth not whether they were tired, or engaged looting, or making merry; but certain it is that they let him make his attack una.s.sisted, except by Admiral Hope.

This PAR n.o.bILE, on valorous deeds intent, heedless alike of mud, heat, and fatigue, marched for several miles by intricate pathways, through creeks, ditches, and swampy paddy-fields, to the rebel camp near the village of Lu-ka-kong; and elated, doubtless, by the Admiral's narration of his chivalrous deeds at Wong-ka-dza, and a.s.sured by his loss of only one man, halted in front of the Ti-ping stockade.

Drawing his mercenary sword, and brus.h.i.+ng back the Yankee locks, General Ward gave the word to a.s.sault in a tone of a.s.sured victory. The disciplined Chinamen, led by their foreign officers, rushed forward bravely enough; but the Ti-pings had not been half destroyed by shot and sh.e.l.l; neither at that time had they lost their best troops in conflict with the British and French, nor the moral effect of their former triumphs. Consequently, after three attempts to storm the stockade, when five officers and seventy men were placed _hors de combat_, Admiral Hope advanced to call off the men, and was rewarded with a Ti-ping bullet lodged in the calf of his leg. Ward, having none of the resistless artillery to mow down the patriotic Ti-pings, found them more than a match for his men--disciplined, led by foreigners, and well armed as they were. A retreat was therefore sounded, and the British Admiral was ignominiously carried away upon a litter borne by sundry cursing Celestials.

To avenge the glaring insult and audacity of those rebels who had dared to deposit a bullet in the calf of a leg of a British Admiral, who was doing his utmost to kill them, the next morning the allied forces brought their artillery to bear, and without a single casualty succeeded in driving the Ti-pings from this and several neighbouring entrenchments, killing some 300, and burning and destroying the large quant.i.ties of grain, as stated by Admiral Hope. Not only in this instance, but very many others, the allies acted with far more wanton destructiveness than ever the Ti-pings did.

The next attack upon the Ti-pings by the gallant allies came off on the 17th of April. Upon this occasion the redoubtable Admiral was unable to act, in consequence of his injured limb. The place at which the combined English, French, and mercenaries gathered fresh (Chinese) laurels, was the village of Che-poo, with its defences, situated about 18 miles S.E.

of Shanghae. The attacking force mustered some 2,500 strong, with 14 pieces of artillery, the whole commanded by General Staveley and Admiral Protet, a.s.sisted by Captain Borlase, R.N., and the filibuster Ward.[6]

These troops were embarked in a flotilla of British and French gunboats, and carried up the Shanghae river, to cause as much devastation and bloodshed as they had already created elsewhere.

It was a splendid morning, and the landscape seemed beautiful, as the troops, after landing in the neighbourhood of Chee-poo, marched forward on their mission. Through fields rich with the ungathered crops, which it was pretended the Ti-pings might devastate, over seven or eight miles of smiling and profusely-cultivated country they wound their way. Upon arriving within a mile of the village, they halted for their guns to come up, and rested preparatory to the coming attack.

The guns having arrived, at 2 p.m. were in position, and opened a most destructive fire at 500 yards, and in half an hour the rebels were in full retreat. The poor fellows endeavoured to face the overwhelming hail of shot and sh.e.l.l; and, as one official report states, "returned a desultory fire, _but without doing any mischief_, while the allies made dreadful havoc amongst them." Driven from their works by the irresistible artillery, the Ti-pings retreated in three columns in the direction of the walled city, Chan-za, when, as the official report states, "the Royal artillery and naval guns were brought to bear upon the retreating ma.s.s with terrible effect." The loss of the Ti-pings, out of a total strength of less than 4,000, amounted to more than 600 killed and 300 taken prisoners, who were, of course, cruelly executed by the Manchoo mandarins; the allied loss was _nil_!

The Ti-pings had not expected any attack upon that day, and when the camp was entered, their dinners were found smoking in the cups, while half-finished letters were lying on the chiefs' table.

The report published in the _Shanghae Daily s.h.i.+pping List_ states:--

"As the houses were _ransacked_, great quant.i.ties of valuable jewels, gold, silver, dollars, and costly dresses were found, which was fair (?) _loot_ to the officers and men. One blue-jacket found 1,600 dollars, and several soldiers upwards of 500 each, while many picked up gold bangles, earrings, and other ornaments and pearls set with precious stones. _It was a glorious day of looting for everybody_, and we hear that one party, who discovered the Ti-ping treasury chest with several thousand dollars in it, after loading himself to his heart's content, was obliged to give some of them away to lighten his pockets, which were heavier than he could well bear--a marked case of _l'embarras des richesses_. The rebel stud of ponies was well supplied also, and many of the soldiers rode back with their booty."

All this _looting_ and butchery of unresisting men (it would be absurd to term the defence of the Ti-pings, resulting in one Englishman wounded, but hundreds of themselves killed--a resistance according to military _parlance_) was executed, we must particularly remember, because their cause, which had for its sole object expulsion of the foreign Manchoo and establishment of Christianity, _might_ interfere with British commercial interests, and that "temporary one arising out of the indemnities!"

The _Shanghae Daily s.h.i.+pping List_, just quoted from, was the paid official organ of the British Government, and when it stated the above, it may easily be imagined what the disgraceful scene really was. This journal, under a variety of style and t.i.tle, has been repeatedly quoted in the Blue Books upon China, issued by Her Majesty's Government, as the opinion of the press in China. Its truthfulness may fairly be estimated from the following comparison of a statement which appeared in its columns upon the ma.s.sacre at Wong-ka-dza, and another upon the one at Che-poo. Both places are situated in the same tract of country, and only a few miles apart. In its detail of the first affair, the official organ, speaking of the slaughter of the Ti-pings, terms it:--

"A just retaliation on those wretches who had made their smiling land _a scene of misery and desolation_."

Reporting the second affair, it states:--

"_The aspect of the country looked charming_, as the expedition threaded its way among _cultivated fields covered with the green crops_ sown by the industrious inhabitants."

Like all other unscrupulous sources of opposition to the revolutionists, the _Shanghae Daily s.h.i.+pping List_ is sufficiently condemned by its own words. It needeth not a partizan to advocate Ti-pingdom; any person not blinded by prejudice or dollars, and who will take the trouble to study both sides of the question with proverbial English fair-play, cannot fail to become favourably interested in the insurgents, simply through the rabid diatribes which prove the bigotry of opponents and the inadvertent contradictions which prove their falseness.

In order to avoid quarrelling about the plunder, General Staveley and the Admirals entered into the following agreement with regard to the future freebooting exploits. Immediately after the heavily laden heroes, sailors, soldiers, marines, and all had deposited their _loot_ in safe quarters, the triumviri, in solemn conclave, a.s.sembled upon the 22nd of April, and made the following formal regulations:--

"Previous to the capture of Kah-ding and the other towns from the rebels, proper arrangements shall be made ... to collect whatever may be of value, in order to its fair distribution amongst the troops, to whom the same is to be made known before the commencement of the operations."

Eager to try the merit of their regulated loot hunting, on the 27th of April, the allies again set forth to attack the Ti-pings. Upon this occasion their looting propensities were indulged in at the town of Kah-ding, situate about 30 miles to the N.W. of Shanghae. The allied force consisted of nearly 4,000 men, with 30 pieces of artillery,[7]

a.s.sisted by an army of Imperialist _braves_, under the command of Le, a Chinese general.

The advance guard of the allies having been arrested by two small stockades, defending the water approach to Kah-ding, upon the morning of the 29th, the artillery was brought into play and the defenders of the outwork driven back upon the city, losing some 50 men during their resistance and retreat, the European enemy following in rapid pursuit up to the walls of Kah-ding without a single casualty.

The last day of April was spent by the allies in reconnoitering the city and landing the heavy guns, which had been brought in boats from Shanghae. Before dawn on the morning of May the 1st, the whole of the guns were in position, and the troops safely under cover in the ruined suburbs, ready to pick off the defenceless Ti-pings with their far-reaching rifles. The country traversed during the preceding days is thus spoken of in the _China Mail_, a paper bitterly hostile to the insurgents:--

"After marching along a good road, and through _a beautiful country with fine thriving crops_, the troops reached the southern suburb of Kah-ding."

Daylight of the 1st of charming May was ushered in by the roar of a large park of foreign artillery. Kah-ding, although a walled town, was undefended with cannon, and its garrison of some 5,000 or 6,000 men were, for the most part, armed with bamboo spears. The European troops having invested three of the city gates, the fourth, the only way of retreat for the besieged, was watched by the Imperialist _braves_, commissioned to cut up the Ti-pings as they fled from the British and French artillery. To the concentrated and terrific fire of thirty pieces of large ordnance, the defenders of the city replied with a brisk though totally ineffective discharge of gingalls. The storm of iron poured upon them soon silenced their fire and drove them from the walls, and with a loss of several hundred, they fled from the town, cutting their way through the Imperialist troops, who watched their only line of retreat.

In order to delay the storming of the city, and so afford time for its evacuation, a small body of the Ti-ping soldierly n.o.bly remained and sacrificed themselves for their comrades. This devoted band, numbering about 130, held their post at the south gate, the princ.i.p.al point of attack, until the European stormers were on the walls, three little 2-pound Chinese guns on the gate tower having been worked till the parapet, overthrown by the crus.h.i.+ng fire of the siege train, fell upon and buried the gunners beneath the _debris_.

Driven back by the overwhelming advance of the storming party, the heroic few retired to the north gate, through which the garrison had made their escape; here to a man they fell, while courageously placing themselves between the foe and their retreating comrades. The greater number of them were mere boys, and from the richness of their dress, evidently of good position among their friends. Three little fellows, each armed with a small matchlock, were seen by a friend of mine to rush forward directly a large sh.e.l.l would knock down a portion of the parapet and fire off their puny weapons at the foe. They were too small to reach the loop-holes, and so waited till the 32-pound shot of the besiegers made a hole for them to use. To avoid the deadly rifles they never used the same hole twice, but nevertheless were all killed, for my friend, when pa.s.sing round the walls, found their bodies lying close together and crushed by a ma.s.s of fallen stonework.

The _China Mail_, in its account of the a.s.sault, states:--

"The scene was now most picturesque. A sh.e.l.l had set fire to part of the city close at hand; the early morning sun was s.h.i.+ning pleasantly upon the fields, _rich with ungathered crops_, and the French band played as the troops scaled the walls."

The loss of the Ti-pings at the capture of Kah-ding was nearly 500 killed in the city; 2,000 slaughtered while escaping from the murderous artillery, by the Manchoo troops under Le, who had the bodies mutilated, and offered to produce their ears to General Staveley; and about 1,000 taken prisoners, who, although captured by the a.s.sistance of British soldiers, perished in the Manchoo execution shambles.

The stolen property agreement proved very useful at the capture of Kan-ding, nearly 200,000 dollars' worth having been seized in that city without the loss of a single life to the brave allies.

The _China Mail_, in its issue, "15th May, 1862," although mistakenly considering the Ti-ping revenue (obtained from taxation, silk, &c.) as "the poor people's property," very rightly condemns the wholesale system of brigandage practised by the allies. After referring to the "mercenary" and "sordid" nature of the intervention, it states:--

"There is another matter of regret, and that is, that while we are stigmatizing the rebels as robbers and bandits, we should take their treasures and divide it among ourselves."

Again it continues:--

"It would be difficult to say which are the more shameless robbers of the two, the Taepings who spoil the people, or the English forces who retake the spoil and share it among themselves, while those originally robbed are famis.h.i.+ng in Shanghae. It may well be questioned whether the whole history of warfare can record a parallel example of forgetfulness, utter forgetfulness, of all propriety to this loot-hunting game which Admiral Hope is now engaged in. An expedition against the rebels is now shown to be so harmless to those engaged in it that we may expect to hear of gentlemen giving their wives and sisters a picnic in front of the next town that is besieged, when we have no doubt that much amus.e.m.e.nt could be had among the engineers and artillery by allowing the girls to point the guns. And this is the sort of warfare in which the heart of the jaded and hara.s.sed soldier is to be cheered with _loot_!... There is every reason to believe that England's chivalry is likely to be kept a profound secret from the people of China so long as her affairs are under the present guidance."

Such is the opinion of a journal always hostile to the Ti-pings.

Having loaded their boats with plunder, and placed a garrison of some 500 European troops in Kah-ding, the British and French warriors returned to Shanghae and vain-gloriously displayed their evilly acquired riches about the rum-shops of that model settlement, while their worthy allies, the _braves_, made a gallant and triumphant entry, with trophies of Ti-ping heads, cruelly hacked from the men vanquished by British and French artillery. When these heads became unpleasant to parade about the foreign settlement, and the _loot_ became exhausted, or the allied commanders eager for more, the combined forces were mustered together for another desolating raid into a country that would have been happy and peaceful but for their wicked interference.

The city of Tsing-poo, situated close upon 32 miles to the west of Shanghae, although falsely represented by officialdom as "in the neighbourhood," was next selected for sack and pillage.

Starting from Shanghae in British gunboats (which, by the by, always returned towing long tiers of loot laden boats) upon the 7th of May, the expedition, after being placed in country boats about twenty miles up the river, arrived before Tsing-poo on the evening of the second day.

General Staveley was Commander-in-chief, a.s.sisted by the French Admiral, while the English Admiral, in spite of his wound, was present as an admiring non-effective.

The combined force comprised 2,613 British and French troops, with nearly forty pieces of artillery; about 1,800 of Ward's filibusters; and an Imperialist army of 5,000 to 7,000 men, under their general, Le.[8]

Tsing-poo was garrisoned by some 4,000 Ti-pings, very few of whom escaped.