by G. A. Henty
The midshipman looked appealingly at Rex, and the latter said: “Well, Father, it was a little enterprise that Watson and Laurence and I carried out on our own account; nothing worth talking about.”
“Well, but what was it, Rex?” his father persisted. “Mr. Robinson says that it has given him better times.”
“Well, Father, the fact is, we three and Ah Lo went out and silenced those two guns that were so annoying for some days.”
“Well, but how did you do it, Rex? Now we know so much, of course we want to know the rest. What do you know about it, Mr. Robinson?”
“Well, sir, all I really know about it is that your son came to me and asked me to allow a lantern to stand on the barricade. Of course I said that there was no objection to that. Then we went back fifty or sixty yards and placed another lantern on a window, so that the two lanterns together were in the exact line with those guns. At midnight Rex and his two friends, with the Chinaman, went out, and that is practically all I know about the matter. I certainly had no idea that Rex had kept the affair a secret. It is certainly a thing of which he had a right to feel very proud, for it was a plucky business, and one which I was very much tempted to take part in.”
“Now then, Bateman,” Major Johnston said, “you see your light cannot be hid under a bushel, so you had better make a clean breast of the affair.”
Rex saw that it was of no use making any further mystery of it, so he briefly explained how the idea had come into his mind, and how Watson and Laurence had agreed to join him, the steps they had taken for placing the lantern to enable them to find the guns in the dark, how Robinson had explained the working of the various parts of the guns to them, and how they had carried their plan into successful execution.
“You ought not have done it,” his father said, when he had finished.
“But,” Major Johnston said, “I don’t think, Mr. Bateman, that your son is to be blamed. It was a splendidly plucky action for which everyone in the settlement should thank him, for it appears that these guns were doing an immense amount of damage. It was an act which I or any other officer in Her Majesty’s service would have been proud to perform.”
“I admit all that,” Mr. Bateman said, “but Rex is always running into danger. I grant that so far he has got through safely, but you know the result of taking a pitcher to a well too often.”
“I don’t think he is likely to come to harm,” the major said, “for it is not as if he undertook these things without thoroughly working his plans out, so that failure is almost an impossibility. On our way up he gave me a brief account of how he had got his cousins out of that rascally governor’s yamen. I could not get the full details out of him, but judging from what he told me it was certainly an admirably-managed affair. I think, Mr. Bateman, that you have a right to be very proud of him. If he had been in the army he would certainly have earned a V. C. for the way in which he silenced those guns.”
“Yes, I admit all that,” Mr. Bateman said, “and won’t scold, but all this keeps his mother and myself in a state of great anxiety.”
“I don’t think, Father,” Rex said, “that in an affair of this sort the risk is anything compared with that which one runs in a regular fight. These little excursions I have made have had very little risk in them—practically none. When you come to think of it, I can pass anywhere as a Chinaman, and as I have always travelled at night I have been exposed to practically no danger whatever.”
“And so you had sharp fighting here, Mr. Bateman?” the major said, changing the subject.
“Not actually severe fighting; that is, the Chinese have never got up really close to us, although they have made a good many rushes, but the bombardment has been very heavy. The French settlement is practically destroyed, and a large number of our houses will have to be rebuilt. But worse than the artillery fire has been the sniping, which has been continuous all round, but more especially on the other side of the river, where it has been absolutely incessant, and where it has been dangerous in the extreme to show one’s nose outside one’s door. We have done our best to keep it down, but I cannot say that success has attended our efforts, for the Chinese have lain hid among the houses and ruins, and never show themselves except to fire.”
“Have the casualties been heavy?”
“No; very slight indeed, which,” he added with a smile, “speaks well either for our prudence or for the bad marksmanship of the enemy. We have brought cannon to bear upon them, but they stick there with great tenacity, and I fancy we shall find it very hard work to drive them out from Tientsin. There is the fort, and the yamen, and several other strong buildings; the wall, too, and its defences are strong, and if they stick there as stubbornly as they have done across the river, the city will certainly not be taken without considerable loss of life.”
“Do you know when we are going to begin, Mr. Bateman?”
“I believe the Russians are going to turn out tomorrow morning; they have only been waiting for your return. Now, I fancy, they will consider that we have strength enough for anything.”
“I should think we have,” the major said. “I am sorry to say that you must not put Seymour’s force above half the strength at which it started. There has been a lot of illness, we have suffered much from hunger and privation, we lost a good many men in the attack on the forts, and many of those still in the ranks will not be fit for service until they have had a few days’ rest. If we put a thousand in line tomorrow it would be as much as could be fairly calculated upon. Still, many of those who would not be fit to take part in the attack would be useful for the defence of the town if the Chinese should make a counter attack while the best part of the force is away.”
“Now, Major, we are all burning with curiosity to know what has happened to you while you have been away. We have heard a score of rumours, but not one authentic fact. We heard that you had entered Pekin, that you had been massacred, that you had disappeared as effectually off the face of the earth as if it had opened and swallowed you up. The very first news we got of your existence was from my son, who reported that on his way down from Pekin he heard heavy and continuous firing in the arsenal of Hsi-Ku, and he concluded that your force must be engaged. Some thought that you must be attacking the place, others that you had taken it and were now besieged. The latter certainly seemed the most reasonable, unless indeed, it was fight between the Boxers and the regular Chinese troops; for if you had not got possession of the arsenal, it was impossible to imagine how you had obtained sufficient provisions to keep you alive so long.”
“Yes, that supposition was the correct one, and we were quite on our last legs before we took the place.”
“Well, will you please tell us the whole story; it is not nine o’clock yet, so that, unless you are so dead tired that you cannot go through with it, you will get it done in reasonable time.”
“I shall be very happy to do so,” the major said. “If you had asked me this afternoon when we came in, I should have said frankly that I did not feel equal to it; but the bath and the excellent dinner you have given us, have quite set me on my legs again.
“You will already have heard from your son what happened on our way up from Lang Fang, and of the little fight we had on the 14th of June. Well, the next day the outposts ran in and reported that the Boxers were at hand in great numbers. The enemy arrived close on their heels and made a determined rush at the fore part of the leading train, which was drawn up beside a well, where the men were engaged in watering. They were met by a withering fire, but pushed on with extreme bravery and did not fall back until some of them actually reached the train. Then they could do no more, and retreated, leaving about a hundred dead. This certainly gave us a better idea of their courage, and the difficulties we should be likely to encounter, than anything that had yet happened.
“At half-past five in the afternoon a messenger arrived on a trolley from the rear, to say that Lofa station was attacked by a very strong force of the enemy. Number two train had steam up, and the admiral at once
took a strong force down in it. On their arrival at the station they found that the fight was over, and the enemy having fallen back discomfited, the reinforcements started in pursuit, and harried their retreat for some distance, accounting for about a hundred of them and capturing a few small cannon.
“The next day we remained at Lang Fang, a strong body being employed in repairing the line. Under the protection of a guard a train went back to Lofa, and on its return we learned that the repairs we had affected on the line beyond that place had been a good deal broken up. Later, the officer of the guard at Lofa came in, and reported that three large bodies of Boxers were moving about in the distance, and that he expected an attack would be made on the station. However, they moved off quietly. They were probably on their way to destroy the line, for a train that left at four the next morning for Tientsin came back in the afternoon, with the news that the line was so completely broken up round Lofa that it could not be repaired with the materials and men on board.
“The admiral left an hour later to see for himself the state of the line. He pushed on for some distance, his men repairing the line as they went, till he reached Yangstun, but only to find that beyond that point the line was entirely destroyed. It was now evident to the admiral, and to all of us, that if we continued to stop at Lang Fang we should ere long have to stop there permanently, for our provisions were almost entirely exhausted. The admiral had seen this some days before, and had sent off several messengers to Tientsin to ask that junks should be sent up the river, and ammunition and provisions forwarded by train to Yangtsun, his intention being to establish a base there. But we never heard any more of these messengers, and the fact stared us in the face that we were absolutely cut off from Tientsin.”
CHAPTER XIV
SURROUNDED
On the seventeenth messages were sent to Lofa and Lang Fang to recall the three trains there, but it was evident that it would be impossible to utilize them for our retreat, as they might be suddenly cut off by the Boxers. One came in on the afternoon of the next day, and the others arrived in the evening. They had had some very sharp fighting. The German naval officer, who was in charge of the two trains, reported that he had been attacked early that afternoon by a force of fully five thousand men, including cavalry, a great proportion of whom were armed with magazine rifles of the latest pattern. The attack was made both in front and on the flanks. The troops marched out against them, and although exposed to a heavy fire, forced them to retreat. Nevertheless, when our men retired towards the train, the enemy rallied and advanced again with the evident determination to gain their object; but being beaten off with more loss than before, they finally retreated. Their loss was over four hundred killed, while we had six killed and forty-eight wounded. In the course of the fight a banner was captured which belonged to the army of Tung-Fu-Hsiang. This was the first indication we had that the Imperial Chinese troops had taken the field against us.
“A conference of the commanding officers of the various nationalities was held the next day, and it was decided that, as the railway was completely destroyed on both sides of them, and they could not use it either for advance or retreat, it would be better to endeavour to withdraw to Tientsin. Preparations were at once made. The wounded and the few remaining stores were carried down and placed on board some junks that had been captured on the previous day, and at three o’clock in the afternoon a start was made. Progress, however, was not destined to be rapid, for the junks had not gone far before they grounded in a shallow reach of the river. Three of them were got off pretty easily; but a six-pounder quick-firing gun of the Centurion had to be thrown overboard to lighten the fourth before she would float. In consequence of this delay, we had only made two and a half miles when night fell. We started early the next morning and were fighting all day, but progress was very much retarded by the necessity for keeping abreast of the junks. The management of these lubberly craft was beyond the European sailors, and as no Chinaman could be got to navigate them they were continually running across the river and getting stuck, so that from four o’clock in the morning till six in the evening the force only advanced eight miles.
“The fighting began at a quarter-past nine. The Chinese occupied a village near the bank, and when they were driven out they fell back to the next village. Here they were reinforced, and village after village had to be carried either by rifle fire, or, in some cases, where the resistance was too obstinate, by a bayonet charge. The Chinese stood splendidly against our rifle fire, but they could not bring themselves to face the bayonet; the cheers of our men seemed to take all the spirit out of them. In the afternoon the Chinese opened fire with a one-pounder quick-firing gun. It did not do any great damage, but it harassed the troops in their advance, especially when they had to cross open ground. The enemy were using smokeless powder, and consequently, as the gun was frequently shifted, we found it impossible to locate its position and so to keep down its fire with musketry.
“It was a very trying day. The heat was great, the water in the water-bottles was soon exhausted, and the men were too busily engaged to go down to the river to refill them. The next day was even worse. A start was made at half-past seven, and we had not gone far when we saw some two hundred cavalry on the left flank of the advance guard. All hoped at first that this was a detachment of Cossacks who had come to our aid, but this hope was doomed to disappointment, for as they drew nearer their dress showed that they were Chinese troops. For the rest of the day they hovered about on our left flank, firing when they saw an opportunity; but a few well-directed shrapnel-shell from the nine-pounder sufficed to keep them at a distance. As soon as they had retired, after reconnoitring our position, they opened fire with a field-gun and a one-pounder quick-firing gun. We replied with our nine-pounder and machine-guns, and as the enemy were using ordinary powder, the smoke of which showed their position, they were soon obliged to shift. They were quiet for a time, but they began again in the course of the day, always, however, with the same result. Fighting went on continuously, as village after village, and the town of Peitsang, which is the chief place between Yangtsun and Tientsin, had to be carried.
“At six o’clock in the evening we halted, having arrived opposite a very strong position held by the enemy, from which we were unable to dislodge them. The commanding officers held a council of war, and decided that, after we had had some refreshment and a few hours’ rest, we should make a night march as the best chance of getting through. We had made only six miles during the day, owing to the stubborn resistance of the enemy and their increased gun power.
“In the course of the evening the field and machine-guns were placed on board a junk that had been taken on the previous day, and at one o’clock in the morning the march recommenced. Fires were soon seen at a little distance from the river bank, and it was obvious that the enemy were by this means signalling our approach. A heavy fire opened on the force from a village some hundred yards ahead, and a shell from a field-piece struck the junk that was carrying the guns, and she filled and had to be abandoned. The guns unfortunately, could not be got off, but the Maxims were saved. The village was carried by the marines with fixed bayonets.
“At four o’clock we arrived opposite a great building, which turned out to be the Imperial arsenal of Hsi Ku. Two unarmed soldiers came out from a house a hundred yards from the bank with the evident intention of communicating with us. Our advance halted, and the men, when they came up, made some simple enquiries as to who we were and where we were going. Having got what information they wanted they sauntered back to the houses, from which, as soon as they reached them a heavy fire was opened with rifles and guns. Fortunately there was good cover close at hand. Some of our fellows occupied a neighbouring village, and others took shelter behind the river embankment.
“It was then decided to take the arsenal. The resistance was becoming more severe with every yard the force advanced, the provisions were almost exhausted, and the troops, who had been for some time on half-rations, were exhauste
d with the heat and their continual exertions. The attack was begun with a heavy rifle fire against a Hotchkiss gun in the north corner of the arsenal and two guns on the river front, which were soon silenced. A body of marines and seamen was then directed to cross the river higher up, and, if possible, to rush the enemy’s position at the north corner. Fortunately there was a village only a hundred and fifty yards from this point, and the sailors, having crawled up there unobserved, dashed out of cover at the double with a cheer, in which the troops on the other side of the river joined, and the Chinese at the corner they were making for bolted at once. Lower down the river a German detachment had crossed and captured the guns in their front, and subsequently several others. Between them the two bodies cleared out the armoury.
“In the afternoon the Chinese made a most determined attempt to retake the arsenal, advancing boldly under a very heavy shell fire. As, however, we had the captured guns, we drove the enemy back with heavy losses, but not before we had suffered considerably ourselves. The main body of the troops and the wounded were in the meantime crossing, and late in the afternoon the whole force was safe in the arsenal.
“Things looked better now than they had done since we had left Tientsin. Of course we had no knowledge at all of what was going on there, and thought that we should only have to maintain ourselves till a force was sent out to our assistance.
“Several messengers had been sent on during the march, and during the night three officers with a hundred marines set out to try to make their way down to Tientsin. They had scarcely started, however, when they encountered a determined resistance. Bugles sounded in all directions, and finding that the whole force of the enemy was upon them, and having lost four of their number, they had no option but to fall back. At daylight the Chinese made another desperate attempt to retake the armoury, and maintained this until eight o’clock, when they were beaten off.
“We had now time to make a thorough investigation of the contents of the various buildings, and to our delight we found a store of some fifteen tons of rice. This placed us for some time beyond the risk of starvation. We discovered, too, an immense supply of guns, arms, and ammunition, and war material of the latest pattern, so that we felt capable of holding out for a long time. At a council of war it was considered to be impossible to force a way down, for we had now no fewer than two hundred and thirty wounded to carry. Our first move was to mount a number of guns on the various fronts of the arsenal, and with these we opened fire upon a Boxer stronghold situated near the arsenal and the Chinese fort lower down the river. The effect was excellent; the Chinese retired, and made no fresh attempt to retake the place.