Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh Part 7

Before daylight on the 12th of May, the besieging forces, with guns and ladders, covering and storming parties, were in position. They moved up silently in the dead of night and early morning, and were in their places by 4 a.m. Then came a short half-hour of the peculiar suspense before battle, while all those valiant British and French well-armed troops lay flat on their faces, safely under cover, and breathing not a word, for fear the doomed Ti-pings _might_ by a singular piece of good fortune manage to hurt some of them. By this time, however, the warm summer day was dawning, and the beleaguered garrison, discovering the formidable array against them, opened fire with the few small guns they possessed, sending their uneven roundshot whizzing over the heads of the crouching enemy.

Almost at the same moment the besiegers opened fire from their numerous and overwhelming artillery. Armstrong guns, naval 32-pounders, French rifled guns and mortars (with one French 68-pounder, rifled piece, mounted on board a light draught gunboat) in breaching and enfilading batteries, commenced a terrific bombardment of the south gate and wall.

The city, during the night, had been surrounded by the Chinese _braves_; no hope of escape presented itself, and the besieged fought as desperate men will fight for their lives. Amid the torrent of sh.e.l.ls, shrapnel, Moorsom, conical, diaphragm, Armstrong, and other scientific engines of destruction cras.h.i.+ng and continuously exploding among them, they bravely stood to their four or five 2-pounders, and resolutely manned their walls under the fearful and murderous fire. The poor Ti-pings, in order to protect themselves from the irresistible foreign sh.e.l.l, or "twice eye shot," as the Cantonese in their _pidgeon_ English term it, had built a sort of stockade all round the city wall; this, with the parapet, formed a pa.s.sage, which was covered in with a beamed and tiled roof. Instead of affording safety to them, however, this work added to the destructiveness of the enemy's fire, though it would have been better for the doomed men to have been killed outright by British shot than be captured and tortured to death in the execution grounds of the Manchoos.

A battery of four Armstrong guns enfilading the wall sent almost every sh.e.l.l through the roof, to burst between the parapet and stockade, thereby inflicting fearful havoc among the crowded defenders.

After about an hour's bombardment, two practicable breaches were effected by the besiegers; the English and French storming parties then advanced, protected by strong covering parties, who kept up a deadly rifle fire on the besieged, while the field-pieces being dragged forward enfiladed the parapet and breaches, mowing them down by dozens as they courageously crowded behind their broken wall to repel the stormers. The two snake flags of the Chief were planted on the summit of the breach, while his bravest men surrounding him did their utmost to drive the a.s.saulting column back. The carnage at this point was immense; the defenders no sooner rushed into view than withering volleys of musketry and a storm of grape and canister destroyed them. The princ.i.p.al Ti-ping chiefs were killed at the head of their men; still, a smart fire from jingalls was kept up till the stormers gained the top of the breach and effected a lodgement; and then, it is sufficient to say, the defenders were attacked with the British bayonet. Even when driven from the wall, several hundred of the Ti-ping soldiery rallied at its foot, and fruitlessly sacrificed themselves in attempting to expel the successful enemy.

The Ti-pings lost upwards of 1,000 men in their obstinate defence, the Allies 2 killed and 10 wounded! About 2,000 were taken prisoners, the greater part of whom supplied the Shanghae execution ground, while the remnant of the garrison succeeded in cutting their way through the hostile lines. Not more than half of the prisoners were fighting men.

Whether the most Christian and civilized allies had not obtained sufficient loot, or killed enough fellow-creatures to satisfy them, I am unable safely to state, but I opine that in neither particular were they satiated. At all events, after sacking Tsing-poo and delivering up their unfortunate captives to the tender mercies of the merciless Imperialists, General Staveley and his co-adjutors started off in quest of further glory, dollars, and Ti-pings. These n.o.ble crusaders at length came to the fortified village of Na-jaor, where one of the _triumviri_ met with his death.

Na-jaor was simply a village, but a wall having been built around it, a small outwork erected, and the whole surrounded by d.y.k.es and dry ditches, with _chevaux de frize_ and pallisades between them, it would have been a difficult place to capture without artillery. The outwork mounted three small guns, and a few others were divided between the usual square flanking defences of a Chinese wall. The garrison of this place can scarcely have numbered 1,000, all told.

The Armstrong guns and other artillery of the British and French opened fire and sh.e.l.led the defenders out of the small redoubt, upon the afternoon of the 17th of May. While this was going on the garrison of the village made a spirited sortie, but, with only an armament of bamboo spears and rusty jingalls, were of course driven back with great loss.

At last the fire of the besieged seemed silenced, while their wall was breached and crumbling in every direction. The stormers now rushed forward with their usual bravery, sword in hand and bayonet to the charge, to a.s.sault a Ti-ping post that had been thoroughly sh.e.l.led for a couple of hours, and in which nought but a few frightened fugitives and the bodies of the slain were likely to be found. In the case of Na-jaor, however, there was more courage required than the attacking force imagined, for, instead of finding the walls deserted except by the killed and wounded, and the garrison in flight, they were suddenly faced by an ambuscade which had been concealed under comparative protection at the interior slope of the wall during the bombardment. The British and French were rus.h.i.+ng forward at the double, their leading files had already reached the ditch at the foot of the rampart, when the Ti-pings, starting from their cover, remanned the walls and opened a sharp fire with jingalls, matchlocks, and the few European-made fire-arms which they possessed. Cheering vigorously, or rather yelling, the defenders maintained a well-directed fire for some little time, killing the French Admiral with a ball through his heart, and wounding about a dozen other of the a.s.sailants. The allies experienced a momentary check, but the whole resistless array of artillery having swept the walls with their iron tempest, the storming parties again rushed forward and succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng themselves upon the walls before the defenders were able to re-man them. Then the work of slaughter was continued with the rifle, the unwieldy bamboos, with iron spikes at the ends, proving a worse than useless defence.

Mercy seems never to have entered into the minds of those Christian warriors, who loudly inveighed against the Ti-pings as "bloodthirsty monsters," &c., &c.; for when victory crowned their unparalleled feats of arms, no effort to save the defenceless and unresisting fugitives was ever made, but while those who had thrown down their arms were vainly trying to hide or flee from the deadly rifle, or stood blocked in a gateway of the tower, the valorous conquerors calmly and easily continued to shoot them down so long as they remained within range.

The total loss of the Allies at the capture of Na-jaor was, the French Admiral killed, and sixteen men wounded. The Ti-pings left dead at their posts, which they had _really_ bravely though fruitlessly striven to defend, upwards of 500 men, more than half their whole force. Directly the place was fairly in their possession the respectable victors dispersed in search of plunder; as one report has it, "looting parties were formed, the French looting one half and the English the other."

The ill-gained spoil having been stowed away in the boats, the Allies marched on for the next Ti-ping position devoted to destruction, leaving a strong detachment in charge of Na-jaor. The place which had now attracted the cupidity, love of military _glory_, or some unknown sentiment of the Allies, was a small town named Cho-lin, situated about six miles from Na-jaor, 26 miles to the S.S.W. of Shanghae, and within two miles of the sea.

Having arrived before Cho-lin during the night of May 18, the Allies began to establish their powerful batteries, and on the morning of the 19th opened fire upon the town. The Ti-pings in garrison, some 2,000 or 3,000 strong, replied to the best of their resources with a few pieces of immoveable Chinese artillery, jingalls, and matchlocks. At noon the besiegers ceased firing and refreshed themselves with _chow-chow_ and brandy. Meanwhile, a Ti-ping chief performed an act of the most daring courage with remarkable coolness and audacity. Having observed the occupation of the besiegers, this chief, leaving the town by the opposite side, made a circuit, and coming upon the rear of the enemy's position, calmly rode right through it with a few followers, satisfying himself as to their composition and numbers. "Everyone took him for an Imperialist and allowed him to pa.s.s on. When he got near the town he rode for his life, and got to his friends inside the city." So reported one of the officers engaged in the attack. Undaunted by the powerful artillery and formidable array of the European troops, the Ti-ping chief determined to hold and defend his trust against them, even although he must have been convinced that he had no effectual means by which he could repel or reply to their attack. The day pa.s.sed on and with it the last hope of the beleaguered garrison, who scorned to take advantage of the opportunity to evacuate the town and save their lives.

At daylight on the 20th all the Allies' guns, being in position, opened fire again, the Armstrong guns and field pieces sweeping the defenders from the walls, and the hoa.r.s.ely-roaring 32's steadily firing to effect a breach. Storming, covering, and sharpshooting parties waited around the devoted place until the murderous sh.e.l.ling should subdue all opposition to their heroic advance. At length, two practicable breaches were effected, the enfilading batteries, established on either flank, poured their crus.h.i.+ng _mitraille_ along the parapet, sweeping away every man who dared to show himself, and the a.s.saulting column pushed forward to the breaches. The Ti-pings had in this case been able to maintain a small number of troops on the wall by means of some ingeniously contrived bomb-proofs. A few narrow pits were dug behind the parapet and covered in with planks overlaid with earth, under which some hundred or two found shelter. When the artillery ceased its fire as the stormers mounted the breach, these men made a desperate defence, while the rest of the garrison, emerging from their places of concealment, rushed to man the walls and a.s.sist them. But what could these miserably armed men effect against the hundreds of perfectly equipped Europeans pouring over their shattered walls? They fell bravely, disputing every inch of ground.

The defenders driven from the ramparts or killed, the gallant Allies rushed through the small town, _indiscriminately ma.s.sacring every man, woman, and child within its walls_. The Ti-pings had so earnestly endeavoured to shut out the besiegers that they had most effectually blocked themselves in, and were consequently butchered almost to a man.

After the ma.s.sacre was over, an officer of the force, writing to the _North China Herald_, stated, "Almost every house we entered contained dead and dying men."

The _China Mail_, in its report of the affair, terms it: "A most indiscriminate carnage on the part of our Allies at the taking of Cho-lin." The _Overland Trade Report_, in its issue of June 10, states:--

"Since the death of Admiral Protet the French troops have been behaving like fiends, killing indiscriminately men, women, and children. Truth demands the confession that British sailors have likewise been guilty of the commission of similar revolting barbarities--not only on the Taepings, but upon the inoffensive helpless country people. It is a most singular circ.u.mstance, but no less strange than true, that the Taepings _have never yet committed an act of retaliation_ upon any European who may have fallen into their hands."

Cho-lin captured and the _loot_ safely packed up, the conquerors, who only lost _one_ killed and four slightly wounded, proceeded to destroy the town itself.

The correspondent of the _North China Herald_, in his report, says:--

"At two o'clock the order was given to set the city on fire, which was executed with such rapidity that the Sikhs had hardly time to get the ponies out of the town, and most of the last collected had to be abandoned."

The poor horses were admittedly roasted alive; but, when the writer goes on to state "a great many dead bodies" were left in the fired city, he forgets the wounded and "dying men" whom he found in "almost every house," and who no doubt perished in the flames.

With the destruction of Cho-lin the murderous and desolating track of the British and French was for a time arrested. Hitherto, without exception, they had, in Mohawk Indian style, surprised and captured isolated towns and villages. Nothing but the garrisons of these places had opposed them. Upon the day of their last exploit, however, intelligence reached General Staveley that the Chung-w.a.n.g, with a large army, had taken the field against him, and that Kah-ding was already invested, Tsing-poo threatened, and the Imperialist troops everywhere flying like chaff before the stormy wind. Hastily returning to Shanghae, the authenticity of these reports was at once confirmed by the abject state of terror in which the Manchoo authorities were plunged. It appeared that, during General Staveley's laurel-gathering exploits, nearly the whole available force of Imperialist troops had been concentrated upon Kah-ding, and, having moved upon the next Ti-ping city, Tat-seang, had been there totally defeated; the fugitives, a few hundred out of an army nearly 20,000 strong, having been chased about thirty miles, and into the village of Woo-sung under the protection of the Allies' artillery.

In consequence of this, and the inability of the Manchoo authorities to even garrison the places captured from the patriots by the allied forces, General Staveley proceeded to the relief of Kah-ding with a strong force of British troops. Upon reaching the village of Na-zain, a few miles from the city, they were continually attacked by the Ti-ping force investing it. In all these attacks, however, the a.s.sailants were driven back by rifle and artillery fire with heavy loss, the English losing but _one_ Sepoy killed and four wounded. It now appearing that the Ti-pings were in the field in force, that the communications of Kah-ding were in their hands, and that the towns of Tsing-poo and Soon-kong were also invested, General Staveley decided upon evacuating Kah-ding; and, pending the arrival of reinforcements, discontinuing his raids upon the Ti-ping strongholds.

We must now for a while turn to other quarters, and record the performance of another act of the Ti-ping drama. While the allied forces were violating their pledges, their orders, and the ordinary laws and usages of civilized or Christian men, the Ti-pings at Ningpo, as everywhere else, were scrupulously observing all their promises, and striving to enter into friendly and commercial relations with foreigners.

It will be remembered that the withdrawal of British missionaries from Ningpo, upon the capture of that city by the Ti-pings, has already been noticed; also Mr. Consul Harvey's sinister reason: "This step will tend to simplify considerably our future relations with the Taepings at Ningpo." We will now proceed to notice what those "future relations"

were.

Mr. Consul Harvey having been requested by Mr. Bruce to report upon the character of the Ti-pings, and having been prompted even in the _public_ despatches, forthwith indulged his feelings of hostility against those people. It is desirable to notice some of the more salient and characteristic features of the despatch of Mr. Harvey as briefly as possible.

The despatch containing Mr. Harvey's exposition bears date March 20th, 1862, some three months after the occupation of Ningpo by the Ti-pings, and _after_ hostilities had been established against them by Admiral Hope and his friends.

Mr. Harvey states:--

"_Not one single step_[9] in the direction of a 'good government' has been taken by the Taepings; _not any attempt_ made to organize a political body or commercial inst.i.tutions; _not a vestige, not a trace of anything_ approaching to order, or regularity of action, or consistency of purpose, can be found in any one of their public acts."

In a despatch dated "Ningpo, December 31, 1861," he had stated as follows:--

"They _have_ even established a native custom-house, wherein duties will be levied on the Chinese after ten days' grace....

It has been reported to me that the insurgents propose establis.h.i.+ng a foreign custom-house at this port, such being, it is said, one of their favourite ideas, and forming part of their programme in the capture of Ningpo."

And again--

"The Taepings possess a regular embodied force, a draft from which forms the nucleus of the body of men sent upon any special service."

Mr. Harvey, with an extraordinary self-complacent a.s.sumption of impartiality, proceeds to declare that he "judged of Taepingdom in sober sense and dispa.s.sionately," yet he concludes the same paragraph by stating that at Ningpo "the last three months had produced ruin, desolation, and the annihilation of _every_ vital principle in _all_ that surrounds the presence, or lies under the bane, of the Taepings."

Again, only a few lines further on, he says:--

"It is palpable that a party which, after ten years' full trial, is found to produce _nothing_, and to destroy _everything_, cannot pretend to last, or be admitted, even indirectly, into the comity of nations."

Now, as Mr. Bruce himself reports that "85,000 bales of silk" were obtained from people who "destroy everything," and as the Ti-pings did "pretend to last"--so much so, indeed, that British and French a.s.sistance to the Manchoos was necessary to save them from total destruction, Mr. Harvey's "sober sense," to say the least, seems very doubtful.

The despatch under review is one of the most extraordinary series of contradictory terms ever produced, and really deserves a place in the British Museum or some old curiosity shop, as the "sober" creation of a person who takes remarkable care to a.s.sure his readers that he is perfectly "unbia.s.sed." Within half a dozen lines of the last quoted pa.s.sage Mr. Harvey audaciously protests:--"I repeat I have no bias one way or the other...." He then proceeds to state:--

"I have found in official dealings with them" (the Ti-ping chiefs) "_a rough and blunt sort of honesty quite unexpected and surprising_, after years of public intercourse with the Imperial mandarins."

Now, in the very next paragraph he speaks of them as--

"The naturally suspicious Taepings, who, amongst other peculiarities, _possess a power of concealment and general secresy quite wonderful_ to meet in China."

Mr. Harvey attempts to prove the plundering propensities of the Ti-ping soldiery by the following invention:--

"On questioning decently-dressed Taeping soldiers as to how they liked their profession, the reply has ever been the following:--

"'Why should I not like it? I help myself to everything I choose to lay hands upon; and if interfered with, I just cut the man's head off who so interferes.'"

By the side of this we will just place Mr. Hewlett's report to Consul Harvey of his emba.s.sy to the Ti-pings at Yu-yaou, upon their advance to Ningpo:--

"We saw but few dead bodies about, and of those some were their own men _who had been caught plundering and burning_."

Endeavouring to vilify the social _regime_ of the Christian patriots, Mr. Harvey trusts to his inventive genius again, and writes:--

"Your Excellency is doubtless aware that marriage is strictly forbidden amongst the Taepings, and forms, with opium-smoking, a capital offence."