Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the failure of diplomacy between the Empires of Russian and Japan as well as the Yellow Peril. The Russians said they would demobilize and pull out of Manchuria, but when the time actually came to do so, they suddenly had a change of heart. Japan felt threated, but extended the hand of diplomacy trying to thwart beginning a war against a great power. Tsar Nicholas II was being egged on by his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, who utilized Yellow Peril rhetory to push Russia into a war with Japan. The Russians did not put up a serious effort when it came to diplomacy, basically insulting Japan. Japan could only swallow so much, until she would take violent actions. The entire world was in for quite a shock, because a Sun was about to rise and a Bear was about to tumble. #74 The Russo-Japanese War Part 1: The Surprise attack on Port Arthur Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On January 13th of 1904, Japan proposed to Russia that she would recognize Russia's sphere of influence over Manchuria if Russia would respect her's over Korea. It was a generous offer to maintain the peace, but Russia counter proposed that Japan respect her sphere of influence over Manchuria, and that Korea was basically open grounds. It was to be frank, an insult. It seemed clear to the Japanese the Russians were not serious about diplomacy, in fact they were biding time to build up their military strength in Asia. In February of 1904, Prime Minister Katsura's cabinet decided for war. You really have to take a step back and look at what a colossal decision that was. Russia was a great power, Japan was considered an emerging regional power. Japan had defeated the Qing dynasty, yes, but in the minds of the great powers, this was nothing more than two lesser nations battling it out. A lot of the attitudes of the day were as you can imagine, racist. The idea of a non white nation going to war against a white nation let alone a great power, was ridiculous. So how did Japan think she was going to defeat a larger empire like Russia? For Japan the prospect of victory would rely on a pre-emptive strike against her fleet anchored at Port Arthur, sound a bit familiar? Yes in many ways you can think of this as a Pearl Harbor prequel. The idea similar to Pearl Harbor was to deliver a surprise attack and then issue the formal declaration of war. In the Pacific the Russian Far East fleet consisted of 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok there were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve. The IJN combined fleet consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels, led by Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day. Japan held an advantage over the Russians: an intricate spy network run by Baron Akashi Motojiro. He was sent as a roaming military attache all over Europe and, by 1902, moved to Saint Petersburg, setting up a network using locally-based Japanese merchants, workers and others sympathetic to Japan, making sure to pay more than the Russians did. He gathered valuable information on troop movements and naval development, and began to support Russian extremists such as Litvinoff, Orlovsky and Lenin. It is alleged he recruited the famous spy Sidney Reilly, who went to Manchuria and Port Arthur secretly gathering intelligence and, if it is to be believed, alongside his acquaintance Ho Liang Shung, stole the Port Arthur harbor defense plans and sold it to the IJN. Allegedly, Vice-Admiral Togo was given some false information from Reilly and other spies around Port Arthur about the garrison there being on full alert. This led him to not want to risk his capital ships against a well-prepared enemy. He thus elected to send a destroyer force to surprise-attack Port Arthur. To prepare for the war, the Japanese had troopships prepared in predetermined positions, already loaded with provisions and munitions. Aboard his flagship, Admiral Togo read to his admirals a message from Emperor Meiji before all of them lifted a glass of champagne and gave a few bonzai's. The Japanese press were forced into utmost secrecy, everything possible was concealed. As the combined fleet departed on the morning of February the 7th, they had an agreement, whether at Port Arthur or if the Russian fleet found them first, the Japanese would fire first. The IJN combined fleet made a rendezvous south of Chemulpo around Lindsay island. They were met by the Akashi who had been tasked with surveying the Russian navy's movements in the region. The Akashi reported the Russian naval forces had not departed Port Arthur, everyone sighed with relief. The Russian naval forces outside Port Arthur were the unprotected cruisers Varyag and an old gunboat called the Koreyetz, both at anchor in Chemulpo. Chemulpo was a designated landing spot for the IJA, three troopships carrying 2500 troops detached from the combined fleet escorted by the armored cruisers Asama, Takachiho, Nanussa, unarmored cruisers Suma and Akashi and two torpedo boats. Commanding the small detachment was Rear Admiral Uriu. The Japanese intelligence indicated, alongside the two Russian warships there was numerous warships from other nations. The HMS Talbot, USS Vicksburg, Italy's Elba, Frances Pascal and Japans protected cruiser Chiyoda were anchored there. Chiyoda slipped out of the port to meet up with the incoming Uriu who forwarded the information on the international presence. Uriu worried about the political consequences of attacking the Russians in the harbor next to international warships which was against international law. If they could lure the Russians out of the harbor it would be much better politically. Meanwhile the Russians were in a bit of an awkward state. Many believed hostilities could break out at any moment, but did not have orders to attack first. The commander of the Koreyetz was quite nervous and wanted to receive an update from Port Arthur on the political situation so he departed from the harbor during the early afternoon. Unluckily for the Koreyetz she came across the incoming Japanese. Upon discovering the incoming ships were Japanese, the Koreyetz turned around, but some of her gunners were too trigger happy and fired two ineffectual shots. The Koreyetz fled back to her anchorage beside the Varyag and Russian steamer Sungari. The 3 captains quickly met watching the Japanese warships also anchor within the harbor. Soon they could see the Japanese troopships unloaded troops and provisions around 6pm on February 8th. The Japanese troops went to work occupying the city and by 3am on the 9th, four IJA battalions of the 12th division had unloaded without incident. Rear admiral Uriu sent a letter to the senior Russian commander, Captain Stefanov advising him that hostilities existed between their two nations and that the Russian ships must leave the neutral port of Chemulpo. He also indicated he spoke to the other nationalities captains warning them to stay clear if a fire fight broke out in the harbor. The Russians had until noon to comply, if they stayed at 4pm, Uriu would attack. Captain Stefanov ran over to the HMS Talbot to plead with her British captain to get the international ships to restrain the Japanese or help escort them out to sea. Captain Denis Bagly of the Talbot went out to meet Uriu with a letter signed by the other captains protesting the violation of a neutral port. Bagly had no illusions it was a useless gesture and he bid farewell to Stefanov, advising the man he should try to escape or surrender. Stefanov spoke with his fellow captains and they agreed surrender was not an option. At 11am, outgunned and outnumbered the two Russian warships departed the anchorage in front of numerous spectators. Varyags band played 'god save the Tsar" as the sailors sang the anthem. They sailed directly at the awaiting Japanese fleet. Upon seeing the Russians come out, the Asama trained her 8 inch guns on the Varyag and at a range of 4 miles opened fire. The new Shimose shells began to hit Varyag and soon Chiyoda added her guns to the duel. Eye witness, reporter Thomas Cowen had this to say of the scene "Her decks were being torn and riven, and men were dashed down in mangled heaps all round each gun, for the guns had no shields to protect their crews. Like the furious windsqualls in the height of a hurricane came the bursting of terrible explosives all the length of the ship, shattering and burning and sweeping away men and pieces of machinery indiscriminately" The Varyag's crew literally ran out of men to carry away the wounded on deck. A shell smashed into the bridge to the left of the captain killing his runner. Another shell hit to the captains right killing his bugler and taking some of the side of his face. Most of Varyags guns were silenced, she took a hit below the waterline and was listing to port. Despite all of this, the able men kept to their duty, trying to maneuver the ship by the propellers after her steering gear had been shot off. With no way to fight the enemy the captain ordered them to return to port and the maneuver left Koreyetz exposed to fire for the first time. Koreyetz could not even fire upon the enemy because her range was too limited and soon the Chiyoda began to fire upon her. Koreyetz captain decided to simply follow the crippled and on fire Varyag. Suddenly the gunfire ceased, the Japanese went back to where they anchored before and the two Russian warships did the same. Varyags superstructures were flattened, two of her four funnels were blown off and her masts as well. The Russian survivors were quickly taken aboard the Talbot, Elba and Pascal. The Russian captains had decided to scuttle the three ships. As the explosives went off, the band aboard the Elba played the Russian anthem. The Japanese sailors all bowed in a salute. Later within Chemulpo some of the Russian sailors would be treated by Japanese medical staff and all were permitted to return to Russia on parole, so that they would not take up arms again during the war. Admiral Togo took the rest of the fleet to another rendezvous point, this time at Elliot island, some 65 miles east of Port Arthur. Togo's fleet was divided into three divisions. The 1st division consisted of the 6 battleships, Asahi, Hatsuse, Shikishima, Yashima, Fuji and Togo's flagship Mikasa. They had an overall speed of 18 knots and a displacement of 12300-15000 tons with broadsides weighing some 4000 lbs. The 2nd division consisted of armored cruisers, the Yagumo, Izumo, Iwate, Azuma and Tokiwa with an average speed of 24 knots. The third division consisted of unarmored cruisers Chitose, Takasago, Yoshino and Kasagi. Additionally 15 destroyers armed with the brand new Whitehead torpedo capable of 30 knots and 20 torpedo boats would take up the role of picquet. Over in Port Arthur's harbor the inner line consisted of 5 Russian battleships, Sevastopol, Petropavlovsk, Peresvyet, Pobieda and Poltava. In the middle line were the battleships Tsarevitch and Retvizan, alongside 3 cruisers. In the southernmost line were 3 other cruisers along with the duty ship Pallada. Patroling outside the harbor were destroyers Rastoropni and Bezstrashni around 20 miles out. The commander of the Russian Far Eastern Fleet was Vice Admiral Oscar Victorovitch Stark. It just so happened on February 8th he had planned a large birthday party for his wife. The guests would include Viceroy and Supreme Commander Admiral Alexeiev, his chief of staff Vice Admiral Witgeft, Starks deputy Rear admiral Uktomski and a plethora of other commanders and their wives. Stark actually suspected the Japanese would attack, most likely utilizing torpedoes in a surprise, but the Viceroy refused to allow him to prepare the fleet for war. None the less Stark ordered his captains to prepare to repel torpedo attacks. He ordered all ships to put out anti-torpedo nets and be prepared for action. However, several ships did not carry out these orders and did not take the situation seriously despite multiple night alarms. Many main battery guns were unloaded, many nets uncast, entire crews lay asleep in hammocks, and the two patrolling destroyers were told not to fire if they saw anything, but instead to report it to the CIC. This was because the Tsar had instructed his far Eastern forces, for political reasons, that if war should occur, Japan must be seen to have started it. Alongside this, the majority of the officer corps would be celebrating on the shore and at a party hosted by Admiral Starck for the birthday of his wife on the deck of his flagship, the Petropavlovsk. The celebrating crowd would in fact mistake explosions as cannon salutes for her birthday party. At 7pm Togo released his destroyers, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd flotillas had orders to proceed to Port Arthur while the 4th and 5th would try to ambush any Russian ships sailing around Dalny. 10 destroyers were enroute to Port Arthur, each warship held crews of around 50 men, armed with two 12 pounder guns, 4 6 pounders and two torpedoes. The 1st Flotilla consisted of the destroyers : Shirakumo, Asashio, Kasumi, Akatsuki; 2nd Flotilla: Inazuma, Oboro, Ikazuchi; 3rd Flotilla: Usugumo, Shinonome, Sazanami. They used stearch lights, went towards Liau-ti-chan, allegedly using stolen plans from Sidney Reilly to navigate through the Russian minefield protecting the harbor. At 10:50pm, the 1st flotilla came across the two Russian destroyers on patrol, the Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. This prompted the 1st squadron to douse their lights, trying to avoid detection and slip past. During the process, the Japanese destroyer Oboro collided with the Ikazuchi, disabling her and blocking the path of the Inazuma. This in turn led the flotillas to become separated and were forced to act independently, with the Inazuma becoming lost and the Oboro limping slowly. 20 minutes after midnight, the 1st flotilla arrived, seeing Russian warship searchlights. Approaching closer they saw 3 ranks of ships and then the cruisers Pallada saw the Japanese destroyers, but presumed they were the returning Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. The Rastoropni and Bezstrashni had no radios and were rushing back to try and report the incoming Japanese. At 11:50pm Captain Asai Shojero aboard the Shiragumo gave the attack signal. The four destroyers turned to port and increased their speed to 30 knots before releasing two torpedoes each and turning southwards. The Shiragumo fired the first two torpedoes, followed by two from the Asashio. Because the Pallada was more active, she received more attention than the rest. Pallada was hit amidship, caught fire and began to keel over. Retvizan was hit next at her bow creating a hole large enough for a car to pass through. Tsesarevitch's steering gear was hit. When the explosion of the hit against Pallada was heard many of the Russian ships began firing wildly. The Kasumi fired her two torpedoes, followed by the Akatsuki. Ikazuhi acting alone, came to the scene and fired a single torpedo before fleeing south as well. The 3rd flotilla attracted by the explosions rushed to the scene, finding some lights approaching them, they doused their lights and stopped their engines. It turned out to be the Inazuma who had got lost and requested to join them. They continued finding the Russians ships in a wild disarray. Usugumo was the first to fire, followed by Shinonime and Inazuma before they made their escape south. Meanwhile the Sazanami had been separated from all the others since 11 pm, but had managed to slip past the two russian destroyers around 1:25am and came in to fire a single torpedo before also departing south. The last ship was the damaged Oboro who attempted to repair herself before limping towards the enemy. At 1:45am she fired a torpedo and made her escape. The Russians had been caught completely by surprise. Their skeleton crews aboard the battleships had no idea what was occurring. Many men tumbled out of their bunks awaiting orders, orders that never came. To further explain, when a ship is in action each individual has his own designated tasks, but when an attack comes unexpectedly and a large number of the crew are absent, orders have to be given on the spur of the moment. The explosions were heard by many in the city of Port Arthur, but countless assumed it to be fireworks for celebration. The Russians wild attempts at firing back upon the enemy were useless. The Norvik was the only ship to give chase to the enemy. The torpedo attack killed two officers, 29 sailors and wounded 8 others. Pallada was grounded under the western battery in the harbor; Retvizan was grounded on a ledge near the entrance passage and Tsesarevitch was grounded close to Retvizan. Out of a total of 16 torpedoes launched, only 3 found targets. A major reason for this was luckily due to the few crews who had deployed anti torpedo nets as suggested by Starck. By the way if you would like to see a visual representation of the attack, there is a fantastic Japanese series on the Russo Japanese war called "Saka no Ue no Kumo" narrated by the legendary Ken Watanabe. On my personal channel the pacific war channel one of my most popular episodes is on the Russo-Japanese war, and I used a lot of footage from the series. I will admit I embarrasingly messed up the episode by speeding up the narration somewhat because it was simply too long, but its still ok. By the time this podcast comes out I hope its alright to say, I have been writing a 10 part Russo Japanese War series for Kings and Generals and the animation will look awesome. But back to the story. Starcks staff briefed him on what had occurred and he immediately reported it to the Viceroy in a manner of "i told you so". Starck most likely hoped the Viceroy would shoulder the blame alongside him, but instead rumors were spread to exaggerate the fact he was having a party for his wife during the event. None the less the two admirals quickly began to plan their next steps as they both assumed the IJN combined fleet was about to come in an attack them. The viceroy sent a message appealing for everyone to stay calm in the city while Starck ordered the fleet to be made ready for sea immeidately. Countless officers and sailors scrambled to get to their ships. Following the attack, at 8am, Togo dispatched Vice Admiral Dewa Shigeto with the four cruisers of the 3rd flottila to investigate Port Arthur and, if possible, lure them out south of Encounter Rock. At 9am, Dewa observed 9 Russian warships getting ready for sea, with 3 aground. The smaller vessels, such as gunboats, torpedo boats and mine planters were outside the harbor looking to be in disarray. Dewa approached within 7500 yards of the harbor, but no one fired upon him. This prompted Dewa to believe the Russians were completely paralyzed. Dewa wireless-messaged Togo that the Russians seemed to be paralyzed, the time was ripe to attack. Togo had wanted to lure the Russians away from Port Arthur's shore batteries, but the report prompted him to order an immediate attack. The Russian formation was quite all over the place. Askold was to the east, Bayan in the center, Novik was far to the west having attempted to chase the enemy, many of the other ships were still at anchor. Togo devised his 3 divisions to form a column coming in one after the other, each ship was to fire starboard. The Japanese approached the harbor at 11:55am. Port Arthur was tossed into pure chaos. Warships moved quickly to jettison inflammable material while coolies in sampans paddled through the jetsam. Captains lept about demanding status reports of their ships while all they could see was dakr smudges on the horizon. At a range of 8500 meters, the Mikasa was the first to fire her guns. After firing her 12inch forward gun, she turned and opened fire with her starboard broadside, the other ships followed in same fashion. The Russian shore batteries erupted firing back on the Japanese causing a duel between the warships 12 inch guns aimed at the shore batteries while their 8 and 6 inch guns targetted the Russia nwarships. The Mikasa took a full 20 minutes to form her pass and was followed by Asahi, Fuji, Yashima, Shikishima and Hatsuse. Asahi targeted a Peresviet type, Fuji & Yashima fired upon cruiser Bayan, Shikishima fired on a ship in the center and Hatsuse dueled the enemy nearest to her. With the exception of Novik, the Russian moved like ants around a nest beneath their fort guns, trying not to make themselves stationary targets. The Novik charged out of the harbor to meet the enemy and received a hell of a mauling for it. The Russian flagship Petropavlosvk flying Starcks flag was battered; Poltava took a hit and cruisers Diana and Askold were severely damaged. The damage was not a one way street however, Mikasa, Shikishima, Fuji, Hatsuse and Iwate took hits. The shore batteries were becoming increasingly effective. When the 2nd and 3rd divisions were making their turn, everything had become like a barrom brawl. Within just 5 minutes of the dueling, Mikasa had taken a 10 inch shell to her starboard side which ricocheted and exploded under her mainmast. Her chief engineer, a staff officer, a paymaster, one midshipman and 3 crew members were wounded, and part of her aft bridge was carried away. The Fuji received a shell through her forward casing, smashing a stack and exploding, killing a turret officer and wounding many. Shikishima then received a hit to her forward stack causing it to explode. By 12:20, Admiral Togo realized that Dewa was incorrect in his assessment - the enemy was not paralyzed - thus he motioned the fleet to withdraw. After just a single run of it, Togo had decided to back out and rendezvous with Uriu at Chemulpo. The departing maneuver exposed Togo's entire fleet to the full brunt of the Russian shore batteries. The Hatsuse, Fuji, Shikishima and Mikasa would take the lionshare of the damage, around 7 hits distributed amongst them. As the fleet made its turning point, the IJN cruisers took several hits. Within the 2nd Division: Azuma fired upon Novik, Iwate fired upon Askold, Iwaki fired upon Askold and then Bayan. As the cruisers turned to port to follow the 1st division Azuma was hit by three shells, one to her battle flag, the other off the water of her starboard quarter exploding, the third to her after turret. Yakumo was hit twice one to her forward main top and midshipman. Novik received many hits and fired torpedoes at Iwate missing. Within the 3rd Division: Chitose (flag of admiral Dewa) fired on center, Takasago fired on Bayan, Kasagi fired upon a Sevastopol type, Takumo fired on nearest enemy ship. Takasago and Chitose then fired on Askold which alone came closer to them, a shell his Askolds second stack, another her forward stack. Chitose then attack Novik and Takasgo attacked Bayan. As they turned to withdraw they received no major hits. The IJN cruisers also launched salvos of torpedoes. The Novik trying to engage them closer evaded the torpedoes, but took several shells below her waterline. The Japanese finally got out of range of the dreaded batteries of Port Arthur, lucky to not have any ships sunk. The casualties were quite balanced for the engagement. The Russians had 150, the Japanese betwene 90 and 130. Neither had any warships sunk, but many were severely damaged. For the Japanese this was not a major issue, their damaged ships returned to Sasebo for immediate repairs, however for the Russians this was a major issue. Port Arthur held limited capabilities, they had only one small dry dock and another incomplete. This meant some of the larger Russian warships could not receive proper repairs, and now they were blockaded. Many 12 inch shells had fallen into the city. The Russo-Chinese bank was hit causing the employees to frantically burn the currency and prepare coins to be transported away. Lumps of coal littered the city grounds like confetti. Many Chinese grabbed their belongings and fled the city aboard steamers. Many buildings were damaged, civilian casualties were light. When the news of the surprise attack reached Tsar Nicholas II he was stunned. He could not believe the Japanese would initiate a warlike actions without formally declaring war first. His advisers had assured him the Japanese had been bluffing and would not dare attack. The first secretary of the British embassy, Cecil Spring Rice went on the record to state the Tsar was left "almost incredulous". Japan issued their declaration of war 3 hours after the surprise attack. Russia went on a war footing on the 10th and a few days later submitted their official declaration of war after stating to the international community Japans actions were dishonorable. In response Japan referenced the Russian attack on Sweden in 1808, which they did without declaring war first as a justification somewhat for their own actions. The international community were mixed in their favor, but many did sympathize with the Japanese. Notably President Theodore Roosevelt held sympathetic views for the Japanese and the Japanese would take a strong notice to this. Admiral Togo was dissapointed in his lack of success with the surprise torpedo attack. But for now Japan had won command of the sea, the Russian navy was trapped. From Chemulpo, Togo sailed his damaged ships back to Sasebo for repairs, but would go on the record to state "He felt he failed to take the opportunity as Nelson would have done, to deal a blow to the Russian fleet from which they would not recover". I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Admiral Togo had delivered the very first blow of the Russo-Japanese war. His surprise attack upon Port Arthur was a bold and terrific strategy, but had he done enough to give Japan the upper hand in the battles to come?

Last time we spoke about the Red Bearded Honghuzi Bandits. Yes Manchuria and many parts of China proper have had a bandit problem going back to ancient times. The borderlands between the Russian Empire and Qing Dynasty proved to be the perfect grounds for bandits to evolve. The Honghuzi were getting larger, more organized and certain leaders amongst them would have long lasting impacts on the history of China. Such names that come to mind are Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. Such forces were incorporated officially into the Qing military to thwart other bandit groups and eventually to harass the Russians or Japanese in conflict looming on the horizon. Everything seems to be hot in Manchuria, Russian has full on invaded her and is reluctant to drag her troops out. There are those unhappy with this circumstance and they will soon make themselves heard loud and clear. #73 The Yellow Peril and a War in the East Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Boxer Rebellion is over. The Russo-Chinese War in Manchuria is over. Order had been restored to Beijing and in Manchuria things were significantly quieted down. Now the other nations of the 8 nation alliance had their hands full dealing with the expedition against Beijing and they sort of turned a blind eye to what was a side conflict in Manchuria. But when things were settling down and 177,000 Russian forces had more or less invaded and were occupying Manchuria, well a lot of eyeballs bulged. Britain and Japan sought common cause, both had significant investments in the Asia-Pacific. For example Britain had Weihaiwei and was literally staring down at the Russians over in Port Arthur and Dalien. Japan had been slighted by the triple intervention by Russia, Germany and France, losing her acquisitions of Port Arthur and Dalien to the Russians. Manchuria was always seen as a buffer zone to the Japanese, she now hand a toehold in Korea and such large Russian activity in Manchuria was very threatening. Let us not forget the entire war between the Qing dynasty and Japan over Korea, to a lesser extent also had Russian as a 4th party. Russia did meddle in Korea and continuously antagonized Japan. Thus with common cause Japan and Britain formed an alliance on January 30th of 1902. In response Russia and France formed their own on March 16th of 1902. The alliances basically worked to thwart any other great powers from getting involved in a potential war between Japan and Russia. Now Russia also agreed to the rest of the great powers that she would gradually withdraw her forces from Manchuria. It was to be rolled out in 3 periods of 6 months. The first phase saw southwest Manchuria evacuated and returned to China, but when it came to the second phase, suddenly Russia was making demands for concessions to the Qing dynasty. Britain, Japan and the US protested the demands and this bolstered China to reject them. Now turned back the clock a bit there was another sticky situation. When chaos was erupting in Korea, King Gojong ran to the Russians for protection for over two years. This turned the nations favor towards the Russians over the Chinese and Japanese. Russia seized this opportunity to strengthen her forces in defense of her legation in Korea, and this action was met with actions taken up by Japan. Japanese and Russian officials met and this was the result verbatim: A further agreement between Russia and Japan had been signed in Tokyo on 25 April 1898. The agreement contained three understandings: The independence of Korea was assured; neither country would interfere in Korea's domestic affairs. There would be no appointment of military or civil advisers without discussion with the interested parties. Russia agreed not to hinder Japan's development of trade with Korea. Aside from this the Russians of course wanted to seize as much as they could. A Russian-Korean bank was formed in 1897, and a timber cutting contract was given to Russian industrialists in the Yalu river area. In 1901, Tsar Nicholas II told Prince Henry of Prussia, "I do not want to seize Korea but under no circumstances can I allow Japan to become firmly established there. That will be a "casus belli." The contract only came into effect when the Manchurian railway projects were kicking off and when able bodies were around, which came about during the occupation of Manchuria. In april of 1903 Russians acquired some land and established a fort at Yongampo near the mouth of the Yalu river. America and Japan received similar concessions in the region. The Japanese began receiving reports, indicating Port Arthur was being heavily stocked with supplies and a large body of Russian troops were advancing across the Liaodong Peninsula towards Korea. Thus from the Japanese point of view it looked clear Russia was not honoring her agreements. On July 28th of 1903, the Japanese ambassador at St Petersburg was instructed to make it known to the Russians, the 7 demands they made to China was not seen as a "relaxation of her hold on Manchuria but rather a consolidation" Two days later, Russian Admiral Alexeiev was appointed Viceroy of the Far East. Alexeiev would hold supreme power to exercises diplomacy between Russian East Asia and her neighbors as well as command the Russian military and naval forces in the east. From the Japanese point of view, a permanent Russian occupation of Manchuria would be prejudicial over her own security and interests. It would also threaten Korea, which was her sphere of interest, one she was not looking to share. Russia agreed to consider drawing up a new treaty. On August 12th of 1903 a draft was presented at St Petersburg, but in the meantime Russia was strengthening her position in the far east. This tense situation kept going, until January 13th of 1904 when Japan offered to recognize Manchuria as being outside her sphere of interest, if Russia would agree Korea was Japan's sphere of interest. It was to be blunt a very fair deal. Japan requested an early reply to the proposal, but by February 4th of 1904 no reply was forthcoming. Two days later the Japanese ambassador, Mr. Kurino called upon the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf to take his leave. Kurino explained to Lamsdorf that the Japanese government had decided to adopt some "independent action" deeming it necessary to defend its established rights and legitimate interests. Basically Japan's patience had come to an end. The Russian ambassador to Tokyo, Baron Rosen, had continuously sent warnings to his superiors in St Petersburg that if they continued to corner Japan, she would most certainly fight them. Such sentiment was shared by War Minister General Kuroptkin who resigned in a state of exasperation some months earlier. Tsar Nicholas II did not want a war, but he was continuously assured by his advisers, Japan was not strong enough to fight them. When Mr. Kurino took his leave, the immediate signal was made to Admiral Alexeiev, who was in Tokyo at the time. The new viceroy saw with his own eyes evidence of Japanese mobilization and he advised St Petersburg accordingly. The Japanese foreign ministry confirmed their government had run out of patience. However all of this was taken to be a bluff. It has been theorized Alexeiev was simply not averse to a war with a country he certainly deemed inferior to his own. It is also theorized Tsar Nicholas II probably believed if a war would to break out it would be a short and victorious one, and perhaps such an event could distract the tide of revolution hitting his nation, the people of Russia were not happy anymore about the Romanov rule. Funny enough, all of these talks, deceptions and plans were to take shape in China. The Chinese were literally never even thought of or spoken to, and soon a war would literally occur within their borders against their will. How did this all come about? It might sound a bit funny, but a large reason the Russo-Japanese War would occur would simply be a result of, pardon my french, shit talking by one Kaiser Wilhelm II. When Kaiser Wilhelm I died on March 9th of 1888, Germany fell to Frederick III who died of throat cancer only 99 days after taking the reins. On June 15th, a 29 year old Kaiser Wilhelm II took the throne. Now for those of you who don't know, Otto von Bismarck, the man who unified Germany was during the late 19th century one of the greatest political players in the world. Bismarck had an incredible understanding of the balance of power theory and studied all the most powerful nations national interests. He brokered international deals using his knowledge to increase Germany's standing in global politics and he also in many ways designed a system of international alliances to thwart a global war….which ironically would in many ways cause ww1. If you want to know more specifically about this by the way, check out Kings and Generals alliances that caused WW1, I wrote that script and its a fascinating story. Dan Carlin famously referred to Bismarcks work as creating a giant hand grenade, that if the pin got pulled out, only Bismarck understood how to put it back in. While Bismarck was in power things were pretty good, but he was such a colossal figure, that when the young Kaiser came into power, many of his advisers suggested he was being overshadowed by Bismarck. Kaiser Wilhelm II listening to his advisers, sought to stop Bismarck from taking the quote en quote "day to day" administration. Conflicts began to arise between the two men. Wilhelm did not understand the complexities of Bismarcks international relations and saw him as far too peaceful. Wilhelm gradually fell under the influence of his military leaders to the dismay of Bismarck who thought the Kaiser would lead them swiftly into a war with a nation like Russia. In 1890 Bismarck resigned under pressure from Wilhelm II and other German leaders, and as Dan Carlin would say, now the grenade he created was set to go off. Now when the new Kaiser venturing into international relations, he was deeply influenced by a ideological concept that he would use as a tool to coerce international players to act out. The concept is known as the "yellow peril" "le Peril Jaune" as coined by Russian sociologist Jacques Novikow in the late 19th century. In essence the yellow peril was a racist ideology that held asians to be subhuman, like apes and monkeys, but also that as a racial group should they unite, they would threaten what was thought to be the superior race of the day, whites. Basically the idea was that if all the nations of asia were to unite, they could retaliate against the White nations who were at the time colonizing or forcing unequal treaties upon them. There was also a religious element to it, that Christianity was under threat from the hoards of the east. Now back to Wilhelm II, one of his advisers was the diplomat Max von Brandt who advised him that Imperial Germany had major colonial interests in China. The Triple Intervention that Germany endorsed was justified by the Kaiser under the guise it was to thwart what he began calling "die Gelbe Gefahr / the yellow peril". The Kaiser began a propaganda campaign using the famous allegorical lithograph "Peoples of Europe, Guard your Most Sacred Possessions" created in 1895 by Hermann Knackfuss. You can google the image. The lithograph portrays the European monarchs with Germany as the leader of Europe personified by a "prehistoric warrior-goddesses being led by the Archangel Michael against the yellow peril from the east. The east is seen as a dark cloud of smoke which rests eerily upon a calm Buddha, wreathed in flame". The imagery is very apparent, white and christianity is under threat from asian and their eastern religions. This type of ideology goes all the way back to Ancient Greece and Persia, its the age old west vs east stuff. Today you would call this sort of talk, a race war. Now you are probably asking, ok this leader of Germany is just a racist dude, how does this cause a war between Russia and Japan? This story is rather hilarious and hard to believe, but in summary, the Kaiser used the ideology to trick his cousin into war. For those unaware, Kaiser Wilhelm II was first cousins with King Geoerge V of Britain, to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to Queens Marie of Romania, Maud of Norway, Victoria Eugene of Spain, and even the woman he would eventually marry, the Empress of Russia. Now the Germany presented to Wilhelm was involved in some alliances. I mentioned Britain and Japan had an alliance and France and Russian had an alliance. Wilhelm and his advisers sought to increase Germany's stature. Wilhelm believed that if Russia went to war with Japan, it would break up the Franco-Russian alliance and with no one else to turn to, Russia would seek an alliance with Germany. Wilhelms reasoning was that France was not supporting of Russians expansion into asia and such aggressive actions like going to war with Japan would be highly disapproved by France. The French Premier Maurice Rouvier publicly declared that the Franco-Russian alliance applied only in Europe and not Asia and that if Japan and Russia went to war, France would remain neutral. Such rhetoric seemed to prove Wilhelms beliefs. Germany meanwhile felt threatened by Britain and had embarked on what was known as the Tirpitz Plan in the late 1890s. The Tirpitz plan was Germany's plan to achieve world power status through naval power, but the world's greatest navy of course was Britain at the time. What essentially happened was Germany challenging Britain to an arms race in the form of naval warship building programs. Everything the Kaiser pursued during the late 19th century was what was called "Weltpolitik / world politics" which essentially was just Germany's imperialistic foreign policy to become a global power. Wilhelm and his advisers were playing world politics to weaken rivals and strengthen Germany plain and simple. So Wilhelm believes he can break the French-Russian alliance and squeeze himself in Frances place if he can get the Russians to go to war with Japan who just happened to be allied to Germany's main rival, Britain. Some real game of thrones stuff here. Wilhelm also believed if Germany could pull this off, France would be compelled to join them, forming a triple alliance against Britain and Japan so they could all pursue their expansionist policies in places like Asia. There was also the belief pulling this off would pull Russia away from the Balkans which was a huge source of tension with Germany's main ally Austro-Hungary. Thats all fine and dandy, but how does Wilhelm get his cousin Tsar Nicholas to go to war with the Japanese, here comes the yellow peril. Starting in 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm began using the Yellow Peril ideology to portray Germany as the great defender of the west against the barbarism of the east. But then all of a sudden Wilhelm began sending personal letters to his cousin Nicholas praising him as the quote "savior of the white races" and began urging him to take a more hardened approach to Asia. The letters between the two have been referred to as the "willy-nicky" letters, consisting of 75 messages sent back and forth between 1895-1914. I wont list them all of course but lets take a peak at how Wilhelm wrote to his cousin. In 1895 Wilhelm wrote this from Kaltenbronn Schwarzwald. I will paraphrase of course there's a ton of fluff. Dearest Nicky, I thank you sincerely for the excellent way in which you initiated the combined action of Europe[27] for the sake of its interests against Japan. It was high time that energetic steps were taken, and will make an excellent impression in Japan as elsewhere. It shows to evidence how necessary it is that we should hold together, and also that there is existent a base of common interests upon which all European nations may work in joint action for the welfare of all as is shown by the adherence of France to us two. May the conviction that this can be done without touching a nations honour, take root more and more firmly, then no doubt the fear of war in Europe will dissipate more and more. The kind and most valuable messages which you sent me through Osten Sacken[28] by Count Eulenburgs transmission in Vienna have given me a signal proof of your loyalty and openness towards me. I shall certainly do all in my power to keep Europe quiet and also guard the rear or Russia so that nobody shall hamper your action towards the Far East! For that is clearly the great task of the future for Russia to cultivate the Asian Continent and to defend Europe from the inroads of the Great Yellow race. In this you will always find me on your side ready to help you as best I can. You have well understood that call of Providence and have quickly grasped the moment; it is of immense political and historical value and much good will come of it. I shall with interest await the further development of our action and hope that, just as I will gladly help you to settle the question of eventual annexations[29] of portions of territory for Russia, you will kindly see that Germany may also be able to acquire a Port somewhere were it does not "gêne" you. You can see how Wilhelm is egging on his cousin about how Germany will have his back if he were to be bolder in Asia. Also the cute end bit about Germany acquiring some ports. In 1898 for a New Years letter Wilhelm sent this Dearest Niky May this New Year be a happy one for you dear Allx and the whole of your house and country. May the plans, which you mature be fullfilled for the wellfare of your people. Henry's mission^ is one of the steps I have taken for the help and countenance of your lofty Ideals—without which no sovereign can exist—in promoting civilisation I. e. Christianity in [41] the Far East! Will you kindly accept a drawing I have sketched for you, showing the Symbolising figures of Russia and Germany as sentinels at the Yellow Sea for the proclaiming of the Gospel of Truth and Light in the East. I drew the sketch in the Xmas week under the blaze of the lights of theXmas trees! Here Wilhelm is pressing upon the religious aspect and is basically flattering Nicholas. Again in 1898 Wilhelm wrote Dearest Nicky I must congratulate you most heartily at the successful issue of your action at Port Arthur ; we two will make a good pair of sentinels at the entrance of the gulf of Petchili, who will be duly respected especially by the Yellow Ones ! I think the way you managed to soothe the feelings of the "fretful Japs"by the masterly arrangement at Korea a remarkably fine piece of diplomacy and a great show of foresight; which Is apt to show what a boon it was that by your great journey,^ you were able to study the Question of the Far East locally and are now morally speaking the Master of Peking! Fretful Japs indeed In 1902 we get probably the most important letter involving the yellow peril Dear Nicky This is the more necessary as/certain symptoms in the East seems to show that Japan is becoming a rather restless customer and that the situation necessitates all coolness and decision of the Peace Powers. The news of the attachment of the Japanese General Yamai^—former leader of the Jap. troops in China—to the Legation at Peking in order to take in hand the reorganisation of the Chinese Army—i.e. for the unavowed object of driving every other foreigner out of China—is very serious. 20 to 30 Million of trained Chinese helped by half a dozen Jap. Divisions and led by fine, undaunted Christian hating Jap. Officers, is a future to be con- templated not without anxiety; and not impossible. In fact it is the coming into reality of the *'Yellow Peril" which I depicted some years ago, and for which engraving I was laughed at by the greater mass of the People for my graphic depiction of it ... Your devoted friend and cousin, Willy, Admiral of the Atlantic". And there it is, an army of millions of Chinese led by Japanese officers, the yellow peril. So for years Wilhelm egged on his cousin, making him believe he was this savior of the white race, holding the yellow hoard back from sweeping over Europe. Wilhelm also made sure to leave ambiguous ideas that Germany had Russians back, that if war came and let's say a nation like Britain jumped into the mix, Germany would jump in too. Arguable if there was any reality behind these claims. Now back to the situation in the far east, King Gojong found his nation stuck between two tigers again, this time it was Japan and Russia. He believed the key to the issue was Manchuria and sought for Korea to remain as neutral as possible so she could hope to preserve her independence, I would saw independence with finger quotes. Meanwhile the Chinese ambassador to St Petersburg, Hu Weide was receiving reports from Beijing on whether Russia or Japan were likely to win such a war and how it would favor China. It was argued it was in China's interest for Japan to win, because a Japanese victory would likely breakdown Russians stronghold on Manchuria and perhaps China could wrestle it all back in. China decided in December of 1903 to remain neutral if war came, because while she knew Japan was the only one in the far east capable of pushing Russia out, she also did not know what Japan's ambitions might be in Manchuria. In early 1904 negotiations continued between Russia and Japan, but like I mentioned earlier Japan gradually figured out Russia was not being serious. This was more than likely due to an infamous message sent by Wilhelm to Nicholas in December of 1903. Since 97—Kiaochow—we have never left Russia in any doubt that we would cover her back in Europe, in case she decided to pursue a bigger policy in the Far East that might lead to military complications (with the aim of relieving our eastern border from the fearful pressure and threat of the massive Russian army!). Whereupon, Russia took Port Arthur and trusting us, took her fleet out of the Baltic, thereby making herself vulnerable to us by sea. In Danzig 01 and Reval 02, the same assurance was given again, with result that entire Russian divisions from Poland and European Russia were and are being sent to the Far East. This would not had happened if our governments had not been in agreement! Nicholas for his part was prepared to compromise with Japan, but the incessant letters from Wilhelm egging him on as a coward for thinking about compromising gradually broke the Tsar. The Kaiser wrote this: undertaking the protection and defence of the White Race, and with it, Christian civilization, against the Yellow Race. And whatever the Japs are determined to ensure the domination of the Yellow Race in East Asia, to put themselves at its head and organise and lead it into battle against the White Race. That is the kernel of the situation, and therefore there can be very little doubt about where the sympathies of all half-way intelligent Europeans should lie. England betrayed Europe's interests to America in a cowardly and shameful way over the Panama Canal question, so as to be left in 'peace' by the Yankees. Will the 'Tsar' likewise betray the interests of the White Race to the Yellow as to be 'left in peace' and not embarrass the Hague tribunal too much?. Nicholas replied he still sought peace, and Wilhelm replied in telegram "oh you innocent angel, this is the language of an innocent angel. But not that of a White Tsar!" Regardless of the Tsar's feelings, Japan was firmly under the belief Russia was not serious about seeking a peaceful solution to their dispute over Manchuria and Korea. When Japan proposed recognizing Manchuria was Russia's sphere of influence if Russia would respect their sphere of influence over Korea, the Russia counter proposal was basically, no, Russia would retain Manchuria and Korea would be open game. Potential diplomatic resolutions between the two nations had thus failed. Historians generally argue it was the fault of Nicholas II who pushed his administration to give no ground. Why he acted this way though has two major arguments, one I have highlighted, the egging on by the Kaiser, but there was another element at play. The Russian people were frankly fed up with the royal family, the people were looking for change. To start a war and rile up patriotism could have been an attempt to quell the Russian people from revolutionary actions and in retrospect it certainly seems the case. The Tsar's advisers despite being hawkish did not seek a war with Japan, they simply wanted to bully what they thought was a weaker nation into submission. Because the reality was, Manchuria was far, the trans siberian railway was not complete, moving troops and provisions such a distance was a colossal task. Japan performed a large scale study of the Russian power in Manchuria. The Japanese had been secretly surveying and mapping as far as east of Lake Baikal. In 1904 the Japanese had 380,000 active and reserve army forces, 200,000 in the 2nd reserve, another 50,000 in conscription reserve and 220,000 trained men of the national army, thus they could in theory toss 850,000 men into a conflict and by conscripting perhaps 4,250,000 who would all have to be trained taking time and money. Japan's effective strength was 257,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 894 artillery pieces. They held 12 infantry divisions each containing 11,400 infantry, 430 cavalry and 36 guns a piece. Their troops received 12 months training, once the war started this would be cut to 6 months. Their artillery battalions held 3 batteries with both field and mountain guns ranging in caliber of 2.95 inches to 4.72 inches. Their infantry were equipped with a modern 1900 .256 inch magazine rifle that could fire 2000 yards but was effective at 300. Each soldier carried a knapsack, greatcoat and shelter tent. In their sacks were two days rations and entrenching tools. For machine guns they would receive Hotchkiss guns. The logistical system for the Japanese would be much better than the Russians. They had a series of lines of support. The soldiers carried two days rations, with echelons of transports that carried provisions behind them. Each division had its own transport battalion, including an ambulance train to deal with casualties. Chinese carts, Chinese and Korean coolies would all be paid premium prices for logistical aid. The Japanese would buy local foodstuff from the Koreans and Chinese at premium prices to earn the local populaces support over the Russians. For the Russians their army stood roughly at 4.5 million, but only 6 of the 25 European army corps would play an active role in the far east. By February of 1904 the Russians had roughly 60,000 troops, 3000 cavalry and 164 guns posted at Vladivostok, Harbin and Port Arthur. By Mid february this would be increased to 95,000; with 45,000 at Vladivostok, 8000 at Harbin, 9000 in Haicheng; 11,000 near the Yalu and 22,000 around Port Arthur. The Russian had the European 1st, 4th, 8th, 10th, 16th and 17th army corps each numbering 28,000 rifles and 112 guns. Alongside these were 7 Siberian corps. While the Russians held the advantage in numbers, the trans siberian was not complete and the route going around Lake Baikal formed a massive delay. Lake Baikal is basically the size of Switzerland, around 386 miles long. Thus the forces in Manchuria would be at the mercy of local foodstuffs for provisions, which meant they were competing with the Japanese to purchase them, while the Japanese had their own nations foodstuffs coming via sea transport, from Korea and of course within China. The Russian troops were armed with a .299 caliber rifles, but their training was lackluster and required all men to fire at short range on orders from superior officers. The upcoming war would catch the Russian gunners in the midst of a re-equipment programme. A third of their guns were a new 3 inch quick firing gun with a range of 6000 yards, capable of battering the Japanese artillery. However the gunners training period was quite literally on the job. Thus many of the gunners were coming into the conflict with a new technology they had not even fired yet. Japan's population was then 46.5 million, Russia's 130 million. The Russian military opinion saw the Japanese "as little people who lived in paper houses…and wasted hours on flower arrangement and tea ceremonies". However, Minister of War Kuropatkin visited Japan in 1903 and was impressed by their infantry and artillery, stating that they were equal to any European army, and advocated avoiding war with them. Russia's navy was much larger, but divided between the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Pacific, whereas Japan's was concentrated in her home waters. By 1902, Russia began strengthening her Pacific squadron and, by the end of 1903, had 7 battleships, 7 cruisers, 25 destroyers and 27 smaller ships. The IJN (the Japanese Navy) consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day. At the outbreak of the conflict the Russian Far East fleet would have 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve. The IJN combined fleet was led by Vice-Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The two divided squadrons of the Russian Pacific Fleet were commanded overall by Admiral Oskar Ludvig Stark. The Main Russian squadron was in Port Arthur and the other cruiser squadron was at Vladivostok under the command of Admiral Nikolai Skrydlov. Port Arthur offered some shore artillery battery defense, though it was underfunded due to divestments for the development of Dalny, and its dry dock capabilities were quite limited compared to that of Sasebo. The Russians were bluffing the Japanese while continuing the strengthen their position in the far east. But the Japanese would not wait for them to do so. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Kaiser Wilhelm II had egged his cousin Tsar Nicholas II into facing against the Empire of Japan. Little did the Russian Tsar know, but he was about to send his nation to their doom, for the Japanese had done their homework and were determined to rid Manchuria of the Russian menace

Last time we spoke about the conquest of southern Manchuria. The Russians had consolidated their hold over northern Manchuria and now had the necessary amount of forces to quell the chaos in the south. The two last major strongholds held by the Qing and their Boxer allies were Liaoyang and Mukden. The Russians consolidated their forces while the Qing spread themselves out far too thinly. Each engagement saw Russian victories, despite the fact the Qing had the necessary numbers and weaponry necessary to serve decisive defeats to the Russians, if only they consolidated and coordinated properly their forces. Liaoyang fell easily, and with its fall the Qing commanders began to loot and abandon their infantry. Leaderless the infantry gradually scattered into the countryside leaving Mukden pretty much open for the taking. Manchuria was in chaos, and within that chaos the same type of people always emerged to take advantage, bandits. But who were these people really? #72 The Red Bearded Honghuzi Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Manchuria has been called by many names. An English study in 1932 by Hubert Hessell Tiltman referred to Manchuria as "the cockpit of Asia, where drama never dies". It has also been called by Yu Juemin in 1929 "the balkans in east asia", which I think fits it nicely. So you heard me in length talk about Shandong and Manchuria. You heard my entire series on the Boxer Rebellion. Often you hear me refer to the "bandits", in Shandong we saw the precursors to the Boxers rise up primarily to combat bandits. China proper and Manchuria had bandits since ancient times. But who exactly were the bandits? I would like to take us back to Manchuria to talk about a specific group or phenomenon of banditry. The major reason I am taking the time to do an episode on this, because to be honest we are about to jump into the Russo-Japanese War, is because the banditry problem and specific bandits will have an incredible amount of influence on China, Russia and Japan for the first half of the 20th century. For those of you who have not seen my personal channel, the pacific war channel you might already know where this is going. I created an extremely long series and reformed it into a single documentary on China's warlord era. Its a fascinating part of the history of modern China and one I will tackle in this podcast series, god knows how long it will be. Some of the warlords started out as bandits, two in particular were extremely influential, I am of course talking about Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. By the way if you want to hear more about the king of memes, Zhang Zongchang, check out my episode on him on my youtube channel, its a must see I guarantee it, funny as hell and…well pretty dark too. The word Honghuzi translates as "red bearded". They were armed Chinese bandits who operated in northeast China, particular in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderlands during the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The term Honghuzi is believed to originate back in the 1600s referring to Russians by Chinese who had red beards. These would be the indigenous peoples around the Amur region. Chinese bandits later would use fake red beards as a disguise. Honghuzi gangs grabbed new members from those seeking easy money. It could be peasants, those down on their luck, Qing army deserters, recent immigrants. Just about anyone who preferred robbing over working lumber mills or in mines as you can imagine. A Vladivostok newspaper wrote an article in 1896 referring to the phenomenon "Here he is, dirty, in rags, half-starved, laboring every day, in the rain, in clay sticky soil ... what joys in life does he have? ... No wonder he prefers joining the Honghuzi and a life full of adventures." A honghuzi gang could be just two guys, or it could be several hundred strong. You can imagine large groups in the hundreds could perform large scale operations, bigger the gang, bigger the payoff. When Honghuzi groups came together to perform large scale operations it could threaten entire cities. Now I bet most of you have an image in your mind, a skinny, unwashed hooligan, probably wearing worn down rags, and obviously this could fit the description of many Honghuzi, but on average not really. Many of them were well dressed and extremely well armed. They typically performed crimes in spring and summer when it was easier to hide in the forest filled countryside or in the mountains. When I was speaking about Shandong I often mentioned these type of criminal seasons, highway robbery literally was seasonal work. In the autumn and winter times the Honghuzi typically hit the major cities and spent their booty on the usual stuff, alcohol, women and drugs, in this case opium. Many also held employment, like I said it was seasonal work, most were farmers. Manchuria was ideal for this type of criminal activity. The Qing government based in Beijing had little control over their sparsely populated homeland and the local officials in Manchuria did not have sufficient resources to quell the Honghuzi. The Honghuzi also did not stop at local activity, they often crossed over to plunder Russian territory, such as the Ussuri Krai. The Honghuzi had quite an easy time hitting the borderlands as the Russians and Qin could not focus much resources to protect them. As you can imagine such border issues resulted in larger scale conflicts. When Honghuzi raided Russian territory they often stole anything you can imagine like cattle, were smuggling opium and even illegally performed gold mining. Illegal gold mining led to a clash between the Hongzhui and Russian forces. In 1867 when gold was discovered on the small island of Askold, some 50 kms away from Vladivostok, Manchurian began to come over to try their luck at gold mining, as did the Honghuzi. A Russian schooner, the Aleut on several occasion scattered illegal gold miners, but they just kept returning. 3 Russian sailors were killed in an armed clash and the Honghuzi's chopped up their bodies in full view of the remaining Russian crew who fled in horror. The Russian government attempted to thwart the illegal gold mining and this led to what was called the Manzi War, Manzi is another name for Manchu. In 1868 Manchu and Honghuzi coordinated attacks upon Russian military posts and plundered and burned several towns, massacring settlers. In retaliation, Russian troops burnt down Manchu settlement known to shelter Honghuzi. By mid July the Honghuzi were gradually tossed back across the border into Manchuria. The Russians were not done, their forces pursued the Honghuzi as they fled back to Manchuria. Reportedly a Cossack sotnia penetrated Manchuria some several hundreds km's pursuing Honghuzi. In 1879 Russian forces crossed the border and burned down a well known fortified Honghuzi fortress near Lake Khanka. Major Nozhin leading a detachment during this time ran into Qing troops and a small battle occurred. It was an embarrassing episode for the Russians who apologized for the incident. The Qing court was not pleased with the border crossings, but knew the nature of the Honghuzi menace and actually asked the Russians to continue pursuing the Honghuzi within their borders. Now I would like to talk about the stories of some famous Honghuzi. In 1875, Zhang Zuolin was born the third son of an impoverished family in Haicheng of Fengtian, modern day Liaoning province. His family had been rooted in Manchuria for a long time, but his father was unable to sustain the family after dividing the estate with Zhang's uncle. Zhang only received two years of traditional education before leaving school following his fathers death. Nicknamed the "pimple", Zhang was a thin and short boy. Zhang spent his early youth, fishing, gambling and brawling. When he first tried to make some money he worked as a waiter at an Inn where he came across tales of the Honghuzi. The only useful education he ever received was a bit of veterinary science, he underwent a brief period of veterinarian training, but ultimately he abandoned the career to pursue something else. When the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, Zhang joined the Yi Army commanded by General Song Qing in 1894 to fight against the invading Japanese in Manchuria. However when the war ended and the Yi Army re-deployed, Zhang at the age of 21 departed them to take a job under his father in law to protect his village as the head of an armed band. There is a legend, most likely perpetuated by Zhang himself, that during a hunting trip he spotted a wounded Honghuzi on horseback and killed the man before stealing his horse to become a Honghuzi himself. Zhang led the group of bandits and earned this sort of Robinhood like mythos. Because he was illiterate he often referred to his experience as a bandit leader as "experience of the Green Forest" something his contemporary Zhang Zongchang would enthusiastically also state. During the anarchic period between the first sino-japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, Honghuzi were both bandits plundering but also militiamen protecting towns. It was a complex situation and one that Zhang would become an expert in. Soon after Zhang had established his bandit group, it was dispersed by a larger group sponsored by the Russians. Zhang and the survivors joined another honghuzi group, run by Zhang Jinghui. Zhang would gradually become its leader, and Zhang Jinghui would later become a Lt under Zhang during the warlord era. When the Boxer rebellion broke out, Zhang's gang joined the Qing army in their doomed resistance against the foreigners. Unlike the Boxers who ceased fighting when the war was over, the bandits kept on banditing. As Zhang's bandit group grew in size, he sought amnesty from the Qing government and became a militia commander in 1902. This would prove to be the first of a series of choices he made that would propel him to nearly become the leader of China. He was soon joined by Tang Yulin and Zhang Zuoxiang who would in their own right become Fengtian leaders. It seems Zhang's willingness to form alliances was the key to his success. Now I don't want to go too deep into it, but Zhang's militia was ordered by the Qing government to fight against Russian sponsored Honghuzi during the Russo-Japanese war. His bandit force worked to escort traveling merchants within Manchuria during the war. Fighting as mercenaries, Zhangs group become recognized as a regular regiment within the Qing military and they began patrolling the borderlands of Manchuria, suppressing other bandit groups. An American Major - surgeon named Louis Livingston Seaman was working or the 1st regiment US volunteer engineers during the russo japanese war. His regiment was working with the 2nd IJA army in Manchuria and he personally met Zhang Zuolin who he described in some length to the Nation magazine. "He had some amusing and exciting experiences with the Hung-hutzes (Chun-chuzes), ex-bandits, now nominally Chinese soldiery, many of whom were operating as guerrillas on the Russian flank and communications under Japanese officers, as is charged. The Japanese had in their employ Zhang Zuolin a famous Honghuzi leader who led his men against the Russians". Dr Seaman wrote a lengthy report of his story with the Honghuzi and Zhang Zuolin and I think it gives some flavor and a feeling of what the banditry types were like at their highest point. Dr. Seaman stated a Russian position had been swarmed by over 500 Honghuzi, the Russians took over 20 casualties before the Honghuzi hoard were finally driven off. The Qing troops seemed to let the Honghuzi roam around freely, most likely because "They can not be caught, the plain truth being that the best of fellowship exists between them and the imperial troops, their old comrades of yore." Seaman noticed the Honghuzi had a special hatred reserved for the Russians. There was much talk of past grievances, particularly that of the Blagovestchensk massacre when it was said 8000 unarmed men, women and children were driven at the point of a bayonet into the raging Amur river. Seaman met one Chin-wang-Tao who said a Russian officers who participated in the brutal massacre told him in 1900 ''the execution of my orders made me almost sick, for it seemed as though I could have walked across the river on the bodies of the floating dead." Only 40 or so Chinese escaped the horror, many of them were employed by a leading foreign merchant who ransomed their lives at a thousand rubles a piece. Such atrocities were well remembered by the local Chinese who sought revenge. When Japan began to look for those sympathetic to their cause, willing to pay for it none the less, it was not hard to find enthusiastic Chinese. It was believed 10,000 or more Honghuzi divided into companies of around 200-300 each led by Japanese officers no less were in force during the conflict. Zhang Zuolin commanded a large army of Honghuzi allied to the Japanese and Dr. Seaman met him and his army while venturing near Newchwang. There had been reports of raids by Honghuzi, also called the "red beards" though none of them had red beards, nor any kind of beard. Dr. Seaman's companion, Captain Boyd became determined to meet them. The two men hoped to see for themselves the characteristics of these so called 10,000 strong guerrilla fighters that fight on the western border area of Manchuria. They were said to be hitting the rear and right flank of the Russian army, compelling it to quadruple its Cossack guards in the region to protect supply trains and refugees trying to flee from Port Arthur to Mukden. Both men had Chinese passports and received official credentials from Minister Conger to meet with General Ma who had assembled his forces on the borderland. General Ma was the commander in chief of the Qing forces in the region and also the de facto commander of 10,000 Honghuzi now wearing Qing uniforms. Many of the Honghuzi were great horsemen, having Manchu backgrounds they lived a mounted life and for centuries had defied the Qing authorities, roaming at will, levying tribute and performing numerous crimes. The leader of these marauders was Zhang Zuolin, who now held the rank of Colonel in the Qing army. Within two years Zhangs band had obtained mastery over the entire border region of Manchuria going some hundred miles. The Qing government ceased opposing them and simply made terms to adopt them into the army. Now they stood as troops in good standing, with highway robbery semi officially recognized as one of their perquisites. The adoption of Honghuzi into the army had not changed their habits of murder and robbing. When they were not plundering Russian refugees en route to Siberia or Russian supply trains they often took their plundering gaze on Chinese towns. Practically every peasant in the region at some time became a Honghuzi. It seemed to be at the time the crops were nearly full grown, when the broom corn was 12 to 15 feet high when peasants were most likely to turn to the life of outlaw. The staple crop of kaoliang affords the perfect cover for troops or honghuzi. The 8 nation alliance troops realized this the hard way when they marched from Taku to Beijing. With the tall kaoliang to hide their movements the peasants abandoned their legitimate work and took up weapons either alone or in groups to plunder the highways or rob smaller villages near where they lived. Sometimes people banded together to fight off the honghuzi. The Americans said it was a very similar situation in the philippines during their little war. The filipinos would call them amigos, then don on the clothes of the banditry class and try to rob them. Newchwang was visited by large organized robbers, many from Kaopangtzi. Dr.Seaman had the chance to take a photograph of Li Hongzhang and himself taken in the palace of the old Viceroy in Beijing, shortly before his death, it was the last picture of the old statesman, whom he knew very well by that point, he had made several visits to him in Beijing. Dr. Seaman stopped at Chinese Inn, and came across a merchant from Hsinmintung who was suffering from an affliction which he was able to relieve in some measure. The merchant heard we were traveling north and sought to meet the Honghuzi, he advised us to go at once to Hsinmingtung, where Zhang Zuolin was commanding forces. He even gave them a letter of introduction, the man turned out to be one of Zhang's merchants. The letter proved very useful as when they traveled further, people in towns gave them better accommodations, they were greeted like friends. Hsinmingtung was the terminus of the railroad that connected Kaopangtzi with the main line from Tientsin. They were in the process of building the main line further to junction at Mukden. They arrived to Hsinmingtung and received special rooms from the merchants friends. There were Cossacks patrol north and east and Japanese southeast. Qing soldiers under General Ma were patrolling west and northwest and the Honghuzi were all around. The two men bought fireworks and had a small party with the locals establishing a standing within their community. The men then called upon the Chi Fu, prefect of the place whose name was Tsung Zao Ku and he received them cordially. Then they were finally presented to the great ex-bandit of all Manchuria, the leader of the Honghuzi, Zhang Zuolin who at that point was a colonel in the Qing army. Zhang Zuolin was a handsome fellow, graceful and mild mannered. He made them feel at home in his luxurious yamen, and brewed them excellent tea in fine porcelain cups. Then he offered them a good bottle of wine, an old Madeira. The men took photos of Zhang Zuolin and his forces. Zhang told them they were now his guests and he had to attend to matters, they were at liberty to travel through the country at will, but to make sure they never traveled unattended or unarmed. In the meantime the men spoke with a guest of the Chi Fu named Chang Lin Lung from Mukden. He spoke about Zhang, saying years ago he ruled all the territory around with an iron fist, as a bandit, doing as he pleased west of the Liao river. When China absorbed him and his men into its army, he obtained an allowance to pay his men well, the government supplied them also. The two men learned what they had suspected, these honghuzi were now really officered by the Japanese. There were around 300 with Zhang Zuolin as his personal guard. There were 8 Japanese officers directing the operations of another band the two men visited. It was said Zhang paid handsomely for all of this. Some of the Japanese officers were disguised as Chinese and doing covert work. Their guerilla operations were embarrassing Kuropatkin's army, robbing their supply trains forcing the Russians to double guards on lines of communication and adding more units to the right flank and rear. Two days before the two men arrived, a party of Russians were attacked by 200 Honghuzi, 7 miles from Hsinmintung. 5 were killed, 4 decapitated, their heads placed on pike poles. The same group of bandits whipped out a Cossack escort that was moving 1000 cattle and ponies to the Russian troops, the entire herd was stolen. Over 1000 Cossacks began revenge raids in the region in retaliation. At the offset of meeting Zhang, he showed an unusual amount of attention. Trumpets summoned his entire guards of 300 men, there was a great commotion and soon the whole outfit of his forces began lining up for inspection and kodak designs. Zhang gave 20 special guards for the two mens disposal and the next morning they went on an expedition of sightseeing. The plan was to visit neighboring bands, but when they reached 5 miles northeast, several Cossack scouts forced them away. They spent the night in Kowpangtze with 5 Japanese officers supported by a large number of Honghuzi. They took a railway train in the end to part ways. This was a glimpse at the future warlord of Manchuria as he ascended being a small-time bandit, to being the leader of the strongest bandit group in Manchuria and eventually found himself a role in the Qing military. Another infamous warlord who started out as a Bandit was Zhang Zongchang. Certainly the most notorious of China's warlord, Zhang Zongchang was in all essence a monster. Google or Youtube search his name and you will see meme videos everywhere, though might I add, I made a video talking about the funny parts of his life, but also the cold hard horror show that it also was, check out Zhang Zongchang the monster behind the meme. Zhang Zongchang was born in 1881 in Yi county, present day Laizhou in Shandong. He grew up in an impoverished village. His father worked as a head shaver and trumpeter, a rampant alcoholic. His mother was basically what you would call a practicing witch, she performed exorcisms. The family moved to Manchuria when Zhang was in his teens and the parents separated. Zhang stayed with his mother who took on a new lover. Zhang quickly took to a life of crime in and around Harbin. He took up work as a pickpocket, a prospector, worked as a bouncer and found himself working as a laborer in Siberia. He picked up a lot of Russian, which would pay off big time down the road. He described himself as a graduate of "the school of forestry". He became a hell of a big guy at 6 foot 6 and would be the tallest of the warlords, that was not all that was tall, if you know the meme you know the meme. When the Russo-Japanese war broke out, while Zhang Zuolin helped the Japanese, Zhang Zongchang helped the Russians. He served as a auxiliary for the Imperial Russian Army, it was basically the same situation of Zuolin, he was a honghuzi gang leader. However his real fame came after the war. During the war he showed himself a very capable warrior and leader. He was known for "splitting melons" ie: bashing the skulls of his enemies with rifle butts. Zhang made a ton of friends amongst the Russian military, he got along very well with them. He acquired an enormous taste for fine things, particularly cigars, champagne and whiskey. Google him and you will probably see a cigar in his mouth. Now unlike Zuolin, Zongchang really only starts to do famous deeds after the Russo-Japanese War, I don't want to go to far into the future, but I will give you a taste. For one thing why was he notoriously known as the "dogmeat general" you might ask? The nickname "Dogmeat General", was said to be based on his fascination with the domino game Pai Jiu. Others say his favorite brand of tonic was known as dogmeat. And of course there was the rumor he ate a meal of black chow chow dog every day, as it was popularly believed at the time that this boosted a man's vitality. Nicknames like "the lanky general or general with three long legs" were certainly something he publicized heavily. There was indeed the rumor old 86 referred to the length of his penis being 86 mexican silver dollars, there was also a nickname "72-cannon Zhang" referring to that length. I mean the man was 6 foot 6, people described him quote "with the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger". Alongside his penis propaganda, he was a legendary womanizer. Take his other nickname for example "the general of three don't-knows": he did not know how many women, how many troops, or how much money he had. I think that nickname fits him better than the nickname he gave himself "the Great General of Justice and Might". He had a ton of concubines. The exact number of concubines he had has variously been reported between 30-50, but historians have a hard time trying to fix the numbers as Zhang himself allegedly did not know. Allegedly his concubines were from 26 different nationalities, each with her own washbowl marked with the flag of her nation. He was also said to give his concubines numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their various languages. Many of these women he married, he was a polygamist after all. There was known to be Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Mongolians and at least one American amongst Zhang's women. Zhang was semi-literate, whenever people asked where he was educated he would say "the college of the green forest" a euphemism for banditry. Despite being semi-literate Zhang Zongchang is famously known for his poetry, most notably his Poem on Bastards: You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother. It should be noted a lot of the poetry attributed to Zhang Zongchang may have been fabricated by a political opponent named Han Fuju who took over Shandong Province after him. Now that's enough about the two Zhang's, trust me we are going to dig much deeper into these guys later on in the series, because I love the warlord era, its absolute insanity and very unknown to the west. So the Honghuzi who are often called just bandits, had a lot of influence in Manchuria, they are just another piece of the larger puzzle as they say. Now the enormous amount of bandits in Manchuria alongside the Boxer movement is what drove Russia to invade Manchuria. The Russians sent over 177,000 troops in Manchuria, under the guise it was merely to protect their railway construction efforts. This raised a lot of eyebrows as they say. By 1902 order had been restored in Beijing, the armed forces were thinning out. Britain and Japan were wary of Russia's increasing influence in the far east. Britain and Japan entered into an alliance on January 30th of 1902. The terms dictated if either nation was to go to war to protect its regional interests against a third power, the unaffected party would not only remain neutral but would try to prevent the conflict from widening. If an additional power, like France or Germany joined the war, either Japan or Britain would help the other. The alliance worked to Japan's favor allowing her to consolidate her recent acquisition of Korea and bolster her interest in Manchuria. Russia countered this by declaring a similar alliance on March 16th of 1902 with France. Now everyone expected Russia to withdraw her enormous troops from Manchuria, and on April 8th of 1902, during the Manchurian Convention, Russia confirmed her ultimate aim to evacuate Manchuria on the condition the railway and Russian citizens were protected by the Chinese. It was agreed the Russian withdrawal would be done in three phases. Over three periods, each 6 months. After the first 6 months, the first assigned territory, southwest of Mukden was evacuated and returned to China. The anticipated second phase of the withdrawal from the remainder of the province of Mukden and Kirin did not occur however. When the Qing ambassador in St Petersburg enquired what the delay was, he was waved off. Then 20 days after the withdrawal had begun, Beijing was presented with demands for concessions in Manchuria. None of the returned territory was in any way to be given to another power. Mongolia's system of government was not to be altered. No new ports or towns were to be developed or opened in Manchuria without informing Russia. Foreigners serving in the Chinese government were not to exercise authority in northern Manchuria. The telegraph line connecting the Liaotung Peninsula with Peking was to be assured. On Newchwang being returned to China, the Customs' dues were to continue to be paid into the Russo-Chinese Bank. The rights acquired by Russian interests or Russian people were to be continue On April 29th encouraged by the protests and support of Britain, the US and Japan, China rejected the 7 demands. Japan was greatly threatened by all of this and little by little, the same situation we saw unfold prior to the first sino-japanese war, was occurring all over again in Manchuria. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Honghuzi were a unique type of banditry that had an enormous role in the history of Manchuria. Those like Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang would join their ranks and earn great fame. With so many bandits in Manchuria however, conflict would soon arise.

Last time we spoke about the conquest of Northern Manchuria. The outbreak of violence all over Manchuria and even across the Amur river resulted in a full scale Russian invasion. Beginning in northern Manchuria, the Russian gradually advanced across the border to first secure endangered Russian pockets of civilians and forces, but soon cities all over northern manchurian were being seized. The Chinese attempted many offensives, but instead of consolidating a large force to defeat each Russian army, they performed numerous simultaneous operations. Hailar, Tsitsihar, Kirin and Haicheng all fell one by one. Manchu generals were dying on the battlefield or committing suicide as Russian detachments ran incredible fast and effective campaigns. Although the Russian string of victories were grand, the Manchu had more forces, more war materials and were fighting for their homelands, the Russians would need even more reinforcements if they were to take the south. #71 The Russo-Chinese War Part 4: The Conquest of Southern Manchuria Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The fall of Haicheng gave Mishchenko's men a period of much needed R&R. The number one objective, Mukden could not be taken with the forces at hand, thus the Russians would need to wait for large reinforcements coming over from Europe. For 43 days the men remained active, but they were restless. Everyone was awaiting the arrival of Lt General Subotich, commander of the Russian forces for the Kwantung region. Cossack patrols scoured Manchuria, speaking with local Manchu contacts whom they had known for years. Intelligence in early September indicated, 50,000 well armed troops with 60 Kripp artillery pieces, some Maxim and Nordenfeld machine guns were defending the way between Liaoyang and Mukden. Subotish reached Haicheng on September 21st and would have at his disposal 47 companies, two and half sotnias and 28 artillery pieces, roughly 9000 or so men. The Chinese held numerical superiority and they wielded modern european weapons with vast amounts of war supplies. But the Russians were now acutely aware the Chinese lacked discipline, marksmanship and leadership. The inhabitants of Manchuria had lost faith in their defenders. The Mongols had all but abandoned them. A lot of towns saw their Manchu bannermen as opportunistic plunderers and they began to hide provisions from them. A lot of towns upon seeing incoming Russian forces would hoist white flags to the dismay of the Chinese troops. Chinese militiamen were gradually dissolving back into the populace abandoning the regular troops. Subotich received such intelligence and would use it to his advantage. He made a proclamation in early september "notwithstanding the repeated orders of the military command and the imperial sovereign's desire, proclaimed to everyone, under no circumstances to burn down villages, there are scoundrels who do not hold dear the Tsar's will and have no regard for other people's property, acquired by sweat of peasants, Chinese though they may be. Such scoundrels will be shot". With this Subotich won an important psychological victory, for the Manchurian populace were clamoring for peace and the dismissal of their Manchu defenders. Subotich understood the actions of his enemy as months of campaign information was given to him. The Chinese forces were aggressive until met by Russian advances, whereupon they typical fled. Whenever Russian halted advances, the Chinese regrouped and attacked, this kept going on in cycles. Thus to truly end the enemies' will to fight it would be necessary to pursue them and not let up, depriving them the opportunity to regroup. Subotich planned a three pronged offensive. A central force would attack Anshan; a western force would hit Newchwang and upon defeating it would envelope east to help hit Anshan. The eastern force, more light and mobile would get around the enemy to cut off their retreat. On September 23rd the western force advanced upon Newchwang led by General Fleisher. They consisted of the 1st, 2nd and 11th east siberian rifle regiments, two sotnias of Verkhneudinsk Cossacks, a infantry battery, a platoon cavalry battery and mobile section of the red cross. Around Newchwang were 6000 Chinese led by General Shou. Newchwang was surrounded by mountains that could conceal troop movements. General Shou chose not to defend the city and instead had his forces perform harassing actions. On September 24th General Fleisher entered the city. Now General Shou expected the Russians to make camp at Newchwang for some time, so he made his own camp only 4 miles away, hoping to perform some more harassing actions. However General Fleisher left only a small garrison and carried on immediately to hasten the envelopment of Anshan where 14,000 Chinese were entrenched. Fleishers men came upon Shou's quickly and this led Shou to scramble a retreat which turned into a rout. The Chinese planned to withdraw eastward into the Chienshan hills to allow the Russian to go past towards their main force located at Sha-ho. They thought they would come back down the hill and hit the Russian rear, but now they were fleeing directly towards Sha-ho bringing the Russians into their own camp. Mounted Cossacks managed to for 2/3rds of Shous men to scatter in all directions, thus only 2000 of his men reached Sha-ho. Meanwhile Colonel Artamonov, Subotich's chief of staff road out personally with two sotnias to perform a reconnaissance of Anshan's defenses. They rode along the fortified heights forcing the Chinese to open fire from a distance as he sketched the Chinese artillery emplacements. He soon figured out the Chinese had stretched their line going 4.5 miles, the right flank leaned into a hill and their left to a fortified temple. Their trenches were arranged in tiers and held some 14,000 men and perhaps 30 guns. At 5:30am on the 26th the Russian main force was advancing in two columns towards Anshan. The central column commanded by Atramonov consisted of the 13 and 14th rifle regiments, two companies of the 15th east siberian regiment, three and a half batteries, a machine gun battery and a platoon of Verkhneudinsk Cossacks. The right column led by Mishchenko consisted of two companies and two sotnias of railway guards and 4 guns of the 1st Transbaikal cossack battery. Mishchenko's force was taking a northeast approach going through Tatun, Anshanchan and the Anshan pass. He faced no resistance and was soon 4.5 miles ahead of the main force, so he decided to wait in the Anshan heights. Mishchenko was personally going up a hill to look for a route to bring his artillery up when suddenly the eastern hills exploded with artillery shells and rifle volleys. To the Russians surprise the Chinese had taken to the hills to ambush them and now they could see Manchu bannermen galloping down the slopes as they bellowed horns. The Russians hastily took up positions and Mishchenko unaware how large the enemy forces even were ordered Strakhov and Denison to dislodge the Chinese from the heights. Mishchenk assumed two Cossack sotnias would be up to the task, each merely 40 men or less as many others were on patrol. The 80 men charged up the hills unknowingly into the very center of 14,000 Chinese. Mishchenko sent the rest of his detachment up the hills, and this time the Russians faced real opposition. The maelstrom of gunfire was so intense the Russians believed the Chinese were attacking them also from their rear. Then unexpectedly the Chinese began to fall back clearing the hills, only rearguard firing was seen. It would turn out, the Russians had panicked so much, their own forces began firing on forward units leading them to believe the Chinese were behind them during the short engagement! Mishchenko began burying the dead as Orlov joined them with the sections of the Red Cross to tend to the wounded. The Chinese had pulled back northwards towards the Sha river, intending to lure the Russian into a huge horseshoe formation formed around the village of Shahopu at the top and the Chienshan hills on the west and east. Together with reserve forces at Mukden and the remnants of the scattered Newchwang detachment the Chinese planned to make a stand. On paper the Russians had no chance to defeat the Chinese position. They had 53,000 men guarded a 8 mile long horseshoe perimeter. However 3000 of General Shou's men failed to make it and 14,000 men of the Anshan force arrived too late to join the battle effectively. Yte despite that the Chinese main force was 30,000 strong, absolutely dwarfing the 18.5 companies and 2 sotnias that were employed against them. The Manchu commanders faced another major problem, a all to common one for later Qing dynasty armies. The chinese battalions had been full strength on paper during peacetime, whereupon commanders were pocketing half or more of the salary funds. When the hostilities broke out, they hastily refilled their forces with anyone they could grab, this would account for the poor marksmanship and discipline. There were boys of 15 and men of 50, many bandits who joined eager to plunder but not fight. With the Russians on his heels, General Shou only got to the Chinese defensive lines on the eve of the battle. Various commanders had position their men at their own discretion as far away as possible from the expected point of attack. Shou attempted to tighten the overextended lines, but many commanders refused to accept his authority. Allegedly many commanders stated "why would we listen to a man who runs away from battle". Shou's rash beheadings of several officers because of this, just prior to the outbreak of battle did not have a good effect on morale. In fact his attempts to reform lines properly actually just added more confusion when the battle started. The Chinese lines were so extended the Russians lacked the numbers to effectively hit the front and flanks. Subotish elected to begin the battle with an artillery duel. His artillery was on his left flank initially, but he quickly moved it to the middle and began pounding each part of the Chinese lines, one after another. Meanwhile his infantry continuously got into assembly positions awaiting a breakthrough in the center. At 6am on the 27th Mishchenko went out with his two companies, two sotnias and 4 guns to hit the enemy positions in the Anshan heights near the Laiao and Sha rivers. He discovered Chinese positions along some mountains. He took his own artillery up a mountain which would later be called Mt Mishchenko where he began a artillery duel. Suddenly his railway guards were being surrounded by Chinese infantry. Grenades and bullets were being tossed everywhere. The Chinese were coming in waves, Mishchenko had made a real blunder. He thought he was attacking an outpost when in fact he was fighting in the midst of 30,000 Chinese. From the tip of Shahopu some 4200 feet away, Chinese artillery were firing upon his artillery. The artillery firing grenades were sending shrapnel everywhere causing a bloody carnage. The Chinese artillery were firing effectively, casualties were mounting and Mishchenkos artillery ammunition was running out. Mishchenko believed his detachments days might finally be over. But the Chinese did not press their attack. The Chinese continued their bombardment, but did not release a deathblow with their infantry. Enough time passed by for Artamonov to arrive in the sector with a vanguard and by 11am, Mishchenkos artillery was joined by Artamonov's who also handed over much needed ammunition. Together now 12 guns strong they both fired upon the Chinese and the gun duel was tipping to their favor. It seems the Chinese did not realize how small the force was that was facing them and only pressed their attack when Mishchenko received reinforcements, they lost their opportunity to overrun him. Mishchenko and Artamonov pushed against the Chinese center. General Subotich viewing this unfold unleashed a flank attack and by mid afternoon the Chinese had been dislodged from their formidable position. By nighttime the Chinese were fleeing for Liaoyang. Some of the best Qing commanders lost at Shahopu such as Generals Yun, Fen and Hsu. They were unable to control their men, who scattered into the countryside and began plundering. The commanders were mortified at the breakdown of discipline and took the men they could to Mukden. Once they reached Mukden, they tendered their resignations to Beijing. Instead of defending the Manchurian capital or negotiate its surrender to preserve what could be preserved, the generals went to work gathering every cart and wagon they could to plunder the banks and treasury. They deserted their troops allowing them to simply scatter across Manchuria and Mongolia. The northern Manchurian detachments headed for Mukden, Tiehling and Fakumen like a swarm of marauders plundering every town and small village along the way. Mostly units formed in Liaoyang province stood their ground against Subotich's advance. Subotichs patrols reported the Chinese were entrenching themselves on some hills half way between Shahopu and Liaoyang. At 6:30am on the 28th, General Fleisher advanced with his column trying to get around the right flank and storm the western face of the Liaoyang fortress. Meanwhile Mishchenko departed with his column at 8:20am going through some mountains to get across the left flank and hit the eastern gates of the Liaoyang fortress; and the center column of Colonel Artamonov set out at 8:30 to make a frontal assault. The Chinese sent Manchu cavalry to harass the vanguards of the Russian forces, but Cossack sabers were winning the engagements heavily. Many of these Manchu cavalry units would put up a fight, then rush to the nearest village to hide amongst civilians. Artamonov's path took him to a central part of the Liaoyang walls. Artamonov set up his artillery to batter them and distract their attention from the flanking maneuvers. At 2pm, Fleisher approached the western walls. The defenders fired only a few shots, killing around 7 Russian before fleeing eastwards into the mountains. On the other side of the nearby river, Russian artillery was pummeling the walls, forcing the Chinese to abandon many of their modern Krupp and Nordenfeld guns. Once Fleisher was mounting his attack, Artamonov ordered his men to storm the central position, driving the defenders towards a village from which many were firing up Fleishers position. Now finding themselves attacked from two simultaneous fronts, the Chinese fled, abandoning more and more artillery pieces. In around 30 minutes the Russian flag was hoisted over the fortress and Artamonov's men wasted no time pursuing the fleeing enemy. Mishchenko meanwhile kept up his bad luck of running directly into heavy opposition. His column was advancing through some mountains and again, unable to see past some heights he had ventured into a large force of 6000 Chinese. The Chinese were those who had fled Shahopu. The feared being encircled so they took up a very overextended line. When Mishchenko saw the Chinese forces he had his artillery rapid fire before tossing two companies to drive the Chinese deeper into the mountains. With orders not to pursue the enemy further, Mishchenko turned to Liaoyang where his exhausted men got a days rest. The Russians only reported 10 deaths and 64 wounded for the battle, again they noted terrible accuracy by the Chinese riflemen to be the reason for low casualties. They also noted many Chinese artillery shells did not explode, so one can expect corruption to be the causation. The Russians found the barracks they once defended and graves of their fallen comrades dug open with their remains tossed everywhere. The Russians were furious to see such a thing, they took all the remains they could find, reburied them that night with full military honors. Konstantin was at the scene and upon seeing the undug graves he began an investigation. He interrogated some recent POW's and they told him the gruesome details. Their former comrades had been held at the Liaoyang jail. They were given foul water and stinking excrete for food and were beaten until they ate it. They wounds were not cleaned nor bandaged and they had rampant infections. They soon began to smell so bad, their Chinese guards began to complain. The Chinese jail commander had those with festering wounds decapitated. The prisoners were routinely forbidden to lie down to sleep unless they used the severed heads of their comrades for a pillow. After a few days many of the men used the heads for pillows. Many chinees drew silly faces upon them and made them kiss piglets all over for humiliation. They were tortured horribly, many of them had their limbs cut off slowly and bled out. With a wild anger in their hearts the Russians now looked to Mukden. Lt General Subotich wasted little time advancing the men to the cradle of the Qing dynasty. Mukden had a population of 200,000 and constituted a major commercial and industrial center for Manchuia. The city was surrounded by 11 miles of outer earth wall and an inner brick wall with towers and gunports. It was around 3 miles in circumference. Intelligence indicated there was a lot of friction between northern and southern China. While Liaoyang may have offered strong resistance, Mukden was expected to be a cake walk. A captured Qing officer told Subotich "if our forces were unable to defend liaoyang, they will abandon Mukden". The final offensive began on September 30th and would be spearheaded by Colonel Mishchenko, now reinforced with the 5th Verkhneudinsk Cossack sotnia and a scouting party of the 11th and 14th rifle regiments. Next would be Colonel Dombrovskii with three and a half battalions of infantry, 16 artillery, 4 heavy machine guns, sappers and a squadron of Cossacks, after that the bulk of Subotichs army. The Russians advanced along the imperial highway without any opposition. The Chinese were completely demoralized after the endless string of defeats. Inhabitants of the villages along the way told the Russians the Chinese soldiers had been deserted by their Generals and were withdrawing into the countryside. They also said at first the Chinese soldiers only took food from them, but soon this became open plundering of anything. It seems the Russian proclamation that they would not lift a finger on the civilians had a side effect, the villages began denying food to the chinese troops and this led to conflicts. There of course were many Russians who plundered the Chinese, but most would think of this as depriving the enemy. Upon seeing what the enemy was doing to its own citizens, the Russians were filled with further hate. Many of the Chinese villagers would rush up to the Russians giving them chickens, vegetables and eggs, which only strengthened the Russian troops mindset that the enemy soldiers needed to be defeated quickly so their citizens could live at peace again. Another Chinese officer POW told the Russians Mukden was not going to be defended and in fact was probably burning down. The Russian advance quickened. Mishchenko ordered the 8th Don Cossack sotnia of Podesaul led by Denisov to rush over to Mukden to see if the rumors were true. The intelligence would prove accurate, Mukden was abandoned, however there was a catch. The Chinese planned to blow up Mukden and the Russians with it. The Manchu had placed mines with electric lead wires through countless buildings, ammunition dumps, gates and private homes. The entire population was chased out of the city before any of this was done, trying to keep it of the utmost secret. The Manchu generals expected the Russians to attack Mukden on October 2nd. However they were so busy plundering and mining the city the commanders neglected to post guards on the walls, so when Denisov's patrol showed up on October 1st the gates were wide open. When the Chinese mounted patrols caught sight of the Russians they began firing upon them from the outskirts of the city. The Cossack ignored them and galloped through the southern gates of Mukden sabering through sentries. They quickly occupied a tower that was part of the southern wall and opened fire on Chinese tents down below. Chinese frantically began running as the Cossacks butchered anyone they saw. The Chinese soldiers were in a state of panic, firing randomly at anything that looked like an enemy. The Cossacks were attempting to make it seem like they were a much larger force than they were, charging through streets wildly. In the distance Artamonov and Mishchenko were closing in on the city and could see their comrades were occupying a tower and firing upon Chinese. With excitement at the bravado of their comrades they rushed forward. Han, Manchu and Boxers were seen fighting each other for horses to escape the city. In their flight the Chinese forgot to detonate the mines. At one of the gates boxes were buried with powder and phosphor matches and some of the Cossacks galloped over them, ignited the matches exploding the boxes upon the last Cossacks riding past. 6 men were killed, but in comparison to what the Chinese had planned it was a rather small price to pay. At around sunset Konstantin arrived and occupied one of the eight gates of Mukden's fortress walls. Cossacks ran through the city and its outskirts pushing out the Chinese to pacify the city. Entire quarters of Mukden were up in flames as the Chinese had burned down parts as they fled. The imperial palace was saved surprisingly. The fall of Mukden did not end the war over Manchuria, the Chinese did not surrender. Many scattered back to their villages, others became raiders continuing to attack both Russian and Chinese. Russian forces in Manchuria and Pechihili grew to 3900 officers and 173,00 men. However with Mukden taken, there was no longer a need for such a grand force and demobilization gradually began on October 3rd. The Manchu general of Fengtian eventually sent word to General Subotich from Hsinminting that he was willing to enter peace negotiations. He laid blame completely upon the Boxers for the entire conflict, asserting he had done everything humanly possible to avoid violence and "to preserve the centuries old friendship between Russia and China". He implored the Russians to continue anti bandit campaigns. The Honghuzi had been a problem long before this conflict. This title translates to "red beards", they were armed Chinese bandits who operated on the eastern Russia-Chinese borderland during the late 19th to early 20th century. For decades they plundered the countryside defying the Qing authorities. They became so organized and strong, Qing officials would often find it necessary at times to make deals with them. This was sometimes by supplying them with foodstuff or occasionally bestowing military ranks upon their leaders. When wars occurred their ranks swelled. They had countless hideouts and the Russians found them to be quite the annoyance. The war had deeply impacted the harvests in Manchuria, numerous fields were not tended to properly and the population greatly suffered. Hunger began to stalk the land, the Manchuria railway transported large quantities of grain donated through charities to try and help. The Russians never attempted direct rule over the government in Manchuria. They had garrisons in major cities and dominated key officials as advisers. General Tserpitskii commanding the forces around Mukden had his subordinate Colonel Grmbchevskii advise the Manchu General of Mukden "the duties of the colonel are broad and demand much tact in the continuous cooperation, and frequently opposition, of the two authorities Russia and Chinese. He must play the role of a buffer". There was some economic stimulus to Manchuria from the Russians, Mukden was quickly rebuilt, markets expanded, Russians helped police wherever they had interest. In most of Manchuria the Russians could do whatever they wanted, excluding Yingkou which held an international settlement. War Minister Aleksey Kuropatkin sought to ensure the good conduct of Russian forces in Manchuria and ordered General Grodekov and Admiral Alekseev "See to it that the troops do not coerce the population in any way. With the last shot of battle the life of the natives, their honor, property, and customs must become inviolate for our troops". Russia was well aware the other great powers resented their occupation and influence over the region. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so the Russian empire had consolidated its foothold in all of Manchuria. 177,000 Russians troops were now stationed within the breadbasket of Asia, under the guise they were only there to protect railways, but what if they decided not to leave?

Last time we spoke about the Blagoveshchensk massacre and war over the Amur river. The Chinese began a bombardment of the city of Blagoveshchensk striking panic and fear into her Russian inhabitants. The panic and fear led the Russian commanders ordered the deportation of many Chinese over the Amur river and this soon became a large-scale massacre. Countless Chinese drowned or were killed under the orders of the local Russian commanders. After the horrors on the Amur river the russians gradually received reinforcements and began a large scale offensive over the river to stop the Chinese attacks. First to be hit was Sakhalian, sending its Chinese defenders fleeing towards Aigun and Tsitsihar. The Chinese tried to fortify mountain positions to stop the Russians, but each fell one by one until the Russians had taken the cities. More Russians were crossing the border into Manchuria, the minor conflict had become a full scale invasion. #70 The Russo-Chinese War Part 3: The Conquest of Northern Manchuria Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The conflict spread anywhere there was a Russian presence in Manchuria. The Manchu were gradually tossing their lot in with the Boxer cause and to be honest, the Manchu always hated the Russian encroachment in their homelands. Harbin held the headquarters for railroad construction in Manchuria. Its population swelled since the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, with refugees pouring in from the Liaodong peninsula, including other nationalities and Chinese christians. The month of june was rather peaceful for Harbin, the Chinese continued to work on the railway alongside their Russian colleagues. 60,000 Chinese laborers had recently come to Harbin to work and telegrams poured in from Manchu generals from Heilungchiang, Fengtian and Kirin guaranteeing the complete safety of the railway and Russians. But beginning in July, rumors spread of anti-foreign activity, telegrams from other Russian settlements being attacked flooded in. On July 5th, a report came in that the Roman catholic mission in Mukden had been destroyed and its Bishop was murdered. Civilians began to evacuate Harbin to Khabrovsk on steamers and barges. Harin braced itself for a Chinese attack, volunteer militias sprang up. Thousands of Chinese inhabitants of Harbin fled as Russian refugees flooded in from all over. Large numbers of Qing forces were reportedly converging on Harbin, so Captain Rzhevutskii came over from Tiehling with 6 officers, 250 Cossacks, militiamen and all of their families. His arrival bolstered the Harbin garrison who were only around 600 men, 300 of which had just come from Tsitsihar on July 14th. A force of 67 Cossack fought their way out of Kirin against a much larger force of Chinese. Their commander Savitskii was found at Laoshaokou on July 19th with only 38 Cossacks left, many wounded. Savitskii's left eye was riddled with bullet splinters and his arm was in a sling. His men had rode out under the assurances of safe passage from the Manchu General of Kirin only to be attacked by 500 Manchu with artillery support. The Manchu fired shrapnel not just over the Cossacks, but their own infantry when they engaged in hand to hand combat. Savitskii claimed their killed some 200 Chinese before breaking through their lines and were pursued for over 5 days. A eyewitness to their arrival in Harbin had this to say "tears welled up in our eyes and anger began to boil in our hearts, when we saw the valiant heroes who had arrived. The men walked barefoot, with feet that were skinned almost to the bones, many only in their underwear, exhausted and emaciated. Truly one could not believe somehow that the Chinese had not succeeded in wiping this handful of men from the face of the earth". Luckily for Harbin, on July 21st a steamer arrived to her dock from Khabarovsk carrying 1000 rifles, ammunition and 4 companies of reservists. Now Harbin counted 2000 defenders. On July 22nd a telegram came to Harbin from the Manchu General of Heilungchiang. It stated that while there had been cooperation with the Russian railway builders until this point, he regarded the Russian drowning of Chinese to be tantamount to a declaration of war and now both sides were free to attack the other. The message confused the Russians at Harbin for some time, having not heard of the Blagoveshchensk massacre. The rest of the message was crystal clear. The same Manchu General proclaimed the assault against Harbin would come soon and that the Russians should fight bravely for they would be exterminated without mercy. He did however offer safe passage for women and children out of Manchuria. 3000 women, children and wounded men departed Harbin aboard steamers on July 23rd. Meanwhile the Russians prepared their defenses and on the 25th the Chinese arrived. At 4am on the 26th the Chinese began firing their artillery from across the river. Their forces approached Harbin from the south and east successfully seizing the railway depot of the First Sungari Station and that railroad between the New part of the city and old Harbin. A Cossack counter attack during the afternoon drove most of the Chinese back in the direction of Ashiho. The Russians attempted to encircle the Chinese and quickly capture their artillery, but the Chinese withdrew in haste before they could. Countless Chinese who failed to rejoin the main body of their force were cut down by Cossacks. A smaller group of Chinese tried to hunker down at the railway depot and offered a stubborn fight until they were killed. The Chinese took up a new position at the Hanhsin plant which had some large walls with towers providing good defense. From their fortifications the Chinese fired back upon the Russians, but once they burst open the main gate the Chinese were again on the move. As Sergei Grudzinskii entered the plant he had this to say of the scene "The corpses of men and cadavers of horses lay strewn about everywhere. Sabers and bayonets sparkled. People jostled each other in disorder. All had agitated faces, as if drunk. The noise of voices and swear words filled the air, which was saturated with the heavy smell of blood, sweat and gunpowder. Frightened children, ducks, oxen and horses ran around. Now and then the short, whiplashed like shots of our 20 caliber rifles were heard. The men had gotten all excited. There was no mercy for anyone. Aroused, someone had set fire to a house, and thick, black smoke rose to the sky, as the bright sun beamed indifferently on the picture of death and destruction below". The Russians captured many Krupp field guns, German rifles and other war materials. On July the 27th and 28th the Chinese continued to bombard Harbins dock from across the river and fired upon any trains going by. The Chinese were using any local infrastructure around for protection so the Russains began burning everything. By July 28th the Chinese were abandoning their positions on the other side of the river. Some skirmishing was done with rearguards and some Chinese POW's revealed a second offensive, 25,000 men strong was scheduled to hit Harbin for August 3rd. But when the time came no Chinese army was to be found and steamers were coming to Harbin with relief forces, the siege of the city was over. With reinforcements on hand, the Russians sent word to nearby Ashih-ho where some 10,000 Chinese forces were gathering. The Russians notified them they wanted to re-establish friendly relations and called upon the Chinese to disband. They also wrote to the Manchu General of Heilungchiang who responded simply "I will be seeing you soon". The commander of Ashihho responded by sending a small battery to fire upon Harbin. On August 17th the Russians advanced upon Ashiho, Major General Gerngros led a Cossack vanguard; Major General Alekseev commanded the main body around a mile behind; and overall command was under Major General Sakharov. They were 16 companies, 12.5 sotnias and 16 artillery pieces. By the 18th they reached Ashihho, they sent word to the Manchu commander asking his surrender and he replied he would disband his forces when General Sakharov compensated China for the destruction of Pa-yen-tung, Sanhsing and other places damaged while withdrawing from Manchuria. It seems his words were braver than his actions, for when the Russians stormed the gates they would find the city in a state of evacuation. Cossacks with artillery support stormed around the city from the west and east to cut off the fleeing Chinese. A large number were killed, many others taken prisoner. The commander of the 4th East Siberian Rifle regiment was appointed commandant of Ashihho. The major objections of the Russians in Manchuria by this point was to defeat the Qing forces allying themselves to the Boxers, to secure the railway construction and secure the Amur River navigation. For logistical purpose the job was divided in two; north manchurian campaigns were led by Lt General Grodekov and South Manchurian were under Vice Admiral Alekseev. Russia sought to recover the main railway line of the Chinese eastern railway that ran from the Transbaikal region, to Tsitsihar, Harbin, Pogranichnaia and Nikol'sk-Ussuriiskii. Alongside this the Russians also needed to seize Kirin and Mukden to consolidate control in the region. Now this was all a colossal task, the sheer distance from the Transbaikal region to Manchuria was incredible. There was a shortage of steamers, so barges and rafts had to be constructed, bad harvests resulted in less provisions and just getting men and supplies to the front was hellish. Nonetheless the job was to be done, and between June and July 16 battalions, 38 guns, 6 sotnias, 2 sapper companies and 2 railway companies were rushed from Priamur to Kwantung and Pechihli. To compensate for depleting the Priemur region, Siberia would need to send forces. The mobilization was incredible. In the Transbaikal region in 1900 there was roughly 25,000 Russians of working age, from these 5000 men made up 5 cavalry regiments, 4 cavalry batteries and 4 infantry battalions were tossed together to form the "Hailar detachment" called so because they would advance against Hailar. They all had military training, but lacked a lot of discipline. The men were notorious for smoking in front of their superiors and during saluting times would often just nod their head. The Cossacks amongst them would not let superior officers strike them which was a custom in the army. But the men were pretty crack shots and could live off meager rations. Furthermore most of them had dealings and were on good terms with Mongols and Manchu. The leader of the Hailar detachment was Major General Orlov who mobilized them on July 25th and they proceeded from Abagaitui to cross the border. They followed the Hailar rivers until they reached the Dalai Nor railroad station on July 27th. They captured there 51 well armed Mongols without resistance and sent them back to Russia to help construct the Transbaikal railroad. From here they advanced to Ongun whereupon they saw at a distance some Manchu and Mongol cavalry spread out in orderly lines of single rank, behind them were infantry. According to some Chinese prisoners, the force was around 10,000 strong under the command of a General in Hailar. The Mongol cavalry advanced and fired upon them from a great distance, not hitting very much. The Russians held their fire, so the Mongols drew closer and pelted them with bullets. This time the Russian returned fire, but the Mongols persisted and dismounted from their horses, beginning to dig foxholes. The Russians resumed their defensive stance, watching the Chinese pull up artillery. At 11:45am the Russian's received some reinforcements, 2000 additional bayonets, 1000 savers and 6 cannons of the Verkhneudinsk Cossack regiment. The Chinese artillery was roughly 5000 feet away, their riflemen just 800 or so. The Verkneudinsk regiment rode out upon their right flank at 1:50pm signaling the Russian general attack. Orlov took the left flank performing a small envelopment maneuver. It was a bold and bloody advance. At 2:10pm the Russian artillery began to fire and it was deadly accurate, the Chinese artillery quickly evacuated, unable to properly return fire. At 2:25pm Orlov tossed some reserves into the advance and soon the Russians were charging across an open plain driving the Chinese from a hill position. The mounted Cossacks pursued any retreating Chinese forces who were seen tossing their weapons and equipment as they ran. Orlov got caught up in the chase and excitement and was almost shot while his staff officer screamed "Sir! You're being shot at!" Some Boxer forces stood their ground defiantly against Cossack sabers, butchered on the spot. The Russians had only 8 deaths and 17 wounded and claimed an incredible 900 casualties for the Chinese. Orlov sent his mounted forces to pursue the enemy and perform reconnaissance of Hailars defenses which his scouts reported was being abandoned. Orlov ordered a Cossack battery to rush to Hailar during the night of August 1st as he led more men against Urdingi. The roads were littered with abandoned equipment, but Orlov received a new report in the morning, Hailar was not abandoned after all. There was a call for help at the Hailar front, so Orlov sent two Sotnias of the 4th and 6th battalions and he personally came by August 3rd. Upon seeing the reinforcements, the Chinese began to abandon the city and Orlov would have his dinner inside Hailar on that day. Hailar was a small district city, but it was important strategically for the Chinese eastern railway's construction. Orlov formed a supply depot at Hailar not only for his detachment, but for other Russian forces going through the area. Upon seeing the taking of Ongun and Hailar, the Mongols realized the Russians were stronger than the Manchu. The Mongols began abandoning the Chinese and fled to their homelands to wait out the conflict. Meanwhile General Bao, one of China's more able commander, realized the loss of Hailar was significant and began to approach the region from the Greater Hsing-an Mountains with a force 7000 strong. Cossack patrols reported Bao's advance to Orlov and Orlov decided to go out and meet him. On August 14th the Russian took up a position at Ya-koshih some 23 miles east of Hailar. The two forces would clash at 2pm and the battle would rage for many hours. The brunt of the fighting was felt by the Transbaikal Cossack battalions who charged into Bao's left flank. A severe thunderstorm broke out during the battle and Orlov used it to conceal a held back reserve battalion to charge into the right flank of the Chinese. When both flanks were being hit Orlov called for a general forward assault. General Bao was a well recognized figure and some Russian sotnias came across his dead body on the battlefield before they crashed into a Chinese rear guard at 10pm. The Chinese had routed and enraged by the intensity of the battle the Cossacks ran them down hard. The victory at Yakoshih would give Russia control over the western part of Manchuria up to the Greater Hsing'an Mountains. On the mountains a newly formed detachment under General Chou Mien established a heavily fortified position. A flying detachment led by Bulatovich was sent to Hsing-an on August 19th and the approached the Chinese positions on the mountain to prod their defenses. Bulatovich personally led a small group to drive out a Chinese forward post near a bridge so most of his forces could get across a river to venture into the foot of the mountains. A full reconnaissance was performed, while the rest of the Hailar detachment were 40 miles away enroute. On August 20th, without waiting for reinforcements that were due to Hailar at any moment, Orlov advanced. Orlov took his forces to seize the Mien-tu-ho station, Ha-la-kuo station and I-Lieh'ko'te from which at a moment's notice he could help Bulatovich's position, being just 10 miles away or so. Orlov ordered the forces to slowly push into the mountains proclaiming to the men "Well done Verkhneudinks Cossacks! With God, lets see what the mysterious Greater Hsing-an is like!" From the 3 different locations the men advanced. Orlov planned to cross over a ridge 20 miles south of the Chinese position to get behind their rear and cut off their road towards Tsitsihar. While planning his attack, Orlov received word that Beijing had just been taken by the 8 nation alliance on August 14th and that Harbin was occupied by Russians as well. At 5am on August 23d, Bulatovich began a envelopment maneuver while the main body advanced with Orlov. The Chinese would be unable to see the main bodies movements due to the mountain ranges. Once they approached the Chinese rear, Orlov began planning out artillery positions and watched with binoculars through some bushes at the Chinese positions. His report of the actions state the Chinese trenches were dug absurdly, in a line of square holes across the main road that could only face a frontal attack. He was also surprised to find out many nearby heights held no enemy posts, they easily could be used against them. Orlov took up a position that overlooked the entire left flank of the Chinese position. His artillery positions were perfect, nothing would obstruct their bombardment. At 2am the next day Orlov sent forward companies to seize the nearby heights lest the Chinese grab them at the last minute. At 6:45am the Chinese had advanced forward on the right flank catching the Russian position in enfilade fire. Cossacks charged into them swiftly and at 7:30am the Russian artillery began its bombardment which quickly silence the Chinese artillery. Suddenly the Chinese right flank was hit with Cossack sotnia's causing confusion. Chinese riflemen tried to get out of their trenches but were pinned down by the artillery shrapnel and soon the Cossacks were firing into the trenches butchering them. The battle was a brief one, the Chinese were simply not prepared to face attacks from multiple directions. After only 50 minutes the Chinese began a withdrawal. The Russians would have completely encircled and annihilated them, but the rear units rushed over to help a pinned down Russian company. Russian reported 3 deaths and 9 wounded, taking countless Chinese lives and seizing 5 artillery pieces and 120 carts of war materials. The Chinese fled to Tsitsihar the capital of Heilungchiang province. Manchu General Shou Shan held a very strong garrison there. A detachment led by Bolsheretsk was already advancing upon Tsitsihar and Orlov was to meet up with him. On September the 2nd, Orlov arrived to the outskirts of Tsitsihar and 2 days later he entered the city, as the Bolsheretsk detachment had already battled and taken the city by August 28th. Its large Chinese garrison had fled towards Petuna. The reason they had fled was due to the psychological impact of General Rennenkampfs daring campaign, as you will recall General Shou Shan had committed suicide having lost to him. Apparently Shou Shan swallowed gold to rupture his intestines, I've never heard of that one before. With the Hailar detachment and Bolsheretsk detachment together at Tsitsihar, they now had a force of 12 battalion, 14 sotnias and 22 artillery pieces altogether. Orlov sent orders for Rennenkampt to take 12 sotnias and 6 cavalry guns to advance upon Petuna while he would follow behind. Petuna was around 200 miles away and the Russians would have to ford the Nonni and Sungari rivers. Rennenkampft managed to get to Petuna in 5 days and found it sheltered 1500 Chinese Infantry and 150 cavalry units. A Qing official named Li rode out to parley with Rennenkampt, asserting to him they had 5000 men and asked for a armistice of 2 days. Rennenkampf replied that his detachment would be within Petuna that very evening and that by 6am all of the Chinese must come to their camp and lay down their arms. Rennenkampf really does seem like a badass doesn't he? At 6am on september 12th, the Chinese cavalry fully armed approached the camp and made a display of surrendering their arms. Then the Chinese infantry followed suit. The Chinese forces were herded away to help construct the railroad. On the 19th the main body reached Petuna, there Orlove and the other commanders decided to hit Kirin city, the capital of Kirin province. Mounted Cossacks were sent south of the Sungari river to hit Kirin from the south while the main body would advance north of the Sungair to hit Kirin from the north. Rennenkampf elected himself to perform a reconnaissance and set out on September 22nd with two sotnias. At 3pm the village of Tashuiho which lied on the junction of Mukden and Kirin was attacked by Rennekampfs force. Rennekampf was nearly speared to death during the attack, but they managed to fight off the Chinese. At 7am on the 23rd Rennenkmapf arrived to Kirin and a bearer of a flag of truce came out. The flag bearer asked for an armistice and again Rennenkampf rejected this and literally galloped into Kirin and headed for the Governor's mansion. This guy fancies himself Julius Caesar I guess. 220 Chinese cavalry who guarded the mansion were quickly surrounded and disarmed. Within Kirin Rennenkampf captured 69 modern rifles and 5000 other rifles of various dates which he tossed into the Sungari river. Rennenkampf had thus taken a fortified city of 120,000 inhabitants with 200 Cossacks, an unbelievable feat. But in reality, Prince Qing had actually ordered the governor of Kirin to suspend all hostility against the Russians. I bet Rennenkampf forgot to mention that part in his action report. Like I said a Julius Caesar kind of guy haha. With Kirin in their hands, Orlovs detachment turned back to Harbin, where he would soon receive orders to return home so the Transbaikal Cossacks could tend to their farms, just in time for harvesting. Rennenkampf would remain in Kirin until the arrival of Major General Kryshanovskii with 4 squadrons of dragoons, 1 Chita Cossack sotnia, the 3rd Transbaikal cossack battery and a mounted train of artillery on September 26th. Rennenkampf took his small force to Tiehling where Russian forces were preparing for a large offensive against Mukden. Orlov's campaign was an extremely fast one, his forces covered extreme distances, going 20 miles or so per day. A telegram from Lt General Matsievskii, the commander of the Transbaikal Cossack forces told Orlov his men had broken all records in the campaign. Casualties for the Hailar detachment were 468 in total. The Chinese had been routed, not by cowardice however. They fought bravely and were well armed, it seemed to Russian eye witness accounts they lacked proper marksmanship. The Qing officers seemed to be ignorant of modern military tactics and this heavily affected their organization. The Manchu General of Heilungchiang had sent troops simultaneously in three directions against the Hailar detachment, the Bolsheretsk detachment and the Khabarovsk detachment, not to mention sending other dispatches against Harbin. Orlov believed the Chinese could have won if they consolidated and hammered the Russians one force at a time. With the capture of Kirin, Qing officials now tried to ingratiate themselves with the Russians, giving them the old wine and dine treatment. The final Russian offensive would be mounted in southern Manchuria. Major General Fleisher, was appointed commander of the newly formed South Manchurian Detachment. On August the 8th after Yingkou was taken, Mishchenko joined up with Domrovskii at Tashihciao. The Chinese had consolidated around Haicheng with a strength of around 4 battalion and 4 artillery pieces. The Russian forces at Tashihciao did not have many mounted Cossacks to perform a proper reconnaissance and as a result would not have a good idea of the Chinese strength. Thus the Russians overestimated the enemy. Fleisher ordered 3 columns to advance, in the middle was Colonel Aurenius leading the 3rd East Sierian rifle regiment with 8 guns and a section of Cossacks; on the left was Mishchenko with two companies, two Cossack squadrons and the 1st Transbaikal Cossack battery; and on the right was Dombrovskii with 4 and a half companies of the 11th east siberian rifle regiment, 4 guns and a squadron of Cossacks. The three columns departed Tashihciao on August 10th. Aurelius's central column ran into a Chinese outpost who upon seeing them began to flee north towards Haicheng, only to run into Mishchenko's forces. Dombrovskii's column were advancing through some difficult mountain terrain to try and block escape routes for the Chinese. Mishchenko's force suffered casualties from Chinese artillery, but when the Chinese tried to press an attack, the 1st Cossack Battery battered their formations. Aurelius tried to advance faster to catch up to the Chinese, but they kept slipping away. In the face of the advancing Russians, the Chinese evacuated Huchuangtun, destroying all useful war materials there. On August 11th the Russian columns reunited for and made camp, then the next day continued towards Haicheng in two columns. The main column commanded by Fleisher consisted of his detachment, Dombrovskii's detachment and sotnia of Cossacks. They advanced northward along the railway line. The other column led by Mishchenko traveled parallel with the main column to the left. General Shou planned to lure the Russians over towards Newchwang and spring a trap, but his subordinates refused to abandon Haicheng without a fight. Yun assumed command over the Haicheng militia and had his forces harass Mishchenko's smaller column as they advanced. Yun set up an ambush for Mishchenko, deploying some artillery on a mountain range, but the Russians quickly overran them. While Mishchenko was fighting in the mountain range, a large force of Boxers from Haicheng tried to recapture the Chinese artillery. The Russians saw a hoard of yellow sash wearing Boxers, most of whom were prepared for hand to hand combat. The Boxers charged the Russians furiously, and Russians reported seeing very old men, some young boys and even a few girls amongst their force. Cossacks reported the Boxers tried to grab them down from their horses, but were no match for sabers. At 2am on August 12th the Russians were brushing off the attacks and ambushes and continuing their advance. By this point the Chinese had roughly 4000 regular troops, 8 artillery pieces and 1000 Boxers who had all retreated during the night for Haicheng. When the Russians reached Haicheng, the Chinese defenses collapsed. The Russian artillery had only just begun firing as the Chinese artillery crews abandoned their equipment and began fleeing. The only real resistance would be rear guard actions as the Russians stormed into Haicheng. Patrols were first sent into the city to see what kind of state it was in. Many inhabitants were known to the Russians as they were workers on the railway and the patrol forces assured them all they would see no harm. As the Russian main force entered the city, the Chinese came out with gifts of chicken, eggs and vegetables and both sides were quite relieved by the outcome. Konstantin had entered the city and met with some Chinese families he knew from railway work, gave them all assurances there was going to be no violence within the city. Railway guards were initially stationed in the city, but soon relieved whereupon regular Russian troops came in. Konstantin had departed Haicheng for some meetings and when he returned some days later, he went to a Chinese family acquaintance to find they had been butchered inside the home. Konstantin recalled "two old men lay in puddles of blood, bayoneted to death, while a young boy, about eight years old, with his belly ripped open, squirmed in agony". Konstantin was livid, and went to the nearest sergeant major to ask where the other Chinese were and was told "they are farther away from their sin". That same day a doctor in Konstantins regiment was called upon to revive an old woman and younger girl. Both had been expelled for the city, ran into solders who killed the older womans husband and raped the younger girl. In agony the two tossed themselves into a river to commit suicide. The old woman was revived, and the girl died. Konstantin bitterly watched as more innocent bystanders died. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Northern Manchuria is firmly under Russian control and gradually southern Manchuria is falling to the same fate. The price of war as usual is always felt heaviest on the innocent civilian populations. Unfortunately Manchuria will face such horror for decades to come.

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Russo-Chinese War of 1900. Though its been only referred to as the Russian invasion of Manchuria during the Boxer Rebellion, this event was far larger and more impactful than it seems. The recent Russian acquisitions after the Triple Intervention brought numerous railway workers and guards into the Manchu homelands. It was a joint venture between the Qing and Russian empires, but the year of 1900 brought the Boxer movement into the mix. The Russians were isolated in various pockets throughout Manchuria and were being attacked by Boxers and Manchu's who likewise shared their anti foreign sentiment. Violence broke out in places like Hsiungyuehcheng, Baitouzi, Liaoyang and Haicheng, seeing Russian forces fleeing one to the next, trying to consolidate for protection. The Russians have received a pretty bloody nose, but they were just about to punch back. #69 The Russo-Chinese War Part 2: The Blagoveshchensk Massacre on the Amur River Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Russo-Chinese War is a bit more difficult to talk about in a chronological order as so much is going on in different places at roughly the same time. It differed from the conflict going on in China proper also in the fact it was very much bilateral rather than international. However there were exceptions seen in places like Yingkou. Yingkou was a treaty port on the Liaodong gulf and had an international settlement. Foreign consulates and missions were present. Yingkou was going to be connected to the South Manchurian railway line and would experience Boxer agitation early on. Boxers began by plastering the city with anti-christian placards, proclamations and youth were practicing martial arts in her streets. Then adult Boxers began pouring into Manchuria where they gradually harassed westerners. It did not happen overnight, it was gradual work, but soon Boxers were fortifying positions. In June of 1900, Vice Admiral ALekseev telegraphed the Russian Minister of War from Yingkou, indicating he required more guards. The Minister of War forwarded the telegram to the Minister of Foreign affairs with the recommendation the Admiral should be given authority to take whatever measures necessary to prevent the outbreak of hostilities near Russian held railway territory. The foreign Minister, Count Mikhail Murav'ev agreed and recommended Russian forces not go far beyond the Kwantung region in their efforts. Tsar Nicholas II also added comments "It is extremely important for us not to scatter our forces". When Tientsin saw an outbreak of violence, and the railway lines in Manchuria were being attacked, Colonel Dombrovskii was sent from Port Arthur to Tashihciao with the 11th East Siberian Rifle regiment, a battery and a Sotnia of Cossacks. Colonel Khoreunzhenkov followed this up with his detachment from Port Arthur coming via train to Tashihciao while the 7th and 8th East Sierian rifle regiments proceeded to Yingkou and Tashihciao via sea transport. Because Yingkou was a treaty port, Russian gunboats were on hand when the violence erupted. When Qing forces began to mass up around Yingkou a bit due north, the Russians sent an envoy to meet with the local General Shou to inform him Russian gunboats would level the city to the ground should the Chinese attack the Russian settlement. General Shou was livid at this, but kept everything at Bay until August 4th. By that point in time, Russian Consul Andrei Timchenko-Ostroverkhov had asked Colonel Mishchenko and General Fleisher who arrived on July 29th not to disrupt the peace with any military actions. Meanwhile General Chin Cheng the commander of Qing forces in the province of Fengtian decided to counteract Russian occupations of key points in the Liaodong Peninsula. He deployed large numbers of troops to Yingkou and Anshanchan, while retaining a reserve at Shahotzu. Chin Cheng also sent a request to Beijing to release 20 battalions to the Liaodong Gulf to operate behind the Russian lines and smash their railway lines. Smaller detachments would fight delaying actions while gradually pulling back to Yingkou. The Qing's plan was to lure the Russians over to Anshan, then overwhelm them with superior numbers from 3 directions coming from Yingkou, Shahotzu and the Chienshan mountains. The detachments coming from Yingkou and Beijing would cut off escape routes. Before this, the Qing were more or less uncoordinated and not very effective in their military actions. However now with forces larger than, 50,000 men each, with 60 or so artillery pieces under the command of a commander in chief, they were about to become a lot more threatening. Now while this large maneuver was being prepared, a smaller battle took place at Yingkou on July 26th. Mishchenko now at Yingkou received reports that Khorunzhenkov had pushed out many Qing forces away from Hsiungyuehcheng, and now those said forces were enroute to Yingkou. Mishchenko elected to go out and meet them head on with two and a half companies alongside two artillery pieces. His forces advanced northeast of the city walls and proclaimed the Qing there had one hour to remove their forces from the walls. The Qing defenders armed with Mauser rifles fired off in defiance and soon messengers from incoming Qing forces began galloping towards the city. 15 minutes before an hour had passed the Russians began deploying themselves to a fight. Konstantin and Mamonov led their companies towards the northern and eastern forces; Troitskii and Prokipenko with their 7th siberian companies guarded the right flank incase Qing came from the city. When the ultimatum expired the Russians began to open fire, met equally back with Qing fire. Within 15 minutes the Russians had battered the walls with their artillery and were scaling the walls. The Qing fired back while making an evacuation of the city. Two Cossack squadrons with sabers in hand pursued the fleeing Qing. The Russians gradually advanced against the city, then suddenly a special message arrived from the Consul demanding they halt the attack. The fleeing Qing forces from Hsiungyuehcheng whom Mishchenko was trying to cut off from Yingkou had found out about their attack and were now scattering amongst neighboring towns. Thus Mishchenko's actions seemed to have worked. Mishchenko's forces would have to sporadically raise up similar actions against the hostile elements within Yingkou, seeing countless Boxers and sympathizers flee the city. This peaked one day seeing a small battle before the Russians finally stormed the city now greatly depleted of its warriors. The Russians captured the arsenal and military stores and left a half company to guard the entrance to the city. On August 5th, Vice Admiral Evgenii Alekseev arrived at Yingkou on the cruiser Zabiiaka. Alekseev was 55 years old at the time, a short stocky man, with a rather large head and hooked nose. His large beard was beginning to gray, but the man was full of energy and demanded swift action from his men. He issued a speech on August 6th "the hostile behavior of the Chinese authorities who had first encouraged the rebellion and then declared that they could not maintain order ended in an open attack on our forces placed in the city in accordance to the wish of the Consular body. During the said attack the Chinese authorities had fled leaving the town to its fate. To avoid disorder and looting by the Chinese mo and with the object of protecting the commerce of the port and the property of the foreigners the Russian military authority found it necessary to place the town under the guard of the Imperial Russian troops." Foreign consuls began to request Alekseev send for more reinforcements, stating if he did not do so they would have to ask the Japanese. The British were not very keen on the Russian occupation, and when the Russians attempted placing their flags over British owned establishments it got pretty heated. But the foreigners did feel more at ease with Russian forces guarding the international settlement, for now it seemed peaceful. Over on the western side of the Amur River at its juncture is a place called Blagoveshchensk. It was founded in 1856 as a military post, originally named Ust-zeisk. In 1858 because of its strategic location and economic value, it became the military, civil and judicial center of the newly formed Amur province. It also held a seat for a military governor. It was renamed Blagoveshchensk meaning "good news place" and its first governor General, Nikolai Murav'ev Amurskii announced its annexation in 1858. Soon some Cossacks moved in to form a local village called Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk "upper blagoveshchensk". The city grew quickly, by 1900 she had nearly 38,000 inhabitants with over 3700 houses. An American traveler descried the city "as fine for its leading banks and stores as Portland, Maine or Oregon could show, or any smaller city of the Union. ".The city had schools, libraries, a theater and telephone service. Now the Amur river formed the boundary between the Qing dynasty and the Russian empire going for hundreds of miles. To the east opposite Blagoveshchensk was the Manchu city of Sakhalian. Sakhalian had opened up to foreign trade in 1858 when there was a Manchurian gold rush and in the 1880's her population boomed to 50,000. Both cities freely went back and forth by boats and junks or over ice in winter to trade. In May of 1900, reports of unrest in China reached Blagoveshchensk, but this aroused little concern, it sounded to everyone like the common troubles of any given year. The people of Manchuria resented foreign activity in their heartland and were eager for the Russians to withdraw, but for decades relations between the Russians and Chinese were pretty good, friendly, certainly more so than with other western powers at least. The residents of Blagoveshchensk failed to see the signs of the looming conflict. On July 8th, Chinese living in Blagoveshchensk suddenly began crossing the Amur river, with all of their belongings. By late May some Russians went to trade for cattle in Sakhalian and reported sighting 7000 troops in the mountains beyond Sakhalian. The activity was dismissed as routine maneuvers. On June 24th word was received that the 8 nation alliance had just ceased the Taku forts and that same day posters emerged in Blagoveshchensk about mobilizing the Priamur region. Reservists began pouring into the city from neighboring towns, ships were carrying men up the Zeia river. The city's residents thought everything was ridiculous, how could China resist so many powers, was this all necessary? A resident of Blagoveshchensk, A .V Kirkhner wrote this of the situation "So accustomed had everyone become to looking on China and the Chinese with utter disdain, and so familiar had their cowardice become to all inhabitants along the border, that there was hardly anyone who expected a serious war with china". The russian reservists were pretty angry about the situation. They had been pulled away from their work, their families, now with nothing but bottles of vodka to drown their sorrows. Many cursed the Chinese for driving wages down in the region and this led to violence on the Russian side. Angry Russians would frequently harass neighboring villages, causing many Chinese to flee across the Amur. On June 28th telegrams came to Blagoveshchensk conveying the Russian government's declaration made on the 24th that there was no war with China, the troops that took Taku and Tientsin were merely helping the Qing government crush the insurgents who were destroying railroads. This created more confusion for the people in the Amur region. The governor feared things might get out of hand so he closed down bars and warned residents to not spread false rumors or cause panic and above all else not to molest the Chinese inhabitants, anyone who did would be punished. The military began preparing measures to stop internal disorder, to quell possible bandit raids. Cossacks were dispatched out to protect telegraph lines and patrols were sent to thwart banditry. Chinese and Russian homes began to be robbed or at least rumors suggested as such and the different nationalities became suspicious of the other. Newspapers began spreading messages to thwart violence, asking the Russian population to have a "sober view" of things. News came of von Kettelers murder on July 12th, and of the outbreak of hostility at Harbin and along numerous railway lines in Manchuria. However the people of Blagoveshchensk simply believed all of the hostility was confined to the area of Beijing and perhaps the interior of Manchuria, certainly it would not reach them in such a remote place. On July 14th a private steamer, the Mikhail enroute from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk alongside 5 barges passed by the Qing village of Aigun, when Qing officials signaled them to dock. The Russians failed to understand what they wanted and kept going. The Qing opened fire on Mikhail until it stopped, they then came aboard and saw the cargo was all military supplies, thus they placed the crew under arrest. A few hours later the Russian steamer Selenga was going downstream and came over to investigate the Mikhail. The Qing officials on the shore screamed at the vessel and her commander COlonel Kol'shmit could see there were Qing troops set up on the shore. He quickly ordered his men to go full steam ahead, but when they did the Qing opened fire. The Colonel, 4 Cossacks and 2 sailors were severely wounded in the mayhem. Kol'shmit rushed Blagoveshchensk with his battered ship. News of the conflict raised an alarm that this was a premeditated act of war. The arrested men of the Mikhail were let go and returned bearing a message from the district chief of Aigun stating he had acted on the orders of the military governor of Tsitsihar, not to let any ship pass. That same night two companies of the 2nd East Siberian line battalion, 6 artillery pieces and the Amur Cossack regiment crossed the Zeia river taking up defensive positions. The next day Blagoveshchensk organized a volunteer defense force. On July 15th, everything seemed quite calm, some Manchu came over to Blagoveshchensk calmly asking to fetch some belongings. A steam cutter patrolled the Amur and police searched any Chinese who came over. The reservists were at ease, many cooped up in their barracks. Suddenly the Qing began firing from across the river caughting the Russians by surprise. Panic ensued, residents fled the Amur river area, pursued by Qing bullets. Rumors spread that the Manchu were landing on their side of the river, countless turned to defend their homes, women and children surged out of the area. When volunteer fighters found Chinese trying to get across the river away from Blagoveshchensk they immediately attacked them, all having heard of the rumors Chinese had landed ashore on their side. Chinese tossed grenades in the streets wounding many innocent civilians. By 9pm the Qing guns finally went silent as volunteers dug trenches along the waterfront. Steamers Mikhail and Selenga proceeded up the Amur and saw Chinese forces building ramparts along the river bank. On July 16th the Qing opened fire again, this time on a larger scale. Men were now in foxholes, police were running through the streets looking for Chinese. Boxer posters were discovered in the Chinese quarter of the city. Allegedly, these posters stated that Manchu had landed ashore and for all Chinese in the city to raise up arms against the Russians. The police began rounding up any Chinese they found, aided by volunteers. Many Chinese were beaten up, all weapons were confiscated. Wild rumors were rampant amongst the residents. At 5pm a force was seen on the horizon, many thought it was Manchu coming to kill them all. It turned out to be more Chinese being herded from local villages by Cossacks. All the Chinese were being kept at the police station, but now the numbers were swelling to several thousand. There was simply no room for the mass of people at the police station, so many were moved to a lumber mill along the Zeia. They were left under the guard of 80 recruits armed with axes. The night was quiet, none tried to escape. The next day, the first group of Chinese, around 3500, were moved to the Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk station for deportation across the river. They were escorted by a small forces, marching 6 miles during a particularly hot day. Many of the old and sick collapsed and some police officers ordered them axed to death, several were killed. Evidence later would show countless were robbed. A number of armed Cossacks rode out to meet the caravan and help convoy them across the river. There were no boats, not even sampans at the shore they were brought to. Some Russians argued they could not send the Chinese back, as there was a siege-like situation. They argued they could not provide the guards for 3000 Chinese in the city. Ten years after this controversial event that had been argued to this very day, a Russian journal called Vestnik Evropy tried to tell the story of what happened based on gathered evidence and testimony of locals. This is what the article had to say "Nevertheless the point of crossing was the width of the river at this place was over 700 feet, while the depth reached 14 feet. The current was very strong here, and furthermore a considerable wind was blowing. Having chosen the place, it was decided that this was enough, that nothing further was needed for the crossing. The Chinese were simply driven into the water and ordered to swim. Part of those in front went into the water. Some swam, but soon began to drown. The remainder did not dare to go into the water. Then the Cossacks began to urge them on with nagaikas (whips) and all who had rifles, Cossacks, settlers, old men and children opened fire. The shooting lasted about half an hour, after which a considerable number of Chinese corpses piled up on shore. Then, after the shooting, the commander of the detachment decided to resort to ordinary arms as well. The Cossacks chopped with their sabers, while the recruits were ordered to kill the "disobedient" Chinese with their axes. When some of the recruits lacked fortitude for this, the Cossacks threatened "to decapitate them as traitors". The Chinese cried; some crossed themselves with the "orthodox cross" pleading that they not be killed, but nothing helped. Before the completion of the crossing a mounted party of Cossacks from one of the Amur Cossack regiments also participated in the shooting at the Chinese. The commander of the mounted party at first had not wanted to fire, but upon the demand of the Police chief ordered his men to fire five rounds each, and then continued on his way, in spite of the request of Ataman N (commander of the Cossacks who came out to meet the caravan), to remain with his detachment and "shoot a while longer", as the Cossacks of the settlement had run out of ammunition. He agreed only to take a note from the Cossack commander to the squadron commander about the sending of help; but this request remained unfulfilled. During the crossing of the first party of Chinese, it was found, the majority had perished, some had drowned, others had been slain. Not more than a hundred Chinese had swum to the other shore and saved themselves. The article goes on to state the crossing was more of an extermination. Many recruits testified during the investigations after that orders were to drown the Chinese. This massacre did not seem to satisfy the Russians involved, for on July 19th and 21st two more parties were sent to the crossing of 170 and 66 Chinese. They were killed in a similar fashion, all of this was overseen by the chief of police. Some Chinese swam to safety, but not many. The people who butchered the Chinese did not hide their actions, though their superiors sent reports that most of the Chinese had swam to the other side and only a few were killed for disobedience. The military governor of the Amur region demanded an inquiry be made, but he did not self report the matter to the Governor General after the investigation showcased the horror. General Griskii was indicted for the crime, he argued in his defense that he acted in accordance with preserving the peace and that he left the matter to the chief of police. He had taken no interest in the details of what occurred during deportation operation. The chief of police accused a Colonel chairman of the Amur military government for being responsible for the massacre. There was an investigation looking into atrocities committed elsewhere in the Amur region. It was found out in the village of Poirkovkaia, 85 Chinese including a Qing colonel were arrested and the chief of police at Blagoveshchensk telegram the police over there "send Chinese river or annihilate if they resist". When the police replied whether they were to drown the Chinese or just let them cross the river the chief replied on July 20th "one must be crazy and foolish to ask what to do with the Chinese. When one is told to do away with them, one should do so without deliberation. The Chinese colonel is not to be kept in a separate place, but in a cell on the same level as the others. Everything in his possession should be taken away. All my orders are to be executed without any evasion; do not act willfully or bother me with nonsense." The chief would then sent a circular telegram out to all his subordinates stating "annihilate Chinese appearing on our side, without asking for instructions". The police force at the village testified they provided boats to the Chinese, but that Cossacks who were providing escort had fired upon them and killed most of them. At the village of Albazinskaia it was reported that 100 Chinese were peacefully boated across the river when they saw the telegrams. At the village of Pokrovka, the local forces asked for confirmation of the telegram orders from General Gribskii, who ordered on July 20th "that it be impressed on the local Russian authorities that Russia's struggle was with armed Chinese, who engaged in hostilities against them. Peaceful, harmless Chinese, particularly unarmed ones, are not to be harmed in any war. To save their lives, they are to be sent to their side on boats or steamers". Upon hearing this, the police chief of Blagoveshchensk suddenly reversed his telegram orders and now stated that peaceful Chinese must not be molested. In the end, the investigation found no real steps were taken by the Russian government to punish the guilty. General Gribskii was relieve of his duties, but in consideration of his otherwise perfect record, he was not dismissed from the service. The chief of police was dismissed from his position and other culprits of the ordering of atrocities were discharged dishonorably, but all subordinates who performed the murders were freed of the responsibility. In the public eyes, Gribskii and the others were disgraced. The topic of the massacre on the Amur was one the Russians would continue to avoid. Not all the villages in the region treated the Manchu poorly. At Dzhalinda, Markova and Ignashina, where boats were available, they safely moved the Chinese across. At Stretenskaia station Chinese residents were not molested. But certainly at Blagoveshchensk it saw the very worst horrors. The gunfire across the Amur gradually ceased, the Russian population on their side of the border were relieved many of the Chinese had crossed to the other side. The Russian residents of Blagoveshchensk began returning to their homes. However the lull was a deception. During the night thousands of Chinese crossed the Amur river between Aigun and military post no 1 near the mouth of the Zeia. They got over undetected and were within 1400 feet of the military post, guarded by a handful of soldiers with some militiamen, around 400 men strong in all. At dawn on July 18th the Chinese opened fire at the militiamen. The men of the military post fired back, but made a withdrawal over to Blagoveshchensk. The Chinese followed quickly towards a part of the Zeia. Fortunately for the fleeing Russians a steamer was coming that way carrying a large number of Cossack troops who immediately landed and began to face the Chinese. One of the Chinese detachments tried to flee across the Amur and was wiped out. Rumors spread in Blagoveshchensk that the Manchu were trying to get around the city from the rear, and this caused a panic. The situation was critical, the few military troops in the area were moving back and forth between Blagoveshchensk and Aigun exhausting themselves. If the Chinese had seriously tried to invade, they would have easily overwhelmed the Russians settlements, but they didn't. It could perhaps be due to simply fear or poor strategy, but the Chinese never took advantage of the situation. Russian artillery, vastly outnumbered, tried to reply to the Qing artillery. One night when the Chinese fire was slack, 150 Russians crossed the Amur to prod the Chinese positions leading to a minor skirmish. On July 19th, the Chinese tried to cross the Amur in two places, but were repulsed. The Qing gunfire continued to pound Blagoveshchensk and harass the Russian forces who were slowly being reinforced by men coming over from Khabarovsk. The Russians gradually were crossing the Amur to harass and cease Qing held outposts. Between July 19-21st, many smaller Chinese settlements on the Russian side of the Amur beyond the Zeia were plundered and destroyed. On the 22nd the Sungari made its way to the city dropping off large quantities of ammunition and guns from Khabarovsk. 380 rifles were then brought via horseback from Poiarkova and 700 new recruits were landed by the steamer Chikoi. The bombardment of Blagoveshchensk continued sporadically, but the Chinese were losing morale and disertions were increasing. On the 27th the steamer Selenga performed a reconnaissance of the enemy fortifications at Sakhalian as the Chinese fired wildly upon it. Selenga bombarded the enemy entrenchments and on the night of the 29th landed a detachment of Cossacks. General Gribskii estimated the Chinese had around 18,000 men and 45 artillery pieces in the Aigun-Blagoveshchensk region. By the end of the month the Chinese opportunity to take the city had passed, now the Russians were pouring their troops between Aigun and Blagoveshchensk, pressing the war upon the Chinese side. The Russians planned to attack Sakhalian and Aigun on the night of August 1st. In overall command were Major General Subotich and Captain Zapol'skii. The plan called for Colonel Pechenkin and Lt Colonel Ladyzhenskii to take the 4th and 5th Sotnias of the Amur Cossack regiment and 1st Sotnia of the Nervchinsk Cossack Regiment over the Amur just above Verkhne-lagoveshchensk. They would perform reconnaissance and take up an assembly position on the right flank. Colonel Frimann with 4 companies of the 2nd East Siberian Line battery, 8 guns of the 2nd east Sierian artillery brigade and half a sotnia of Amur Cossack regiment across from Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk. Frimann would be followed up by Colonel Shverin with 3 companies of the Chita Reserve regiment, 3 companies of the Stretensk reserve regiment, 8 guns of the 1st battalion of the Transbaikal artillery division and half a sotnia of the Amur Cossack regiment. Lt Colonel Poliakov would cross with the compositie reserve battalion of 5 companies. The steamer Aigun and the barge Kalifornia alongside 52 smaller vessels would convey the troops. The Chinese artillery fired upon the steamers Selenga, Grazhdanin, Mikhail and Sungari who were going up and down the Amur trying to deflect enemy attention from the invasion. The Chinese expected a landing near the No 1 military post and placed their units accordingly. Where the Russians would actually land had a very small number of Chinese defenders. The Russians encountered little resistance landing and by the time the Chinese advanced to the landing site from the direction of Sakhalian, the Russians had already occupied strategic positions. The Russians bombarded the coastal entrenchments from the flank, driving the Chinese to abandon them. By 7:30am the Russians advanced against the incoming Chinese. At first the Chinese were withdrawing orderly, continuing to fire back, but by noon they began to route and fled for the mountains towards the road to Aigun. A major blunder on the side of the Chinese was continuing to use their artillery on the Russian steamers rather than hitting the advancing troops. The Chinese believed the steamers were carrying the invasion force and were duped. Sakhalian was being evacuated without a fight, Cossack raiders would enter the city putting everything to the torch leaving just a few buildings standing. By 6pm when the Russian infantry reached Sakhalian, the Manchu town ceased to exist. While Sakhalin was being taken, the military transports and reserve of Major General Aleksandrov were ferried across the Amur and the Chinese were regrouping at Aigun. The Chinese dug into the mountains building up fortifications. When the Russians prodded their defenses on August 3rd, the Chinese fire was heavy upon them. However when the Chinese tried to follow up their successes, the Russians flanked them forcing them back to their entrenchments. The Russian Cossack cavalry made wild charges followed up with bayonet charges overrunning the Chinese positions. Most of the Chinese fled south for other mountain spurs in the direction of Tstsihar. Many of the units were scattered unable to provide much resistance. Around 200 Chinese were killed in the mountains while the Russians reported 5 deaths and 24 wounded. At 2pm on August 4th, the Russians resumed their offensive against Aigun, expecting a fierce resistance as it was an important commercial town. The main defensive entrenchments between the mountains and Aigun had to be taken one by one. For 5 hours the Russians advanced under Chinese fire, but their losses were light. The Chinese attempted a counter attack in the mountains, but were met with harsh artillery fire forcing them back by 7pm. Once in range Russian artillery began smashing Aigun. Fotengauer guns were setting the town ablaze while 400 Chinese infantrymen valiantly fought on the open field to their death to try and stop them. The Chinese were forced to abandon Aigun during the night. The following day the Russians moved in fighting house to house against the stubborn towns defenders who did not flee. In Aigun the Russians ceased cannons, machine guns and ammunition. Meanwhile Rennenkampf's Cossack pursued the fleeing Chinese from village to village fighting skirmishes. Between August 7th to the 9th, Chinese rear guards, roughly 800 men with 300 cavalry, tried to fight the Cossacks off. On August the 10th the Chinese rallied to make a stand at the Hsing-an mountains. Rennenkampfs force of around four and half sotnia's and 2 cavalry guns ran right into 4000 Chinese infantry and another 4000 Manchu Cavalry supported by 12 guns. The Cossacks galloped beyond the Chinese positions causing an onslaught that devolved into a struggle for survival for all. Cossacks slashed wildly as Chinese fired at point blank range. Artillery blasted the area causing carnage. The Chinese eventually were dislodged, but Rennenkampf had to wait for reinforcements to do so. It was on August 16th the Russians stormed the Chinese positions and on the 17th the Hsing-an pass was taken. Rennenkampt received a report the Chinese had fled to Tsitsihar and so he carried on for it. Tsitsihar was the capital of Heilungchiang province and on August 20th as Rennekampf's cavalry approached 45 miles from it a flag of truce bearer sent by General Shou Shan, the Manchu General of the province proposed armistice. Rennekmapt rejected the offer and pushed forward. On August 18th Rennekampf took the city with 460 Cossacks while one of his units secured the ford across the Nonni river. The Chinese offered light resistance, General Shou Shan had poisoned himself. Rennenkampfs forces entered the city on August 29th captured 31 guns, it was an incredible set of victories. From this point Lt General Gribskii made a official proclamation to the Chinese of Manchuria telling them they had started the war by attacking Blagoveshchensk and now Russian held Aigun and countless towns in the region. Soon they would come to all of their villages and if they did not shoot at them, no harm will come to them. He said the Russians only wanted to peacefully build railroads and everyone would be left in peace to tend to their fields as was before. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The horrible massacre that occurred along the Amur river is a sore spot to this very day between Russia and China. What began as a rather small conflict quickly unfolded into a full blown Russian invasion of the Manchu homeland.

Last time we spoke about the 8 nation alliances occupation of Beijing, the flight of the royal family and the Boxer Protocol. You would think after taking the city, everything was won and done, but not necessarily. Empress Dowager Cixi with her faithful guardian Dong Fuxiang fled to the northwest of China. Meanwhile Peitang waited longer than most for their rescue, enduring an unbelievable amount of hardship during their siege. Poor Li Hongzhang was forced to endure another humiliation on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, negotiating peace with the western powers. The indemnity payments would last until world war two for China. Empress Dowager Cixi escaped any punishment, while other officials literally lost their heads. In a grandeur fashion, the empress returned to Beijing, performing a large spectacle. It was intentional and brilliant PR work. Things were going to dramatically change for China. #68 The Russo-Chinese War Part 1: Manchuria rises up Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. As we have seen, as of June 1900 the eyes of the world were focused on Beijing. The foreign diplomats of numerous nations were under siege by the fanatical Boxers and Qing forces such as the Kansu army. The Boxer Rebellion as a whole is captured by this focus, go find any book on it, there are many. What you often come across, is the mention of Russian forces somewhat to the distance in Manchuria. Typically if anything is said at all, you get a few paragraphs stating when the escalations began, the Russians invaded Manchuria. Invaded Manchuria, that sounds like a hell of a story no? Its simply overshadowed by the events that played out around Beijing, but an entire other war really sprang up in Manchuria. The event is virtually unknown to the west. When the Boxers sprang up and expeditions emerged, the two closest powers were Japan and Russia and as we have seen when it came to the march upon Beijing, the Japanese sort of took the lionshare. Yet Russia was the most capable to rush troops to the scene, given her work on the Manchurian railways. The Boxer Rebellion was a bit awkward for Russia. Yes Russia took up the side of the western forces and joined the 8 nation alliance. However, her views on what exactly the Boxer Rebellion was, differed from the rest. Russia felt the Boxer movement was not directed against her, but rather at the Manchu dynasty. Russia in many ways intervened to save the Manchu dynasty from a full blown revolution. She saw the symptoms of the revolutionaries as a result of western economic and missionary encroachment in China. The Chinese often referred to westerners as "ocean devils". The Russians did not come from the sea, they shared a vast border with the Chinese. Russia and China had a special relationship unlike the rest, one that had been going on for centuries. Russia typically acted with greater restraint and often spoke of Russo-Chinese friendship. But don't get me wrong. Like Britain, Germany, France, Japan, etc, Russian was most definitely taking advantage of a weakened Qing dynasty, she certainly encroached, specifically in Manchuria. Their border was one of the longest frontiers in the world. Siberia was underpopulated and exposed to Chinese infiltration. A buffer zone existed in Manchuria and Mongolia. The trans-siberian railway's construction began in 1891 for strategic and economic reasons. It was to be the worlds longest railroad, initially thought to wind along the Amur River up to Khabarovsk then south to Vladivostok. But the terrain proved hellish, the route too circuitous, thus a shortcut through Manchuria was strongly advised. In 1896 Russia obtained concessions from the Qing to begin construction of a station on the Trans Baikal section of the Siberian railway. Following her lease of Part Arthur and Dalien, Russian then sought to connect a new railway line to the main line of what would be called the Manchurian railway. Construction began from both ends simultaneously at a pace of 1.75 miles per day. Vladivostok and Port Arthur were linked up by July of 1900. It would not be too long until the Trans-Siberian railway and the Chinese eastern railway would bridge the land mass from the Baltic sea to the Pacific Ocean, giving the Russian empire an unbelievable toehold in the Asia-Pacific. The line passing through Manchuria was under the control of a private corporation, the Chinese eastern railway company. The majority stakeholder was Russian, but there were also Qing investments. Now the protection of the railway, its workers and other infrastructure was not going to be defended by standard Russian troops. Instead the company hired special military forces. The engineers were nearly all Russian, the laborers, 100,000 or so, were Chinese coolies. The project was done in collaboration between the two empires, it heavily depended on China. If the Qing were to, let's say, pull back the laborers, the construction efforts would stop dead. Worse, what if the Chinese began sabotaging the construction? Well both of these things began in 1900. A railway guard named Konstantin Kushakov had been in southern Manchuria for two and a half years. He witnessed the shooting of a Russian captain and two Cossacks by Qing soldiers in April 1900. In May at the small city of Hsiungyuehcheng, placards were erected stating the local populace should help exterminate the foreigners. The Boxer movement was hitting Manchuria. Locals told Konstantin not to be alarmed and the Qing commanders stated the placards were just the work of youthful pranksters. Then one evening, Konstantin saw Chinese wearing yellow sashes and headbands speaking through interpreters to Russian commanders. When Konstantin approached for a closer look the Chinese had their lips, cheeks and eyebrows painted, one of them was doing bizarre gymnastic exercises and shouting furiously. A nearby Cossack remarked "that has to be a Boxer". One of the interpreters stated that was not true, there were no Boxers in this part of China. The next morning, more Boxer youths emerged doing gymnastics in the open, then the local merchants began to quickly sell whatever arms they had in stock and blacksmiths began forging knives, swords and spears. Sabotage work began to occur. Russian telegraph lines were being repeatedly cut, attempts were made to derail trains by lifting up rails or pilling up stuff on tracks. It seemed to all the Russian-Chinese cooperation was falling apart. Countless interpreters, servants, laborers quit their jobs. Russian supervisors and foremen who were notoriously cruel to their Chinese workers, no longer lashed out at them, instead they walked around armed to the teeth. The Russians also noticed an increased in Qing soldiers, many of whom were not recognized from the area. But the Russian commanders believed the Chinese were a submissive and inoffensive people, so they took all these signs with a grain of salt. The situation became worse, more railway guards were needed, but as you can imagine, Manchuria is an enormous place. Konstantin had roughly 240 men to guard a sector of around 172 miles. Thus to strengthen one post would weaken another. There were troops in the Kwantung region on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula guarding Port Arthur and Dalien. Colonel Mishchenko, commander of the railway guards along the Port Arthur Line requested further troops from Vice Admiral Evgenii Alekseev the commander in chief of the Russian land forces in the Kwantung region and naval forces for the far east. He was denied, because Chief Engineer Iugovich stated on July 2nd that the Chinese were peaceful and wanted to continue the joint project. There was also the belief, if they sent more troops the Qing would be more inclined to the Boxer cause. On May 23rd, a mob attacked 3 Cossacks that Konstantin had sent to purchase supplies for a kitchen, the men escaped having to saber down a few Chinese. The populace was in an uproar, the Qing commander at Hsiungyeuhcheng demanded Russian troops be barred from the city. In June Boxers were out in the open screaming for violence against the foreigners. Many Qing officials refused to collaborate with the Boxers and were run out of towns. Boxers were taking control over large areas and recruiting a militia. The Boxers began to assemble around Mukden. On July 2nd, Mishchenko telegraphed Konstantin that the northern outposts were in serious danger and ordered him to rush over to Liaoyang with all the guards that could be spared from southern outposts. A detachment of 56 soldiers and 20 cavalrymen was raised. Konstantin tried to use a locomotive, but the Qing switchman sabotage it. Soon Konstantin heard word Qing detachments and Boxers were sabotaging multiple railway stations, outposts were under attack. Konstantin ordered all construction efforts to cease and for all Russians to prepare themselves at posts for attacks. He promised the men reinforcements would soon arrive from the south, many replied they didn't need the help to face off against "Boxer riff-raff, whom we would soon teach how to fight". Konstantin worried not for the outposts with 15-20 men, but some only had a handful of guards. He recalled "I kept thinking, what will they die for? It is too dear a sacrifice to the stubbornness of 3, 4 high railway agents. To die for the Tsar, to die for the glory of the fatherland, that is an enviable death; but to let honorable and selfless soldiers perish for the sake of stubbornness or mistake would be regrettable indeed". He ordered the smallest outposts to be abandoned, and for the men to rush to the nearest larger outpost. The Russians saw multiple villages emptied of women and children, railway lines likewise were abandoned. Konstantin arrived to Liaoyang with 76 men on July 3rd, he quickly made way to the nearby village of Baitouzi where the 2nd company headquarters and Mishchenko were. Konstantin was informed hostilities had begun in the region. On June 27th, a railroad bridge and barracks near Liaoyang were razed to the ground, the men there chased off by gunfire from local Qing forces. Two Cossacks and their horses were killed, the telegraph lines were being damaged constantly, coal mines were attacked, Mishchenko bitterly complained that Port Arthur refused to send reinforcements and instead berated them for their lack of cooperation with the Qing. Suddenly a Cossack messenger arrived to the HQ reporting 400 Qing soldiers with 100 cavalrymen and mountain guns were engaging a forces of 50 Cossacks, casualties were already mounting. Mishchenko immediately took 56 railway guards of the 6th company under Konstantin and 25 men of the 2nd company led by Shchekin to go save the force. They arrived at the scene of a battle, the Qing were moving around the Russian's eastern side trying to cut them off from Liaoyang. The Qing were trying to push the Russians towards their main force, over 3000 men strong who were advancing upon Mukden. Konstantin jumped off the train with his men to hit the right flank of the enemy, but the Qing diverted over to a local village to better prepare defenses against them. The Russian lines advanced quickly and once they were 300 paces from the enemy, Shchekin and his men took the train directly to the village, leapt off and charged with bayonets fixed. The men screamed "ura!" as they stormed the Qing who fell into a rout quickly galloping towards Mukden. Many Chinese were killed in hand to hand combat, volleys also took lives as they fled. The Russians reported 200 dead while receiving 4 deaths and 5 wounded in return. The victorious Russians returned by train to Liaoyang, reflecting on how the situation had changed. A force of nearly 3000 regular Qing soldiers were most definitely in league with the Boxers. They had even brought artillery, they would most likely hit Mukden soon where they could join possibly 10 newly formed Qing battalions. What were the Russians to do in the face of such numbers? On the way back to Liaoyang, Boxers were seen burning bridges over the Sha river, 12 miles south of the city. Russians rushed over to put out the fires and sent patrols to hunt down Boxers, but found none. As they approached Liaoyang station, the Chinese switchmen sabotaged the rails and fled. Engineer Girschman, the chief of railway construction for the southern section that passed through Liaoyang was ordered by Mishchenko to inform Port Arthur of the recent clashes and to again request reinforcements. Girschman still thought there was no cause for alarm, he asserted over 5000 taels had been given to the local Manchu General in charge of Liaoyang who promised they were safe to work. Thus Girschman ordered railway employees back to work. Girshman's train was to be the last train from Liaoyong as on July 6th the bridge south of the station was destroyed. Liaoyang was cut off. Girshman was left behind with 104 civilian employees and their families. The Qing offered Mishchenko free passage for all Russians, but he refused to leave Liaoyang. Instead he ordered Shtabs-kapitan Sakharov with the 3rd Sotnia to join up with him and demand of Port Arthur more reinforcements. He dispatched Cossacks to the various northern posts to spread word of what was going on and if they could run to him, or Harbin. Mishchenko decided to fortify a wooden, iron roofed isolated barracks near Baitouzi. His men numbered 204, exhausted from endless patrolling of a vast region. They were enclosed by a 7 foot earth wall, which the Russians with Chinese labor help, added breastworks. Their shelter was an ice house, where the families were taking cover. Meanwhile the Qing forces were digging their own trenches on nearby hills to the north, east and south. The Russians could see them working, multiple Qing scouts came over to look at what the Russian were doing. Chinese were torching all buildings the Russians had previously utilized in the villages around Liaoyang. Any Russians caught at isolated posts were tortured, many beheaded. Barracks, stations, railway lines, coal mines all were burnt down. Mishchenko was livid that Port Arthur was not sending more men. He was unable to hold on indefinitely and could not hope to cut his way through, he had nowhere to turn. His Cossack scouts reported on July 6th, in all directions Qing forces were seen erecting barricades, moving artillery and fortifying. From Liaoyang the Chinese began taking potshots at the Russians, but they were too far away to hit anything. The Chinese were not advancing, too busy plundering what was left behind at Baitouzi. Firecrackers and celebrations could be heard, as Qing troops arrived from Mukden. Konstantin was talking to an interpreter on July 6th who told him he heard rumors the Chinese would attack the next morning. The next morning began with an artillery bombardment. Mishchenko watched using binoculars from a breastwork and proclaimed 'they have begun their advance. Forbid the men to shoot needlessly. Instead, begin to fire platoon volleys at those cannons there. They have already adjusted their fire well, and must be silenced". Suddenly grenades were lobbed into the inner courtyard, one ripped open the stomach of a horse and wounded some men. Rifle fire was cracking from Baitouzi and nearby hills. Konstantin was commanding the southern defenses, Shchekin and Sotnik Mamonov the east, Denisov the north, Mishchenko held overall command. The Russians remained calm, taking orders for targets. Mishchenko walked the perimeter encouraging men, he never was killed twice by rifle fire and grenades. Konstantin directed guns at the Qing artillery. It took a dozen or so volleys to get the Qing to move their positions. Suddenly a private yelled 'Sir! The Chinese are crawling already from the railway embankment nearby!". The Chinese were nearly 400 paces, Mishchenko ordered volleys and the well-aimed rapid fire drove them back. At 10am, the Chinese were advancing on foot and upon horse using large carts to cover themselves from fire. The Qing hit the Russian right flank hard, killing a few, wounding many. The Qing artillery was performing something akin to a creeping barrage, and soon the Qing riflemen were crawling towards the Russian lines. When the Chinese appeared, the Russians opened fire. The defensive lines were small, around 350 square feet. Blood, corpses and body parts littered the area. The Qing launched several consecutive attacks, but the Russians gutted their offensives. Suffering heavy casualties the Qing were cautious in their approaches until they withdrew from Baitouzi to Liaoyang. They had no idea the Russians were on the brink of collapse. Russian munitions had shrunk to 20 cartridges per a man, the men were exhausted, men were literally falling asleep as the battles began. The Russian positions at Baitouzi was critical, they could not survive another attack, there was zero indication Port Arthur was sending help, thus Mishchenko called for a meeting of all commanders. They decided their only hope was to fight their way south towards the Kuan Cossack Sotnia of Shtabs-Kapitan Strakhov, who at that time was battling their way towards them. That night they buried 9 men before abandoning countless costly railway equipment, a ton of silver taels which were dumped into a local well and other personal belongings. Upon seeing the activity the Qing began another attack. The Russians threw up volleys dangerously as they had only so much ammunition left. Their bayonets were fixed at all times. Instead of waiting for a Chinese wave to close in on them, Mishchenko ordered a feint attack. The 2nd company of Malinov and Shchekin charged screaming hurrahs at the Chinese. This was a brilliant move for it saved them all. The Qing fled back to Liaoyang to defend the city allowing the Russians to quickly move south. Konstantin led the vanguard, the civilians were in a panic, countless Cossacks got off their horses and gave them to women, children and wounded. It was a grueling trek as they marched 2 miles west of the railroad trying to avoid detection. Only twice were shots made upon them, but they did not respond and simply carried on quicker. On July 8th they reached the Sha River to see its bridge, the Russian barracks and other buildings over at Shahotzu had been burned down. There were Chinese corpses and expelled shell casings indicated a battle had occurred. It would turn out to be the work of a local guard post of 12 Russians, they were besieged by roughly 200 Chinese. They locked themselves in their stone walled barracks, kept the enemy at bay until their ammunition ran out. Then Boxers came and began burning the doors and windows. Miraculously a train came nearby and began firing upon the position shrilling its whistle. The Russians stormed out with bayonets, attacked the Chinese and fled for the train to escape to Anshanchan. Back over at the Sha River area, the Russians saw Strakhov with 70 Kuban Cossacks of his 3rd Sotnia alongside 40 infantry of the 2nd company coming forward. They had fought their way from Yingkou to Liaoyang station only to find Mishchenko's party gone. They had missed each other en route because Strakhov had followed the railroad tracks. Strakhov reported seeing the Qing plundering the Russian barracks, some local christian Chinese told Strakhov that Mishchenko and the rest fled south, so he came looking for them. Their numbers were thus bolstered to 307 railway guards and 102 civilians, some of whom were armed and would have to fight. Mishchenko's force continued along the railway to Anshanchan to find its bridge and pump house had been destroyed. However the telegraph line and railway to Port Arthur was still intact from Anshanchan. He dispatched an officer to Port Arthur to give a detailed report of the situation and to purchase more ammunition. Meanwhile the wounded and civilians were escorted to Tashishciao where Colonel Dombrovskii had a detachment of men. On July 11th, another 100 men from the southern railway posts led by Poruchiks Gulevich and Rozhalin joined Mishchenko to bolster him to 450 men. Now Mishchenko was prepared to play the role of a forward detachment and execute army orders. However Port Arthur was not recognize Mishcheckno's detachment as a regular army force, and thus would not supply him with artillery or additional troops for any offensive actions. Instead Port Arthur ordered him to withdraw to Tashishciao within army protection. The next day native Chinese sympathizers reported to Mishchenko that 200 Qing troops were approaching, they were a patrol for a much larger army. Soon Russian scouts were reporting that several hundred Chinese were approaching. The Russians had no provisions, nor tents, thus a siege was not going to favor them. They soon found out from the chief of Haicheng station that over 2000 Qing soldiers had threatened his station and the railway line there. It seemed senseless to hold out at Anshanchan, better to rush over to Haicheng to save it from the fate befalling other stations. At 7pm when they were just about to depart, Cossack scouts rode up reporting that a large Qing detachment with artillery were near the eastern heights and had engaged some of their patrols. Mischchenko dispatched Rozhalin with a half sotnia to the eastern heights to distract the enemy attention away from their departure. Dawn the next day the Russians made it to Haicheng station. Friendly locals urged Mishchenk to avoid Haicheng because a large Qing force was present, but he was confident in his force after their string of victories. Mishchenko requested aid from the 7th company of the 7th east siberian rifle regiment led by Dombrovskii. Dombrovskii sent them via train from Tashihciao and they arrived an hour after Mishchenko. The western heights near Haicheng was occupied the Qing troops who had to be cleared out if the trains were to come closer to Haicheng. The Russians took cover behind the railway embankment and began advancing up the height shooting from ridges as they did. The Russians eventually began to charge hitting the Qing right flank, sending them scattering. Cossack cavalry ran many down before being called back to protect against a possible assault from the city. The Russians placed 4 artillery pieces on the height and dug in, they now held a good overlooking view of the city. At 9am on the 14th, Dombrovskii came over with an additional company of his regiment and a half battery. The company was led by Captain Ivanov, the artillery by Shtabs Kapitan Petrenko and COlonel Nikolai Desenko held overall command of the whole detachment. Mishchenko sent word to the civilians in Haicheng to warn them a battle was soon to take place. But before the Russians could launch their assault, Qing forces stormed out of the city to hit their flanks. The 7th company, 7th regiment stayed to defend the artillery while company of the 11th regiment took the right flank, the 2nd and 6th companies took the left. Russian volleys and artillery rained hell on the incoming Qing. Petrenko led an excellent bombardment, spraying shrapnel across the Qing formations. Soon the artillery began to bombard Haicheng as the Qing rushed out of its east gate heading for nearby hills. Haicheng fell to the Russians mercy quickly, but Dombrovskii gave strict orders not to go on the offensive, the Russians did not press into the city. The half battery and company of the 11th regiment departed via train back to Tashihciao, half an hour later the company of the 7th regiment began loading upon another train. When the Qing troops saw this they began swooping down the hills, and set fire to the train station buildings, the pump house and railway bridge. The Qing cavalry even attempted attacking the locomotive carts, but Russian volleys kept them away. Slowly the trains moved south, with Cossacks patrolling their flanks. When they were around 6 miles from Tashihciao, Chinese militia forces and Boxers with antiquated rifles attacked the trains. Russians leapt off the carts and took cover while returning fire. Rozhalin led his Kuban Cossack squadron to run down the enemy killing many. By 8pm Mishchenko and his men reached Tashihciao. At Tashihciao was the south Manchurian detachment consisting of a regiment, a company, a Cossack sotnia and field battery there; there was also another unit from Hsiungyuehcheng consisting of 3 rifle regiments with some stronger batteries from Port Arthur, 86 fortress guns at Jinzhou and some men of a Cossack regiment were patrolling the railway line. This was all of course welcomed, but Mishchenko was still livid to learn no additional troops nor ammunition had departed Port Arthur to help them. 170 miles of railroad north of Tashihciao was in the hands of the Qing, who continuously argued there was no conflict and no destruction of railways was taking place. Konstantin estimated property damage incurred by Russia at this point amounted to some 18 million rubles on the southern line alone. Mishchenko had lost 62 men dead, 53 wounded, 12 missing in action. Over in province of Fentien, was a Manchu General who was very much against the Boxer cause. He was well educated, and realized China did not at the time wield the necessary power to drive out the foreigners and the Boxer's and their supporters were adding to China's plight. He was zealous persecuting the Boxers in his province, many were arrested, many executed. He then decided he was going to expose their professed invulnerability spells in front of his people. He gathered 400 arrested Boxers and proclaimed a large execution would take place. The Boxers would be killed by firing squad, obviously to showcase how their spell would not work against the bullets. He entrusted the execution operation to a General in the army, unbeknownst to him, there were many Boxers within his army and the General was one of them. The General secretly removed the bullets from the cartridges for the firing squad weapons. Thus at the appointed time the crowds gathered alongside the military governor to watch several volleys fail to kill the Boxers. The Manchu General in fury ever ran up, grabbed a rifle and fired 6 times doing no harm to the boxers. The Boxers stood and bowed politely to the crowd. People began to cheer them on. The Manchu General kept up his anti-boxer campaigns, but the public was dissatisfied with them and his own military was becoming quite insubordinate. The Manchu General reported to Beijing his plight before handing over control to local forces, walking away from his duty. The railway station located about 10 miles from Mukden was guarded by the 2nd Transcaspian rifle battalion of Poruchik Valevskii. Valevskii received a report on July 5th, the Qing forces were gathering artillery and digging in near his station. He ordered neighboring outposts to join hi mat once and the next day the Qing unleashed an artillery bombardment upon his barracks. The Russians estimated the Qing had 3000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. The Russians trapped in the barracks watched as they fired on the enemy as they cut the telegraph lines and burned bridges and buildings around them. At 1am 14 Russians from a neighboring outpost came rushing in from the north fighting their way to the barracks. The Russians received word from Chinese christians that all the outposts were under attack. Valevskii gathered all the troops and civilians and made a dash over to the Mukden station to find Qing forces plundering it. From there they fled south to the station of Su-chia-tun only to find it burned down, with Russian corpses littering the area. Next Valevskii led them to Yentai station where they ran into Qing forces coming over from Liaoyang. They defeated the Qing forces in two engagements and made their way to Liaoyang. By this point, Valevskii was trying to reconnoiter the enemy positions and find Colonel Mishchenko who had given out orders for all forces in the region to come to him. From a captured Qing soldiers they learnt Mishchenko's detachment had fled the area and was being pursued. The railway lines appeared to be destroyed, there was no aid coming from Port Arthur. Valevskii announced they would turn eastward to try to get to Yingkou where perhaps Russian ships could get them to somewhere safe. They traveled east along the Taitzu river, running into small Qing forces along the way. Valevskii was hit with a rifle bullet to the chest. Pilipenko took over command and announced they would proceed to Korea for safety. It was a long and arduous journey, they lost many civilians and soldiers. Their story was to be one of many, Manchuria was falling into chaos. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Boxer Rebellion had spread to Manchuria. Railway station, barracks, anything foreign was being destroyed, countless isolated Russian pockets were now under threat, not just by the Boxers, but by a angry and vengeful Manchu populace.

Last time we spoke about the battle of Beijing. General Gaselee and the 8 nation alliance began a grand march upon Beijing. They fought numerous battles at places like Beicang and Yangcun utterly routing the Qing and Boxer forces. The road to Beijing was laid bare open to them, lest it not be for the extreme summer heat which took the lives of many. The Russians attempted to outrace everyone else to Beijing, but quickly bit off more than they could chew. Ultimately the British were the first ones to enter the foreign legations. The besieged foreigners in the legations had been met with a last ditch effort by the Qing to overrun them, but they held on for dear life. Now Beijing was being occupied by the 8 nation alliance. What was to become of the Qing officials, of Empress Dowager Cixi? How would justice be served? #67 The Boxer Rebellion part 7: The Boxer Protocol Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Usually you would assume the story was won and done. The 8 national alliance was flooding into Beijing, as they say "the cavalry had arrived", but it was not over. The next day of August 15th saw more violence. The French deployed 4 artillery pieces onto the Tartar wall and began bombarding the pink walls of the Imperial City. Meanwhile General Chaffee was mounting an assault upon the Imperial city alongside the American forces who were battering their way through a series of courtyards trying to get to the Imperial Cities southern gate. Their ultimate objective was the Forbidden City. When it seemed they were within reach of the Forbidden City, suddenly General Chaffee commanded a withdrawal. The commanders had been arguing at a conference and they all agreed that the 8 nation alliance should take a more conciliatory approach towards the Qing government. Everyone was wondering whether the Emperor and Empress Dowager remained within the Forbidden city. If there was to be a conciliation at all, they would be needed. Rumors began to emerge stating if the Empress Dowager were still in the city, she would most likely commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. Lenox Simpson was trying to investigate the situation, riding up to the Imperial City where he discovered a terrified Eunuch huddled in a Qing guardhouse in the outer wall. He asked the eunuch how many forces guarded the Forbidden city and the whereabouts of the Emperor and Empress Dowager. The Eunuch blurted out "The Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and indeed, the whole Court, had disappeared—had fled, was gone." There are countless tales of how it occurred, the dramatic flight of the Qing court. It is most likely the decision to flee Beijing came about in the early hours of August 15th. One account given by magistrate Wu Yung claimed he helped the Empress Dowager flee. Cixi was disguised in dark blue clothes of a Chinese peasant woman, they even clipped her nails, go google a picture of Cixi, imagine clipping those things haha. Allegedly Cixi told Wu Yung as she was hastily grabbing some personal belongs "Who would have thought it would come to this?" Of the things she hastily grabbed, one was a precious bloodstone that she believed protect her through all dangers. She boarded one of three wooden carts, and Cixi forcefully grabbed the emperor not allowing him to be taken as a hostage, alongside her niece and the heir apparent. The Imperial concubines were forbidden to accompany them and made tearful farewell. It is said Emperor Guangxu's favorite concubine begged to take her with him, prompting Cixi who hated the girl to demand she be tossed down a well. Apparently the Eunuchs rolled the poor girl up in a carpet and literally tossed her down a well in front of Emperor Guangxu, which is hardcore? Another account has it that Cixi tricked the girl by telling her "We will all stay where we are, but we cannot allow ourselves to be taken alive by Western barbarians. There is only one way out for you and me—we must both die. It is easy. You go first—I promise to follow you." Then the Eunuch tossed her in the well, one other account has the Eunuchs simply tossing the girl down the well after the imperial party departed because they didn't like her. Can't help but picture Varies from GOT leading eunuchs to get revenge on a royal family haha. Empress Dowager Cixi had fled the Imperial city once before, in fact 40 years prior during the 2nd opium war. Was a symbolic moment. Back then she had apparently told the Emperor to stay in the city lest the British and French raze Beijing to the ground, this time she did the opposite. On August 10th, Cixi had made an imperial decree ordering General Jung Lu and some other Qing officials to remain in Beijing and maintain the government in exile. The royal party fled through roads filled with others fleeing the city. Their eunuch planners assumed they would buy provisions along the way, but when they entered the countryside they found it completely devastated. On August 17th the royal party made it to the small town of Huailai, north of Beijing. The Boxers and disaffected troops had devastated the town so much, there was only a bowl of millet and green bean porridge to serve the Empress Dowager. Apparently to this she said to her host "In time of distress this is enough. Can I at this time say what is good and what is not good?" From Huailai they traveled to Kalgan and Tatung, near the Mongolian plateau, before they turned towards Taiyuan. Now being so far from Beijing they felt safer and thus instead of conducting themselves under the guise as peasants they now openly showed themselves and told people they were performing an official tour of inspection. It is said by Wu Yung the empress dowager enjoyed talking to him and told him "talk as you please", and she herself took a large interest in talking to locals and visiting temples and attractions. Wu Yung theorized she had been cooped up for so long in the imperial city, the outside world fascinated her. The mule litters were replaced with sedan chairs, Cixi began wearing luxurious Manchu garb and regrew her fingernails. Soon the royal party were issuing edicts and receiving reports on the situation of the court in Beijing. Countless governors, viceroys and other Qing officials flocked to pay respects and tribute to the royal party. They stayed in Taiyuan for 3 weeks at the home of Yuxiang where he boasted to Cixi of how many foreigners he executed. However the Taiyuan massacre meant the foreigners might come to the city for revenge, so the royal party continued southwest towards Sian, the old capital of the Tang dynasty. This was territory held by General Dong Fuxiang whose troops were the primary ones escorting the royal party. It was under Dong Fuxiang's protection the royal party now hunkered down for winter. It is said Guangxu's nephew began drawing pictures of demons and would often sketch a large tortoise with the name Yuan Shikai on its back. You see the tortoise was a symbol of homosexuality, thus it was to insult Yuan Shikai who was seen as an enemy who betrayed Guangxu. It is also said Guangxu took the pictures, hung them up on walls and fired crossbows at them. Personally this story to me sounds like an author giving a bit of foreshadowing flavor, for Yuan Shikai would perform even greater betrayals later on. Indeed Yuan Shikai is kind of a meme on my personal channel, over there I have to the point of me writing this script, covered 1830-1932 thus far for Chinese-Japanese history. Yuan Shikai is a behemoth when it comes to the formation of modern day China and honestly his story is interesting to say the least. If you ever want to jump into the future, just check out my content at the Pacific War channel on the Xinhai revolution and China's warlord era episodes, or better yet the full China warlord documentary that encompasses pretty much all of it. Anyways. Back over in Beijing, news of the flight of the Qing court was not met with surprise by the foreigners. Now the foreigners were uncertain what to do next. For some it was a bit reminiscent of Napoleon's arrival to a deserted Moscow, without the highest ranking Qing officials, what could they do? Meanwhile, one place that was still under threat was Peitang. Over at the Peitang Cathedral the foreigners had been fighting for their lives the entire time. When news emerged that the foreign legations had been rescued, everyone in the Cathedral at Peitang rejoiced awaiting their own rescue. The Cathedral was the only Christian building within the Imperial city that was able to hold on and defend itself. It was a miracle they managed to do so. The commander of 30 French marines sent by Pichon on June 1st to help out at Peitang was Lt Paul Henry. At the age of just 23, Bishop Favier had to say of his conduct "he was as pious as he is brave— a true Breton." Henry had been given an impossible task, to defend an area with around 1400 yards of wall 12-15 feet high with a tiny amount of troops. Henry had the men dig trenches, erect parapets, and used the Cathedral as a last stronghold if they were overrun. The first week of June saw fires erupt throughout the capital and gunfire could be heard everywhere. Bishop Favier looked out from the top of the cathedral to see on the 13th and 14th churches and cathedrals in Beijing being razed to the ground. Refugees poured into Peitang Cathedral more and more, and on the 15th a group of Catholic sisters and children were running from Boxers to the cathedral with Favier giving this account of the scene "Their leader, on horse, is a lama or bonze [priest]; he precedes an immense red flag, surrounded by young Boxers who have undergone the incantations and are likewise dressed in red. They burned perfumed sticks, prostrated themselves on entering our street to the south, and then advanced in compact bands". The French marines allowed them to reach 200 yards from the barricades before unleashing a volley wounded 50 and sending them fleeing. By June 18th, Henry worried about enemy artillery and tried to fortify the defenses more so. On the 20th, news of von Kettelers death came, Pichon sent a message to Favier, there was no hope of fleeing Beijing. 3420 people, two thirds of which were women and children were trapped in Peitang. Their defenses were comically small, 30 French and a dozen Italian marines, whose commander was Lt Olivieri aged 25. The able bodied Chinese christians volunteered to bolster the forces, making spears, brandishing some knives and a few were given rifles by the marines. June 22nd saw Krupp guns firing upon Peitang shattering windows and sending bricks flying. The main gate to Peitang was being battered by shells. Lt Henry led a sortie of 4 marines and 30 Chinese christians to seize the artillery piece hitting the main gate. They managed to seize it, losing 2 Chinese in the process. The next day simply saw more artillery bombardment. By the 26th, all the buildings near Peitang were ablaze and Boxers were seen erecting ladders and scaffoldings against the walls. The defenders were being pot shotted at every day. On the 27th Henrys second in command Jouannic was shot in the shoulder and would die 3 days later. By July 1st the defenders of Peitang began to eat mule and horse as they ran out of vegetables. Smallpox broke out amongst the children, by July 3rd 15 were dying per day. The french marines began making scarecrows to help against snipers. It turned out the watchmakers amongst their Chinese christians were capable of creating cartridges for Mausers and other guns. The defenders were able to manufacture powder for cannons with things they seized from the surrounding enemy during sorties. The men fired only 100 rounds per day, Henry noted on July 5th 13 rounds were only fired, on the 14th 74. Famine was more threatening than lack of ammunition. On July 6th Henry checked rations and estimated they could hold out for 20 days. The Boxers began manufacturing exploding missiles that they lobbed at the cathedral. These were a sort of fire pot, a container carrying around three pounds of gunpowder with long fuses. On a single day the Boxers tossed more than 250 of these, but the defenders ingeniously put buckets, casks and even bathtubs full of water everywhere to fight the emerging fires. The Qing artillery smashed the cathedrals clock tower and walls without mercy. On July 18th, the defenders were countermining when a mine exploded killing 25 and injuring 28. One French marine described the carnage "where bits of waste meat were being dragged out, fragments of flesh and severed limbs were spattered about and part of someone's chest was smashed against a wall". Qing troops atop the Imperial City walls fired down upon the defenders at all times. By July 28th rations were a meager 8 ounces of food per day. On July 30th the Qing assaulted the north wall, setting the cathedral roof on fire. Henry tried rallying the men and took a bullet in the neck and another into his side. Henry died in the arms of a priest 20 minutes later and was buried beneath a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Cathedral garden. Olivieri took command after his death. The Qing and Boxers seemed emboldened and began firing arrows with messages to the Christian Chinese urging them to abandon the foreigners and return to the old ways. "You, Christians, shut up in the Pei-tang, reduced to the greatest misery, eating leaves of trees, why do you resist? We have leveled cannon and set mines against you, and you will be destroyed in a short time. You have been deceived by the devils of Europe; return to the ancient religion . . . deliver up Bishop Favier and the others, and you will have saved your lives, and we will give you to eat. If you do not do so, you, your wives and children, will all be cut into pieces." It is said the Boxers believed Bishop Favier was a demon who was using an invulnerability spell by smearing menstrual blood over his faced and nailing naked women and dead fetuses to the Cathedral walls. They also believed the foreigners posed a weapon called "the ten thousand woman flag" woven from female pubic hair which stole power from the Boxer gods. Gotta hand it to their imagination. Despite the messages, the Chinese Christians stayed put. By August 2nd the besieged were starving and began trying to capture stray dogs to eat. On August 5th, Favier wrote this "we can resist balls, bullets, and bombs, but there is no defense against famine." On August 10th, 400 pounds of rice and a mule were all that remained. Favier was forced to send Christian Chinese out in desperation to try and reach the foreign legation for help. Many were flayed, beheaded and put in spikes near Peitang. On August 12th a violent explosion shook Peitang a giant mine had gone off causing a crater 7 yards deep and 40 yards wide. It buried 5 Italian marines with Olivieri and 80 Chinese. Olivieri recounted being saved with the burial "They succeeded in uncovering one of my hands, and finding it still warm, redoubled their efforts until my whole body was free". However his men were mutilated and dying. The mine had caused a large breach in the wall and the enemy could easily have stormed Peitang, but they didn't. Another mine went off the following day, but the enemy did not storm Peitang. Just when it seemed they were all going to die on August 14th the defender heard Boxers scream out "The devils from Europe are approaching!" The Boxers were also screaming at the defenders of Peitang that they would all be massacred before their rescuers got to them. But Oliveiri and the defenders watch as Qing banners were lowered from walls, Qing soldiers and Boxers were beginning to flee. By 5pm they saw europeans on the walls waving an american flag. The defenders waited for their rescue on August 15th, but no one was coming. Olivieri worried the relief force had been repelled. Then suddenly Japanese troops climbed over the walls and stormed into Peitang. Olivieri rushed over shouting "we are saved!". The other members of the 8 nation alliance were rather shocked by the actions of the Japanese, Peitang was a French responsibility. The French force that entered Beijing however was too small to fight their way to Peitang. As General Frey noted "What was our surprise to see ahead of us between 250 and 300 Japanese whose presence nobody could explain." The Japanese without any fuss simply did the deed on their own merit. Peitang saw 400 people including 166 children die during the siege, unlike the fight for the legations Peitang never had a single day of rest. There was no truce for Peitang, the defenders fought every single day. As Favier assessed the damage in Beijing he had this to say "In Pekin, three churches, seven large chapels, the colleges, hospitals—all are destroyed. . . . The Peitang . . . damaged by shells, is the only building undestroyed. . . . In short, the ruin is almost entire, the work of forty years is nearly annihilated; the courage of missionaries, nevertheless, is not on the wane; we shall begin over again." As Bishop Favier wandered Beijing, he estimated perhaps 30,000 catholics had been killed. News emerged that 200 foreign nuns, priests, missionaries and their family members had been murdered. Half the population of Beijing fled in terror as the foreign armies flooded in. Many Qing officials committed suicide, many Chinese women with bound feet likewise did so. The special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, Dr. E.J Dillon wrote "Chinese women honestly believed that no more terrible fate could overtake them than to fall alive into the hands of Europeans and Christians. It is to be feared that they were right." Dillon personally saw the corpses of women who had been raped and bayoneted to death. Luella Miner within the foreign legation had this to say of the matter "The conduct of the Russian soldiers is atrocious, the French are not much better, and the Japanese are looting and burning without mercy.... Women and girls by hundreds have committed suicide to escape a worse fate at the hands of Russian and Japanese brutes. Our American soldiers saw them jumping into the river and into wells, in Tungchow. Twelve girls in one well, and one mother was drowning two of her little children in a large water jar." Roger Keyes added his own account "Every Chinaman . . . was treated as a Boxer by the Russian and French troops, and the slaughter of men, women, and children in retaliation was revolting." A British officer, Major Luke, told Keyes that "he had never seen anything more horrible, and some of his young Marines were literally sick". Lenox Simpson stated he say British Indian forces molesting female Chinese christians until they were flogged by some foreign women. It is said the Japanese had planned ahead of time for the situation. According to Roger Keyes "their Government had wisely taken the precaution of sending their 'regimental wives' [prostitutes] with them, and they were established in houses at Tientsin and Peking directly the troops settled down". The first days of the occupation saw indiscriminate looting and rape by all nationalities. The allied commander in chief von Waldersee who only arrived in late september wrote "Every nationality accords the palm to some other in respect to the art of plundering, but it remains the fact that each and all of them went in hot and strong for plunder." On August 18th all the diplomats and military commanders met at the Russian legation to discuss how to go about reprisals against the Qing. The Germans argued for severe punishment because of Von Kettelers murder, they wanted a punitive expedition and to raze the Imperial city. The Russians favored a more conciliatory line in northern China, but of course something I have not talked about was going on, the Russians had basically invaded Manchuria. One thing they all agreed upon was an enormous victory parade through the Imperial City, a grand humiliation. Each nation scrambled to be the first in the parade, the Russians argued they had the largest force, which was a lie, it was the Japanese. There are countless photographs of the foreign armies in the city and of the parade, but to give a brief description on August 28th George Morrison stated "the appearance of the French troops, complaining that there was every excuse for their uniforms to be dirty but that the faces of many of the men should be so too was quite inexcusable. The French looked singularly decadent in blue dungaree and that their commander, General Frey, was small and pot-bellied. He thought the Cossacks were "heavy" and "rough" but that the Germans looked "splendid" and the Japanese officers "very smart." The British, by contrast, looked ather "rag tag and bobtail." The dignity of the occasion was further undermined by the ineptitude of the Russian band, which could not keep pace with eight successive national anthems and found itself blasting out the "Marseillaise" as the Italians marched past the saluting base". An army of eunuchs escorted by Qing officials brought the foreigners into the Forbidden city which saw looting. Indeed the looting of the capital of China by the 8 nation alliance is probably one of the largest looting accounts in human history, one of the sources I am using has an entire chapter dedicated to only story accounts of what was stolen and by whom, but its simply too much to delve into. Many museums today hold stolen items from this event. Within 24 hours of taking the city not a race of Boxers existed. There was a wild Boxer hunt that saw much horror. Daily executions occurred as described to us by George Morrison "The execution and the long drawn out neck. The butcher with his apron. The executioner tearing open his long coat—the grunt as he brought down the knife—the dogs lapping up the blood—the closeness of the head to the ground, the face nearly touching." Apparently the Germans got their prisoners to dig their own trench before being shot in the back of the head. During september the allies were awaiting the arrival of von Waldersee, but a number of military operations were mounted against Boxer strongholds in the Beijing region. Von Waldersee arrived to Beijing in October assuming command and established his HQ in Cixi's palace in the forbidden city. Von Waldersee decided punitive expeditions needed to be increased and Germany began taking the lead in several dozen. The countryside was butchered in a wild hunt for Boxers. Civilians, Qing soldiers, Qing officials, just about anyone faced numerous foreign troops who killed or abused them. Von Waldersee faced a more daunting task however, peace negotiations. There was a mutual distrust amongst the nations and conflicts broke out often. Li Hongzhang, poor old Li Hongzhang and Prince Qing were appointed the imperial plenipotentiary powers and only arrived in Beijing in October. The first meeting was held on Christmas Eve between them and the foreign ministers. Li Hongzhang was not present due to illness. The foreign ministers questioned whether the Qing plenipotentiaries were even real agents of the Emperor or Qing government in exile. Prince Qing managed to convince them he held authority. The allies pondered if the dynasty should change, but it was quickly apparent the Manchu would never allow for such a thing. All the ministers agreed the Manchu dynasty should remain on the throne. Then they pondered punishment of the guilty and a large indemnity on behalf of the Qing dynasty. The indemnity fee first brought up was 67,500,000 roughly 4.3 or so billion dollars by todays figures. The Americans argued it was far too high and would bankrupt China. American secretary of state John Hay sent a telegram to the great powers stating "America's policy was to bring permanent safety and peace to China and to preserve China's territorial integrity". Von Waldersee would go on the record to say "the United States it seems to desire that nobody shall get anything out of China." However on May 26th an imperial edict announced that the indemnity payment would be 67,500,000$ to be paid in full over 39 years. The sum was to be distributed as follows: Russia 28.97%, Germany 20.02%, France 15.75%, Britain 11.25%, Japan 7.73%, United States 7.32%, Italy 7.32%, Belgium 1.89%, Austria-Hungary 0.89%, Netherlands 0.17%, Spain 0.03%, Portugal 0.021%, Sweden and Norway 0.014%. The payment by the way would only be amortized on December 31st of 1940. Now the negotiations for punishments were a lot more complicated. The allies first wanted to see the executions of prominent pro-Boxer officials, which Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to avoid. Cixi made many counter proposals, but eventually was forced to hand over some officials. Yuxiang, the mastermind behind the Taiyuan massacre was reportedly executed, though notably there is a myth he simply went into exile. Qing official Ying Nien straggled himself, some other officials apparently were killed by having their mouths and nostrils stuffed with rice paper by eunuchs, which is a pretty weird one I must say, many were poisoned. Prince Duan and his brother escaped the death penalty and were exiled to Turkestan. Dong Fuxiang was too powerful to kill much to the dismay of the foreigners. Indeed his Muslim army in the northwest was the bulwark at the time, all he suffered was a demotion, but in reality he was now a major leading figure. Over 100 Qing officials were executed or exiled in the end. A peace treaty containing 12 articles was signed in the Spanish legation on September 7th of 1901 known as the Boxer Protocol. The Qing were prohibited from importing arms and ammunition for 2 years; the Taku forts were ordered to be destroyed; the legation quarters would receive special status; Boxers and Qing officials who had supported them would face justice; the Zongli Yamen was replaced with a foreign office; the Qing government was to prohibit under the pain of death, any membership for anti-foreign societies; civil examinations were suspended for 5 years in any area that saw violence against foreigners; the Emperor Guangxu was to apologize to Kaiser Wilhelm for the murder of Baron von Ketteler; Emperor Guangxu was to appoint Na't'ung to be a special envoy to be sent to apologize the Emperor Meiji for the murder of Mr. Sugiyama; the Qing government was to erect a commemorative arch over the spot Baron von Ketteler was killed; and at last the great powers would be allowed to occupy numerous important cities so as to make sure their legations were protected. Empress Dowager Cixi was surprised by the terms of the treaty and that she was not punished personally. Hell China was not required to surrender any more territory. Some members of her court argued China should continue the war and that the 8 nation alliance could not hope to face the interior of China. Some argued if Dong Fuxiang were to be allowed to raise his force to 50,000 he could dislodge the foreign encroachment. Cixi however was as much a pragmatist as she was conservative in her ways. If the allied nations would allow Emperor Guangxu and her to return to Beijing retaining their honor, she believed she had little to lose. She also was not a moron and understood exactly why the Boxer Protocol was made in the way it was, the great powers wanted to received payments and in order to do so, needed the Manchu to sit on the throne. She ordered Li Hongzhang to do all he could to re-establish relations with the foreign governments. She also ordered any decrees she made praising the Boxers to be expunged from the official records and secretly ordered all blame to be placed on Guangxu. She gave posthumous honors to all the progressive Qing officials she had beheaded during the siege and disinherited the heir apparent son of Prince Duan, whom apparently she did not like much. An imperial decree in the name of Emperor Guangxu announced "Our Sacred Mother's advanced age renders it necessary that we should take the greatest care of her health, so that she may attain to peaceful longevity; a long journey in the heat being evidently undesirable, we have fixed on the 19th day of the 7th Moon [1 September] to commence our return journey and are now preparing to escort Her Majesty." The return to Beijing should be held as one of the greatest feats of public relations exercises in history, second only to Robert Downey Jr. The 700 mile journey began in October of 1901 seeing the imperial family carried in yellow sedan chairs, sparing no expense. George Morrison details it quite well "Along the frost-bound uneven tracks which serve for roads in northern China, an unending stream of laden wagons croaked and groaned through the short winter's day and on, guided by soldier torch-bearers through bitter nights to the appointed stopping places. But for the Empress Dowager and the Emperor there was easy journeying and a way literally made smooth. Throughout its entire distance the road over which the Imperial palanquins were carried had been converted into a smooth, even surface of shining clay, soft and noiseless under foot; not only had every stone been removed but as the procession approached gangs of men were employed in brushing the surface with feather brooms. At intervals of about ten miles, well-appointed rest-houses had been built.The cost of this King's highway, quite useless of course for the ordinary traffic of the country, was stated by a native contractor to amount to fifty Mexican dollars for every eight yards—say, £1,000 per mile—the clay having to be carried in some places from a great distance. As an example of the lavish expenditure of the Court and its officials in a land where squalor is a pervading feature, this is typical." The Empress Dowager crossed the yellow river in a gilded, lacquered, dragon shaped barge after offering wine and incense to the river god. Believe it or not, the last part of the journey was done by train and Empress Dowager Cixi looked excited to be in what she called an "iron centipede". Everyone in Beijing was given an imperial decree to graciously permit them to watch the royal family return to the Imperial Court. We are told "As Cixi got out of her chair, the Empress glanced up at the smoke-blackened walls and saw us: a row of foreigners . . . and, looking up at us, lifted her closed hands under her chin, and made a series of little bows." Cixi was a lover of theatricals and made sure it was a hell of a show. Within days foreign ministers were summoned to present themselves to the Emperor and for the first time officially enter the forbidden city. On February the 1st Cixi invited the ladies of diplomats to her. The foreign community nor Cixi could know it, but the Boxer rebellion was to be one of the last nails in a coffin made for the Qing dynasty. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so the Boxer rebellion excluding some events in Manchuria was ended. The Boxer protocol ushered in a brand new Qing dynasty that surely would survive the test of time and not succumb to an agonizing death as the people of China could take it no longer.

Last time we spoke about the battle for Tientsin. Tientsin had be relieved momentarily of its siege, but the Boxers and Qing forces quickly went back to work assaulting the foreign held part of the city. Forces from the great powers began arriving at Taku, heading for Tientsin to finally lift its siege once and for all. The battle against the Chinese held part of the city was to be the bloodiest battle of the Boxer Rebellion and it was the Japanese who ushered in victory. The southern and eastern gates of Tientsin were breached as the foreign troops sent the Qing and Boxer forces fleeing. Now with Tientsin firmly in their hands and with even more troops arriving by the day, the new 8 Nation alliance was preparing for a march upon Beijing. Would this new international force be able to get to Beijing quickly enough to save the besieged foreign community there? #66 The Boxer Rebellion part 6: The Fall of Beijing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee was chosen to be the supreme allied commander, but he was in Germany with his soldiers set to depart on August 18th. Meanwhile Lt General Sir Alfred Gaselee was at Tientsin and he managed to get the Americans to back him temporarily to be the leader of the new 8 Nation alliance. I would like to note, General Yamaguchi Motomi was the highest ranking officer present at Tientsin during this time, but non-white racism disallowed the other commanders to allow him to take command. It was estimated by most of the great powers that some 50-70 thousand troops would be necessary to march upon Beijing, Gaselee had 22,000. 10,000 Japanese, 4000 Russian, 3000 British, 2000 Americans, 800 French, 200 Germans, 100 Austrians and 100 Italians. Telegraph lines were cut, the railway was damaged and many of the Great powers advised waiting for more troops before marching. But the British and Americans threatened to go it alone if they did not march at once. Back in Beijing the truce had gradually died down and now the foreigners lived in a confused paradox. At one moment the Zongli Yamen would send them gifts of food and assure them protection, the next they were plotting their death. The hostilities had resumed while the Zongli Yamen began publicly stating any soldier caught firing on the legations would be beheaded. It was unbelievably contradictory. Rumor also had it Li Hongzhang had been appointed the negotiator for peace talks and would soon send telegrams to the foreign governments. On August 12th, Prince Qing sent a message indicating the Zongli Yamen intended to have a meeting with the ministers the very next day. The foreign community hoped this meant a relief force was close to Beijing and that the Qing were panicking. They had all received information two days prior from General Gaselee stating "Strong force of Allies advancing. Twice defeated enemy. Keep up your spirits." They also received a message from General Fukushima stating "Probable date of arrival at Peking August 13 or 14." The legation defenders morale had thus boosted considerably, but they were still under a violent siege taking the lives of people every day. Bullets and shrapnel peppered them each day and the Qing forces seemed even more aggressive, planting their banners just 20 yards from the defenders outposts. In fact some of the banners bore the name of a General they had not heard of until that point, it was our old friend Yuxian. Yuxian had been appointed governor of Shanxi province and reigned a campaign of terror against Christians and foreigners there. On July 9th, it was rumored Yuxian had executed 44 foreigners including women and children from some missionary families whom he had personally invited to the provincial capital, Taiyuan under the guise he was going to protect them. It is disputed by historians who were the actual culprits who killed the foreigners, but the incident became known as the Taiyuan massacre. What is known, by the later half of 1900, Shanxi saw as many as 2000 Christians murdered. It seemed Empress Dowager Cixi brought Yuxian over to Beijing as a last-ditch effort to overrun the foreigners. The tenacity of the besiegers had increased exponentially, as told to us by Lenox Simpson "all thoughts of relief have been pushed into the middle distance—and even beyond—by the urgent business we have now on hand. . . . What stupendous quantities of ammunition have been loosed-off on us . . . what tons of lead and nickel! Some of our barricades have been so eaten away by this fire, that there is but little left, and we are forced to lie prone on the ground hour after hour.... The Chinese guns are also booming again, and shrapnel and segment are tearing down trees and outhouses, bursting through walls, splintering roofs, and wrecking our strongest defenses more and more." The commanders of the Gaselee force figured they would be facing roughly 70,000 Qing soldiers and anything between 50-100 thousand boxers between them and Beijing. They had roughly 70 artillery pieces, and lacked any real cavalry, aside from a few Cossacks. There was some Japanese cavalry, but their horses turned out to not be able to face the heat, 60 out of 400 of them would not make it to Beijing. So they were going to be mostly an infantry force. The commander chose to take the exact same route to Beijing that the British and French took during the second opium war, rather fitting if you ask me. They departed on August the 4th and the first battle they would face was at Beicang. Their intelligence reported General Dong Fuxiang had deployed roughly 20,000 troops at Beicang, though in reality it was around 11,000. The British, Americans and Japanese advanced along the west side of the river, while the French and Russians marched on its east. As the army approached Beicang on August the 4th they camped outside near the Xigu fort arsenal, the very same arsenal Seymour and his expedition had come across. The commanders planned to have the British, Americans and Japanese turn the right flank of the Qing while the Russians and French turned their left flank on the opposite side of the Hai river. At 3am the Japanese launched their attack under the cover of allied artillery and they quickly seized a Qing battery on the extreme right of their defense lines. They then pushed forward on the flank as an artillery duel between the Qing and allies raged for half and hour. During the duel, a Japanese regiment performed a direct assault on a Qing position along the river. The Japanese requested some cavalry aid from the British, but it failed to reach them on time, leading the Japanese to take heavy casualties. None the less the Japanese stormed some Qing entrenchments forcing the defenders to retreat. On the east bank of the Hai river, the French and Russians were unable to hook around the Qing left flank due to flooded terrain, but the Japanese victory in the west broke the Qing's will to fight as a general retreat was sounded. The allies lost 60 men dead, all Japanese with 240 wounded. Around 50 Qing were killed in the battle that lasted until 9am, it was a relatively easy victory, though the Japanese paid heavily for it. American medics notably treated the Japanese wounded. The Qing forces retreated 12 miles back to Yangcun where they took up positions between the east bank of the Hai river and its railroad embankment. Yangcun was heavily fortified and the Qing forces led by Generals Ma Yukun and Song Qing hoped to halt the allied advance there. The British and Americans took the vanguard this time advancing on Yangcun by August 6th. The Japanese advanced along the west side of the Hai river, but would not find themselves taking part in the battle. The Qing numbered nearly 11,000 again, though its unknown how many actually took part in the battle. The allies faced something nearly as bad as bullets that day, tremendous heat. Indeed during the Gaselee expedition the weather often reached 42 degrees, or 108 freedom units for your americans. 20% of the men who marched on Yangcun fell out of rank, and a ton of sunstroke related deaths occurred. The allied forces advanced within 5000 yards of the Qing positions. The Russians were on the easternmost, followed by the British, then the Americans. The assault began at 11am, and soon it became an endurance competition between both sides. Men clutched their water canteens as they marched. The Americans bore the brunt of the Qing resistance as they hit the strongest held position behind the railroad embankment. Men were seen collapsing from sunstroke as Qing artillery and rifle fire poured upon them. The Americans were advancing in open terrain and had to run to avoid being hit. As the Americans charged over the railroad embankment they would find most of the positions abandoned. The battle ultimately became one enormous rearguard action. As the Americans advances so rapidly, the British and Russian artillery began to mistake them for retreating Qing forces and shells began to be lobbed over the US 14th infantry. 4 Americans were killed with 11 wounded as the Americans frantically signaled back to stop the shelling.Placing a handkerchief on the point of a sword an American commander galloped up the embankment waving it at the artillery fire. To make matters worse, upon seeing the shelling, the French joined in also firing upon them. By the late afternoon the battle for Yangcun was over, the Qing took very few casualties as they had abandoned their positions fairly early on. The Americans had 9 dead, 64 wounded, 15 of which would die later on. The British had 6 dead, 38 wounded and the Russians 7 dead, 20 wounded. Within Yangcun the allies found the trains Seymours expeditionary forces had abandoned, as told to us by Frederick Brown "Still standing on the embankment were the boilers and wheels of the engines used in that fruitless attempt to reach Peking. How the Boxers must have gloated in their hate when they rushed upon these inventions of the 'foreign devils'! They had burned the woodwork . . . looted the brasses, nuts, and bolts, and had even torn up and buried the rails and sleepers. But the wheels and boilers remained there in defiance". The route to Beijing was a nearly treeless plain, the landscape was littered with fields of 14 foot high corn. It was actually terrifying because one could not see over the corn fields for possible enemies lurking about. On one occasion Lt Roger Keyes of the HMS Fame was horrified to see "the banners of a large body of Tartar cavalry and the pennons of our Bengal Lancers showing above the standing maize, and within a mile of one another, apparently unaware of each other's proximity, but closing fairly rapidly." Keyes galloped over to warn the Bengals, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack. The Japanese actually began carrying bamboo ladders so they could peak over the corn, must have been silly as hell to watch this march. The heat was a constant enemy, as the commanding officer of the US 14th infantry, Colonel Dagget recalled "a fierceness in that China sun's rays which none had experienced in the tropics or our Southern States during the Civil War.... Its prostrating effect was unaccountable, and caused our men to fall by hundreds. The dust of ages . . . rose at every footstep. The corn obstructed the breeze, and did not allow it either to blow away the dust or fan the burning faces of the fainting soldiers." The men would abandon countless blankets, greatcoats, haversacks and such along the roads. Even the British Indian troops were suffering from the heat. Lt Steel remarked "The heat was awful, the whole road being littered with men fallen out, Americans, Japs, and ours. The country is so dense with crops we couldn't see anywhere, and the flies and bad water made life pretty sickening. Everywhere one came across dead bodies of Chinese and mules and horses in various degrees of foul composition. I nearly catted [vomited] dozens of times." Despite the conditions, the 8 nation alliance marched 25 miles and won two easy victories. After a council of war on August 7th, the commanders had all agreed to continue the march and not wait for reinforcements. The Italians, Austrian and Germans had returned to Tientsin to reequip themselves as they had greatly miscalculated the gear needed for the expedition. Many French likewise would have to turn back. The field was thus set for the Russians, British, Japanese and Americans to push on. The Qing who saw them march would simply flee, seeing countless villages abandoned along the way. In some villages, a few Chinese civilians would be found, and as noted by Dagget "the villages were all deserted, except occasionally a Chinese man or woman would be found crouching in some hidden corner, expecting to be killed every moment. And, to the disgrace of humanity . . . some of these innocent, unresisting people were shot down like beasts but not by Americans." British journalist Henry Savage-Landor traveling with the expedition would write "the majority of the "American boys" were "as a rule extremely humane, even at times extravagantly gracious, towards the enemy." Henry would also claim his countrymen showed more humanity than the other nationalities. Many prisoners were taken, some Qing troops, some Boxers. The Chinese regiment was in charge of prisoners, but the other troops sometimes grabbed prisoners and abused them. Henry wrote of how a Boxer prisoner was dragged away by some French and Japanese troops and shot in the face "The poor devil, who showed amazing tenacity of life, afterwards had all his clothes torn off him, the soldiers being bent on finding the peculiar Boxer charm which all Boxers were supposed to possess. The man lived for another hour with hundreds of soldiers leaning over him to get a glimpse of his agony, and going into roars of laughter as he made ghastly contortions in his delirium." On August 8th a message came from MacDonald to Generals Gaselee and Chafee. The message was accompanied by a map of Beijing, advising them to enter Beijing through the south gate of the Chinese city, then to advance up the main street, before turning towards the Tartar wall. MacDonald promised they would mark portions of the Tartar wall with American, British and Russian flags to help them. Unfortunately the notes were written in cipher, but the Gaselee force had left the key back in Tientsin. Captain Griffin of the 1st Bengal lancers was given the task of running back to Tientsin to get it deciphered. The army found themselves halfway to Beijing at the town of Hoshiwu. There they found written plans that the Qing forces sought to flood the countryside and drown them out. Lt COlonel Vaughan of the 7th Rajputs recalled "We found the cutting nearly completed, and the workmen's tools and baskets lying in it, so precipitately had they fled. However, although the thing didn't come off, the Chinese general informed his government that he had cut the banks of the Peiho, and inundated the country, drowning 25,000 of the foreigners, at which, he naively concluded, 'they are much disheartened.' We read this account of our being drowned some months later in a Chinese paper, and were much amused,". On August 12th, the allies came across the sealed gates of Tungchow. The Qing garrison fled upon their arrival too which Frederick Brown would write ."As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached," The south gate of Tungchow was blown up, allies pouring in and began looting. Gaselee tried to control the men and reassure the local population who were terrified and hiding in their homes. Meanwhile Li Bingheng who had promised to repel the foreigners at the first sign of a battle on August 11th he wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi ."As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached," After the fall of Tungchow, Li Bingheng killed himself. On the 12th the commanders held another war council. General Linevitch of the Russians argued they would be too exhausted to perform an assault upon Beijing immediately upon arrival. The other commanders agreed to a three phase operation. Each nations army would send a cavalry reconnaissance on the 13th, followed by the main bodies expected to arrive on the 14th and the general attack would commence on the 15th. The French commander General Frey had just returned to the force with an additional 400 French troops from Tientsin making them 5 national armies. The general attack called for a simultaneous advance with each national contingent aiming for a particularly gate in the eastern wall of Beijing. The Russians took the furthest north position on the right flank; then the Japanese, then the French, then the Americans and last the British on the southern most left flank. Their intelligence reported the Qing were concentrated on the south and southeast portions of the city, thus Gaselee chose to have the British take the most exposed position. The Russians were assigned the Dongzhi gate, Japanese Chaoyang gate, Americans Dongbien gate and the British the Guangqui gate, while the French were simply left out of the planning all together ahaahah. On the evening of the 13th, rumors suddenly emerged that the Russians were breaking the plan and making a wild dash for Beijing. As told to us by Keyes "A message has just come from the Russians that some Cossacks have pushed on to within a mile and a half of Peking, and the gates are open. I wonder if it is true; if so we are properly left behind." What actually occurred is unclear, but Russian scouts were well ahead of everyone else on the night of the 13th and sent word that Dongbien, the gate the Americans were to attack, was lightly defended. General Lineivitch sent a vanguard under General Vassilievski with some artillery to secure the approach to Dongbien. Apparently it was Vassilievski who saw an opportunity so instead of waiting he charged with his men over the moat bridge taking the 30 or so Qing defenders by surprise in their outer guardhouse. The Qing tried to raise an alarm but it was too late as the Russian artillery blasted a hole right through the Dongbien and before dawn of the 14th were the first to enter the city. The Russians would soon find themselves in a crossfire however between the courtyard and inner/outer door killing 26 Russians and wounding 102. The survivors would be pinned down for many hours. MacDonald got his men together to raise the Stars and Strips, Union Jack and Imperial eagle of Russia atop the Tartar Walls to signal the advancing allies. Upon seeing this the Qing siege forces went into a frenzy last ditch assault upon the legations. It was to be known as "the three terrible nights", as Captain Poole wrote "Legation full of danger, up all night, fiercest attack I can remember, let them do their worst.". The Qing artillery began smashing the Fu palace as Qing riflemen fired upon anyone they could see. In the midst of the chaos a messenger from the Zongli Yamen showed up bearing a note stating "dating from today, neither Chinese nor foreigner would ever again hear the sound of a rifle." Meanwhile Colonel Shiba was ordering men to bang pots and pans while the Italians shouted and whistled trying to convince the Qing soldiers they were a larger force than they were. MacDonald called up reserves three times trying to rush forces to critical points. Qing rifleman armed with Mannlicher carbines were storming through the Mongol Market with a large modern piece of artillery that was deployed upon a high point on the Imperial cities wall. It was a two inch quick firing Krupp gun which did more damage in 10 minutes than the Qing had done in 5 weeks. The foreigners unleashed their colt machine gun and Maxim gun upon it, but were met back with Mannlichers, Mausers, Jingals and older muskets. Bricks and stones exploded, hand to hand combat erupted. Then suddenly through the chaos, the sound of heavy artillery could be heard coming from the east. A sudden lull began on both sides, until the foreigners in the legations realized it was the relief force outside the city, they were engaging the Qing troops! The news spread from building to building, MacDonald watched as the legation guards all suddenly became alive again, everyone was joyous. They all wondered whose national army would come first. As news spread that the Russians had already stormed the Dongbien gate the race began. The Japanese march turned into a rapid sprint, followed by the Americans. General Gaselee refused to believe the Russians had abandoned the plan but when he himself heard the sounds of artillery hitting Beijings walls, he was livid. At 3:30am on August 14th the British main body was 6 miles outside Beijing. They marched upon Guangqui and General Gaselee had two artillery piece brought up. According to Lt Steel "The battery fired some dozen shots, and the Chinese scuttled, and we burst the door open and were inside." Keyes took a Union Jack and scaled the wall just right of the gate placing it atop the wall. Keyes had hoped to hop down and open the gate for his comrades, but they busted it open before he could do so. Gaselee dispatched two detachments through the breach to seize the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture as the rest of the main body proceeded westwards to the Tartar Wall. Lt Colonel Vaughan described the scene "Not a Chinaman was to be seen, but the banging of doors was heard, and many of the rings hanging from the door knobs were shaking as we passed, showing that the doors had only just been shut. At last we entered a long and broad street, and while going up it saw hundreds of Chinamen running down the side streets away from us." The British forces estimated they were lined up with the "Sluice" gate also called the watergate which led to the legations quarter. They turned north as Qing troops fired down upon them from houses, but as noted by Keyes "we saw no troops and there was no real opposition." As they approached the Tartar wall they came under fire from the outer gate of Hatamen. The Qing were using smokeless powder, making it very difficult to see where shots were coming from. As the British got closer to the legations they saw the American, Russian and British flags atop the Tartar Wall indicating where the Sluice gate was. Lt Steel described the scene as the men went towards the Sluice gate "we all dashed across the canal, bullets fizzing and spitting all round, a small shell exploding in front of my nose, no harm done." It's unclear who exactly was the first man to enter the British legation, but according Mrs Ker, a British diplomats wife "it was a Sikh, an unforgettable sight, naked to the waist, sweating like a pig, hair tumbling on his shoulders. He kept waving his rifle and shouting 'Oorah!' . . . and in a bunch, with officers and men, that old darling, General Gaselee, about twenty-five yards behind." The besieged foreigners were in a daze, shortly before 2pm MacDonald received news that foreign troops were beneath the Tartar Wall opposite of the Sluice gate. MacDonald rushed over just in time to greet General Gaselee. MacDonald led the force to the British Legation. Two hours after the British arrived, General Chaffee and the 14th US infantry arrived who were also quickly brought over to the British legation. The Americans led by the 14th infantry had reached the walls of Beijing only to find the Russians stuck in the Bongdien gate. The Russians had assumed they would strong right into the city, but instead they were being torn to pieces from the wall top riflemen. General Vasilievski was hit in the chest by a Mannlicher as he tried to rally his men on the lower parts of the wall. The main body of Russians only reached his vanguard force at 10am. The Americans proceeded to scale the wall south of Dongbien, taking some of the pressure off the Russians. A 20 year old bugler, Calvin Titus volunteered to scale the wall first. Unarmed he climbed the wall, earning himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and an appointment at West Point for the action. When he got to the top he signaled the rest to start climbing and by 11am the regimental flag was flying over the walls of Beijing. By 12 US forces were charging Qing soldiers atop the walls around Dongbien. The Americans advanced through the southeast of the Tartar city too which they were embroiled in street fighting. It took hours for them to work their way to the Tartar Wall. When they got through the Sluice gate, they then realized the British had won the race after all. The Japanese encountered stiff resistance at their assigned gate, the Chaoyang. The Qing hit the incoming Japanese with artillery, greatly stalling them. Despite the relief forces getting into the legations, the siege was still raging on. As Lt Steel remarked "everyone was talking and cheering and waving their hats whilst the bullets were flying thick overhead and banging on the roofs all high, no one caring a hang! The Chinese simply went mad when they realized we were in and let off every bally gun they had at random." Colonel Shiba launched a final attack on the Qing barricades at the Fu, driving off the soldiers. The relief forces went to work clearing snipers out of the Mongol Market who were shocked upon seeing the soldiers, they had no idea Beijing had been breached. As Captain Poole blasted a hole through the Imperial Carriage Park wall and stormed through it with 60 marines he discovered two mines with the powder and fuse lying about. He would later remark "If the troops had come one day or one night later, God only knows what the result would have been!" Upon seeing the British troops enter the Sluice gate, the Qing began lowering banners atop the Tartar wall and withdrew. American and Russian forces surged forward as hundreds of Qing soldiers fled. The British, Russians, Japanese, Americans and French forces went to work securing gates of the city and were actively fighting their way to the imperial court. Lenxo Simpson was at the Hotel de Pekin where he found Russian soldiers getting drunk and openly discussing plans, he had this to say "the Russians had attempted to steal a march . . . on the night of the 13th, in order to force the Eastern gates, and reach the Imperial City and the Empress Dowager before anyone else. That had upset the whole plan of attack, and there had then simply been a mad rush, everyone going as hard as possible, and trusting to Providence to pull them through." The Russians had managed to enter the legations an hour before the Americans, while the Japanese had the most frustrated time getting in. George Lynch accompanying the Japanese described their attempts to blow the Chaoyang gate "The Japanese engineers went forward one by one until twenty minutes passed and expanded into half an hour. With cheerful and unwavering gallantry these men went forward to blow up that gate, across the open space over the bridge, from which they could be fired on by hundreds of Chinese. The attempt was absolutely hopeless. It was not that there was any wavering amongst them after ten had been shot. . . . But it was a task that the bravest man could not accomplish. Working like marionettes, they fired their guns again and again, but they were of very light caliber—little war dogs, spat their rather impotent projectile against that great mass of centuries-old masonry, they might as well have been firing peashooters". It took the Japanese until 9pm to blast their way through the wooden doors. They then stormed the city skewering Qing soldiers upon their bayonets until they reached the legation. The French were the last, they only arrived to Beijing a day late because their route went through a marsh. The battle to seize Beijing claimed 66 foreign lives and 150 wounded, simply astonishing when you think about it. The losses to the Qing are unknown, but expected to be quite high. While Beijing was being seized, the work of the 8 nation alliance was not done just yet. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so at last the 8 nation alliance had made it to the great walled city of Beijing. The British, Russian, Japanese, American and French stormed Beijing's outer walls to rescue the foreign legations, but what of Empress Dowager Cixi?

Last time we spoke about the darkest days of the siege of the foreign legation quarters in Beijing. The Hanlin Academy was burnt down taking with it irreplaceable books. The Fu Palace and French Legation were falling to pieces. Colonel Shiba and his men fought for weeks without changing their closes or sleeping more than 3-4 hours. Countless friends and colleagues were dead or wounded, funerals were becoming a daily event. Ammunition was running low, men were running low, medical supplies were running low, everything was running low. Suddenly some messages began to trickle in allegedly from Prince Qing. The Ministers were weary to trust them, but gradually pushed Prince Qing to show the Qing's good faith by establishing a truce. It seemed the darkest hours were just before the dawn as Prince Qing established a truce on July 17th, and now all wondered, what was next? #65 The Boxer Rebellion part 5: The Battle for Tientsin Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The July 17th truce came at a perfect time, the defenders were exhausted. Food had become so scarce, they had begun sending raiding parties to the Mongol Market, but for most the regular diet consisted of horse, pony, mule meat and rice. Random note, I am from Quebec and we eat horse meat here, typically for tartar, not all the time, but if you go to the grocery store 9/10 its there, apparently this is pretty weird for everyone else in North America, I dunno, a bit on the dry side as meat goes. One thing that was easy to come by was champagne and wine, there was a enormous supply of it in the legation buildings. As Lenox Simpson put it "had it not been for the Monopole, of which there are great stores in the hotel and the club—a thousand cases in all . . . I should have collapsed." There was a enormous concern for the Chinese Christians in the Fu Palace who were constantly attacked and very isolated. Lenox Simpson investigated them and wrote this "The feeding of our native Christians, an army of nearly two thousand, is still progressing, but babies are dying rapidly, and nothing further can be done. There is only just so much rice, and the men who are doing the heavy coolie work on the fortifications must be fed better than the rest, or else no food at all would be needed. . . . The native children, with hunger gnawing savagely at their stomachs, wander about stripping the trees of their leaves.They had terrible water-swollen stomachs and "pitiful sticks of legs. To the babies we give all the scraps of food we can gather up after our own rough food is eaten, and to see the little disappointed faces when there is nothing is sadder than to watch the wounded being carried in. . . . Thus enclosed in our brickbound lines, each of us is spinning out his fate. The Europeans still have as much food as they need; the Chinese are half starving." The CHristian Chinese laborers complained about working for the British legation telling supervisors "the work at the British legation is crushing and they don't feed you enough. And if you do not carry out their orders to the letter, they flog you. . . . Therefore, we don't want to go there." The Chinese CHristian laborers preferred working for the non-Christian Japanese and Colonel Shiba even raised a force of Christian Chinese volunteers as riflemen who he trained personally. There were also incidents of Chinese Christian girls being sexually assaulted, particularly by Russian guards whose barricades were close to their girls lodgings. A written notice was erected forbidding anyone to approach the girls lodgings prompting the Russian commander Baron von Rahen to quote "Take off his cap, and assuming a very polite air of doubt and perplexity, he inquired of the lady missionary committee which oversees the welfare of these girls: 'Pardon, mes dames,' he said purposely in French, 'cette affiche est-ce seulement pour les civils ou aussi pour les militaires?'"—"Excuse me, ladies, does this apply only to civilians or also to the military?" Sexual assault was not the only thing going on, apparently the British legation gardens saw people come together each night to make romance. Over in Taku forces were coming over to help lift the siege of Tientsin. Men of the US 9th infantry came over from the Philippines. Now that the situation looked more land based than naval, Vice Admiral Seymour was sent back to his squadron on July 11th, leaving Brigadier General Dorward in command of British forces, but there was no supreme allied commander. There were tremendous delays as each nations officers argued who should lead and finally it was agreed the Qing held part of Tientsin had to be taken before any talks of marching upon Beijing. A plan was formed to attack the Qing held part of the city beginning on July 13th. They were widely outnumbered, around 6900 to a Qing force of around 30,000, half of which were Boxers. There were 2500 Russians, 2000 Japanese, 900 Americans, 800 British and 600 French. They would be facing the formidable walls of Tientsin, which were 20 feet high and 16 feet thick. Within the city and nearby forts were around 12,000 Qing soldiers well armed with artillery, machine guns and modern rifles. The French, Americans, British and Japanese were to advance upon the south gate in three columns while the Germans and Russians circled around to hit the east gate. The approach was a flat marshy plain, intersected by canals and lagoons, by no means ideal. Herbert Hoover knew the land quite well and volunteered to guide forces and had this to write of his experience "We came under sharp fire from the Chinese located on its old walls. We were out in the open plains with little cover except Chinese graves. I was completely scared, especially when some of the Marines next to me were hit. I was unarmed and I could scarcely make my feet move forward. I asked the officer I was with for a rifle and at once I experienced a curious psychological change for I was no longer scared, although I never fired a shot. I can recommend that men carry weapons when they go into battle—it is a great comfort." Hoover described how the attack was badly coordinated, riddled with miscommunication and ill tempered men. The main force was pinned down in front of the south gate taking fire from the city walls. The allied forces were huddled face down in mud with the American troops standing out like sorethumbs wearing their dark blue uniforms. The Qing wielding Winchesters, Mannlichers and Mausers were exacting terrible casualties upon them. Lt Harry Rotherham of the Royal Welch Fusiliers recalled "the whole of the city wall was lined with Chinese firing through loop-holes and they just fired all day as hard as they could. They also attacked our left flank and we were told off to keep them back, so we were under fire all day from the front and the left flank as well. I never want anything quite so warm again." Captain David Beatty noted the British forces took a entirely exposed position while the 9th US infantry were extremely exposed to Qing sharpshooters. Their commander, Colonel Emerson Liscum was fatally shot as he was trying to grab the regimental flags from a standard bearer who was falling. His dying words were "keep up the fire, men!" Beatty led a company of British to rush over to help the Americans and gradually they pulled back as it got dark. They had no news on how the Russians were doing with the east gate. It was to be the Japanese who turned failure into success. General Fukushima Yasumasa who had fought the Chinese during the first sino-Japanese war sent word to some of the other commanders that Qing forces would fight to the death if they were trapped, but if you left an escape route, like two gates open, they would retreat. At 3am the Japanese blew up the south gate, in a scene I can only describe as the one Uruk-hai in the film the Lord of the Rings the Two Towers. The Japanese had been trying to light fuses to explode bombs, but the Qing kept stopping them so one Japanese soldier ran with a short fuse to blow up the gate and was killed by the explosion. He would have made Saruman proud. As told to us by Herbert Hirschinger of the US Marines "The Japanese had been trying to accomplish it for some time, but the Chinks would cut the fuse. In the end a Japanese officer volunteered to light a short fuse. The gate was blown in . . . but the officer went up with the gate. This only goes to show the mettle of which the little fellows are made." After the breach was made, the Japanese stormed into the city followed by the second battalion, the Royal Welch Fusiliers and Beatty's men. A bit later that morning the Russians charged the esat gate on July 9th led by General Anatoly Stessel, General Nie Shicheng personally led a counterattack to try and stop them. An allied artillery shell exploded nearby him, showering him with shrapnel and fatally wounding him. As the Russians broke through the east gate prompting the Qing soldiers to withdraw from the city. French doctor Matignon was irritated to see that although the Japanese did the lionshare of work in the southern sector, the Union Jack was flying side by side with the Rising Sun over the south gate. In his words "trois ou quatre soldats anglais . . . flegmatiquement, fument leur pipe"—"three or four English soldiers . . . calmly smoking their pipes." Sounds like Merry and Pippin after Isengarde fell, what is with the LOTR references? Countless Boxers and Qing soldiers slipped away, leaving little fighting over the city. The civilians bore the brunt of what became an orgy of looting and murder. A Chinese eyewitness had this to say "People rushed about in all directions in dread of what was to come next. When someone shouted that the North gate was open and that it was possible to leave by it, the whole city converged on the North Gate. In an instant the press of the crowd was such that one couldn't move.... The foreigners and Christians . . . fired repeatedly on it [the crowd], each volley resulting in the deaths of several tens of people.... The greater the numbers of people killed, the greater became the numbers of those fighting to escape. . . . Dead from bullets, dead from artillery shells, dead from swords, dead from trampling. It was horrible. . . . The corpses were piled several feet high. After three days of cleaning up, following the foreigners' entry into the city, the streets still were not clean." The photographer James Ricalton stormed into the city as well to record what he say. "a holocaust of human life, lines of homeless, weeping human beings—their homes in ashes, without food, friendless, and, in many cases, their kindred left charred in the ruins of homes. Doors were smashed; shops were entered and plundered; men and women were fleeing, carrying their precious heirlooms—their jewels, their silks, their embroidery, their money. These much-prized valuables were snatched from them, and they dared not protest." American Marine Harold Kinman recalled "the streets wet and slippery with blood" while a British sailor described "brains strewn over the streets and dead Chinese pinned to the walls by Japanese swords and bayonets". Many of the accounts place atrocities upon the Russians and Japanese. But soldiers from each nation took part in the orgy and there are many photographs for those with the stomachs to google them, On July 15th, in an attempt to stop the looting, the British put up pickets with orders to not allow anyone to get past except for the French whose authorities had not agreed to suppress looting, haha. So as a result many British just pretended to be French, apparently doing bad french singing impressions to get by and spoke terrible French phrases to another. Notably British civilians took part in this as they knew which houses and shops had the best goods. It was to be the bloodiest battle for the 8 nation alliance during the Boxer rebellion. 250 allied soldiers had died with 500 wounded. Of this the Japanese paid the most with 320 casualties, the Russians and Germans around 140, the Americans 25 dead, 98 wounded, the British 17 dead, 87 wounded and the French 13 dead with 50 wounded. There was no official calculation of the losses for the Boxers and Qing forces, but it was expected to be very heavy. I think for you long time listeners you can see a distinct difference now from our Opium Wars days to the turn of the 20th century. Warfare had changed considerably, casualties were much higher now, something that would be proved to a horrifying extent during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, or as many like to call it World War Zero. Tientsin was now being secured as a launching point for the future advance upon Beijing. Back over in Beijing, the foreign community found it surreal after the July 17th truce was announced. The sudden silence of guns was more disconcerting than comforting, some even found it difficult to sleep. The Qing war banners were brought down and white flags were hoisted all around in their place. Countless Qing soldiers began peering over walls and barricades to look at the legations. Likewise the defenders looked out into the desolate landscape around them, corpses were everywhere, dogs were picking at them. As everyone's confidence built up some Qing soldiers went over to the defenders positions and began fraternizing with the foreigners. Many began to talk to the foreigners, giving them news the Taku Forts and Tientsin had fallen to the allied nations and that General Dong Fuxiangs Kansu army and many Boxers were now performing offensives between Tientsin and Beijing. Many of the Qing troops who came forward explained they did not want to be part of the battle, but were being were being coerced into it. The foreigners were beginning to suspect the truce had been made because of the Qing losses at the Taku forts and Tientsin, perhaps a relief force was already on its way. Within the Qing court, the loss at Tientsin had proved the progressive and moderates right that joining the Boxers was a doomed cause. This was a view shared by most of the governors and viceroys in the southern and eastern provinces who were actively holding their troops back, not daring to attack foreigners. Going back to early June when edicts were being made declaring war, most viceroys and governors ignored it and refused to send troops. In fact, the foreign community had no idea, but their most valuable allies were amongst the Qing high command. The Manchu General Ronglu, whom Empress Dowager Cixi appointed as Imperial Commissioner in command of the Wuwei Corps consisting of the 5 most modern armies led by Nie Shicheng, Dong Fuxiang, Song Qing, Yuan Shikai and Ronglu himself was helping the foreigners! When the Boxer rebellion broke out, Prince Duan was pressuring Dong Fuxiang and his Kansu Army to seize the foreign legations. It was Ronglu who behind the scenes was sand bagging the entire situation. At first he tried to countermand orders to Dong Fuxiang, trying to stop him from attacking the foreign legations, but that gradually failed when Prince Duan began ordering anyone hampering the war effort to be arrested or killed. Then when Dong Fuxiang requested artillery to breach the legation defenses, Ronglu began blocking the transfer of artillery pieces and constantly made up excuses. Ronglu and Prince Qing coordinated efforts to sneak some food into the legations and even used their most loyal Manchu bannermen to perform minor attacks on the Kansu army and Boxers who were besieging the foreigners. Ronglu also withheld orders that were to be sent to General Nie Shicheng in Tientsin, telling him they were at war with the foreigners, so for the majority of the time Nie Shicheng had thousands of his men still fighting the Boxers! Seymour getting past Nie Shicheng and the Tientsin settlement surviving as long as it did was specifically because of this action. Ronglu even tossed blame for inaction all upon Nie Shicheng, who luckily for Ronglu ended up dying before he could explain what had occurred. During the siege of the legations the major reason so many riflemen were aiming so high was because of Ronglu countermanning orders. As Dong Fuxiang would order the men to kill the foreigners, Ronglu continuously ordered men to just make it seem like they were helping the siege but not to kill the foreigners. Yes one can argue the MVP of the 8 nation alliance was Qing Generals like Ronglu or Prince Qing. The foreigners knew none of this, but they would received enormous intelligence on July 18th from one of Colonel Shiba's messengers who went over to Tientsin and returned confirming it was in allied hands. The messenger also told them a force of 11,000 British, Russian, Japanese, American and French would begin a march upon Beijing, starting on the 20th. MacDonald then invited a nearby Kansu officer to parley with him and the man reluctantly acquiesced. The men shared cigars and spoke using an interpreter. The officer asked MacDonald who the men wearing the big funny hats were and MacDonald explained they were American marines. The officer shrugged and stated his men were afraid of them because they were good shots. The officer then explained his superior was not Dong Fuxiang, but General Ronglu who had overall command. He also stated Ronglu wished the fighting to stop. MacDonald was puzzled by this and explained the fighting was never started by the foreigners. The officer was puzzled by that statement and said perhaps he should write to Ronglu to explain his views. Both men shook hands and departed. MacDonald before departing the wall took one last look at the scenery and described the situation "I could see the enemy's positions stretching away to the north until they disappeared in the direction of the Imperial City. There were barricades in the streets below the wall; a large temple was loopholed and . . . full of men; more men were amongst the ruins west of the Russian Legation and a species of mound which commanded this Legation and the Mongol Market was gay with the uniforms of hundreds of Imperial infantry. Following the line west of the Mongol Market, the tops of the houses carried nests of these bright-coated soldiery; altogether from my position I saw some 1,500 to 2,000 men, and many more must have been hidden behind the walls and ruined houses." MacDonald wrote to Ronglu proposing rules of conduct going forward. He promised the foreigner forces would only fire if being attacked, except in the case of seeing Qing forces building barricades closer to them. Any unarmed persons who approached the legation defenses could do so safely but only two men at a time. MacDonald gave the letter to the officer he had talked to who delivered it to Ronglu. The very next day Ronglu sent a man carrying a flag of truce who came over to officially accept the proposals. However there was a catch. The man explained this would be on behalf of the forces loyal to Ronglu and Prince Qing, they were commanding the south and eastern portions of the siege, but Dong Fuxiang's troops held the north and west. In fact the officials explained the officer whom MacDonald had spoken to was one of the very few Kansu soldiers who was willing to follow commands from Ronglu, Dong Fuxiang was quite the renegade. It became clear after a few days the word truce was a bit of a misnomer, it was more of a half armistice. Some Qing were still mining close to the Hanlin and various barricade forces continued to fire upon the legations. Some Qing soldiers east of the Fu Palace began using a dog to send communications to the Japanese as noted by their officers "One day a large dog trotted into the Japanese barricade with a note tied round its neck; this was from the Chinese general commanding in that quarter pointing out the futility of further defense and recommending unconditional surrender. A reply, declining the suggestion in somewhat forcible terms, was tied on the dog's neck, with which it trotted back, this was repeated several times, the dog seeming to enjoy the fun, the advisability of surrender being urged with greater insistence each time, the answers varied only in the strength of their language." Some Qing troops began offering fruit, vegetables and chickens to the foreigners, bargaining for money. The Japanese even were able to barter for rifles and ammunition from some Qing soldiers. The Zongli Yamen began sending gifts of fruit, vegetables, even ice to the besieged, all in the name of Emperor Guangxu. Many worried the food was poisoned so they first gave it to a dog. A constant stream of letters began to go back and forth between the foreigners, Prince Qing and other moderate Qing officials. The recurring theme on behalf of the Qing was that the foreigners needed to depart Beijing and that the Zongli Yamen would provide protection to Tientsin. This was constantly ignored. The Qing government also began mediating on behalf of the ministers and their governments, ferrying messages back and forth. On July 28th, the foreigners received word from the Shandong youth who had been sent out to Tientsin. He sent a letter back to them stating this "Your letter 4 July. There are now 24,000 troops landed, and 19,000 here. General Gaselee expected Ta-ku to-morrow. Russian troops are at Peitsang. Tientsin city is under foreign government and 'Boxer' power here is exploded. There are plenty of troops on the way if you can keep yourselves in food. Almost all the ladies have left Tientsin." On August the 1st, another letter arrived dated from July 26th addressed to the Japanese Minister Baron Nishi. It officially stated troops were on their way, but they were delayed because of the railway damage, but their vanguard should arrive in two to three days. The foreigners checked their food stores noting they had 600 lbs of white rice, 11,5000 lbs of yellow rice and 34,000 pds of wheat left. They estimated it would last them 5 more weeks of siege alongside the 30 ponies they had left…poor ponies. Nigel Oliphant also noted "cigars and tobacco are running out, which is more serious to some of us than want of food." The condition of the Christian Chinese at the Fu was horrible. As written in the diary of Lenox Simpson on July 24th "the miserable natives imprisoned by our warfare are in a terrible state of starvation. Their bones are cracking through their skin; their eyes have an insane look; yet nothing is being done for them. They are afraid to attempt escape even in this quiet, as the Water Gate is watched on the outside night and day by Chinese sharpshooters....Tortured by the sight of these starving wretches, who moan and mutter night and day, the posts nearby shoot down dogs and crows and drag them there. They say everything is devoured raw with cannibal-like cries." I should note, while you hear sympathies from some accounts by the foreigners in regards to the Christian Chinese, by no means were they distributing out food equally amongst them. As you can only imagine with the 19th century attitudes, the Chinese were treated like subhumans. After a few days it seemed the half armistice was fading away. The Qing were constructing a large barricade across the north bridge which the foreigners began to use the International gun against. Qing sharpshooters took up positions to thwart the men using the international gun. The barricade reached 6 feet high over the length of the bridge. The foreigners reacted by building their own barricade over the south bridge securing communications between the British and the other legations. All the while the Zongli Yamen was sending reassurances and advising the foreign community to take their offer to depart under their protection. By August the 4th, there was still no sign of a relief force and the truce was certainly all but over as artillery were pounding the legations heavily. Back on July 26th, the former governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng had come to Beijing and began pressuring the Boxers and Qing to ramp up the siege efforts. Empress Dowager Cixi favored Li Bingheng and gave him the rare honor of riding within the forbidden city before the received the promotion to Deputy commander of the Northern armies. Two days after he showed up, two moderate Qing officials were executed as traitors for criticizing the Boxers and advocating to lift the siege. Three other moderate officials would follow days later in what was becoming a purge within the court. More Boxers began to flood Beijing, cowing the surviving moderates into submission. A very nervous Prince Qing wrote to some southern viceroys and governors who all agreed the Boxers needed to be suppressed, but Prince Qing did not dare publicly give the order. When Vice Admiral Seymour was rescued from his rescue attempt he sent word to the British admiralty that at least 40,000 troops would be needed to lift the siege at Beijing. The other nations such as American thought it should be 80,000, Japan estimated 70,000. But the logistics of mounting an international rescue became difficult quickly. Not all the great powers involved could afford to muster troops at this time, hell America was fighting a war in the Philippines; Britain was fighting the Boer war; the French were fighting in IndoChina and the Russias had a full on war in Manchuria, that we will tackle later. Japan was one of the few nations free and quite able to send a large force, so the other nations appealed to Japan who agreed to send an additional 20,000 men to Tientsin. Then there was the issue of a supreme allied commander. Kaiser Wilhelm, as usual sought to grab the reigns for Germany and used von Ketteler's murder as justification. Kaiser Wilhelm nominated Field Marshal Count von Waldersee whom would go on to say of the appointment "a Japanese Supreme Command, no less than an American, was out of the question from the start. The French had not made any effort to get the Supreme Command, leaving only Russia and Britain as Germany's rivals. But, neither would concede it to the other, and, moreover, no one favored England, as the reputation of the English Generalship had suffered a set-back in the Boer War." The Kaiser persuaded Russia and Japan to back his nominee and everyone abided by the decision. Von Waldersee was set to depart for China on August 18th. Meanwhile in Berlin, the Kaiser gave a speech, tossing away the prepared text for his own words "You must know, my men, that you are about to meet a crafty, well-armed foe! Meet him and beat him! Give no quarter! Take no prisoners! Kill him when he falls into your hands! Even as, a thousand years ago, the Huns under their King Attila made such a name for themselves as still resounds in terror through legend and fable, so may the name of Germany resound through Chinese history . . . that never again will a Chinese dare to so much as look askance at a German." Ironic he made the link about the Huns and Attila haha. By the end of July, 25,000 men were at Taku and Tientsin with a lot more on the way. Britain was calling up forces from India, America from the Philippines. Tientsin was swimming with foreign troops, so much so, Doctors began vaccinating their men against smallpox. Tensions were mounting, as most of these nations were in proxy wars with another. The Russians and Japanese particularly did not like each other. Then on July 27th, as quite a cheeky maneuver, the British commander in chief General Gaselee, began to argue there was a need for quick action. He was met by resistance from the French and Russians who cautioned delay, but Gaselee argued "The rainy season will set in in a few day and the whole place will be under water." Gaselee determined to take control of the situation suddenly told the other leaders Britain would go it alone if necessary. The Americans backed him thus forcing the hand of the others, for none of the other great powers wanted to see Britain and America steal the glory. It was agreed they would all march on August 5th as an international relief force and they would be quite a sight to behold as told to us by US Marine officer Smedley Butler :"French Zouaves in red and blue, blond Germans in pointy helmets, Italian Bersaglieri with tossing plumes, Bengal cavalry on Arabian stallions, turbaned Sikhs, Japanese, Russians, English. we are going to fight the greatest battle at Pekin that has been fought for one hundred years." I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Qing were at war with 8 different great powers and even amongst themselves in many ways. The Taku forts had fallen, Tientsin had fallen and now the 8 nation alliance was going to march upon Beijing, by all means it was time to toss in the towel wasn't it?