Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the battle of the Taku Forts and the siege of Tientsin. The allied admirals gave an ultimatum to the Qing to hand over the Taku Forts, which they declined. The western navies attacked the Taku Forts officially beginning a war with the Qing dynasty. The seizure of the Taku Forts led the Qing to fully support the Boxers who raised a siege against the foreign legations in Beijing and the foreign settlement in Tientsin. The foreign community at Tientsin found themselves surrounded by 30,000 Boxers and 15,000 Qing with only 2400 troops of various nationalities to defend them. The siege was grueling and the Chinese forces nearly overran them, but the allies were able to hold out until reinforcements arrived from Taku. Despite receiving extra troops and restoring communications to Taku, the allies were still greatly outnumbered and now those in Beijing were in more severe danger. #64 The Boxer Rebellion part 4:Darkest Days before the Dawn in Peking 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. Much of China's national library, the Hanlin Academy and other buildings had been burnt down by the Boxers. The firefighter teams did their best to stop the fires, which threatened to spread towards the British legation. Countless, irreplaceable books had perished in the fires. Within the legation quarters, they all awaited Seymours rescue force eagerly, none knowing the truth that he had been forced to withdraw. On June 24th, Qing forces deployed a 3 inch krupp gun on the charred Chien Men, the gate opposite of the Forbidden city. They began firing shells into the legation quarters, some managing to hit the British legation. Then the Chinese turned their attention to the Fu Palace being guarded by Lt Colonel Goro Shiba with a small force of Japanese soldiers. A part of the Fu's walls was breached allowed Boxers and Qing soldiers to swarm in. They were met with Japanese riflemen behind loopholed barricades who unleashed volleys upon them. The Japanese were vastly outnumbered, prompting Colonel Shiba to request urgent reinforcements as the Christian Chinese began fleeing the Fu in panic. The fleeing Christian Chinese soon realized it was even more dangerous outside the Fu than in and quickly scrambled back. A detachment of Americans and Germans dashed along the Tartar Wall behind their legations, scattering the enemy before them back towards the Cheinmen as they made their way to help the Japanese at the FU. The Americans under the command of Captain John T. Myers with aid from Christian Chinese managed to build a breastwork across the width of the wall while the Germans built their own fortification. There positions were 500 yards apart, a critical defense to deny the enemy access to the Tartar Wall. Just yards in front of them were Chinese barricades. Boxer corpses lay in heaps with the hot sun just feet away from most of the legation defensive lines. The stench was putrefying, gangs of Chinese laborers would risk their lives tossing corpses over walls when they could. During the evening of the 25th, as the sun was dying down, British author Bertram Lenox Simpson recalled this "The sun . . . was sinking down slowly towards the west, flooding the pink walls of the Imperial City with a golden light and softening the black outline of the somber Tartar Wall that towers so high above us, when all round our battered lines the dropping rifle-fire drooped more and more until single shots alone punctuated the silence.... All of us listened attentively, and presently on all sides the fierce music of the long Chinese trumpets blared out uproariously—blare, blare, sobbing on a high note tremulously, and then, boom, boom, suddenly dropping to a thrilling basso profondissimo." Gunfire suddenly ceased and created an eerie silence. The foreign troops watched with suspicion from their barricades as the Chinese departed their barricades. A giant white placard then appeared on the north bridge. It was an imperial edict announcing "in accordance with Imperial orders to protect the foreign ministers, firing shall be stopped at once". The placard also stated a dispatch should be delivered to the Imperial canal bridge, so the defenders sent one extremely nervous Chinese laborer with a written note over. The man was so scared, when the Qing troops began chanting at him, he simply bolted back. The foreigner community were baffled, why was there now a ceasefire? Was it some sort of hoax? Was Seymours force here? Some felt safe enough to go atop the walls and look out into the city. Lenox Simpson was one of them who had this to say of the scenery. "Just outside the Palace gates were crowds of Manchu and Chinese soldiery—infantry, cavalry, and gunners grouped all together in one vast mass of color. Never in my life have I seen such a wonderful panorama—such a brilliant blaze in such rude and barbaric surroundings. There were jackets and tunics of every color; trouserings of blood-red embroidered with black dragons; great two-handed swords in some hands; men armed with bows and arrows mixing with Tung Fuhsiang's Kansu horsemen, who had the most modern carbines slung across their backs. There were blue banners, yellow banners embroidered with black, white, and red flags, both triangular and square, all presented in a jumble to our wondering eyes. The Kansu soldiery of Tung Fu-hsiang's command were easy to pick out from amongst the milder-looking Peking Banner troops . . . but of Boxers there was not a sign."The foreigners looked on to see the Chinese were busily fortifying their positions, at midnight the firing resumed. Meanwhile the Qing Court had been tossing out quite a few imperial edicts as the conflict escalated. On the 21st of June an imperial edict told the Chinese "with tears have we announced in our ancestral shrines the outbreak of war". This edict wa accompanied by some words describing the Boxers as patriotic soldiers and that they were being incorporated into the militia's and rewarded for their bravery with silver and food. On the 23rd another decree " the work now undertaken in Peking by Dong Fuxiang should be completed as soon as possible, so that troops can be spared and sent to Tientsin for defense" It should be noted the word used for "work" "shih" was intentionally vague and a euphemism for a swift massacre, obviously of the foreigners. No one in the foreign legations were aware of these edicts, nor did they know of the plight of their comrades outside Beijing. The one thing the foreigners know in the legation quarter was that they did not just face Boxers, it was obvious to all that the Qing government was now helping them. On June 29th a message from the legations managed to sneak out via a Chinese courier. He slipped out all the way to Tientsin with two messages in hand. The first was from Sirt Robert Hart "Foreign community besieged in the legations. Situation desperate. MAKE HASTE!" The second was from a missionary, telling the tale of what happened to Von Ketteler. The allied admirals were in despair for they all knew Seymours mission had failed and Tientsin was again under siege. The first child born inside the legation quarter since the conflict began was named Siege in the hopes he might actually be raised. Over five Qing armies were now in Beijing increasing the ferocity of the attacks on the legations. The foreigners estimated that on a single night over 200,000 bullets were fired at them by riflemen, but what baffled them all was why the riflemen aimed so high? Casualties should have been massively worse than they were. Some began to theorize the Qing were keeping up a barrage to force them to surrender or flee. By July 3rd 38 legation troops had been killed with 55 wounded. Every window was bricked up to protect occupants from bullets and shrapnel. Doctors and nurses struggled to keep pace with the number of operations. They had no X-rays to help find shrapnel or bullets in patients making it gruesome work. Several ministers' wives were working as nurses, everyone was trying their best to survive. Dysentery was becoming rampant. As bad as things seemed for the foreigners, it was terribly much worse for the Chinese Christians at the Fu. On July 1st, British civilian Nigel Oliphant wrote this in his diary "the Chinese Christians were dying like sheep from smallpox, we do not reckon Chinese converts in our casualty lists and that he could not therefore be more precise. Morrison went to inspect the Fu, where the Chinese refugees were crowded like bugs in a rug, and was appalled. His doctor's sensibilities were outraged by conditions that were stinking and insanitary . . . children ill with scarlet fever and small-pox, with diptheria [sic] and dysentery." MacDonald was directing the defensive efforts as the Boxers and Qing assaulted their barricades. Gaps were continuously being made and plugged up. On June 30th, another major attack was directed at the Fu. The 3 inch Krupp gun was battering the Fu's walls prompting the commander of the Italian forces supported the Japanese, Lt Paolini to led a brave sortie against it. Captain Poole had this to say of Paolini's sortie 'Paolini appeared to have lost his head and taken the wrong turnings." Yes the poor Italian Lt had led his small party through some alleyways and it seems they got a bit lost. They also ran into Qing forces who fired upon them, Paolini was hit. They desperately tried to escape, finding a small gap between a wall and the Fu. The most desperate fight would be for the Tartar Wall, which if it fell, all hope was lost. On July 1st, Qing soldiers were spotted creeping up the ramp to its top. The Qing surprised the German barricade who according to Nigel Oliphant "fled before the Chinese had fired a single shot, and without having had a man even wounded" The flight of the Germans left the American barricade 500 yards away exposed. This prompted the Americans to pull back, the situation was extremely dire. MacDonald called for a war council and it was decided a mixed force of British, Russian and Americans would storm back up the wall to reoccupy the American position. Fortunately for the foreigners, the Qing had not pressed home their advantage to bolster the barricades. On July 3rd the men gathered under a bell tower and Captain John T Myers who would lead the assault made a speech as told to us by Nigel Oliphant. ""because it was so utterly unlike what a British officer would have said under similar circumstances. He began by saying that we were about to embark on a desperate enterprise, that he himself had advised against it, but that orders had been given, and we must do it or lose every man in the attempt. He then explained what we had to do—viz. line up on the wall and rush the covering wall . . . then follow up that covering wall till we got to the back of the Chinese barricade. He ended up by saying that . . . if there was anyone whose heart was not in the business he had better say so and clear out. One man said he had a sore arm and went down—not one of ours, I am glad to say." At 2:00am on July 3rd, the mixed force of 26 British, 15 American and 15 Russians stormed up the Tartar Wall led by Captain Myer's. The Americans were hollaring like natives from their homeland as they they caught 20 Qing soldiers sleeping who they butchered and sent survivors fleeing in panic. Two American marines were killed and Captain Myers tripped over a spear wounding himself in the thigh, but the wall was recaptured. Retaking the wall was the key pivotal moment of the fight. For the rest of the siege the barricade atop the Tartar wall was nicknamed Fort Myers. It was a fitting action to be a prelude to the American celebration of July 4th the next day. The American marines celebrated the 4th with som well earned drinks atop the Tartar wall, must of been hella awkward for the Brits. Meanwhile Colonel Shiba was struggling to keep the assaults upon the Fu at bay. By late June nearly a third of the Fu had to be abandoned forcing the Japanese to pull back to their second line of defense. All the other nations forces agreed, Colonel Shiba was an outstanding commander and led his small but efficient force to their admiration. Late June brought in some rainstorms that made everyones guard life hell. Many of the Chinese beleived thunder and lighting was a signal from their gods. Temperatures reached 43 degrees, in freedom units thats 110. Black flies were everywhere because of the corpses. The men began smoking cigars from morning till night to overcome the stench and bugs, even the women began chain smoking cigarettes. The situation was becoming worse and worse, taking a toll on everyone. Apparently the French Minister Pichon began pacing around telling everyone who was near him 'La situation est excessivement grave; nous allons tous mourir ce soir.' ["The situation is exceedingly grave; we are all going to die tonight." I can be quite annoying with my french, if any francophones listen to this podcast I am actually releasing a episode in french on my youtube channel about France's role during the Pacific War and you will be happy to know I got my wife to narrate it instead of my anglophone accent self. By the way apparently by this point most of the ministers were doing pretty much nothing to aid the situation. As one of my sources put it, the Russian Minister de Giers took walks between his legation and the British making himself look like he was working. The Spanish minister Senor Cologan was extremely ill. The Dutch Minister Knobel offered his services as a sentry, but also acknowledged he did not know not know how to fire a gun and was extremely shortsighted. The American Minister Conger just walked about, taking a cue from his Russian counterpart. The Japanese minister Baron Nishi, kept silent as he spoke only Japanese and Russian, and the Japanese and Russians were certainly not friends. The German minister, Von Below went into his legation and began playing Wagners Ride of the Valkyries on the Piano, apparently he was determined to die in a storm of music. Thus MacDonald had his hands full and had this to say of his colleagues "The Russian Minister asks, twice, that the British should remove a sandbag barricade which is blocking his withdrawal route to the British Legation. . . . Sir Claude replied that he is being heavily attacked from the north and can spare no men for this duty. 'Indeed I may have to call upon you and Mr. Conger for help to repulse this attack—so please have some men ready.' . . . Mr. Conger's comment is: 'We are having the heaviest attack we have ever had here and every man is engaged.' . . . At 2:30 P.M. Sir Claude writes again: 'It is absolutely essential that the Fu should be held at all hazards. I hope therefore you will order over as many men as possible.' . . . The Russian Minister complies: 'I am sending you my last ten men, but I must have them back as soon as you no longer need them.'" Being the middle man to all was certainly not the best logistical setup. At one point the Chinese turned their 3 inch Krupp gun upon the Union Jack flying over the British legation's gateway. Three shells hit the gateway and one went over hitting the tennis court. It was decided the flag was too provocative and MacDonald had it hauled down. Luckily for British pride, the Chinese turned their attention to other targets, thus Mcdonald canceled the order to haul it down. Aside from mediating between all the other nations, MacDonald was greatly frustrated by the lack of news from outside the legations. A young Chinese boy from Shandong province volunteered to carry a message out on July 4th. The message was directed to the British consul in Tientsin and was put inside a rice bowl filled with rice. The little boy was the first messenger to reach Tientsin since late June, he got there on July 21st after a hard and long journey. Meanwhile casualties were piling up, the French consul general in Shanghai's son was shot dead during an attack against the French legation on July 1st. On July 5th David Oliphant if the british consular service and brother to Nigel was shot while trying to cut down a tree in the Hanlin. David died of his wound and would be buried shortly after. On the 8th Austrian captain von Thomann, the chaos maker, was hit by a shell burst that took him in the chest killing him instantly. Funerals were becoming a daily thing whenever the enemy let up their attacks. By early July the shelling began to concentrate upon the French legation. To make matters worse there were rumors the Qing were sapping mines towards the French legation. Two Qing were then caught and interrogated by Paul Pelliot an archeologist and member of the French volunteer corps who recounted "We killed two prisoners with rifle shots and with bayonets. One said little of significance . . . the other revealed without being asked the existence of a mine being dug in the East." The Qing began aiming 4 and 8 pound guns at the British Legation, some shot piercing its walls. After the first week of July, the defenders were in despair finding the ammunition running low. They had 14 shells left for the Italian one pound artillery piece that had been deployed all over the legation. In desperation a munitions expert from the HMS Orlando began melting down pewter vessels, teapots, candlesticks, vases and such to make conical shot fitted with old copper shell casings. The defenders also began filling fireworks with nails and scrap iron, pretty innovative stuff if you ask me. By this point the Qing had only brought to bear 10 artillery pieces into the siege and they were antiquated at that. They most definitely had larger and more modern pieces, but they were not deploying them, puzzling the defenders. Some of the foreigners questioned the Qing gunnery as well, it was as if their riflemen were all at Tientsin and the Beijing troops were all novices. Many of the Qing were able to fire on the outer walls of the Fu at point blank range, but they were not hitting anyone. The Qin barricades were getting closer and closer and the defenders could physically see them mining. On July 7th the defenders came across a rusty old muzzle gun which looked like it came from the 2nd opium war, most likely it was just an old Qing iron cannon. To everyone's surprise it still worked and a American gunner, Sergeant Mitchell cleaned it up and outfitted some Russian shells to it which fired! The new gun was not very accurate, had terrible recoil and made a ton of black smoke when it was shot. But it was another artillery piece and could fire upon the Qing barricades to great effect. Allegedly, Empress Dowager Cixi would go on the record stating to a minister that the cannon was so noisy it kept her awake during her afternoon naps. The rickety old cannon was nicknamed "the international'. Meanwhile over in Tientsin, Boxers were continuing to terrorize the Chinese Christians and any unfortunate Chinese who had connections to foreigners. The river nearby was said to be clogged with mutilated bodies and human limbs. In early July a photographer named James Ricalton was sent to China to record the Boxer uprising and he had this to say of his travels over to Tientsin "Many mud villages were passed . . . from most of which the inhabitants had fled back into the country. We were constantly passing dead bodies floating down, and on either bank of the river, at every turn, hungry dogs from the deserted villages could be seen tearing at the swollen corpses left on the banks by the ebb tide. It was forty miles of country laid waste, deserted homes, burned villages, along a river polluted and malodorous with human putrefaction." When Ricalton made it to Tientsin on July 5th he saw buildings in shambles, barricades, smoke and corpses floating in the river. The Qing continued their bombardment of the foreign settlement at Tientsin and snipers made pot shots all day long. The reinforcements from Taku had reached Tientsin on June 23rd, but they were not nearly enough to lift the siege. The Qing were firing 3 and 4 inch quick firing guns from within the Chinese part of the city. Casualties were mounting to around 20 a day. The foreigners stuck within the siege heard rumors that there was conflict between the force of Nie Shicheng and the Boxers, apparently they were not a united front. According to one reporter, Nie Shicheng had deliberately put himself in danger because he believed the orders coming from the Qing Court were impossible to fulfill. Vice Admiral Seymour was no longer in command at Tientsin and a lot of disorderly conduct would be found. Take for example one instance where some French sentries left their position, exposing the position of some nearby British Indian Sikh guards. Herbert Hoover had this to say about what they did "Not knowing what it meant for other than traitors to run under attack without orders, the Sikhs set about exterminating the squad of Frenchmen, which only the most frantic commands of the English officers prevented." With the arrival of over 10,000 reinforcements to Tientsin from Taku people were breathing easier, but these were by far not crack troops, many were sailors. The new forces managed to seize two Qing arsenals nearby Tientsin aiding their situation significantly. But all knew their job was to lift the siege and lift it quickly for their comrades in Beijing were in much more peril. By July 9th, with Seymours rescue party still not in sight, the foreigners in Beijing began to doubt it was still coming. In fact that very day a Christian Chinese messenger was sent into the city and returned with some bad news. He told them all Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi were still in the capital and that nothing was known about approaching foreign forces. Everyone fell into despair. Also on that day the British government sent a warning to the Qing envoy in London that his government would be held personally guilty for any damage to the foreigners in Beijing. July the 13th, which yes was a Friday, was a truly grim day for those under siege in Beijing. As dawn rose, the Fu Palace was met with shell fire from the Krupp gun. The Japanese and Italian guards were dodging a hailstorm of shells and shrapnel. The buildings all around were burning and collapsing. Colonel Shiba was forced to order a retreat, he had originally set up 9 lines of defense, but they had fallen back to the last one. No one could blame him, he had led his men fanatically. Captain Poole went on the record to say "I put Colonel Shiba . . . on a golden pedestal for endurance and perseverance." At 4pm, the Qing attacked from all sides. The alarm bell went off as MacDonald frantically gave our orders for men to dash to the most vulnerable positions. MacDonald was about to order the Russian marines over to the Fu when he received word from Colonel Shiba that he had regained his hold over it again. It was at that exact moment the German second secretary Von Bergen screamed the German Legation was nearly overrun. The Russian marines rush over in the nick of time to meet some Kansu troops charging in. The Russian and Germans led by Lt Von Soden counter charged with bayonets driving them off in melee combat. Then as evening was coming up them a tremendous explosion was heard and the earth around them shook. Two mines had been exploded under the French Legation. The blast completely destroyed the second secretaries house and the ministers house and killed two French sailors as they collapsed. But it would be the Qing who suffered the most, as they had misjudged the force of the blast. The foreigners would watch throughout the night as they were frantically digging the tunnels out trying to save countless who got buried alive. Qing carts carried away perhaps 30 bodies from the crater. With the legation so battered, many predicted the French would be forced to pull back to the Hotel de Pekin. In the meantime in the Hanlin area, Captain Poole led a small group through some broken down walls to take up a position in the ruined library. The men grabbed bricks and sand bags to create new defensive positions. They were so close to the Qing soldiers, they could hear them complaining to another about terrible rice rations. Although there was no breakthrough and many Qing had died in the blast, the French Legation and Fu Palace had shrunk considerably, 5 men were dead and 10 wounded. The most important position, the Tartar Wall had Captain Newt Hall replacing the wounded Captain Myers to command the US Marines. The Marines were all suffering from diarrhea and drank far too much. On July 14th, a Chinese messenger who had been sent out on the 10th returned. He had been captured by the Boxers and beaten quite badly, before he was grabbed by some Qing forces working on behalf of Prince Qing. They helped him recover and Prince Qing gave him a message that blamed the attacks on the legations actions and that of the foreign soldiers at Taku. It advised any ministers alive to come take the protection of the Zongli Yamen, promising them safe conduct as long as they did not bring armed guards to accompany them. As you can imagine the message was not trusted one bit. However two days later the French took a Qing soldier prisoner and he told them there was conflict between Prince Duan and Prince Qing. This led some to think perhaps Prince Qing could be trusted. MacDonald sent out a messenger to tell the Zongli Yamen that they would not stop defending themselves and if they wanted to negotiate, they should send a official with a white flag. While they waited for a response, Colonel Shiba sent word that all his sailors and volunteers were exhausted. They had been on duty since June 20th and not a single man had even changed his clothes, nor any had taken more than 3-4 hours of consecutive sleep. Shiba asked that his men be taken off duty for 24 hours to recuperate and if the British could sent help. MacDonald could only agree as all knew the Japanese had fought like lions for weeks. On July 16th, Captain Strouts led a relief party to the Fu, accompanied by George Morrison who recalled a traumatic event "we were caught in a shower of bullets. I . . . felt a cut in my right thigh. At the same moment, 'My God,' said Strouts, and he fell over into the arms of Shiba, who was on his left. Shiba ran for a surgeon while I tried to apply a tourniquet but it was no good. The thighbone was shattered and Strouts's body was "soaking in blood." Both myself and Strouts were carried by stretcher to the hospital, under such heavy fire that a bullet passed through Shiba's coat. It was immediately obvious that nothing could be done for Strouts, who had a severed artery in his thigh. He died three hours later". Captain Wray replaced Strouts to command the British Marines taking up the Fu position. MacDonald figured by the end of July, there would be nobody left to oppose Dong Fuxiangs forces from storming in and killing men, women and children all. The night they were burying Strouts, the messenger they had sent to the Zongli Yamen was returning with a letter. The message was stated to be from Prince Qing "and others". It begged the ministers to refrain from attacking the Qing soldiers and promised their government would "continue to exert all its efforts to keep order and give protection". The messenger also carried a cipher telegram for Conger the official from the United States. It read "communicate tidings bearer" it had no date and no indication of who it was from, but it was the first communication received from the outside world since mid june. Conger wrote a cipher response stating "For one month we have been besieged in British Legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese soldiers. Quick relief only can prevent general massacre." The next day Conger found out the telegram had been sent on June 11th and was transmitted by the Qing envoy to Washington Wu Tingfang. When Washington received Congers message, they assumed it was a forgery and that all the foreigners had been massacred. By mid July, most of the world assumed the foreigners in Beijing were dead. In fact many newspapers wrote of how everyone had died and even made obituaries for some of the ministers. Many news outlets would be embarrassed come August when it became known the foreigners were alive and fighting still. MacDonald replied to the message from Prince Qing et al, by suggesting a ceasefire might be a goodway to show some goodwill. Prince Qing agreed and gave the ministers assurance there would be no fighting and a truce would begin on July 17th. The foreigners were in shock, what was to happen next? 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 darkest days come just before the dawn as they say. The foreign defenders within Beijing were barely holding on losing men, food and ammunition. Then as if a miracle, the Qing provided them a truce…or was it all some foul trick to finally deal the killing blow?

Last time we spoke about the Qing - Boxer siege of Beijing and the 8 nation alliance expedition led by Seymour. Baron Von Ketteler was murdered by Kansu soldiers, ushering in a real siege of the foreign legation's in Beijing. The situation was dire, communications were cut and soon the railways also. The foreign ministers called for aid and thus came an expedition of 8 nations led by Seymour to the rescue. Seymours expedition started out quite well, but soon the Boxers disrupted the tracks stopping them in…well their tracks. To the dismay of the westerners it turned out the Qing were joining the Boxers in battle against them and Seymour's force had to make a fighting withdrawal back to Tientsin. They fought all the way to a secret arsenal where they dug in, until another relief force rescued them! Now they all marched back to Tientsin as gunfire could be heard. #63 The Boxer Rebellion part 3: The Siege of Tientsin & Battle of the Taku Forts 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. When Seymour set out on his expedition a lot of events had unfolded. I mentioned it a few times, but gunfire could be heard by his expeditionary forces coming from Tientsin. When thousands of Boxers began storming the region looking to kill christians and foreigners, many flocked to Tientsin. Tientsin consisted of two adjacent but quite different subdivisions. To the northwest was an ancient high walled chinese city around 1 mile per side. 2 miles southeast along the Hai River were the foreign settlements around half a mile wide. The chinese city held around a million Chinese, the foreign settlements around 700 foreign civilians with their thousands of Chinese servants. The Boxers came at first to the railway station carrying placards and chain letters stating "Those who see this sheet and distribute six copies will deliver a whole family from calamity. If ten sheets are circulated they will save an entire district. If any see this hand-bill and fail to disseminate it they will certainly be beheaded." Within mere hours of Seymour's expedition departing, reinforcements were landed at Taku to head over to the foreign settlements at Tientsin to defend them. On June 11th, Commander Beatty of the Royal Navy had 150 sailors, marines and 2 Maxim machine guns with him. He would be joined a few days later by 1600 Russians who rushed to the scene from Port Arthur, before their railway lines were cut by Boxers. Alongside the other nations forces, Tientsin had roughly 2400 troops to defend the foreign settlements, facing a force of 30,000 Boxers and 15,000 Qing soldiers camped nearby. On June 15th the Boxers began burned down all the missions outside the Chinese city like the Notre Dame Des Victories. They stormed the streets attacking Chinese christians, massacring as they went. They destroyed all christian and foreign goods or property they could find. The foreigners in the settlement watched this unfold in horror from a distance, then at 2am on the 16th they were attacked. Beatty recalled seeing Boxers "came in great strength, setting fire to all the Houses and outlying Villages they could. . . . They came on quite heedless of the Volleys we opened on them, never replying because the poor beggars had no arms to reply with, and coming up to within 300 and 400 yards armed with swords, spears, and torches. So there we squatted, knocking them over as they came along." Chaos ensued in Tientsin, as the Admirals on their warships off the Taku Fort bar became more and more anxious. The western navies had received no word since June 10th, Tientsin was clearly under attack and Seymours expedition force was gone. Seymours last message to them came on the 14th and all evidence suggested the Boxers and Qing would block the way between them and Tientsin. The Qing naval forces were seen priming torpedo tubes on their warships and laying mines in the rivers mouth. The entire situation looked like a trap. If the Peiho river was closed, the naval squadrons would be unable to rush up it to rescue the civilians of Tientsin and Beijing. On the 16th the Admirals met aboard the Russian flagship. They all formed a multinational ultimatum that was issued to the Qing, the Taku forts had to be surrendered by 2am the next day or they would attack. A russian officer was sent to deliver the message to the Taku Fort commander who responded "I would be glad to surrender the Forts, but I am here to obey orders". The French consul general in Tientsin then took it upon himself to telephone the local viceroy and advised him to surrender the Taku Forts or face the consequences. The Admirals knew their actions were tantamount to declaring war on China and that taking the Taku Forts would not be easy. The Taku Forts were 4 forts with pairs of 2 on each side of the river mouth. They had been recently rebuilt and reinforced by German engineers. The walls were made of mud mixed with chopped straw, which might sound silly, but this made them impervious to shell fire. Their garrison was around 3000 men, equipped with quick firing Krupp guns and other heavy pieces. Approaching from the sea was the most hazardous and would see men fighting through oozing mud flats surrounded by sharpened stakes. The Qing Navy held 4 new German built destroyers equipped with rapid fire guns patrolling near the forts. To attack them by land was also not favorable it would see men clamoring over small canals, irrigation works and behind the forts were the Boxer infested towns of Tongku and Taku. Another issue was the Taku mud bar, it only allowed shallow water vessels to pass, the allied navies only had 9 ships that could pass; 3 British ships the HMS Algerine, Fame and Whiting; the German Iltis; Russian Gilyak, Bobr and Koreytz; French Lion and Japanese Atago. 900 men consisting of 380 British, 300 Japanese, and the rest Russian, Austrian and Italian were loaded aboard the 9 ships as the allies, we shall call them that from now on for simplicity by the way, awaited the deadline on June 16th for the Qing to respond. All the warships arranged their broadsides aimed at the Taku forts with a bombardment order to commence at 2am if the Qing did not respond. However the Qing did respond, by opening fire at 12:50, as a eye witness recalled ""A shell shrieked over the Algerine in unpleasant proximity to her topmasts". To this 7 of the 9 allied ships opened fire. The Russian gunboat Gilyak made the poor decision of turning her searchlight, turning her immediately into the most prominent target, she was nearly sunk by shell fire. The HMS Fame and Whiting pulled in close trying to capture the Qing destroyers and within the mayhem the two ships managed to slip upstream abreast of the 4 Qing destroyers. At Lt Keyes aboard the Fame recalled "The shells were literally shrieking around us; several fell just short and splashed muddy water right over us; several pitched just over; we really had a charmed existence." The British destroyers cast out whaler ships holding dozens of men to board the Qing destroyers. The British sailors and marines boarded the Qing destroyers with ease, capturing all 4 without firing a shot and receiving no casualties. Lt Keyes gave explicit orders to hit men not to fire upon the Qing who were in the process of escaping up the riverbank. Meanwhile the Russian gunboat Korietz was severely damaged by the opening salvo; the Monocacy despite being at quite a distance holding many women and children aboard took a far flung shell to her bow, luckily not hurting anyone. The Qing fort guns were very accurate managing hits on the HMS Whiting, SMS Iltis, French Lion and Giliak was forced to ground herself lest she be sunk. Giliak had 18 deaths and 65 wounded. Meanwhile at 3am landing parties began their advance upon the forts, struggling through thick mud. The first fort was on the north bank and the landing forces came at it with bayonets pointed. British and Japanese troops were the first to scale its walls and they were even racing another. British officer Cradock recalled "I was frantic at the idea of the Japanese getting in first; they were very keen and in better condition than anyone else." The union jack was soon hoisted followed by the rising red sun, the defenders of the Fort made a symbolic defense, but fled quickly. As the men cheered, suddenly two Qing soldiers burst out of a gateway 20 yards away with bayonets fixed firing their rifles as they marched forward from the hip. A Lt emptied his revolver at them and pulling out his sword to defend himself. The allied troops raced towards the second fort on the northern bank as allied shells struck its walls. The air was filled with dust and smoke as the Qing soldiers fired their guns until the last minute upon which they fled. There was to be barely a need to seize the southern forts. The Qing commander was seen galloping away on a white horse and as the Shanghai Mercury put it "The forts were a mass of ruins, rivers of blood, with headless and armless bodies everywhere, which the blue-jackets were gathering together and cremating in heaps." The allied troops in the northern forts turned their guns on the southern forts. One shot hit a powder magazine exploding a part of the southern fort walls, creating a large fire. Through the smoke and dust the Qing defenders could be seen abandoned the forts. By 6:30am the battle of the Taku fort was done. By 8am many of the allied troops were coming back aboard their ships, the allies had suffered 172 casualties. Rivers of blood were seen around the forts. The survivors of the carnage aboard ships or the forts ate tinned beef, salmon and ship biscuits reflecting on their good fortune to be alive. With only 9 ships the allies had secured the mouth of the river. All in all it was a brave action helped considerably with some luck. Many questioned its necessity as it undoubtedly would increase the attacks upon the foreign legations in Beijing. Herbert Hoover recalled "it was this act of aggression which marked the downfall of the moderate party in Peking, unmasked the gigantic plot of the powerful party behind the Boxers, and turned the Government over definitely into their hands . . . no more favorable moment could have been chosen by our Admirals to precipitate a general massacre." At the same time it was happening, MacDonald had been sending assurances to Empress Dowager Cixi that Britain wished to remain on friendly terms with China. Cixi was literally receiving reports of the attack on the Taku Forts as MacDonald's letters came in and when he found out he wrote "this would put the old buddha in a good temper". Back over in Tientsin's foreign settlement, people could hear the loud gunfire coming from the Taku Forts. At 8am Tientsins foreign community received word the Taku Forts had been taken and now all wondered what would happen next. As recalled by Lou Hoover in Tientsin "All the forenoon at Tientsin there was an ominous silence, nothing doing on either side, each waiting for the other to play the next card, neither knowing the result of the attack at Taku, and yet both sides knowing that now we were committed to a war, if not with China itself, with Northern China and the Manchu Dynasty." At 3pm Qing artillery began to open fire upon the foreign settlements. Shells were hissing overhead, explosions followed everywhere. An alarm bell began to ring on the Municipal Hall as foreign residents ran through the streets. Rifle fire was cracking against brick walls as civilian dived for cover. It looked like a hopeless situation, 600 foreigner civilians were trapped in a mile long by quarter mile wide area bounded by a river on one side and a flat plain on the other. It was a maze of narrow alleys and single storied Chinese houses, perfect conditions for snipers. The whole was enclosed by a mud wall around 15 feet high and wide enough for 4 people to stand across. As Midshipman C.C Dix recalled "The prospect was hardly brilliant; inside the settlement was a mixed force of 2,400 men, with nine field guns, and a few machine guns; outside were 15,000 Imperial troops, with immense numbers of quick-firing guns. Their ammunition was of the best, and practically unlimited, and they had the dreaded Boxers at their back." The most senior officer in Tientsin at the time was Russian Colonel Wogack who took control of the multinational force of Americans, Russians, Australian, Germans, French, Japanese and Italians, the except of course were the British who chose to be led by Captain Bayly of the HMS Aurora. The Russians deployed in a very exposed position trying to defend the railway station on the opposite side of the river from the foreign settlement. They were in close proximity to a Chinese grave site, some houses and ditches, places Qing snipers could hide in. With the Russians were the French who took up a position in front of the French concession at the north end of the settlement near the Taku road. The Americans defended a stretch with the British along the eastern side of the entire settlement; it was a very thin line. The Germans, Austrians, Japanese and Italians deployed along the mud wall near the riverbank. Civilians who were capable were given the task of policing, sentry, engineering and medical duties. Herbert Hoover and his men were the only engineers in Tientsin, Colonel Wogack asked them to get people building barricades. Hoover and the men frantically searched for Chinese laborers to help and any materials that were sturdy enough for barricades. As Hoover recalled "Soon we . . . had a thousand terrified Christian Chinese carrying and piling up walls of sacked grain and sugar along the exposed sides of the town and at cross streets." Within the first hours of battle it seemed the Qing and Boxers would overrun them. Hoover had this to say "With the smoke of many burning buildings pouring over the settlement, with the civilians erecting barricades across the streets for the final rush, the terrific bombardment, the constant sound of rifle-fire in the distance, and the knowledge,—if not the sight,—of the scores of wounded brought in from the lines—it all seemed bad—very bad. It was really the climax of terror, of the black fear, as it was of the fighting. And this was the 'black fear,' not that the siege would be successful and we should be compelled to lower our flag and surrender to an honourable enemy,—but that, if every man fought to his utmost strength and was beaten, there were without,—Chinamen, —mobs of Chinamen, at their very worst,—barbarians who knew no quarter." The women, children and non combatants huddled in fear within the catacombs beneath Gordon Hall, the most robust stone municipal building available. The Qing assault was first directed at the railway station. Upon seeing this Commander Beatty formed a bridge of boats and took sailors across to reinforce the Russians, but they soon became pinned down. The sailors tried to hide amongst some Russian artillery horse carriages as Chinese artillery and snipers fired hell upon the area. The allied forces had to allow the Chinese to approach closer, because their artillery and snipers were wielding an enormous advantage, no one could stand up right unless they wanted shrapnel or sniper bullets to hit them. Those who did advance were armed Boxers who were driven off by volley fire from the defenders. The defenders could not know this, but the Boxers and Qing despite appearances were not really coordinating together. The Qing troopers were awaiting orders from Beijing whether they were to support the Boxers or the protect the foreigners! It was only a result of the attack upon the Taku forts that finally led the Qing government to officially take the side of the Boxers and orders began to trickle over to support them. Despite the official orders, there were many moderates counter ordering and commanders out in the field who did not support the Boxers and were only putting up symbolic efforts at battle. General Nie Shicheng led the forces in the field overall and he had his artillery fire constantly, it is reported nearly 60,000 shells would be fired upon the foreign settlements. These shells however, much akin to what occurred during the first sino-japanese war, were not all exploding upon impact. Corruption was still rampant and the shells were quite lackluster in their results. The Boxers who did advance were quickly met with volleys at close range, and Beatty noted this of the Russians s "they worked their guns like men, scorning to build up protection with the bales of goods that were there and which we utilized for our riflemen." Beatty was less impressed with the Germans who continuously sent messages stating they were under heavy attack and required reinforcements, lest they be forced to abandon their positions. According to Beatty the Germans were crying wolf and he made it clear they would receive no reinforcements from the British. Sailors and marines pushed through against Qing and Boxer infiltrators tossing them out. The allied forces formed a closed ring around the civilians as Hoover described it "It was in the center that the melodrama and comedy were played—the rim was nearly all tragedy." Sniper fire was coming from within the settlements prompting wild hunts. Chinese Christians within the settlement numbered 3-4 thousand were prime targets for Boxer attacks. Hoovers wife Lou Hoover volunteered at the hospital using a bicycle to move between alley's and had a sniper bullet hit her tire once. The hospital saw around 200 wounded brought in a day, people requiring bandages, bedding, dressings, disinfectants all of which were in short supply. Tientsin was under siege. Herbert Hoover bicycle around the defensive perimeter braving the streets to see his barricades were working. The situation was incredibly stressful for the civilians, cooped up together while artillery and gunfire raged outside their buildings. According to Herbert Hoover many friendships ended because of the stress and he recalled ""No one will again dare to organize a dinner party in Tientsin without consulting an inmate of Gordon Hall, for how could Mrs. E. ever sit at meat again with Mrs F., who slapped Mrs. E.'s Peking pug?" So…someone slapped a pug? War never changes. By the 22nd of June things were becoming critical. Commander Beatty had been shot and was losing a ton of blood after the attempted seizing and enemies gun in a narrow escape when a shell burst near him. The men fighting in the barricades were mutilated by shellfire and gunshot. Contact with Taku had been lost on the 17th, casualties were piling up and the settlement was completely surrounded, there was no escape. The only reason the settlement had not already been overrun was because the Qing and Boxers were not working in concerted efforts to simultaneously hit all fronts. The Russians sent word that if the fighting continued the way it had been for the past 4 days, their ammunition would run out and they advised preparing a night time escape. Their recommendation was for the women, children, wounded and sick to be escorted by the Germans, Austrians, French, Japanese and Italians while the Russians and British would perform a rearguard. Upon hearing this, the very injured Beatty remarked "it was the maddest, wildest, damndest, rottenest scheme that could emanate from the brain of any man. Doing this would mean abandoning Seymour to certain destruction". Beatty made it known to the Russians the British would not comply. Unbeknownst to them all, help was on its way and quite close by. On June 19th, my birthday random factoid, a young British volunteer, James Watts set out with 3 Cossacks in an attempt to make contact with Taku. They men rode through hostile villages as Boxers tried to attack them. Watt carried a message from Captain Bayly stating "Hard pressed, heavy fighting; losses, 150 killed and wounded; Chinese Imperial Artillery shelling the Settlement; women and children all in cellars; fires all over the Settlement; every one worn out with incessant fighting." A rescue force of Russian infantry and American marines had already been dispatched but they were pinned down near the outskirts of Tientsin. According to one American Gunnery Sergeant "We fell into a trap . . . we laid on our faces with the bullets coming like hail not knowing what to do . . . we fell and got up, staggered, crawled—but got out. I never saw such a tired party in my life and yours truly was on the hog!" The force was 131 US marines and 400 Russians who got ambushed 2 miles from the city. The Americans suffered 3 deaths, 13 wounded before they withdrew back to Taku. Bayly's message made it clear a more substantial force was required. Taku and her forts were left with just 1000 men as a garrison as the allies prepared an expeditionary force. Luck was theirs again, as two new warships arrived, the HMS Terrible from Hong Kong carrying 300 Royal Welch Fusiliers and a Russian troopship from Port Arthur carrying hundreds of Russian troops. On June 23rd a multinational force 2000 men strong set out which also held the British 1st Chinese regiment from Weihaiwei, so even some Chinese troops were in their ranks. They rushed up to Tientsin reaching it the same day and upon seeing them the Qing and Boxers dispersed into the east. Lou Hoover described the scene of their arrival to Tientsin as such "A good many hundred civilians and a couple of thousand troops sat still and repelled faint hearted charges while 10,000 or 15,000 Chinese troops and 20,000 Boxers plunked shells of all sizes into us for exactly one week without a sound or a word from the outside reaching us. Then the first relief cut their way into us . . . enough to get in but not to do anything more than we could when they got there." With the Chinese siege lifted momentarily, the lines of communication and supplies from Taku to Tientsin were quickly restored. However Tientsin's battle was nowhere close to be over as the Qing and Boxers would quickly remount their siege. Back over in Beijing the foreign legations work up to their first day of siege on the 21st. The first hours of the siege brought panic, the Austrians from the offset abandoned their isolated legation to fall back upon the French barricades leaving the northeast sector in enemy hands. The next day, Professor Huberty James who had been working with missionaries at the Fu Palace calmly walked up to the north bridge going over the canal. He gave the appearance of someone trying to parley, but Qing troops on the other side shot him dead upon the bridge. They all awaited Seymours rescue party, but it was not to be seen. A letter from Captain McCalla, Seymour's second in command dated June 14th managed to pass through to the American legation. The letter had been written 35 miles from Beijing and whose contents were nothing more than small chat, indicating nothing about when they would arrive. On June 22nd, by 9am the Italians, Austrian, French, German, Japanese, Russian and American detachments suddenly abandoned their positions and frantically ran to the British legation. Three-quarters of the legation quarters defenses were left undefended, including the Fu Palace, which held nearly the entire Chinese christian population that had fled into the legation quarters. Everyone was in a tremendous panic, it turned out a single man had caused it. Captain von Thomann of the Austrian cruiser Zenta whom from the offset of hostilities had been trying to take command of the defenses for the legations went into a panic when he reportedly was told the American legation had to be abandoned by a random American marine. Von Thomann lost his wits at the news and without verifying it to be true began screaming to everyone that all forces east of Canal street had to retreat immediately to the British legation. So yeah, everyone blindly began running. Once everyone figured out what had happened all the troops were ordered to retake their positions, but in the mayhem the Italian legations was already being burnt down. Boxers and Qing forces occupied the allied barricade in the Customs street, but had failed to press their advantage further. Von Thomann was relieved of command and now it was MacDonald in command. MacDonald was an ex-soldier, but held little experience in the guerilla style warfare they faced. MacDonald also had no official control over any non British forces. MacDonald would write orders and give it to the respective ministers who would arrange them to be carried out. It was a terrible system, but it was all they had it seemed. One of MacDonalds first orders was to dispatch the Italian guards who had no legation to guard to help the Japanese with the Fu Palace defenses. If the Fu Palace were to fall, the French, German and Japanese legations would be cut off from the British legation which was the last stronghold. MacDonald took a stock of the legations defenses: over 400 men, 20 officers and 389 men of 8 differing nations. They were supplemented by two bands of armed volunteers. The first were 75 men with some military experience, such as Nigel Oliphant of the Chinese imperial Bank who had served with the Scots Greys, Captain Poole of the East Yorkshire Regiment and Captain Labrousse of the Infanterie de Marine. The second group were more amateurish, titled the carving knife brigade because of their variety of weapons going from elephant rifles to fusil de chasse. Professionals and amateurs alike were all short of ammunition and each nationality used differing weapons with differing types of ammunition making it a nightmare logistically. The legation had only one piece of real artillery, the Italian one pounder and that too held little ammunition. Their lines of defense had shrunk alarmingly after just the second day, they only had 7 legations to defend. The outliers such as the Belgian and Dutch legations had been abandoned at the beginning, the Austrians shortly after and the Italians lost theirs during the Von Thomann confusion. The area they defended was now 700 yards east to west from the Russian and American legations and 750 yards north to south from the Fu Palace and British legation to the north and the Tartar Wall in the south. Sandwiched between these were the Japanese, Spanish and German legations alongside some other buildings. All the legations, excluding the British one, were on Legation street. The Germans and Americans were on the south side of the street overshadowed by the massive Tartar wall. MacDonald knew the Tartar wall had to be held at all cost, if it was taken anyone from its top could lob incendiaries down, spelling doom. The British legation grounds quickly became the place everyone congregated searching for further information, everyone was starved to know what was going on outside. Meanwhile the Chinese Christians were doing their part helping with labor an invaluable aspect to the defenders plight. There was also the issue of having to watch over them, lest the enemy infiltrate using them as cover. The foreigners and Chinese likewise were introduced to the hazard of fire which constantly was an issue. Boxers would toss torches and firecrackers at all hours trying to burn the legations out. It was all to easy for the Boxers to dip rags in kerosene attach it to the end of a long bamboo pole and lit it ablaze. On the 22nd, many buildings in the western sector were lit of fire and it took the defenders a long time to put it out. The first casualty for the British was to be Private Scadding who was shot dead as he stood watch while the fire committee went to work putting out fires. The very next day was the same, the Chinese tried to burn them out again, this time they aimed for the Hanlin Academy just due north of the British legation. Thousands of silk covered books were there, it was a tremendous tragedy to try and burn the place. On the morning of the 23rd, the enemy was spotted running through the four acre compound tossing torches soaked in petrol around. The foreigners were stunned the Chinese would burn such a place, but burn it they did. The fire teams tried to put the flames out, but the Chinese were firing down upon anyone who would go near the academy. Eventually MacDonald sent some royal marines to go through a hole in the wall getting into the academy where firefighting efforts were organized. Scholars among the foreign community were in despair knowing the academic treasures being burnt. Morrison had this to say "the combustible books, the most valuable in the Empire, were thrown in a great heap into the pond round the summer house . . . a heap of debris, timber in ashes, sprinkled with torn leaves, marked the site of the great library of the Middle Kingdom . . . what can we think of a nation that sacrifices its most sacred edifice, the pride and glory of its country and learned men for hundreds of years, in order to be revenged upon foreigners? It was a glorious blaze. The desecration was appalling." By the night time the fire was still burning as soot covered fire fighters struggled. Other fires were seen that day, the Russo Chinese bank containing 80,000 dollars of cash was burned down, many officials houses alongside it. 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 battle for the Taku Forts was won at a small cost, but the battle for Tientsin and Beijing would rage on for many more days. Time was of the essence if the allies were to reach the foreign legations in Beijing to save their countrymen.

Last time we spoke about the Boxers march upon Beijing. The situation in China escalated until the point of no return. The Boxers began attacked Christians and foreigners, seeing less and less opposition from the Qing government. The Qing court were hard pressed to do anything to suppression the boxers lest they fall into a full blown rebellion. The foreign community in Beijing scrambled to call for help from their navies before the Boxers cut the railways and telegraph lines to the capital. Not only were the Boxers a threat to the foreign community, but the recently arrived Kansu army of General Dong Fuxiang were also causing troubles. The foreign legations held tight waiting to see what would occur and on June 11th of 1900 the violence escalated. Mr. Sugiyama of Japan was murdered by the Kansu army, it seemed all hope for avoiding conflict was now lost. #62 The Boxer Rebellion part 2: Seymour's 8 Nation expedition 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 death of Mr. Sugiyama drove the tension through the roof. 40 French and Italian marines had detached from the legation main force to defend the Peitang Cathedral. They were led by 23 year old Paul Henry and Italian officer Olivieri who was 22. The two went to work directing a defense of the Cathedral, as Henry's commanding officer sent a message to quickly recall him back over to the legations, the message never arrived. A detachment of US Marines, were also sent to guard the large Methodist Mission half a mile from the American legation. At this point the mission was housing some 1500 refugee's within its walls. Streams of refugees had flooded in when the panic began, as told to us by Frank Gamewell running the mission "The missionaries are coming in from outside districks [sic]; some with only such articles of clothing as they could carry in their arms, as they had to flee for their lives. The situation is getting more serious as the Boxers are gathering and getting more bold every hour; as the Chinese soldiers sent out to guard Foreign property are assisting the Boxers to loot the places." On June 12th the ministers sent another message to the Zongli Yamen. The Japanese were invited to partake in the message but declined so they could submit another message bearing this. "The Chinese have murdered our Third Secretary of Legation, and Japan can have no more communication with China—except war." The next day, a Boxer appeared on Legation Street wielding a large carving knife. Baron von Ketteler was so livid at the scene he rushed into the street and began hitting the boxer with a stick. The Boxer leapt out of his cart, running for an alley, whereupon von Ketteler discovered a young boy hiding in the cart and seized him as a hostage at the German legation. Later that afternoon thousands of Boxers stormed the city wielding spears and swords. The Boxers had prepared blacklists and were quote "hunting down all who had been connected with the foreigners, cutting them down, hacking them to pieces, or carrying them off for more terrible torture in a Boxer camp". Beijing was filled with torches held by Boxers who began destroying all the Missions they could. The East Cathedral, South Cathedral, Nan Tang and Tung Tang were ablaze. Christians caught outside the legation quarters were cut to pieces when caught. A group of US Marines rushed out to save 300 Christians fleeing. Men, women and children lay in heaps, hacked to pieces. American socialite Polly Condit Smith, who was staying with some relative at the US legation described the scene of seeing refugees fleeing into the legations "Half starved, covered with soot and ashes from the fires, women carrying on their breasts horribly sick and diseased babies, and in one case a woman held a dead baby. One man of about fifty years old carried on his shoulders his old mother. . . . A great many of these people were terribly wounded—great spear-thrusts that made jagged wounds, scalp-cuts and gashes on the throat where the victim had been left for dead." To house more refugees, the palace belonging to Prince Su was seized. The Austrian compound isolated on the northeastern part of the Quarter came under attack on June 13th. The Austrians unleashed their Maxim machine gun to lackluster resulted as Captain Francis Garden Poole of the East Yorkshire regiment recalled "The Austrian picket opened fire with their machine gun at what they said was Boxers but they killed none and after that the French, Russians and Italians squibbed at shadows etc. We shall have a lot of trouble with these irresponsible jumpy folk." It seemed the Austrians aimed too high and hit nothing more than a few Telegraph lines. This reinforced the Boxer belief in their invulnerability spells. On June 16th, the Boxers attacked the richest trading quarter of Beijing, setting ablaze all the shops and foreign goods. 4000 stores, jewelers, furriers, fans, silk, curio shops, goldsmiths, lantern shops all were incinerated along with the Chienmen city gate. Chinese fire teams tried to save what they could and the legation Quarter was only saved because of the city walls, else it would to have gone down in flames. The foreign troops erected barricades across legation street and established their defensive perimeter. The Americans and Russians defended the west barricade, the French and Italians the east. Until now the main legation Quarter was not seriously threatened, that was until June 17th. Von Ketteler ordered some of his men to fire upon some nearby Kansu forces. Australian journalist George Morrisons noted of the event "Ketteler and his merry men have just shot 7 Boxers from the top of the wall. 50 or 100 were drilling at a distance of 200 yards.... The stalking was excellently done." The week of violence was followed by the Zongli Yamen sending reassuring messages to the foreign diplomats while the Qing court issued contradictory edicts. On the 16th Empress Dowager Cixi asked the Qing court what should be done with the Boxers. The reformers and conservatives began bickering as usual, but it would be Prince Duan arguing passionately in defense of the Boxers actions. The end result of the meeting was everyone agreeing the Boxers should be pacified, but no one had any real ideas on how that was going to happen. The next day, they Qing court met again and suddenly they were given an ultimatum on behalf of the foreign powers. The ultimatum demanded the foreign minister be given full responsibility for all military matters and raising of revenues and that Emperor Guangxu be restored to the throne. Now the ministers never issued this ultimatum that was in the form of a document. It is theorized to be the work of forgery done secretly by Prince Duan. According to someone present at the court when the document was issued, Empress Dowager Cixi was furious upon hearing its contents and issued an imperial edict calling upon all the provincial governors to send troops to Beijing. Prince Qing in dismay began preparing for hostilities. Two days later, Empress Dowager Cixi was informed the foreign powers were demanding the surrender of the Taku forts which in her mind was tantamount to a declaration of war. The Qing court sent an ultimatum in neat red envelopes to each minister. It was all in police and precise wording, with a clear deadline. The ultimatum also explained that the Qing government saw the foreign demand to takeover the Taku forts as a declaration of war by all said powers. Their passports were now void and each had 24 hours to depart Beijing. Von Kettler of Germany was convinced if they attempted departing Beijing they would all be killed. Pichon of France and Conger of America argued there was no alternative but to depart. MacDonald of Britain was undecided. All the ministers were moving from one legation to another debating the issue around. Morrison remarked "If the ministers vote to leave Peking the death of every man, woman, and child in this huge unprotected convoy will be on your heads, and your names will go through history and be known for ever as the wickedest, weakest, and most pusillanimous cowards who ever lived." The ministers told the Zongli Yamen they accepted the demand to leave but argued 24 hours was simply too short a time to make the necessary preparations. They further demanded details on how they were to travel and be protected, they demanded a meeting with Princes Qing and Duan on the matter set for 9am the next day. At 9:30am the next day no meeting was to be found as all the ministers met at the French legation. They were uncertain as to what they should do next, they felt going as a large body to the Zongli Yamen would lose face. Apparently von Ketteler was livid and announced his intent to go to the Zongli Yamen and wait there until they met with him. Pichon warned his German counterpart that it was a dangerous course of action. Russian minister de Giers proposed going as a collective under an armed escort. Von Ketteler argued it was silly, he had in fact sent a secretary named Heinrich Cordes to the Zongli Yamen a few days prior and he returned unscathed. To this de Giers asked, why not send Heinrich again, to which Von Ketteler agreed. Everything was fine and dandy, until Von Ketteler joined Heinrich in his sedan chair at the last minute. Armed with only a cigar and book, as he expected to be waiting at the Zongli Yamen for some time, Von Ketteler and Heinrich set out. Half an hour later news came back Von Ketteler was dead. As reported in the Times "Mr. Cordes, the German interpreter, desperately wounded, had just been brought through our barricades by some of our students; that he had told that Baron von Ketteler . . . had been shot in the street by an officer of the Chinese imperial army; that he himself had been fired upon and had barely escaped; and having told his tale, exhausted by lack of blood, he sank into unconsciousness. Cordes saw a banner soldier, apparently a Manchu, in full uniform with a mandarin's hat with a button and blue feather, step forward, present his rifle within a yard of the chair window, level it at the Minister's head and fire."" The story hit several European papers and was telegraphed around the world. The death of Von Ketteler signaled the end to any talks of foreigners leaving the legations. As MacDonald put it "the Empress Dowager had made up her mind to throw in her lot with the antiforeign party." The foreign troops began aiding as many christian Chinese and foreigners they could get safely to the legations. Missionary women and children came first, hundreds of Christian converts began moving. They all went past the barricades set up across legation street. Many went the Fu palace, but the missionary leaders there were in dismay because they knew there was not nearly enough food for everyone. Over in Peitang, 3000 refugees huddled together, protected by just a dozen French and Italian marines. The Cathedral fort at Peitang had been under attack for a few days and to the despair of Bishop Favier over there, Pichon sent a message indicating no additional help was on the way. The American legation began issuing out crackers, sardines, scrambled eggs and tea to who they could, the storerooms were being cracked open. The American legation was too close to the city walls to be easily defended and word came they were all to proceed to the British legation. 4000 people from 18 different nations were now in the legations. 473 foreign community civilians with around 400 military personnel, 3000 or more were Chinese christians. Nearly all the foreign women, children and men who were unable to fight crowded the British legation. At 4pm heavy gunfire was heard from the east as some bullets began hitting the tops of trees. The siege had begun. Vice Admiral Seymour had first received word of the legations plight from MacDonald on May 28th when he sent a small dispatch of forces to help guard the legations. Then alarming reports came in on the 31st, prompting him to sail up the coast to join the French, German, Austrian, Italian, Russian, American and Japanese naval forces anchored off the Taku forts. He invited the commanders of each fleet to his ship for a meeting and they all agreed to work in concert. If necessary they would send a combined allied brigade to Beijing. Seymour became the most senior amongst them because he had a great deal of experience with China, ever since the 2nd opium war. He sent a telegram to Britain about the combined actions and dispatched his chief of staff, Captain John Jellicoe to Tiantsin to investigate the situation. On June 9th Jellicoe reported word had come from MacDonald, the situation was dire, communications would be cut at any moment, they needed to land men at once. Seymour wasted no time, at 1am on June 10th he ordered the landing of a British force and personally came over to take a train Tongku to Tientsin. Seymour told the other nations commanders his intentions and they all followed suit. At 7am Seymour arrived to Tientsin and he began arranged train carts to fetch the multinational force, over 2100 men in all. The British numbered 916 and Seymour was careful to choose some men as interpreters as he knew the european languages would be difficult to juggle. Alongside the British were 455 Germans, 326 Russians, 158 French, 112 Americans, 54 Japanese, 41 Italians and 26 Austrians. At 9am they began their march and within hours the telegraph line between Beijing and Tientsin was cut by Prince Duan who had just replaced Prince Qing as president of the Zongli Yamen. Seymour expected a quick train ride to Beijing with an extravagant show of force. Seymour had gambled on the iea the railway line to Beijing was still intact. There was 80 miles to Beijing from Tientsin and all seemed well until they reached Yangtsun, 15 miles away from Tientsin. There some 4000 Qin troops led by General Nie Shicheng were waiting. Nie Shicheng was struggling with conflicting orders coming from General Ronglu. At one moment he was told to suppress the Boxers which he was doing, he had in fact cut the heads of 70 off and sent them in baskets back to the capital. Then he was suddenly ordered not to fire upon them. When Seymours trains came, Seymour and Nie exchanged friendly greetings and the multinational force went on its merry way without incident. The trains continued and it was not long until Seymour encountered the first signs of Boxer sabotage. Rails near Lofa station, around halfway to Beijing had been torn up and a bridge was damaged. The Boxers were lighting up huge fires beneath the rails to warp them and destroy the wooden sleepers. Seymour halted the trains and ordered hundreds of Chinese laborers he had brought with them just for this type of situation to go to work repairing the railways. Seymour's men would soon find the bodies of 4 dead Chinese railway officials in a passenger shed, they had been horribly mutilated. Their hands and feet were hacked off, one of them had their heart torn out. The workers got their work down and soon the trains were enroute to Langfang and it was here the Boxers made their first attack. According to Captain Lt Paul Schlieper with the Germans of what "The Boxers came with wild gestures swinging their spears, lances, or swords about their heads. . . . We often saw Boxers spring up into the air, execute a sort of war dance, and then drop to the ground . . . but when we got nearer and could see them plainly, they proved only to have been shamming to make us believe they had been killed and so avert our fire." British diplomat Clive Bigham had this to say "They came on us in a ragged line, advancing at the double.... Not more than a couple of hundred, armed with swords, spears, gingalls [a giant smooth bored two-man blunderbuss usually fired from a wooden tripod], and rifles, many of them being quite boys. To any one who had been some little time in China it was an almost incredible sight, for there was no sign of fear or hesitation, and these were not fanatical 'braves,' or the trained soldiers of the Empress, but the quiet peace-loving peasantry—the countryside in arms against the foreigner." It was agonizingly slow work for the laborers and every time the trains stopped to let them work, Boxers began to attack. The Boxers destroyed the water tanks at stations, laborers were forced to water the engines by bucket, a extremely tedious process. The men likewise needed water and were delighted to find a well near Langfang, prompting Seymour to halt the trains to allow men to drink. On June 12th a message arrived from the American legation in Beijing telling them their advance was causing the capital to erupt in further violence. It also warned them that Qing troops were massing south of the city. This was bad news, but what was worse was Seymour figuring out the trains would not be able to go past Langfang very far as his reconnaissance was reporting to him the railway was terribly damaged going forward. They made camp at Langfang for 5 days trying to repair the railway line and were attacked multiple times by Boxers. British Lt Fownes-Luttrell had this to say of fighting the Boxers "They often stopped a few yards off and went through their gesticulations for rendering themselves immune from bullet wounds. Many were shot while kowtowing towards the trains and remained dead in that position. Bowling them over like so many rabbits. . . it has to be done, they are doing such a lot of fearful damage to the country." Commander Mori with the IJN began inspecting the dead bodies of Boxers and recalled this "They were young and old . . . their costumes were various, and they had red bands tied round their heads and hanging down behind, as well as red aprons.... Their shoes also were tied with red." June the 14th saw the telegram line to Tientsin cut. The supply train at the rear of the convoy had failed to get past the Yangtsun station because Boxers attacked a bridge between them. General Nie Shicheng's force at Yangtsun did not seem to be doing anything about the situation, simply staying away. On the same day, hundreds of Boxers began to show up, 5 Italian solders were playing cards when they were surprise attacked by Boxers who hacked them to pieces. Seymour still hoped to make a breakthrough to Beijing and sent a courier to MacDonald stating he hoped to enter the city within days. However by June 16th, Seymour was sending Schlieper with some German troops back down the track to restore communications with Tientsin. The party got just past Lofa when they ran into extremely damaged tracks. Schlieper sent word back to Seymour that he required laborers and reinforcements. Seymour came over to see things for himself and realized the grave situation. "We were now isolated, with no transport or means to advance, and cut off from our base behind." Seymour was forced to make the decision to repair the line going back to Tientsin, lest they found themselves surrounded. This decision has been criticized heavily ever since. Sir Robert Hart would go on the record to state "had [his force] left the train and marched straight across the country to the Capital it could have been with us on the 13th or 14th and so changed history." From Langfang to Beijing it was some 30 miles or so, but Clive Bigham who was physically present with Seymour he had a different view of the situation "There was no road, we were absolutely without transport, and directly in front of us lay . . . the camps of the Peking Field Force . . . and in front of the south gate of the Chinese city lay, we knew, most of General Dong Fuxiang's Kansu soldiery." Seymour prepared the men to withdraw. The commander of the German forces, Captain von Usedom was ordered to hold Langfang and protect their rear while the laborers worked tirelessly to repair tracks going back. The trains managed to get to Yangtsun, but there a bridge had been so heavily damaged it became impassable. The Yangtsun station and its water tanks were destroyed, the situation was dire. Seymour summoned the commanders of each nation for a war council. They all agreed the trains had to be abandoned, they would simply have to trek the rest. Over at Langfang von Usedom was suddenly attacked by a 5000 strong force of Kansu and Boxers. Dong Fuxiang alongside his comrades, Ma Fulu, Ma Fuxiang and Ma Haiyan had secretly departed the Beijing area to attack the western invading army. General Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu personally planned and led the attack, employing a pincer maneuver. On June 18th, the Kansu forces who had been stationed at Hunting Park in southern Beijing had marched and attacked multiple points towards Langfang. The 3000 Kansu men were armed with modern rifles and had a ton of cavalry units personally led by Ma Fulu who would go on to cut down western forces with his sword. The Boxers and Kansu were working together to ambush the western army. The employed human wave attacks. The Boxers showed no fear of death as they charged at the western forces engaging in melee combat with swords and spears. Many also tossed firecrackers to give off the effect of guns. The psychological effect was tremendous on the western soldiers. The western army would suffer the vast majority of their casualties not from the Boxers however, it was the Kansu troops. The mounted Kansu with rifles in hand were tenacious, battle hardened from wars in the northwest. Von Usedom's right flank were on the brink of collapse, until French and British troops further down the track stormed up to help them. The western army was forced to make a fighting withdrawal while under attack the entire way. The trains at Langfang were ridden with bullet holes like swiss cheese. The Germans under Von Usedom fought like lions against wave after wave killing an estimated 400 and wounded 57. Of these the Kansu lost 200, the Boxers 200. Despite their losses to gunfire the Boxers never ceased charging the enemy, unnerving the westerners greatly at such a sight. The British were armed with .303 Lee-Metford rifles, the American M1895 Lee Navy's. At point blank range these men reported it could take 4 bullets to stop a Boxer, single rifle shots was not enough. There are primary accounts from the battle which I would like to read, the first is from Clive Bigham "Early on Sunday morning, 17th June [1900], a week after we had started, the Taku Forts were taken by U the Allied Forces in order to relieve Tientsin. That city was invested by the Boxers who began to bombard it next day. Of this of course we were quite ignorant. But the Court in Peking must have received instant news of the fact, for on the afternoon of the 18th Captain von Usedom, the German officer in command of the troops left at Langfang, was attacked by the Imperial forces belonging to General Tung-fuh-siang's division. Their numbers were estimated at 7,000 and they were well armed _^ with modern rifles which they used with effect, so that we suffered considerable casualties." The next comes to us from Seymour "On 17th messages were sent back to Lofa and Langfang to recall Nos. 2, 3, and 4 trains, it being evident that the advance by rail was impossible, and the isolation and separate destruction of the trains a possibility. No. 3 returned on the afternoon of 18th June,, and in the evening Nos. 2 and 4 from Langfang. Captain Von Usedom (His Imperial German Majesty's Navy), the senior officer present with Nos 2 and 4 trains, reported that they had had a severe engagement with the enemy, who unexpectedly attacked them at Langfang about 2.30 p.in. on that day (18th) in great force estimated 'to be-fully 5,000 men (including cavalry), large numbers of whom were armed with -magazine rifles of the latest pattern. The banners captured show them to have belonged to-tho army of General Tung Fu Hsiang, who commands the Chinese troops-in the Hunting Park- outside Peking, and it was thus definitely known for the first time that Imperial Chinese troops were being employed against us. The attack was made in front and on both flanks, the enemy pouring in a heavy fire on the allied forces coming out to engage them ; they were driven off with much loss, but when they saw our forces retiring towards the trains they rallied and made another attack ; a halt was then made and the men were once more beaten off with greater loss than before, and then finally retreated. In this action the Chinese lost over 400 killed, the allied forces 6 killed and 48 wounded." Seymour concluded from the battle that the Qing government was officially in league with Boxers. They abandoned their trains, but were able to find 4 Chinese war junks along the river that they quickly commandeered for transporting the wounded and essential equipment. On June 19th they marched to Tientsin following the left bank of the Peiho. A lot of non essentials had to be abandoned and thus tossed into the river. As Seymour recalled ""All our trophies of war . . . the large standards, the curious weapons, all the plunder with which our carriages had been hung, all had to be sacrificed."" The sailors aboard the war junks could see Boxers pouring in from all sides descending upon abandoned train carts which they set on fire. The western army had ablaze to their backs as they marched. To reach Tientsin was some 30 miles and the men were exhausted from combat and marching with little water, some even reportedly took their chances drinking from the Peiho. Going to go ahead and say dysentery came quickly to those boys. The Boxers held most of the small villages along the riverbank, prompting the western army to deploy guns at each. As Schlieper recalled "When one village was cleared a still hotter fire was sure to be opened on us from the next. It was a tough bit of work." Many of the men had unsuitable clothing as well. The Germans were wearing thick blue clothing, designed for operations in the North Sea for winter time. Seymour had 62 deaths and 228 wounded, as they marched closer to Tientsin, they could hear gunfire. On June 20th, they had marched only 8 miles and had to fight the entire way. Two British soldiers were buried that night, having died from wounds. The men made it to the larger village of Peitsang where they fought a brutal battle. Schlieper took a rifle hit to his left shin, Captain Jellicoe likewise shot in the chest and coughing a lot of blood. Medics tended to him with morphine, but it looked grim so they told him to write out his will. Seymour approached Captain Von Usedom and asked him to act as his chief of staff and if he were to be killed to take over command. You have to take a step back and think about how unprecedented this entire situation was. 8 nations together with different policies, cultures, etc. It's not every day you see a British officer asking such a thing of a German. Seymour had around 200 wounded now and acquired a new war junk on the river for more of them. Seymour knew, anyone left behind would be massacred. The men were down to fewer than 10 rounds a man and all food was gone. On June 22nd the men made camp along the Peiho river bank and at dawn saw hope at last. On the other side of the Peiho river they saw a fortified position with a parapet. This was the Hsi-ku Arsenal, a place where Qing forces kept stored munitions. It held rifles, millions of rounds, rice, medical supplies and other war materials. Now that is lucky. The Arsenal was defended by a tiny force which got up and left upon seeing the western army. Seymour's men took refuge at the arsenal, but nearby General Nie Shicheng were given word of the situation. Nie Shicheng ordered forces to retake the arsenal, but the western army repulsed them. At 3am on June 23rd Qing forces attacked again, but this time they had Boxers helping them. Qing soldiers and Boxers managed to scale some of the walls during the night causing casualties upon the western army. Seymour realized departing the fortified positions was suicide. Seymour deployed his forces as best as he could and told the men to dig in. They could hear gunfire again coming from the direction of Tientsin. Seymour sent a Chinese servant named Chao Yinho with a message to make a run for Tientsin. Chao set out on the 24th with a cipher message, ordered to eat it if caught. Chao was forced to swim many parts of the way through the Peiho, going 8 miles. He was caught by Boxers and Qing soldiers and interrogated. He swallowed the message and convinced his captors he was innocent and they let him go. He made it to Tientsin where he told them the plight of Seymour and his men. A rescue party was formed, but the men of Tientsin were under threat themselves and could only spare so many. 1800 men consisting of 900 Russians, 500 British and others from the other nations departed on June 25th led by Russian Colonel Sherinsky. The rescue party came under Qing sniper fire along the way, forcing them into a single file formation. They reached the arsenal at 10:30am carrying food and cigarettes. Commander Mori of the Japanese shaked the hands of their rescuers. Sherinsky and Seymour got the men together and on way the next day, spiking the artillery pieces and destroying countless munitions they could not carry. The arsenal was ablaze on the 26th as they made their way to Tientsin. 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. Seymour grand 8 nation alliance force set out to rescue the trapped foreign community in the legations at Beijing. However the Qing and Boxers had joined forces and turned the tables of Seymour, for it was he who would end up needing rescue in the end.

Last time we spoke about the road to the Boxer Rebellion. Christians and foreigners were encroaching into China. Boxers and other anti-foreign groups were emerging in places like Shandong and Zhili. Conflicts were growing rapidly as the two forces converged, leaving the Qing government in a terrible situation trying to please both. It seems for a time, they were keeping the hawks of war at bay, but the more incidents flared up the tougher each side became. Then came an evolution to the mayhem, the Yihetuan emerged to the stage, a large scale movement of Boxers seeking to revive the qing and destroy the foreigners. The Qing tried to crack down upon the movement, but it seems all was for nought as they only grew in popularity. Beijing has called upon forces from the northwest to bolster defenses, but can they stop the inevitable clash? #61 The Boxer Rebellion part 1: The Boxer's March on 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. After the battle of Senluo Temple Governor of Shandong province, Yuxiang ordered the boxers caught, but not to be killed. The missionaries and foreigners remarked "it was insane orders not to have the soldiers kill any one". But Yuxiang sought to not drive a wedge between the state and the people. Zhu Hongdeng fled south joining other boxer leaders to discuss what to do next. Major boxer activity halted, as they watched to see what the Qing government would do. THe magistrate of Pingyuan was removed, there did not seem to be any real hunt after them. After awhile Zhu Hongdenf and the other boxers began raiding christians in Yucheng, Changqing, Chiping and Boping. They burnt homes, stole property, performed violence and even killed a few people. Outside Boping, Christians fought back leading to skirmishes and fatalities. Yuxiang's lenient policies were failing, the Christian community felt the Qing government could not protect them. Yuxiang began targeting the boxer leaders, as he had done with the Big Sword Society prior. Tactically it went brilliantly, he managed to arrest and execute the main leaders, but these Boxers were nothing like the Big Swords. Following the elimination of the boxer leaders, boxer movements sprang up in new places all over the region, villages were being attacked all over. Whenever one Boxer leader was arrested or killed, another would generate at a moment's notice, it was like a Boxer Hydra. Now the Boxers had been targeting small villages with Christian communities, but then on November 15th they attacked the fortified Catholic village of Zhangzhuang. The boxers successfully raided the village and it seems this emboldened them greatly as their next targets became mission stations holding foreigners. As the missionaries and foreign communities felt threatened, they began complaining to remove officials like Yuxiang. On December 5th, the complaints worked, the Qing government replaced Yuxiang with Yuan Shikai. Although Yuan Shikai was convinced Yuxiangs lenient policies led to the Boxer problem and sought to use military force to quell it, prominent Qing officials advised him to not brutalize the Boxers, as they rightly feared it would spark a large-scale rebellion against their government. Thus Yuan Shikai used his forces defensively to try and protect foreigners and Christians, little actually changed. On December 31st of 1899 the British missionary S.M Brooks was murdered in Feicheng by bandits. The Boxers continued to spread and rumors of what they did were heard everywhere. Mission stations were being attacked everywhere in a wild frenzy of panic field by rumors. The Boxers would claim missionaries were poisoning wells. Boxers would target all things foreign such as railways which they said "had iron centipedes or fire carts which desecrated the land and disturbed the graves of their ancestors" Empress Dowager Cixi would love that one. Likewise telegraph lines were feared. Some thought the rusty water dripping from their wires looked like blood of air spirits. Foreign own mines were seen as disturbing the spirits of China's earth. Boxer Manifestos began to state "When we have slaughtered them all, we shall tear up the railways, cut down the telegraphs, and then finish off by burning their steamboats." When rumors emerged of the new Yihetuan slogan "Revive the Qing, remove the foreign", those in the Qing court like Prince Duan and Empress Dowager Cixi listened with keen interest. For once it seemed the peasants were on their side! The Empress Dowager was also extremely superstitious and seemed to be transfixed on the tales of Boxers practicing ritual exercises to induce gods to possess them. She was also intrigued by tales of the female Boxer group known as "Hong Deng Zhao / the red lanterns". Yes, female Boxers of this order practiced rituals and healing techniques to aid the male Boxers. They trained in martial arts and were said to carry red lanterns used to burn down missionary buildings. Rumors had it they had magical powers to fly, honestly the tales run the gambit. Now something that interested Cixi and some conservative Qing the most was the prospect a group of warriors were out there that did not require payment to fight. On the last day of 1899 in Shandong province the Boxers killed an english reverend named Sidney Brooks. Brooks had been helping his sister defender a mission "about twelve miles from Ping Yin he was attacked by a band of about thirty armed ruffians who after struggling with him and wounding him on his head and arms with their swords bound him and led him away towards Ping Yin. It was an intensely cold day and snow was falling. In spite of this they took from him all his outer garments and led him about for some hours. He endeavored to ransom himself with promises of large sums of silver but they were unwilling. . . . It is said that by some means he managed to escape and fled in the direction of Ping Yin. He was quickly pursued by three horsemen who cut him down when only a mile from our little church at Ta Kuang Chuang and there by the roadside the last act in this terrible crime was committed. His head was taken from his body and both were thrown into a gully." News of Brooks murder reached Beijing on January the 2nd of 1900. American Minister Edwin Conger, a bearded civil war veteran met with Herbert Squiers, the American first secretary. They talked about Brooks murder and two other incidents that had recently occurred. The first was the imperial decree ordering Qing officials in the coastal and Yantze provinces to be on their guard against foreign aggressors. The second was a complaint given in November of 1899 about how foreigners were carving up China and urged the Chinese to defend their land. Conger was unsure how to react to such rhetoric. The US favored an open China policy, but certainly not a xenophobic and aggressive one. Conger decided to alert Washington, but did not go as far as to state the foreign community was outright in danger. Over in the British legation, Sir Claude MacDonald was also reeling over the recent news. MacDonald had been appointed minister to Beijing in 185 and was a soldier who had fought in Egypt. MacDonald had been complaining for awhile to the Qing government about the conflicts brewing in Shandong, Brooks murder seemed to be the latest and worst of them. He often dealt with the head of the Zongli Yamen, Prince Qing, who was a moderate amongst the Qing court, unlike Prince Duan who was adamantly conservative and quite anti-foreign. The Zongli Yamen immediately promised Brooks murderers would be brought to justice. To the foreign community everything looked like the Qing government favored their protection, but it became gradually apparent to them the Qing were not fully suppressing the Boxers. On January 27th the Americans, French, Italian and German legations sent a mutual protest demanding the suppression of the Boxers, but they received no reply for over a month. The Qing court was far too busy dealing with the imperial succession since Emperor Guangxu's health was declining, Cixi nominated Pujun, a son of Guangxu's cousin, no other than Prince Duan as the presumptive. Pujun was much alike to his father, extremely anti-foreign. The following weeks saw the foreign ministers scrambling with demands to the Zongli Yamen to increase measures against the Boxers. Telegrams were frantically sent back to home nations in March suggesting an international naval show of force was needed. America, Britain and Italy began sending a handful of warships to anchor outside the Taku forts, while Kaiser Wilhelm sent an entire squadron to Jiaozhou. On April 16 of 1900, Empress Dowager Cixi persuaded MacDonald into believing the Boxer problem was coming to an end and this saw the British warships Brisk and Hermione withdraw from the Daku Fort area. The foreign community began breathing a bit easier, but the reality was the Qing Court was considering incorporating the Boxers into an official militia group. The Qing court was at war with another. Prince Duan, leading the conservatives had purged many progressives, he was married to Cixi's niece and now his son was the heir apparent. Alike to Prince Duan, Cixi was very anti-foreign, ever since her summer palace was burnt down during the second opium war. She like many of the conservatives blamed the foreigners for all problems facing China, never recognizing the corruption present within. But unlike Duan she was much more cautious, she lent an ear to those around her like Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai and Jung Lu, the commander of Beijings local forces. The progressives had prevailed until now, walking a tightrope against fully or partially denouncing the Boxers to please the foreigners. The missionaries in the more interior parts of China provided the best source of intelligence to the legations. They were sounding the alarm, but there was little anyone could do but place their faith in the Qing government and wait to see what occurred. In early 1900, a British missionary named Frederick Brown was writing out of Tientsin that it was being overrun with Boxers, endangering the Christians there. The foreign diplomats were failing to appreciate such reports, many believed and quite rightly so, the missionaries were the aggressors, bringing conflict upon themselves. There was quite a belief going around that these reports were cases of "crying wolf" as they say. The foreign community in Beijing were failing to notice, thousands of Boxers were venturing out of places like Shandong and Zhili enroute to the capital. Zhili held nearly 100,000 Christians at this point and large foreign populations at Tientsin and Beijing. The 250 foreign missionaries in Beijing were becoming extremely anxious, though they were certainly better off than their colleagues our in the countryside. By late april the Boxers began placing placards in Beijing. One was dated April 29th stating "Disturbances are to be dreaded from the foreign devils; everywhere they are starting missions, erecting telegraphs, and building railways; they do not believe in the sacred doctrine, and they speak evil of the gods. Their sins are numberless as the hairs of the head. . . . The will of heaven is that the telegraph wires be first cut, then the railways torn up, and then shall the foreign devils be decapitated. In that day shall the hour of their calamities come." By May 1st, Herbert Hoover, yes that Herbert Hoover happened to be in China at the time, he found the situation too dangerous and recalled his geological expeditions from the interior. Hoover and his wife Lou, stayed put in Tientsin. By mid May, news of Boxer atrocities flooded Beijing. 60 Chinese catholics had been slaughtered in Kaolo a village 90 miles away from Beijing. The bodies had been tossed down a well, the entire village razed. Then just 40 miles outside Beijing a Chinese preacher working for the British was murdered. MacDonald telegraphed Britain and the Zongli Yamen demanding an apology, but was given the usual run around. On May 19th, Bishop Favier sent a letter to the French Minister Stephen Pichon, urging him to send for troops. ""I am well-informed and I do not speak idly. This religious persecution is only a façade; the ultimate aim is the extermination of all Europeans.... The Boxers' accomplices await them in Peking; they mean to attack the churches first, then the legations. For us, in our Cathedral, the date of the attack has actually been fixed."pour protéger nos personnes et nos biens"—"to protect our persons and our possessions." The next day the foreign minister met to discuss Bishop Faviers' warning. MacDonald was skeptical, Pichon conceded Favier was a bit of an alarmist, but could be telling the truth. In the end the ministers agreed not to send to Tientsin a demand for further guards, but instead would ask the Qing government to crack down on the Boxers, or else they would summon troops. Well the Qing did not do so, in fact on May 23rd, George Morrison and Australian journalist wrote in his diary "the Boxers had the cognizance and approval of the Government, as shown by them drilling in the grounds of Imperial barracks and royal princes". Morrison was one of the most knowledge westerners in China at the time and one of the few who could see the very real looming threat the Boxers were. Meanwhile MacDonald and his wife were preparing a major social event, a party to honor Queen Victories 80th birthday. Most of the foreign community took part and there were some of the conversations that emerged were about the rise of the Boxers. Yet still many waved it all off as nonesense that would soon fade away. The next day the foriegn community saw their Chinese gardners, washermen, house workers all begin leaving their work and going into hiding. It had become unsafe for Chinese, whether they be Christians or not to work for foreigners. At the same time Christian refugees began flooding the Beijings churches and gathering centers. Many of them bore wounds such as burn marks from Boxer attacks. On May 28th a refugee hobbled over to Morrison's house reporting to him dire news. The Belgian construction staff building at Changsintien had been attacked by Boxers. The Boxers were destroying the railway line linking Beijing and Hankou. Not only that, they were cutting telegraph lines and the stations at Fengtai were razed to the ground. These were the first reports of concentrated mass action against the foreigners. Morrison was so disturbed by the report he went himself with two friends racing over to Fengtai on horseback and what he saw was "black smoke curling ominously into the sky. It was as if the whole countryside was afoot, streaming towards the station. The engine sheds were on fire . . . and the villagers from all around were shouting. We could do nothing, though we should have shot a Chinaman who threatened us with a sword and swore to cut our throats. It will always be a regret to me that I did not kill this man." A bit hardcore to be honest. Herbert Squiers 47 servants, most being Christian Chinese began raising alarm stating "these people are all Boxers, most of them flaunting the red sash, [and] are preparing for a general uprising when the time shall be ripe—an uprising that has for its watchword, 'Death and destruction to the foreigner and all his works.'" Smoke and flames could be seen rising the locomotive shed that housed Empress Dowager's railway coach, something she naturally never used, mind you. Boxers blew up the foreign built steel bridge over the Peiho river. When trouble began in Fengtai, the Qing forces withdrew. Morrison went to work going out to the foreign villas to warn those there of the incoming Boxers. Herbert Squiers went to his villa accompanied by a Cossack guard lent to him by the Russian minister, de Giers. Russia had maintained a small armed guard in Beijing for quite some time now. The Chinese servants were saved by the party before the Boxers reached them. However the party now had to travel back to Beijing and could face two possible threats, Boxers or the Kansu. It was a 15 mile journey that took 5 hours, but they made it safely without incident. Meanwhile the Belgian engineers 16 miles from Beijing in Chansintien were stuck. Luckily for them the French dispatched a small force to rescue them before the Boxers struck. As the Belgians made their way to Beijing, they could see their residence up in flames in the distance. They also noticed Qing troops sent to aid them were joining the Boxers in looting their former residences. Another group of foreign engineers at Paotingfu were not as lucky as the rest and were attacked as they fled for Beijing. They were attacked at the same time as the railway line, thus they were unable to flee by train. The telegraph lines went soon after cutting their communication as well. Unable to communicate or know where Boxers may be coming from, they fled east to Tientsin using river boats. 30 Belgian, French and Italians with women in children departed Paotingu on May 31st. When they were boarding boats the Boxers attacked, and some of the families fled in the wrong direction and would be murdered. The majority huddled together and took dangerous routes through swamps to avoid further detection. Two men rushed to Tientsin as fast as they could reaching it on june 3rd to raise an alarm. The rest of the survivors showed up, most semi naked, dehydrated and wounded. Hearing news of these incidents, the foreign diplomats in Beijing were now beginning to freak out. On may 28th MacDonald formed a meeting with the ministers and argued they had no option left but to request the foreign fleets anchored outside the Taku forts send forces to the legations. There was a very real danger the rail link from Tientsin to Beijing would be severed, if they did not act quickly enough the foreign fleets would be unable to move troops by train. The French and Russians stated they already made their requests, so MacDonald hastily telegraphed Vice Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, yes the veteran of the second opium war who was now the commander of British naval forces in China. Seymour was currently patrolling the coast with his squadron when he received the telegraph. Meanwhile MacDonald lambasted the Zongli Yamen that they were damn fools or liars, before demanding they inform Prince Qing who was at the summer palace with Cixi "that the troops are coming tomorrow, and if [there is] any obstruction, they will come in ten times greater force." On May 31st the Zongli Yamen gave official permission for the foreign troops to come to Beijing, but imposed a limit of 30 guards per legation, which all the foreign diplomats ignored. The first contingents departed Tientsin that same day for Beijing. The foreign diplomats knew having troops come over would bolster the Boxers to attack even more, but it seemed to all that the Qing court had no intention of helping. In fact they did not know it, but the Qing court were in a hell of a mess. On May 22nd, the Boxer attack upon Christians in Kaolo had also seen the death of the Manchu commander, Yang Futong. The Qing did not react to this and the Boxers were greatly emboldened, as they quickly went after the railways. An imperial edict was made on May 30th stating "the really guilty must be distinguished from those merely led by the excitement of the moment." Sir Robert Hart, working as the inspector general of the Qing maritime customs had been closely observing the Qing response to the Boxers and would remark "The government seemed entirely unable to cope with the movement, even when they were willing; and the Government would, or could, do nothing but issue edicts, many of which were so dubiously worded that they might have been taken as equally favorable to the 'Boxers,' or to Christians and foreigners." The terrible position the Qing government were in was not lost on the foreigners as Sir Robert Hart told his colleagues "the Court appears to be in a dilemma: if the Boxers are not suppressed, the legations threaten to take action—if the attempt to suppress them is made, this intensely patriotic organization will be converted into an anti-dynastic movement!" Thus the foreign ministers knew they could not depend on the Qing government. They also knew they had inflamed the situation by calling up troops, but what choice did they have? There were worries the foreign troops would not reach Beijing in time, the ministers began issued protective directives. Women were not to leave the legation compounds, the diplomats and military personnel were to make efforts to investigate the situation at all times. One of the first things they uncovered were placards being places around the legation Quarters giving "helpful tips on how to destroy the foreign buildings". This prompted MacDonald to telegraph the foreign office in London "The situation is one of extreme gravity, people very excited, troops mutinous; without doubt it is now a question of life and property being in danger here." Boxers began parading openly in the streets of Beijing. Foreigners if caught walking the streets could expect rocks thrown at them by not just Boxers, but angry locals. French diplomat, Baron D'Anthouard described the scenes as such "handbills, and advocating the massacre of foreigners and the destruction of all religious institutions. They no longer take the trouble to hide, and move about carrying their insignia: a red scarf tied around their heads with the inscription 'Fu' [Happiness] on the front of it, a kind of red coat of arms on their chest, and red bands around their wrists and ankles. They also carry flags with the inscription, 'We fight by order of the Emperor and for the salvation of the Dynasty.' Their handbills announce the forthcoming massacre of the 'Western devils.'" The foreigners in the legations began to plan defenses against possible attacks. I really recommend at this point checking out maps of the legation quarters 1900, there are excellent maps, photo's and renderings. The British legation was quite strong, had high walls, held the Jade river to one side and the Imperial Carriage park on the other, it was by far the strongest position. MacDonald knew it was their greatest stronghold and he immediately offered sanctuary to any and all British residents seeking refuge. There was news, 6000 Kansu soldiers had been deployed to the railway terminus at Machiapu just outside the city walls. The foreigners wondered if they would join in attacks against them. Machiapu also happened to be the railway station the foreign troops would be arriving at, was it going to be a battle when they did? The foreign diplomats bit their nails waiting for the trains to arrive and at long last they did bearing 350 men from Britain, Russia, America, France, Japan and Italy. Another group of Germans and Austrians were coming in the next few days. There were curses and screams thrown at the foreign troops, but no violence as they entered the city gates. The foreign community came rushing out to see the various soldiers march into Beijing. Captain Francis Poole of the East Yorkshire regiment acting as a guard at the British Legation had this to say of the sight "the British fighters were naturally the smartest, that the Americans were "a serviceable-looking lot," but that the French, Russians, and Italians were "very dirty." All the guards were ill-equipped for what was going to go down. The admirals who sent them did not anticipate how long they would be stationed there. Most had rifles with a few hundred rounds per man, but there was no reserve ammunition, no heavy weapons, aside from 3 machine guns. The British carried the Nordenfelt .45 which was prone to jamming; the Austrains had a Maxim gun; the Americans carried light Colt 236's. For artillery there was a single one pounder the Italians had brought with 120 shells. The Russians intended to bring a 12 pounder but left it behind at Tientsin because of space issues, though they did bring shells for it. Despite the small size, the diplomats were extremely grateful to see their new guards. MacDonald expressed his relief stating "the Empress Dowager would see the error of her ways. The crisis I think is past as far as Peking is concerned." On June 3rd MacDonald sent word to Vice Admiral Seymour stating their situation had calmed down. The remaining German and Austrians arrived turning their guard force of 350 to 435. All seemed quiet at the legations, but outside Christian attacks were becoming more violent and systematic. News began to emerge that the Boxers were now targeting the railway line and stations to Tientsin. The foreign ministers met to discuss things going forward and it was argued immediately, the Boxers would most likely cut the telegraph lines to Beijing next. This of course met they would be unable to cable their governments to request more aid if it came to that. On June 4th, MacDonald requested the Zongli Yamen to publicly denounce the recent murder of two missionaries, but was ignored. The next day another meeting was made with Prince Qing, leading MacDonald to conclude the Zongli Yamen were powerless to do anything. His conclusion was bolstered by recent imperial edicts that exonerated the Boxers and instead began placing blame on Christians for violence. The atmosphere in Beijing was one of foreboding again. On June 9th a mob of Boxers burned down the grandstand the Beijing Race Course near the southern city gates. The news drew an excited young student interpreter to gallop over to take a look and he was confronted with a violent crowd. A Chinese civilian was shot during this process, the first to be killed by a foreigner. MacDonald was livid at the news and ordered no other foreigners to ride out of the city again. The ministers yet again met and debated if they should request further troops from the navy outside the Taku forts. MacDonald told everyone he already requested such from Vice Admiral Seymour as they expected the telegraph lines to be cut any day. Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi had also returned that day to the forbidden city from the summer palace. This would have brought relief to everyone if it was not also reported, General Dong Fuxiang and his entire Kansu army had escorted the royal party into the city. MacDonald sent word again to Seymour that he should send all available troops at once. He received a confirmation of the order on June 10th, help was on the way, just before the telegraph line to Tientsin was cut. The only line left was one running north to the Russians. The Kansu troops began massing around the Machiapu railway station clearly looking for a fight with the incoming relief force. Hours passed with no trains. Meanwhile Prince Qing was replaced as president by Prince Duan. Then the chancellor of the Japanese legation, Mr. Sugiyama, neatly dressed in a tailcoat and bowler hat went to the Muchiapu station to check out the situation. As he got outside the city gate, Kansu troops grabbed him out of his cart and according to Morisson "disemboweled and cut him to pieces. It is said his heart was ripped out and sent as a gift to General Dong Fuxiang". There was zero attempt to recover his body. The remaining telegraph line to Russia was cut. The normally bustling streets of the legation Quarter were emptied of servants and shopkeepers who vanished. The situation had escalated beyond control now. 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 foreign community in Beijing managed to gain some extra guards for their legations, but what were a few hundred against tens of thousands? Mr. Sugiyama was murdered in cold blood and now the violence would hit the legations.

The podcast discusses the growing movement of Yuhu-Chuan boxers in China and the Qing government's failed attempts to mediate. It explores the reforms and divisions in Qing China, including Emperor Guangxue's reforms and the divide between Reformers and Conservatives. The podcast also explores the violent activities of Dongfusiang's Muslim troops, the Kansu Braves, and the escalating violence and tensions between foreign powers and China. It delves into the rise of the Red Boxers and their transformation into a unified force.

Last time we spoke about the Juye incident and the scramble for China. The Big Swords society and their armor of the golden bell technique certainly made some waves in the mid 1890's. However it would seem to get them in trouble, at minimum by proxy. The Juye incident was quickly seen as another Big Sword attack on christians and Kaiser Wilhelm utilizes it to gain something he was looking for a long time, a naval port in China. Jiaozhou bay was quickly seized by the Germans and suddenly all the western powers were seizing parts of China left right and center. The carving up of China had thus gone into overdrive and it looked to the common Chinese people that christian missionaries were all behind it. German was truly rubbing their nose in and allowing their missionaries to abuse their authority in Shandong province, but for how long would the Chinese put up with all of this? #59 Yihequan "Why is everyone Kungfu fighting?" 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. So there has been this group I have kept alluding to for a few podcasts now. They went by a few names, but they truly pop into the scene in the year of 1898 in what other place than Shandong province, to be specific Guan county. Guan county lies along the western border of Shandong and is just a bit due west of Jinan. The people of guan county were known their "brave spirit and love of righteousness". Their county held poor soil, many grew cotton and this lent itself to weaving. It was quite an impoverished county, their people lived simple lives. As noted by a gazetteer "The young have become like knights-errant, and like to indulge in wine, and drink for pleasure. They form cliques and seek revenge." By the mid 19th century, these young knight types were allying themselves with White Lotus sects. This led to conflicts such as the Song Jing-shi uprising of the 1860s. As we have seen over the past few episodes, where there are young men practicing boxing and there are sectarians, well they seem to just find common cause and love to rebel. There was a small market town in Guan county called Liyuantun. It was an exclave among 24 settlements in Guan, isolated across the Shandong border inside Zhili. Bordering it to the north was Linqing and Qiu county. A peasant from Liyuangtun described Liyuantuns locations as such "Speaking from our village, either two li [one kilometer) to the east or ten li to the west was Wei county. Twelve li to the northwest was Qiu county; twelve li to the south was Jize [Zhili]; fifteen li to the southeast was Linqing; ten li to the south was Quzhou; five li to the west were 300 mu of Guangzong [Zhili] land; and we were 130 li from the Guan county seat". The small town historically had changed administrative boundaries multiple times. Now when conflicts began to break out with Christians, a magistrate was told be local residents of Liyuantun "Before, the prefect and magistrate repeatedly came to calm and pacify us. They would fix a date and only when they received permission did they dare to enter this territory." Alongside the christians, the region was of course a natural refuge for bandits. Bandits seemed to increase dramatically between 1894-1899 and these bands were coming well armed and dared to raid villages during daylight. Even casualties were beginning to increase, it was said during one raid, 7 people were killed in a single village. Highway robbery was particularly popular in the area. Theft was often directed at the wealthy, the kidnapping of members of rich families, the ordinary peasants did not suffer from this, but instead benefited, as the bandits took their riches and spent them in the poor villages. The local Qing forces were too weak and incompetent to do anything. The isolated county of Guan was very susceptible to heterodox sects. There were countless such as the White Lotus, the Green "Qing Bang" or Red "Hong Bang" gangs, the "Huang shahui / the Yellow sand society", the "shen-ren dao / way of the sage" and so on. Historians point out the isolation of the county, low education and weakness of the orthodox gentry to be the reason for the popularity of such sects. These very same factors would bolster certain boxing groups to fight christians. With a weak Qing state, the Christian missionaries flooded the area. French Jesuits dominated the Zhili side towns and Italian Franciscans the Shandong side towns. The French were particularly large, as stated by resident of the region "Early in the Guang-xu period, the White Lotus were active here. The county magistrate sent troops to make arrests. The French priest "Liang" told everyone, "I am a missionary. Whoever wants to join the Catholic Church raise your hand and register. I guarantee that nothing will happen to you." Several who had joined the White Lotus raised their hands and joined the church. In this way the government troops did not arrest them." The town of Liyuantun saw its first congregation come about in a similar fashion. In the wake of the Song Jingshi uprising, a former rebel was arrested. A secret christian in Liyuantun convinced the man's family to join the church and appeal the for the mans release. That is just what they did and taking upon their example, many others followed suit. Soon there was some 20 catholic families mostly from the Wang family. Now while I call Liyuantun a "small town" it was fairly large. It held 300 households, had a marketplace attracting business. It was what we call a multiple surname town: 40% of the households were Yans; 20% Wangs: 10% Gaos and so on. Kinship had a special role in the town, as it did in most towns in China. Liyuantun was really no different than the rest of the towns in the north China plain; her residents had mud walled and thatch roofed homes. The people supported themselves farming, spinning, weaving and peddling. The farmers planted what, sorghum, millet and cotton, the soil was fairly fertile compared to the surrounded towns. With a bit better soil came some social differentiation within the town. The wealthiest family owned about 300 out of 4000 mu of land, 6 others households had around 80mu each. Some of the larger landholders rented out land, but it was far more common to just hire laborers. There were countless landless households, most of whom were hired as laborers. Some owned only 3 to 4 mu of land supplementing their farm income from secondary occupations, like weaving and peddling. The entire dynamic of the town allowed for some gentry types, and they commanded influence above the county level of governance, though their town was still very isolated. Now in the middle of Liyuantun, stood a pair of small worn out buildings which once housed a temple dedicated to Yu-huang miao, the Jade Emperor. It was alongside a little school. The temple was said to go back to 1861 and during the rebels it took damage and was left in disrepair. Meanwhile by 1869 christians were increasing and it was decided the Christian and non-christians should divide the temple property and its associated lands, around 38 mu worth. An agreement was made between neighborhood leaders, the christians and the local constable stating the Christians would receive the temple property of 3.91 mu and the 38mu of farmland would be divided into three sections for the christians. This as you can guess was extremely unpopular and many of the neighborhood leaders who signed the agreement would dispute it later. Now the key issue was the right to the buildings which houses the temple to the Jade emperor, the highest god in the pantheon. In 1873 and 1881 the magistrate of Guan, Han Guangding enforced temporary settlements, trying to push the Christians to buy another site. But the missionaries did not want to give up the location and demanded the original deal be met. In 1887 a Franciscan showed up carrying bricks and tiles, attempting to dismantle the temple and turn it into a church. But as he began to do so, two gentry types, Liu Chang-an and Zuo Jianxun led a mob of very pissed off villagers to drive off the christians who were trying to evict their temple to the jade emperor. Magistrate He Shizhen tried to remedy the situation with another temporary agreement. He Shizhen was devoted to confucianism, and quite loved by the people for he was notably not corrupt. He Shizhen personally went to Liyuantun and confirmed the mob was roused by the two gentry types who were punished, but he also made sure to take down the bricks and tiles the Franciscan had put up. The issue with the temple never went away, other magistrates were unable to resolve the matter. He Shizhen would come back to try and make a more permanent arraignment and got the christians to agree to accept an alternative location for their church. Liu Chang-an agreed to purchase another site for said church to be constructed. He Shizhen and a new magistrate added 100 taels of their own money to be put towards the churches construction. And it seemed to all the issue was finally resolved. To the Italian and French missionaries however, they refused this resolution. They claimed the chinese christian villagers were not qualified to agree to such a settlement and only they could. He Shizhen argued the dispute was between two chinese parties in Liyuantun and so a stand off began that spanned a few years. He Shizhen stood his ground, and refused to meet with the foreign missionaries, so the non christians held possession for the temple. Then in 1892, the French minister to Beijing applied pressure to the court who applied pressure to the local officials who applied pressure to the villagers. The French protest brought upon a predictable verdict, the temple was to be given to the Christians. He Shizhen donated 200 taels and 1000 cash for the construction of a new temple at a different location, but the Christians said it was a no go. The Christians complained about the meddling of officials and this escalated the situation. It seems a bit of revenge was on the menu, for a unknown person apparently invited a Daoist priest named Wei He-yi from Linqing into the picture. Wei He-yi happened to have an armed local militia whose leader was Zuo Jianxun, it always comes full circle doesn't it. The militia came over to defend the temple and things quickly got out of hand. The local Qing officials responded quickly sending the Daotai of the area alongside a group of other Qing authorities, the Dongchang prefect, Lingqing subprefect, magistrates of the surrounding Zhili counties of Qinghe, Quzhou and Wei alongside He Shizhen to meet the mob. The Qing officials told them they needed to preserve the peace and eventually persuaded them to disperse. The christians were allowed to come to the site, and it seemed they had won the day. Now this entire time, it was the gentry leading the charge against the Christians. They went through the appropriate means, they pressed their complaints to the prefectures, then to the provincial capital and all of this was quite expensive to do. A few of the gentry were very vigilant in their efforts and this earned them jail time. Several lost property because of the expenses. Liu Chang-an was stripped of his degree. By 1892 it was clear these gentry, despite some holding degrees, having money, land or influence could not challenge the missionaries. When the Qing authorities came in force in 1892 it signaled to them no further protests would be allowed, the gentry bent the knee. The gentry had thus given up the cause, but the struggle was passed to a younger and more volatile group. Once the Christians got back the rights to the temple site they immediately went to work building a church. They soon found themselves under attack from a group of poor, young peasants known as "shi-ba kui / the 18 chiefs". One story goes, the Christians were forced to fortify the church and hid inside as they were met with rocks and gunfire. The mob stormed the church and assaulted several of the Christians inside. The christians fled to the missionaries residence over in Wucheng and for a long time did not dare leave the residence. Another stand off occurred where upon if either side tried to build upon the temple location the other side would intervene and tear it down. The prefect of Dongchang, Hong Yongzhou ordered both sides to stop constructing anything and to agree to a new settlement. These so called 18 Chiefs seem to represent the chiefs of the 18 surrounding villages, basically militia leaders. However oral tradition has it that they were all in fact young residents of Liyuantun, mostly poor peasants who simply took on the task of protecting the temple. Their leaders included Yan Shuqin, martial artists of the "Hong-quan" Red Boxing school and Gao Yuanxiang, known to the locals as "Gao Xiaomazi" Pockmarked Gao. Yan Shuqin owned around 5 mu of land and supplementing his incoming by peddling and spinning cotton. He had two brothers who were part of the 18 chiefs who worked as farm hands. Gao Yuanxiang had around 10 mu of land and made side money milling and reselling grain. The largest land owner out of the lot was Yan Mingjian with over 100 mu of land. 3 other chiefs were completely landless, most peddling to subsidize their income. The missionaries saw the 18 chiefs as nothing more than some impoverished thugs, pushed into the situation by the gentry who had failed. However the 18 chiefs would prove to be a resilient group, take Gao Yuanxiang who spent 2 years in prison beginning in 1895 but carried the fight on. The 18 chiefs knew they could not hold back the Christians forever, they were a small and isolated force, so they turned to a man they thought could help them out named Zhao Sanduo. Zhao Sanduo lived 5kms southwest in Shaliuzhai a large village with 300 households in Wei county. He was a notable martial artist, who also went by the name Zaho Luozhu. He taught Plum Flower Boxing, a martial art going back to the early 17th century. Feng Keshan back during the eight trigrams uprising taught Plum Flower boxing. Plum Flower Boxing was for self protecting, utilizing physical and spiritual exercise. There was little to no religious aspect in this martial art, except for some bowing to Sun Wukong or Shaseng. The prefect of Dongchang described Plum flower boxing as "In the districts along the Zhili-Shandong border, the people are sturdy and enjoy the martial arts. Many of them practice the arts of boxing to protect themselves and their families, and to look out for each other. Great numbers practice [boxing] and it has spread widely. In Henan, Shanxi and Jiangsu there are also those who teach it, so that its name is widely known. Each year in the second or third [lunar] month there are fairs, and the boxers use this opportunity to gather and compare their techniques. They call this "liang-quan" ("showing off their boxing"). Thus in the countryside they are regarded as plum boxing meetings." The plum flower boxer often practiced on market days and would often stage shows. Zhao Sanduo had roughly 2000 students, many of whom were employed as Yamen runners, giving him quite a advantage when dealing with disputes with Qing authorities. It is said Zhao may have had up to 400 mu of land and ran his own store, but countless accounts also claim he was a poor peasant with a meager 10 mu of land. When dealing with oral traditional history its always hard to feel out what is true and what is fable. Regardless Zhao was noted to be a very generous man and would use his considerable influence to right wrongs, particularly when it came to christian meddling. The 18 chiefs pleaded for Zhao's help and at first he rejected them, not wanting to get involved, but somehow they twisted his arm. In april of 1897 the Christians yet again tried to bring their materials over to build upon the temple site. At the same time, Zhao had staged a major plum flower boxing exhibition in Liyuantun. It seems Zhao was just making a show of force, but soon violence broke out. Yet again the Christians hid in their church construction, then on april 27th, somewhere between 500-2000 men stormed the site and occupied it. The Christians attempted a counter attack which resulted in a single fatality and many injuries. The church was destroyed, the Christians had their homes looted and all of them fled. Upon receiving the news of the incident, He Shizhen sympathized with the non christians and the Governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng tried to prevent foreign intervention. By the fall of 1897 the Qing authorities endorsed a new settlement which gave a major victory to the non christians and their boxer allies. The Qing officials sought to buy the Christians a new site and supply all the supplies for their new church, while the old temple site would be used as a charitable school for all villagers. However in truth they sought to rebuild the old temple and even put on a grand celebration to commemorate it. It seemed a grand victory, but it was to be short-lived as the Juye incident came about. The Germans seized Jiaozhou, Li Bingheng was demoted and now the Christians overwhelmingly had the upper hand. Imperial edicts were being frantically tossed around demanding all incidents to be avoided at all costs, while the missionaries pressed for revenge. The Italian bishop rejected the 1897 settlement and demanded the Qing officials get rid of the old temple and return the site to the christians. In the meantime Zhao Sanduo was joined by a man named Yao Wenqi, a native of Guanging, Zhili. Yao had been teaching boxing in the town of Liushangu, southwest of Liyuantun. Yao was senior to Zhao in the Plum Flower boxing school, thus his boxing teacher or Senpai as the Japanese would say. Yao radicalized the scene, by introducing some new recruits who were notorious for anti-manchu activities. Many of Zhao's students pleaded with him "Do not listen to Yao, he is ambitious! Don't make trouble. Since our patriarch began teaching in the late Ming and early Qing there have been 16 or 17 generations. The civil adherents read books and cure illness, the martial artists practice boxing and strengthen their bodies. None has spoken of causing disturbances". Zhao headed the advice at first, but it seemed he could not break away from the anti-christian followers amongst the ranks. In early 1898 the Qing authorities threatened to arrest any of the Plum Flower boxers if they dared to assemble. The leaders of the Plum Flower Boxers who did not share the anti-christian stance advised Zhao and the others to leave, and he did. Zhao left with many followers and they took on a new name, Yihequan. The translation of Yihequan is something along the lines as "the righteous and harmonious fists" or "boxers / fists united in righteousness'. The Yihequan of Guan county were united in righteous indignation over the Christian encroachment on the Liyuantun temple. This was not exactly a new thing, there were many Yihe organizations historically we have already covered. In the 1860s there were Yihe militias in southern Zhili fighting off the Nian rebels. In Wei county there were 3 different militias the Zhi he tuan "militia united in purpose"; Pei-yi tuan "militia worthy of righteousness; and the Yihe tuan "militia united in righteousness". These three militias disbanded in the early 1870's, but were resurrected in 1896 because of the explosion in banditry. Interesting to note, the Yihe tuan were led by Zhao Laoguang, a cousin of Zhao Sanduo. Such Yihe boxer groups formed a coalition against the Christians. The most radical of them were aggressive members of the 18 chiefs of Liyuantun, under the leadership of "Big Sword" Yan Shuqin. Then there were aggressive members of the Plum flower boxers like Yao Wenqi. Zhao Sanduo had a fairly large network of friends spanning militia leaders and gentry class. Thus for the Qing government it was quite frustrating, as when they tried to crack down on certain groups, these groups suddenly were being aided by others and well hidden. It was a true Boxer coalition. The French demanded the dismissal of the popular magistrate, He Shizhen, who they saw as an obstacle and by early 1898 they got their way. He was replaced by Cao Ti who said as he entered the area "boxers were seen everywhere, wearing short jackets and knives, they filled the streets and alleys. Everywhere one looked, one saw their disorderly appearance". Christians were fleeing Liyuantun in fear, thus Cao Ti's first task was to ease the tense situation. Cao Ti began with an investigation of the Boxer groups and learned that Zhao Sanduo was the key leader. He began systematically shaking down Boxer leaders trying to get Zhao to come forward, but he would not come out of the shadows. The Boxers in general were in hiding as Qing forces were building up a presence in the area. By February of 1898, prefect Hong Yongzhou took charge of the situation. On February 28th, Hong Yongzhou accused Yan Shuqin to be the murderer of a local Christian killed in the spring time. Hong went into Liyuantun and occupied the town with Qing forces, ushering the Christians to come claim the temple. While this solved the temple issue, it did not solve the Boxer issue as they were now gathering in local villages. Hong Yongzhou knew he needed to take out Zhao Sanduo, so he managed to convince local militia leaders he would provide Zhao safety if he would meet with him in Ganji. Zhao finally came over and Hong had this to say about their meeting "I instructed the boxer leader Zhao San-duo very clearly, and showed him that for his best interest the Plum Boxers must be dispersed, and if they ever assembled again he would be prosecuted. I said to the man ' Your family is said to be well off and your sons and grandsons already established. Why have you not sought to protect yourself and your family, and have instead loosed your disciples to cause trouble, even committing murder and arson? Why do you let yourself be the puppet of others?" To all of this Zhao confessed his organization was infiltrated by some unruly men as a result of what was occurring at Liyuantun, but the Christians labeled him a criminal chieftain so he had to keep his boxers together for self protection. The Qing officials all agreed to offer him protection if he would disband the boxers. The Qing officials went with Zhao to his home in Shaliuzhai and got him to official disperse his boxers. However the Boxer coalition was vast and by no means was Zhao telling them to stop going to work for all. In Liyuantun in April, a notice suddenly appearance on the examination hall reading this "The patriots of all the provinces, seeing that the men of the West transgress all limits [literally: over-reach Heaven] in their behavior, have decided to assemble on the 15th day of the fourth moon and to kill the Westerners and burn their houses. Those whose hearts are not in accord with us are scoundrels and women of bad character. Those who read this placard and fail to spread the news deserve the same characterization. Enough. No more words are needed." So yeah it was clear there were still a lot of angry boxers. The Qing officials attempted a new approach, they tried to recruit the peaceful boxers into militias. The First Sino-Japanese War had greatly diminished Qing authority in the region and such groups were necessary to restore law and order. Governor Zhang Ru-Mei began recruiting them with the primary intent to combat banditry and it looked extremely successful. As Zhang reported to the court in May "I have already sent deputies to the various localities to work together with the local officials to clean up the bao-jia [registers] and establish rural militia (xiang-tuan). Originally I wished to clear up the sources of banditry, but these can also be used to mediate between the people and the Christian converts. " Zhang and other Qing officials were not naive, they knew many of the boxers in the militias would not be neutral when it came to Christian disputes. This led Zhang to make a rathe controversial recommendation on June 30th "If we allow them [the boxers] to establish private associations on their own authority, and officials take no notice, not only will foreigners have an excuse [to protest], but in time it could become a source of trouble. Northerners are customarily willful. Their bravery and fierceness in struggle are an established custom. The techniques of these boxers, and their system of masters and disciples have had some success in protecting the countryside and capturing bandits. We should instruct the local officials to order the gentry and people to transform these private associations into public undertakings, and change the boxing braves into people's militia. This would conform to public opinion and make them easier to control, and it would seem that both people and converts would benefit greatly" Come fall, rumors spread that the Qing officials were going to crack down and arrest more people. Qing soldiers in Linqing crossed the border into Zhili and began searching for anti christian biligerants in Shaliuzhai. This began an uproar and Yao Wenqi alongside the 18 chiefs took Zhao Sanduo and his entire family hostage and forced him to push the coalition to attack. Boxers began to gather in hundreds along the border area of Zhili-Shandong. Boxers from Shaliuzhai marched north, assaulting Christians and destroying a few homes in some villages northwest of Liyuantun. Over the course of a few days bands of boxers passed through Hongtaoyuan which held a large christian population. There they destroyed a church and several houses. Rumors began to spread that the boxers were going to rescue Yan Shuqins brother and members of the 18 chiefs from jail. 50 horses were borrowed from supporters which the boxers mounted with large flags bearing what would become the famous slogan of the boxer movement 'Fu Qing mie-yang / support the Qing, destroy the foreigners". This was the first known appearance of the slogan and the Qing reacted with force. Qing forces were brought over from Linqing in Shandong and Daming in Zhili. The governor of Zhili, the magistrates of Qiu, Wei and Guan alongside other Qing officials quote "ordered the militia heads and gentry directors (shen-dong) of the three counties to go forward to enlighten the people to sincerity and public spiritedness, and to make them aware of the pros and cons. They strenuously reasoned with the boxers. Zhao Luo-zhu [i.e., Zhao San-duo] then publicly kowtowed to Yao Luo-qi [i.e., Yao Wen-qi] and the boxer crowd, and asked them to disperse and return to their homes. The boxers were deeply repentant and on October 31 and November 1 they dispersed in small groups and returned home." The springtime dispersal of the boxers would have earned the Qing a summer of peace, but as the Boxers headed back to their homes, some passed through Hongtaoyuan. It is said the Christians there tossed insults at the boxers, prompting Yao Wenqi and some more hot headed types to seek revenge. On November 3rd, 80 boxers assaulted the Christian community of Hongtaoyuan, burning down a church and seven houses killing perhaps 3 christians. After this they advanced upon some other Christian villages in Wei county, but French missionaries had been organizing a militia 477 men strong. So the boxers instead attacked the nearby village of Disankou where they burned and looted more Christian homes. The next day saw Qing troops attack the boxers at Houwei village, where 4 were killed and 19 were arrested including Yao Wenqi. Yao Wenqi was beheaded the next day in Hongtaoyuan. Peace was thus restored to the 18 villages and as late as November of 1899 a Protestant missionary reported "a cordial welcome in Liyuantun". The long struggle over Liyuantun had seemingly come to an end, or had it? 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 Yihequan, Boxers of the righteous and harmonious fists had risen to face off against the Christian menace plaguing China. The christians retaliated heavily and seemingly have quelled the boxers, but for how long would such a peace last?

Last time we spoke about the origins of the Big Sword Society and the invulnerability technique known as the Armor of the Golden Bell. China was certainly no stranger to sects and martial art groups. The Big Sword Society rose up to counteract the rebels and bandits that plagued parts of China like good old Shandong province. However when Christian missionaries began to get involved in the mix things got ugly quick. Bandits would exploit the conversion to christianity to protect themselves from justice. The Big Sword Society had been largely successful combating bandits, but when it came to matters involving the church they were powerless. Finally enough was enough and now the Big Swords were tussling with the Christians, truly raising hell. Yet for now the Big Swords averted fatalities and limited their attacks to property, but what would happen if they turned up the heat? #58 The Juye Incident & Scramble for China 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 story of Pang Sangjie and the minor skirmish between the Big Sword Society and Church was quite minor. French Jesuits reported two main mission residence at Daitaolou and Houjiazhuang were attacked alongside Christian homes in over 16 villages. The church settled the losses with local Qing officials for only 2000 strings of cash on June 26th, before the final battle had occurred. The Germans in Shandong submitted their report which amounted to petty vandalism to chapels in 17 villages and the burning of 119 rooms in Xue-Jonglou. For this they received 12,020 strings of cash. There were no Christian casualties during the entire conflict either Chinese or foreign. The Big Swords got rowdy, targeted the property of the Christians, but made sure not to take lives. If they had wanted to take lives, they easily could have as they demonstrated. The Qing authorities were too busy with another ongoings, there was a large Muslim rebellion raging in Gangsu and Shaanxi seeing General Dong Fuxiang with numerous forces going into the northwest. Thus the trouble of the Big Swords was pretty small in comparison. But what if the Big Swords began killing Chinese christians, or some foreign missionaries? How would the church react, how would foreign nations react? We talked a lot about French Catholic missionaries, some protestant British and Americans, but another large group came from Germany. There were three missionaries working on behalf of the "Societas Verbi Divini" Society of the divine word. This was a catholic society founded in Steyl, Netherlands in 1875, which drew mostly German priests into its ranks. When Otto von Bismarck came into power, there was a conflict known as die Kulturkampf, basically the church wanted clerical control over education and ecclesiastical appointment. Otto von Bismarck and other enlightenment minded leaders sought a separation of church and state and this led to countless priests fleeing places like Germany. In 1882 the Society began sending missionaries to Shandong province. Three German missionaries working on behalf of the society of the divine wind, George Stenz, Richard Henle and Francis Xavier Nies were at a missionary residence in Zhangjiazhuang in Juye county. This was the mission station of Stenz, it was around 25km west of Jining. The two other men had come to visit. Henle was quite discouraged because his work was going very slow, thus Stenz urged him to take a break. The three men did their best to raise their spirits on the evening of November 1st, 1897, the night of all saints day. They sang songs from their childhood as Stenz played his zither. They practiced the requiem for the following day. When they retired for the evening, Stenz gave up his own room to his two guests and moved over to the servants quarters. It was around 11pm, when suddenly shots rang out into the night, the courtyard was full of torches. A band of 20-30 armed men raced towards the missionary quarters. They charged the door to Stenz quarters which were unlocked as the priest had no reason to believe anything like an attack would occur. The mob grabbed Henle and Nies and hacked them to death. Apparently they realized neither were the local missionary, as the mob continued to ransack the building searching for Stenz. They checked the church, the missionary quarters and such, but they never checked the servants quarters. The christian villagers became aroused by the mob and raised their own mob to combat them, driving the assailants out. It was not certain who committed the murders, but people generally assumed it was the work of the Big Swords Society. So why the hell did all of this happen? Nine men were rounded up by Qing officials, these men were vagrants, the usual suspect types. Two of men of the nine were executed for the crime, but no one really believed they were guilty. Stenz certainly did not believe them to be the assailants, everything was done in haste, with little to no actual investigation. The governor Yuxian claimed that it was the work of a band of robbers, but there was no evidence of robbery, except for a few pieces of clothing being stolen from Stenz's room. Regardless, if it was a simple case of robbery, they would certainly have not resorted to murder, especially against foreign missionaries. It was certain, particularly to Stenz that this was a deliberate attack on German missionaries. Why might Stenz believe so, he had good reason to believe the residents of Juye would wish harm upon him and his colleagues. Local villagers told Stenz, that Henle's failed work in the southern town of Yuncheng was the actual target of the attack. Henle had been interfering in lawsuits and made a few enemies. He apparently was a very difficult man to get along with, so much so, even his own christian congregations had revolted against him. However despite Henle's reputation, its more than likely Stenz that was the target of the attack. He was the resident missionary and the mob literally targeted his room. According to Stenz, he heard them screaming his name as they searched for him. Stenz was not very popular. He was a particularly militant member of the society of divine word. In his autobiography the very first line reads "On September 29, 1893, I received at Steyl the mission cross which was to be at once weapon and banner in my fight for the Kingdom of God." He was also a racist, and I do not mean by today's standards. When he first arrived to China, in Shanghai, he wrote a description of the people, it is as follows. "An entirely new world now opened before us. Crowds of slit-eyed Chinese swarmed about the harbor—prominent merchants in their rustling silks and poor coolies in ragged clothes that did not hide their filthy bodies. Confidence was not our first impression on reaching this gate of the Celestial Empire. Cunning, pride, and scorn flashed from the eyes that met our inquiring looks". He often wrote about how lazy and procrastinating the Qing officials were and that the food was unpalatable in the nation. He was mortified when forced "to use two short pieces of stick" to eat. Its easy to say Stenz had a rough time adapting to life in China. His experience as a missionary in China was that of suffering and homesickness. He was trained prior to coming to China, but this training was designed to steel himself into a martyr. Indeed he alongside countless other missionaries were taught their deaths in the service of god were a sign of grace. Father Xavier while in China had written back home "More than once I have prayed to God for the grace of martyrdom, but most likely it will not be granted to me. My blood is not deemed red enough by God, and is still mingled with the dust of this earth." The oral history of the event, passed down by local villagers had Stenz and other missionaries interfering in lawsuits. In the case of Stenz he was also accused of raping 10 local women, and participating in christian theft. Though these claims could easily be false, it at least tells us what the locals thought of such a man. Stenz also gave his own oral account of the incident. In Stenz account he talks about how a few members of the White Lotus sect enrolled in his church from the village of Caojiazhuang. He refused the admission of the headman from that village, because he was accused of stealing and killing an ox from a neighboring village. This refusal lead to a lot of villagers becoming upset. Stenz recent converts were from some of the wealthiest families in that village and they began refusing to make normal contributions to village festivals such as paying for food for feasts. This led the other villagers to try and force the christians to pay, and they went to local Qing authorities to complain. Stenz became convinced it was all the work of the headman he refused and he believed that man joined the Big Swords to lead the attack on his mission. Given the previous instances of conflict between the church and Big Swords, such a explanation has merit. Perhaps the villagers sought revenge on the missionaries and went to the Big Swords for help or, perhaps they simply pretended to be members of the Big Swords. Regardless it seems clear, bandits were in their ranks. A story often told of this incident includes a former bandit named Liu Derun who apparently was seeking revenge against the Juye magistrate who had arrested and tortured his wife or daughter. To attack a missionary could bring about the end to the magistrates career. Regardless of why it all happened, it seemed certain to the church that they were indanger. The anti-christian conflicts that had occurred in the previous years were well known, and the involvement of the Big Sword Society also. All of this was seen as a godsend to the missionaries and the new German government. In 1897 Germany was an infant nation looking to flex her muscles on the world stage. Her economy was the largest in continental europe, she was emerging as Britain's rival in the world of trade. German's new position in China reflected her competition with Britain and she was becoming a force to be reckoned with. In 1890 the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank became the first non-British foreign bank in China. However, while German trade was thriving, her military capacity to expand her foreign markets were lackluster. This was also coming upon the time Alfred Mahan's "the influence of sea power upon history" had come out in 1890 which proscribed naked force to be employed to protect one's market in the age of imperialism. The German navy was the 5th largest in the world, far below her ranking in economics. Her navy was being developed by the legendary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz backed by Kaiser Wilhelm II. A late 19th century navy required coaling stations, and for Tirpitz he desired one in China. Germany requested a lease for a naval base in China in October of 1895, and the following year Tirpitz scouted potential ports, and thought Jiaozhou Bay on the Shandong peninsula to be an excellent location. Jiaozhou held a deep water port, and was surrounded by mineral resources. Alongside this, German missionaries of the society of the divine word were operating in the region which was a large bonus. By November of 1896 Germany was determined to acquire Jiozhou and Heyking in Beijing, looking for any means necessary to grab them. When news came to Berlin on november 6th of 1897 of the murdered missionaries, Wilhelm was delighted "that a splendid opportunity had at last arrived". The next day Wilhelm met with advisors and argued "It is the last chance for Germany to get a possession anywhere in Asia and to firm up our prestige which has dropped.... [N]o matter what it costs, we must not under any circumstances give up Kiaochow. It has a future for economic development as well as industry, a future which will be greater and more meaningful than Shanghai is today." Meanwhile back in China the Qing officials were as incompetent as usual. As was becoming typical of any incidents involving missionaries, the Zongli Yamen received news of the missionaries murders on November 7th from the German ambassador, before any local officials ever reported it. The Qing court immediately understood the dangerous situation, the Emperor realized Germany would use the situation to seize a harbor. The Emperor ordered governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng to be reprimanded for his incompetence, but on November 14th, German warships arrived at Jiaozhou bay. The local Qing garrison withdrew from the area, without firing a shot. Li Bingheng immediately reported the potential invasion to the Qing court urging them to fight the invaders ''Since they started the feud, we have no alternative but to resist.' He proposed they raise 5 additional companies of soldiers in Caozhou to drive the Germans out. However the Qing court rejected his proposal stating such recruits would be worthless in battle. The Qing court responded with this to Li "although the enemy has certainly acted arbitrarily, the court will definitely not mobilize its troops. The foreigners' actions rely entirely on power. If our power cannot assure victory, we will absorb a great loss." They were not wrong in this regard, do remember they literally just lost a war against Japan. The Qing navy was shattered, the imperial treasury was on the verge of bankruptcy already paying indemnities to Japan, how could China resist Germany at this time? One thing the Qing court understood was the balance of power theory. Europe was divided and all competing in China. When Japan claimed the Liaodong peninsula, the triple intervention of Russia, France and Germany had occurred. The Qing court expected Russia to yet again intervene against the Germans now, hell Russia had also shown desires for Jiaozhou bay. However the Qing did not know Wilhelm had been talking to Tsar Nicholas, convincing him to take Port Arthur and Dalien, while Germany could seize Jiaozhou. You have probably heard of the great scramble for Africa during the late 19th century. This involved multiple world powers literally scrambling to seize colonies in Africa, well this situation was also occurring in China. You may have seen a famous painting by the Artist H. Meyer, depicting China as a pie being carved up by the leaders of the great powers. There is a description of the painting which helps greatly for a audio podcast haha "En Chine: Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs" Le Petit Journal Supplément Illustré, January 16, 1898 Artist: H. Meyer "In this French rendering, Queen Victoria glares at the German Kaiser, while the Russian, French, and Japanese figures look pensively at China. The Kaiser stabs his knife into the German-leased territory Jiaozhou (Kiao-Tcheou) in Shandong, acquired in 1898, while the Russian Tsar puts his fists on Port Arthur (the Chinese port of Lüshun, leased in 1897). The caption reads: "China: The cake of Kings and Emperors." The Germans had long been seeking a port on the Chinese coast, and the Juye incident was a perfect pretext to grab Jiaozhou. On November 6th Kaiser Wilhem sent a telegram to the Tsar stating "sending a German squadron to Jiaozhou, as it is the only port available to operate from as a base against marauders. I am under obligation to Catholic party in Germany to show that their missions are really safe under my protection". For quite a while, the great powers had engaged in a sort of gunboat diplomacy with China, to compel her government to bring persecutors of Christianity to justice. However now Germany was taking things into her own hands to suppress anti christian activity on Chinese soil. This was quite a novel departure from what the great powers had been doing. Germany had been strong arming China for awhile now, back in October of 1895 the German minister threatened China after some disturbances in Yanzhou. The Qing had failed to act effectively to protect some Christians prompting the minister to say "my government will have no alternative but to devise methods to protect them ourselves." This was the type of threat the Germans would continue to make and after the Juye incident the Germans demanded a guarantee. However the Qing as much as they wanted to avoid conflict could not guarantee anything, they replied areas like Caozhou were unruly in nature and impossible to guarantee 100% protection. Thus the minister now sent this message "Since China cannot guarantee that in the future such incidents will not recur, our warships are in Jiaozhou and can help you handle the matter." The Qing responded with this "this concerns the internal affairs of China, you need not interfere in it." On December 16th, Wilhelm made a speech and sent his brother in command of an additional squadron to China "Make it clear to every European there, to the German merchant, and, above all things, to the foreigner in whose country we are or with whom we have to deal, that the German Michael has set his shield, decorated with the imperial eagle, firmly upon the ground. Whoever asks him for protection will always receive it.... But if any one should undertake to insult us in our rights or wish to harm us, then drive in with the mailed fist and, as God wills, bind about your young brow the laurels which no one in the entire German Empire will begrudge you. " So yeah, the kaiser meant business. The Germans pushed extremely hard upon the Qing forcing them to do some pretty extraordinary things. The Qing agreed to construct new cathedrals in Jining and Caozhou where the missionaries were killed and the funds would be coming from their pockets. They were forced to put inscriptions over the doors of the new cathedrals reading "Catholic church constructed by imperial order." On top of this they were forced to build new residences for missionaries in Yutai, Cao, Chengwu, Shan, Yuncheng, Heze and Juye. Five magistrates from those countries were dismissed, one was impeached, a daotai was transferred, and a army commander was also dismissed. Governor Li Bingheng was supposed to be receiving a promotion, viceroyship over Sichuan, but instead he was stripped of his promotion and demoted two grades down. Li Binghengs punishment was largely a result of his anti christian behaviors. The Germans pointed out that in the wake of the Big Sword Society causing troubles in 1896, Li Bingheng had made statements like "Ever since the Western religion came to China, its converts have all been unemployed rascals [xiu-min, lit.: weed people]. They use the foreign religion as protection to bring suits for others and oppress their villages. They use the Church to avoid prosecution, and gradually the local officials, to avoid trouble, bend the law in their favor. After a while the people's long-suppressed anger becomes unbearable. They feel the officials cannot be relied upon, and that they must vent their spleen in private disputes. Thus they gather crowds and seek quarrels, burning and destroying churches." Li Bingheng proposed prohibiting missionary interference in lawsuits, so that local Qing officials could do their job. This all obviously angered the Germans, who complained to Beijing about him. Now for the common people of Shandong, Li Bingheng was quite loved. Li Bingheng was seen as an honest man and rather good at administrating economic affairs. He managed yellow river works that saved over a million taels in 1895, raised money for the board of revenue about 100,000 per year. While he was seen as anti christian, he also was seen as an uncorrupt official, something quite rare in the late Qing dynasty. The German move was met with exhilaration by other great powers. Sir Claude McDonald, the minister to Beijing from Great Britain said "The effect on the security of our own people will be of the best. It seems hopeless to expect the Chinese to do their duty in protecting missionaries and discouraging anti-foreign movements unless they are forced thereto by some measure as the Germans have taken." An American missionary working in northwestern Shandong named Henry Porter said "the German Government deserve the admiration of all right-minded men, the world over. A great sense of relief was felt by the foreign residents of China. .. . The immediate effect throughout Shantung province is to strengthen every form of mission work.. .. We welcome the German vigor and the German advance." And of course such people were ecstatic about Germany flexing its arms in China, the Big Sword Society had ruffled many feathers. Getting rid of Li Bingheng was seen as a major play to increase conversions in Shandong. Indeed there was a dramatic change with Li Bingheng gone and a German squadron present. A missionary working in Qingzhou reported the proclamations made by the new governor, Zhang Ru-mei to be "much more favorable to the missionary than anything we have been accustomed to in times past." Another missionary working in Wei county reported "The most marked effect we see is the prestige [the Jiaozhou seizure] gives to the foreigners, a prestige that is pitiful to see. The officials seem for the time being to stand in abject fear of any complications with foreigners." The Germans were pushing the envelope, after the Juye incident, German missionaries got into the habit of placing blame on the Big Sword Society for any difficulties that came about. It was clear to all what they were doing, Governor Zhang Ru-mei remarked "They wish to stir up trouble in this way and let the German troops enter the interior." Local Qing officials began bending over backwards to Christians and lawsuits got worse and worse. Zhang Ru-mei gave an example of one bad situation that arose in the village of Wenshang. There was a dispute over the rights to a village temple, and a Christian had been assaulted. A German missionary sent a message to the magistrate stating the Christian had been killed, prompting the magistrate to rush to the scene to find the man had only light injuries. Nonetheless the magistrate prepared a list of 20 people guilty of the crime and they were forced to kneel and beg for forgiveness before converting to christianity. The German missionary praised the 20 chinese who he called good people, then he stated none of them should be prosecuted as he pulled out his own list with 5 other guilty chinese villagers. The 5 were forced to pay a sum of around 170 strings of cash. Then the same missionary demanded the village as a whole be fined 900 strings of cash. The magistrate anxious to be rid of the situation, increased the sum and added a banquet to be made for the missionary. So as you can see the church was really abusing this situation. The protestant missionaries in the region were quite jealous, one of their missionaries went on to say "The influence of the Catholic persuasion is felt in nearly all parts of the field. Multitudes are flocking to them for the sake of 'help' in various forms, chiefly for the 'power' that is supposed to reside in them more than in the Protestant." The Kaiser famously was quoted to say "hundreds of thousands of Chinese would feel the iron first of Germany heavy on their necks". Indeed Germany humiliated China and received a lease of Jiaozhou bay from 1898 that would last until 1920. 50 kms of the Jiaozhou bay area was proclaimed a neutral zone in which Chinese sovereignty was limited in favor of the Germans. Germany did not stop there, they immediately went to work grabbing mining and railway concessions within Shandong province. The scramble for concessions was on. Germany seized influence over Shandong; Russia seized influence over Northern Manchuria, Mongolia and Xinjiang; France seized Yunnan, most of Guangxi and Guangdong; Japan seized Fujian; Britain seized influence over the whole of the Yangtze river valley and Italy requested Zhejiang province and was rejected by the Qing government haha. I always loved that aspect of this, despite China literally being torn apart, Italy was still seen to be too small to grab a piece, get rekt. The Kaiser's actions had reinforced China's fears about missionaries, or as many of the locals called them "devils". In common Chinese believed the missionaries were working on behalf of their respective governments as a pretext for seizing territory in China. To the common Chinese things looked like things were getting wildly out of hand. The Christian converts were becoming not only more numerous, but had extravagant demands. In one famous case a Christian agricultural worker forced his non christian employer to serve him a feast. Over in Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi bitterly resented hearing these reports and would go on to say "These Chinese Christians are the worst people in China. They rob the poor country people of their land and property, and the missionaries, of course, always protect them, in order to get a share themselves." It was truly a problem, it was breaking the social fabric of village life. Chinese christians were barred from traditional ceremonies and festivals in their own villages and more crucially they no longer had to share the costs of them. They were not allowed to practice ancestor worship which was a fundamental aspect of Chinese society. As one Qing scholar using the pen name Wen Ching put it "As soon as a man becomes a Christian he really ceases to be a Chinaman". It was commonly believed many only converted because they were too poor to afford food and were disparagingly referred to as "rice Christians". Empress Dowager Cixi asked a foreign diplomat at one point "Why don't these missionaries stay in their own country and be useful to their own people?" At the time she made this remark there was over 700,00 Catholic converts ministered by more than 850 nuns and priests, mostly from France. Another 85,000 protestant Chinese were under the guidance of 2800 missionaries, mostly from Britain and America. As Ron Burgundy once said "boy that escalated quickly". China was being carved up, her social fabric was being torn apart, foreign powers were bearing their boots down upon her, who could come to her rescue? 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. China was literally being carved up by the great powers of the globe. The Kaiser had ushered in a scramble, and now China braced itself for further humiliation. Was there anyone who could save China for the foreign menace?

Last time we spoke about Shandong province. Yes this one province of China just always seems to be the breeding grounds for trouble, its actual a common saying haha. Historically Shandong was unique in many ways; geographically its densely populated, almost exclusively with farmers, the majority of whom are quiet impoverished in its western portion. Just about all invading armies have to go through it if coming from the north, leading the province to be very unstable. Bandits roamed its region throughout time, leading local communities to seek protection via what we in the west called Boxers. These martial artists became a big part of western shandong, the strongmen to fight off enemies. Shandong also birthed numerous sects and when they mingled with the Boxer types, rebels spread continuously. The Qing had a hell of a time with Shandong beginning in the late 18th century, and things would only escalate further by the late 19th. #57 This episode is the Big Sword Society & the Armor of the Golden Bell 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. "My investigations reveal that the Big Sword Society is the heterodox sect, Armor of the Golden Bell (Jin-zhong zhao). Its origins lie in the distant past. Although local officials have proscribed it, its roots have never been cut. Last year the coastal borders were unsettled [because of the SinoJapanese War], and when people heard that this sect could ward off bullets, it spread all the more, so that there was hardly a place without it. The stupid thought that they could protect themselves and their families. The crafty used it to carry out their violent schemes. Then roving bandits (you-fei) came from outside to stir things up and crowds gathered to cause trouble." This passage was written by the governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng who was trying to explain the origin of what was called the Da-dao hui "Big Sword Society". This society was mentioned in 1735 in northern Anhui province, though there really is not much known about them, until they re-emerged in the late 19th century. The armor of the golden bell had existed since the late 18th century as a martial arts technique for achieving invulnerability. As I mentioned in the previous episode; the armor of the golden bell was a kungfu technique that employed "Qigong". Qigong is a system of coordinating body-posturing, like movement, breathing and meditation. Those performing it would perform breathing exercises which they claimed helped protect their bodies against blades and even bullets as if a large bell was covering their body. Several practitioners of this technique were associated with various sectarian societies like the eight trigrams back in 1813. These people usually made charms using red paper, burned and swallowed them, sometimes they cast spells or better said incantations to appeal to various gods for help. The armor of the golden bell sounds like an organization, but I am just trying to hammer the fact it's actually a technique, it just so happens many organizations used it. To give a firmer example, there was a man named Zhang Luojiao who grew up in Guan county of Shandong. He, his father and younger brother were Daoist priests and learned boxing and healing methods from another family member in 1782. The next year a teacher from Henan province taught Zhang the armor of the golden bell technique and gave him two charms. It is said after learning the technique, he took up more boxing and taught disciples for profit. He eventually became associated with the eight trigrams. He later learnt the spell "zhen-kong zhou-yu / true emptiness spell" from a Li Trigram member. Zhang claimed he left the sect because his teacher kept demanding donations and thus did not take part in the rebellion that occurred later. However students of his did take part in that said rebellion. So the armor of the golden bell at least seems to be part of something larger, it was a well established boxing technique in the north china plain region. It was an invulnerability spell against sword or knife attacks and its practitioners were often found to be linked to sects. Historians argue about the relationship between the Big Sword Society and other sects. Some argue the Big Sword Society was an off branch of the White Lotus, others believe it was nothing more than a martial arts group. Now the Big Sword Society that re-emerged in the late 19th century had its birthplace in southwest Shandong and the northern part of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province. Now southwest Shandong was an area where bandits flourished. Salt smugglers, opium dealers, all the black market types had activity in this part of Shandong. This all led to a rise in martial artists, the boxers, the region was seen sort of like the wild west of America. German missionaries described the area and its inhabitants as "firm of character, braver, and less cunning than the rest, but on the other hand, also more coarse and rough". Japanese observers noted "they are feared because of their aggressive disposition and inclination to fight. Quarrels, brawls, and combats are daily occurrences in Shandong, most of all in Chaozhou. In Yanzhou, wherever you go, there is hardly a place where you do not see fights". Needless to say, this area was particularly difficult to control during the 19th century which was ridden with rebellions. Salt smuggling had been an integral part of the border economy, but by the 1880s and 1890s opium production was on the rise. It began with foreign traded opium, but by the 1880s, native production increased markedly, especially in Xuzhou. In the early 1890s Dangshan opium exploded in Dangshan county and with it so did incidents involving the Big Sword Society. With opium production expanding in this area, men began to bear arms and challenged Qing officials. The Qing dynasty was in a very weak state because of the rebellion, war with Japan, corruption and such, thus banditry exploded. When the Japanese began marching into China proper, it sent refugees and bandits into the Shandong-Jiangsu-Henan border area. Many villages simply became bandit lairs leading to inter village feuds. The missionaries in the area became involved in said feuds as bandits used the church for protection. There were countless french jesuits who were literally lured to said bandit lairs, in Jiangsu to help offer protection. It was in this type of environment that allowed the Big Sword Society to flourish. When the first sino-Japanese war brought an unprecedented wave of banditry and violence, it became time to develop effective means of self-defense, and here the armor of the golden bell shun brightly. A man only known by the name Zhao came to Shan county of southwest Shandong from either Zhili or Hejian. He was described as a wandering Daoist priest and he took up shop in Shan country working as a hired hand in the village of Shaobing Liuzhuang around 1894. It seems to make some money he began teaching martial arts and perhaps even some sectarian rituals, no one knows for sure, but one thing is known, that he taught the armor of the golden bell technique. Here is an in depth passage on how the technique worked "When they study their techniques, the poor need not make an offering, but those who can, offer 6,000 Beijing cash as a gift. In the middle of the night, they kneel and receive instruction. They light lamps and burn incense, draw fresh water from a well and make offerings ofit. They write charms (fu-lu) on white cloth. The words of the charms are vulgar and improper. There are such phrases as "Patriarch, Duke of Zhou; Immortals of the peach blossom; Golden Bell, iron armor protect my body." Those who spread the art can neither read nor write. They have others write for them. They also teach spells (zhou). While chanting spells they burn charms, mixing [the ashes] in water and instructing [the initiate] to kneel and drink. Then [the teacher] breathes in from above the lantern, and blows out over [the initiate's] entire body. Then he beats him with a brick and staff. After chanting the spell for three nights, one can withstand swords. It is said that after chanting for a long time, even firearms cannot harm one. It is much like breathing exercises (yun-qi). Where the "breath" (qi) moves, even a fierce chop cannot penetrate. But if one loses concentration, then the blade will enter. The simple people do not understand, and think it a magical technique." It fits with other descriptions of the technique, sometimes seeing people recite incantations, swallow charms and hit themselves with swords or bricks, fun times. The Big Sword Society used a variety of invulnerability techniques like the armor of the golden bell, the "tie bu shan / iron cloth shirt" or "wu ying bian / shadowless whip". All of these stressed the beating of ones body to resist further injury. There were a lot of martial arts groups in the region, but the Big Sword Society distinguished themselves for heavily using incantations and charms. Now Zhao taught many, but his leading pupil was named Liu Shiduan, who was reportedly 43 years old in 1896. Liu Shiduan had a decent education, he attempted the lowest examination, the sheng-yuan degree, but never passed, so he purchased the jian-shen degree which brought him to the lowest fringe of the gentry class. Again going way back to the opium wars, the corruption of the Qing dynasty was simply getting worse and worse. Shi was the head of a fairly important family in his village who held quite a lot of fertile land. Shi learnt the armor of the golden bell from Zhao and began teaching his own disciples in his village and the neighboring villages. His greatest students would become the leaders of the Big Sword Society in their villages. The most well known of these was Cao Deli, a wealthy peasant in this 30s from Shan county in the village of Caolou, whose male population almost all join the Big Sword Society. Cao was the leading household of the village. Next was Peng Guilin from the market town of Daliji, whom Liu saw as a man of great substance, he was indeed a wealthy man from a wealthy family. Another was Zhou Yun-jie in Zhouzhuang in Cao country, known as the stockade lord. The reason for their society was first to defend their people against the bandit scourge. This inherently meant protecting ones land, and thus landlords were quick to join up, but the extremely poor, who did not have land and thus no real home to protect did not. If it is to be believed part of joining meant each member had to burn ten cash worth of incense per day, thus the poor really could not afford to join. There are accounts, many joined because of personal dependency on landlords who drew them into the organization. According to the son of Liu Shiduan "Both poor and rich joined the Big Sword Society. The poor joined to help their landlords watch their homes and they could get something to eat and drink and some entertainment from their landlords". Thus Liu Shiduan became the leader of the Big Sword Society with his best disciples as the various leaders within it. In the spring of 1895, the banditry going on in Shandong and Jiangsu became so bad, the Qing government took notice. Many in the court feared the bandits would help the Japanese by stealing ammunition shipments for troops at the frontlines. They began to hear rumors of groups of people utilizing the armor of the golden bell technique to combat these bandits. The invulnerability techniques always led to bad things and the Qing court had made great efforts to censor and dissuade such things. However in the face of the banditry problem, the Qing court sent word to the governor of Shandong Li Bingheng to annihilate the bandits, but to only find ways to disperse the guys using the armor of the golden bell technique, so quite lenient. The key official in the area was Yuxian who was promoted to daotai, given control over south Shandong. Yuxian responded enthusiastically to the order against the bandits. By June that year, Li Bingheng reported back to the court, that Yuxian had arrested hundreds and killed dozens of bandits. There were countless accounts of bandits stuck in wooden cages outside Yuxians yamen who died of exhaustion and starvation. However as Yuxian was trying to seize all the credit, a lot of credit was due to the Big Sword Society who proved themselves a ally to the anti-bandit campaign. As told to us by the daotai of Xuazhou "At this time Caozhou was suffering from banditry, and the officials and people both relied heavily on [the Big Sword Society]. Once a person learned its techniques, the robbers would not dare oppress him. If a theft occurred, the society's members rushed in to search the robbers' nest, and were sure to seize the robber without regard to their own safety. At first they sent their captives to the officials for prosecution. Then because the officials had to treat each according to the facts of the case, and could not kill them all, the people were unhappy. Thus later they seized robbers and just killed them, and no longer sent them to the officials" The Big Swords Society moved from a close collaboration with the Qing authorities to hold an official function. The daotai praised their brave allies, but insisted to the Qing court they never paid them nor gave them any food. One Daotai reported back to the Qing court "in recent years in Heze, Chengwu, Shan, Dingtao and Cao counties, there has not been a single robber. This has all been due to the power of the Big Sword Society". Thus the Big Sword Society was not only tolerated they were being encouraged. Both Yuxian and Li Bingheng would go on the record to state the Big Sword Society were from "good and wealthy households who also practice techniques to protect their families". The local officials were benefitting from the Big Sword society and it was growing exponentially. From 1895 to 1896 the Big Sword Society's activities became more and more open. In the spring of 1896 there was a large celebration for their leaders birthday at the temple near the Shan county seat. For 4 days, extravagant shows were on display, people gathered from all around the region and this offered a opportunity to forge connections amongst the Big Sword society groups. According to a legend, Yuxian personally came,disguised as a fortune teller trying to investigate who popular the society had become. Sometimes this legend has it that he was caught and released. What is true, is that Yuxian did pretty much nothing to stop their society from growing, but as time went on he and others became alarmed. The daotai of Xuzhou reported "As they spread underground and grow in secret, their party becomes steadily more troublesome; but within their own territory, they never steal, rape, or kidnap. People all praise their chivalrous spirit (xia-yi) and hasten to join them. Great households (da-hu) in the villages hire them as guards; and even the army, counties, bureaus, and customs posts recruit them for defense. Thus they spread and proselytize more and more. They are most numerous in Shandong, next Henan, then Anhui. Xuzhou borders on Shandong and recently people [here] have joined the society. In all there are about 20,000 to 30,000." Some estimate by 1896 the Big Swords Society were 100,000 strong, but that seems an exaggeration. They did not really have a solid chain of command, rather large village groups had a leader who held ties to Shi. But if the bandits came in numbers, these villages would mobilize and though a loose organization, it was still quite powerful. There was another powerful group in Shandong and Jiangsu, the church. Foreign missionaries, notably from Germany were making a lot of noise, complaining to the Qing court about conflicts against them. In late june of 1895 a riot occurred when Bishop Anzer tried to gain a permanent residence in the city of Yanzhou. He and his fellow colleagues were threatened and he complained to the Zongli Yamen "If your esteemed government is unable strenuously to suppress [these disturbances] and give more protection [to Christians], then my government will have no alternative but to devise methods to protect them itself." The Qing court continuously caved in to the foreign missionaries fearing further reprisals. As the Big Sword society grew, so did the Christian converts. That should be no surprise as all, because as the Bandits faced more and more Big Swords they began to run to the church for more protection. Take this example, a report from a official who saw firsthand the problem "In the twentieth year of Guang-xu [1894, but the date should be 1895] the Big Sword Society attacked "Rice-grain Yue the Second." He had 3,000 people with nothing to eat or wear, who stole things from the wealthy. So the Big Sword Society attacked them. After the Big Sword Society had quelled "Rice Grain Yue," Yue's followers, fearing that the rich people would arrest them, all joined the Catholic Church" Now the Big Sword Society could protect the people from violence, but they could not settle lawsuits, this was the Qing governments role, who were basically fleeing from the church during cases. In the face of this situation it is no surprise the Big Sword Society began to shift their attention towards anti-christian activities. To make matters worse, the Catholics began to openly question the Big Sword Societies invulnerability spells. "When the Catholics did not believe [the Big Swords] could resist spears and swords, and accused them of false claims, the society members became the enemies of the Catholics." Both the Big Swords and Catholics were sort of fighting for the peoples hearts in many ways and the success of the Big Sword Society naturally caused common people to disbelieve in the Catholic message that "they were just pagan gods who were powerless". Questioning things like the armor of the golden bell brought these two forces into conflict. Liu Shiduan and Cao Deli would find themselves in a conflict which took place in february of 1896 on the border of Cao, Shan and Chengwu counties. A pharmacist named Hao Hesheng, a Shanxi native was collecting debt from a Christian convert named Lu Dengshi. Lu tried to put him off using his Christian status, causing Hao to accuse him of evading debt obligations. Then a relative of Lu named Lu Cai accused Hao of being a White Lotus member. Hao retorted by accusing Lu Cai of joining the newly established Catholic congregation to cover his past as a bandit. The 3 men screamed and departed, but Lu Cai was greatly aggravated and made his way to the local church where he said Hao had insulted the Christian religion. Zhang Lianzhu who was a leading figure of said church gathered a band of converts who armed themselves who sought to beat up Hao, but could not find him. The next day in Lihaiji of Shan county, Hao was selling medicine when the band found him. Hao fled and hid. The Big Sword society heard about the conflict and their leader Cao Deli came to the market seeking to help Hao. Upon finding Hao, Cao got some Big Swords together to meet the Christian band in front of a medicine shop. The owner of the shop freaked out and dragged the two leaders inside to try and convince them to drop everything, but by this point a large crowd had gathered, its like a high school yard fight haha. Zhang then contacted another Christian group over in the town of Tiangongiao in Chengwu to come help. The Catholics challenged Cao Deli, and he contacted Liu Shiduan who gathered more men. On the way the Big Swords were intercepted by a local garrison who talked them down. Yet at the same time a German missionary happened to be meeting with that commander, was also meeting with the Christian mob to admonish them for their aggression. Both sides were forced to apologize to another, and the entire thing was settled. But the event certainly brought both sides into a major conflict, and nearly a large fight. Now in 1896 French Jesuits were quite active along the border counties of Dangshan and Feng. They had been around for 6 years, and counted 48 parishes in all. In february of 1896 while friction was developing between Christians and the Big swords in Shandong, the Jiangsu Christian were also running into conflict with disgruntled gentry. Red placards began appearing warning "foreigners have come to establish secretly a temple of the white lotus, all the gentry have secretly resolved to put an end to this evil". The Christians were met with a few mobs threatening to arrest their Chinese convert leaders, but things settled down rather quickly when the local magistrate took actions to prohibit any attacks on Christians. Then in spring things heated up again. A local argument between two families over land rights in Dongtuan brewed up. On one side was Pang, the other Liu. The dispute law in the villages of Pangjialin and Liutitou who traditional had the yellow river running between them. These lands traditional owed no taxes to the Qing government, but instead paid annual tributes of geese and ducks. Since the Nian rebellion, the official landlords claimed tributes were not made. This was likely due to the yellow river shifting its course in the 1850s which resulted in less water fowl. However now their lands had become extraordinarily rich in soil, now they were able to grow a lot of food. Until the 1890s the Pangs were the most powerful in the area, but then in 1892 their family leader died and the new one, Pang Sanjie had issues consolidating his power. He was in his 20s at the time, not well educated and devoted his time to military training. He was powerful, but not overwhelmingly for his task at hand. The Liu clan then found a way to bolster their claim to the land, they joined the catholic church. Pang saw the danger of this and decided to join the Big Sword Society. The Lius came over to claim land rich in wheat, and conflict occurred. On June 3rd, Pang Sanjie led a band of 60 Big Swords to burn the chapel at Liutitou. As violent as this was, it was considered even by the local french priest who investigated it to be minor, thus alongside the Dangshan magistrate on June 7th they dismissed the issue. The magistrate attempted to visit Pang to settle the looming feud, but failed to find him, so he wrote him a letter which advised him that if his family had an quarrel with the people of Shandong, he should settle it on that side of the border. This was rather bizarre, as the magistrate had to have known the quarrel was between two local families, and Pang chose to go to Shandong, to gather more reinforcements. Soon there was an influx of petty harassment against Christian churches and residents in Shandong, however for Pang and his family their activities remained in Jiangsu. Pang gathered around 100 Shandong Big Swords in Pangjialin and on June 16th led an attack on the leading missionary residence at Houjiazhuang in Dangshan. The Big Sword mob was joined by other local opportunities who stripped the village and threatened its inhabitants they would see more violence from other forces coming over from Shandong. Pang and his mob set up a base in Houjiazhuang for 5 days using it to loot 15 neighboring Christians villages. Meanwhile the local Qing officials acted quickly to protect foreign missionaries in the Dangshan and Feng counties, evacuating them and their possessions to Maqing. On June 21st, Pang returned to Shandong where his band looted Christian homes in Shan county and burned the Catholic school in Xue-Konglou. A few days later Pang mob was now around a thousand strong and they came back to Dangshan to loot more Christian homes and marched to a missionary residence located in Daitaolou in Feng county. They found the village deserted, and proceeded to burn numerous homes, before returning to Houjiazhuang where they burned many buildings. Pang Sanjie had thus stripped northern Jiangsu Christians nearly everything they had, he was running out of targets. The Jiangsu Qing officials were trying to mobilize a defense. Meanwhile Liu Siduan and Cao Deli began distancing themselves from Pang and placed Peng Guilin in charge of the Shandong contingent aiding his band. Pangs band was running out of food so they went back to Shandong to the large town of Maliangji, but not all were members of the Big Swords. On June 29th, some of the band members began to loot places and this led to a local militia rising alongside regular troops to put up a defense. The Big Swords scattered to Shan county, but Peng Guilin was caught and arrested by troops from Xuzhou. THe Big Swords tried to rescue him but were defeated in battle, seeing 2 casualties and 18 arrests. After this the Big swords hid in their homes as the Qing forces arrested more of them. That was the end of a rather small conflict, but its important to see how things were set into motion. French Jesuits reported two main mission residence at Daitaolou and Houjiazhuang were attacked alongside Christian homes in over 16 villages. The church settled the losses with local Qing officials for only 2000 strings of cash on June 26th, before the final battle had occured. The Germans in Shandong submitted their report which amounted to petty vandalism to chapels in 17 villages and the burning of 119 rooms in Xue-Jonglou. For this they received 12,020 strings of cash. There were no Christian casualties during the entire conflict either Chinese or foreign. The Big Swords got rowdy, targeted the property of the Christians, but made sure not to take lives. If they had wanted to take lives, they easily could have as they demonstrated. The Qing authorities were too busy with another ongoings, there was a large Muslim rebellion raging in Gangsu and Shaanxi seeing General Dong Fuxiang with numerous forces going into the northwest. Thus the trouble of the Big Swords was pretty small in comparison. In Shandong Yuxian was given the responsibility for pacifying the Big Sword Society. He was appointed judicial commissioner and daotai in Yanzhou. His first order was to apprehend Liu Shiduan and Cao Deli. On July 7th Yuxian arrested Shi and interrogated him and had him beheaded. Cao Deli was also arrested and executed by officials working for Yuxian. The deaths of the two top leaders, who were both easily caught by luring them to banquets, showcased how naive the society was. Likewise an order went out to arrest Pang Sanjie and chop off his head. However the local gentry were afraid to go against Pang Sanjie. Instead in April of 1897 the heads of the Pang family offered another solution. They presented the local French missionary: Father Dore the names of 4000 Pangs willing to convert to Catholicism. The next day Father Dore's church was overflowing with 3-4 hundred Pangs, including the parents and children of Pang Sanjie. The Pang family negotiated a deal with the Church who inturn twisted the Qing officials arms. The deal was simply, let Pang Sanjie live and all would convert. Dore's superior Father Gain talked to the daotai and things smoothed over. It seemed in the end the Catholics had won the day. As noted by a historian in Xuzhou after the event "If people with lawsuits, difficulties with the courts, exaggerated taxes, quarrels over inheritance, or some other menace were afraid they did not have enough money to buy off the judges, there was still the recourse of the Catholic Church, which demanded nothing to uphold justice. But one had to be a member of the Church to claim its help. And they asked admission in groups oftwenty, thirty and forty families, by entire villages and from everywhere at once. In June 1896, when the Big Sword Society set upon Xuzhou, the number of catechumens was 3,550. In June 1897, there were 10,000; 17,000 in 1898, 26,000 the next year and over 20,000 in 1900, the year of the Boxers." Trouble was averted…this time. It was indeed a peaceful resolution. There was a lot of leniency, take Li Binghang who reported to the court "This is because your imperial majesty's humanity is as [great as] Heaven's, and from the beginning, you did not wish to execute them all indiscriminately" The Daotai of Xuzhou likewise reported "We should only ask if they are outlaws or not, not if they belonged to the society or not." In 1896 this all worked out against the Big Sword Society. Afterall the society was controlled by rural landlord elites with close ties to the Qing officials and local militias. Officials understood such an organization and used the traditional method of arresting leaders and dispersing followers. But what about a group not like this, who might not be so forthcoming to disperse? 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. They chanted incantations, ate charms and smacked another with bricks, the Big Sword Society made some waves in the 1890's, but their story is far from done. Because next time we are speaking about another group, who lets just say loved to box.

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