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The colonials had carved up China.Boxer Rebellion, sometimes also referred to as the 3rd Anglo-Sino war (China – 1899-1901).
It was an anti-colonial uprising during the end of the Qing dynasty.
"THE excitement inside the Legations was intense. Captain Pell, A.D.C., a Sikh officer, and four or five Indian soldiers were the first to get up the watergate. The Indians shouted, while the rescued people ran, took them by the hands, shed tears of joy, and in many cases sent up thanksgiving to God for their deliverance. At last I too entered, over the ankles in sewage and covered with filth. The tunnel was only about seven feet high,so that I had to travel it in foot, leaving my coolie outside with my steed." <From Tientsin to Peking with the Allied Forces - Rev. Frederick Brown, Methodist Episicopal Mission Tientsin>
Strength of the allied forces available for the march on Peking.
<”Frontier and overseas expeditions from India”
– Compiled in the Intelligence Branch,
Division of the Chief of Staff,
Army Head Quarters, India.
Vol. VI Expeditions Overseas,
Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing,
India, 1911, pg.469.>
Composition of British Forces.
<”Frontier and overseas expeditions from India”
– Compiled in the Intelligence Branch,
Division of the Chief of Staff,
Army Head Quarters, India.
Vol. VI Expeditions Overseas,
Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing,
India, 1911, pg.469.>
<”St. George and the Chinese Dragon” – An Account of the Relief of the Pekin Legations by an Officer of the British Contingent. By Lieut.-Colonel H.B. Vaughan -7th Rajputs – Illustrations by the Author – London – C.Arthur Pearson, Ltd. 1902>
Summary of British Forces Killed and Wounded during the Advance on and Relief of Peking.
Title: THE SIEGE OF THE PEKING LEGATIONS
Author: J. H. MACOUN
Language: English
Subject: Fiction, Literature
Publisher: World Public Library Association
“To pass the time, those of us off duty began playing “poker.” We were still deep in the game when we heard a shout come from the Legation. Soon after Konovaloff suddenly rushed in with a shout, ” The Relief Force is in, the Sikhs are in the Legation, everyone is out in Legation Street to meet them!” We did not believe him at first; we told him he was joking us. “Well,” he
said, “listen to them shouting yourself!” We heard, we rushed outside, and we cheered for all we were worth! Our enemies at once fired a heavy volley at our barricade—but what did we care now? Such of us as could leave ran at once into the Legation.
What a scene there was ! Men, women, and children— everyone out on the lawn cheering, yelling, crying, mad with excitement and delight; and there coming in, line after line, waving their turbans and cheering, real, live, big, burly Indian troops, dripping with perspiration, dust-covered, and thoroughly tired ! Oh, it was delightful ! I could not contain myself. I rushed up to the first one I saw—I clapped him on the back—I shook his hand. I yelled, I cheered. My pent-up feelings had to be relieved in some way. I who had thought I should never come out of this awful siege alive could now realize and see that I was at last saved! The rest is soon told. English troops, Americans, French,. Russians, and Japs all soon made their way into the city, and in the course of a few days Peking was fully in the power of. the Relief Expedition.
J. H. MACOUN.”
Title: THE STORY OF THE SIEGE IN PEKING
Author: S. M. RUSSELL
Language: English
Subject: Fiction, Literature
Publisher: World Public Library Association
“August 1st -Yesterday, at 2.30 p.m., I had laid down for a short rest, having been up all the previous night, when I heard a shout, ‘The troops have come!’ I ran out hastily, and there on the lawn was General Gaselee and a number of Indian soldiers, presenting a most picturesque appearance. The joy was unspeakable! Hurrahing and cheering were intense. The Indian troops seemed even more excited than we .. They waved their turbans and shouted’ Hurrah!’ with beaming faces. A little after the Welsh Fusiliers and the American troops came in. We gave them as warm a reception as possible, but we had expended all our remaining strength in cheering the Indians, so I am afraid they thought they got a poor reception. The French, Russian, and Japanese troops did not get in till late on the fourteenth. The troops of the above three Powers reached the city gates long before the British. They attacked the East Gate of the Tartar city and the East Gate of the Chinese city. Both these gates were. strongly defended, and were only taken after a long and desperate struggle, in which many of the Allies were killed. The British troops came up to the city much later, rushed in by the South-East Gate of the Chinese city, ran along the outside moat, and into the Tartar city by the Water Gate, with the loss, I believe, of only one man.”