Part 5 (1/2)

The fraudulent and corrupt revenue inst.i.tutions of the Manchoo Government have long been notorious. The enormous extortion practised upon foreign trade until the wars with Great Britain compelled a more regular tariff, and the plundering squeeze stations scattered over every half-mile of Imperialist territory, each of which pilfer a sum from the unfortunate owner of all pa.s.sing merchandise, be he a foreigner who ought to pa.s.s clear by virtue of the transit duty clauses of the treaty, or a Chinaman who is legitimate prey, have made China a vast system of independent official violence and rapacity.

No wonder the naturally astute Chinese appear so particularly cunning and deceitful to Europeans! The possession of money is a sure attraction for the mandarin vultures; so that beyond the pale of the foreign settlements at the treaty ports, throughout the country, every native merchant and civilian is bred up to habits of mendacity, and particularly to conceal his real income and condition.

The endless ramifications of the Manchoo administrative extend from each remote corner of China to the central power; and although every one of the myriad feelers sucking away at the substance of the nation (in the shape of mandarins, all appointed with merely nominal salary, but given _carte blanche_ to obtain emolument after sending an annual stipulated sum to the emperor), crams its individual self with spoil, the squeezing and contracting of the Manchoo canker feeds the insatiable core at Pekin. It is useless to think of curing or mitigating the evil, though some have vainly advocated doing so. The only remedy must necessarily be a change of dynasty, such as the Ti-pings would certainly have effected had they not been wickedly opposed by foreigners. Every branch of civil, military, social, political and religious organization has become so hopelessly corrupted since the Manchoo era, that any attempt to change or improve the deplorable results of their evil rule might be carried on _ad infinitum_, only to result in certain failure.

But one course affords a prospect of cure and a consequent chance of happiness for China: that is, a radical change of Government.

Let foreigners be righteous, and permit the native to expel the Tartar; and the Chinese, when ruled by Chinese, will become benefited by western civilization, and (if the Ti-ping should not become exterminated by British intervention) in all probability Christianized.

In striking contrast to the excessively corrupt Imperialist customs, the Ti-ping revenue organization was just, regular, and simple. Throughout every part of Ti-ping-tien-kwoh but one custom-house was established at each town or village where trade was carried on. The rate of tariff has always been moderate, and the great advantage of the system consisted in being able to clear goods by one payment, upon which a pa.s.s would be given to take them free of further charge or hindrance to their destination. The Ti-ping Government deserved no little credit for the simplicity and effectiveness of their Board of Revenue, and it is mainly due to that branch of their administration that the valuable silk trade _increased_ and continued progressing so favourably during their possession of the producing districts.

Not only can all who have traded at Nankin testify to the entire superiority of the Ti-ping custom-house, but many silk and tea merchants now revelling in England have to thank the admirable regulations and forbearance of the revolutionists for their well-lined pockets. Every customs establishment in the late Ti-ping territory was composed of a superintendent, several deputies, and a very efficient staff of surveyors, clerks, and weighers, and at places frequented by Europeans, one or more interpreters were always found. Rice and other grain were quite free of duty, and that upon dried and preserved provisions was very low. All other produce and general merchandise were moderately taxed, either by tariff or _ad valorem_. Such were the regulations, which were not (like the Imperialist maritime customs) simply binding upon foreign goods, but were applicable in an equal degree to the property of natives.

Before putting into execution the design I had formed to depart suddenly from Nankin, D., an old friend of mine, arrived from Hankow, where he was established as the princ.i.p.al partner of a large mercantile firm. He brought several vessels to trade with the city, and he came to an arrangement by which he was to sail with Captain P., and another European as mate, in our lorcha _Anglo Ti-ping_, the latter to convoy his junks and our old one. D. was a perfect Chinese linguist, and to him I am indebted for much valuable information.

I waited until P., in charge of the lorcha and her consorts, had sailed up the river to obtain cargoes of rice, edible oil, bacon, salt fish, and other articles of consumption, and then prepared to leave the city.

During a few days I sent Phillip and L. into the country to buy some horses, and at last, together with our own, managed to muster fourteen strong animals, which were then stabled at a remote part of the city, close to the north-east gate. Since the return of my friend and companion L., we had successfully concealed his presence from the female part of the Chung-w.a.n.g's household, with one exception, and by this _ruse_ he had obtained several interviews with the lady of his affections, the (according to his idea) incomparable c.u.m-ho. The result of these meetings soon transpired.

At length the day came, the close of which was settled for our exit from Nankin. Six picked men, belonging to an artillery corps we had formed of some of the Chung-w.a.n.g's troops, were selected to accompany myself and comrades. The horses were particularly attended to, and our weapons were well cleaned and then carefully loaded, for danger had warned us against the risk of rusty locks and carelessly charged fire-arms. When all had been arranged, L. informed me that he had determined to carry c.u.m-ho, who had agreed to elope with him, to Hang-chow, and so induce her father to sanction their marriage. I found it impossible to dissuade him from doing so, and he a.s.sured me that the lady's mind was equally decided; therefore, much as I feared the affair would injure our satisfactory and friendly relations with the Chung-w.a.n.g, I had no choice but to accede.

c.u.m-ho, in order to find an opportunity to join us, had paid a visit to the Ying-w.a.n.g's ladies, and as their dwelling was close by, she was only accompanied by her own female attendant.

Just when the shadows of evening were cast in long dark lines from the tall battlements and high paG.o.das of the city, we prepared to a.s.semble at the appointed rendezvous. Phillip, with the six Ti-ping soldiers, I sent on to the stables, while L., with our boy As-sam, waited outside the Ying-w.a.n.g's palace for Miss c.u.m-ho; and I, taking A-ling, my trusty interpreter, joined Marie in the Chung-w.a.n.g's gardens. As the hour fixed upon for a general meet drew near, myself and party, each carrying a small quant.i.ty of baggage, left the gardens by a small door and proceeded to the somewhat distant stables. Upon reaching the rendezvous, I found Phillip had brought his wife with him, and also another horse for her use. We had not long to wait for L., who, with his fair runaway and her maid, arrived soon after myself. The horses were now led forth, and we, numbering fifteen persons, having mounted, the word was given to spur and away.

Upon reaching the city gate we were detained for a long while by the warder, in consequence of the late hour, although I had taken care to provide myself with the requisite pa.s.s from the proper authority to permit my egress or ingress at any time. At last the surly guardians of the portal turned out, shuffling their clothes about their backs with a style peculiar to the Chinese, who generally sleep quite naked, and have a curious way of drawing their arms from the sleeves of their clothing when dressed, and shrugging them up next their body. After the shuffling, stocking-pulling, and preliminary spitting (a great and indispensable habit with Chinamen), had partially subsided, the sleepy guards managed to draw back sundry huge wooden bars, to undo any amount of rusty locks and bolts, and then the ma.s.sive doors creaked slowly open. While the gates of the city clanged together, we set off at a gallop for the road leading south, to reach which we turned westward and skirted a considerable part of the walls.

Chinese horses, though small, are wonderfully strong and enduring, and it was not till the close of the day after our start that we came to a regular halt, and only then because our fair companions were fatigued.

My literally fair readers need not take umbrage at this appellation, for yellow-tinted celestial and dusky Portuguese as they were, their beauty was undeniable, and their figures such that many a European dame might justly envy. The rough riding through the mountain-pa.s.ses on the southern road from Nankin affected our hardy animals but very little; and when our camp was pitched for the night under the shelter of the wall of a ruined Buddhist temple, and they were picketed in a semi-circle around, they set to work cropping the short gra.s.s as leisurely as though they had just left the stable. We carried three tents with our baggage, and these were pitched; one for the women; one for my comrades, A-ling, and our boy; and the other for our six men.

A large fire was lighted, and we had nearly finished the supper served up by As-sam, when crash came a volley of musketry among us, directed from the crest of a small hill directly fronting and overlooking our camp at a distance of some eighty or ninety yards. I had stupidly neglected to choose the other side of the wall for our resting-place. Of course, we instantly started to our feet and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the arms at hand, and while the Ti-pings shortened in the tether of our horses, forming a close array of the well-trained, docile animals, fastened together head and tail, the rest of our party placed the women directly under the shelter of the living rampart. These measures were barely effected when a body of more than fifty hors.e.m.e.n dashed round the hill and charged upon our position. We had no difficulty in discovering them to be Ti-pings, and when they came closer we saw the Tsan-w.a.n.g's son was at their head. Their first volley had fortunately been aimed far too high; it may be that, fearing to injure the woman he pursued, the chief had done this, trusting to cause an alarm, during which he might dash forward and carry off the prize. Our reply to the advancing party was not so bloodless as the commencement of their attack. My own comrades, and even A-ling and As-sam, were capital marksmen, while the six men had been selected for their approved courage and the well-known skill so peculiar to Chinese when properly instructed.

Every man of our party was armed with either an Enfield or some other rifle (two being Sharp's breech-loaders), and all were able to use them with deadly accuracy; therefore, the number of the approaching foe gave us but little dread, especially as we saw they were armed only with short European-made double-barrelled guns and Chinese matchlocks. We waited until they had galloped to within twenty yards, but receiving only the war cry, ”Tah! Tah!” in reply to our challenge, we then took steady aim, and commenced firing upon them by successive volleys from each half of our number. The affair was settled in a moment almost. The leader and half a dozen of his men, with twice that number of horses, were quickly rolling on the turf, for at that short distance the difficulty would have been to miss them with our rifles. When their charge was entirely repulsed we ceased firing, a dozen men came forward on foot and carried off their fallen comrades and chief, and then they all slowly disappeared in the direction of Nankin. During their advance they had kept up an irregular fire, which, with the exception of grazing the other arm of our boy, As-sam (one had been wounded at the Mud Fort), and shooting away the ear of one of our horses, did no damage.

Upon the fortunate termination of the skirmish we dispatched the remainder of our supper, turned in for the night upon the opposite side of the wall, and kept three men on sentry till morning. Upon resuming our journey, we soon came to a rich and thickly-populated country, and during the next few days, while traversing the silk districts from end to end, along the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Ta-hoo lake, _via_ the city of Soo-chow, Kia-s.h.i.+ng-foo, and the Grand Ca.n.a.l, I particularly noticed the vast improvement that had taken place since my first visit to Soo-chow some eight months ago. Everywhere around the traces of war (always excepting the demolished Buddhist temples) had disappeared before the progress of peace and plenty; and although I may be accused of exaggeration, I do not hesitate to affirm that the establishment of Ti-ping supremacy and administration over these, the most valuable districts of China, had restored them to prosperity and happiness in a shortness of time hitherto unparalleled in the case of either Chinese or any other civil war desolation.

Although during my previous visit I had seen amply sufficient to undeceive me as to the wickedly false allegations of Ti-ping devastations, &c., still I was hardly prepared for the flouris.h.i.+ng state in which I found the _settled_ territory of the revolutionists. I knew that the export of silk within the current year (1861) had already increased to upwards of 20,000 bales more than during the corresponding period of last year (when till May the districts were under Imperialist rule); but then I imagined the great increase might be due to the wish of holders to realize. I found, upon the contrary, that the improvement was entirely due to the Ti-ping occupation. In less than two years the districts under Ti-ping jurisdiction had produced silk representing a sum of not less than 3,000,000 per annum more than previously! At each of the many villages and at every peasant's cot, the happy-looking people were engaged tending their silkworms for winter, reeling the last coc.o.o.ns, or tilling their fields.

Great as the prosperity of the country seemed, there was something even more gratifying and interesting in the changed appearance and disposition of the people. All the unfavourable characteristics of the Manchoo-oppressed Chinese had vanished, and their natural character was manifested in a way which ill.u.s.trated their candour, hospitality to foreigners, and native good temper.

After a twelve days' journey, the later part of the time in large ca.n.a.l boats, we arrived within a day's march of Hang-chow. Leaving the water route, we disembarked our horses and set forward in the direction of the provincial capital, guided by the continual booming of heavy guns. Upon reaching the crest of some high ground, the city lay before us in the clear frosty air of a fine December morning. But, as we find the case every day, the beauty of nature was marred by the pa.s.sions and strife of mankind. The extensive city was in flames in several quarters, and the dense columns of smoke shrouded as with a pall the slaughter taking place beneath. As we rode forward through the beautiful neighbouring country, we were enabled gradually to discern dark ma.s.ses of troops rus.h.i.+ng forward against the city amid the constant roar of artillery and the rattling crash of smaller arms. It was evident that we had arrived at the moment of a grand a.s.sault by the Ti-ping forces.

As our soldiers each declared that the Chung-w.a.n.g's head-quarters were to the west of the city, we made a considerable detour in that direction. We had not proceeded far when a disorderly crowd came in sight, hurrying away from the city. Directly they observed my party, the greater number turned off and precipitately fled in another line of retreat. As those who stood their ground were making ready with spears and gingalls to give us a warm reception, and as we were not out like a parcel of knights errant seeking adventure and fighting from pure love, we wisely followed those who ran away, and succeeded in catching one of the hindermost, to question as to the state of affairs in the city. At first the man was terribly frightened, and we could make nothing of him; then he became still more alarmed, and we found out all we wished. His fear was the usual one accompanying the flight of disorganized _undisciplined_ troops, which with Chinese becomes a wild panic; not because the men fear death, for no people can meet it with the stolidity and callousness with which they will suffer execution and torture, but from the simple fact that they are not sufficiently disciplined to know how to be killed in an orderly manner on the field of battle. They see a chance of escape, and on one taking it the whole follow like a flock of sheep.

Having ascertained from our prisoner, who with his friends were all Imperialist soldiery from the garrison of Hang-chow, that the Ti-pings had just captured the city, we set him at liberty, and then galloped for the west gate. On the way we pa.s.sed many fugitives fleeing in every direction. Upon reaching the rear of the Ti-ping lines of circ.u.mvallation, we found them almost denuded of troops, the few remaining being fully occupied in guarding prisoners. We soon found the Commander-in-Chief's head-quarters, but no Chung-w.a.n.g was there. The scanty number of soldiers on guard were in a great state of excitement about the success of the siege, and we managed to elicit from them that the Chung-w.a.n.g had entered the city with his whole force, and was now engaged attacking the Tartar quarter, an _imperium in imperio_, city within city, being protected by its own walls, and with a central citadel towering above all. Leaving the women in a house protected by the main guard, with the remainder of my party I rode towards the city.

Upon entering by the nearest gate, we found the streets unoccupied, except by the bodies of the slain; but the noise of battle guided us to the spot where living men were busily engaged increasing the number of the dead and dying.

Hang-chow, cut off from all communication with the outside world, every line of supply severed by the besiegers, and famine raging among the unfortunate garrison and inhabitants, fell to the investing army upon the 29th of December, 1861. Early on that day the Chung-w.a.n.g had commenced a grand a.s.sault, conducted upon each gate of the city. After a fiercely contested fight, the a.s.saulting columns having gained some advantages at the south and east gates, the Chinese portion of the defenders at those points surrendered, probably induced to take that step by the very short rations to which they had been reduced. When the gates had been given up, the Ti-ping troops poured into the city with such ardour that the Tartar bannermen were quickly driven within their inner defence. Hundreds of the miserable citizens of the provincial capital were starved to death during the siege, hundreds more, with their families, committed suicide. The nature of war in China has usually been so merciless, and the conduct of victorious troops at the capture of a city so outrageous, that in many cases during the civil war, and the wars with Great Britain, the people, probably imbued with a dread of these consequences, have committed wholesale suicide when they were not in the slightest danger of being molested.

I managed to find the Chung-w.a.n.g just in time to join the last attack upon the inner or Tartar city. The Commander-in-Chief, surrounded by his officers, received myself and friends with evident signs of satisfaction. His men had just been repulsed by the Manchoo troops, who were fighting with the greatest bravery and determination. The Ti-pings had eight or nine pieces of artillery turned against the wall of the inner city; but these were established in one position, firing point blank upon the rampart, so that when the a.s.saulting parties moved forward the guns became useless. I instantly advised the Chung-w.a.n.g to move two or three guns away upon each flank, so as to enfilade the parapet and protect the advance of his stormers. This was quickly done, and upon joining the leaders of the next a.s.sault, we had the satisfaction to find it successful. The Tartar bannermen retreated to the citadel in the centre of their city, fighting to the very last, a.s.sisted by their women, who fought with them like men, and one of whom inflicted a severe spear-wound upon Ling-ho, a Ti-ping general, when he would have saved her life. The greater portion of the Chinese troops garrisoning Hang-chow were captured, but the Manchoos fell almost to the last man. Their loss during the capture of the city was very great, and when at length they were driven into their citadel, Luy, their general, blew the remnant into the air, the entire Tartar force, men, women, and children, peris.h.i.+ng in the ruins.