Part 20 (1/2)

Some days after our victory, a large Imperial force advanced from Soo-chow and proceeded to invest Wu-see. Upon one occasion they advanced close up to the walls, but were driven back by the sh.e.l.l we threw among them from the steamer. As the city was rendered untenable by the loss of Soo-chow and other places, the Chung-w.a.n.g decided to evacuate it and retire upon Chang-chow-foo. Before executing this arrangement the Commander-in-Chief, in his capacity of Vicegerent to the Ti-ping king, TIEN-w.a.n.g, commissioned me to promulgate among foreigners the objects of the revolution; the wishes and opinions of its leaders; the treatment they had received from England; and all subjects relative thereto upon which I might be able to write. This event has been the sole origin, besides my own feelings in the cause, of the present work--”Tai Ping Tien Kwoh.”

My arrangements to return to Shanghae were soon made. _Captain_ Smith, together with the Ke-w.a.n.g (one of the Commander-in Chief's high officers), I left in command of my legion so far as it was organized, including the steamer and captured gunboats. My lieutenant, who was too ill to remain on duty, the five rowdies, A-ling and his two Cantonese friends, were to accompany me. Those who remained were given their prize-money, but I refused to receive the share for the others until we should reach the city of Kar-sing-foo, because this place was on the limit of the Ti-ping territory in the direction of Shanghae, and I felt confident that, if they had time, the rowdies would quarrel over their money, and, probably, injure one another. It will be seen that my antic.i.p.ations were not groundless.

Thinking that the horrible Soo-chow treachery and ma.s.sacre (the chiefs and their men who surrendered upon _General_ Gordon's _guarantee of conditions_ were put to death by the Manchoo colleague of the British officer) would surely occasion the British Government to withdraw its help from those whose sanguinary atrocities were not only dishonouring them by their partic.i.p.ation as allies, but actually making them morally, if not materially, responsible; I set out for Shanghae under the impression that the Anglo-Manchoo alliance would cease, and the time prove favourable for advocating the Ti-ping cause and its claims upon all foreign, but especially British, sympathy.

Having taken leave of the n.o.ble Chung-w.a.n.g and his son Maou-lin, I left Wu-see with an escort of fifteen gunboats; at the same time the city was evacuated, and the Commander-in-Chief started with his troops for Chang-chow-foo, carrying with him the four Europeans captured on board the steamer, whom he promised to retain as prisoners of mine until the return of myself or my lieutenant. It has since been reported that the bodies of these four men were found some time afterwards near Wu-see, and Major Gordon of the R. E., in his notorious capacity of uncommissioned general to Manchoo Governor Le, took upon himself to report that the Chung-w.a.n.g had roasted them to death, his only authority being the testimony of a demented ”old woman,” who declared that ”Cantonese rebels” had killed them! If the Ti-pings did kill the four prisoners, the act was not only the first instance in which they have retaliated upon foreigners,[55] but was also the result of Major Gordon's treacherous capture of Soo-chow, for I should have sent the men over to his lines as exchanged prisoners of war if I had reached that city. It is, however, believed by all in China who are acquainted with the facts of the case, that the men fell into the hands of the Imperialists, and were put to death by them; and this seems to me a very likely affair (if they have been killed, for it is by no means certain), because the rear of the forces that retreated from Wu-see were closely pursued by the troops of Le, Futai. But my strongest reason for believing that the Ti-pings had no hand in killing them, if murdered they were, is the fact that the Chung-w.a.n.g was personally pledged (to me) to keep them unharmed and properly cared for; and even Major Gordon cannot state that this celebrated chief ever broke his word, _or sanctioned a violation of his guarantees by a.s.sociates_. Moreover, I particularly gave the Chung-w.a.n.g to understand that my future services would depend very much upon finding my prisoners safe and sound at my return; besides, he could not possibly have had any motive to injure them, and thereby lose what he expected might prove valuable aid; and certainly, to judge by the kind treatment they received within Wu-see, he had no intention of doing so.

At my last interview with the Chung-w.a.n.g I shall never forget the speaking expression of his fine eyes, as I shook his hand for the last time and stepped back to take my final departure. His look seemed to express friends.h.i.+p and grat.i.tude for what I had already done, doubt for the future, and a mutely pathetic request, imploring that I, too, would not desert him in his hour of need. This well-remembered glance created another bond between us which only death can obliterate, and which would alone have bound me to help the Chung-w.a.n.g to the utmost of my ability.

No wonder he seemed doubtful as to my future course, for the Ti-pings had never trusted a foreigner without being deceived, and they never experienced anything but insult or unprovoked injury from European officials!

From Wu-see to Kar-sing-foo, _via_ the Ta-hoo Lake and Hoo-chow-foo, I was accompanied by the s.h.i.+-w.a.n.g, a cousin of the Chung-w.a.n.g, who had received instructions to facilitate my movements and make arrangements for my return, besides being commissioned to divert to the city of Hoo-chow the reinforcements on their way to Ma-tang-chiao. A few days after commencing our journey we fell in with a body of troops belonging to the Ting-w.a.n.g's command at the provincial capital Hang-chow, who were proceeding to the appointed rendezvous; but the s.h.i.+-w.a.n.g ordered them to Hoo-chow, where they afterwards proved very useful in maintaining communications with Nankin along the west sh.o.r.e of the Ta-hoo, _via_ Chang-chow, Kin-tang, Li-yang, &c.

After the evacuation of Wu-see by the Ti-ping troops, the city, of course, fell into Imperialist hands; when the wretches, in their usual style, commenced a general ma.s.sacre of the unfortunate inhabitants, it being estimated that 6,000, at least, were put to death, their crime being the fact that they were found in a city which had been held by rebels! The poor people who had been daily supplied with food from the Ti-ping granaries were now starved to death, for charity is a virtue unknown to Manchoo mandarins. I was at Wu-see for several weeks, and during that period I went over the country for miles in every direction, finding everywhere the same frightful results of British intervention--in the devastation of the country by the allies, and the starvation of the unfortunate Ti-ping country people. During my return to Shanghae, every place I saw exhibited more or less misery; a painful contrast to the prosperity universally prevailing only a few months before, when the power and rule of the Tien-w.a.n.g was unshaken. Upon leaving the Ti-ping territory, or rather upon pa.s.sing the few strong cities they still occupied in proximity to the frontier, the desolation of the country was perfectly appalling. Even throughout those portions of the silk districts still untouched by the enemy, everything was in a state of turmoil, inactivity, and distress. The mulberry-trees and the silkworms, which require constant care, were but partially tended; in many parts they were neglected altogether; so that these facts, coupled to the wholesale ma.s.sacre of the people by the Imperialists, fully account for the great decrease of silk _since_ the Ti-pings have been driven from the producing districts.

My readers have already been shown the prosperous condition of the country entirely under Ti-ping control during the years 1860-1-2-3. We will now notice for the last time the effect of British support of the barbarous Manchoo.

The change for the worse may be considered to have fairly commenced directly after the capture of the city of Quin-san by the Anglo-Manchoo forces. Since that event, entirely caused by British means, death and destruction have swept throughout the once free, Christian, and smiling land. I have wandered over mile after mile of the once happy Ti-ping districts (during the latter part of 1863 and beginning of 1864); I have pa.s.sed through twenty and thirty villages in a day, and, horrible to relate, in almost every room of each house have found the unfortunate people starved, starving, or barely maintaining the embers of life by a fearful state of cannibalism, feeding on the dead bodies lying thick around them! I have seen this sight of unparalleled horror in large unwalled towns containing many hundred houses, and I frequently found as many as fifteen to twenty bodies in one dwelling, the great number being occasioned by refugees from places already occupied or threatened by Anglo-Imperialists. I have had the fearful consolation of resuscitating many of the miserable people for a short time by giving them all the rice I could obtain, though I was convinced it would only give them strength to undergo the pangs of starvation a second time. Some insensate patriots may accuse me of un-English feeling for my expressions against the policy of the _present_ British ministry; but would not any Englishman feel and write strongly upon witnessing such scenes as those I am describing, and which have been solely caused by the wicked use of England's strength? I denounce the policy pursued against the Ti-pings as being not only egregiously stupid and suicidal in theory and practice, but absolutely iniquitous in every result.

Nothing could work greater harm on living mankind.

From the few poor wretches I found able to speak, in most cases I gathered their expression of opinion ”that it was through foreign soldiers coming to fight the Tien-ping (Ti-ping troops) that their distress had been occasioned.” Some said that ”they had come from places taken by the Kwan-ping (Imperialist troops), and reaching where I found them, could get nothing to eat, were unable to travel farther, and so had lain them down to die.” Whenever I came to villages where the people were not yet reduced to the last stage of famine, mothers were offering their daughters to any one who would take them; but even this was unavailing! Although in other parts of China the young women would have been taken for evil purposes, in Ti-pingdom the laws strictly prohibited everything that was condemned as immoral, so they were left to starve if provisions were not supplied from better motives. These fearful scenes are so vividly impressed upon my memory that I am sorry I ever had the misfortune to witness them.

The desolating sword of Asiatic warfare has been ruthlessly carried into provinces for years in the most flouris.h.i.+ng condition under Ti-ping rule. Hundreds of once happy villages have been obliterated from the face of the earth they once adorned, while the decaying skeletons of their industrious and inoffensive people are thickly scattered throughout the surrounding country, changing into a vast Golgotha and desert what would otherwise have remained an earthly paradise.

As many people would probably feel inclined to deny that the Anglo-Manchoo forces created the desolation I have described, because it has frequently been misrepresented by interested persons that the Ti-pings were the devastators, I have selected two or three statements which entirely corroborate my own.

The following narrative was given by a gentleman who has comparatively lately traversed the silk districts in search of mulberry-trees and silkworms, in order to estimate the probable extent of the next silk crop, and the causes of the present great fall-off. It appeared in the _Friend of China_, Shanghae paper, of January 13, 1865, from which I quote:--

”When Burgevine went to Nankin, that time the country between it and Soo-chow was a garden for loveliness. For eighteen _le_ (Chinese miles) along the ca.n.a.l, on either side, the banks were lined with houses--the inhabitants busy as bees, and as thriving as they had reason to expect to be. With the reversion of Soo-chow to the Imperialists, these houses and numerous bridges disappeared. For the whole eighteen _le_ there is not a roof--the country around, as far as the eye can reach, is a desert. The people have fled from the Imperialists as though they dreaded them like wolves and tigers; nor man, nor woman, nor child, nor beast of any description to be seen. Fowls, ducks, pigs, buffaloes--no such thing to be got for love or money.

”Twenty-seven _le_ from Soo-chow brought me to Soo-za-qua, formerly a custom-house station, now the abode of part of the residue of Gordon's force....

”The place is an oasis in the desert. For miles after leaving it, indeed, all the way thence to Wu-see, the same barren, weed-overgrown appearance meets the sight. Pheasants, partridges, and a wild deer now and then, gave me plenty of amus.e.m.e.nt for my fowling-piece. But the number of bleached skeletons, skulls, or partially decayed dead bodies, is awful to look at--to count them would be impossible--they literally cover the ground for miles. As for traffic in boats, there was none; trade is all gone. Wu-see is in ruins. Where they were going I could not make out, perhaps the boatmen themselves did not know beyond their next stage, but the number of soldiers pa.s.sing up in boats was legion, the contrast between them in their fat, saucy appearance, and that of the meagre, starved-looking wretches in the streets, being very striking. Before reaching Wu-see I pa.s.sed a camp of from 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers--impudent rascals, shouting after me, 'Yang-qui-tsze, Yang-qui-tsze' (Foreign devil),[56] till I was tired of hearing them; beckoning me to come on sh.o.r.e; waving spears and das.h.i.+ng them out to show what they would do if they could. They have evidently no love for Westerns, these Imperial Imps....

”On to Chang-chow-foo, for 95 _le_, still the same howling desert, not a working soul to be seen. The depth and strength of the weeds now are prodigious. Alack, for my search for mulberry-trees! I could not see one. All are cut down, and if wood at all were seen, it was borne by hungry-looking people, propelled by soldiers who had impressed them into the wood-cutting line. It was for such a state of things as this, was it, that Gordon gave his talents? His reward would be a sorry heart (?), could he only view the misery he has made. They are perfectly rabid after firewood, these same Mandarin soldiers, and cut down green wood and everything they meet. I should say there must be from eight to twelve thousand men at Tan-yang, which I next got to--Loo-tszeur, a village between Chang-chow-foo and it, having disappeared to a brick; not a soul to be seen, though they have established a custom-house station about five _le_ from it.

”Tan-yang, a small city on the left bank of the ca.n.a.l, is almost entirely deserted. Soldiers presenting here, as at the other places, the same fat, saucy appearance I before noticed, some of them wearing bangles, earrings, and jewels of value, while the people around are clotheless and miserable, and how the poor wretches live at all is a mystery. All that I saw them grubbing at was a species of porridge, consisting of the _husks_ of paddy, a mess one would not give a horse. Oh, the skulls again!

From Chang-chow-foo to Tan-yang the ground is literally white, like snow, with skulls and bones. The ma.s.sacre of the unfortunate Taipings (inoffensive villagers, most likely) must have been awful! Between Chang-chow-foo and Wu-see stands a dilapidated paG.o.da, said to be 4,000 years old, and I went to look at it. What was my surprise to find it crammed with dead bodies, from which slices had been cut to eat as food!... I went on for 45 _li_ beyond Tan-yang; the farther I went, the country getting worse and worse, if it were possible for there to be a difference when one description of 'bad' does for all, and I began to think that my search for a mulberry-tree, _in what, under the Taipings, was a splendid silk-producing country_, was useless, and I had better turn back.”

Here we have the testimony of an impartial mercantile gentleman. Comment is needless. We will now turn to the evidence given by two of Gordon's own officers, men who were present during the operations against the Ti-pings, but who were ultimately honest enough to admit the truth. The following extracts are from a letter which appeared in the _Friend of China_, April 28, 1864:--

”TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'FRIEND OF CHINA.'

”SIR,--I read in the _North China Herald_ a letter from Gordon's head-quarters, in which the writer says that the slaughter among the rebels, after the capture of Hwa-soo, was terrible. Upwards of 9,000 were taken prisoners, and of these it was estimated 6,000 were killed or drowned, princ.i.p.ally by the Imperialists.

Further, that there is no doubt they would have killed ten times that number if they had the chance to do so. Now, Sir, I do hope there will be a stop put to such ma.s.sacres, though I can but believe that the writer of that article must be, what they call in Australia, a _new chum_, for he cannot know much about the treachery of the Imps, or he would not dwell so much on it. Why, did not the Imperialists take rice, beans, wheat, and all other kinds of grain out of Wu-see, even while those around were starving; and as the old people came up to the gate to go outside the city with their few catties of rice, were they not stopped and their food taken from them, while, if they spoke against it, they were bambooed? There was rice sufficient in Soo-chow and Wu-see to keep the poor in the districts around for many months; why, then, could not the Futai and other Mandarins be made to relieve the poor in the surrounding country?

”At Chang-chow, again, in place of bambooing the poor when begging for a few grains of that which was taken from them, why were they left to die outside by starvation? I saw this, for I was one of the officers engaged in the capture of Wu-see, and other cities. From Wu-see we advanced towards Chang-chow, where, at first, there were but few poor to be seen. After we had been there a short time, however, there was a great number of them.

Why?--_Because the Imperialists had gained so much of the country, and the poor had been robbed by them._ As for the much-lauded Gordon's troops, do they not rob the country people on the march? And if the disciplined troops do this with impunity, what can you think if the non-disciplined do it? I have seen beggars beheaded by these wretches in sheer wantonness.

”The _Herald's_ correspondent writes within sight of the walls of Chang-chow, and says, the starvation and cannibalism which prevail are unrelieved by the fiends who have been the cause of so much misery! The writer of that article little thinks the Imperialists are the fiends, or he would not have written so. On the other hand, parties who have travelled in the rebel districts have seen the Taepings relieve their poor.”