In the Yellow Sea Part 22

It was the All-Hallow's Eve when we came cautiously into the first village, and found the peasants much alarmed at the near approach of the j.a.panese. Scouts had reported the advance, and a number of carts and men were bringing supplies for the army in the town, and for the cavalry outside it. My guide had a brilliant idea,--no less than one for the supply of vegetables, and he managed with my _cash_ to lay in a stock, which he suggested we should carry into Kinchow, and go through it to Port Arthur.

His leaden face lighted up when I praised his plan, though I have reason to think now that I rather called him names in my imperfect vocabulary. However, he seemed pleased, on the whole, and we set out on the 1st November to penetrate between the line of formidable forts which defended the approaches to Kinchow, on the hills along which the stony track meanders. The whole aspect of the country through which we had lately travelled is undulating; seamed by depressions, or ridged by hills, so that we were rising and falling all the time with our hopes and fears. I was particularly nervous, because if anyone chanced to clutch my artificial pigtail I would be a "lost mutton." The moral character of the Chinaman depends upon--or shall I say _in_--his tail.

A Chinaman _sans_ pigtail is an outcast. The Manchus live and dress like the Chinese, and supply the best food for powder in China.

We had some trouble--more perhaps in my imagination--on our way to the town, over whose walls the terrible Dragon was waving on banners and flags in most defiant fashion. If the Chinese resistance would only accord with their preparations and defences, the little j.a.panese would certainly be repulsed, I thought. As we advanced I felt like a man forced into a trap, for if discovered I had no chance for life from the Celestials, while the Rising Suns would have no quarter for those taken "in arms." Chinese pickets were scattered amongst the hills, and some fine men were in the ranks.

No doubt there were hundreds of men within these forts, though we saw few of them, and I wondered whether they kept watch at night carefully, for indeed they appeared rather sleepy in the morning, though ready enough with their rifles. They could thus command both roads into Kinchow from a distance over the hills and dales.

I had fancied that I heard guns during the night, but perhaps it was thunder. At anyrate the night was boisterous, and the morning chilly and wet. A long column of carts met us, and we with the natives winded our way down the track, pa.s.sing two villages of few houses, and nearing the city, for from the hill we came close to it, and entered by the northern gate. a.s.suming a most "fearful" carelessness, which in less anxious times might have proved my undoing, I walked by my guide's side watching every movement, and scarcely noticing the glances cast upon us. Luckily my companion was recognised and well known, and our mission was patent. We had brought food, and entered the town by the Gate of "Eternal Tranquillity," a misnomer as it proved.

We made our way into the town amid soldiers, horses, and peasants. The walls were lofty and solid, the gates well defended, and I understood that all the approaches were mined, so that the attacking force would be blown up outside _if the mines exploded_. At anyrate, it seemed a very formidable place, and capable of a successful resistance. The guns were mounted on the bastions, and all ready for a siege. The soldiers were swarming in the streets, quartered on the people whom they had come to defend, and swaggering as much as they could.

My guide escorted me to an eating-house, a small, and, I thought, very dirty place, amid the peasants; and there he heard the news, for though all seemed on the alert and not alarmed, they knew the j.a.panese were approaching rapidly. We managed to get some satisfying food, and in escaping observation amid the soldiers who were enjoying themselves, and in excellent spirits. My guide was amused, and when I had paid for our entertainment, he made for the south gate, guarded by Manchus.

There we found exit denied, for the soldiers were stationed there in force, whether to run away first, or to prevent the townspeople from doing so, I could not determine. But we were stopped and questioned and searched. My heart sank to my shoes. The end I considered had come. What defence had I? I could not even reply to the questions which the "sergeant," so I deemed him, put to me. My guide had quickly cleared himself, and was standing chattering to the officer of the gate. My time had come, and I braced myself to meet the inevitable fate which was impending.

CHAPTER XIII

KINCHOW--ARRESTED BY CHINESE SOLDIERS--CAPTURE OF THE CITY

As I have said, my heart sank as the sergeant came up roughly and prepared to strip me again. Such an indignity I was unable to resist, and when the man indicated a spot apart where my costume could be conveniently removed if needful, my anger rose, and I made some remarks, which, as a fancy display of Chinese, may have given rise to curiosity, but as a means of release were void of effect. As I continued to address the "sergeant," he stood still, and gazed at me in as much surprise as a Manchu soldier usually exhibits. Seeing this, my anger and expostulations grew more fierce. I waved my arms, gesticulated, performed _sleight-of-hand_ movements with my fingers, and in fact exhibited such manifest tokens of ability to take a "first-cla.s.s" at Earlswood (England), that the man retreated to make inquiry respecting me, and I breathed again.

What was my late companion doing all this time? He had apparently deserted me, and this after all my lavish--in a Chinese sense--expenditure of _cash_. Again my bad feelings predominated, and I felt truly disgusted with my "luck." There was no loophole for escape, and though the disappearance of the sergeant was a blessing, it might really result in death.

The man had left me alone in the hut,--I cannot call it house,--and when my ill temper had quickly evaporated I began to think of escape.

The door was open to the pa.s.sage or side street, and when I peeped out I perceived a soldier, armed, standing sentry at the end of the _cul de sac_, as the alley was. Escape seemed impossible. I was again a prisoner; whither could I go, what could I do were the thoughts which surged through my excited brain. The Chinese (or Manchu) soldier had me in his keeping, and perhaps had orders to kill me if I attempted to escape, pending the return of the lieutenant of the guard. Meantime, I was absolutely helpless. In any "civilised" country one might have managed to intercede for oneself, but there in Manchuria the case was different. I was lost!--strayed!

During the minutes already at my disposal I considered all the available plans of evasion I had heard of. Captives in stories, and in all the imaginative books which I had devoured, always had a friend who, whether a Freemason or not, had means at hand to circ.u.mvent the villain! But there was no villain in my case; nothing unusual, nothing out of the way in my circ.u.mstances, and this dead-level of experience appeared devoid of any person who could undertake the role of the "G.o.d in the machine," and release me. Here was the sentry, there the lofty gate, its platform surmounted by a two-storeyed tower, from which the advance of the enemy was doubtless perceived, or would shortly be perceived. Neither sentinel nor entrance seemed likely to afford me pa.s.sage. Ah! the sentry was approaching. I shrank back into the hut, and peeped through the opening of the door. The sentry came on slowly and somewhat limply.

He had a rifle and ammunition, and seemed well equipped. He pa.s.sed the place of my concealment, and I began to hope that he would pa.s.s on, and permit of my escape to the main street, which, being full of people, might afford opportunities for it; but to my disgust he turned, and came directly towards me. As he came nearer I retreated into the gloom of the hut, and not perceiving me, he came in. Still uncertain, he advanced carelessly, I fancied, and at that moment something prompted me to make a decided effort at release.

He was carrying his rifle on his arm above the elbow, not in any European soldierly manner; a sword or bayonet was at his side.

Suddenly I made a spring like a tiger upon the man, and in a second had him thrown. He struggled manfully, and attempted to strike me with a knife, but I was half-maddened, youthful, and strong. I hit him violently between the eyes, and dazed him; then wresting the rifle from his relaxed grasp, I banged it upon his head in a manner which I afterwards regretted, and darted from the hut. As I ran into the alley I encountered my late guide, who was then coming in search of me.

His surprise was genuine, and he made some inquiries by the pantomime method, a.s.sisting it by a few words, which I interpreted to indicate surprise at my escape. I told him in the same tongue what had happened, and he was aghast at my temerity! He dragged me back at once hastily, and I was unable to resist him. When he saw the unconscious soldier he became calmer, but still apparently greatly in the same haste, motioning me to a.s.sist in taking off the man's outward dress.

Seeing some prospect of escape, I helped him, and then putting his own clothes upon the soldier, who never stirred all the time, but lay pa.s.sive as the dead, my guide quickly dragged me out with him, a prisoner, having first hidden the rifle and ammunition, keeping the sword of the sentry.

But I understood his plan. Armed he might a.s.sist me, and quit the town in the dusk of the evening. Proceeding by side streets, and avoiding the largest--all very small--thoroughfares, my rescuer reached a house at which he was recognised as I supposed, but I was wrong. He had merely brought me to an opium-house, where he intended to remain a while till an opportunity arose for leaving the city.

This was a most dreadful experience, because, of course, the idea of opium smoking to me was abhorrent. To lie there upon one of those hard bed-planks, inhaling a pipeful of sticky stuff, which though exceedingly minute, is always--at first at anyrate--most sickly. My guide seemed to think it essential, I supposed, to my safety, and I made shift to comply with his suggestions, but speedily became unconscious, which, I presume, he desired.

My sensations were _at first_ unpleasant. As a smoker of tobacco I have had my most deadly experiences when learning to smoke, but certainly in my case the attempt I made was not so unpleasant in Kinchow opium smoking. But the moral effect of the surroundings was bad, and even though acknowledging the risk and my guide's anxiety, I would not attempt opium again. The flavour is not unpleasant, and is rather aromatic perhaps. The smoke is inhaled as usual, and expelled by the nostrils. Before I became unconscious I felt quite happy, and full of a pleasant sense of content, as if "I wouldn't call the Emperor of China my uncle"! This happiness lasted into oblivion, into which I was lulled that evening by the sound of cannon-fire.

Unfortunately I cannot tell how long I remained in the den, because the Chinese have no clocks, and those which are imported from America and elsewhere are not in favour with the people. The day had died, and I felt rather "seedy" when I made an effort to get up. The cannonade and firing continued at a distance during my sleep, and later, when I made a serious attempt to rouse myself, I heard the roar of distant guns. I suppose that when the effects of the opium had pa.s.sed away I had slept, and in my dreams heard the noise. Daylight was near then, and when I could plainly discern things I discovered that I had been carried into another room, and was alone.

This did not alarm me, because all was perfectly still in the house.

Possibly the Chinese were sleeping, and my Manchurian guide had placed me in a place of safety. I began to understand his good nature, which, whether the result of _cash_ or not, was quite praiseworthy and opportune. So far as I could perceive I was free and unfettered. I rose and looked about me. It was about five a.m.

There was nothing remarkable so far as I could discern. The day was breaking rather sadly, and still the sound of firing continued from the direction of the hills, across which I had already pa.s.sed, on the Fuchow Road, and I considered that the j.a.panese were already sh.e.l.ling the forts. If they succ.u.mbed there would be no chance for the town under a.s.sault, and under the circ.u.mstances I deemed it desirable to prepare for my departure.

My simple toilet was quickly arranged, and I descended to the narrow alley, hesitating, even when I reached the street, whither I should bend my way. Perhaps I could manage to get out of the town by the north gate, at which I had entered; and made my way thither amid the press of civilians and soldiers, the latter of whom seemed to be impressing men to convey ammunition to the upper portion of the gate and the castle walls. These coolies were quickly at work, and were directed to ascend the walls in places, or to bring the rifle ammunition to the men lining the loopholes.

Amongst these labourers I soon discerned my guide, and had just made myself known to him when he by signs suggested that I should a.s.sist him. As an officer was approaching I deemed it politic to comply, and thus escape detection. So I willingly seized a case of cartridges, and a.s.sisted my friend in distributing them to the sharpshooters. While occupied in this way I caught sight of a means of ascent to the battlements above, and at once ran up to the upper platform, where, in the still dim light, I remained in hiding, peeping from behind an angle of the wall through an unoccupied loophole.

I was now above the firing line, and as the daylight increased I made out the condition of affairs. All this time musketry, or rather rifle fire, had been accentuated by big guns, and I could perceive the j.a.panese struggling over the hill (Mount Potau), and advancing upon the fort. The advance had been made in the dusk of the dawn, and now when the day was clearing and a bright morning was promised I could make out the Chinese retreating before the j.a.panese, in a panic. So far as I saw, the Chinese did not make any decided attempt to withstand the attack. They streamed from the fort, delivering a feeble fire, a volley, and a dropping fire, then another volley; but all the time the j.a.panese a.s.sailants kept charging into the confused ma.s.s of Dragon-led men, who suddenly broke away, and "pelted" in the direction of the castle.

But the Manchus were not altogether defeated. They had been taken napping, no doubt, but they made an effort, a.s.sured by the reinforcements which came from the other forts. Across the road they halted, and began a terrific fire upon the advancing troops, and from the rocky redoubts the Chinese also began to make good practice.

This was getting "warm"; the smoke rose slowly from the guns and rifles, as the white-banded caps descended the slope where they had captured the forts first. There were other forts upon the rocks nearer the town, and I could not think that these, perched three hundred feet above the road, in rugged and difficult positions, would be taken, or indeed reached. The j.a.panese tried, however, and the Celestials above pelted them with shot in a fearful manner as they advanced; but when the j.a.ps reached the bases of the cliffs they simply climbed up like schoolboys, ignoring the leaden hail, some of which pa.s.sed over their heads.

This seemed madness; but another force was at the same time climbing on the left (my right) side of the picture, and was making a line so as to ascend to the left rear of the redoubt. Still another regiment ascended behind the first, and all the time these j.a.panese men were being tumbled off the rocks by the bullets of the Chinese above. I could see bodies falling and striking heavily on the rugged and pointed edges of the rocks; but still the j.a.panese climbed, and when the artillery found a chance they "chipped in," knocking corners off the Chinese and their defences.

There was a pause for a little, and some arrangement appeared to be made by the j.a.panese troops, who kept climbing, climbing. Then came a sudden rush upwards and sideways, and I could see no result until the cannon ceased firing gradually. Then I saw the defenders rushing away, pursued by the j.a.panese, who shot and bayoneted them unmercifully. The fugitives fell by dozens, and were killed. Dark spots lay thickly upon the summit of the hill, and in the ravines near, while the Dragon standards were displaced, and the Rising Sun uplifted in their place.

Such a stampede I never expect to see again, and the killing was done systematically, because when two advancing bodies of j.a.panese troops took the entrenchments by storm, a third company did not enter the redoubt, but went on in chase of the flying enemy.

While I was thus sheltered, the soldiers in the town were all in readiness to repel the expected attack. The dispersed Manchus, or Chinese, were cut off from the gate; and it seemed to me that a strong column, with guns, was approaching from Fuchow. The question was now serious for me. I did not dare retire because the Chinese were immediately below. I did not venture to go up higher because I must at once have been seen and shot as a deserter; or perhaps cast down from the walls. Meantime time was pressing. The exterior defences of the town and citadel had been taken, and after all I had witnessed it seemed to me that Kinchow was doomed. The a.s.sailants were converging upon the town, in which uproar and dismay were already rife, while the advancing troops were being sh.e.l.led by the Krupp guns mounted upon the Chinese fortifications. The situation was, at least, embarra.s.sing.

It was, I suppose, about nine o'clock that morning, when I grasped the fact that the artillery was getting into position. It was difficult for me to make out these arrangements, situated as I was a full mile from the advancing troops, though in an advantageous position for witnessing the attack from the top side of the north gate, built like a railway arch in the surrounding wall of the town, a wall twenty feet high, and surrounded by the edifice already mentioned--a kind of paG.o.da erection. But when I beheld puffs of steely smoke rising from the hillside, and heard the sh.e.l.ls--at first a few, and then incessantly, I crouched behind the masonry, and did not dare to look out.

My head seemed to swim as these furious missiles came hurtling along over the wall and gate, crashing, bursting, killing, and maiming all out of shelter in the streets, and even in the hospital buildings erected inside the gate, which yawned like a small tunnel in the wall.

The unfortunate donkeys, and more unfortunate men in attendance, were blown into atoms at times, the streets were filled with dead and wounded, and on them lay ruins of the town; while the defenders, though firing steadily, could do little because the black smoke of the bombarding guns shut out all except the ploughed-up earth, the shrieking sh.e.l.ls, the dead and wounded by the wall, and within the "castled city." Outside, the ground was ridged by shot, and the noise of the contest was simply indescribable. The bursting and cracking, mingled with the fearful detonation of the guns, of which I should say forty a.s.sailed us, at once gave me a sensation of splitting headache and a giddiness which I had never experienced. Stones split and fractured, wood disappeared in gigantic matches and splinters, the iron gate resounded and shook, the noise of the arch below being thunderous--yet it stood; and when the salvoes ceased a while, and the smoke cleared a bit, I looked out and saw some soldiers advancing closer amid the furrowed ground, and the dead j.a.ps who lay outside.

The Chinese in shelter fired still from the loopholes at the j.a.ps, and the j.a.panese came running up to the gate, while the guns again sent messages of iron into the town. The j.a.panese soldiers managed to reach a small cl.u.s.ter of houses--a deserted kind of village, if one may so call it--facing the gate. One of these huts was standing in advance of the rest, a peculiar position for a house, and so the j.a.panese thought, because the officer in command must have sent a party to examine it, right before me, and some of the venturesome ones never reached it.

The men ran up amid the rifle fire from the wall, and judging by the time it took to gain entrance, the hut was barricaded. The men fell fast, but at length the survivors gained admission, and apparently found nothing.[1]

[1] It was ascertained afterwards that the wires of the "mines" were cut there.--H.F.

My attention had been directed to this hut, but then the j.a.panese troops advanced in ma.s.ses, rushing at the walls. But they could do nothing. Chinese of all sorts, soldiers and coolies, rained bullets and missiles at them when they reached the walls and attempted to climb up. It was impossible to scale these smooth surfaces, great ma.s.ses of brick eighty feet thick, from the summit of which the people were hurling stones, and firing guns and rifles. In this I saw my opportunity, and joined the defenders on the ramparts.

What immediately followed is a little confused in my mind. We could see the soldiers retreating, leaving their dead and some wounded on the field, while crashing sh.e.l.ls came, again devastating the defenders'

ranks. But the Chinese stuck to it and replied in kind. We all seemed wild, and even I became careless in showing myself in the excitement and the roar of the battle. I actually saw men cut across their blue clothing in an instant, steeped in blood, and yet they seemed to move and writhe. Their a.s.sociates took no notice of them. Life in China is of no value apparently, and when the spectator in his turn falls in silent anguish, the survivors thrust him aside, and seize the weapon they themselves require. Many fell over the wall and died amid the enemy, when they _slipped_ from the ensanguined battlements, or platform.

At length the defeated stormers retired baffled. But while the defenders were perchance congratulating themselves, another band rushed up. The crowd of a.s.sailants had been defeated, the yelling mult.i.tude at the base of the smooth walls were chagrined, but they sent another force. Meanwhile we kept up the fire, and I saw a few j.a.panese lying close to the west end of the wall, apparently dead, but occasionally stirring as if in pain. I pointed them out to some soldiers, who glanced and took no further notice, because the attack was about to be renewed; but I wished I could have put the poor fellows in safety, or tended them. A vain wish, and one later repented.

Again the j.a.panese advanced carrying boxes. Some of them then ran in close to the great iron-lined gate, and, notwithstanding the furious firing, remained under the shelter of the arch until they had accomplished their design. It was evident. These were engineers, and they intended to blow up the gate. It was a most terribly anxious moment when the men hurried off, not unscathed, and some of us waited for the result. The Chinese mines had failed, would the j.a.panese be successful? I retired to the west side, where the bricks of the wall at the corner project a little, as we see in isolated brick houses. To my consternation, at that moment I perceived three j.a.panese _mounting the "ladder" of bricks_ to gain the summit of the walls. I shouted, but at that moment my voice was drowned in the uproar of the explosion under us, and I, with others, was thrown down amid the ruins of the masonry.

The tumult was fearful. The great gate was rent, the stones flew far and wide, the wall bulged, and at the same moment the apparently dead j.a.panese, who had been lying in wait, came rushing up, and cut down the gunners before them. One soldier, the leader, pulled away the Dragon flag, and shouted "_Banzai_!" I saw no more. Struck by a glancing bullet I sank back, almost insensible, behind the western parapet; and the last sounds in my ears were the vociferous cheers of the j.a.panese as they poured through the dismantled gate, and took possession of the "castle-town" of Kinchow.

CHAPTER XIV