Update #2 ... as promised!
Before i begin i must thank you all for your comments and appreciations. I know it is not a lot of effort of just type out a word or two of encouragement for me, but it means a lot to me!
Two weeks before [1] the end of the Legation Quarter siege Empress Dowager Cixi had fled Beijing to Xian taking along Emperor Guangxu. Guangxu by this point was a prisoner in his own gilded cage and all power was in the hands of the Dowager Empress. [2]
From Xian the Empress issued a declaration of war [3] and what since been a policy of tacit support for the rebels had turned into a full-fledged war on the foreign countries part of the multi-national coalition.
During the assault on the legation quarters Prince Duan [4] had the distinction of blowing himself up when one of the cannons he planned to use to ‘ground the Legations and the foreign devils in them into dust’ exploded. The assault on the Legation quarter quickly fell into disarray and it was possibly one of the reasons why anyone holed up in the Legation Quarter made it out alive.
Otherwise the assault on Beijing by the multi-national relief force was pretty simple affair for the western forces to deal with. The British, American, Japanese, French, German and Russian forces approached from the west of the city and blasted through the many gates in the walls of Beijing. [5]
General Dong Fuxiang and his army were on their way to assault the Xigu fort and the remnants of the failed Seymour expedition when the news of Beijing’s fall arrived. Admiral Seymour had underestimated Chinese capabilities and tactics and that had cost him his life while defending the fort. [6]
When news of the lifting of the siege arrived at General Dong’s camp, he was infuriated. Soon he and his army of 25,000 Boxer and Chinese troops including 10,000 Knasu Braves fell upon the Xigu fort. [7]
After lifiting the siege on the Legation Quarters the multi-national force wheeled south towards the Xigu fort to link up with the Xigu Relief expedition marching from Tiensin and the crush general Dong’s army and save the Seymour Expedition. [8a]
What followed next was the Battle of Xigu fort were the besieging Chinese and Boxer forces were trapped between the fort and the multi-nation force. However General Dong had managed to escape along with the cream of his troops to the west and later headed south towards Xian to regroup and rearm, sacrificing thousands of the expendable Boxer militia forces to buy him time. [8b]
The multi-nation force then began its long march to Xian. With the news of the fall of Beijing the entire countryside had raised arms against the multi-nation force. Every day on the march to Xian the forces were harassed by local Boxer sympathizers, boxer militia and even bandits. It was in this phase of the campaign that some of the worst atrocities of the war were committed by both sides.[9]
Empress Cixi had called up her armies and mobilized a huge force of almost 150,000 irregulars and militia in the Emperor’s name and had called upon her trusted general Yuan Shikai.[10]
Yuan who in another time would be the President of the nascent Chinese republic and later self-declared Emperor of China was a survivor. And no one is a survivor if they cannot tell which side to choose.
He had earlier betrayed the young Emperor Guangxu and had in the process earned Empress Cixi trust when he told her of a plot by the young Emperor to rid himself of the Empress Dowager.[11]
But he knew that this time the foreigners were out for blood and there would be no quarter given to any Boxer collaborator when the dust settled.
So he promptly moved his 7,000 strong ‘New Created Army’ [12], the most modern troops on the Chinese side and an additional 20,000 irregulars in support of the Westerners from his base in Beiyang [13]
The large Chinese army moved north to link up with General Dong’s troops retreating from Xigu fort around modern day Linfen, in Shanxi province.
In an attempt to curry favor with the Westerners, Yuan intercepted the 5000 exhausted troops in the vanguard of General Dong’s retreat just 50 miles north of Linfen. Knowing that the only way to safety was right through General Yuan’s lines General Dong gave battle. The ensuing battle quickly turned into a rout for General Yuan’s forces when he was shot down from his horse by a stray bullet. Fearing their leader dead, the Beiyang forces scattered from the battlefield and turned what would have been certain victory into a decisive defeat.
Unfortunately for General Yuan he was very much alive and capture by Genral Dong’s forces. He was then transported to face the very disappointed Empress Cixi, and the Empress does not appreciate being disappointed. He was given his sentence; Lingchi. [14]
With barring this minor delay, I mean ‘battle’; General Dong reached the rendezvous and linked up Empress Cixi’s forces. The massive Chinese force then decided to give battle to the western forces moving in from the north. Led by General Dong and confident of all the signs of their victory the fanatic Boxer and Irregular Chinese forces fell upon the cannons, machine guns, rifle and bayonets of the multi-nation force. The Chinese forces were annihilated.
The multi-nation forces never really had time to dig in but nevertheless the discipline, training and technology of the western forces had won the day. The multi-nation force sustained 12,378 casualties. The Chinese forces had lost over 70,000 men including General Dong Fuxiang. [15]
Not wanting to waste any more time the commander of the multi-nation force, the British General Gaselee decided to press on the advantage and pursue the haggard remnants of the Chinese force on their retreat to Xian.
However he did not have to pursue the Chinese forces for long as he was soon met by emissaries from the Emperor Guangxu. Upon receiving news of the devastating defeat at her court the Dowager Empress Cixi had been inconsolable. She died the same night. Emperor Guangxu, now free from the Empress’ clutches had assumed control and ordered an immediate end to all hostile actions against the multi-nation forces and had indicated his desire to meet the British Commander in person on neutral ground.
And thus the Boxer war came to an end. In the following negotiations the Chinese Emperor agreed to several concessions to the European powers and Japan. The Russians and the Japanese wanted to carve up China between the various powers in the Eight Nation Alliance but the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Italians and the Americans were against such a move, while Britain and France were fairly ambiguous about the whole scheme.
In the end because basically no one could ‘decide who gets what’ the Great powers were convinced one by one by the Chinese Emperor with several minor territorial concessions [16], the recognition of British interests in Tibet and Guangdong, Japanese interests in Southern Manchuria and Russian interest in Mongolia and Northern Manchuria along with hefty reparations. [17] Chinese troops were not to enter Tibet, Manchuria, Xinjiang or Mongolia.
More importantly perhaps China obtained German, British and American support for reform and modernization of the Chinese state in the form of advisers and experts.
All of the above was finally agreed upon in the 'Boxer Protocol'. the treaty's full name was 'Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United States and China—Final Protocol for the Settlement of the Disturbances of 1900', also known as 'Xinchou Treaty' in 1901.
The second wave of the multi-nation had just landed three days earlier and these would help the Chinese Emperor re-assert control over most of the country side over the next 3 years as a part of the International China Relief Expedition composed mainly British Indian and American troops form Philippines. [18]
Moving back to the Empire.
One of the more interesting developments was the appointment of Lord Lorne [19], previously the Governor General of Canada as the Governor-General of India in 1894 by the fourth Gladstone government. Lord Lorne was an able administrator and more importantly perhaps was the husband of Princess Louise, Daughter of Prince-Consort Albert and Empress Victoria. Theirs wasn’t a particularly happy marriage but it wasn’t bad either. Despite rumors of Lord Lorne’s homosexuality, he was in the end a devoted husband.
During his five year tenure he travelled [20] far and wide throughout the sub-continent. Princess Louise frequently accompanied her husband. He frequently interacted [21] with his Indian subjects on his travels and soon gained a deep understanding of the people of the sub-continent. He didn’t just listen to the educated elite and often arrogant and snotty Indians, he often talked to the people around him. He talked to the servants around him in Calcutta, to the stokers and guardsmen in the trains he rode in the Northern Plains, to the ‘Palkhiwalas’ [22]of the litters he traveled in the Kutch and the ‘mahouts’ [23] of the elephants he rode in the Deccan. This pretty much opened his eyes.
This simple act of communicating, initially through interpreters, [24] made the challenges facing the people of the sub-continent clear to him. He saw the poverty, the hunger; he saw the effects of the failure of the British administration on the people of India. But he was not the only one who saw.
Things came to a head in the famine of 1896 [25] when his attempts to divert more resources to feed the starving poor in India was met by opposition from the Tory government back home. And this where his wife came into the picture.
Lord Lorne was accompanied by his wife on almost every travel he took throughout the sub-continent. Princess Louise was as much of a witness as Lord Lorne was to the situation in India. And that reflected in the numerous letters to her mother, Empress Victoria.
Interspersed between the lines describe what a joy it was to ride an elephant, and the thrill of seeing a tiger lurking in the underbrush, were words which painted a grim but true picture of the poverty of the sub-continent. She had written a letter dated April 16th 1896 to the Empress in which she mentioned that her husband told her that over a million people would die if his steps for famine relief in the Bombay Province were not sanctioned. She implored her mother to intercede on their behalf.
Victoria, Empress of India, perhaps the greatest queen in the history of England and the greatest monarch in the history of the Empire decided that this was a matter that demanded her attention.
After all she was the Empress of India, and what is a monarch who doesn't look after her subjects?
Empress Victoria never really intervened much in the affairs of the State, less so in her later frail years [26] but she was adamant on getting her way on this matter. Despite opposition from everyone form Chamberlain the Secretary of the Colonies to Secretary of State for India Hamilton to even the Prime Minister Gascoyne-Cecil [27] not to mention more three-quarters of the Tories the Empress ensured that she got a major reform passed by the parliament.
Lord Lorne was authorized by the British Parliament to pursue all avenues to eliminate the threat of famine in the Indian subcontinent and ‘promote the general welfare of Her Majesty’s subjects’ in the British Raj.
And this was soon proven to be one of the major inflection points in the history of the British Empire.
[1] Empress Cixi fled OTL on August 15th to Xian
[2] OTL as well as ITTL Emperor Guangxu was under house arrest under orders from Empress Cixi.
[3] OTL this happened after the firing on Dagu fort, Empress Cixi denied that it was issued with her knowledge in OTL, obviously.
[4] Prince Duan lived on till 24th November 1922 in exile. He was considered a War-Hero by many in China.
[5] Pretty much as in OTL, except the French contingent didn't get lost this time around
[6] Admiral Seymour lived on in OTL, just so you know.
[7] OTL most of Dong's forces where in Beijing and some went south to harass the Seymour Expedition. ITTL he takes his entire force to quash the expedition half way into the siege.
[8a] ITTL
[8b] OTL a much smaller force was sent to support the Seymour Expedition.
[9] In OTL too the Boxer rebellion was infamous for the atrocities committed by both sides.
[10] Yep! THAT Yuan Shikai!
[11] True story!
[12] Formed after the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War.
[13] OTL those forces supported the Westerners but just mopped around Beiyang province eliminating Boxers.
[14]
Slow Slicing. Every bit as painful as it sounds. Google it to satisfy your morbid curiosity! *Muhahaha!
[15] Was exiled in the OTL post-Boxer War aftermath and was exiled to Gansu province where he died in 1908. Stripped of all ranks and honors posthumously.
[16] The basically OTL concessions were expanded, quite expanded.
[17] 450 million taels,i.e., 17,000 tons of silver as per OTL.
[18] Salaries and other costs paid for by His Celestial Majesty the Emperor of China of course.
[19] John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll. Pretty swell guy, unlike OTL Lord Elgin
[20] Did a lot of travelling during his time in Canada in OTL
[21] An traveler worth his salt talks to the locals. He was no exception as the accounts of his travels in North America show.
[22] 'Litter-bearers'
[23] Mahaout = the guy who rides on an elephant and steers the ride while the passengers sit in a basket like thing right behind him. Do go try out an elephant ride. They are fun!
[24] You would be surprised how many Viceroys of India actually learned the local Indian languages.
[25] OTL famine. Lord Elgin the OTL counterpart to Lord Lorne pretty much decided that its perfectly normal for 4-5 million people to die from hunger in the sub-continent from time to time.
[26] pretty much true in OTL
[27] OTL conservatives, i decided to keep them in the same role because its tough to find replacements fro everyone and everything
P.S. God save the Queen!
P.P.S. this update is dedicate to Thande. Thank you for your suggestions!