Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong ignored Empress Dowager Cixi's declaration of war against the foreign powers and continued to suppress the Boxers. In addition to not fighting the Eight-Nation Alliance and to suppressing the Boxers in Shandong, Yuan and his army (the Right Division) also helped the Eight-Nation Alliance suppress the Boxers after the Alliance captured Beijing in August 1900. Yuan Shikai's forces massacred tens of thousands of people in their anti-Boxer campaign in Zhili Province. Yuan operated out of Baoding during the campaign, which ended in 1902.