Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-08
THE CHINESE ARMY
An Estimate Of Its Abilities When
Under Fire.
SURPRISE TO ALL THE ALLIES
Facts Brought Out by the Attack
on Ten Tsin.
EXCELLENT EQ UP NJ f \ Z

EXCELLENT EQUIP Me- Z
Written for The Evening Star by Oscar King Davis.
Probably most of the army officers who
went to China last summer had forgotten
the declaration of Lord Wolseley that the
great danger In Europe lay in the fighting
force of the Chinese. Perhaps they had
| never heard of it Surely 1t was the belief
of the average fighting man of the other
races that the men with the long queues
and tapping, baggy clothes would not and
| could not stand long before his own SUI
perior military skill and proves. The ease
with which half dozen tin-clad little gun
boats took the great Taku forts served
those who held this opinion as corrobora-
tory evidence.
But after few days of the fighting about
Iien Tsin they began to remember the man
who wrote The Yellow Peril and to talk
of the task 1t would be to overcome the
Chinese and the danger to the world of
permitting them to organize and drill an
army OF any considera BILE size. For John
Chinaman at Tien Tsin developed quail
ties as lighting man that astonished his
enemies.
First Of all, he was equipped properly.
Next. he knew how to his equipment.
Then he attacked. an element heretofore
unknown in Chinese tactics.
Had Learned a Lesson.
II was in the war with Japan that the
Chinese learned that sawdust was not good
for much when used gunpowder. After
that exposition Of official rascality the Eu-
ropean drillmasters of the Chinese armies
insisted on having hand In the purchase
of supplies. The result was that the Chi
nese at Tien Tsin were supplied with plenty
OF krupp guns and We're armed with Mann
llcher rifles, with apparently limitless guam
titles OF SmokeleSs ammunition of the very
best grade.
1t is not too much to say that not one Of
the forces seEt against the Chinese was as
we'll equipped for the offensive as the enc
my. All told, more than hundred guns of
various sizes, ages and makes We're taken
by the allies in and around Tien Tsin. Very
many of these We're krupp 3.2-inch rifles
nearly new. This is an admirable field gun
better than anything any of the allies had
until the arrival of Light Battery f of the
9th United States Artillery, with its six rifles
of the same size. The British, of course
had their naval guns, six and twelve
Founders, from the big cruiser Terrible.
and some 4 and 47-inch rifles from the
gunboats Algerine and Phoenix But these
are not field guns.
Firing on Ticn Tsfn.
One day early in July the Chinese planted
a new battery to the west of Tien Tsin.
i
after II O'Clock on beautiful clear, sunlit
morning. dozen or more men were on
the tower of the German Club one of the
tallest buildings in the British concession.
and several British officers We're on the
tower of Gordon Hall, their signal head
quarters All had good glasses and all were
doing their best to pick up the new bat
terry. The direction of the shells and the
reports of the guns were their only guides
for the ammunition of the Chinese was of
50 good quality that at the distance
there was not the slightest trace of smoke
discernible by the strongest binoculars. 1t
was more than half an hour before the To-
cation of the battery was ascertained. 1t
happened that one of the watchers was
looking at the exact spot when one of the
guns was fired and he saw the flash. That
was enough. In the course of the next few
minutes all four Of the guns were located
and the officers on Gordon Hall were signal
ing to the twelve-pounders where to fire to
engage the battery.
Used SmOkeless Powder
The powder used in the cartridges of the
Mannlicher rifles was entirely smokeless.
Rapidly of fire apparently made no differ
ence with it. A single shot from one of
the Krag-Jorgensen rifles of our soldiers
leaves very little trace, but when the whole
line is firing at will there is thin gray
haze above the men which it Is not SO ex-
tremely difficult to place
the Chinese. On the north bank Of the Pc!
river, just across from the French con-
cession at Tfen Tsin. there were scores of
huge long piles Of salt stored there by the
sal, commissioner for the government. which |
maintains monopoly of that Industry.
These piles were covered with thick. stout |
mats to shed the rains The Chinese used
to crawl urder these mats under cover of
the night and "snipe' into the settlements
all day. 1t was only occasionally. and then
under the utmost difficulty. that any of them
were caught, because the excellence Of their |
ammunition left no clue by which they !
could be located.
Are Not Natural Fighters.
But Lord Wolseley and the yellow peril |
man were not entirely right. The Chinese |
is not natural fighting man. as many
of his antagonists were. 1t takes time and
patience and lot of hard drilling to make |
him a good soldier, to get something of
the art and science Of war hammered into
the heads Of his officers. They have made |
a beginning toward being a yellow peril"
Perhaps in another fifteen or twenty years !
they might have gone far toward the &C |
complishment Of their dearest dream-the
tory. But in 1900 they are far from the
mark. They had bought enough modern rifles
and guns to equip huge army, but there were
hundreds of them who stin chung to the old
fashioned higglety pigglety mess of shoot i
Ing irons that the war with Japan should |
have shown them to be almost utterly |
useless. They had old smooth-bore mus !
kets that looked as if they had been made