In
This Disastrous Affair More Than 300 Men Were Killed And Wounded, Which,
Added To The Loss Of Three Gunboats,
Represented a very serious disaster.
But the worst of it was that it convinced the emperor and his advisers
that
They could hold their own against Europeans, and that it placed the
extreme party once more in the ascendant at Pekin. Sankolinsin, the Mongol
prince who had checked the advance of the Taepings, became master of the
situation, and declared that there was nothing to fear from an enemy who
had been repulsed by the raw levies of the province while he held the flat
country between the Peiho and Pekin with the flower of the Banner army.
Mr. Bruce returned to Shanghai, the fleet to Hongkong, and the matter
remained suspended until fresh instructions and troops could be received
from Europe.
After some hesitation and delay, a plan of joint action was agreed upon in
November, 1859, between France and England, and it was hoped that the
whole expeditionary force would have reached its destination by April,
1860. Pending its arrival Mr. Bruce was instructed to present an ultimatum
with thirty days' grace demanding an immediate apology, the payment of a
large indemnity amounting to $12,000,000 to both England and France, and
the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin. The minister, Pang Wanching,
replied, categorically refusing all these requests; and, as neither
indemnity nor apology was offered, there remained no alternative but the
inevitable and supreme appeal to arms.
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