On August 10, 1900, the Eight-Power Coalition gathered 18,000 men and invaded Beijing from Tianjin for the second time, and four days later the Eight-Power Coalition bombarded the city and launched a general attack on the imperial city. At about 11 o'clock, the American troops in Dongbianmen first broke through the Qing defense line, the Americans built a ladder from the corner of the city wall, and after 12 noon, the British blasted open the Xuanwu Gate with artillery.
Plays from the Qing Dynasty or the Republic of China
After the occupation of Beijing, the commander of the Eight-Power Alliance allowed three days without sealing the knife, and all soldiers could rob at will. Japanese journalist Naomatsu Ryoji recalled that China's high-rise buildings were burned down by coalition soldiers, beijing citizens were fleeing for their lives, and Chinese's wife had been casually insulted by the soldiers, and everyone could grab Chinese. This is a true portrayal of what the Eight-Power Coalition has done.
The coalition soldiers in the city of Beijing, on the pretext of hunting down Qing and Boxer soldiers, looted everywhere, and when they saw the Gaomen mansion, they were about to go in and rob the goods, and they violently abused the women in the gate of the mansion. Even some creeps can break into the backyards of high-ranking officials and rich merchants and sleep on their beds.
Foreigners and Qing Dynasty women
How poor the military discipline of the Eight-Power Alliance was, they often got drunk and made trouble, flirted with good women in the streets, and after getting drunk, they set fires everywhere, and from the Di'an Gate to the front gate tower were burned to ashes. These foreigners have no bottom line at half, robbing women, robbing gold and silver, and destroying houses after robbing gold and silver.
The Eight-Power Coalition also specially cleared out some hutongs, and the houses inside became places for women who had been robbed, and then sent people to strictly guard them, making these women prisoners of foreigners. Even the wife and daughter of the Tongzhi Emperor's elder brother-in-law, Hubu Shangshu Ai Xinjueluo Chongqi, were insulted in public.
Group photo of coalition generals
The invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance was also the most serious period of the outflow of national treasures and cultural relics on the mainland, because many treasures hidden in the people were searched out by these foreigners, and some officials and gods took the initiative to donate some treasures in order to save their lives. Foreigners also mainly robbed gold and silver, clocks, enamelware, etc., and the disturbing city of Beijing must not be quiet.
The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Wadesi, once wrote a war report that it was impossible to remember what had been looted in China, and that every soldier would return with a full load and need to find a way to replenish the army's official belongings. Moreover, the coalition's treatment of women was very brutal, causing great resentment among the people of Beijing.
Foreigners sit on the dragon chair
After entering the city of Beijing, the commanders of the Eight-Nation Alliance resented their country for sending too few troops, because the wealth of this rich city was too much for all the soldiers they led to move. The Japanese army snatched more than 3 million taels of silver and more than 320,000 stones of rice from the treasury of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Hubu Prefecture, and japan plundered more than 60 million taels of silver alone in this war of aggression against China.
The French were not idle, and the palaces of the Rebbe and the surrounding Belle and Bezi were plundered, and millions of cash flowed into the warehouses of the French army, but it can also be seen from this that these princes and nobles are indeed not short of money. In the three days of the raid by the coalition forces, more than 3,000 golden Buddhas, more than 1,600 scrolls of scriptures, and nearly 2,000 sacrificial supplies were lost in the temples of Beijing. Moreover, the Yongle Canon, a treasure of Chinese culture, also lost 307 volumes during this period.
The Grid of the Qing Dynasty
What the Eight-Power Alliance did in Beijing was a source of anger and resentment! And what is the cause of all this bitterness? Is the Eight-Power Coalition too strong? Or was the Qing army too weak? Or is it because of Cixi's absurd behavior? Please give your opinion!