1842.
Summary of Official Documents.
473
whole force by his presence. Advanced a little farther, the shot felf all around him, killing a number of his retinue, and before him loomed the vast ships of the enemy, standing firm as the mountains. He was led and dragged off the field, and returned unhurt to the neigh- boring town of Páushán. There, he found the place, before half emptied, now wholly deserted, except by the magistrate, who met him with 2000 of the militia. He now learned that the commander-in- chief was killed in the camp, that others had come off severely wound- ed, that the battle indeed was lost. It was vain to stay longer; he left the town, and had journeyed but a mile or so, when he beheld one gate of the town in flames, and the magazine of powder exploded. For a moment he yielded to the violence of his pain and grief. But other duties awaited him. He hastened to reässemble his routed force, to issue proclamations for quieting the minds of the people, and to prepare new means of defense.
The report of the fall of Shanghái follows rapidly on this. But the advance of the small steamers twice up the river above Shánghái, and their return, with the ultimate evacuation of Shanghái itself, afforded opportunities, not to be lost, of taking some credit, to make amends for the disgrace of utter defeat at Wúsung. Twice the enemy's ad- vance towards Sungkiáng and Súchau (Soochow) was repulsed with loss. The steamers had closely approached Sungkiáng, whither, after the defeat at Wúsung, all the treasure and official correspondence of the commissariat and pay office had been removed from Shánghái. The outer defenses of the city were attacked. But the bold front shown by the garrison, drawn out in the suburbs, induced the enemy again to retire.
With these reports some details are given of the loss suffered on the side of the English at Wúsung. Two ships had been sunk and a steamer injured. Of the routed Chinese force, 2400 men had reassembled, and busy preparations were being made for the defense of all approaches to Súchau: for, that the English would forthwith spread abroad in all directions, the governor-general could no longer doubt, as they had cast aside the cloke of benevolence and justice which they had endeavored to wear at Ningpó, and now show. cd themselves in their true character of robbers and plunderers.
Immediately before hearing of these events, the emperor had received from all the provinces along the coast, information of ships moving northward; and had therefore called off toward Tientsin many troops before ordered to Súchau. In the state of anxiety in which he then was, the announcement of the fall of Shánghái was received with small indulgence. Niú Kien's statements were but doubt.
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