Word: wanhsien
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...Unfortunately, before the matter was settled, British cruisers arrived a Wanhsien, and opened fire on the town, destroying a thousand houses, killing a thousand civilians and a hundred gendarmerie. Other cruisers appeared, training guns on Wanhsien. The Chinese returned the fire in self-defense...
...with us just let them start it. In the end we will win, for China is weary of being treated as an inferior nation." Since this version of the affair differs completely from Occidental news despatches (TIME, Sept. 20) representing the Chinese as having been the aggressors at Wanhsien, Mr. Chu's charges roused the British representative, Lord Cecil, to empurpled fury...
...point blank range by the Yang artillery. To break this deadlock, intolerable to British amour propre, H. M. S. Cockchafer and H. M. S. Wigdeon, both river warships of the highest armament, steamed close to shore, drew the fire of the land batteries and shelled the city of Wanhsien...
Battle. The British auxiliary Kiawo at once opened fire on the land batteries, and all three British warships steamed close to the captured British merchantmen, in an effort to rescue their officers and passengers. The Kiawo steamed under the lea of the Wanhsien and effected a rescue of all Occidentals on board after a hand to hand fight with the Chinese. General Yang's well directed artillery fire made it impossible to board the Wantung, but the British warships stood by at a distance and picked up the Wantung's crew and passengers who leaped overboard...
Demonstration. At once Vice-Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair, commander-in-chief of the British China Station, began to steam portentously up the Yangtze on his flagship, the cruiser Hawkins. Sir Edwyn well knew that the potent Hawkins could not navigate the Yangtze above Hankow, some 300 miles below Wanhsien, on account of the shallow rapids, most famed of which is the so-called "Tiger's Tooth." But Hankow could be used as a base for punitive expeditions, and a glimpse of the Hawkins might strike salutary terror into many a Chinese breast...