Editing Boxer Rebellion (section)

=== Gaselee Expedition ===
{{main|Gaselee Expedition}}
Foreign navies started building up their presence along the northern China coast from the end of April 1900. Several international forces were sent to the capital, with varying success, and the Chinese forces were ultimately defeated by the Alliance. Independently, the Netherlands dispatched three cruisers in July to protect its citizens in Shanghai.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNcUAAAAIAAJ |title=Acta Historiae Neerlandica: Historical Studies in the Netherlands |publisher=Brill |year=1970 |editor-last=Nordholt |editor-first=J. W. Schulte |volume=IV |pages=160–161, 163–164 |editor-last2=van Arkel |editor-first2=D.}}</ref>

British Lieutenant-General [[Alfred Gaselee]] acted as the commanding officer of the Eight-Nation Alliance, which eventually numbered 55,000. Japanese forces, led by [[Fukushima Yasumasa]] and [[Yamaguchi Motomi]] and numbering over 20,840 men, made up the majority of the expeditionary force.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 July 1902 |title=Russojapanesewarweb |url=http://www.russojapanesewar.com/boxers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225035030/http://www.russojapanesewar.com/boxers.html |archive-date=25 February 2021 |access-date=6 September 2012 |publisher=Russojapanesewar.com}}</ref> French forces in the campaign, led by general [[Henri-Nicolas Frey]], consisted mostly of inexperienced Vietnamese and Cambodian conscripts from [[French Indochina]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fleming |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkRyPwAACAAJ |title=The Siege at Peking |publisher=Birlinn |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-84158-098-2}}</ref> The "First Chinese Regiment" ([[Weihaiwei Regiment]]) which was praised for its performance, consisted of Chinese collaborators serving in the British military.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Powell |first=Ralph L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akXWCgAAQBAJ&q=example%20results%20obtained%20small%20regiment%20commanded&pg=PA118 |title=Rise of the Chinese Military Power |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4008-7884-0 |page=118}}</ref> Notable events included the seizure of the [[Battle of Dagu Forts (1900)|Dagu Forts]] commanding the approaches to Tianjin and the boarding and capture of four Chinese destroyers by British Commander [[Roger Keyes]]. Among the foreigners besieged in Tianjin was a young American mining engineer named [[Herbert Hoover]], who would go on to become the 31st President of the United States.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=96}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hoover |first=Herbert C. |author-link=Herbert Hoover |title=The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: Years of Adventure 1874–1920 |publisher=Hollis & Carter |year=1952 |location=London |pages=47–54}}</ref>

The international force captured [[Tianjin]] on 14 July. The international force suffered its heaviest casualties of the Boxer Rebellion in the [[Battle of Tientsin]].{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|pp=130, 138}} With Tianjin as a base, the international force marched from Tianjin to Beijing (about {{cvt|120|km}}), with 20,000 allied troops. On 4 August, there were approximately 70,000 Qing imperial troops and anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 Boxers along the way. The allies only encountered minor resistance, fighting battles at [[Battle of Beicang|Beicang]] and [[Battle of Yangcun|Yangcun]]. At Yangcun, Russian general [[Nikolai Linevich]] led the [[14th Infantry Regiment (United States)|14th Infantry Regiment]] of the US and British troops in the assault. The weather was a major obstacle. Conditions were extremely humid with temperatures sometimes reaching {{convert|42|°C|°F|abbr=on}}. These high temperatures and insects plagued the Allies. Soldiers became dehydrated and horses died. Chinese villagers killed Allied troops who searched for wells.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge 88]}}

The heat killed Allied soldiers, who foamed at the mouth. The tactics along the way were gruesome on either side. Allied soldiers beheaded already dead Chinese corpses, bayoneted or beheaded live Chinese civilians, and raped Chinese girls and women.<ref name="Thompson">{{harvp|Thompson|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5K9BN96p1hcC&pg=PA168 168]}}.</ref> [[Cossack]]s were reported to have killed Chinese civilians almost automatically and Japanese kicked a Chinese soldier to death.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|pp=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge/page/87 87, 89]}} The Chinese responded to the Alliance's atrocities with similar acts of violence and cruelty, especially towards captured Russians.<ref name="Thompson" /> Lieutenant [[Smedley Butler]] saw the remains of two Japanese soldiers nailed to a wall, who had their tongues cut off and their eyes gouged.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge/page/88 88]}} Lieutenant Butler was wounded during the expedition in the leg and chest, later receiving the [[Brevet (military)|Brevet Medal]] in recognition for his actions.

The international force reached Beijing on 14 August. Following Beiyang army's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government had invested heavily in modernising the imperial army, which was equipped with modern Mauser repeater rifles and Krupp artillery. Three modernised divisions consisting of Manchu bannermen protected the Beijing Metropolitan region. Two of them were under the command of the anti-Boxer [[Yikuang|Prince Qing]] and Ronglu, while the anti-foreign Prince Duan commanded the ten-thousand-strong [[Hushenying]], or "Tiger Spirit Division", which had joined the Gansu Braves and Boxers in attacking the foreigners. It was a Hushenying captain who had assassinated the German diplomat, Ketteler. The Tenacious Army under Nie Shicheng received Western style training under German and Russian officers in addition to their modernised weapons and uniforms. They effectively resisted the Alliance at the [[Battle of Tientsin]] before retreating and astounded the Alliance forces with the accuracy of their artillery during the siege of the Tianjin concessions (the artillery shells failed to explode upon impact due to corrupt manufacturing). The Gansu Braves under Dong Fuxiang, which some sources described as "ill disciplined", were armed with modern weapons but were not trained according to Western drill and wore traditional Chinese uniforms. They led the defeat of the Alliance at Langfang in the Seymour Expedition and were the most ferocious in besieging the Legations in Beijing. The British won the race among the international forces to be the first to reach the besieged Legation Quarter. The US was able to play a role due to the presence of US ships and troops stationed in [[Manila]] since the US conquest of the Philippines during the [[Spanish–American War]] and the subsequent [[Philippine–American War]]. The US military refers to this as the [[China Relief Expedition]]. [[United States Marines]] scaling the walls of Beijing is an iconic image of the Boxer Rebellion.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=177}}

The British Army reached the legation quarter on the afternoon of 14 August and relieved the Legation Quarter. The Beitang was relieved on 16 August, first by Japanese soldiers and then, officially, by the French.{{sfnp|Fleming|1959|pp=220–221}}