Editing Boxer Rebellion (section)

== Boxer War ==
=== Intensifying crisis ===
[[File:Chinese Muslim Kansu Braves 1900 Boxer Rebellion.jpg|thumb|upright|Chinese Muslim troops from [[Gansu]], known as the [[Gansu Braves]]]]
In January 1900, with a majority of conservatives in the imperial court, Cixi changed her position on the Boxers and issued edicts in their defence, causing protests from foreign powers. Cixi urged provincial authorities to support the Boxers, although few did so.{{sfnp|Schuman|2021|p=272}} In the spring of 1900, the Boxer movement spread rapidly north from Shandong into the countryside near Beijing. Boxers burned Christian churches, killed Chinese Christians and intimidated Chinese officials who stood in their way. American Minister [[Edwin H. Conger]] cabled Washington, "the whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers".{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=42}}

On 30 May the diplomats, led by British Minister [[Claude Maxwell MacDonald]], requested that foreign soldiers come to Beijing to defend the legations. The Chinese government reluctantly acquiesced, and the next day a multinational force of 435 navy troops from eight countries debarked from warships and travelled by train from the [[Taku Forts]] to Beijing. They set up defensive perimeters around their respective missions.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=42}}

On 5 June 1900, the railway line to Tianjin was cut by Boxers in the countryside, and Beijing was isolated. On 11 June, at [[Yongdingmen]], the secretary of the Japanese legation, Sugiyama Akira, was attacked and killed by the forces of General [[Dong Fuxiang]], who were guarding the southern part of the Beijing walled city.{{sfnp|Preston|2000|p=70}} Armed with [[Mauser]] rifles but wearing traditional uniforms,{{sfnp|Elliott|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC 126]}} Dong's troops had threatened the foreign legations in the fall of 1898 soon after arriving in Beijing,{{sfnp|Xiang|2003|p=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAxresT12ogC&pg=PA207 207}} so much that [[United States Marines]] had been called to Beijing to guard the legations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Biggs |first=Chester M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8YtE0SIDq0C&pg=PA25 |title=The United States Marines in North China, 1894–1942 |publisher=McFarland |year=2003 |isbn=0-7864-1488-X |page=25}}</ref>

Wilhelm was so alarmed by the Chinese Muslim troops that he requested Ottoman caliph [[Abdul Hamid II]] to find a way to stop the Muslim troops from fighting.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Abdul Hamid agreed to the Kaiser's request and sent Enver Pasha (not to be confused with the [[Enver Pasha|later Young Turk leader]]) to China in 1901, but the rebellion was over by that time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karpat |first=Kemal H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvVlS3ljx20C&pg=PA237 |title=The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-19-513618-7 |page=237}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=رشيد رضا |first=محمد |year=1901 |pages=229–230 |language=ar |script-title=ar:مجلة المنار؛ الجزء 4}}</ref>

On 11 June, the first Boxer was seen in the [[Peking Legation Quarter]]. The German Minister [[Clemens von Ketteler]] and German soldiers captured a Boxer boy and inexplicably executed him.<ref>Weale, B. L. ([[Bertram Lenox Simpson]]), ''Indiscreet Letters from Peking''. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1907, pp.&nbsp;50–51.</ref> In response, thousands of Boxers burst into the walled city of Beijing that afternoon and burned many of the Christian churches and cathedrals in the city, burning some victims alive.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge/page/70 70]}} American and British missionaries took refuge in the Methodist Mission, and an attack there was repulsed by US Marines. The soldiers at the British Embassy and German legations shot and killed several Boxers.{{sfn|Thompson|2009|pp=44–56}} The Kansu Braves and Boxers, along with other Chinese, then attacked and killed Chinese Christians around the legations in revenge for foreign attacks on Chinese.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Seagrave |first1=Sterling |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tURwAAAAMAAJ&q=kansu+braves+baron+von |title=Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China |last2=Seagrave |first2=Peggy |publisher=Knopf |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-679-40230-5 |page=320}}</ref>

=== Seymour Expedition ===
{{Main|Seymour Expedition}}
As the situation grew more violent, the Eight Powers authorities at Dagu dispatched a second multinational force to Beijing on 10 June 1900. This force of 2,000 sailors and marines was under the command of Vice Admiral [[Edward Hobart Seymour]], the largest contingent being British. The force moved by train from Dagu to Tianjin with the agreement of the Chinese government, but the railway had been severed between Tianjin and Beijing. Seymour resolved to continue forward by rail to the break and repair the railway, or progress on foot from there, if necessary, as it was only 120&nbsp;km from Tianjin to Beijing. The court then replaced Prince Qing at the Zongli Yamen with Manchu Prince Duan, a member of the imperial [[Aisin Gioro]] clan (foreigners called him a "Blood Royal"), who was anti-foreigner and pro-Boxer. He soon ordered the Imperial army to attack the foreign forces. Confused by conflicting orders from Beijing, General [[Nie Shicheng]] let Seymour's army pass by in their trains.{{sfnp|Leonhard|p=12}}

After leaving Tianjin, the force quickly reached [[Langfang]], but the railway was destroyed there. Seymour's engineers tried to repair the line, but the force found itself surrounded, as the railway in both behind directions was destroyed. They were attacked from all sides by Chinese irregulars and imperial troops. Five thousand of Dong Fuxiang's [[Gansu Braves]] and an unknown number of Boxers won a costly but major victory over Seymour's troops at the [[Battle of Langfang]] on 18 June.{{sfnp|Leonhard|p=18}}{{sfnp|Cohen|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ky4_whmgIZcC&pg=PA49 49]}} The Seymour force could not locate the Chinese artillery, which was raining shells upon their positions.{{sfnp|Smith|1901|loc=vol. 2, pp. 393, 441–448}}{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}} Chinese troops employed mining, engineering, flooding, and simultaneous attacks. The Chinese also employed [[pincer movement]]s, ambushes, and sniping with some success.{{sfnp|Smith|1901|loc=vol. 2, p. 446}}{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}}

On 18 June, Seymour learned of attacks on the Legation Quarter in Beijing, and decided to continue advancing, this time along the [[Beihe River]], toward [[Tongzhou, Hebei|Tongzhou]], {{convert|25|km|abbr=on}} from Beijing. By 19 June, the force was halted by progressively stiffening resistance and started to retreat southward along the river with over 200 wounded. The force was now very low on food, ammunition, and medical supplies. They happened upon [[The Great Hsi-Ku Arsenal]], a hidden Qing munitions cache of which the Eight Powers had had no knowledge until then.

There they dug in and awaited rescue. A Chinese servant slipped through the Boxer and Imperial lines, reached Tianjin, and informed the Eight Powers of Seymour's predicament. His force was surrounded by Imperial troops and Boxers, attacked nearly around the clock, and at the point of being overrun. The Eight Powers sent a relief column from Tianjin of 1,800 men (900 Russian troops from Port Arthur, 500 British seamen, and other assorted troops). On 25 June the relief column reached Seymour. The Seymour force destroyed the Arsenal: they spiked the captured field guns and set fire to any munitions that they could not take (an estimated £3&nbsp;million worth). The Seymour force and the relief column marched back to Tientsin, unopposed, on 26 June. Seymour's casualties during the expedition were 62 killed and 228 wounded.{{sfnp|Preston|2000|pp=100–104}}

=== Conflict within the Qing imperial court ===
Meanwhile, in Beijing, on 16 June, Empress Dowager Cixi summoned the imperial court for a mass audience and addressed the choice between using the Boxers to evict the foreigners from the city, and seeking a diplomatic solution. In response to a high official who doubted the efficacy of the Boxers, Cixi replied that both sides of the debate at the imperial court realised that popular support for the Boxers in the countryside was almost universal and that suppression would be both difficult and unpopular, especially when foreign troops were on the march.{{sfnp|Esherick|1987|pp=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVESdBSMasMC 289–290}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Purcell |first=Victor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2MeUoD9G9xAC&q=cannot%20rely%20charms%20heart%20people%20lose&pg=PA250 |title=The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-14812-2 |page=250}}</ref>

=== Siege of the Beijing legations ===
{{main|Siege of the International Legations}}
[[File:Western Legations Peking 1900 Clowes Vol VII.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.75|Locations of foreign diplomatic legations and front lines in Beijing during the siege]]
On 15 June, Qing imperial forces deployed electric [[naval mine]]s in the [[Beihe River]] to prevent the Eight-Nation Alliance from sending ships to attack.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/reportsonmilita01divigoog |title=Reports on Military Operations in South Africa and China |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=1901 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=[https://archive.org/details/reportsonmilita01divigoog/page/n585 533]}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}} With a difficult military situation in Tianjin and a total breakdown of communications between Tianjin and Beijing, the allied nations took steps to reinforce their military presence significantly. On 17 June, Allied forces under Russian Admiral [[Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev|Yevgeni Alekseyev]] took the Dagu Forts commanding the approaches to Tianjin, and from there brought increasing numbers of troops on shore. When Cixi received an ultimatum that same day demanding that China surrender total control over all its military and financial affairs to foreigners,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laidler |first=Keith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLPZ7294oSIC&pg=PA221 |title=The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2003 |isbn=0-470-86426-5 |page=221}}</ref> she defiantly stated before the entire [[Grand Council (Qing dynasty)|Grand Council]], "Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why don't we fight to the death?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tan |first=Chester C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_gcOAQAAMAAJ&q=extinction+nation |title=The Boxer catastrophe |publisher=Octagon |year=1967 |isbn=0-374-97752-6 |edition=Repr. |page=73 |issue=Issue 583 of Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences}}</ref> It was at this point that Cixi began to blockade the legations with the armies of the [[Peking Field Force]], which began the siege. Cixi stated that "I have always been of the opinion, that the allied armies had been permitted to escape too easily in 1860. Only a united effort was then necessary to have given China the victory. Today, at last, the opportunity for revenge has come", and said that millions of Chinese would join the cause of fighting the foreigners since the Manchus had provided "great benefits" on China.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Connor |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4NxAAAAMAAJ&q=extinction+imminent |title=The Spirit Soldiers: A Historical Narrative of the Boxer Rebellion |publisher=Putnam |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-399-11216-4 |edition=Illustrated |page=85}}</ref> On receipt of the news of the attack on the [[Dagu Fort]]s on 19 June, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately sent an order to the legations that the diplomats and other foreigners depart Beijing under escort of the Chinese army within 24 hours.<ref>Tan, p. 75</ref>

The next morning, diplomats from the besieged legations met to discuss the Empress's offer. The majority quickly agreed that they could not trust the Chinese army. Fearing that they would be killed, they agreed to refuse the Empress's demand. The German Imperial Envoy, Baron [[Clemens von Ketteler]], was infuriated with the actions of the Chinese army troops and determined to take his complaints to the royal court. Against the advice of the fellow foreigners, the baron left the legations with a single aide and a team of porters to carry his sedan chair. On his way to the palace, von Ketteler was killed on the streets of Beijing by a Manchu captain.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge/page/82 82]}} His aide managed to escape the attack and carried word of the baron's death back to the diplomatic compound. At this news, the other diplomats feared they also would be murdered if they left the legation quarter and they chose to continue to defy the Chinese order to depart Beijing. The legations were hurriedly fortified. Most of the foreign civilians, which included a large number of missionaries and businessmen, took refuge in the British legation, the largest of the diplomatic compounds.{{sfnp|Preston|2002|p=87}} Chinese Christians were primarily housed in the adjacent palace (Fu) of [[Prince Su]], who was forced to abandon his property by the foreign soldiers.{{sfnp|Preston|2002|p=79}}

[[File:Boxer2y.jpg|thumb|left|Representative Allied army and naval personnel]]
On 21 June, Cixi issued [[Imperial decree of declaration of war against foreign powers|an imperial decree]] stating that hostilities had begun and ordering the regular Chinese army to join the Boxers in their attacks on the invading troops. This was a {{lang|la|de facto}} declaration of war, but the Allies also made no formal declaration of war.{{sfnp|Klein|2008}} Regional governors in the south, who commanded substantial modernised armies, such as [[Li Hongzhang]] at Guangzhou, [[Yuan Shikai]] in Shandong, [[Zhang Zhidong]]{{sfnp|Rhoads|2000|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tgq1miGno-4C&pg=PA74 74–75]}} at Wuhan, and [[Liu Kunyi]] at Nanjing, formed the [[Mutual Defense Pact of the Southeastern Provinces]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Luo |first=Zhitian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=avlyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |title=Inheritance within Rupture: Culture and Scholarship in Early Twentieth Century China |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-28766-2 |page=19}}</ref> They refused to recognise the imperial court's declaration of war, which they declared a {{tlit|zh|luan-ming}} (illegitimate order) and withheld knowledge of it from the public in the south. Yuan Shikai used his own forces to suppress Boxers in Shandong, and Zhang entered into negotiations with the foreigners in Shanghai to keep his army out of the conflict. The neutrality of these provincial and regional governors left the majority of Chinese military forces out of the conflict.{{sfnp|Hsü|2000|pp=395–398}} The republican revolutionary Sun Yat-sen even took the opportunity to submit a proposal to Li Hongzhang to declare an independent democratic republic, although nothing came of the suggestion.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Teng |first1=Ssu-yü |title=China's Response to the West A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 |last2=Fairbank |first2=John King |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-674-12025-9 |volume=1–2 |page=226}}</ref>

The legations of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, Russia and Japan were located in the [[Beijing Legation Quarter]] south of the [[Forbidden City]]. The Chinese army and Boxer irregulars besieged the Legation Quarter from 20 June to 14 August 1900. A total of 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers, marines and sailors from eight countries, and about 3,000 Chinese Christians took refuge there.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|pp=84–85}} Under the command of the British minister to China, [[Claude Maxwell MacDonald]], the legation staff and military guards defended the compound with small arms, three machine guns, and one old muzzle-loaded cannon, which was nicknamed the ''International Gun'' because the barrel was British, the carriage Italian, the shells Russian and the crew American. Chinese Christians in the legations led the foreigners to the cannon and it proved important in the defence. Also under siege in Beijing was the [[Church of the Saviour, Beijing|Northern Cathedral]] (''Beitang'') of the Catholic Church. The cathedral was defended by 43 French and Italian soldiers, 33 Catholic foreign priests and nuns, and about 3,200 Chinese Catholics. The defenders suffered heavy casualties from lack of food and from mines which the Chinese exploded in tunnels dug beneath the compound.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|pp=85, 170–171}} The number of Chinese soldiers and Boxers besieging the Legation Quarter and the Beitang is unknown.{{sfnp|Rhoads|2000| p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OXQkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 72]}} Zaiyi's bannermen in the [[Tiger and Divine Corps]] led attacks against the Catholic cathedral church.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Landor |first=Arnold Henry Savage |author-link=Arnold Henry Savage Landor |title=China and the allies, Volume 1 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1901 |page=24}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}}

On 22 and 23 June, Chinese soldiers and Boxers set fire to areas north and west of the British Legation, using it as a "frightening tactic" to attack the defenders. The nearby [[Hanlin Academy]], a complex of courtyards and buildings that housed "the quintessence of Chinese scholarship ... the oldest and richest library in the world", caught fire. Each side blamed the other for the destruction of the invaluable books it contained.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Destruction of Chinese Books in the Peking Siege of 1900. Donald G. Davis, Jr. University of Texas at Austin, Cheng Huanwen Zhongshan University, PRC |url=http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-davd.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919024848/http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-davd.htm |archive-date=19 September 2008 |access-date=26 October 2008 |publisher=International Federation of Library Association}}</ref>

[[File:1900 China war, burning of the Temple.jpg|thumb|1900, soldiers burned down the Temple, [[Shanhai Pass]]{{snd}}''The destruction of a Chinese temple on the bank of the Pei-Ho'', by [[Amédée Forestier]]]]
After the failure to burn out the foreigners, the Chinese army adopted an anaconda-like strategy. The Chinese built barricades surrounding the Legation Quarter and advanced, brick by brick, on the foreign lines, forcing the foreign legation guards to retreat a few feet at a time. This tactic was especially used in the Fu, defended by Japanese and Italian sailors and soldiers, and inhabited by most of the Chinese Christians. Fusillades of bullets, artillery and firecrackers were directed against the Legations almost every night—but did little damage. Sniper fire took its toll among the foreign defenders. Despite their numerical advantage, the Chinese did not attempt a direct assault on the Legation Quarter although in the words of one of the besieged, "it would have been easy by a strong, swift movement on the part of the numerous Chinese troops to have annihilated the whole body of foreigners&nbsp;... in an hour".{{sfnp|Smith|1901|loc=vol. 2, pp. 393, 316–317}}{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}} American missionary [[Francis Dunlap Gamewell]] and his crew of "fighting parsons" fortified the Legation Quarter,<ref>Weale, Putnam. ''Indiscreet Letters from Peking''. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1907, pp.&nbsp;142–143</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}} but impressed Chinese Christians to do most of the physical labour of building defences.<ref>Payen, Cecile E. "Besieged in Peking". ''The Century Magazine'', January 1901, pp. 458–460</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}}

The Germans and the Americans occupied perhaps the most crucial of all defensive positions: the [[Tartar Wall]]. Holding the top of the {{convert |45|ft|m|abbr=on}} tall and {{convert |40|ft|m|abbr=on}} wide wall was vital. The German barricades faced east on top of the wall and {{convert |400|yd|m|abbr=on}} west were the west-facing American positions. The Chinese advanced toward both positions by building barricades even closer. "The men all feel they are in a trap", said the US commander Capt. [[John Twiggs Myers]], "and simply await the hour of execution".<ref>Myers, Captain John T. "Military Operations and Defenses of the Siege of Peking". ''Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute'', September 1902, pp.&nbsp;542–550.</ref> On 30 June, the Chinese forced the Germans off the Wall, leaving the American Marines alone in its defence. In June 1900, one American described the scene of 20,000 Boxers storming the walls:{{sfnp|Roark|Johnson|Furstenburg|Cline Cohen|2020}}{{sfnp|Roark|Johnson|Furstenburg|Cline Cohen|2020}}

{{blockquote|Their yells were deafening, while the roar of gongs, drums, and horns sounded like thunder&nbsp;... They waved their swords and stamped on the ground with their feet. They wore red turbans, sashes, and garters over blue cloth&nbsp;... They were now only twenty yards from our gate. Three or four volleys from the [[Lebel rifle]]s of our marines left more than fifty dead on the ground.}}

At the same time, a Chinese barricade was advanced to within a few feet of the American positions, and it became clear that the Americans had to abandon the wall or force the Chinese to retreat. At 2&nbsp;am on 3 July 56 British, Russian and American marines and sailors, under the command of Myers, launched an assault against the Chinese barricade on the wall. The attack caught the Chinese sleeping, killed about 20 of them, and expelled the rest of them from the barricades.<ref>Oliphant, Nigel, ''A Diary of the Siege of the Legations in Peking''. London: Longman, Greens, 1901, pp 78–80</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}} The Chinese did not attempt to advance their positions on the Tartar Wall for the remainder of the siege.<ref>Martin, W. A. P. ''The Siege in Peking''. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1900, p. 83</ref>{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}}

Sir Claude MacDonald said 13 July was the "most harassing day" of the siege.{{sfnp|Fleming|1959|pp=157–158}} The Japanese and Italians in the Fu were driven back to their last defence line. The Chinese detonated a mine beneath the French Legation pushing the French and Austrians out of most of the French Legation.{{sfnp|Fleming|1959|pp=157–158}} On 16 July, the most capable British officer was killed and the journalist [[George Ernest Morrison]] was wounded.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Peter |title=The Man who Died Twice: The Life and Adventures of Morrison of Peking |last2=Macklin |first2=Robert |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=2005 |location=Crow's Nest, Australia |pages=190–191}}</ref> American Minister [[Edwin H. Conger]] established contact with the Chinese government and on 17 July, and an armistice was declared by the Chinese.{{sfnp|Conger|1909|p=135}}{{primary source inline|date=October 2022}}

=== Infighting among officials and commanders ===
[[File:BoxerSoldiers.jpg|thumb|left|Boxer soldiers]]
General [[Ronglu]] concluded that it was futile to fight all of the powers simultaneously and declined to press home the siege.{{sfnp|Cohen|1997|p=54}} Zaiyi wanted artillery for Dong's troops to destroy the legations. Ronglu blocked the transfer of artillery to Zaiyi and Dong, preventing them from attacking.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} Ronglu forced Dong Fuxiang and his troops to pull back from completing the siege and destroying the legations, thereby saving the foreigners and making diplomatic concessions.{{sfnp|Cohen|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8hiGU_tJEocC&pg=PA54 54]}} Ronglu and Prince Qing sent food to the legations and used their bannermen to attack the Gansu Braves of Dong Fuxiang and the Boxers who were besieging the foreigners. They issued edicts ordering the foreigners to be protected, but the Gansu warriors ignored it, and fought against bannermen who tried to force them away from the legations. The Boxers also took commands from Dong Fuxiang.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elleman |first=Bruce A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Md801mHEeOkC&pg=PA124 |title=Modern Chinese warfare, 1795–1989 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-415-21474-2 |page=124}}</ref> Ronglu also deliberately hid an Imperial Decree from [[Nie Shicheng]]. The Decree ordered him to stop fighting the Boxers because of the foreign invasion, and also because the population was suffering. Due to Ronglu's actions, Nie continued to fight the Boxers and killed many of them even as the foreign troops were making their way into China. Ronglu also ordered Nie to protect foreigners and save the railway from the Boxers.{{sfnp|Xiang|2003|p=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAxresT12ogC&pg=PA235 235}} Because parts of the railway were saved under Ronglu's orders, the foreign invasion army was able to transport itself into China quickly. Nie committed thousands of troops against the Boxers instead of against the foreigners, but was already outnumbered by the Allies by 4,000 men. He was blamed for attacking the Boxers, and decided to sacrifice his life at Tietsin by walking into the range of Allied guns.{{sfnp|Elliott|2002|p=499}}

[[Xu Jingcheng]], who had served as the envoy to many of the same states under siege in the Legation Quarter, argued that "the evasion of extraterritorial rights and the killing of foreign diplomats are unprecedented in China and abroad".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhao |first=Erxun |title=Qing shi gao |publisher=Xinhua Bookstore |location=Beijing |year=1976 |language=zh |oclc=17045858 |ref=none |author-mask=Zhao Erxun (趙爾巽)}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2022}} Xu and five other officials urged Empress Dowager Cixi to order the repression of Boxers, the execution of their leaders, and a diplomatic settlement with foreign armies. The Empress Dowager was outraged, and sentenced Xu and the five others to death for "willfully and absurdly petitioning the imperial court" and "building subversive thought". They were executed on 28 July 1900 and their severed heads placed on display at [[Caishikou Execution Grounds]] in Beijing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=資料連結 |url=http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttscgi/ttsquery?0:0:mctauac:TM%3D%B3%5C%B4%BA%BC%E1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121222084857/http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttscgi/ttsquery?0:0:mctauac:TM%3D%B3%5C%B4%BA%BC%E1 |archive-date=22 December 2012}}</ref>

Reflecting this vacillation, some Chinese soldiers were quite liberally firing at foreigners under siege from its very onset. Cixi did not personally order imperial troops to conduct a siege, and on the contrary had ordered them to protect the foreigners in the legations. Prince Duan led the Boxers to loot his enemies within the imperial court and the foreigners, although imperial authorities expelled Boxers after they were let into the city and went on a looting rampage against both the foreign and the Qing imperial forces. Older Boxers were sent outside Beijing to halt the approaching foreign armies, while younger men were absorbed into the Muslim Gansu army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hayter-Menzies |first=Grant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNPFc7kkjwAC&pg=PA88 |title=Imperial masquerade: the legend of Princess Der Ling |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-962-209-881-7 |page=88}}</ref>

With conflicting allegiances and priorities motivating the various forces inside Beijing, the situation in the city became increasingly confused. The foreign legations continued to be surrounded by both Qing imperial and Gansu forces. While Dong's Gansu army, now swollen by the addition of the Boxers, wished to press the siege, Ronglu's imperial forces seem to have largely attempted to follow Cixi's decree and protect the legations. However, to satisfy the conservatives in the imperial court, Ronglu's men also fired on the legations and let off firecrackers to give the impression that they, too, were attacking the foreigners. Inside the legations and out of communication with the outside world, the foreigners simply fired on any targets that presented themselves, including messengers from the imperial court, civilians and besiegers of all persuasions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hayter-Menzies |first=Grant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNPFc7kkjwAC&pg=PA88 |title=Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-962-209-881-7 |page=89}}</ref> Dong Fuxiang was denied artillery held by Ronglu which stopped him from levelling the legations, and when he complained to Empress Dowager Cixi on 23 June, she dismissively said that "Your tail is becoming too heavy to wag." The Alliance discovered large amounts of unused Chinese [[Krupp gun]]s and shells after the siege was lifted.{{sfnp|Fleming|1959|p=226}}

=== 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}}

=== Qing court flight to Xi'an ===
As the foreign armies reached Beijing, the Qing court fled to Xi'an, with Cixi disguised as a Buddhist nun.{{sfnp|Schuman|2021|pp=272–273}} The journey was made all the more arduous by the lack of preparation, but the Empress Dowager insisted this was not a retreat, rather a "tour of inspection". After weeks of travel, the party arrived in Xi'an, beyond protective mountain passes where the foreigners could not reach, deep in Chinese Muslim territory and protected by the Gansu Braves. The foreigners had no orders to pursue Cixi, so they decided to stay put.{{sfnp|Preston|2000|pp=253–261}}