A hundred men of the 1st Chinese Regiment have gone with the force to help pull while the remainder Tientsin, As to the ability of these men, an observer says: [think they are good under tire, but T also think they are a mo-t unreliable regiment, They have lit, avd they will Gght. Afee they will loot like fiends, and desert loot. On the other hand if they ren an opportunity to fight, they plain that they are not soldiers, {and will desert for that son. I think they are quite unreliable."
LI THE PEACEMAKER, The "China Mail" writes Tt would be s to know whether the Imperial e ting the venerable Li Hung-chang as Minister Plenipoteutiary to negotiate the terms of peace with the Powers at Shanghai, wns si the Emperor Kuang Empress, or by one or other of the usurpers, The edict, wherever its origin, is of course a piece of sublime impertinence under the circumstances, and will be of little value, except na an object lesson in the unchanged "ways that are dark" of the High "Authorities of Peking. The remark in the Queen's Speech, calling for igo punishment for the unexampled crime committed at Peking, will perhaps have a much greater effect than the windy talk of peacemaking.
14th Ang.
LI PING-HONG AND HIS MEN, Dispatches received from the North by local mandarins state that the notorious Li Ping-hong was wounded early at the recent battle of Peitsang by a shell which burst near the spot where Li Ping-hong and his generals were standing and that his chief General Chang was killed at the same time. The 15,000 men of Li's command fled in all directions directly the Allied shells began to fall near them. A large number of these men fled southwestwards apparently to return to their homes, whilst others spread the news Pekingwards of the total defeat of the Chinese forces, causing panic through the towns and villages they passed, so that large reinforcements on their way to Pei-tsang incontinently fled before seeing the foe. The runaway troops plundered and slew wherever they went, killing it ly estimated over 1,00 unfortunate villagers en route. At one place the fleeing troops met 2,000 Boxers marching towards Yang-tsun, who stopped the former asking for news, Mutual recriminations followed and the two bodies came to blows. The Boxers were defeated and at once dispersed into small parties apparently to return to their homes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.