'The bombardment lasted six days, from June 17th to 23rd. The relieve ing force of 300 British and 1,700 Russians fought their way from' the point at which the railway was interrupted. Three miles from Tientsin they met the American relief force which had started, 300 strong, three days previously. They were in the direst straits, but now, uniting the forces, the combined troops succeeded in reaching Tientsin. The Chinese attacking forces numbered 12,000, of whom the majority were General \Nich's foreign-drilled men from Lutai, who are well armed with Mausers and artillery. This artillery \ywas posted at a fort in the native reify at Tientsin, which had been built unknown to the foreign attaches
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.