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Last time we spoke about the battle for Tientsin. Tientsin had be relieved momentarily of its siege, but the Boxers and Qing forces quickly went back to work assaulting the foreign held part of the city. Forces from the great powers began arriving at Taku, heading for Tientsin to finally lift its siege once and for all. The battle against the Chinese held part of the city was to be the bloodiest battle of the Boxer Rebellion and it was the Japanese who ushered in victory. The southern and eastern gates of Tientsin were breached as the foreign troops sent the Qing and Boxer forces fleeing. Now with Tientsin firmly in their hands and with even more troops arriving by the day, the new 8 Nation alliance was preparing for a march upon Beijing. Would this new international force be able to get to Beijing quickly enough to save the besieged foreign community there?   #66 The Boxer Rebellion part 6: The Fall of Beijing   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee was chosen to be the supreme allied commander, but he was in Germany with his soldiers set to depart on August 18th. Meanwhile Lt General Sir Alfred Gaselee was at Tientsin and he managed to get the Americans to back him temporarily to be the leader of the new 8 Nation alliance. I would like to note, General Yamaguchi Motomi was the highest ranking officer present at Tientsin during this time, but non-white racism disallowed the other commanders to allow him to take command. It was estimated by most of the great powers that some 50-70 thousand troops would be necessary to march upon Beijing, Gaselee had 22,000. 10,000 Japanese, 4000 Russian, 3000 British, 2000 Americans, 800 French, 200 Germans, 100 Austrians and 100 Italians. Telegraph lines were cut, the railway was damaged and many of the Great powers advised waiting for more troops before marching. But the British and Americans threatened to go it alone if they did not march at once.  Back in Beijing the truce had gradually died down and now the foreigners lived in a confused paradox. At one moment the Zongli Yamen would send them gifts of food and assure them protection, the next they were plotting their death. The hostilities had resumed while the Zongli Yamen began publicly stating any soldier caught firing on the legations would be beheaded. It was unbelievably contradictory. Rumor also had it Li Hongzhang had been appointed the negotiator for peace talks and would soon send telegrams to the foreign governments. On August 12th, Prince Qing sent a message indicating the Zongli Yamen intended to have a meeting with the ministers the very next day. The foreign community hoped this meant a relief force was close to Beijing and that the Qing were panicking. They had all received information two days prior from General Gaselee stating “Strong force of Allies advancing. Twice defeated enemy. Keep up your spirits.” They also received a message from General Fukushima stating “Probable date of arrival at Peking August 13 or 14.” The legation defenders morale had thus boosted considerably, but they were still under a violent siege taking the lives of people every day. Bullets and shrapnel peppered them each day and the Qing forces seemed even more aggressive, planting their banners just 20 yards from the defenders outposts. In fact some of the banners bore the name of a General they had not heard of until that point, it was our old friend Yuxian. Yuxian had been appointed governor of Shanxi province and reigned a campaign of terror against Christians and foreigners there. On July 9th, it was rumored Yuxian had executed 44 foreigners including women and children from some missionary families whom he had personally invited to the provincial capital, Taiyuan under the guise he was going to protect them. It is disputed by historians who were the actual culprits who killed the foreigners, but the incident became known as the Taiyuan massacre. What is known, by the later half of 1900, Shanxi saw as many as 2000 Christians murdered. It seemed Empress Dowager Cixi brought Yuxian over to Beijing as a last-ditch effort to overrun the foreigners.  The tenacity of the besiegers had increased exponentially, as told to us by Lenox Simpson “all thoughts of relief have been pushed into the middle distance—and even beyond—by the urgent business we have now on hand. . . . What stupendous quantities of ammunition have been loosed-off on us . . . what tons of lead and nickel! Some of our barricades have been so eaten away by this fire, that there is but little left, and we are forced to lie prone on the ground hour after hour.... The Chinese guns are also booming again, and shrapnel and segment are tearing down trees and outhouses, bursting through walls, splintering roofs, and wrecking our strongest defenses more and more.”  The commanders of the Gaselee force figured they would be facing roughly 70,000 Qing soldiers and anything between 50-100 thousand boxers between them and Beijing. They had roughly 70 artillery pieces, and lacked any real cavalry, aside from a few Cossacks. There was some Japanese cavalry, but their horses turned out to not be able to face the heat, 60 out of 400 of them would not make it to Beijing. So they were going to be mostly an infantry force. The commander chose to take the exact same route to Beijing that the British and French took during the second opium war, rather fitting if you ask me. They departed on August the 4th and the first battle they would face was at Beicang. Their intelligence reported General Dong Fuxiang had deployed roughly 20,000 troops at Beicang, though in reality it was around 11,000. The British, Americans and Japanese advanced along the west side of the river, while the French and Russians marched on its east. As the army approached Beicang on August the 4th they camped outside near the Xigu fort arsenal, the very same arsenal Seymour and his expedition had come across. The commanders planned to have the British, Americans and Japanese turn the right flank of the Qing while the Russians and French turned their left flank on the opposite side of the Hai river. At 3am the Japanese launched their attack under the cover of allied artillery and they quickly seized a Qing battery on the extreme right of their defense lines. They then pushed forward on the flank as an artillery duel between the Qing and allies raged for half and hour. During the duel, a Japanese regiment performed a direct assault on a Qing position along the river. The Japanese requested some cavalry aid from the British, but it failed to reach them on time, leading the Japanese to take heavy casualties. None the less the Japanese stormed some Qing entrenchments forcing the defenders to retreat. On the east bank of the Hai river, the French and Russians were unable to hook around the Qing left flank due to flooded terrain, but the Japanese victory in the west broke the Qing's will to fight as a general retreat was sounded. The allies lost 60 men dead, all Japanese with 240 wounded. Around 50 Qing were killed in the battle that lasted until 9am, it was a relatively easy victory, though the Japanese paid heavily for it. American medics notably treated the Japanese wounded. The Qing forces retreated 12 miles back to Yangcun where they took up positions between the east bank of the Hai river and its railroad embankment. Yangcun was heavily fortified and the Qing forces led by Generals Ma Yukun and Song Qing hoped to halt the allied advance there. The British and Americans took the vanguard this time advancing on Yangcun by August 6th. The Japanese advanced along the west side of the Hai river, but would not find themselves taking part in the battle. The Qing numbered nearly 11,000 again, though its unknown how many actually took part in the battle. The allies faced something nearly as bad as bullets that day, tremendous heat. Indeed during the Gaselee expedition the weather often reached 42 degrees, or 108 freedom units for your americans. 20% of the men who marched on Yangcun fell out of rank, and a ton of sunstroke related deaths occurred. The allied forces advanced within 5000 yards of the Qing positions. The Russians were on the easternmost, followed by the British, then the Americans. The assault began at 11am, and soon it became an endurance competition between both sides. Men clutched their water canteens as they marched. The Americans bore the brunt of the Qing resistance as they hit the strongest held position behind the railroad embankment. Men were seen collapsing from sunstroke as Qing artillery and rifle fire poured upon them. The Americans were advancing in open terrain and had to run to avoid being hit. As the Americans charged over the railroad embankment they would find most of the positions abandoned. The battle ultimately became one enormous rearguard action. As the Americans advances so rapidly, the British and Russian artillery began to mistake them for retreating Qing forces and shells began to be lobbed over the US 14th infantry. 4 Americans were killed with 11 wounded as the Americans frantically signaled back to stop the shelling.Placing a handkerchief on the point of a sword an American commander galloped up the embankment waving it at the artillery fire. To make matters worse, upon seeing the shelling, the French joined in also firing upon them. By the late afternoon the battle for Yangcun was over, the Qing took very few casualties as they had abandoned their positions fairly early on. The Americans had 9 dead, 64 wounded, 15 of which would die later on. The British had 6 dead, 38 wounded and the Russians 7 dead, 20 wounded. Within Yangcun the allies found the trains Seymours expeditionary forces had abandoned, as told to us by Frederick Brown “Still standing on the embankment were the boilers and wheels of the engines used in that fruitless attempt to reach Peking. How the Boxers must have gloated in their hate when they rushed upon these inventions of the ‘foreign devils'! They had burned the woodwork . . . looted the brasses, nuts, and bolts, and had even torn up and buried the rails and sleepers. But the wheels and boilers remained there in defiance”.  The route to Beijing was a nearly treeless plain, the landscape was littered with fields of 14 foot high corn. It was actually terrifying because one could not see over the corn fields for possible enemies lurking about. On one occasion Lt Roger Keyes of the HMS Fame was horrified to see “the banners of a large body of Tartar cavalry and the pennons of our Bengal Lancers showing above the standing maize, and within a mile of one another, apparently unaware of each other's proximity, but closing fairly rapidly.” Keyes galloped over to warn the Bengals, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack. The Japanese actually began carrying bamboo ladders so they could peak over the corn, must have been silly as hell to watch this march. The heat was a constant enemy, as the commanding officer of the US 14th infantry, Colonel Dagget recalled “a fierceness in that China sun's rays which none had experienced in the tropics or our Southern States during the Civil War.... Its prostrating effect was unaccountable, and caused our men to fall by hundreds. The dust of ages . . . rose at every footstep. The corn obstructed the breeze, and did not allow it either to blow away the dust or fan the burning faces of the fainting soldiers.” The men would abandon countless blankets, greatcoats, haversacks and such along the roads. Even the British Indian troops were suffering from the heat. Lt Steel remarked “The heat was awful, the whole road being littered with men fallen out, Americans, Japs, and ours. The country is so dense with crops we couldn't see anywhere, and the flies and bad water made life pretty sickening. Everywhere one came across dead bodies of Chinese and mules and horses in various degrees of foul composition. I nearly catted [vomited] dozens of times.”  Despite the conditions, the 8 nation alliance marched 25 miles and won two easy victories. After a council of war on August 7th, the commanders had all agreed to continue the march and not wait for reinforcements. The Italians, Austrian and Germans had returned to Tientsin to reequip themselves as they had greatly miscalculated the gear needed for the expedition. Many French likewise would have to turn back. The field was thus set for the Russians, British, Japanese and Americans to push on. The Qing who saw them march would simply flee, seeing countless villages abandoned along the way. In some villages, a few Chinese civilians would be found, and as noted by Dagget “the villages were all deserted, except occasionally a Chinese man or woman would be found crouching in some hidden corner, expecting to be killed every moment. And, to the disgrace of humanity . . . some of these innocent, unresisting people were shot down like beasts but not by Americans.” British journalist Henry Savage-Landor traveling with the expedition would write “the majority of the “American boys” were “as a rule extremely humane, even at times extravagantly gracious, towards the enemy.” Henry would also claim his countrymen showed more humanity than the other nationalities. Many prisoners were taken, some Qing troops, some Boxers. The Chinese regiment was in charge of prisoners, but the other troops sometimes grabbed prisoners and abused them. Henry wrote of how a Boxer prisoner was dragged away by some French and Japanese troops and shot in the face “The poor devil, who showed amazing tenacity of life, afterwards had all his clothes torn off him, the soldiers being bent on finding the peculiar Boxer charm which all Boxers were supposed to possess. The man lived for another hour with hundreds of soldiers leaning over him to get a glimpse of his agony, and going into roars of laughter as he made ghastly contortions in his delirium.” On August 8th a message came from MacDonald to Generals Gaselee and Chafee. The message was accompanied by a map of Beijing, advising them to enter Beijing through the south gate of the Chinese city, then to advance up the main street, before turning towards the Tartar wall. MacDonald promised they would mark portions of the Tartar wall with American, British and Russian flags to help them. Unfortunately the notes were written in cipher, but the Gaselee force had left the key back in Tientsin. Captain Griffin of the 1st Bengal lancers was given the task of running back to Tientsin to get it deciphered.  The army found themselves halfway to Beijing at the town of Hoshiwu. There they found written plans that the Qing forces sought to flood the countryside and drown them out. Lt COlonel Vaughan of the 7th Rajputs recalled “We found the cutting nearly completed, and the workmen's tools and baskets lying in it, so precipitately had they fled. However, although the thing didn't come off, the Chinese general informed his government that he had cut the banks of the Peiho, and inundated the country, drowning 25,000 of the foreigners, at which, he naively concluded, ‘they are much disheartened.' We read this account of our being drowned some months later in a Chinese paper, and were much amused,”. On August 12th, the allies came across the sealed gates of Tungchow. The Qing garrison fled upon their arrival too which Frederick Brown would write .“As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached,” The south gate of Tungchow was blown up, allies pouring in and began looting. Gaselee tried to control the men and reassure the local population who were terrified and hiding in their homes. Meanwhile Li Bingheng who had promised to repel the foreigners at the first sign of a battle on August 11th he wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi .“As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached,” After the fall of Tungchow, Li Bingheng killed himself. On the 12th the commanders held another war council. General Linevitch of the Russians argued they would be too exhausted to perform an assault upon Beijing immediately upon arrival. The other commanders agreed to a three phase operation. Each nations army would send a cavalry reconnaissance on the 13th, followed by the main bodies expected to arrive on the 14th and the general attack would commence on the 15th. The French commander General Frey had just returned to the force with an additional 400 French troops from Tientsin making them 5 national armies. The general attack called for a simultaneous advance with each national contingent aiming for a particularly gate in the eastern wall of Beijing. The Russians took the furthest north position on the right flank; then the Japanese, then the French, then the Americans and last the British on the southern most left flank. Their intelligence reported the Qing were concentrated on the south and southeast portions of the city, thus Gaselee chose to have the British take the most exposed position. The Russians were assigned the Dongzhi gate, Japanese Chaoyang gate, Americans Dongbien gate and the British the Guangqui gate, while the French were simply left out of the planning all together ahaahah. On the evening of the 13th, rumors suddenly emerged that the Russians were breaking the plan and making a wild dash for Beijing. As told to us by Keyes  “A message has just come from the Russians that some Cossacks have pushed on to within a mile and a half of Peking, and the gates are open. I wonder if it is true; if so we are properly left behind.” What actually occurred is unclear, but Russian scouts were well ahead of everyone else on the night of the 13th and sent word that Dongbien, the gate the Americans were to attack, was lightly defended. General Lineivitch sent a vanguard under General Vassilievski with some artillery to secure the approach to Dongbien. Apparently it was Vassilievski who saw an opportunity so instead of waiting he charged with his men over the moat bridge taking the 30 or so Qing defenders by surprise in their outer guardhouse. The Qing tried to raise an alarm but it was too late as the Russian artillery blasted a hole right through the Dongbien and before dawn of the 14th were the first to enter the city. The Russians would soon find themselves in a crossfire however between the courtyard and inner/outer door killing 26 Russians and wounding 102. The survivors would be pinned down for many hours. MacDonald got his men together to raise the Stars and Strips, Union Jack and Imperial eagle of Russia atop the Tartar Walls to signal the advancing allies. Upon seeing this the Qing siege forces went into a frenzy last ditch assault upon the legations. It was to be known as “the three terrible nights”, as Captain Poole wrote “Legation full of danger, up all night, fiercest attack I can remember, let them do their worst.”. The Qing artillery began smashing the Fu palace as Qing riflemen fired upon anyone they could see. In the midst of the chaos a messenger from the Zongli Yamen showed up bearing a note stating “dating from today, neither Chinese nor foreigner would ever again hear the sound of a rifle.” Meanwhile Colonel Shiba was ordering men to bang pots and pans while the Italians shouted and whistled trying to convince the Qing soldiers they were a larger force than they were. MacDonald called up reserves three times trying to rush forces to critical points. Qing rifleman armed with Mannlicher carbines were storming through the Mongol Market with a large modern piece of artillery that was deployed upon a high point on the Imperial cities wall. It was a two inch quick firing Krupp gun which did more damage in 10 minutes than the Qing had done in 5 weeks. The foreigners unleashed their colt machine gun and Maxim gun upon it, but were met back with Mannlichers, Mausers, Jingals and older muskets. Bricks and stones exploded, hand to hand combat erupted. Then suddenly through the chaos, the sound of heavy artillery could be heard coming from the east. A sudden lull began on both sides, until the foreigners in the legations realized it was the relief force outside the city, they were engaging the Qing troops! The news spread from building to building, MacDonald watched as the legation guards all suddenly became alive again, everyone was joyous. They all wondered whose national army would come first. As news spread that the Russians had already stormed the Dongbien gate the race began. The Japanese march turned into a rapid sprint, followed by the Americans. General Gaselee refused to believe the Russians had abandoned the plan but when he himself heard the sounds of artillery hitting Beijings walls, he was livid. At 3:30am on August 14th the British main body was 6 miles outside Beijing. They marched upon Guangqui and General Gaselee had two artillery piece brought up. According to Lt Steel “The battery fired some dozen shots, and the Chinese scuttled, and we burst the door open and were inside.” Keyes took a Union Jack and scaled the wall just right of the gate placing it atop the wall. Keyes had hoped to hop down and open the gate for his comrades, but they busted it open before he could do so. Gaselee dispatched two detachments through the breach to seize the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture as the rest of the main body proceeded westwards to the Tartar Wall. Lt Colonel Vaughan described the scene “Not a Chinaman was to be seen, but the banging of doors was heard, and many of the rings hanging from the door knobs were shaking as we passed, showing that the doors had only just been shut. At last we entered a long and broad street, and while going up it saw hundreds of Chinamen running down the side streets away from us.” The British forces estimated they were lined up with the “Sluice” gate also called the watergate which led to the legations quarter. They turned north as Qing troops fired down upon them from houses, but as noted by Keyes “we saw no troops and there was no real opposition.” As they approached the Tartar wall they came under fire from the outer gate of Hatamen. The Qing were using smokeless powder, making it very difficult to see where shots were coming from. As the British got closer to the legations they saw the American, Russian and British flags atop the Tartar Wall indicating where the Sluice gate was.  Lt Steel described the scene as the men went towards the Sluice gate “we all dashed across the canal, bullets fizzing and spitting all round, a small shell exploding in front of my nose, no harm done.” It's unclear who exactly was the first man to enter the British legation, but according Mrs Ker, a British diplomats wife “it was a Sikh, an unforgettable sight, naked to the waist, sweating like a pig, hair tumbling on his shoulders. He kept waving his rifle and shouting ‘Oorah!' . . . and in a bunch, with officers and men, that old darling, General Gaselee, about twenty-five yards behind.” The besieged foreigners were in a daze, shortly before 2pm MacDonald received news that foreign troops were beneath the Tartar Wall opposite of the Sluice gate. MacDonald rushed over just in time to greet General Gaselee. MacDonald led the force to the British Legation. Two hours after the British arrived, General Chaffee and the 14th US infantry arrived who were also quickly brought over to the British legation. The Americans led by the 14th infantry had reached the walls of Beijing only to find the Russians stuck in the Bongdien gate. The Russians had assumed they would strong right into the city, but instead they were being torn to pieces from the wall top riflemen. General Vasilievski was hit in the chest by a Mannlicher as he tried to rally his men on the lower parts of the wall. The main body of Russians only reached his vanguard force at 10am. The Americans proceeded to scale the wall south of Dongbien, taking some of the pressure off the Russians.  A 20 year old bugler, Calvin Titus volunteered to scale the wall first. Unarmed he climbed the wall, earning himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and an appointment at West Point for the action. When he got to the top he signaled the rest to start climbing and by 11am the regimental flag was flying over the walls of Beijing. By 12 US forces were charging Qing soldiers atop the walls around Dongbien. The Americans advanced through the southeast of the Tartar city too which they were embroiled in street fighting. It took hours for them to work their way to the Tartar Wall. When they got through the Sluice gate, they then realized the British had won the race after all. The Japanese encountered stiff resistance at their assigned gate, the Chaoyang. The Qing hit the incoming Japanese with artillery, greatly stalling them. Despite the relief forces getting into the legations, the siege was still raging on. As Lt Steel remarked “everyone was talking and cheering and waving their hats whilst the bullets were flying thick overhead and banging on the roofs all high, no one caring a hang! The Chinese simply went mad when they realized we were in and let off every bally gun they had at random.” Colonel Shiba launched a final attack on the Qing barricades at the Fu, driving off the soldiers. The relief forces went to work clearing snipers out of the Mongol Market who were shocked upon seeing the soldiers, they had no idea Beijing had been breached. As Captain Poole blasted a hole through the Imperial Carriage Park wall and stormed through it with 60 marines he discovered two mines with the powder and fuse lying about. He would later remark “If the troops had come one day or one night later, God only knows what the result would have been!” Upon seeing the British troops enter the Sluice gate, the Qing began lowering banners atop the Tartar wall and withdrew. American and Russian forces surged forward as hundreds of Qing soldiers fled. The British, Russians, Japanese, Americans and French forces went to work securing gates of the city and were actively fighting their way to the imperial court. Lenxo Simpson was at the Hotel de Pekin where he found Russian soldiers getting drunk and openly discussing plans, he had this to say “the Russians had attempted to steal a march . . . on the night of the 13th, in order to force the Eastern gates, and reach the Imperial City and the Empress Dowager before anyone else. That had upset the whole plan of attack, and there had then simply been a mad rush, everyone going as hard as possible, and trusting to Providence to pull them through.” The Russians had managed to enter the legations an hour before the Americans, while the Japanese had the most frustrated time getting in. George Lynch accompanying the Japanese described their attempts to blow the Chaoyang gate “The Japanese engineers went forward one by one until twenty minutes passed and expanded into half an hour. With cheerful and unwavering gallantry these men went forward to blow up that gate, across the open space over the bridge, from which they could be fired on by hundreds of Chinese. The attempt was absolutely hopeless. It was not that there was any wavering amongst them after ten had been shot. . . . But it was a task that the bravest man could not accomplish. Working like marionettes, they fired their guns again and again, but they were of very light caliber—little war dogs, spat their rather impotent projectile against that great mass of centuries-old masonry, they might as well have been firing peashooters”. It took the Japanese until 9pm to blast their way through the wooden doors. They then stormed the city skewering Qing soldiers upon their bayonets until they reached the legation. The French were the last, they only arrived to Beijing a day late because their route went through a marsh. The battle to seize Beijing claimed 66 foreign lives and 150 wounded, simply astonishing when you think about it. The losses to the Qing are unknown, but expected to be quite high. While Beijing was being seized, the work of the 8 nation alliance was not done just yet. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so at last the 8 nation alliance had made it to the great walled city of Beijing. The British, Russian, Japanese, American and French stormed Beijing's outer walls to rescue the foreign legations, but what of Empress Dowager Cixi?  

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Last time we spoke about the Qing - Boxer siege of Beijing and the 8 nation alliance expedition led by Seymour. Baron Von Ketteler was murdered by Kansu soldiers, ushering in a real siege of the foreign legation's in Beijing. The situation was dire, communications were cut and soon the railways also. The foreign ministers called for aid and thus came an expedition of 8 nations led by Seymour to the rescue. Seymours expedition started out quite well, but soon the Boxers disrupted the tracks stopping them in…well their tracks. To the dismay of the westerners it turned out the Qing were joining the Boxers in battle against them and Seymour's force had to make a fighting withdrawal back to Tientsin. They fought all the way to a secret arsenal where they dug in, until another relief force rescued them! Now they all marched back to Tientsin as gunfire could be heard.   #63 The Boxer Rebellion part 3: The Siege of Tientsin & Battle of the Taku Forts   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. When Seymour set out on his expedition a lot of events had unfolded. I mentioned it a few times, but gunfire could be heard by his expeditionary forces coming from Tientsin. When thousands of Boxers began storming the region looking to kill christians and foreigners, many flocked to Tientsin. Tientsin consisted of two adjacent but quite different subdivisions. To the northwest was an ancient high walled chinese city around 1 mile per side. 2 miles southeast along the Hai River were the foreign settlements around half a mile wide. The chinese city held around a million Chinese, the foreign settlements around 700 foreign civilians with their thousands of Chinese servants. The Boxers came at first to the railway station carrying placards and chain letters stating “Those who see this sheet and distribute six copies will deliver a whole family from calamity. If ten sheets are circulated they will save an entire district. If any see this hand-bill and fail to disseminate it they will certainly be beheaded.” Within mere hours of Seymour's expedition departing, reinforcements were landed at Taku to head over to the foreign settlements at Tientsin to defend them. On June 11th, Commander Beatty of the Royal Navy had 150 sailors, marines and 2 Maxim machine guns with him. He would be joined a few days later by 1600 Russians who rushed to the scene from Port Arthur, before their railway lines were cut by Boxers. Alongside the other nations forces, Tientsin had roughly 2400 troops to defend the foreign settlements, facing a force of 30,000 Boxers and 15,000 Qing soldiers camped nearby.  On June 15th the Boxers began burned down all the missions outside the Chinese city like the Notre Dame Des Victories. They stormed the streets attacking Chinese christians, massacring as they went. They destroyed all christian and foreign goods or property they could find. The foreigners in the settlement watched this unfold in horror from a distance, then at 2am on the 16th they were attacked. Beatty recalled seeing Boxers “came in great strength, setting fire to all the Houses and outlying Villages they could. . . . They came on quite heedless of the Volleys we opened on them, never replying because the poor beggars had no arms to reply with, and coming up to within 300 and 400 yards armed with swords, spears, and torches. So there we squatted, knocking them over as they came along.” Chaos ensued in Tientsin, as the Admirals on their warships off the Taku Fort bar became more and more anxious.  The western navies had received no word since June 10th, Tientsin was clearly under attack and Seymours expedition force was gone. Seymours last message to them came on the 14th and all evidence suggested the Boxers and Qing would block the way between them and Tientsin. The Qing naval forces were seen priming torpedo tubes on their warships and laying mines in the rivers mouth. The entire situation looked like a trap. If the Peiho river was closed, the naval squadrons would be unable to rush up it to rescue the civilians of Tientsin and Beijing. On the 16th the Admirals met aboard the Russian flagship. They all formed a multinational ultimatum that was issued to the Qing, the Taku forts had to be surrendered by 2am the next day or they would attack. A russian officer was sent to deliver the message to the Taku Fort commander who responded “I would be glad to surrender the Forts, but I am here to obey orders”. The French consul general in Tientsin then took it upon himself to telephone the local viceroy and advised him to surrender the Taku Forts or face the consequences. The Admirals knew their actions were tantamount to declaring war on China and that taking the Taku Forts would not be easy. The Taku Forts were 4 forts with pairs of 2 on each side of the river mouth. They had been recently rebuilt and reinforced by German engineers. The walls were made of mud mixed with chopped straw, which might sound silly, but this made them impervious to shell fire. Their garrison was around 3000 men, equipped with quick firing Krupp guns and other heavy pieces. Approaching from the sea was the most hazardous and would see men fighting through oozing mud flats surrounded by sharpened stakes. The Qing Navy held 4 new German built destroyers equipped with rapid fire guns patrolling near the forts. To attack them by land was also not favorable it would see men clamoring over small canals, irrigation works and behind the forts were the Boxer infested towns of Tongku and Taku. Another issue was the Taku mud bar, it only allowed shallow water vessels to pass, the allied navies only had 9 ships that could pass; 3 British ships the HMS Algerine, Fame and Whiting; the German Iltis; Russian Gilyak, Bobr and Koreytz; French Lion and Japanese Atago. 900 men consisting of 380 British, 300 Japanese, and the rest Russian, Austrian and Italian were loaded aboard the 9 ships as the allies, we shall call them that from now on for simplicity by the way, awaited the deadline on June 16th for the Qing to respond. All the warships arranged their broadsides aimed at the Taku forts with a bombardment order to commence at 2am if the Qing did not respond. However the Qing did respond, by opening fire at 12:50, as a eye witness recalled ““A shell shrieked over the Algerine in unpleasant proximity to her topmasts”. To this 7 of the 9 allied ships opened fire. The Russian gunboat Gilyak made the poor decision of turning her searchlight, turning her immediately into the most prominent target, she was nearly sunk by shell fire. The HMS Fame and Whiting pulled in close trying to capture the Qing destroyers and within the mayhem the two ships managed to slip upstream abreast of the 4 Qing destroyers. At Lt Keyes aboard the Fame recalled “The shells were literally shrieking around us; several fell just short and splashed muddy water right over us; several pitched just over; we really had a charmed existence.” The British destroyers cast out whaler ships holding dozens of men to board the Qing destroyers. The British sailors and marines boarded the Qing destroyers with ease, capturing all 4 without firing a shot and receiving no casualties. Lt Keyes gave explicit orders to hit men not to fire upon the Qing who were in the process of escaping up the riverbank. Meanwhile the Russian gunboat Korietz was severely damaged by the opening salvo; the Monocacy despite being at quite a distance holding many women and children aboard took a far flung shell to her bow, luckily not hurting anyone. The Qing fort guns were very accurate managing hits on the HMS Whiting, SMS Iltis, French Lion and Giliak was forced to ground  herself lest she be sunk. Giliak had 18 deaths and 65 wounded. Meanwhile at 3am landing parties began their advance upon the forts, struggling through thick mud. The first fort was on the north bank and the landing forces came at it with bayonets pointed. British and Japanese troops were the first to scale its walls and they were even racing another. British officer Cradock recalled “I was frantic at the idea of the Japanese getting in first; they were very keen and in better condition than anyone else.” The union jack was soon hoisted followed by the rising red sun, the defenders of the Fort made a symbolic defense, but fled quickly.  As the men cheered, suddenly two Qing soldiers burst out of a gateway 20 yards away with bayonets fixed firing their rifles as they marched forward from the hip. A Lt emptied his revolver at them and pulling out his sword to defend himself. The allied troops raced towards the second fort on the northern bank as allied shells struck its walls. The air was filled with dust and smoke as the Qing soldiers fired their guns until the last minute upon which they fled. There was to be barely a need to seize the southern forts. The Qing commander was seen galloping away on a white horse and as the Shanghai Mercury put it “The forts were a mass of ruins, rivers of blood, with headless and armless bodies everywhere, which the blue-jackets were gathering together and cremating in heaps.”  The allied troops in the northern forts turned their guns on the southern forts. One shot hit a powder magazine exploding a part of the southern fort walls, creating a large fire. Through the smoke and dust the Qing defenders could be seen abandoned the forts. By 6:30am the battle of the Taku fort was done. By 8am many of the allied troops were coming back aboard their ships, the allies had suffered 172 casualties. Rivers of blood were seen around the forts. The survivors of the carnage aboard ships or the forts ate tinned beef, salmon and ship biscuits reflecting on their good fortune to be alive. With only 9 ships the allies had secured the mouth of the river. All in all it was a brave action helped considerably with some luck. Many questioned its necessity as it undoubtedly would increase the attacks upon the foreign legations in Beijing. Herbert Hoover recalled “it was this act of aggression which marked the downfall of the moderate party in Peking, unmasked the gigantic plot of the powerful party behind the Boxers, and turned the Government over definitely into their hands . . . no more favorable moment could have been chosen by our Admirals to precipitate a general massacre.” At the same time it was happening, MacDonald had been sending assurances to Empress Dowager Cixi that Britain wished to remain on friendly terms with China. Cixi was literally receiving reports of the attack on the Taku Forts as MacDonald's letters came in and when he found out he wrote “this would put the old buddha in a good temper”. Back over in Tientsin's foreign settlement, people could hear the loud gunfire coming from the Taku Forts. At 8am Tientsins foreign community received word the Taku Forts had been taken and now all wondered what would happen next. As recalled by Lou Hoover in Tientsin “All the forenoon at Tientsin there was an ominous silence, nothing doing on either side, each waiting for the other to play the next card, neither knowing the result of the attack at Taku, and yet both sides knowing that now we were committed to a war, if not with China itself, with Northern China and the Manchu Dynasty.” At 3pm Qing artillery began to open fire upon the foreign settlements. Shells were hissing overhead, explosions followed everywhere. An alarm bell began to ring on the Municipal Hall as foreign residents ran through the streets. Rifle fire was cracking against brick walls as civilian dived for cover. It looked like a hopeless situation, 600 foreigner civilians were trapped in a mile long by quarter mile wide area bounded by a river on one side and a flat plain on the other. It was a maze of narrow alleys and single storied Chinese houses, perfect conditions for snipers. The whole was enclosed by a mud wall around 15 feet high and wide enough for 4 people to stand across. As Midshipman C.C Dix recalled “The prospect was hardly brilliant; inside the settlement was a mixed force of 2,400 men, with nine field guns, and a few machine guns; outside were 15,000 Imperial troops, with immense numbers of quick-firing guns. Their ammunition was of the best, and practically unlimited, and they had the dreaded Boxers at their back.”  The most senior officer in Tientsin at the time was Russian Colonel Wogack who took control of the multinational force of Americans, Russians, Australian, Germans, French, Japanese and Italians, the except of course were the British who chose to be led by Captain Bayly of the HMS Aurora. The Russians deployed in a very exposed position trying to defend the railway station on the opposite side of the river from the foreign settlement. They were in close proximity to a Chinese grave site, some houses and ditches, places Qing snipers could hide in. With the Russians were the French who took up a position in front of the French concession at the north end of the settlement near the Taku road. The Americans defended a stretch with the British along the eastern side of the entire settlement; it was a very thin line. The Germans, Austrians, Japanese and Italians deployed along the mud wall near the riverbank. Civilians who were capable were given the task of policing, sentry, engineering and medical duties. Herbert Hoover and his men were the only engineers in Tientsin, Colonel Wogack asked them to get people building barricades. Hoover and the men frantically searched for Chinese laborers to help and any materials that were sturdy enough for barricades. As Hoover recalled “Soon we . . . had a thousand terrified Christian Chinese carrying and piling up walls of sacked grain and sugar along the exposed sides of the town and at cross streets.” Within the first hours of battle it seemed the Qing and Boxers would overrun them. Hoover had this to say “With the smoke of many burning buildings pouring over the settlement, with the civilians erecting barricades across the streets for the final rush, the terrific bombardment, the constant sound of rifle-fire in the distance, and the knowledge,—if not the sight,—of the scores of wounded brought in from the lines—it all seemed bad—very bad. It was really the climax of terror, of the black fear, as it was of the fighting. And this was the ‘black fear,' not that the siege would be successful and we should be compelled to lower our flag and surrender to an honourable enemy,—but that, if every man fought to his utmost strength and was beaten, there were without,—Chinamen, —mobs of Chinamen, at their very worst,—barbarians who knew no quarter.”  The women, children and non combatants huddled in fear within the catacombs beneath Gordon Hall, the most robust stone municipal building available. The Qing assault was first directed at the railway station. Upon seeing this Commander Beatty formed a bridge of boats and took sailors across to reinforce the Russians, but they soon became pinned down. The sailors tried to hide amongst some Russian artillery horse carriages as Chinese artillery and snipers fired hell upon the area. The allied forces had to allow the Chinese to approach closer, because their artillery and snipers were wielding an enormous advantage, no one could stand up right unless they wanted shrapnel or sniper bullets to hit them. Those who did advance were armed Boxers who were driven off by volley fire from the defenders. The defenders could not know this, but the Boxers and Qing despite appearances were not really coordinating together. The Qing troopers were awaiting orders from Beijing whether they were to support the Boxers or the protect the foreigners! It was only a result of the attack upon the Taku forts that finally led the Qing government to officially take the side of the Boxers and orders began to trickle over to support them. Despite the official orders, there were many moderates counter ordering and commanders out in the field who did not support the Boxers and were only putting up symbolic efforts at battle. General Nie Shicheng led the forces in the field overall and he had his artillery fire constantly, it is reported nearly 60,000 shells would be fired upon the foreign settlements. These shells however, much akin to what occurred during the first sino-japanese war, were not all exploding upon impact. Corruption was still rampant and the shells were quite lackluster in their results. The Boxers who did advance were quickly met with volleys at close range, and Beatty noted this of the Russians s “they worked their guns like men, scorning to build up protection with the bales of goods that were there and which we utilized for our riflemen.” Beatty was less impressed with the Germans who continuously sent messages stating they were under heavy attack and required reinforcements, lest they be forced to abandon their positions. According to Beatty the Germans were crying wolf and he made it clear they would receive no reinforcements from the British. Sailors and marines pushed through against Qing and Boxer infiltrators tossing them out. The allied forces formed a closed ring around the civilians as Hoover described it “It was in the center that the melodrama and comedy were played—the rim was nearly all tragedy.” Sniper fire was coming from within the settlements prompting wild hunts. Chinese Christians within the settlement numbered 3-4 thousand were prime targets for Boxer attacks. Hoovers wife Lou Hoover volunteered at the hospital using a bicycle to move between alley's and had a sniper bullet hit her tire once. The hospital saw around 200 wounded brought in a day, people requiring bandages, bedding, dressings, disinfectants all of which were in short supply. Tientsin was under siege. Herbert Hoover bicycle around the defensive perimeter braving the streets to see his barricades were working. The situation was incredibly stressful for the civilians, cooped up together while artillery and gunfire raged outside their buildings. According to Herbert Hoover many friendships ended because of the stress and he recalled ““No one will again dare to organize a dinner party in Tientsin without consulting an inmate of Gordon Hall, for how could Mrs. E. ever sit at meat again with Mrs F., who slapped Mrs. E.'s Peking pug?” So…someone slapped a pug? War never changes. By the 22nd of June things were becoming critical. Commander Beatty had been shot and was losing a ton of blood after the attempted seizing and enemies gun in a narrow escape when a shell burst near him. The men fighting in the barricades were mutilated by shellfire and gunshot. Contact with Taku had been lost on the 17th, casualties were piling up and the settlement was completely surrounded, there was no escape. The only reason the settlement had not already been overrun was because the Qing and Boxers were not working in concerted efforts to simultaneously hit all fronts. The Russians sent word that if the fighting continued the way it had been for the past 4 days, their ammunition would run out and they advised preparing a night time escape. Their recommendation was for the women, children, wounded and sick to be escorted by the Germans, Austrians, French, Japanese and Italians while the Russians and British would perform a rearguard. Upon hearing this, the very injured Beatty remarked “it was the maddest, wildest, damndest, rottenest scheme that could emanate from the brain of any man. Doing this would mean abandoning Seymour to certain destruction”. Beatty made it known to the Russians the British would not comply. Unbeknownst to them all, help was on its way and quite close by. On June 19th, my birthday random factoid, a young British volunteer, James Watts set out with 3 Cossacks in an attempt to make contact with Taku. They men rode through hostile villages as Boxers tried to attack them. Watt carried a message from Captain Bayly stating “Hard pressed, heavy fighting; losses, 150 killed and wounded; Chinese Imperial Artillery shelling the Settlement; women and children all in cellars; fires all over the Settlement; every one worn out with incessant fighting.” A rescue force of Russian infantry and American marines had already been dispatched but they were pinned down near the outskirts of Tientsin. According to one American Gunnery Sergeant “We fell into a trap . . . we laid on our faces with the bullets coming like hail not knowing what to do . . . we fell and got up, staggered, crawled—but got out. I never saw such a tired party in my life and yours truly was on the hog!” The force was 131 US marines and 400 Russians who got ambushed 2 miles from the city. The Americans suffered 3 deaths, 13 wounded before they withdrew back to Taku. Bayly's message made it clear a more substantial force was required.  Taku and her forts were left with just 1000 men as a garrison as the allies prepared an expeditionary force. Luck was theirs again, as two new warships arrived, the HMS Terrible from Hong Kong carrying 300 Royal Welch Fusiliers and a Russian troopship from Port Arthur carrying hundreds of Russian troops. On June 23rd a multinational force 2000 men strong set out which also held the British 1st Chinese regiment from Weihaiwei, so even some Chinese troops were in their ranks. They rushed up to Tientsin reaching it the same day and upon seeing them the Qing and Boxers dispersed into the east. Lou Hoover described the scene of their arrival to Tientsin as such “A good many hundred civilians and a couple of thousand troops sat still and repelled faint hearted charges while 10,000 or 15,000 Chinese troops and 20,000 Boxers plunked shells of all sizes into us for exactly one week without a sound or a word from the outside reaching us. Then the first relief cut their way into us . . . enough to get in but not to do anything more than we could when they got there.”  With the Chinese siege lifted momentarily, the lines of communication and supplies from Taku to Tientsin were quickly restored. However Tientsin's battle was nowhere close to be over as the Qing and Boxers would quickly remount their siege.  Back over in Beijing the foreign legations work up to their first day of siege on the 21st. The first hours of the siege brought panic, the Austrians from the offset abandoned their isolated legation to fall back upon the French barricades leaving the northeast sector in enemy hands. The next day, Professor Huberty James who had been working with missionaries at the Fu Palace calmly walked up to the north bridge going over the canal. He gave the appearance of someone trying to parley, but Qing troops on the other side shot him dead upon the bridge. They all awaited Seymours rescue party, but it was not to be seen. A letter from Captain McCalla, Seymour's second in command dated June 14th managed to pass through to the American legation. The letter had been written 35 miles from Beijing and whose contents were nothing more than small chat, indicating nothing about when they would arrive. On June 22nd, by 9am the Italians, Austrian, French, German, Japanese, Russian and American detachments suddenly abandoned their positions and frantically ran to the British legation. Three-quarters of the legation quarters defenses were left undefended, including the Fu Palace, which held nearly the entire Chinese christian population that had fled into the legation quarters. Everyone was in a tremendous panic, it turned out a single man had caused it. Captain von Thomann of the Austrian cruiser Zenta whom from the offset of hostilities had been trying to take command of the defenses for the legations went into a panic when he reportedly was told the American legation had to be abandoned by a random American marine. Von Thomann lost his wits at the news and without verifying it to be true began screaming to everyone that all forces east of Canal street had to retreat immediately to the British legation. So yeah, everyone blindly began running. Once everyone figured out what had happened all the troops were ordered to retake their positions, but in the mayhem the Italian legations was already being burnt down. Boxers and Qing forces occupied the allied barricade in the Customs street, but had failed to press their advantage further. Von Thomann was relieved of command and now it was MacDonald in command. MacDonald was an ex-soldier, but held little experience in the guerilla style warfare they faced. MacDonald also had no official control over any non British forces. MacDonald would write orders and give it to the respective ministers who would arrange them to be carried out. It was a terrible system, but it was all they had it seemed. One of MacDonalds first orders was to dispatch the Italian guards who had no legation to guard to help the Japanese with the Fu Palace defenses. If the Fu Palace were to fall, the French, German and Japanese legations would be cut off from the British legation which was the last stronghold. MacDonald took a stock of the legations defenses: over 400 men, 20 officers and 389 men of 8 differing nations. They were supplemented by two bands of armed volunteers. The first were 75 men with some military experience, such as Nigel Oliphant of the Chinese imperial Bank who had served with the Scots Greys, Captain Poole of the East Yorkshire Regiment and Captain Labrousse of the Infanterie de Marine. The second group were more amateurish, titled the carving knife brigade because of their variety of weapons going from elephant rifles to fusil de chasse. Professionals and amateurs alike were all short of ammunition and each nationality used differing weapons with differing types of ammunition making it a nightmare logistically. The legation had only one piece of real artillery, the Italian one pounder and that too held little ammunition.  Their lines of defense had shrunk alarmingly after just the second day, they only had 7 legations to defend. The outliers such as the Belgian and Dutch legations had been abandoned at the beginning, the Austrians shortly after and the Italians lost theirs during the Von Thomann confusion. The area they defended was now 700 yards east to west from the Russian and American legations and 750 yards north to south from the Fu Palace and British legation to the north and the Tartar Wall in the south. Sandwiched between these were the Japanese, Spanish and German legations alongside some other buildings. All the legations, excluding the British one, were on Legation street. The Germans and Americans were on the south side of the street overshadowed by the massive Tartar wall. MacDonald knew the Tartar wall had to be held at all cost, if it was taken anyone from its top could lob incendiaries down, spelling doom. The British legation grounds quickly became the place everyone congregated searching for further information, everyone was starved to know what was going on outside. Meanwhile the Chinese Christians were doing their part helping with labor an invaluable aspect to the defenders plight. There was also the issue of having to watch over them, lest the enemy infiltrate using them as cover. The foreigners and Chinese likewise were introduced to the hazard of fire which constantly was an issue. Boxers would toss torches and firecrackers at all hours trying to burn the legations out. It was all to easy for the Boxers to dip rags in kerosene attach it to the end of a long bamboo pole and lit it ablaze. On the 22nd, many buildings in the western sector were lit of fire and it took the defenders a long time to put it out. The first casualty for the British was to be Private Scadding who was shot dead as he stood watch while the fire committee went to work putting out fires. The very next day was the same, the Chinese tried to burn them out again, this time they aimed for the Hanlin Academy just due north of the British legation. Thousands of silk covered books were there, it was a tremendous tragedy to try and burn the place.  On the morning of the 23rd, the enemy was spotted running through the four acre compound tossing torches soaked in petrol around. The foreigners were stunned the Chinese would burn such a place, but burn it they did. The fire teams tried to put the flames out, but the Chinese were firing down upon anyone who would go near the academy. Eventually MacDonald sent some royal marines to go through a hole in the wall getting into the academy where firefighting efforts were organized. Scholars among the foreign community were in despair knowing the academic treasures being burnt. Morrison had this to say  “the combustible books, the most valuable in the Empire, were thrown in a great heap into the pond round the summer house . . . a heap of debris, timber in ashes, sprinkled with torn leaves, marked the site of the great library of the Middle Kingdom . . . what can we think of a nation that sacrifices its most sacred edifice, the pride and glory of its country and learned men for hundreds of years, in order to be revenged upon foreigners? It was a glorious blaze. The desecration was appalling.” By the night time the fire was still burning as soot covered fire fighters struggled.  Other fires were seen that day, the Russo Chinese bank containing 80,000 dollars of cash was burned down, many officials houses alongside it. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The battle for the Taku Forts was won at a small cost, but the battle for Tientsin and Beijing would rage on for many more days. Time was of the essence if the allies were to reach the foreign legations in Beijing to save their countrymen.

Howdy! Folks of the Interwebs...today's OpGCD Podcast journey is from the OG OpGCD Podcast archives....recorded in January 2020. However, today's episode could not be more relevant today, as we discuss the ins, outs, and what-have-yous regarding the censorship and bullshit surrounding the "Cough Cough" epidemic that shut down the entire world as anyone previously knew it! Essentially, the "Cough Cough" epidemic was a perverse magic-shit-show perpetrated by the folks of China. Where in the past the Chinaman used to kidnap Americans onto ships and cart them back to Shanghai for the purposes of slave labor. That is what folks call "Get'n Shanghai'd". However, leave it up to those crafty Chinamen....as they clearly went back to the drawing board - so to speak....and in 2020 the Chinamen got us American folk (and most of the rest of the world for that matter) to literally kidnap ourselves inside our own homes, Wuhan virus style! So in summary...."We've All Been Wuhan'd!!" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jj-vance/message

  Three banks tanked. Find out why and what part crypto plays. Covid-19 is offically 3 years old and people are upset the world is moving on. #NEVERTOOKMINEOFF. Iran & Saudi Arabia strike a deal strung together by those crafty Chinamen. Submarines, Raw Meat, and Rishi Sunak's Dumbo Ears are also make an appearance. Oh, whatta Tuesday! PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING ON PAYPAL! WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO KEEP GOING Huge Thanks to our Fiat Fun Coupon gifting Producers: Hempress Emily M. - The Official MMO Herbalist Ryle Davis Wiirdo    Special Thank you: Tom Contributed NPR Covid story Lady MountainJay Psychedelic Artwork   These fine folks found our donation link!We are also on Cashapp, $mmoshow, and Venmo @mmoshow. Thank you to all Boosters, both Live and Post: The Lovely Dame Boolysteed Jasper96 headloon (Baller!) jonmcpain The Bock Bocky Dame Trail Chicken SIRVO Some1actually makeheroism marykateultra cottongin Lavish Phifer Boo-bury Cbrooklyn112 This Fed Free group sent in boosts, which are little bits of bitcoin donation, which allows for comments as well. These are read live on the show! For more information on boostagrams, Check out this post. Prove you're not a fed by donating to mmo.show/donate!   Runner Up titles: Angry Chord Coffee Fingers Quicky Joe Smack Bang Check but not Checkmate   Still listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Gross. Get yourself a better and more masculine podcast app at NewPodcastApps.com Prove you're not a fed by donating to mmo.show/donate!   Eat Raw Meat and Stay Frosty!   C U Next Tuesday!  

Last time we spoke Emperor Xianfeng died at the ripe age of 30 having spent a life smoking opium with his harem. Now the Qing dynasty was in the hands of his 5 year old son, but in reality henceforth until its collapse the Qing dynasty would actually to be controlled by the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi. Hong Rengan received a military defeat at Tongcheng and it seems he would never psychologically recover from it. Li Xiucheng went on the offensive and performed a grand eastern campaign taking multiple provinces. Zeng Guofan needed a new army created and chose his student Li Hongzhang to command it. The Anhui army was formed and it looked like the Qing side was going to win this civil war after all. The only thing that might turn the tide back for the Taiping was that ever sought after foreign support.   #33 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 10: The Ever Victorious Army   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Meanwhile back in Nanjing, Hong Rengan's life was becoming more and more miserable. He lost at Anqing and his rivals used his absence to take away his authority in the capital. His continued efforts at gaining western support was going nowhere, in fact it was earning him embarrassment. The foreign relations to the Taiping had become poisoned due a large part to the eastern campaign led by Li Xiucheng. Many of the foreign missionaries stopped visiting Nanjing and soon that direct line of communication that Hong Rengan cherished had slipped away. Shanghai was bracing itself for what it believed was a Taiping offensive against the city and Hong Rengan could do little to nothing to stop Li Xiucheng. As for Zeng Guofan, he knew Shanghai was extremely wealthy and must be protected from the Taiping, but Nanjing was simply more important and he could not launch two enormous campaigns simultaneously against both. Zeng Guofan elected to focus on Nanjing and perhaps once Li Hongzhang had built up his Anhui army he could deal with Shanghai.    For Shanghai, it looked certain the Taiping would soon attack, and the Qing had no assurances from the foreigners that they would help defend the city. They had no one to turn to, then our old friend the filibuster wannabe Frederick Townsend Ward. Despite Britain's attempts to stop the mercenary leader, he was still going strong with his HQ at Songjiang. He only had 68 foreign mercenaries left because of the constant harassment from the Taiping and British, but he did have some Napoleon field guns and a promise form his Qing benefactors that if he took Qingpu he would be rewarded handsomely. Way back when we talked about how Ward's ragtag group failed to take Qingpu from the Taiping and they attempted 4 more times with disastrous results. They just kept using the same strategy over and over, blast the gates with artillery, storm the walls and hope the Qing military followed through. Ward's defeats were brutal and he lost a third of his force for his efforts. The foreign community of SHanghai had zero sympathy for the filibuster, he was just a source of embarrassment. But then the American civil war broke out and a rumor emerged about a group of Californians purchasing the vessel, Neva and that it was a confederate ship now being run by none other than Ward. According to these rumors, the Neva was outfitted with guns stolen from US munitions stored in Shanghai and this said vessel was firing up Union merchant ships going around the Chinese coast.    The United States only had a single warship in China at the time, the USS Saginaw which hunted the so called Neva. When they finally caught the Neva, the so called guns it held were actually whiskey, it was just a merchant ship, but still the rumors persisted raising Ward as this legendary figure. Now this was all awkward as hell in Shanghai, the american population was overwhelmingly pro union northerners, while the British were more pro confederacy. The American merchants were dependent on the British warships to protect their business and this caused all sorts of conflict. During one particularly bad incident, the Trent incident of 1862 in which a US captain chased down and boarded the British steamer Trent trying to arrest two confederate diplomats, if you know the story you know the story haha. Long story short it was the confederates trying to go to Britain to make their case and the Union illegally arrested them, anyways this led Admiral Hope to get his naval forces at Shanghai to seize the homes, vessels and assets of the American community. This led to a rumor, Ward was going to pre emptively attack Hope's force. The entire American community in Shanghai thought they might go to war with Britain yet again, but this never came to be.    Meanwhile during all that chaos, the very real threat, the Taiping began to appear on the horizons of Shanghai on January 11th.  The alarms all sounded when smoke emerged due north of the city and a new wave of refugees began pouring in. The smoke began to get closer and closer prompting the foreign community to hold emergency meetings to plan a defense. The Americans, British and French put aside their quarrels and banded together to man the walls. The threat was extremely real, one member of the community had been captured and interrogated by the Taiping about the city defenses and this man reported that he saw the rebels were carrying British and German muskets and that there appeared to be an Arab military advisor and a small group of European mercenaries in their ranks. Then a force of around 3000 Taiping branding muskets seized the town of Wusong just 10 miles north of the city. One British captain reported witnessing the battle and said the Taiping were quite astonishing, very well organized and equipped far better than the Qing seemed to be at the battle of Peiho.    Li Xiucheng did not want to smash Shanghai into pieces, he wanted to do everything possible to take it mostly intact. Thus his strategy was to surround the city and bring her to her knees. Beginning in January, 5 Taiping armies each numbering in the thousands to tens of thousands began surrounding Shanghai at a distance of several miles each. Soon a propaganda campaign emerged between Songjiang and Shanghai, with written notices stating the Taiping would ensure the safety and protection of all those who joined their side. As for the foreign community, Li Xiucheng warned them to stay out of the conflict, and that anyone caught giving aid to the Qing “will be like a flying moth dashing into the fire, seeking his own extirpation.” Thus Shanghai was under siege and the communications to inland places were severed. Admiral Hope sent word to Hong Kong asking for reinforcements and the consul of Canton relayed the dire news back to Britain. The new wave of refugees brought far too many mouths to the city. 80,000 or so Taiping surrounded Shanghai and word was that more would be coming from Suzhou by the end of the month.   The main defensive body for the foreign community were British and French troops who manned the walls, alongside 200 volunteers, some police and a contingent of Punjabi infantry. In an unusual fashion, on January the 26th, snow began to fall, now do remember Shanghai lays in a subtropical zone rarely seeing temperatures below freezing. By the time the Taiping began to fully encircling Shanghai there was about 2 feet of snow in the area and this had a paralyzing effect in the lower Yangtze region. By the end of January the eastern seaboard froze. The weather would break in early February, but the Taiping were delayed greatly by all of this. The Taiping found an unexpected resistance at Songjiang, Ward's force. Now after losing so many battles, Ward had stopped simply recruiting westerners, he now began training Chinese instead. He had a minimal staff of American and European officers overseeing the training of his Chinese forces and because of the payment differences, they Chinese were paid a tenth of what the westerns were paid, he had a pretty large force under him. Ward taught his Chinese soldiers how to respond to english commands and standard bugle calls. The men were outfitted with european style uniforms, typically blue jackets for artillery men and green jackets for infantry. They were trained in the western fashion and equipped with cutting edge weaponry, British enfield rifles, some Prussian made rifles and the odd American rifle or pistol here or there. But the Taiping were also getting their hands on some western weaponry. One report in 1862 showed a ship was caught smuggling 300 cannons, 100 cases of small arms and 50 tons of ammunition to the Taiping from Singapore. Another report indicated the Taiping at Wusong had been supplied with nearly 3000 muskets, 800 pieces of artillery and 18,000 cartridges, a dangerous amount to be sure.   On February the 3rd, Wards new militia fought the Taiping managing to hold out at Songjiang against a force of 20,000 rebels. Their success was largely due to hidden artillery batteries they had placed outside the town which surprised the rebels during their approach, gunning down over 2000 men before their commander called for a retreat. Wards men managed to capture 700 Taiping alive and shipped them back to Shanghai in chains. Two days after the battle, Ward went on the offensive attacking a Taiping outpost halfway between Songjiang and Qingpu forcing the garrison commander to pull out. This was the first time the Shanghai gentry funded private army had any real success and this prompted them to rename the force to give it more inspiration, and thus it Wards militia became known as the famous “Ever Victorious Army” (EVA). Many of you may have heard of this force if you are American, its probably one of the very few things known about the Taiping rebellion in the west to be honest. The EVA force took orders from Wu Xu, their main benefactor, who by no means trusted his General Ward. Ward and the westerners continuously plundered where they went, despite Wu Xu pleading for them not to. In order to try and secure some form of loyalty from Ward, one of the wealthiest backers, the banker Yang Fang married his daughter off to Ward. The Chinese women had been betrothed to another, but the man died before the wedding making her unmarriageable within the Chinese culture. It was a mutual arrangement, for Ward he could pressure his wife to push the backers to pay up and for the backers they could pressure Ward to remain loyal.    Now after the snowstorm dissipated, and I refer to it as a snowstorm simply because my source does, but as a Canadian if you think 2 feet of snow is a storm wow haha. Admiral Hope and Rear admiral Auguste Leopold Protet signed a joint agreement on February 13th to defend Shanghai from the Taiping based on Hope's 30 mile radius idea. They formed a land force to take out into the field against the Taiping, although the British parliament had made it clear to Hope he was not to break neutrality unless it was to save the lives of British subjects. Hope as you can imagine disregarded the orders. Their force was not very large, 900 French and 650 British soldiers, some sailors as a reserve and 200 civilian volunteers including Americans. The Qing forces in Shanghai were around 10,000 strong. Hope had no…well hope to match the Taiping out in the field, but he believed he could hold the walls. If he wanted to perform any action out in the field he simply needed more men, and take a wild guess who he went to. Oh yes the man he tried to arrest on countless occasions, the wild filibuster Ward.    Since Ward now was recruiting Chinese rather than trying to steal away westerners, and given his recent military victories, Admiral Hope decided to form an alliance with Ward. Ward had zero interest in the defense of Shanghai, but Hope enticed him with gunships that could move his men to hit Taiping towns along the riverways, un gagnon gagnon. Frederick Bruce approved the alliance of convenience, but stressed while they could perhaps drive the Taiping out of the immediate area, they had to allow the Qing forces to actually push further and to garrison towns taken. Zeng Guofan upon hearing of all of this, disapproved and did not think it would prove fruitful. But he had no large cards to play in the east, and if the EVA held Shanghai, well that would be just dandy. And when Wards men won the battle for Songjiang on february 20th, zeng Guofan begrudgingly sent word to Beijing that it was in the dynasty's best interests to allow the bizarre foreign mercenary force to continue its work in Shanghai and even Ningbo if they could get there. But he also strongly warned them not to let the EVA forces campaign further inland, especially not against Nanjing. If foreigners were to help defeat Nanjing, what might they demand as a reward for such deeds.    Now give the Eva would be augmenting the Shanghai area, now Zeng Guofan felt perhaps he could dedicate some forces there, afterall if he could grab Shanghai it would be an enormous boost to his power. He approached the Gentry of Shanghai and they found common ground. They sought further protection and Zeng sought funding for his campaign against Nanjing. Thus Zeng Guofan tossed an army to try and break the siege of Shanghai, if they were successful that said army could later be used to cut off Nanjing. Another enormous benefit of this arrangement was Zeng Guofan obtaining what Hong Rengan so desperately desired. The Shanghai backers, nominally Wu Xu formed a contract with a British firm, Mackenzie, Richardsons & company to use their steamships. Now Zeng Guofan could move his forces unimpeded down river to Shanghai aboard British steamers. The Taiping could not fire upon the ships because of the Union Jack and in just 3 round trips, 6500 of Li Hongzhangs new Anhui forces were encamped in Shanghai ready for campaigning. Li Hongzhang then assumed his role as governor of the province and by proxy became the leader of the Shanghai backers, while Wu Xu would retain control over the EVA forces. Meanwhile, with Shanghai under Li Hongzhang's oversight, Zeng Guofan and both his brothers Zeng Guoquan and Guobao began a march towards Nanjing.   Shanghai was under siege, albeit from quite a distance, still this had an enormous effect on its economy, its very lifeblood. The price of rice went up 50%, flour and firewood doubled, but the Taiping were not attacking the walls, not yet at least. Joint operations between the EVA and foreign defenders began on a small scale in mid february with an assault upon High Bridge, 8 miles away from Shanghai proper. Ward had 600 men while Hope and Protet brought 500. The battle was a quick one, with only a single Frenchman killed before the Taiping fled the town. Then on April the 23rd a rather fateful action occurred at Ningbo. A taiping commander received a promotion, now General Fan and in his honor they fired a 10am salute from the cannons facing the river. The guns apparently were not well aimed as a handful of projectiles went across the river and hit the French gunship l'etoile as it was passing by. Admiral Hope and Protet used the situation to dispatch their forces led by Captain Roderick Dew aboard Encounter to retaliate against Ningbo. However when Dew got to Ningbo the Taiping profusely apologized and stated they wanted to remain under friendly terms and would make sure it never happened again. Hope and Protet were not at all content with this and sent word to demand the Taiping take down all the guns on the eastward facing wall of Ningbo. They were given 24 hours to comply or else the British would do it themselves. Well the Taiping refused to comply, because they obviously needed said cannons where they were to defend against the Qing, but they offered to take away the gunpowder from said cannons and to only provide it back if the Qing attacked. Then on May 5th a large group led by the disposed Ningbo gentry, got together a group of 150 small armed boats led by some pirates and peasants to come up the river to attack Ningbo and as they did so they asked the British and French for aid. Just as a mere coincidence their point of attack was the same eastern wall. Thus the British and French invited the motley group to their side of the river. Then Captain Dew sent word to the Taiping “If you fire the guns or muskets from the battery or walls opposite the Settlement, on the advancing Imperialists, thereby endangering the lives of our men and people in the foreign Settlement, we shall then feel it our duty to return the fire, and bombard the city.” It would turn out this was all a planned scheme go figure.    The motley group began approaching Ningbo, but then positioned itself in such a way as to push the European gunships between them and the city. Accounts differ, by the Europeans state one of the Taiping cannons fired first upon the Encounter killing 2 crewmen. It is also alleged that the person operating said cannon was actually a servant of one of the Shanghai gentry backers. Then the British and French ships began to bombard Ningbo before the combined allied party stormed the eastern wall. The motley group were actually the last to storm the city, leaving most of the bloody work to the europeans. According to an eyewitness account “in a few hours did more damage than the rebels did in the whole of the five months that they had possession, chopping off the heads of the unlucky rebels that he caught.” The British press went right to work demonizing the Taiping, a lot of which was based on witness accounts from specific men responsible for trying to break the neutrality stance of Britain. There was also a need to create a narrative to control China in general. Britain had turned its attention squarely to asia since the American civil war had broken much of their trade. The Times declare “the only route to Great Britain's economic survival lay down the path of the Taipings Annihilation”. The Times carried on stating the tea market was being ruined allegedly by the Taiping, and to compensate Britain would have to raise the tax rate on tea to preserve revenue. This would bring hardship to the tea drinking working class of Britain who were already suffering from the textile depression. Thus the stance of neutrality was hurting the good people of Britain, boy oh boy do you see the parallels to today's politics.    The warmongers won the day and Britain's government's hands were tied, thus Britain was dragged into a proxy war with the Taiping. The European coalition, EVA, the Qing and Li Hongzhangs Anhui army were now an allied front embarking on a large campaign to push the Taiping out of the Shanghai region. The beginnings of the campaign were largely successful as a result of the superior firearms, by May 16th a combined force left Shanghai and Songjiang marched upon Qingpu. They bombarded the town for 2 hours using 40 artillery pieces, including a 68 pounder and 4 giant 110 pound naval armstrong guns. Its gates were blown to splinters and 3500 of Wards Chinese EVA troops stormed the town as “god save the queen” was blasted by the military band. 4 days later Admiral Protet led an assault upon South Bridge which lay due south of Songjiang and was shot right through the heart by a Taiping sniper. His death enraged the French who took out their vengeance upon the nearby town of Zhelin where they massacred 3000 civilians, including women and children before raising it to the ground.    While the allied force proved very capable at seizing walled cities, holding them was another matter entirely. They simply did not have enough manpower to hold everything they took. After taking Qingpu, Li Xiucheng sent a large force from Suzhou to hit Songjiang, since the EVA force was absent. Ward turned back to hit Songjiang with 2000 EVA troops, leaving 1500 to garrison Qingpu, which fell under a siege to more Taiping. The garrison of 1500 men held out for a month, but ultimately were forced to torch the city and make their escape. In the summer of 1862, the British and French handed over a group of Taiping prisoners over to Qing forces and according to an eyewitness sat by idly while the Qing performed horrible atrocities. Here is part of the harrowing account: “A young female, apparently about eight months pregnant, who never uttered a groan or sigh at all the previous cruelties she had endured from the surrounding mob, had her infant cut out of her womb, and held up in her sight by one of its little hands, bleeding and quivering; when, at the sight, she gave one heartrending, piercing screech that would have awakened pity in a tiger, and after it had been in that state dashed on her breast, she, with a last superhuman effort, released her arms from those holding her down, and clasped her infant to her bleeding heart, and died holding it there with such force that they could not be separated, and were thus thrown together on the pile of other carcasses. Another young woman among the prisoners awaiting her turn to be disembowelled, with a fine boy of ten months old crowing and jumping in her arms, had him snatched suddenly away from her, and flung to the executioner, who plunged the ruthless knife into his tender breast before his mother's eyes. Infants but recently born were torn from their mother's breasts, and disembowelled before their faces. Young strong men were disembowelled, mutilated, and the parts cut off thrust into their own mouths, or flung among the admiring and laughing crowd of Chinamen.“May God forgive England for the part she is taking in this war”    The foreign press ran rampant stories of the horror and brutality, many still trying to stop their nations from taking an active role in China. Others pointed out the savagery to be a justification for colonizing China. Admiral Hope's vision of creating a 30 mile radius around Shanghai proved impossible. The allied coalition did not have enough men to garrison the places they took from the rebels and given the gruesome events at Qingpu and the death of Protet, Hope was forced to toss the towel. Soon the forces pulled back to the walls of Shanghai and Hope was replaced by Rear Admiral Augustus Leopold Kuper. Captain Dew likewise was reprimanded for his part in the escalations to war. Ward could not be reprimanded of course, but his EVA force was left to fight on its own, something he did not mind too much as the British and French forces often stopped his men from plundering.   While things were going badly for Shanghai, Zeng Guofan was enjoying an amazing campaign. Duolonga's cavalry were harassing Chen Yucheng in northern Anhui for him to flee to Luzhou. From Luzhou Chen Yucheng had an extremely bold strategy, he began calling upon Taiping forces and Nian groups to launch a four pronged campaign going north through Henan and Shaanxi provinces with the ultimate goal of hitting Beijing. Three of the four armies marched north as planned early in 1862, but Chen Yucheng found himself stuck in Luzhou, under a siege by the forces of Duolonga and the Xiang army. His communication to the other 3 armies were cut off and his provisions were dwindling. On may 13th, he took 4000 men and broke out of the siege trying to flee north, but Duolonga's cavalry force gave quick pursuit. Chen Yucheng headed for the city of Souzhou which one of the army groups had been sent to attack. The army was led by Miao Peilin, someone Chen Yucheng had gotten to defect during the siege of Anqing. Chen Yucheng reached Shouzhou before Duolonga's cavalry cut him to pieces, much to his relief. But as he entered the city, Miao Peilin was nowhere to be found. It turns out, because of the severing of communication, Chen Yucheng had no idea that Miao Peilin had been defeated at Shouzhou already back on April 25th, his entire army surrendered to the Qing. Miao had turned back over to the other side, once a defector always a defector as they say. A large reason he was allowed to defect back was because he promised to deliver to the Qing a Taiping general, ie: Chen Yucheng.   Chen Yucheng was taken prisoner and before he was executed in June of 1862 he had this to say to his captors. “It is Heaven's will that has brought me here, and there is nothing that can be said of my past. I have long enjoyed the reputation of a victorious commander, but now I would prefer to look to the future. For the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to lose me, one single man, it will be as if the mountains and the rivers of the kingdom have been reduced by half. I bear a great debt of gratitude to my Heavenly Dynasty and will not surrender. The general of a defeated army cannot beg for his life. But as for the four thousand men I command, they are veterans of a hundred battles, and I do not know whether they are still alive. You can cut me to pieces for the crimes I have committed, but this has nothing to do with them.” And so the Brave King was dead.   The death of Chen Yucheng and the preoccupation of Li Xiucheng with the Shanghai front left Nanjing vulnerable. The Taiping garrisons along the Yangtze river between Anqing and Nanjing would have no hope for reinforcements from the north nor the east, and Zeng Guoquan was on the march towards the Taiping capital. As Zeng Guoquan advanced, Taiping garrisons simply abandoned their outposts and forts, setting fire to their stockades before fleeing. It was an absolute disaster for the Taiping. They had always known the Qing forces would strike Nanjing from Anqing, but they never expected it to come this soon. By late May, Zeng Guoquans forces were reaching the Nanjing outskirts. Zeng Guoquan first seized an important junction in the riverway that controlled Nanjing's moat. Then on May 30th, he attacked a small hill just outside the southern gate of Nanjing.   The hill was known as Yuhuatai “terrace of flowering rain”, and it held a fort at its top. While Nanjing had been so heavily fortified, people literally said it was impenetrable, it did have vulnerabilities and Yuhuatai was one of them. The hill was over 300 feet high, around a mile across and about a half mile away from Nanjing southern gate. From atop the hill one could peer into Nanjing, the perfect base of operations one would want when sieging such a grand city. Zeng Guoquan had 20,000 men with naval support to provision him. Zeng Guoquan dug in and began to send word back to his brother asking him to help procure western arms. Zeng Guofan was surprisingly not impressed with western arms. He wrote about how he found them quite finicky, overly complicated and prone to breaking down after 20-30 shots. He wrote back to his brother ‘the way to achieve victory is to be found in men, not in arms. Bao Chao has no foreign guns and no foriegn powder, yet he repeatedly achieves great victories. He Chun and Zhang Guoliang had foreign cannons with their Green standard force's siege of Nanjing in 1860, but they did not prevent their defeat. A true beauty doesn't fuss over pearls and jade, and a great writer needs no more than brush and ink. If a general is truly skilled at war, why should he go grasping for foreign weapons?””. Despite his views on the matter, Zeng Guoquan's persistent pleas eventually led him to purchase foreign arms from agents at Canton and Shanghai. Still Zeng Guofan insisted the foundation of their armies should rely on Jingalls, bird guns, Chinese made cannons and the good old sword and spear.    One thing Zeng Guofan did realize though was the dramatic advantage of steamships. While in Anqing in 1862 he purchased a small steamship from Shanghai and gathered all the Qing scientists and engineers he could to the city to try and reverse engineer it. The ship soon broke down and none were able to repair it. But by the summer one engineer managed to build a working prototype steam engine and a year later Anqing would create a 28 foot long steamer. Meanwhile Prince Gong was also enthralled by the power of the steam engine and was trying to procure the purchase of some ships from Britain. While Britain wanted to keep the facade of neutrality going, especially after the Shanghai embarrassment, the idea of selling steamships to the Qing was an interesting one. If they provided ships, perhaps Britain's interests in China could be secured simply by protecting major waterways like the Yangtze. Prince Gong found a agent to try to get the ships, one Horatio Nelson Lay. Lay went to work approaching Captain Sherard Osborn, the captain of the Furious during the second opium war. He offered the captain a 4 year contract stating the man would take orders only from the Qing emperor and no other in China. These orders would go first to Lay, who would take up residence in Beijing.   Now a nit picky piece of information here. Unlike the civil war in America, where Britain granted belligerent status to the confederates, in China no such recognition was ever made. This was because the British parliament wanted to officially remain neutral. But because there was no official belligerent status for the Taiping, this meant they were not protected by Britain's foreign enlistment act, which prevented the selling of things like, gunships to any party that was at war with a nation Britain had friendly relations with, ie: the Qing. Thus Britain was free to sell gunships to the Qing to be used against the Taiping. Ironically at the same time Lay was trying to procure a naval force from Britain, so was James Bulloch of the Confederate states of America. Lay would find success whereas James would find failure. Now there were some hiccups for Lay when it came to the foreign enlistment act. It was forbidden for British subjects to enlist in the national militaries of foreign states, thus captain Osborn would require special permission from the crown.    But wouldn't you know it, in August of 1862 the foreign enlistment act was suspended suddenly and parliament went into recess over the entire summer and would only reconvene in february. Thus Lay and Osborn were able to serve the Qing and were allowed to hire British crews for the ships. Four months later, Lord Palmerston's government issued a second order making it lawful for any British officer to enlist in the service of the Qing emperor to quote “to serve the said Emperor in any military, warlike, or other operations, and for that purpose to go to any place or places beyond the seas, and to accept any commission, warrant, or other appointment from or under the said Emperor, and to accept any money, pay, or reward for their services.” There was one twist to all of this, anyone who served the Qing would have to resign or take a leave of absence from the Royal Navy. As you can imagine this meant that anyone who took the job would go unregulated and be unaccountable for their behavior, basically they were becoming much like Ward's mercenaries. By the time february came, all the work could not be undone, though the Tory's tried to reverse everything accusing Palmerston and the Whigs for getting Britain directly involved in the Chinese civil war. The entire thing was lambasted by multiple presses in Britain who pointed out rightfully, that Britain's finances were tied to the Qing paying reparations, and if the Taiping toppled the Qing the money might stop flowing.    The first 3 vessels to be sent to China were the Mohawk, Jasper and Africa, renamed the Pekin, Amoy and China. The rest of the ships would be freshly constructed and it would take roughly a year to get them all over there. It was to be 7 gunships and one store vessel, they would range from men-of-war to smaller steamers that could traverse shallow riverways. They would carry around 40 guns and a crew of 400. Interestingly the Qing had never before required a naval ensign, so Lay helped them invent one, a green and yellow ensign with a dragon in the middle. The ships lacked the latest iron armoy, but this was insignificant as the Taiping had no decent artillery to hit them. The fleets flagship, the Kiang-soo was a 241 footer that could reach 19 knots, a very fast ship for its day. The fleet was called the Anglo-Chinese expedition, though many Historians refer to it as the Lay-Osborn flotilla. Though for the common Chinese people who were witnessing their weak imperial government's willingness to pay foreign mercenaries to win their battles, they deemed it the Vampire Fleet. The year of 1863 would prove very fruitful for the Qing forces.    I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. It seems the rest of the world were now allied against the Taiping. Zeng Guoquan made an extremely bold attack upon Yuhuatai ushering in the deathrows of the Taiping capital. What could the Taiping do to stop it.  

Last time we spoke the first time the British and French armada attacked the Taku forts it was a literal cake walk. Reminscent of the first opium war, the Qing cannons proved inept at hitting the European ships. Elgin's coalition made their way to Tianjin where they were met by the Emperors emissaries who began the same old tired procrastination strategy. Elgin was simply fed up and left the job to his brother Bruce who thought he got the deal won and done, but little did they all know the Qing had no intention of following through with the new treaty. A rebellion broke out at Canton and now Bruce was left with a new coalition force to fight yet again to get to Beijing to force the Qing to heed the treaty. However this time the Taku Forts were led by Prince Seng and he served the Europeans a truly nasty defeat. The tides of war were turning in favor of the Qing dynasty.    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #22 This episode is Part 4 of the Second Opium War: The March to Beijing   When news came back to Britain about the loss, Lord Derby's government fell on June 10th 1859. Lord Palmerston returned to power at the age of 75 and wrote to the foreign office  “We must in some way or other make the Chinese repent of the outrage. We might send a military-naval force to attack and occupy Peking.” Elgin sat in on a cabinet meeting as Palmerston had appointed him Postmaster-General in the new Whig government. Elgin proscribed a moderate response, fearing that if Britain toppled the Manchu government the new masters of China would become the Taiping who lets just say were not great friends to capitalism and especially not towards the opium trade. For those MP's who still sought diplomacy, a recent event had hurt their cause. American ambassador John Ward made an attempt at diplomacy, agreeing to go to Beitang around 160 miles north of Beijing before heading to the capital. Yet instead of traveling in a sedan chair like any respectable Qing official, Ward accepted the humiliating Chinese offer to use a wooden cart without springs or a cushioned seat. The Chinese it turns out slyly told Ward this was the preferred method of transport the Russians took when in reality it was the typical transport for tribute bearers. Apparently the trip was so bumpy and painful, Ward chose to walk the last few miles. The Qing were delighted at the sight of the western representative entering Beijing on July 27th on foot like a common peasant. Ward like so many before him, ran into the kowtow situation. Ward said he was willing to bow but “I am accustomed to kneel only to God and women” to which some Qing court official said “but the emperor is God'. Another absolutely ridiculous war about the logistics of Kowtowing emerged. Ward was unwilling to do the full blown deal and kept trying to cut corners. The Qing officials asked if he could touch the floor with his fingertips instead of his head, he said no. They then asked if he could hide his legs behind a curtain so the emperor thought he was kneeling when in fact he wouldnt be. Many letters went back and forth trying to find a way to accommodate Ward's kowtow, but at the last moment Emperor Xianfeng came out of an opium stupor and upon receiving the recent news about the grand victory at the Taku Forts demanded Ward do the full blown kowtow. The Emperor added, since the Americans decided to break neutrality at the Taku Forts it was the least Ward could do, ouch. If you can believe it, the kowtow argument went on for 14 days. The Emperor eventually ordered Ward and his entourage to be expelled from Beijing. Though this all looked horrible on the surface, in truth Ward went to Beitang without interference from the Emperor and signed a treaty with the Qing officials on August 15th of 1859. Wards success was due to the fact, unlike his British and French counterparts, America was not insistent on signing the treaty within the capital. The American experience made Bruce look bad and Palmerston was fed up with the Qing protocols, kowtowing and such. The British newspapers were calling for blood after hearing news about the Taku fort disaster. Yet the situation was delicate. 10% of Britains tax revenue came from the opium trade in China. As Elgin put it in a letter to a colleague “If you humiliate the Emperor beyond measure, if you seriously impair his influence over his own subjects, you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. [You] throw the country into confusion and imperil the most lucrative trade you have in the world. I know that these opinions are not popular. The general notion is that if we use the bludgeon freely enough we can do anything in China. I hold the opposite view so strongly that I must give expression to it at whatever cost to myself.” Then some international actions stirred things into motion. Italy suddenly seized the Austrian controlled territory of Lombardy. Rumors began to spread that France was mustering 12,000 infantry, two squadrons of cavalry, 6 batteries of artillery and 20 gunboats most likely to hit Beijing….or perhaps Britain. It does seem to all be hysteria, but one thing was for sure, the British needed to take action to secure their interests in China. The Foreign Secretary on October 29th ordered Bruce to demand an apology for the lives lost at the Taku forts, for unspecified reparations and an agreement to respect the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin. The Qing would be given 30 days to respond, no more tactical delays allowed, if they failed to meet the deadline Bruce would block the Bei He River. Bruce received the orders in January of 1860, but there were problems. The idea was to starve out Beijing, its been an idea tossed around a few times at this point. However blockading the Bei He river would result in just rice crop not getting north, those living in Beijing could simply sustain themselves on the other crops found abundantly at the time in the north, corn and beans for example. On top of this Admiral Hope needed to furnish the warships and it would take until April, thus Elgin began to showcase the issues and it was agreed to extend the deadline until March.  The Qing responded surprisingly quickly to Bruce's ultimatum on April 5th with a no. Instead the Qing officials invited Bruce to negotiate with some imperial commissioners, not the Emperor and at Beitang. It seems the Qing remained ever emboldened by their victory at the Taku Forts, they also ended the response off by telling Bruce the barbarian representatives in the future should be more respectful, ompf. Bruce was out of his depth and many officials in Britain knew it. Instead of replacing Bruce outright they simply superseded him with another British emissary…his brother Elgin, double ompf. Thus Bruce was to remain in China to help his brother. Elgin had spent his entire time in Britain trying to stop the escalation to war and was extremely reluctant to take the diplomatic role again. None the less he felt he had to defend the treaty he had built and was being stamped upon. En route back to China, Elgin stopped in Paris at the Tuileries to speak the Napoleon III to ask what Frances territorial ambitions were in China. Napoleon III said the major drive was for Indo-China and that France was more than happy to leave Britain the pesky nation of China to deal with. If anything, weakening China would just help France more so in Indo-China, une gagnon-gagnon.  Baron Gros caught up to Elgin en route to China and both steamed out of Sri Lanka aboard the Malabar. The pair were in for a real fun time, as a brutal storm hit their ship and it sunk taking with it Baron Gros's uninsured plate and Elgin's top secret instructions from Britain. Eglin and Gros were delayed 2 more weeks to retrieve their lost stuff, those documents Elgin had lost by the way held some brand new demands of China such as the annexation of Kowloon, something that might have distressed the French. Again, a rumor had been spread to London that Napoleon III sought to seize Kowloon. This prompted some panicky British officials such as our old friend Harry Parkes to negotiate a permanent lease over Kowloon with the Chinese Viceroy of Canton. In a bizarre fashion while the British forces were mustering for an expedition, this was occurring indifferently and the viceroy of Canton accused because he was bankrupt.  The international force sent to China was staggering, 18,000 men, 7000 being French. Because of Kowloon easily going over to Britain, this allowed Sikh cavalry to perform military exercises on their large arabian horses terrifying the locals. The Sikhs and British brought with them a terrifying new toy, the 25 pound Armstrong fieldgun. It held the accuracy of a rifle with the destructive power of a cannon. It was designed to scatter large armies by firing a shell that burst into 49 angular fragments, making it one of the most brutal antipersonnel weapon in existence. I can't state it enough here, this one piece of military technology is what will destroy the Qing forces, it performed tremendously. The French were armed with an outdated Napoleon gun for their own artillery. 2500 Chinese coolies were hired by the British at 9$ a month + rations and 2 uniforms. Ironically crime in Hong Kong declined dramatically after the British left with these men, seems they got all the criminals on the island haha. General Sir James Hope Grant led the British forces and commanded a special loyalty from the Sikhs as they served under his fair leadership during the Indian revolt. Grant got the job, not because he was particularly gifted, just merely the closest General in the east. An allied force of 2000 British and 500 French were sent to seize Chusan island allowing them to assert dominance over the Yangtze and its critical use as a supply road to Beijing. The residents of Chusan were so traumatized from the last invasion they gave up without a fight. 50 miles north of Chusan was Shanghai whom welcomed the allies also without a fight because the mayor desperately needed help fighting off the Taiping rebels. The Taiping had recently seized Fuzhou and were on their way to claim the grand prize of Shanghai. The mayor of Shanghai pleaded with the Europeans to help despite the fact they literally were going to war with other parts of the Qing dynasty. The mayor offered to secretly report the ongoings of Beijing to the Europeans. The French counterpart to Grant, General Cousin de Montauban hated the chinese in general but really hated the Taiping rebels particularly because they were protestant. The French general wanted to annihilate the Taiping menace once and for all, but the British held the mans bloodlust back agreeing to use forces just to defend Shanghai against any Taiping invasion. Even Baron Gros went against his General agreeing with the British. At Shanghai the Europeans helped augment the outdated Chinese cannons that could not aim properly to be placed as swivel cannons on the walls, which could fire outward and inward, a notably helpful feature against residents who might lend their support to the Taiping. They sold some pieces of artillery to the delight of the mayor of Shanghai. As Elgin approached Shanghai he was falling further into a spiral of depression, he had this to write in his diary “If I had been anything but the greatest fool that the world ever saw I should never have been where I now am. I deserve to suffer for it, and no doubt I shall do so.” Meanwhile the guy was getting letters from the Whig government saying if he did not conclude the China mission by the next meeting of parliament, their government would most likely fall and it would be his fault. Rumors had spread in London that Elgin's overly appeasement of the Chinese was dragging the conflict on. On July 26th, 150 British ships steamed up the northern coast to land near Beitang, just 8 miles north of the Taku Forts on the gulf of Zhili. The French fleet soon joined them and for 5 days they began to unload troops from more than 200 warships, if I was the Qing dynasty, already facing the Taiping horde I would be peeing my pants. None of the wall guns in Beitang fired upon the Europeans as they approached and as they opened the gates they soon figured out why, the garrison literally had run away. They also found out a lot of the wall mounted artillery turned out to be fakes made out of wood, and I just know theres a great embezzlement story for that one. The 20,000 residents of the city welcomed the invaders like liberators and even began to point out where the forces of the infamous Prince Seng had buried mines inside and outside the city. A lot of those kind residents were rewarded with rape and looting by the troops. It is alleged many of the women of Beitang escaped the rape by poisoning themselves with opium, strangaltion or drowning, my god. Many residents sought refuge fleeing to a fetid marsh outside the city. General Grant blamed the hired coolies who he said “were for the most part atrocious villains…the robberies and crimes they committed in the town were fearful”. But it is most certain all the groups present took part in the orgy of plunder and rape, war never changes. British Provost-Marshal Captain Con ordered 30 soldiers flogged for looting and military discipline was restored the next week. The march from Beitang to Tianjin was a mud filled nightmare, an advance company of 1000 British and 1000 French eventually crawled along a stone causeway for 4 miles until they finally spotted Tianjin in the distance and a large horde of Prince Seng's cavalry blocking the way. As the Europeans drew closer, hundreds of Manchus, Han and Mongol cavalry became visible. Their sheer numbers were intimidating at first until the Europeans saw their weaponry. Most were utilizing bows and arrows, spears, some 18th century flintlocks and of course Gingalls. The allies lacked enough cavalry to fight even such an under equipped force and pulled back for the time being. A Qing commander upon seeing the Europeans peel back away sent a letter immediately to Beijing proclaiming a grand victory had already been won. Then on August the 12th of 1860, Grant assembled 800 cavalry to march around the Qing blockading the causeway and to take them from the rear. The main allied forced would hit the Qing head on using 3 Armstrong guns. When the frontal units were within a mile of the Qing horde they open fire with the Armstrongs. The Armstrong shells exploded and tore to piece the Qing cavalry, but the defenders were truly fearless, even as their comrades at either side were literally blown to pieces, they charged at the invaders. The Qing forces got within 450 yards when the effectiveness of the invaders guns simply halted them in their tracks, creating 25 minutes of terror. The suicidal valor of the Qing impressed many of their opponents, Major General Sir Robert Napier commanding the second division under Grant wrote “they bore unflinchingly for a considerable time such a fire as would have tried any troops in the world”. The Sikh riflemen gunned down the Qing with enfields and pistols while they were met mostly bow arrows. Lt Col G Wolseley recalled “never saw men come on so pluckily”. The better armed but widely outnumbered Sikhs managed to force the Qing to break and flee. The Punjab cavalry would have caused an even larger bloodbath pursuing the fleeing Qing, but the mud trapped their horses. Many of the Qing fled all the way to the safety of the Taku forts.  At the same time Grant had launched an attack on the Qing cavalry guarding the causeway leading to Tianjin when quite an unfortunate event unfolded. A drunk Irish sergeant who had recently took too much rum that he was literally ordered to delivery to the troops and got lost and stumbled into what he thought was a pack of friendly Sikh cavalry, it turns out they were Manchu. The Manchu cavalrymen seized the man and a few unfortunate souls who were following him. The Manchu ordered the Europeans to kowtow and they all did except for a Scottish private named Moyse who was beheaded on the spot. The Irish sergeant and other survivors were allowed to make their way back to camp to tell the others what had happened and they got back safely a week later. Their story made it into The Times which published a poem about the man, though it got his nationality wrong, typical English “Let dusky Indians whine and kneel,/An English lad must die./And thus with eyes that would not shrink,/With knee to man unbent,/Unfaltering on its dreadful brink,/To his red grave he went.” Two days after the kowtow incident the Europeans made their way up the causeway coming to a village called Sin-ho where they found the defenders had recently fled from. Further past the village was a large outpost called Danggu and unlike Sin-ho this was defended by Qing forces. Prince Seng had abandoned Danggu leaving behind Green standard troops. General de Montauban wanted to attack immediately, but Grant cautioned that the men needed rest. In a typical French-British rivalry fashion, de Montauban decided to attack without the British, but they found themselves quickly overwhelmed by the mud-walled fortification's 45 wall cannons. This setback humiliated the French general who had personally led the assault, but it did not lessen up his pursuit for glory. De Montauban came up with a wild plan to attack all 4 of the Dagu forts at the same time. Grant insisted on singling out the most northern fort as it was the most vulnerable. De Montauban made a mention of the situation in his diary on August 20th “I shall nevertheless send a French land force to work conjointly with our allies. The object of my observations is, above all, to free myself from military responsibility with reference to my own government.” On August 14th, the British and French took Danggu using 36 guns and two rocket batteries before the infantry swept in. As one British Lt said to his commander “the Armstrong gun is a great success”. By taking Danggu, the Europeans were now in a great position to attack the northern most Dagu Fort that Grant had singled out, it was just a mile from Danggu across the Bei He River. There was a 6 day delay at this point as the Europeans were bringing the rest of their supplies and equipment along the causeway and the French garrison in Shanghai had a nasty situation leading them to burn some of the city's suburbs in an effort to drive out Taiping rebels. On August 20th the Europeans set up 6 artillery batteries within half a mile of the northernmost Taku Fort and called in for 8 gunboats to attack it from the south. Just before sunrise of August 21st the Taku Fort opened fire on their position. The Europeans responded by performing a rolling forward bombardment all the way up to 500 yards from the Forts walls. The European Armstrongs, 8 inch mortars, 24 pound howitzers and French 12 inch cannons rayes absolutely smashed the forts wall cannons until the Qing were only left with Gingalls to operate. At 6:30am a powder magazine blew up inside the fort causing a massive explosion, but the defenders kept the fight on. Once the Europeans were 30 yards from the fort, a French force led by General Collineau began to scale the walls, but there was a moat in the way. The French General forced a detachment of coolies to stand in the moat up to their necks while supporting the scaling ladders on their shoulders for the French to climb up and my god is that a heinous act. Apparently Grant felt so terrible upon seeing what happened to the coolies that he gave them all an extra months salary as bonus. Once the French got atop the walls they launched bayonet charges that scattered the remaining defenders while the British blew a small hole in the forts wall allowing their own troops to charge single file through. The Qing commander of the fort showed more bravery than many of his men. When he was cornered he refused to surrender until an agitated Captain named Prynne of the royal marines pulled out his revolver and shot the man dead. Prynne then took the commanders peacock feather cap as a trophy of war. It took a few hours for the fort to be secured. The casualties were quite heavy, the British and French reported losing about 200 men, the Chinese were said to have over 1000 dead and another 1500 had fled the scene. 9000 surrendered to General Collineau, kneeling at his feet. The inside of the fort was a horror story. Thomas Bowlby described the devastation caused by the Armstrong guns to the defenders inside the fort “a mass of brains and blood smelling most foully”. Grant awarded 6 Victoria Crosses to celebrate the taking of the first Taku Fort. The taking of the northern most fort meant the other Taku forts were now uselessly outflanked, they had all been built to withstand attacks only from the river and were open from behind. The psychological effect was very apparent as within 5 hours, two emissaries from Heng Fu and the Viceroy of Zhili province turned up to negotiate. They were met by the ever xenophobic Harry Parkes who at this point was quite famous to the Chinese for being so xenophobic. Heng Fu's emissaries offered to remove the booms blocking the Bei He River and to allow the European ships safe passage to Tianjin where peace negotiations could resume. Parkes proceeded to crumple heng fu's letter and threw it right in the face of one of his emissaries, a man named Wang who happened to be an anglophile and fluent in English. Parkes he personally knew the guy, what an asshole. Parkes then began screaming that if the other 3 Taku Forts did not surrender within the next two hours they would suffer the same fate as the northern one. One European present at this parley described Parkes to be “harsh and unnecessarily violent towards Wang. This was not customary among European nations and the envoys should be treaty with the courtesy common to civilization”. Long before Parkes two hour screamfest had elapsed, white flags were already waving amongst the 3 other Taku forts without a single shot being fired.  The path to Tianjin was now open and as of August 23rd, Grant took the armada unchallenged up to the riverway with the infantry as the cavalry made its way overland on the twin banks of the river. By August 27th the Europeans had an encampment just outside Tianjin and the ambassadors prepared to negotiate yet again. This time the Qing court sent the senior official Guilian who had previously negotiated the treaty of Tianjin, but this time he carried plenipotentiary powers. Elgin and Gros were notified of his authority beforehand and discussed amongst another the best strategy going forward. Both men presented new demands much harsher than the previous ones. The Qing were asked to make a formal apology for the casualties caused by the first battle of the Taku Forts in 1859; to pay double the original amount in reparations of 4 million taels of silver; the right to station ambassadors in the capital and to confirm the treaty of Tianjin. The Europeans would occupy Tianjin, which controlled the flow of food to Beijing, giving them the power to starve out the capital if the Qing did not agree. The Taku Forts would also be occupied and they demanded admission to Tongzhou, a suburb only 15 miles away from Beijing. Now Guiliang did indeed have carte blanche from Emperor Xianfeng, but he found the new terms so unacceptable he resorted to the classic Chinese ruse that he did not in fact have plenipotentiary which completely contradicted his original claims. Elgin recognized the classic Chinese stalling tactic because it had occurred so many times at this point. Elgin wrote in his diary “The blockheads have gone on negotiating with me just long enough to enable [Hope] Grant to bring all his army up to this point. Here we are with our base established in the heart of the country, in a capital climate, with abundance [food] around us, our army in excellent health, and these stupid people give me a snub which obliges me to break with them,” Elgin at the same time wrote to his wife “I am at war again! My idiotical Chinamen have taken to playing tricks, which give me an excellent excuse for carrying the army on to Pekin.” Thus Elgin and Gros both agreed the time had finally come to simply march on Beijing. After the fall of Beitang and the Taku forts came so easily, Prince Seng was prepared to commit suicide. However he was ordered to retreat north to the city of Tongzhou just outside Beijing. Tongzhou stood on the road between Tianjin and Beijing and it was there he would prepare a last stand. He had sent 10,000 of his infantry and 700 Cavalry from Danggu and 40,000 Mongolian troops towards Tongzhou where he was amassing an army of 60,000. His instructions were not to attack, but to simply ensure peace while protecting the capital. As the Europeans marched, the Emperor dispatched more envoys and countless letters to Elgin and Gros to delay them. They kept saying that Guiliang had been confused and that in fact the Emperor had accepted all the terms if the Europeans would just stop their advance they could ratify the treaty. It seemed the closer the European force got to Beijing the high the frequency of letters and envoys became. But Elgin was fed up with the Chinese delaying tactics and told them all they would not stop until they reached the  suburb of Beijing, Tongzhou. Many of the frantic envoys made a counteroffer asking the Europeans to go to Hesewu which was between Tianjin and Beijing. Grant liked the offer because in truth, the military force was having a hard time keeping up their logistics. In a kind of humorous way, when Grant began to press Elgin about the logistical issue, Elgin began to blame the troops for quote “the difficulty of getting our army along is incredible; our men are so pampered that they do nothing for themselves and their necessities so great that we are almost immovable. I was disgusted to find out the troops refuse to drink their daily ration of grog unless it is iced.” I love the 19th century its so wild.  On September 14th Elgin sent Harry Parkes and Thomas Wade to negotiate with two new emissaries the Emperor sent to Tongzhou. Their names were Zaiyuan and Muyin, Zaiyuan was also the emperor cousin and both men held real authority. On the very first day of negotiation at Tongzhou, after 8 hours of discussion which is light speed it seems for the Chinese, they accepted all terms. They also agreed to a protocol for ratification, the European forces would be allowed to advance to a place known as Zhengjiawan, just 6 miles from Tongzhou. From there Elgin would leave behind the majority of the forces and proceed to Tongzhou with an escort of 1000 men to sign the treaty. After that Elgin and his escort could continue to Beijing to meet Emperor Xianfeng for a formal ceremony of the treaty ratification. Harry Parkes traveled back to Elgin to report the great news and by September 17th he came back to Tongzhou to tell the Qing emissaries Elgin was preparing his arrival. However by the time Parkes got back, the Emperor had secretly instructed Prince Seng to destroy Elgins party when he came to sign the treaty. The Qing forces at Tongzhou were all hard at work preparing artillery batteries and surprise attack launching points such as millet coverings to conceal units. When Parkes began talking to the emissaries they suddenly began an argument about Elgin needing to Kowtow, it was all a ruse to delay. Prince Seng meanwhile counseled his Emperor to save face by going on a “hunting expedition” near the northern border. Seng did not want the Europeans to take the Emperor hostage, though there were many who believed it was actually a secret ploy to grab the dragon throne himself. Emperor Xianfangs concubine turned consort, Cixi urged him to remain in Beijing. The Emperor proposed to march out of the capital at the head of a huge army, make a feint attack at the European force and then flee to the safety of his hunting lodge at Rehe over 100 miles away near the Great Wall. The European military officials told Elgin and Gros to go to Tongzhou with such a small escort was suicide and they believed it to all be a trap. On september 18th as Parkes was riding back to Tianjin to report to Elgin, he noticed Prince Seng's cavalry massing behind these rows of millets. The cavalry were beginning to occupy Zhengjiawan and now Parkes suspected it was all a trap. Parkes dispatched Henry Loch, Lord Elgin's private secretary post-haste to rush back to Elgin and report all of this. Meanwhile Parkes alongside two Sikh's returned to Tongzhou to confront Zaiyuan and Muyin. When Loch got to Elgin it turns out his warning was unnecessary, Grant had sent scouts who had spotted the force at Zhengjiawan. Loch showing true courage quickly rode back to Tongzhou to report back to Parkes with only a single body guard. Both men were captured by Qing cavalry units and they alongside Parkes were offered safe conduct to meet with Prince Seng too which they agreed, I mean they had no real choice. Once they reached Seng they were both arrested alongside 19 Sikh, Thomas Bowlby and 3 British officers.  Parkes remained fearless as he confronted what he described to be “a acne plagued, short, fat Prince Seng”. Despite being in no position to reject such an order, Seng ordered Parkes to kowtow. Parkes refused and was met with his head being smashed into the marble floor multiple times. Qing soldiers pinned Parkes down as Seng screamed  “You have gained two victories to our one. Twice you have dared to take the [Dagu] forts. Why does not that content you? I know your name, and that you instigate all the evil that your people commit. It is time that foreigners should be taught respect.” Parkes managed to free his head to look up at Seng and screamed “we came to you under the flag of truce and you promised safe conduct”. Seng laughed and had his men slam Parkes head back to the floor before he responded “write to your people and tell them to stop the attack”. Parkes replied “I cannot control or influence military movement in any way. I will not deceive your highness”. Suddenly European artillery could be heard and Seng ordered Parkes and the rest of the prisoners to be tossed into wooden carts and sent to Beijing. Parkes and Loch were shackled and incarcerated in the board of Punishments awaiting an execution. The prisoners hands were secured with leather straps that were moistened so they would shrink and cut into the victims wrists. Some of the POW's were sent to the Summer palace for private inspection and public humiliation by the Emperor. It was Prince Seng's intention to showcase these prisoners as such so the Qing who witnessed them would see they were not invincible and stop believing the Chinese could not win the war. The prisoners were forced to kneel in the palace courtyard, bound without food or water for 3 days. Their hands swelled and many became gangrenous. Disease and dehydration led to deaths. Parkes and Loch at the board of punishments were placed in separate cells and interrogated and tortured. After days of this they were demanded to write back to Elgin to plead for better terms. Meanwhile Prince Seng had his men continue to dig in and for the first time the Qing forces held a lot of firepower, 70 guns in all. Seng had a 3 mile wide force of cavalry at Zhangjiawan serving as a road block between the Europeans and Beijing. Seng had over 20,000 troops and. approaching them was a force of 1000 French and 2500 British. Yet again the Qing were relying upon bow and arrows for the mounted cavalry and antiquated firelock muskets and gingalls for the, versus the British Enfield rifle, French Minie gun and the deadly Armstrong guns. Seng was using a strategy of encirclement before going in for the kill, something more akin to medieval tactics that had the serious flaw of stretching Seng's lines out making them easier for enemy penetration.  The smaller European force fought its way forward to meet head on with the bulk of Sings army just outside Tongzhou on september 21. The swift Mongolian cavalry charged in a broad wave at the left flank of the approaching European force which was moving in three columns, cavalry to the left, artillery in the center and infantry to the right. The British and French cavalry quickly split and pulled aside as the artillery in the center wheeled their guns around to fire upon the incoming Mongolians. The Armstrong guns poured salvo after salvo deep into the ranks of the charging cavalry to terrifying effect. The Mongolians pulled up in confusion then the British cavalry of Sikh and Spahi being led by De Montauban smashed into Seng's left flank, breaking through the lines and scattering them into a chaotic retreat. Then the true slaughter came as one British officer put it “Our artillery opened fire upon the retreating forces with good effect. Firing slowly, every Armstrong shell bursting amongst them and bringing down the enemy in clumps”. A Qing eye witness had this to say about the same event “Our cavalry went out in front, but they were Mongolian horsemen who had never seen battle before. As soon as they heard the sounds of the foreign cannons, they turned back. The foot soldiers behind them scattered ranks, and then everyone trampled one another.” French infantry assaulted the town of Zhangjiawan as Seng's Mongolian cavalry's ponies were being crushed by the larger Sikh and Spahi horses using their more advanced rifles. As De Montauban's cavalry penetrated the Qing lines, they retaliated as best they could with gingalls and firelock rifles all the while Armstrongs kept blasting. When the Qing cavalry began to rout and flee the Sikh and Spahi chased them down bayoneting stragglers. Despite the absolute carnage of the artillery and bayonets, Seng lost only 1500 men during the battle, but the Europeans reported only losing 35, a staggering difference. By the end of the day the Qing forces were broken and their remnants were in a full retreat to Beijing. Elgin worried about the consequences of their victory writing in his diary “I rode out very early this morning, to see my General before he started, and to give him a hint about the looting which has been very bad here. He disapproves of it as much as I do”. General Grant had allowed the troops to sack Zhangjiawan, he considered it reparations rather than vengeance and thievery. Many of the women at Zhangjiawan feared rape, and many of the looting europeans were shocked to find countless women and children committing suicide by opium overdose. One man named Swinhoe recalled ‘the more conscious of them, beating their breasts, condemned the opium for its slow work, crying out, ‘let us die; we do not wish to live'”. Some British army surgeons began pumping the victims stomachs with such success only one of the victims still alive when the army got there died. Baron Gros shared Elgin's disgust over the looting, he wrote in a communique to the French foreign minister  “J'ai le coeur serré par les actes de vandalisme que j'ai vu commis par nos soldats, comme par nos alliés, charmés de pouvoir rejeter mutuellement les uns sur les autres les actes abominable dont ils se rendaient coupables.” (I was heartbroken by the acts of vandalism that I saw committed by our soldiers as well as by those of our allies, each delighted at the chance of heaping upon the other the blame for abominable deeds for which all deserved punishment.)” After the looting was done the force began to march towards Tongzhou. While the Europeans were marching over at Baliqao where 2 large bridge went over the Bei He River towards Beijing a Qing army was forming. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  The coalition forces served Pring Seng a bunch of nasty defeats and it seems it was impossible to stop them from marching upon Beijing. All that was left in their path was the great bridges at Baliqao where Pring Seng would make his last stand.

Last time we spoke Rear Admiral Seymour took the charge as he waged war first on the city of Canton to hunt down the seemingly tyrannical Ye Mingchen. Seymour took the city quickly and with ease, but knew he had no way to hold onto it so he opted to start capturing all the forts he could along the riverways. Meanwhile back in Britain, the politicians were raging over the entire conflict and what was to be the best course of action. The Torries and Whigs fought another to use the issue for their own interests and it seems the Torries might be successful at thwarting the need for another war with China, but not if the Whigs had anything to say about it. Now a new figure will come to the forefront to be placed in charge of the China issue and it will consume his life. Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #20 This episode is Part 2 of the Second Opium War: Lord Elgin's reluctant War Now outside parliament, the British public was in a jingoistic mood after winning the Crimean War. Palmerston began to appeal to the masses on the basis of patriotism. Meanwhile the Prime Minister decided to appoint a plenipotentiary to carry out negotiations with the Qing court. The Duke of Newcastle was Palmerstons first choice, but he rejected the job as he knew it would be a thankless one and would earn him no favors. On March 13th, in the middle of a general election, Palmerston announced a new appointment for the new envoy to China. It was the popular Scotsman, former governor of Jamaica and British North America, James Bruce the Earl of Elgin, a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce. Lord Elgin was the son of a famous antiquarian who had notoriously preserved or better said vandalized, if you're Greek, parts of Ancient Athens by shipping them back to Britain. Yes the British museum issue. Elgin also sold these pieces of history in question to the British Museum at around 35,000 pounds in 1816 before going bankrupt and leaving England in exile to escape creditors. So yeah daddy was not a good person so to say. Ironically Elgin's fathers actions would haunt him in this story, because he would perform a heinous act on a similar level. During the 3 day voting period that began on March 28th of 1857, the Whigs managed to return to office with a landslide victory. Turns out Palmerston had won the public over, alongside the Queen and now parliament.  The day before Palmerston named Elgin the plenipotentiary to China, Elgin wrote to his wife “My Dearest, I have had a note from [Palmerston] followed by an interview. The proposal is to undertake a special mission of a few months' duration to settle the important and difficult question now embarrassing us in the East and concentrating the attention of all the world. On what grounds can I decline? Not on political grounds for however opposed I might be to the Govt. that would be a reason to prevent them from making the offer, but not me from accepting it. The very mission of a Plenipotentiary is an admission that there are errors of policy to be repaired.” Elgin's wife responded “Dearest, it was unexpected but if your conscience and feelings tell you to say yes I would not for the world dissuade you. God bless you my own darling. I promise you to do my best not to distress you. Forgive me if I can't write more today. Your own ever Mary.” Now Lord Elgin had a very impressive career, as I said he had been the governor of Jamaica and the governor-general of British North America, I live in quebec and he is quite the figure here. There is a statue of him in front of the Quebec parliament building. Lord Elgin attempted to establish responsible government to Canada, wrestled issues of immigration to Canada and took a surprising stance during a French English conflict. You see there were rebellions in what was then Upper and Lower Canada over various colonial issues. Lord Elgin ended up compensating French Canadians who had suffered during the rebellions and this greatly pissed off his British colleagues. On top of that Elgin invited the leader of the lower Canada revolt, Papineau to dine with him at the governor-generals residence in Canada. An English mob began burning parliament buildings in montreal, Elgin was assaulted, but instead of calling in the military, Elgin got his family to safety and allowed civil authorities to restore order. Anyways Elgin did a lot in Canada such as setting up economic treaties with the US and such, he is a large figure in my countries history, though I'd argue not many Canadians are even aware of him haha. Canadian history can be, the best way to put it, a bit boring. Now back to the story at hand, Lord Elgin was a very well regarded figure for his capabilities and royal blood. But he also held a ton of debt from his father, the Greek artifact plunderer. Elgin was notably not xenophobic in a time when many British were. Elgin spoke English and French and was a highly educated man. The day before Elgin set off for China he was given detailed instructions from Lord Clarendon. Clarendon ordered Elgin that under no circumstance was he to try and retake Canton, a tall order since Bowring and Seymour were literally trying to do just that. Clarendon stated he was to acquire the right for Britain to send an ambassador to Beijing to conduct and direct negotiations with the Qing imperial court. He was to demand the opening of new ports of trade and to force the Qing government to adhere to the terms of the treaty of Nanjing. Military force was to be only a last resort if the Emperor refused and Elgin was urged to contain the military action to naval attacks only to save British lives. Elgin had his own demand, he wanted the British military forces in China to be under his sole command. Britain ended up giving Elgin joint command alongside Lt Generals Ashburnham and Seymour who could decide when and where to attack. Elgin made record time journeying to China by riding on the brand new railroad that cut across the Isthmus of Suez. From Suez he took a ship, rounding the coast of India in late May. Elgin came across troops who had been summoned from Bombay and Calcutta. Interesting side note, in May, Sepoy's, those being Indian troops of the East India Company Army, stationed in Meerut performed a mutiny. They had refused to follow orders from the British officers and on May 10th, an entire garrison killed their officers, their families and any Europeans in the vicinity. Word spread of the mutiny resulting in similar outbreaks amongst other sepoy units. Within just a few days there was a widespread rebellion as some Indian prince joined, rallying against the British Raj. Northern India was ablaze with bloodshed and it looked like Britain was at threat of losing its greatest colony. Elgin arrived in Singapore on June 3rd where he was met with two letters from Lord Canning the governor general of india. The letters told Elgin the dire news and begged him to divert troops assigned to the China mission to come help in India. Canning was an old classmate of Elgin and said “If you send me troops they shall not be kept one hour more than is absolutely needed.” Elgin had no time to consult with Plamerston or Clarendon, as it would take 2 months to get word back to London. Without hesitation Elgin diverted 1700 men of the 90th regiment from Mauritius to help quell the rebellion. I obviously cant go into the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but just want to say if you get a chance do learnt about it, an absolutely horrible event. Around 150,000 Indians were killed in the rebellion with 100,000 of them being civilians. The British suffered around 6000 troops and 40,000 civilians killed. The British forces performed massacres and numerous atrocities in places like Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Allahabad. On top of the war deaths, it is estimated up to a possible 800,000 Indians would die from famine and disease as well. A truly horrible event.  Back to Elgin, he faced a period in Singapore where he had to await some troops from India to come over to China and during this period he began to study the China situation. Elgin visited an opium den in Singapore to witness the evil effects of the drug firsthand. He wrote this to his wife about the experience  “They are wretched, dark places with little lamps. The opium looks like treacle, and the smokers are haggard and stupefied, except at the moment of inhaling, when an unnatural brightness sparkles from their eyes,” As a result of dispatching men to India to help Canning, Elgin now had to go to China aboard a single ship, the Shannon without any troops. He arrived in Hong Kong on July 2nd of 1857 and was welcomed warmly by the Chinese. Seymour was not all too pleased to find Elgin arriving without any troops. Seymour soon pressed Elgin to form an attack on Canton, handing to him a petition signed by 85 British opium merchants who all believed if Canton fell to the British, the Emperor would have to capitulate to all of their demands. Elgin did not give in to the pressure, though he also did not have the troops to carry out the task regardless.  Elgin then began to brush shoulders with Harry Parkes and they did not get off on the right foot. Parks said of Elgin  “He may be a man that suits the government well, very cautious, having ever before him [placating] Parliament, the world, the public, etc.” Parkes soon began a campaign against Elgin by sending a ton of letters back home criticizing Elgin for what he called “too generous a treatment of the Chinese”. As warhawkish as Seymour and Parkes could be, it was Bowring who really brought the heat. Bowring felt demoted by Elgin's new position and began to work behind the scenes to bring Elgin down. Bowring also began to lecture Elgin on the imperative for  full scale military action against Canton. “There is quite an explosion of public opinion as to the fatal mistake which would be committed by any movement upon Peking until the Cantonese question is settled. Many think such a movement might imperil the whole trade of China. I am quite of the opinion that any action which refers the Canton question to the Emperor would be a most injurious and embarrassing step.” Elgin for the most part ignored Bowring and opted instead for negotiations as were his instructions. Elgin also shared a concern it seems the other men did not, Elgin worried about tearing China apart. Elgin did not want to topple the Manchu rulers of China and throw the nation into some Balkanization hellscape which would only make things harder for Britain to deal with. The Taiping and their talk of banning private property scared Elgin, who knew Britain's trade would be hurt by such rule. In the end Elgin did not wait for his reinforcements from India, he instead went to India himself. Elgin gathered a small force of 400 marines and sailors aboard the 55 gun ship Shannon and sailed for Calcutta. Elgin made it to Calcutta on June 14th where he found the city abandoned by its European residents. Turned out there was a rumor the Sepoy's were going to march into the city to slaughter the Europeans so they all fled, the rumor proved to be false however. Elgin was mortified by the situation in India. He was lambasted with horror stories of sexual atrocities committed against British subjects and mass hangings in reprisal. One Major Renard, ordered the execution of 12 Indians for allegedly turning their faces the wrong way as Renards troops marched past them. That same Major also allegedly burnt down every Indian village he passed and hung 42 villagers along the way. Elgin sent a letter back to his wife  “I have seldom from man or woman since I came to the East heard a sentence that was reconcilable with the hypothesis that Christianity had come into the world. Detestation, contempt, ferocity, vengeance, whether Chinamen or Indians be the object.” Elgin hopped aboard the steamship Ava on september 20th to return to China. Back in China, Bowring had taken advantage of Elgin's trip by making overtures to Ye Mingchen in violation of Britain's instructions that the Chinese viceroy should only deal with Elgin. When Elgin found out and confronted Bowring, Bowring simply denied it. A month after Elgin had arrived to China, his French counterpart arrived, Baron Gros. The French aristocrat quickly began to share Elgin's hatred for Bowring upon meeting the man. Gros and Elgin both agreed to disagree with Bowring's ideas from the offset. Gros and Elgin agreed the response to the arsenic bakery debacle and the murder of Father Chapedelaine, would be a well coordinated, measured and hopefully light on military deaths. Gros advocated for an attack upon Beijing, while Elgin urged for negotiation. However, foreign minister Clarendon chose another option. Clarendon sent Elgin a letter on October 14th supporting Bowrings ideas. Winter was fast approaching, and the Bei He River, the gateway to Beijing would be frozen before an allied army could reach the city gates. Thus Clarendon advocated for an attack on Canton. Elgin was forced to allow Bowring to take the lead. In november, William Reed, the new American Minister showed up aboard the 55 gun steamship Minnesota. Reed was instructed by his government that America would remain neutral in the inevitable conflict. Russia's emissary, Count Euphemius Putiatin also arrived in november aboard the Amerika. Putiatin brought with him a proposal for China, if the emperor would give Manchuria to the Russians, the Tsar would help the Qing stamp out the Taiping Rebels once and for all. So each of the 4 nations brought their representatives looking to strike a deal with the Qing dynasty. In December of 1857, 3 ships carrying 2000 British soldiers from Calcutta sailed into Canton's harbor followed by a French fleet led by Admiral Rigault de Genouilly. Elgin and Gros sent Ye Mingchen separate ultimatums. France demanded the murderers of Father Chapedelaine to be brought to justice, reparations and permission to operate unrestricted in Canton. Britain demanded compliance with the terms of the treaty of Nanjing; a permanent British ambassador in Beijing; and unspecified reparations for the loss of life and property. Elgin felt his demands were reasonable, but also knew full well they were unacceptable for the Emperor. Ye Mingchen believed the demands to be mere posturing rather than actual threats. He did not have the authority to satisfy the British and French ultimata. So he did nothing…well nothing is a strong word he actually began spending his time by beheading 400 Taiping and placed their heads on spikes atop Cantons walls. It seems perhaps Ye believed such actions would scare off the foreigners, because he had no real army or navy to back him up. Well his brutality against the Taiping sure backfired. The British enlisted 700 really enraged Hakka to man the artillery at the Dutch Folly which was across the Pearl River near the foreign factories. Hakka if you remember made up some of the Taiping ranks as they were a persecuted ethnic minority in Guangxi province. 8 British and 4 French steamships arrived to the scene to add extra military might.  Ye Mingchen replied to the British and French in separate letters. To the British Ye stated, that in 1850 Sir George Bonham had agreed to give up access to Canton to avoid a war with the Qing dynasty. Ye heard that Bonham was given the Order of Bath and perhaps if Elgin did likewise he could also receive such a title. Ye was not aware that the title of Earl was high than that of Sir, but give the guy some credit for doing some homework on the foreign advisory. As for the treaty of Nanjing, Ye simply stated the Emperor declared the terms would be held inviolate for 10 millennium, it would be suicide to go against the Emperor. Ye sent a similar letter to the French and while he made these rather coy and cheeky remarks he did not seem to grasp the very real war threat going on. It may have been because he was too distracted by the Taiping rebellion, which to be brutally honest was a much more pressing concern, regardless Ye lacked any real strategy with how to deal with the foreign threat. When the British and French landed on Henan island, opposite of Canton of December 15th, Ye apparently made no move. The British and French disembarked without any resistance and found the strategic island undefended and without fortification. 200 Chinese war junks and sampans near Henan island fled as soon as the British and French had arrived.  On December 21st, Elgin, Gros and Putiatin had a talk aboard the French flagship Audacieuse. They all agreed to give Ye Mingchen one more chance before the shelling of Canton began. They sent Ye a 2 day deadline to meet their demands. As they waited Elgin wrote in his diary “Canton the great city doomed I fear to destruction by the folly of its own rulers and the vanity and levity of ours.” While they waited for 2 days, Elgin and Gros discussed military organization. Admiral Seymour and Rigault would command sea forces, while land troops would be commanded by General Ashburnham. On paper the invaders seemed to be completely out gunned. Canton's 6 mile wall circumference was 25 feet high and 20 feet wide. The allied force amounted to 800 men of the Indian Royal Sappers and Miners and the British 59th regiment of Foot, 2100 Royal marines, 1829 men of a British naval brigade and 950 men of the French Navy. The Qing forces were 30,000 strong at Canton, they were outnumbered 5 to 1. The Europeans did have one major tactical advantage however. The European ship born artillery had superior range and firepower compared to Cantons gun and their position on Henan island was within shelling distance of Canton.  On December 22nd, Ye's deadline ran out, but Elgin and Gros hesitated. On December 24th, perhaps because it was so close to Christmas they decided to give the Viceroy another 3 days to accept their terms, but Ye did not respond. On the evening of the 27th, the Europeans sent a reconnaissance team ashore a mile from the city's walls. On the morning of the 28th, the Anglo-Franco armada began shelling the city with artillery support from Henan. The bombardment went on for an entire day and on top of the shells, the europeans also fired incendiary rockets. It is alleged the Qing defenders only tossed back 2 shells. It is estimated the Chinese suffered almost 200 casualties to the shelling, while the incendiary rockets lit parts of Canton ablaze.While the day long shelling was raging on, 500 British and French forces landed and made their way through some rice paddies and came across a cemetery. At the cemetery Qing soldiers were taking up positions behind tombstones. Many of the Qing soldiers were armed with an 18th century weapon known as a Jingall. Now if you have a chance to google these, please do because they are comical to say the least. Its a muzzle loaded giant musket, the barrel is around 60 inches. Usually these were mount on walls, but they could be placed on tipods or on the shoulder of a comrade while you shoot it. Picture a comically big musket and thats basically what it looks like. In the west we call them “wall guns”, anyways they are extremely impractical. So for the Qing it took at minimum 2 men to fire one Jingall and usually when they fired them, the kick back knocked the men to the ground which provided quite the slapstick humor for the Europeans witnessing it. Many of the Qing soldiers also fired bow and arrow alongside some firelock muskets. On the other side, the British and French were using 19th century rifles, such as the British Enfield Rifle and French Minie rifle. Basically it was like Mike Tyson fighting an infant. The Europeans began to take up positions behind tombstones similar to the Qing. During the night the european formed an HQ in a temple on the cemetery grounds and apparently did nothing while some of their soldiers began to ransack the cemetery's statuaries thinking they would find gems or gold inside them. Dawn of the next day, the Europeans woke up to a shocking sight. On the hills behind Canton emerged 1500 Qing soldiers. The Qing soldiers had fled the battle to go atop the hill and were simply staring at the Europeans like they were watching a sports game. It seems Ye's brutality had caused a lot of dissatisfaction amongst the local populace and this resulted in quite the lackluster will to fight. At 9am Admiral Rigault personally led French troops towards the walls of canton carrying scaling ladders. The defenders on top of the walls provided little resistance, while some Chinese artillery on some nearby hills tried to shell the invaders. By 10am British and French flags were flying from the 5 story Pagoda near the walls. Alongside the wall climbing, the British stormed the East Gate of the city with ease. Over 4700 British, Indian alongside 950 French troops scaled the walls in total. Seymour and Rigault had stopped the shelling to allow the troops to get atop the walls and began to fire again, but Elgin quickly forced them to stop deeming it overkill. The death toll was incredibly lopsided, the French reported 3 men dead and 30 wounded, the British reported 13 men dead with around 83 wounded. The Qing suffered upto a possible 650 casualties. The allies set to work hunting Ye Mingchen who they believed was still hiding in the city. Ye's second in command Pih-kwei came out suddenly making a proclamation that he would no longer associate himself with Ye Mingchen nor his disastrous policies. On New Years day, Elgin made a tour of Canton and noticed a lack of resistance, confirming to himself he made the right decision to halt the shelling. Then Elgin witnessed large scale looting. Elgin's private secretary Laurence Oliphant noted “While honest Jack was flourishing down the street with a broad grin of triumph on his face, a bowl of goldfish under one arm and a cage of canary-birds under the other, honest Jean, with a demure countenance and no external display, was conveying his well-lined pockets to the waterside.” It seemed the French preferred to grab cash while the British sought out souvenirs. Elgin feared losing control of the men and ordered them to all stop looting, but he had no authority for the French forces. Upon seeing that the French were not halting their looting, the British soldiers soon rejoined the plundering spree. Elgin lamented the situation in his diary “My difficulty has been to prevent the wretched Cantonese from being plundered and bullied. There is a [Hindi] word called ‘loot' which gives unfortunately a venial character to what would, in common English, be styled robbery. Add to this that there is no flogging in the French Army, so that it is impossible to punish men committing this class of offenses.” The son of Howqua and other Cohong merchants began to petition Elgin to do something to restore order and stop the plunder and destruction of Canton. Within mere days of the city's occupation, 90% of its inhabitants fled the city. One thing Elgin did not seem to mind though was “official expropriations” and sent one Colonel Lemon with a few Royal marines to Canton's treasury where they seized 52 boxes of silver, 68 boxes of gold ingots and over a millions dollars worth in silver taels. This “legal plunder” wink wink, was put aboard the HMS Calcutta and sent post haste to India. After all, the war had to be paid for.  On January 5th, over 8000 British and French marched through the gates of Canton unopposed. Harry Parkes grabbed a squad of 100 Royal Marines and rushed over to Ye Mingchens residence armed with a miniature of the man to identify him. This was quite the smart move, because many of Ye Mingchen's subordinates had attempted to pass themselves off as the viceroy to protect him. Well the tactic provided results as they caught Ye as he was trying to climb over the rear wall of his residence. A marine seized Ye by his queue and dragged the man to a sedan chair enclosed with bars to humiliate him. The tiny prison was put aboard the steamship Inflexible to an audience of Europeans and many Hakka, including Taiping rebels who taunted the disgraced viceroy by making the slashing throat gesture. When the marines searching Ye's residence they came across his letters back to the Qing court, giving them a ton of insight into how the Qing worked. That same day, Elgin and Gross named Ye's second in command, Pih-Kwei the new governor of Canton, but he would be advised by the triumvirate of Parkes, Captain Martineau and Colonel Holloway. The 3 real powers behind Pih-Kwei were granted control of judiciary, and to vet edicts before they were promulgated. Each man spoke Chinese and would report to Clarendon. Elgin wrote to Clarendon to explain the situation “If Pih-kwei was removed or harshly dealt with we should be called upon to govern a city containing many hundred thousand inhabitants with hardly any means of communicating with the people.” The Europeans also created a police force for Canton to stop all the looting and restore confidence in the once great commercial city. Howqua, his son and the other Cohong merchants found the new situation with the Europeans a far better deal than what would occur if the Taiping took Canton. Pih-Kwei received secret instructions from Beijing on January 27th, ordering him to organize an army of civilians and kick the invaders out. He also received orders from Seymour to hand over 17 Chinese war junks to help fight off a Taiping fleet obstructing the Pearl River. On the 28th, 2 french warships, the Fusee and Mitraille both shelled Ye's residence to further Ye's punishment. Ye's subordinates made attempts to rescue him from his prison, so Elgin sent Ye into exile to Calcutta on February 20th. In Calcutta Ye lived under house arrest for a year until he starved himself to death. Back over in Canton, the 70th Sepoy regiment arrived in March to reinforce Canton's garrison. The Sepoys were delighted when they found out 200 Chinese servants were assigned to them as they had been dealing with a lot of racism. Notably the British called them the N word and the French killed 3 Sepoys claiming they were looting. No Europeans were ever shot for looting in Canton. Elgin, Seymour and Gross then took a naval squadron up north towards the mouth of the Bei He River by April 24th. The British, French and Russian plenipotentiaries sent a joint communique to the governor of Zhili province, Tan. Elgin, ever the pacifist, tried to negotiate a way out of further bloodshed writing to Tan to see if they could meet a minister duly authorized by Emperor Xianfeng. Tan performed the standard Chinese response, by stalling and claiming he didn't have the power to negotiate with them. Apparently in his letter response, he used larger characters for the Emperor than that of Queen Victoria which infuriated the British as it was yet again in violation of the terms to the treaty of Nanjing, that both nations be considered equal. Ironically if you think about it, the British and Qing were both so uptight about such status symbols and such. Tan sent another letter that indicated the Chinese position was shifting somewhat, iit offer some negotiation, opened some ports, granted religious freedom to Christians and agreed to pay reparations for the foreign factories being destroyed in 1856. Tan also said he passed on the Europeans request for an embassy in Beijing to the Emperor. What he did not tell them, was that the Emperor rejected that request outright. Putiatin in an attempt to avoid further bloodshed pleaded with the parties to accept this offer, but allegedly the French Foriegn office replied to him with a smirk “they are only Chinese lives”. On a bit of a side note, a rather remarkable thing occurred on the Russian side of this story at this time. The Archimandrite, named Palladius, something of a spiritual leader to a tiny population of Russians living in Beijing was granted permission by Emperor Xianfeng to visit the European fleet at the end of may. He was forced to travel in a sealed litter. Prior to leaving, Putiatin got word to the man ordering him to gather as much intelligence as he could traveling towards them. Palladius was able to peer through a small crack in the shutter and did his best to get details on the position of the Qing fleet. When Palladius arrived he brought with him great news, apparently Beijing was starving and the rambunctious life of the Emperor was catching up to him. Please note the Emperor was only 30 years old, guy must have really partied it up. Another thing the Emperor was doing was strongly contemplating leaving the country because he was terrified. Meanwhile Elgin's anxiety was being lifted day by day as more warships arrived. By late May, the combined Anglo-French fleet was now 26 gunboats strong, preparing to take on the famous Taku Forts that guarded the mouth of the Bei He River. D-day was to be may 20th and the invaders were just 100 miles away from Beijing. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  The reluctant Elgin had done it, they seized Canton and finally brought Ye Mingchen to British justice. The British French coalition was working its way slowly but surely to straggle Beijing and force its Emperor to abide by their demands.  

Warning: Spoiler-heavy review! This week, we're talking about international conspiracies, ambitious actors, sinister Chinamen, and fake funerals. Teresa and Bill Peschel from Peschel Press discuss the 2013 Poirot episode “The Big Four,” starring David Suchet as Poirot. Sponsored by Peschel Press, the publisher of annotated Agatha Christie novels by Bill Peschel. Support Peschel Press! Visit our website to learn about our Complete, Annotated Line of Agatha Christie novels: https://peschelpress.com/the-peschel-press-complete-annotated-series/ Learn about Teresa Peschel's “Agatha Christie, She Watched” book and read her movie reviews: https://peschelpress.com/teresa-peschels-agatha-christie-movie-reviews/

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Chapter 4And now the dark-haired young man spoke to me, and it became evident that his mind also moved along its own set of grooves."I should like to be a periwinkle," said he, mysteriously, "on the top of a valley, and sing tooralloo-ralloo."This was clearly too obscure, so I turned again to Coglan."I've been around the world twelve times," said he. "I know an Esquimau in Upernavik who sends to Cincinnati for his neckties, and I saw a goatherder in Uruguay who won a prize in a Battle Creek breakfast food puzzle competition. I pay rent on a room in Cairo, Egypt, and another in Yokohama all the year around. I've got slippers waiting for me in a tea-house in Shanghai, and I don't have to tell 'em how to cook my eggs in Rio de Janeiro or Seattle. It's a mighty little old world. What's the use of bragging about being from the North, or the South, or the old manor house in the dale, or Euclid avenue, Cleveland, or Pike's Peak, or Fairfax County, Va., or Hooligan's Flats or any place? It'll be a better world when we quit being fools about some mildewed town or ten acres of swampland just because we happened to be born there.""You seem to be a genuine cosmopolite," I said admiringly. "But it also seems that you would decry patriotism.""A relic of the stone age," declared Coglan, warmly. "We are all brothers--Chinamen, Englishmen, Zulus, Patagonians and the people in the bend of the Kaw River. Some day all this petty pride in one's city or State or section or country will be wiped out, and we'll all be citizens of the world, as we ought to be."　　现在，黑发小伙子对我说，很明显，他的思想也是按自己的一套习惯运行。　　"我倒喜欢成为一枝长春花，"他玄妙地说，"长在峡谷之巅，高唱嘟——啦卢——拉卢。"　　这显然过于朦胧了，因此，我又转向科格兰。　　"我已经围绕地球走了十二遍，"他说。"我了解到厄珀纳维克的一位爱斯基摩人寄钱到辛辛那提⑾去买领带，我看到乌拉圭的牧羊人在一次"战斗小湾"早餐食品谜语竞赛中获了奖。我在开罗、希腊为间房间付房租，在横滨为另一间付了全年租金。上海的一家茶馆专门为我准备了一双拖鞋，在里约热内卢的贾尼罗或者西雅图，我不必告诉他们怎样给我煮蛋。真是一个太小的旧世界。吹嘘自己是北方人、南方人有什么用呢？吹嘘山谷中的旧庄园的房舍、克里夫兰市的欧几里德大街、派克峰⑿、弗吉尼亚的费尔法克斯县或阿飞公寓或者其他任何地方又有什么用呢？只有当我们摒弃这些糊涂观念，即由于我们碰巧出生在某个发霉的城市或者十公顷沼泽地便沾沾自喜的时候，这个世界才会变得更美好。"　　"你似乎是个货真价实的世界公民，"我羡慕地说。"不过，你似乎也抵毁了爱国主义。""石器时代的残余，"科格兰激烈地宣称。"我们都是兄弟——中国人、英国人、祖鲁人⒀、巴塔哥尼亚人⒁以及住在考河湾的人都是兄弟。将有这么一天，一切为自己出生的城市、州、地区或国家的自豪感将一扫而光，正如我们理当如此的那样，都是世界公民。"　　⑾辛辛那提（Ｃｉｍｃｉｎｎａｔｉ）：美国俄亥俄州西部城市。　　⑿派克峰（Ｐｉｋｅ'ｓ Ｐｅａｋ）：指科罗拉多州为纪念派克而命名的山峰。　　⒀祖鲁人（Ｚｕｌｕ）：居住在南非纳塔尔。　　⒁巴塔哥尼亚人（Ｐａｔａｇｏｎｉａｎ）：居住在南美东南部巴塔哥尼亚高原的民族。

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo Demonte, Chinamen, Mudec, Frank Zappa, Rob Burger, Steve Moore, King Crimson

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo Demonte, Chinamen, Mudec, Frank Zappa, Rob Burger, Steve Moore, King Crimson

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo Demonte, Chinamen, Mudec, Frank Zappa, Rob Burger, Steve Moore, King Crimson

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo DeMonte, Primavere e autunni, Chinamen, La Lettura, Olivetti, Beccogiallo, Santana, G and D - The Battle, David Crosby

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo DeMonte, Primavere e autunni, Chinamen, La Lettura, Olivetti, Beccogiallo, Santana, G and D - The Battle, David Crosby

Ciaj Rocchi, Matteo DeMonte, Primavere e autunni, Chinamen, La Lettura, Olivetti, Beccogiallo, Santana, G and D - The Battle, David Crosby

Part I.Hashem is HereHE’STAMEI, HE’STAMEI, HE’STAMEIכל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא, טמא הוא, בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו – “All the days that thetzara’asis upon the person he shall betamei,tameihe should be. He should dwell alone; outside the camp should be his place of residence.” (13:46) When reading thispossuk, we are immediately struck by the repetition of thetameistatus of themetzora, “He shall betamei,tameihe should be” and that requires an explanation.So we’ll say as follows: The root “tum” denotes something that is “closed off”. That’s what the wordtumahmeans, and that is the principle underlying all the laws oftumah. Wherever we findtumahwe must understand that itis a decree of Hashem to teach us what should be avoided and shunned.So we read thepossukas follows: “All the days that thetzara’asis upon the person he shall be ritually unclean” – the first word “tamei” speaks of the status oftumah. He is anav hatumah. It’s information we have to know. It’s a technicality the Torah is teaching us; the basic law that this man istameiand makestameianything that comes in contact with him. But the second expression oftumah, “Tameihe should be,” is giving us thereasonfor thetumahbeing imposed on him; as if to say: “He shall betamei, because Hashem desires that he should beclosed offfrom society.” “He istamei”, because “tamei, shunned and avoided, he should be.”THE LONELY SEDER NIGHTNow that’s something we have to study. Because we’re talking here about afrumJew. He’s a father, a husband, a loyal servant of Hashem who puts ontefillinanddavensthree times a day with aminyan. His home is a kosher home and his children are allfrumboys and girls. He’s one of us! And yet, one morning he wakes up withtzara’as;and now he must take leave of his family and friends and make his way beyond the walls of the city to live alone. This friend of ours, a fellow Jew, is nowtamei; he’s closed off from the rest of Mankind.Badad yeishev– “He shall stay in isolation,” meaning that even othertamei’imare to avoid his company (Rashi ibid.).So our fellow Jew is now sitting alone outside of the walls of his city; and there he will remain until thetzara’asheals. He’ll miss the Shabbosseudoswith his family. He might even be spending the Seder night all alone! And it’s no accident of fate here. The Rambam says thattzara’asis not a natural form of leprosy; it’sa miraculous phenomenon. “Tzara’asis one of the miracles that Hashem provides to His nation” (Moreh Nevuchim 3:47) and that’s why agoycan’t becometameiwithtzara’as(Negaim 3:1).Hashem miraculously sends upon a Jewtzara’as,and now he has to be shunned. And it’s not because of contagion, or merely because he can bemitameiothers – it’s because Hashem wants him to be “closed off” from people. Hashem wants that he should leave themachaneh;that he should separate from society and dwell alone outside of the city.LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVINGAnd that’s because actually this man is a dangerous man; he may appear to be veryfrum, but thegemara(Eirechin 15b) says: כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו. “One who speaks wrong words, he uses his mouth in the wrong way, is stricken by leprosy.” And so we understand that this man misused the gift of company of people; when he was healthy he sat around with his friends and wagged his tongue – not only that he ridiculed and belittled other people, but even just to talkd’varim b’teilimis misusing the tongue.And so in the great days ofnevuah, thenegaoftzara’asspoke to this man the word of Hashem: “He shall betamei, and he should be closed off from people and avoided.” He will dwell alone where he won’t have anyone with whom to speak; and now he will begin the study of how a person is to use his tongue, and he will understand thatthe proper way to use a tongue is primarily by not using it.BRING MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!The Rambam gives us an insight into this: לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה– “A person should always beproducinga great deal of silence” (Rambam Hilchos Dei’os 2:4). You hear that? You have to produce silence as much as you can. Imagine you’re producing goods for a certain purpose. Let’s say you’re making toothbrushes, or you’re a tailor and you’re sewing suits. Whatever it is, you’re producing. So you have to keepcheshbon, “How many goods did I produce today?” “Did I do better today than yesterday?” “What could I do different tomorrow in the factory to produce more toothbrushes?” And it’s the same with silence. A man should always beproducingsilence in this world. You have to think about that! “How much silence did I produce today?”And it’s considered a service of Hashem: לך דומיה תהילה – “To you Hashem, silence is praise” (Tehillim 65:2). That’s an interesting idea, because we always understood that theHallelukahsand thebrachosare praise.Ashrei,HoduandModim, that’s how we praise Hashem. And now we’re being told thatkeeping quietis the real way to praise Hashem; to produce silence is actually a career of praising Hashem. And that needs a good explanation.A LESSON FROM THE WISE MANAnd so, who better to turn to than thechochom m’kol adam.Shlomo Hamelech tells us in Koheles (5:1): אל תבהל על פיך – “Don’t be in a hurry to express yourself, ולבך אל ימהר להוציא דבר לפני השם – Your heart, your mind, shouldn’t be in a hurry to say something in the Presence of Hashem”. When you’re sitting at the table with your family, your friends, Hashem is present. So keep quiet! כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ – “Hashem is in the heavens and you’re down below on the earth, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – Therefore your words should be few”. Oh, now something else comes into the picture;Elokimis now in the picture!Elokimis inshomayim, above you, looking at you. And you’re down on this earth. על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “That’s why your words must be few.”If a man opens up his mouth and words flow out without restraint, so it means he doesn’t feel like he’s inanybody’spresence! Let’s say you were standing in the presence of the mayor, or in front of the president of the United States – he’s not such an important person today – but still you wouldn’t talk too much in his presence. You definitely wouldn’t be shooting off your mouth.DO YOU HAVE EMUNAH IN THE PRESIDENT?Now להבדיל אלף הבדלות, if you are talking with thegadol hador,with let’s say Rav Shach, Rav Moshe Feinstein, whoever is thegadol hador, would you talk much? If you have any sense you wouldn’t say a word! Let’s say you meet the Sigheter Rav, you’re standing in front of the Satmerer Rav, and somebody comes over to you, “Hey, Chaim! What time is it?” Would you say, “It’s three o’clock”?! No you keep quiet, you keep your mouth shut; you’re standing in front of yourrebbeh! Lethimtalk; you keep quiet. חכם אינו מדבר בפני גדול ממנו – “Someone withchochmadoesn’t open his mouth when he’s standing in front of somebody bigger than him” (Avos 5:7).So the fact that you keep your mouth closed indicates that you realize that you’re standing in the Presence of Hashem. It’s a demonstration that you possess a sensory perception of the closeness of Hashem; it’s not merely words, theories. Just like you wouldn’t talk in the presence of somebody important, you don’t open your mouth in the presence ofElokim bashomayim.You keep quiet, at least as quiet as you would be in front of the President. At least that! If the President of the United States was standing here, you’d be careful with every word that comes out of your mouth! That means you believe in the President more than you believe in Hashem!THE PECULIAR MAN OF OURPARSHASo now we can understand why thisfrumman is shunned by Hashem, sent out to live in solitude. If he’s hasty with words, if he doesn’t think before he speaks, so he needs to be sent out where he will have time to think about this great principle ofElokimbashomayim. Themetzorahad to cover his mouth, did you know that? It’s an openpossuk:ועל שפם יעטה, it means that he had to wear his cloak in certain way so that it covered his mouth. What for? Because he was proclaiming to the world this lesson! Part of hiskapparahwas to walk around dressed in this peculiar way; and he had to make a lot of noise too: טמא טמא יקרא, wherever he went he had to proclaim to everyone that he’stamei.So here’s a man with his cloak covering half his face, all the way over his mouth, and in his muffled voice he’s crying out: “I’mtamei, I’mtamei!” It was a strange sight, and anyone who saw him took his condition to heart and learned that he’d better get busy covering up his mouth before thenegacomes tohim. And so we gained a lot by seeing ametzorawith his covered mouth.GAINING EMUNAH; A GUIDEWhat we’re learning is that no matter howfruma person is, he has to havehargasha,emunahchushis, that he’s standing in front of Hashem and that’s why he doesn’t talk. What does that mean? Suppose you’re an ordinary Jew who never worked on these concepts; you don’t actually feel the Presence of Hashem. But you’d like to do it; you aspire to become ama’amin. Now, certainly you won’t admit that you’re not ama’amin, but at least you’ll admit that you don’t feel the Presence of Hashem all the time. And so by training yourself not to talk just for this purpose; each time you wish to open your mouth you remind yourself: כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “Hashem is listening and therefore your words should be few.” And little by little you bring into yourneshamaan awareness of this tremendous principle, and you thereby achieveyiras Hashem.When someone approaches you and makes a remark, don’t be in a hurry to answer. You’d like to talk; you have a wisecrack or a rejoinder, you want to say something. “No. I won’t say it because I’m standing in front of Hashem.” Sometimes you don’t have to answer at all. If someone says something to you, do you have to say something back? Let’s say a cow says moo, do you have to moo back? A dog barks as you pass by, you have to bark back? So if someone speaks to you, unless it’s necessary, don’t say anything. Just listen. Who says you have to answer?And suppose you must answer; sometimes youmustsay something, so you should count your words. You know, some people are like a faucet; they start pouring out all they have. All the emptiness they have in their minds comes pouring out. That means that they’re beingmasiach da’asfrom Hashem. A person must always keep in mind that Hashem is listening. Keeping your mouth closed, and keeping your words few when you do have to speak shows that you haveemunahthat wherever you are Hashem is listening. If you open your mouth and you talk without restraint so it means you think you’re a free bird. It means that you have noemunah,becausebelief in Hashem requires that we should keep quiet. He’s standing right here after all, and He’s listening.Part II.Your New ProfessionEXTRACTING HONEY AND GEMSNow in order to appreciate more this career ofyiras shamayim, we have to see how thegemarain Chullin (89a)darshensapossuk. As a matter of fact, the followinggemarawas once used by the Alter of Slabodkazichronol’vrachaas an illustration of how to appreciate every word of ama’amar chazal.The Alter thought about every word that thechachomimsaid and he sucked as much honey as he could from thema’amar.Thegemaraquotes the followingpossuk: אמנם אלם צדק תדברון – “The truth is, silence is appropriate; only speak righteous words” (Tehillim 58:2). That’s theposhut pshat,butchazaldiscovered some hidden gems in thatpossuk.First I’ll say the words of thegemaraand then I’ll tell you how the Alter explained them: אמנם – מה אומנתו של אדם בעולם הזה – “What is a man’s profession in this world?” From the word אמנם, comesumnus, profession. And thegemaraasks a question: What’s your job here inOlam Hazeh? And thegemarasays that the next word in thepossuk, אלם, that’s the answer: יעשה עצמו כאלם – “Make yourself as if you were a mute, as if you couldn’t speak.” So we read thepossuklike this: אמנם, what’s yourumnus, your profession? אלם, to be a mute. That’s your business in this world.BARUCH HASHEM FOR ACCOUNTANTS!The first thing we see is that man has aprofessionin this world. A “profession” means it’s not justa hobby to keep silent, it’s not even just a good thing, an added perfection. No; silence isyourbusinessin this world; that’s what we came into this world for. Now at first glance that’s hard to understand; because how could everyone have the same profession? If everyone was a shoemaker so we’d all have comfortable shoes, but we’d have to tailor our own pants. Without good Jewish accountants we’d be paying a lot of extra money to Uncle Sam.So what we’re learning now is that whatever you’re doing in your life; that’s only your second job, a side business; you have to pay the bills after all. But your mainbusinessin this world is to bek’ileim, to keep your mouth closed.Now, the Alterzichrono l’vrachamade the point that anumnusis not something that you just pick yourself up and do; you have to train yourself for a profession. It’s necessary to undergo a course of training to learn the skill of silence, just like you would for any other serious profession. If you want to be a plumber, let’s say, so you’ll just put on a pair of blue overalls, grab a wrench and that’s all?!BECOMING A PLUMBER IS NOT EASYNobody ever became a plumber by saying “I decided I’m a plumber.” You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get under a sink. And you’ll have to lie there on your back and watch the master plumber for months and months learning all the tricks of the trade. You’ll have to carry his tools for him and you watch: When do you use this tool? When do you open that valve? When do you close it? It’s achochma, and there’s a lot to learn. And if silence is our career in life, that means we have a lot to study.To become a professional mute, you can’t just buy a padlock for fifty cents at the corner hardware store, lock your mouth firmly, and then walk around the street without worries. It’s not that easy. If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be a profession; it would just be a fifty cent expense and finished. But no it’s a profession, it’s the “profession of a person in this world.”Now the Alter points out something else in thisgemarathat’s worth our attention: It says “What is the professionsheladamin this world?” The profession of anadam! It’sthisprofession, making yourself into anileim, a mute, that will cause you to earn the title ofadam. Anadamis expected not to open his mouth unless it’s justified. And only the one who has mastered this art can boast that he’s made it, that he’s graduated. Otherwise, you’re not anadam. Maybe you’re a croaking frog, or a blue jay; something you are, absolutely; you’re making noise after all. But you’re not yet anadamunless you’ve mastered this career of silence.GET BUSY BANGING YOUR HEAD!Now, what usually happens when I speak on this subject? I’ll tell you. There’s always one idealist who wants to get busy accomplishing. Why not? Rabbi Miller said so! He said it’s a profession foreveryone. A young man who comes here and he’s inspired by the words of theAlter; he’s ready now to make changes! So he goes home after the lecture, and as soon as he walks into the house he hears his mother talking on the phone. So he bangs on the table, “Uh, uh, uh. Nu, nu!” He wants to make sure his mother knows whathernew profession is!So theAltertells us that we have to know how to learn ama’amar chazal.Thegemarasaysya’aseh atzmo– “Makeyourselfinto a speechless person.” Yourself! Oh, that’s a different story already. What are you banging on the table for? Get busy banging onyour ownhead! Don’t bother others!That means when a man comes home to his wife, and he heard my lecture tonight, and now his wife wants to talk, she wants to tell him about what happened with the children today. And also she’s talking about what her sister said and probably some other things as well. So he should let her talk about whatever she wants. He shouldn’t say, “Keep quiet; in this house we work on producing silence.” He’s a dumbbell! He’s working onhersilence!Ya’aseh atzmo!He has to makehimselfanileim; that’s who he has to worry about.TALK TO PAPA!Now this profession, this career we’re speaking about tonight, wouldn’t be so difficult if all you had to do was to buy a padlock. Mazel tov, you’re anileim! But that’s not what Chazal are demanding of you; it doesn’t say you shouldbeanileim, it saysk’ileim, likea mute. You know that the extra letterkafseems like an unnecessary addition. It could have just as well said, “Make yourself into anileim.” What’sya’aseh atzmo k’ileim, make yourselflikea mute?What it means is that youcan’tpadlock your lips shut! You have to make yourselfk’ileim,likea mute,as ifyou can’t speak. You have to talk, and sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like somebody who is anileim. If you have to walk through the street, you have to say good morning or good evening to the people you see. You can’t just walk around with a deadpan face ignoring people. Why should your neighbor suffer because you’re learning a new profession?! You come into the home, so you have to walk in and say, “How was your day Chanaleh?” At least that you have to say! You can’t come in and be anileim. A boy comes in from the yeshiva, he can’t walk in quietly and go to his room. He has to say “Vus machstu mammeh?” “How are you Papa?”Somethinghe has to say! He’sk’ileim, not anileim mamish.That’s why thegemarasays,Yachol la’kol –“You might think that once you adopt this practice so you shouldn’t open your mouth foranything.” תלמוד לומר צדק תדברון – “So thepossuksays, ‘Speak righteousness.’” When it comes to words of righteousnessyou have to talk.”DivreiTorahyou have to talk. Words of kindliness you have to talk. If someone is sad and dejected youmustgo over and put your arm around his shoulders and say a few kind words to him.Tzedek tidabeirun. Good things youmustsay!DON’T COMPLIMENT THE CHALLAH…To say words of encouragement to your fellow man, to comfort a fellow Jew, that’s what you have a mouth for, that’s part of your profession. You don’t have to babble though. Think of ways and means of making people happy, by saying a timely word. If it’s a child then sometimes a littlegletton the cheek and a word or two can be a lifesaver. Tell him something that buoys his self respect, something that gives him the ambition to continue improving.If you tell your wife that she cooks well – that’s very important by the way – that’stzedek. You make sure to compliment your wife when she serves you anything: “Chanaleh, this challah tastes excellent.” Now if she bought it at the bakery, make surenotto praise thechallah; find something else to bem’shabeiach. “This chicken soup ism’ein Olam Habah,Chanaleh. Yi’yasheir koi’ach”Now usually itdoestaste good; you can find many things to compliment. Don’t be bashful! It’s not the time to bek’ileim– now it’s time fortzedek tidabeirun.And even if it happens, an unusual incident, when supper is not such a success, if you’ll say it’s excellent, there’s no harm either. Only that most people have it all wrong; when they have what to complain about, then the words come gushing forth, pearls of “wisdom.” But when it’s time fortzedek tidabeirun,then suddenly this “tzadik” remembers his profession of beingk’ileim.PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTIt’s an art. Sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like anileim. You’re always careful not to say what you’re not supposed to say. But what you have to say, you must say. So when you come home tonight and your wife says, “What did he say over there?” Don’t say “Ummmmmm.” Say something. Say it briefly but say something. Don’t just keep your mouth closed.K’ileim,likea mute! Oh, now that’s already anumnus. It’s harder than just lying on your back under a sink studying how to plumb!And therefore we should get busy practicing this profession ofshtikahbecause it means that we’re practicing the career ofyirasshamayim! You’re sitting at the table at the Shabbosseudah, and everyone is prattling away. Talking and talking and talking. So what do you do? You say to yourself, “I’m going to train myself now for my profession in this world. I’m going to sit for two minutes – two minutes on the clock – and listenand not open my mouth.”Let’s say you were forced to go somewhere; sometimes you have to go to visit your in-laws in Boro Park. You can’t say no this time. So they’re eatingmelave malkaand everybody is chatting. Or maybe you’re sitting at achasunaand all around you all the tongues are clacking. While their minds are being ground to pieces by the idle chatter, you can grab the opportunity for getting to work on your profession. So you’re paying attention; you’re trying to seem interested, smiling at the right times. But you’re telling yourself, “Chaim, keep the mouth closed. As much as you can keep quiet becauseElokimisbashomayimlistening.”Part III.The Best MedicineVALUABLE HEALTH ADVICENow, to make a career out of silence because ofElokim Bashomayim, that would be enough. That’s our primary obligation in this world – to prepare forOlam Hababy training ourselves to become more and more aware of Hashem. But it’s more than that; it’s also your happiness and success inOlam Hazeh!There’s amishnahinAvos(1:17) that says the following: שמעון בנו אומר, “Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamliel said, כל ימי גדלתי בין החכמים, all the days of my life I grew up among the wise men, ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב משתיקה, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.” Now, if someone on the street would offer you some health advice, I don’t know how valuable it would be; could be it’s worth something, but you never know for sure. But here you have a man who spent years and years sitting at the feet of the sages. “All my days, I grew up among the sages.” And he heard many important ideas, many important attitudes, and he studied them all. And after many years of investigating he came to the conclusion that of all the things that are good for a person, the best one isshesikah,silence.Now if Shimon bequeathed to us this gem, it pays for us to study his words. He said, “I’ve found nothing better for thebodythan silence.” He didn’t say it’s the best for yourneshama; it’s certainlyisgood for your soul too, but Shimon is telling us here that for yourphysical health, there is nothing as good as keeping your mouth closed. If you’re worried about your health, if you’re a person who wants to live a long healthy life, then the first thing to think about is the remedy of silence. סמא דכולה משתוקא – “The best medicine of all is silence” (Megillah 18a).THE CAUSE OF MOST ILLNESSESYou know that most illnesses, most of the disturbances that take place in our bodies, are caused by emotions that have aroused a raw reaction in our bodies. It’s remarkable what a great effect emotions have on a person’s physical nature. We are full of glands and hormones that stimulate the functions of the body; and if the body is overstimulated by emotions like anger, tension, and nerves, then instead of being beneficial, these hormones are harmful.It’s established already in medical science. All over the body there are results that come from wrong stimulation of the emotions. And how are the emotions stimulated most? Talking! Someone says something and you answer back, then you talk and argue, and that’s when the trouble begins. The metabolism is upset and very many people become ill as a result. A world of illnesses are caused by talking. Very many cases of cancer are due to friction in human relationships.YOUR MIGHTY MOUTHA man told me, “Do you know why I’m blind?” A blind man told me this. Because he was so aggravated – these are his words – he was so aggravated because of troubles in the family that he acquired diabetes and became blind. Blindness many times comes from aggravation, from excitation. When people go to an eye specialist one of the first questions they’ll ask you is, “Do you get angry or excited?” Dovid Hamelech said (Tehillim 6:8) עששה מכעס עיני – “My eye became worn out because ofka’as, עתקה מכל צוררי, it grew old because of those who aggravated me.” So if you talk to people and get into arguments, it’s bad for your eyesight. And if it’s bad for your eyes that means that it’s wreaking havoc in your body; it’s bad for everything.Heart failure too! You open your mouth when you could have kept it closed and the heart becomes subjected to too much stress; the valves cannot take it and there’s a breakdown somewhere, a weakness in a valve someplace. Just by talking too much, there’s quarreling, there’s tension, nervous excitement, and your heart is suffering from it. I’m not saying that it happens all of a sudden, but gradually your big mouth is weakening your heart, and then one day,chalilah, it breaks down.WHERE DO PEOPLE DIE?I know of a man who dropped dead in the middle of an argument with his wife. He was a fine man, by the way, a good man. But if he would have studied thismishnainPirkei Avos,he would have known “Don’t answer back!” And that would have saved him; he’d probably still be alive today. Who told you to answer back?! If you can be a diplomat and say something nice, do it. But if not, don’t say anything. He was afrumyoung man – he probably even knew thismishna– but he never studied it, and so he acted according to his nature and he answered back. He said his piece, and she answered back, and it went back and forth, back and forth until he dropped dead.It happens again and again. Don’t you read sometimes in the paper – a certain man, so and so, died of heart failure. Where did his heart attack happen? Did he die in his business because of his competitors? No, people don’t die because of their competitors. Did he die on the street because someone in the street insulted him? People don’t usually die because someone insulted them. He dies at home! People die because of their wives! Of course the newspaper will never say that. The obituary published in the newspapers will never say, “Mr. Anderson dropped dead Sunday night after an argument with his wife!” No, no, it won’t say that! It says, “Mr. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep at his home this past Sunday.” But if you know how to read the obituary pages, so you already know what that means.COMMUNICATION ISSUES?Why didn’t he die at his business? Why at his home? The answer is at home he has a wife, and most people die as a result of words. I’m not saying he’s right – who told him to react?! Who told him to bump his head against a stone wall? Arguing with a wife? Do you know what it’s like? It’s like he’s sticking a needle into her, a real needle. And she’s sticking needles into him. Is that fun? All of their lives they are “needling” each other. Only that his heart, his constitution was a bit weaker than his wife’s. You can’t win an argument! You think you’ll win an argument with your wife?! You’ll never win! The only real way to win an argument is to avoid it. So don’t get excited over nothing. Keep quiet and that’s all. Just keep quiet! And both of you will live longer as a result. And you’ll live happier lives as well.Women call me up; they say, “We have communication issues. My husband doesn’t ‘communicate’ with me.” The trouble isthere’s too much communication! If they wouldn’t communicate so much they’d be much better off; in most cases people will profit by not talking.IGNORE THE BUMIn Mesichta Sanhedrin (7a) it says: טוביה דשמע ואדיש – “Happy is the man who hears people saying things that insult him, that bother him, and he ignores it, חלפוה בישתיה מאה – A hundred evils will pass him by.” Memorize those words; say them to yourself again and again. Learn to ignore any words you don’t like; somebody said something sharp to you, so שמע, you heard it, but אדיש, it doesn’t bother you. Pay no attention; make believe you never even heard it, and you’ll be spared from many troubles. If your husband is mean to you, pay no attention. If your wife is mean to you, pay no attention. And one hundred evils will pass you by. You’ll live together happily for the rest of your life.Most of the time, a punch in the nose is a result of opening up a mouth instead of ignoring. Suppose you’re walking in the street and a bum says something insulting to you. Forget about it! Don’t feel that you have to stand up and defend your honor. Oh no! Don’t do that. I know a man who did that and he got beaten up. Don’t even look at him; it’s dangerous. As far as you’re concerned you didn’t hear it, you didn’t hear anything. Keep walking and in another minute, you’re out of danger.And thank Hashem that you’re able to keep on walking. If it’s a goy who insults you, so you can give him abrachathat he should drop dead. Don’t let him hear you though! Don’t even mutter; don’t say it with your mouth. The mouth always stays closed!CHINESE WISDOM FOR LIFEI was walking in the street once, and twoshkutzim, two young men came over to me and blocked the sidewalk; they didn’t let me go further. I couldn’t walk; I was stuck. So I got out off the sidewalk and I kept going. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t even take a peek over my shoulder. Suppose I looked back and said, “What do you think you’re doing? What right do you have to do that?” Ohhh, what would have happened to me! Don’t be achacham, a hero. I always quote to you the wise Chinese proverb. The Chinamen say “The greatest hero is the one who runs away.” If you ignore and run away you’re a hero. And the one who opens up his mouth is not a hero, he’s a loser.I always say this story; it’s a tragic story. A young man from YU was going onchamisha asar b’shvatoutingto Madison Square Garden. He was with a group of younger boys, achaburahof boys with yarmulkes on, and he was leading them. And two twenty year oldshkutzimwere ridiculing the boys’yarmulkas. Now this young man, he didn’t take the advice ofchazal. At least the Chinese he should have listened to!Instead he looked at the gentile boys with anger and said something. Now agoy bleibt a goy,so theshkutzimwent back to their car, they took out a hammer from the trunk, and they attacked him. They hit him over the head with the hammer and they killed him. He died there on the street,nebach. That’s why it says, “There’s nothing betterfor the bodythan keeping quiet.”HOW TO DEAL WITH HATELet’s say somebody calls you on the telephone and insults you. It happened to me a number of times. People have called the house and cursed me. You know what I did? I didn’t say a word! Not a word! And they hung up. It happened again a few months ago and I knew who it was; I knew. And after that he came into myshulone evening todavenand I didn’t say a word. And it was finished. But once you start up with these people, who knows what’s going to be? A word for a word and it turns into who knows what! There’s no knowing how it’s going to end up! So just grin and bear it.How many people have lost their jobs by talking back to their boss? Sometimes their boss is in a bad mood, so just swallow down what he said and it could be that an hour later he’ll be a good boss. He might even promote you. I had that experience once. In my first position inrabbanus, a man once came into a meeting of the board of directors and he made a grand announcement: He said, “Rabbi Miller, I greeted you last week and you didn’t answer me! You didn’t answer me ‘Good Shabbos.’” He brought it up to the board of directors at a meeting; a complaint against the new rabbi. So the president of the shul came over and asked me about it. Now, it wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything. I could have opened my mouth, but I remembered thisma’amar chazaland I kept my mouth closed.RABBI MILLER GETS A RAISE!I met this man again and again, he was a shul member, and I was always friendly to him. One day he gets up by the meeting of the board of directors and he makes a motion to give me a raise.Thisman! No one thought of giving me a raise except this one man! Now, had I answered him back it would have never happened. And so I learned the lesson that it “pays” to keep your mouth closed.I’ve seen it all! I’ve watched as people put themselves in danger by opening a mouth. Just because they answered back, I’ve watched good people lose jobs, lose customers. They lost their wives or their husbands, siblings and friends. And sooner or later they lose themselves; they excite wrong reactions in their bodies and they end up sick. Many lose years from their life because of their mouths.THE KEY TO A GOOD LIFEAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech tells us (Tehillim 34:13-14): מי האיש החפץ חיים – “Who is the man who wants life?” We think it means eternal life, and that’s true; but it’s not the whole truth. There’s more to it: Who wants to livein this world? אוהב ימים – “You’re anoheiv yomim?” You like days, don’t you? You want more and more of them. לראות טוב – “You want to see happiness and good times during those days?” You want to see yourself getting along well with others? You want a successful marriage? You want to see good health? That’s all included inlir’os tov.“Oh,” you say. “That’s me! I want to live long! I want to see good times!”But you don’t! You’re not really interested in trying to live long. You’ll say it, you’ll repeat it, you’ll even sing it, but you don’t think about it. You have to take steps to live long, and one of the most important steps is tokeep the mouth closed. נצור לשונך מרע – “Guard your tongue against evil”. What does “evil” mean? Not only you shouldn’t say derogatory things about people or quarrel with them. The reallashon harais opening your mouth to say stupid things, to chatter and babble and say nothing. The general rule is to keep your tongue on the inside of the mouth and keep the mouth closed; that’s the rule you should follow. If we live according to that, our physical happiness in this world will increase and we will attain a life oflir’os tov,of seeing good times.A MOMENT OF SILENCESo we go back to the great principle that the job of a person in this world is to learn the skill of being quiet, the profession of being like anileim. And before we conclude we’ll listen to the words of a great man, the Vilna Gaon (Igeres Hagra); these words deserve to be remembered by us. שעל כל רגע ורגע – “For every moment, for every minute, שאדם חוסם פיו – that a man muzzles his mouth, זוכה לאור הגנוז – He’ll be rewarded by that secret brilliance, שאין כל מלאך יכול לשער – that no creature, no angel, is capable of measuring its magnitude.”The splendor of reward is so great for one minute of silence! We’re not talking about a whole lifetime of silence; he says there that for everymomentthat you keep your mouth closed, you’ll be rewarded with a splendor, a brilliance that is so great that even an angel is not capable of measuring the magnitude, the extent of its greatness. I know that this is a very extreme statement but the Vina Gaon is a very responsible personality. So it’s not only a profession ofyiras shamayim, and not only is it the best advice for good health and long life, but it’s a career that will reward you beyond your highest dreams.LEARNING THE LESSONAnd so we have to get busy. How can you read about themetzoraevery year, and continue to ignore the lessons for your own life? Even if today we aren’t privileged to see the miraculous hand of Hashem bringingtzara’ason a person, but the lessons remain as applicable today as they were then. When Hashem separated a good man, a loyal frum Jew, from his family and friends, he was expected to learn this lesson of “Elokimisba’shomayimlistening to you … therefore your words should be few.” And we, no less than him, are expected to learn that lesson as well.And so we have to delve into thesepesukimand apply them to our own lives. This man had to cover his mouth; what about me? Am I anadamyet? Am I producing enough silence? Am I succeeding at my profession of making myselfk’ileim? And so when we study thisparsha, we can’t just let it pass by. As often as you can during the day, a minute here and a minute there, you remind yourself that it’s your job to be as silent as you can. Not complete silence –tzedektidabeirun! But as far as everything else we will try to be as careful as possible and remember that לך דומיה תהילה, to You Hashem silence is praise, and thereby we gain the great reward of Hashem, a reward unknown even to the angels. 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Part I. Hashem is HereHE’S TAMEI, HE’S TAMEI, HE’S TAMEIכל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא, טמא הוא, בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו – “All the days that the tzara’as is upon the person he shall be tamei, tamei he should be. He should dwell alone; outside the camp should be his place of residence.” (13:46) When reading this possuk, we are immediately struck by the repetition of the tamei status of the metzora, “He shall be tamei,tamei he should be” and that requires an explanation.So we’ll say as follows: The root “tum” denotes something that is “closed off”. That’s what the word tumah means, and that is the principle underlying all the laws of tumah. Wherever we find tumah we must understand that itis a decree of Hashem to teach us what should be avoided and shunned.So we read the possuk as follows: “All the days that the tzara’as is upon the person he shall be ritually unclean” – the first word “tamei” speaks of the status of tumah. He is an av hatumah. It’s information we have to know. It’s a technicality the Torah is teaching us; the basic law that this man is tameiand makes tamei anything that comes in contact with him. But the second expression of tumah, “Tamei he should be,” is giving us the reason for the tumahbeing imposed on him; as if to say: “He shall be tamei, because Hashem desires that he should be closed off from society.” “He is tamei”, because “tamei, shunned and avoided, he should be.”THE LONELY SEDER NIGHTNow that’s something we have to study. Because we’re talking here about a frum Jew. He’s a father, a husband, a loyal servant of Hashem who puts on tefillin and davens three times a day with a minyan. His home is a kosher home and his children are all frum boys and girls. He’s one of us! And yet, one morning he wakes up with tzara’as;and now he must take leave of his family and friends and make his way beyond the walls of the city to live alone. This friend of ours, a fellow Jew, is now tamei; he’s closed off from the rest of Mankind. Badad yeishev – “He shall stay in isolation,” meaning that even other tamei’im are to avoid his company (Rashi ibid.).So our fellow Jew is now sitting alone outside of the walls of his city; and there he will remain until the tzara’as heals. He’ll miss the Shabbos seudos with his family. He might even be spending the Seder night all alone! And it’s no accident of fate here. The Rambam says that tzara’as is not a natural form of leprosy; it’sa miraculous phenomenon. “Tzara’as is one of the miracles that Hashem provides to His nation” (Moreh Nevuchim 3:47) and that’s why a goy can’t become tamei with tzara’as (Negaim 3:1).Hashem miraculously sends upon a Jew tzara’as, and now he has to be shunned. And it’s not because of contagion, or merely because he can be mitameiothers – it’s because Hashem wants him to be “closed off” from people. Hashem wants that he should leave the machaneh; that he should separate from society and dwell alone outside of the city.LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVINGAnd that’s because actually this man is a dangerous man; he may appear to be very frum, but the gemara (Eirechin 15b) says: כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו. “One who speaks wrong words, he uses his mouth in the wrong way, is stricken by leprosy.” And so we understand that this man misused the gift of company of people; when he was healthy he sat around with his friends and wagged his tongue – not only that he ridiculed and belittled other people, but even just to talk d’varim b’teilim is misusing the tongue.And so in the great days of nevuah, the nega of tzara’asspoke to this man the word of Hashem: “He shall be tamei, and he should be closed off from people and avoided.” He will dwell alone where he won’t have anyone with whom to speak; and now he will begin the study of how a person is to use his tongue, and he will understand that the proper way to use a tongue is primarily by not using it.BRING MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!The Rambam gives us an insight into this: לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה– “A person should always be producing a great deal of silence” (Rambam Hilchos Dei’os 2:4). You hear that? You have to produce silence as much as you can. Imagine you’re producing goods for a certain purpose. Let’s say you’re making toothbrushes, or you’re a tailor and you’re sewing suits. Whatever it is, you’re producing. So you have to keep cheshbon, “How many goods did I produce today?” “Did I do better today than yesterday?” “What could I do different tomorrow in the factory to produce more toothbrushes?” And it’s the same with silence. A man should always be producing silence in this world. You have to think about that! “How much silence did I produce today?”And it’s considered a service of Hashem: לך דומיה תהילה – “To you Hashem, silence is praise” (Tehillim 65:2). That’s an interesting idea, because we always understood that the Hallelukahs and the brachos are praise. Ashrei, Hodu and Modim, that’s how we praise Hashem. And now we’re being told that keeping quiet is the real way to praise Hashem; to produce silence is actually a career of praising Hashem. And that needs a good explanation.A LESSON FROM THE WISE MANAnd so, who better to turn to than the chochom m’kol adam. Shlomo Hamelech tells us in Koheles (5:1): אל תבהל על פיך – “Don’t be in a hurry to express yourself, ולבך אל ימהר להוציא דבר לפני השם – Your heart, your mind, shouldn’t be in a hurry to say something in the Presence of Hashem”. When you’re sitting at the table with your family, your friends, Hashem is present. So keep quiet! כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ – “Hashem is in the heavens and you’re down below on the earth, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – Therefore your words should be few”. Oh, now something else comes into the picture; Elokim is now in the picture! Elokim is in shomayim, above you, looking at you. And you’re down on this earth. על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “That’s why your words must be few.”If a man opens up his mouth and words flow out without restraint, so it means he doesn’t feel like he’s in anybody’s presence! Let’s say you were standing in the presence of the mayor, or in front of the president of the United States – he’s not such an important person today – but still you wouldn’t talk too much in his presence. You definitely wouldn’t be shooting off your mouth.DO YOU HAVE EMUNAH IN THE PRESIDENT?Now להבדיל אלף הבדלות, if you are talking with the gadol hador,with let’s say Rav Shach, Rav Moshe Feinstein, whoever is the gadol hador, would you talk much? If you have any sense you wouldn’t say a word! Let’s say you meet the Sigheter Rav, you’re standing in front of the Satmerer Rav, and somebody comes over to you, “Hey, Chaim! What time is it?” Would you say, “It’s three o’clock”?! No you keep quiet, you keep your mouth shut; you’re standing in front of your rebbeh! Let him talk; you keep quiet. חכם אינו מדבר בפני גדול ממנו – “Someone with chochmadoesn’t open his mouth when he’s standing in front of somebody bigger than him” (Avos 5:7).So the fact that you keep your mouth closed indicates that you realize that you’re standing in the Presence of Hashem. It’s a demonstration that you possess a sensory perception of the closeness of Hashem; it’s not merely words, theories. Just like you wouldn’t talk in the presence of somebody important, you don’t open your mouth in the presence of Elokim bashomayim. You keep quiet, at least as quiet as you would be in front of the President. At least that! If the President of the United States was standing here, you’d be careful with every word that comes out of your mouth! That means you believe in the President more than you believe in Hashem!THE PECULIAR MAN OF OUR PARSHASo now we can understand why this frum man is shunned by Hashem, sent out to live in solitude. If he’s hasty with words, if he doesn’t think before he speaks, so he needs to be sent out where he will have time to think about this great principle of Elokim bashomayim. The metzora had to cover his mouth, did you know that? It’s an open possuk: ועל שפם יעטה, it means that he had to wear his cloak in certain way so that it covered his mouth. What for? Because he was proclaiming to the world this lesson! Part of his kapparah was to walk around dressed in this peculiar way; and he had to make a lot of noise too: טמא טמא יקרא, wherever he went he had to proclaim to everyone that he’s tamei.So here’s a man with his cloak covering half his face, all the way over his mouth, and in his muffled voice he’s crying out: “I’m tamei, I’m tamei!” It was a strange sight, and anyone who saw him took his condition to heart and learned that he’d better get busy covering up his mouth before the nega comes to him. And so we gained a lot by seeing a metzora with his covered mouth.GAINING EMUNAH; A GUIDEWhat we’re learning is that no matter how frum a person is, he has to have hargasha, emunahchushis, that he’s standing in front of Hashem and that’s why he doesn’t talk. What does that mean? Suppose you’re an ordinary Jew who never worked on these concepts; you don’t actually feel the Presence of Hashem. But you’d like to do it; you aspire to become a ma’amin. Now, certainly you won’t admit that you’re not a ma’amin, but at least you’ll admit that you don’t feel the Presence of Hashem all the time. And so by training yourself not to talk just for this purpose; each time you wish to open your mouth you remind yourself: כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “Hashem is listening and therefore your words should be few.” And little by little you bring into your neshama an awareness of this tremendous principle, and you thereby achieve yiras Hashem.When someone approaches you and makes a remark, don’t be in a hurry to answer. You’d like to talk; you have a wisecrack or a rejoinder, you want to say something. “No. I won’t say it because I’m standing in front of Hashem.” Sometimes you don’t have to answer at all. If someone says something to you, do you have to say something back? Let’s say a cow says moo, do you have to moo back? A dog barks as you pass by, you have to bark back? So if someone speaks to you, unless it’s necessary, don’t say anything. Just listen. Who says you have to answer?And suppose you must answer; sometimes you must say something, so you should count your words. You know, some people are like a faucet; they start pouring out all they have. All the emptiness they have in their minds comes pouring out. That means that they’re being masiach da’as from Hashem. A person must always keep in mind that Hashem is listening. Keeping your mouth closed, and keeping your words few when you do have to speak shows that you have emunah that wherever you are Hashem is listening. If you open your mouth and you talk without restraint so it means you think you’re a free bird. It means that you have no emunah,becausebelief in Hashem requires that we should keep quiet. He’s standing right here after all, and He’s listening.Part II. Your New ProfessionEXTRACTING HONEY AND GEMSNow in order to appreciate more this career of yiras shamayim, we have to see how the gemarain Chullin (89a) darshens a possuk. As a matter of fact, the following gemara was once used by the Alter of Slabodka zichronol’vracha as an illustration of how to appreciate every word of a ma’amar chazal. The Alter thought about every word that the chachomim said and he sucked as much honey as he could from the ma’amar. The gemara quotes the following possuk: אמנם אלם צדק תדברון – “The truth is, silence is appropriate; only speak righteous words” (Tehillim 58:2). That’s the poshut pshat, but chazal discovered some hidden gems in that possuk.First I’ll say the words of the gemara and then I’ll tell you how the Alter explained them: אמנם – מה אומנתו של אדם בעולם הזה – “What is a man’s profession in this world?” From the word אמנם, comes umnus, profession. And the gemara asks a question: What’s your job here in Olam Hazeh? And the gemara says that the next word in the possuk, אלם, that’s the answer: יעשה עצמו כאלם – “Make yourself as if you were a mute, as if you couldn’t speak.” So we read the possuklike this: אמנם, what’s your umnus, your profession? אלם, to be a mute. That’s your business in this world.BARUCH HASHEM FOR ACCOUNTANTS!The first thing we see is that man has a profession in this world. A “profession” means it’s not justa hobby to keep silent, it’s not even just a good thing, an added perfection. No; silence is yourbusiness in this world; that’s what we came into this world for. Now at first glance that’s hard to understand; because how could everyone have the same profession? If everyone was a shoemaker so we’d all have comfortable shoes, but we’d have to tailor our own pants. Without good Jewish accountants we’d be paying a lot of extra money to Uncle Sam. So what we’re learning now is that whatever you’re doing in your life; that’s only your second job, a side business; you have to pay the bills after all. But your main business in this world is to be k’ileim, to keep your mouth closed.Now, the Alter zichrono l’vrachamade the point that an umnus is not something that you just pick yourself up and do; you have to train yourself for a profession. It’s necessary to undergo a course of training to learn the skill of silence, just like you would for any other serious profession. If you want to be a plumber, let’s say, so you’ll just put on a pair of blue overalls, grab a wrench and that’s all?!BECOMING A PLUMBER IS NOT EASYNobody ever became a plumber by saying “I decided I’m a plumber.” You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get under a sink. And you’ll have to lie there on your back and watch the master plumber for months and months learning all the tricks of the trade. You’ll have to carry his tools for him and you watch: When do you use this tool? When do you open that valve? When do you close it? It’s achochma, and there’s a lot to learn. And if silence is our career in life, that means we have a lot to study.To become a professional mute, you can’t just buy a padlock for fifty cents at the corner hardware store, lock your mouth firmly, and then walk around the street without worries. It’s not that easy. If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be a profession; it would just be a fifty cent expense and finished. But no it’s a profession, it’s the “profession of a person in this world.”Now the Alter points out something else in this gemarathat’s worth our attention: It says “What is the profession sheladam in this world?” The profession of an adam! It’s thisprofession, making yourself into an ileim, a mute, that will cause you to earn the title of adam. An adam is expected not to open his mouth unless it’s justified. And only the one who has mastered this art can boast that he’s made it, that he’s graduated. Otherwise, you’re not an adam. Maybe you’re a croaking frog, or a blue jay; something you are, absolutely; you’re making noise after all. But you’re not yet an adam unless you’ve mastered this career of silence.GET BUSY BANGING YOUR HEAD!Now, what usually happens when I speak on this subject? I’ll tell you. There’s always one idealist who wants to get busy accomplishing. Why not? Rabbi Miller said so! He said it’s a profession for everyone. A young man who comes here and he’s inspired by the words of the Alter; he’s ready now to make changes! So he goes home after the lecture, and as soon as he walks into the house he hears his mother talking on the phone. So he bangs on the table, “Uh, uh, uh. Nu, nu!” He wants to make sure his mother knows what her new profession is!So the Alter tells us that we have to know how to learn a ma’amar chazal. The gemara saysya’aseh atzmo – “Make yourselfinto a speechless person.” Yourself! Oh, that’s a different story already. What are you banging on the table for? Get busy banging on your own head! Don’t bother others!That means when a man comes home to his wife, and he heard my lecture tonight, and now his wife wants to talk, she wants to tell him about what happened with the children today. And also she’s talking about what her sister said and probably some other things as well. So he should let her talk about whatever she wants. He shouldn’t say, “Keep quiet; in this house we work on producing silence.” He’s a dumbbell! He’s working on her silence! Ya’aseh atzmo! He has to make himselfan ileim; that’s who he has to worry about. TALK TO PAPA!Now this profession, this career we’re speaking about tonight, wouldn’t be so difficult if all you had to do was to buy a padlock. Mazel tov, you’re an ileim! But that’s not what Chazal are demanding of you; it doesn’t say you should be an ileim, it says k’ileim, like a mute. You know that the extra letter kaf seems like an unnecessary addition. It could have just as well said, “Make yourself into an ileim.” What’s ya’aseh atzmo k’ileim, make yourself like a mute?What it means is that you can’tpadlock your lips shut! You have to make yourself k’ileim, like a mute, as if you can’t speak. You have to talk, and sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like somebody who is an ileim. If you have to walk through the street, you have to say good morning or good evening to the people you see. You can’t just walk around with a deadpan face ignoring people. Why should your neighbor suffer because you’re learning a new profession?! You come into the home, so you have to walk in and say, “How was your day Chanaleh?” At least that you have to say! You can’t come in and be an ileim. A boy comes in from the yeshiva, he can’t walk in quietly and go to his room. He has to say “Vus machstu mammeh?” “How are you Papa?” Something he has to say! He’s k’ileim, not an ileim mamish.That’s why the gemara says, Yachol la’kol – “You might think that once you adopt this practice so you shouldn’t open your mouth for anything.” תלמוד לומר צדק תדברון – “So the possuk says, ‘Speak righteousness.’” When it comes to words of righteousness you have to talk.” Divrei Torah you have to talk. Words of kindliness you have to talk. If someone is sad and dejected you must go over and put your arm around his shoulders and say a few kind words to him. Tzedek tidabeirun. Good things you must say!DON’T COMPLIMENT THE CHALLAH…To say words of encouragement to your fellow man, to comfort a fellow Jew, that’s what you have a mouth for, that’s part of your profession. You don’t have to babble though. Think of ways and means of making people happy, by saying a timely word. If it’s a child then sometimes a little glett on the cheek and a word or two can be a lifesaver. Tell him something that buoys his self respect, something that gives him the ambition to continue improving.If you tell your wife that she cooks well – that’s very important by the way – that’s tzedek. You make sure to compliment your wife when she serves you anything: “Chanaleh, this challah tastes excellent.” Now if she bought it at the bakery, make sure not to praise the challah; find something else to be m’shabeiach. “This chicken soup is m’ein Olam Habah, Chanaleh. Yi’yasheir koi’ach”Now usually it does taste good; you can find many things to compliment. Don’t be bashful! It’s not the time to be k’ileim – now it’s time for tzedek tidabeirun. And even if it happens, an unusual incident, when supper is not such a success, if you’ll say it’s excellent, there’s no harm either. Only that most people have it all wrong; when they have what to complain about, then the words come gushing forth, pearls of “wisdom.” But when it’s time for tzedek tidabeirun, then suddenly this “tzadik” remembers his profession of being k’ileim.PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTIt’s an art. Sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like an ileim. You’re always careful not to say what you’re not supposed to say. But what you have to say, you must say. So when you come home tonight and your wife says, “What did he say over there?” Don’t say “Ummmmmm.” Say something. Say it briefly but say something. Don’t just keep your mouth closed. K’ileim, like a mute! Oh, now that’s already an umnus. It’s harder than just lying on your back under a sink studying how to plumb!And therefore we should get busy practicing this profession of shtikah because it means that we’re practicing the career of yiras shamayim! You’re sitting at the table at the Shabbos seudah, and everyone is prattling away. Talking and talking and talking. So what do you do? You say to yourself, “I’m going to train myself now for my profession in this world. I’m going to sit for two minutes – two minutes on the clock – and listen and not open my mouth.”Let’s say you were forced to go somewhere; sometimes you have to go to visit your in-laws in Boro Park. You can’t say no this time. So they’re eating melave malka and everybody is chatting. Or maybe you’re sitting at a chasuna and all around you all the tongues are clacking. While their minds are being ground to pieces by the idle chatter, you can grab the opportunity for getting to work on your profession. So you’re paying attention; you’re trying to seem interested, smiling at the right times. But you’re telling yourself, “Chaim, keep the mouth closed. As much as you can keep quiet because Elokim is bashomayimlistening.”Part III. The Best MedicineVALUABLE HEALTH ADVICENow, to make a career out of silence because of Elokim Bashomayim, that would be enough. That’s our primary obligation in this world – to prepare for Olam Haba by training ourselves to become more and more aware of Hashem. But it’s more than that; it’s also your happiness and success in Olam Hazeh!There’s a mishnah in Avos (1:17) that says the following: שמעון בנו אומר, “Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamliel said, כל ימי גדלתי בין החכמים, all the days of my life I grew up among the wise men, ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב משתיקה, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.” Now, if someone on the street would offer you some health advice, I don’t know how valuable it would be; could be it’s worth something, but you never know for sure. But here you have a man who spent years and years sitting at the feet of the sages. “All my days, I grew up among the sages.” And he heard many important ideas, many important attitudes, and he studied them all. And after many years of investigating he came to the conclusion that of all the things that are good for a person, the best one is shesikah, silence.Now if Shimon bequeathed to us this gem, it pays for us to study his words. He said, “I’ve found nothing better for the body than silence.” He didn’t say it’s the best for your neshama; it’s certainly is good for your soul too, but Shimon is telling us here that for your physical health, there is nothing as good as keeping your mouth closed. If you’re worried about your health, if you’re a person who wants to live a long healthy life, then the first thing to think about is the remedy of silence. סמא דכולה משתוקא – “The best medicine of all is silence” (Megillah 18a).THE CAUSE OF MOST ILLNESSESYou know that most illnesses, most of the disturbances that take place in our bodies, are caused by emotions that have aroused a raw reaction in our bodies. It’s remarkable what a great effect emotions have on a person’s physical nature. We are full of glands and hormones that stimulate the functions of the body; and if the body is overstimulated by emotions like anger, tension, and nerves, then instead of being beneficial, these hormones are harmful.It’s established already in medical science. All over the body there are results that come from wrong stimulation of the emotions. And how are the emotions stimulated most? Talking! Someone says something and you answer back, then you talk and argue, and that’s when the trouble begins. The metabolism is upset and very many people become ill as a result. A world of illnesses are caused by talking. Very many cases of cancer are due to friction in human relationships.YOUR MIGHTY MOUTHA man told me, “Do you know why I’m blind?” A blind man told me this. Because he was so aggravated – these are his words – he was so aggravated because of troubles in the family that he acquired diabetes and became blind. Blindness many times comes from aggravation, from excitation. When people go to an eye specialist one of the first questions they’ll ask you is, “Do you get angry or excited?” Dovid Hamelech said (Tehillim 6:8) עששה מכעס עיני – “My eye became worn out because of ka’as, עתקה מכל צוררי, it grew old because of those who aggravated me.” So if you talk to people and get into arguments, it’s bad for your eyesight. And if it’s bad for your eyes that means that it’s wreaking havoc in your body; it’s bad for everything.Heart failure too! You open your mouth when you could have kept it closed and the heart becomes subjected to too much stress; the valves cannot take it and there’s a breakdown somewhere, a weakness in a valve someplace. Just by talking too much, there’s quarreling, there’s tension, nervous excitement, and your heart is suffering from it. I’m not saying that it happens all of a sudden, but gradually your big mouth is weakening your heart, and then one day, chalilah, it breaks down.WHERE DO PEOPLE DIE?I know of a man who dropped dead in the middle of an argument with his wife. He was a fine man, by the way, a good man. But if he would have studied this mishna in Pirkei Avos, he would have known “Don’t answer back!” And that would have saved him; he’d probably still be alive today. Who told you to answer back?! If you can be a diplomat and say something nice, do it. But if not, don’t say anything. He was a frum young man – he probably even knew this mishna – but he never studied it, and so he acted according to his nature and he answered back. He said his piece, and she answered back, and it went back and forth, back and forth until he dropped dead.It happens again and again. Don’t you read sometimes in the paper – a certain man, so and so, died of heart failure. Where did his heart attack happen? Did he die in his business because of his competitors? No, people don’t die because of their competitors. Did he die on the street because someone in the street insulted him? People don’t usually die because someone insulted them. He dies at home! People die because of their wives! Of course the newspaper will never say that. The obituary published in the newspapers will never say, “Mr. Anderson dropped dead Sunday night after an argument with his wife!” No, no, it won’t say that! It says, “Mr. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep at his home this past Sunday.” But if you know how to read the obituary pages, so you already know what that means.COMMUNICATION ISSUES?Why didn’t he die at his business? Why at his home? The answer is at home he has a wife, and most people die as a result of words. I’m not saying he’s right – who told him to react?! Who told him to bump his head against a stone wall? Arguing with a wife? Do you know what it’s like? It’s like he’s sticking a needle into her, a real needle. And she’s sticking needles into him. Is that fun? All of their lives they are “needling” each other. Only that his heart, his constitution was a bit weaker than his wife’s. You can’t win an argument! You think you’ll win an argument with your wife?! You’ll never win! The only real way to win an argument is to avoid it. So don’t get excited over nothing. Keep quiet and that’s all. Just keep quiet! And both of you will live longer as a result. And you’ll live happier lives as well.Women call me up; they say, “We have communication issues. My husband doesn’t ‘communicate’ with me.” The trouble is there’s too much communication! If they wouldn’t communicate so much they’d be much better off; in most cases people will profit by not talking.IGNORE THE BUMIn Mesichta Sanhedrin (7a) it says: טוביה דשמע ואדיש – “Happy is the man who hears people saying things that insult him, that bother him, and he ignores it, חלפוה בישתיה מאה – A hundred evils will pass him by.” Memorize those words; say them to yourself again and again. Learn to ignore any words you don’t like; somebody said something sharp to you, so שמע, you heard it, but אדיש, it doesn’t bother you. Pay no attention; make believe you never even heard it, and you’ll be spared from many troubles. If your husband is mean to you, pay no attention. If your wife is mean to you, pay no attention. And one hundred evils will pass you by. You’ll live together happily for the rest of your life.Most of the time, a punch in the nose is a result of opening up a mouth instead of ignoring. Suppose you’re walking in the street and a bum says something insulting to you. Forget about it! Don’t feel that you have to stand up and defend your honor. Oh no! Don’t do that. I know a man who did that and he got beaten up. Don’t even look at him; it’s dangerous. As far as you’re concerned you didn’t hear it, you didn’t hear anything. Keep walking and in another minute, you’re out of danger. And thank Hashem that you’re able to keep on walking. If it’s a goy who insults you, so you can give him a bracha that he should drop dead. Don’t let him hear you though! Don’t even mutter; don’t say it with your mouth. The mouth always stays closed!CHINESE WISDOM FOR LIFEI was walking in the street once, and two shkutzim, two young men came over to me and blocked the sidewalk; they didn’t let me go further. I couldn’t walk; I was stuck. So I got out off the sidewalk and I kept going. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t even take a peek over my shoulder. Suppose I looked back and said, “What do you think you’re doing? What right do you have to do that?” Ohhh, what would have happened to me! Don’t be a chacham, a hero. I always quote to you the wise Chinese proverb. The Chinamen say “The greatest hero is the one who runs away.” If you ignore and run away you’re a hero. And the one who opens up his mouth is not a hero, he’s a loser.I always say this story; it’s a tragic story. A young man from YU was going on chamisha asar b’shvat outingto Madison Square Garden. He was with a group of younger boys, a chaburah of boys with yarmulkes on, and he was leading them. And two twenty year old shkutzim were ridiculing the boys’ yarmulkas. Now this young man, he didn’t take the advice of chazal. At least the Chinese he should have listened to!Instead he looked at the gentile boys with anger and said something. Now a goy bleibt a goy, so the shkutzim went back to their car, they took out a hammer from the trunk, and they attacked him. They hit him over the head with the hammer and they killed him. He died there on the street, nebach. That’s why it says, “There’s nothing better for the body than keeping quiet.”HOW TO DEAL WITH HATELet’s say somebody calls you on the telephone and insults you. It happened to me a number of times. People have called the house and cursed me. You know what I did? I didn’t say a word! Not a word! And they hung up. It happened again a few months ago and I knew who it was; I knew. And after that he came into my shul one evening to daven and I didn’t say a word. And it was finished. But once you start up with these people, who knows what’s going to be? A word for a word and it turns into who knows what! There’s no knowing how it’s going to end up! So just grin and bear it.How many people have lost their jobs by talking back to their boss? Sometimes their boss is in a bad mood, so just swallow down what he said and it could be that an hour later he’ll be a good boss. He might even promote you. I had that experience once. In my first position in rabbanus, a man once came into a meeting of the board of directors and he made a grand announcement: He said, “Rabbi Miller, I greeted you last week and you didn’t answer me! You didn’t answer me ‘Good Shabbos.’” He brought it up to the board of directors at a meeting; a complaint against the new rabbi. So the president of the shul came over and asked me about it. Now, it wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything. I could have opened my mouth, but I remembered this ma’amar chazal and I kept my mouth closed.RABBI MILLER GETS A RAISE!I met this man again and again, he was a shul member, and I was always friendly to him. One day he gets up by the meeting of the board of directors and he makes a motion to give me a raise. This man! No one thought of giving me a raise except this one man! Now, had I answered him back it would have never happened. And so I learned the lesson that it “pays” to keep your mouth closed.I’ve seen it all! I’ve watched as people put themselves in danger by opening a mouth. Just because they answered back, I’ve watched good people lose jobs, lose customers. They lost their wives or their husbands, siblings and friends. And sooner or later they lose themselves; they excite wrong reactions in their bodies and they end up sick. Many lose years from their life because of their mouths.THE KEY TO A GOOD LIFEAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech tells us (Tehillim 34:13-14): מי האיש החפץ חיים – “Who is the man who wants life?” We think it means eternal life, and that’s true; but it’s not the whole truth. There’s more to it: Who wants to live in this world? אוהב ימים – “You’re an oheiv yomim?” You like days, don’t you? You want more and more of them. לראות טוב – “You want to see happiness and good times during those days?” You want to see yourself getting along well with others? You want a successful marriage? You want to see good health? That’s all included in lir’os tov. “Oh,” you say. “That’s me! I want to live long! I want to see good times!”But you don’t! You’re not really interested in trying to live long. You’ll say it, you’ll repeat it, you’ll even sing it, but you don’t think about it. You have to take steps to live long, and one of the most important steps is to keep the mouth closed. נצור לשונך מרע – “Guard your tongue against evil”. What does “evil” mean? Not only you shouldn’t say derogatory things about people or quarrel with them. The real lashon hara is opening your mouth to say stupid things, to chatter and babble and say nothing. The general rule is to keep your tongue on the inside of the mouth and keep the mouth closed; that’s the rule you should follow. If we live according to that, our physical happiness in this world will increase and we will attain a life of lir’os tov, of seeing good times.A MOMENT OF SILENCESo we go back to the great principle that the job of a person in this world is to learn the skill of being quiet, the profession of being like an ileim. And before we conclude we’ll listen to the words of a great man, the Vilna Gaon (Igeres Hagra); these words deserve to be remembered by us. שעל כל רגע ורגע – “For every moment, for every minute, שאדם חוסם פיו – that a man muzzles his mouth, זוכה לאור הגנוז – He’ll be rewarded by that secret brilliance, שאין כל מלאך יכול לשער – that no creature, no angel, is capable of measuring its magnitude.”The splendor of reward is so great for one minute of silence! We’re not talking about a whole lifetime of silence; he says there that for every moment that you keep your mouth closed, you’ll be rewarded with a splendor, a brilliance that is so great that even an angel is not capable of measuring the magnitude, the extent of its greatness. I know that this is a very extreme statement but the Vina Gaon is a very responsible personality. So it’s not only a profession of yiras shamayim, and not only is it the best advice for good health and long life, but it’s a career that will reward you beyond your highest dreams.LEARNING THE LESSONAnd so we have to get busy. How can you read about the metzora every year, and continue to ignore the lessons for your own life? Even if today we aren’t privileged to see the miraculous hand of Hashem bringing tzara’as on a person, but the lessons remain as applicable today as they were then. When Hashem separated a good man, a loyal frum Jew, from his family and friends, he was expected to learn this lesson of “Elokim is ba’shomayim listening to you … therefore your words should be few.” And we, no less than him, are expected to learn that lesson as well.And so we have to delve into these pesukim and apply them to our own lives. This man had to cover his mouth; what about me? Am I an adam yet? Am I producing enough silence? Am I succeeding at my profession of making myself k’ileim? And so when we study this parsha, we can’t just let it pass by. As often as you can during the day, a minute here and a minute there, you remind yourself that it’s your job to be as silent as you can. Not complete silence – tzedektidabeirun! But as far as everything else we will try to be as careful as possible and remember that לך דומיה תהילה, to You Hashem silence is praise, and thereby we gain the great reward of Hashem, a reward unknown even to the angels. 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I have said already that but for the hazard of a journey to Tahiti I should doubtless never have written this book. It is thither that after many wanderings Charles Strickland came, and it is there that he painted the pictures on which his fame most securely rests. I suppose no artist achieves completely the realisation of the dream that obsesses him, and Strickland, harassed incessantly by his struggle with technique, managed, perhaps, less than others to express the vision that he saw with his mind's eye; but in Tahiti the circumstances were favourable to him; he found in his surroundings the accidents necessary for his inspiration to become effective, and his later pictures give at least a suggestion of what he sought. They offer the imagination something new and strange. It is as though in this far country his spirit, that had wandered disembodied, seeking a tenement, at last was able to clothe itself in flesh. To use the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself.It would seem that my visit to this remote island should immediately revive my interest in Strickland, but the work I was engaged in occupied my attention to the exclusion of something that was irrelevant, and it was not till I had been there some days that I even remembered his connection with it. After all, I had not seen him for fifteen years, and it was nine since he died. But I think my arrival at Tahiti would have driven out of my head matters of much more immediate importance to me, and even after a week I found it not easy to order myself soberly. I remember that on my first morning I awoke early, and when I came on to the terrace of the hotel no one was stirring. I wandered round to the kitchen, but it was locked, and on a bench outside it a native boy was sleeping. There seemed no chance of breakfast for some time, so I sauntered down to the water-front. The Chinamen were already busy in their shops. The sky had still the pallor of dawn, and there was a ghostly silence on the lagoon. Ten miles away the island of Murea, like some high fastness of the Holy Grail, guarded its mystery.I did not altogether believe my eyes. The days that had passed since I left Wellington seemed extraordinary and unusual. Wellington is trim and neat and English; it reminds you of a seaport town on the South Coast. And for three days afterwards the sea was stormy. Gray clouds chased one another across the sky. Then the wind dropped, and the sea was calm and blue. The Pacific is more desolate than other seas; its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon it has somehow the feeling of an adventure. The air you breathe is an elixir which prepares you for the unexpected. Nor is it vouchsafed to man in the flesh to know aught that more nearly suggests the approach to the golden realms of fancy than the approach to Tahiti. Murea, the sister isle, comes into view in rocky splendour, rising from the desert sea mysteriously, like the unsubstantial fabric of a magic wand. With its jagged outline it is like a Monseratt of the Pacific, and you may imagine that there Polynesian knights guard with strange rites mysteries unholy for men to know. The beauty of the island is unveiled as diminishing distance shows you in distincter shape its lovely peaks, but it keeps its secret as you sail by, and, darkly inviolable, seems to fold itself together in a stony, inaccessible grimness. It would not surprise you if, as you came near seeking for an opening in the reef, it vanished suddenly from your view, and nothing met your gaze but the blue loneliness of the Pacific.Tahiti is a lofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divine silent valleys; there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur and plash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life from immemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways. Even here is something sad and terrible. But the impression is fleeting, and serves only to give a greater acuteness to the enjoyment of the moment. It is like the sadness which you may see in the jester's eyes when a merry company is laughing at his sallies; his lips smile and his jokes are gayer because in the communion of laughter he finds himself more intolerably alone. For Tahiti is smiling and friendly; it is like a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm and beauty; and nothing can be more conciliatory than the entrance into the harbour at Papeete. The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. They are sensual with an unashamed violence that leaves you breathless. And the crowd that throngs the wharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; it is a noisy, cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. You have an impression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky. Everything is done with a great deal of bustle, the unloading of the baggage, the examination of the customs; and everyone seems to smile at you. It is very hot. The colour dazzles you. 我在前面已经说过，如果不是由于偶然的机缘到了塔希提，我是肯定不会写这本书的。查理斯·思特里克兰德经过多年浪迹最后流落到的地方正是塔希提；也正是在这里他创作出使他永远名垂画史的画幅。我认为哪个艺术家也不可能把昼夜萦绕在他心头的梦境全部付诸实现，思特里克兰德为掌握绘画的技巧，艰苦奋斗、日夜处于痛苦的煎熬里，但同其他画家比较起来，他表现自己幻想中图景的能力可能更差，只有到了塔希提以后，思特里克兰德才找到顺利的环境。在这里，他在自己周围处处可以看到为使自己的灵感开花结果不可或缺的事物，他晚年的图画至少告诉了我们他终生追寻的是什么，让我们的幻想走入一个新鲜的、奇异的境界。仿佛是，思特里克兰德的精神一直脱离了他的躯体到处漫游，到处寻找寄宿，最后，在这个遥远的土地上，终于进入了一个躯壳。用一句陈腐的话说，他在这里可谓“得其所哉”。我一踏上这个偏远的岛屿，就应该立刻恢复对思特里克兰德的兴趣，这似乎是一件很自然的事；但事实是，我手头的工作却占据了我的全部精神，根本无暇顾及与此无关的事；直到在塔希提住了几天以后，我才想到这个地方同思特里克兰德的关系。我毕竟同他分手已经十五年了，他逝世也已有九年之久了。现在回想当时的情况，在我到塔希提之后，不论手头的事多么重要，我本来应该立刻把它抛诸脑后的；但事实却不是这样，甚至一周以后我仍然无法从冗杂的事务中脱身出来。我还记得头一天早上，我醒得很早。当我走到旅馆的露台上时，周围一点动静也没有。我围着厨房转了一圈，厨房的门还上着锁，门外一条长凳上，一个本地人，旅馆的一个侍者，睡得正酣，看来一时我还吃不上早饭。于是我漫步到滨海的街道上。侨居在这里的中国人已经在他们开的店铺里忙碌起来了。天空仍然呈现出黎明时分的苍白，环礁湖上笼罩着死一样的沉寂。十英里之外，莫里阿岛伫立在海面上，象是一座圣杯形状的巍峨要塞，深锁着自己的全部秘密。我不太敢相信自己的眼睛。自从离开威灵顿以后，日子似乎过得非常奇特。威灵顿整齐有序，富于英国风味，使人想到英国南岸的一座滨海城市。这以后我在海上航行了三天，波浪滔天，乌云在空中互相追逐。三天以后风停了，大海变得非常寂静，一片碧蓝。太平洋看来比别的海洋更加荒凉，烟波浩渺，即使在这个水域上作一次最普通的旅行也带有冒险意味。你吸到胸中的空气象是补身的甘香酒，叫你精神振奋，准备经历一些你从来未料到的事。但是你除了知道已经驶进塔希提，朦胧中感到走近一块黄金的国土外，它绝不向你泄露别的秘密。与塔希提构成姊妹岛的莫里阿岛进入你的视野，危崖高耸，绚烂壮丽，突然从茫茫的海水里神秘地一跃而出，象魔棍召唤出的一幅虚无飘渺的彩锦。莫里阿巉岩嶙峋，有如蒙特塞拉特岛①被移植到太平洋中。面对这幅景象，你会幻想波利尼西亚的武士正在那里进行奇特的宗教仪式，用以阻止世俗凡人了解某些秘密。当距离逐渐缩小，美丽的峰峦形状愈加真切时，莫里阿岛的美丽便完全呈现出来，但是在你的船只从它旁边驶过时，你会发现它仍然重门深锁，把自己闭合为一堆人们无法接近的阴森可怖的巨石，没有人能闯入它那幽森的奥秘中去。谁也不会感到惊奇：只要船只驶到近处，想在珊瑚礁寻觅一个入口，它就会突然从人们的视线里消失，映入你眼帘的仍是太平洋一片茫茫碧波。①蒙特塞拉特岛是英属西印度群岛中的一个岛屿。塔希提却是另外一番景象，它是一个高耸海面的绿葱葱的岛屿，暗绿色的深褶使你猜到那是一条条寂静的峡谷。这些幽深的沟壑有一种神秘气氛，凄冷的溪流在它深处琤琤鸣溅，你会感到，在这些浓荫郁郁的地方，远自太古以来生活就一直按照古老的习俗绵绵不息地延续到现在。塔希提也存在着某些凄凉、可怖的东西。但这种印象并没有长久留在你的脑中，这只能使你更加敏锐地感到当前生活的欢乐。这就象一群兴高采烈的人在听一个小丑打浑，正在捧腹大笑时，会在小丑的眼睛里看到凄凉的眼神一样；小丑的嘴唇在微笑，他的笑话越来越滑稽，因为在他逗人发笑的时候他更加感到自己无法忍受的孤独。因为塔希提正在微笑，它一边微笑一边对你表现出无限的情谊，它象一个美丽的妇人，既娴雅又浪漫地向你展示她的全部美貌和魅力，特别是在船只刚刚进入帕皮提港口的时候，你简直感到心醉神驰。泊在码头边的双桅帆船每一艘都那么整齐、干净，海湾环抱着的这座小城洁白、文雅，而法国火焰式建筑物在蔚蓝的天空下却红得刺目，象激情的呼喊一般，极力炫示自己鲜艳的色彩。它们是肉感的，简直大胆到不顾廉耻的地步，叫你看了目瞪口呆。当轮船靠近码头时，蜂拥到岸边的人群兴高彩烈而又彬彬有礼。他们一片笑语喧哗，人人挥舞着手臂。从轮船上望去，这是一个棕色面孔的海洋。你会感到炎炎碧空下，色彩在炫目地旋转移动。不论从船上往下卸行李也好，海关检查也好，做任何事都伴随着大声喧闹，而每个人都象在向你微笑。天气非常热。绚烂的颜色耀得你睁不开眼睛。

I have said already that but for the hazard of a journey to Tahiti I should doubtless never have written this book. It is thither that after many wanderings Charles Strickland came, and it is there that he painted the pictures on which his fame most securely rests. I suppose no artist achieves completely the realisation of the dream that obsesses him, and Strickland, harassed incessantly by his struggle with technique, managed, perhaps, less than others to express the vision that he saw with his mind's eye; but in Tahiti the circumstances were favourable to him; he found in his surroundings the accidents necessary for his inspiration to become effective, and his later pictures give at least a suggestion of what he sought. They offer the imagination something new and strange. It is as though in this far country his spirit, that had wandered disembodied, seeking a tenement, at last was able to clothe itself in flesh. To use the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself.It would seem that my visit to this remote island should immediately revive my interest in Strickland, but the work I was engaged in occupied my attention to the exclusion of something that was irrelevant, and it was not till I had been there some days that I even remembered his connection with it. After all, I had not seen him for fifteen years, and it was nine since he died. But I think my arrival at Tahiti would have driven out of my head matters of much more immediate importance to me, and even after a week I found it not easy to order myself soberly. I remember that on my first morning I awoke early, and when I came on to the terrace of the hotel no one was stirring. I wandered round to the kitchen, but it was locked, and on a bench outside it a native boy was sleeping. There seemed no chance of breakfast for some time, so I sauntered down to the water-front. The Chinamen were already busy in their shops. The sky had still the pallor of dawn, and there was a ghostly silence on the lagoon. Ten miles away the island of Murea, like some high fastness of the Holy Grail, guarded its mystery.I did not altogether believe my eyes. The days that had passed since I left Wellington seemed extraordinary and unusual. Wellington is trim and neat and English; it reminds you of a seaport town on the South Coast. And for three days afterwards the sea was stormy. Gray clouds chased one another across the sky. Then the wind dropped, and the sea was calm and blue. The Pacific is more desolate than other seas; its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon it has somehow the feeling of an adventure. The air you breathe is an elixir which prepares you for the unexpected. Nor is it vouchsafed to man in the flesh to know aught that more nearly suggests the approach to the golden realms of fancy than the approach to Tahiti. Murea, the sister isle, comes into view in rocky splendour, rising from the desert sea mysteriously, like the unsubstantial fabric of a magic wand. With its jagged outline it is like a Monseratt of the Pacific, and you may imagine that there Polynesian knights guard with strange rites mysteries unholy for men to know. The beauty of the island is unveiled as diminishing distance shows you in distincter shape its lovely peaks, but it keeps its secret as you sail by, and, darkly inviolable, seems to fold itself together in a stony, inaccessible grimness. It would not surprise you if, as you came near seeking for an opening in the reef, it vanished suddenly from your view, and nothing met your gaze but the blue loneliness of the Pacific.Tahiti is a lofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divine silent valleys; there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur and plash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life from immemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways. Even here is something sad and terrible. But the impression is fleeting, and serves only to give a greater acuteness to the enjoyment of the moment. It is like the sadness which you may see in the jester's eyes when a merry company is laughing at his sallies; his lips smile and his jokes are gayer because in the communion of laughter he finds himself more intolerably alone. For Tahiti is smiling and friendly; it is like a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm and beauty; and nothing can be more conciliatory than the entrance into the harbour at Papeete. The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. They are sensual with an unashamed violence that leaves you breathless. And the crowd that throngs the wharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; it is a noisy, cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. You have an impression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky. Everything is done with a great deal of bustle, the unloading of the baggage, the examination of the customs; and everyone seems to smile at you. It is very hot. The colour dazzles you. 我在前面已经说过，如果不是由于偶然的机缘到了塔希提，我是肯定不会写这本书的。查理斯·思特里克兰德经过多年浪迹最后流落到的地方正是塔希提；也正是在这里他创作出使他永远名垂画史的画幅。我认为哪个艺术家也不可能把昼夜萦绕在他心头的梦境全部付诸实现，思特里克兰德为掌握绘画的技巧，艰苦奋斗、日夜处于痛苦的煎熬里，但同其他画家比较起来，他表现自己幻想中图景的能力可能更差，只有到了塔希提以后，思特里克兰德才找到顺利的环境。在这里，他在自己周围处处可以看到为使自己的灵感开花结果不可或缺的事物，他晚年的图画至少告诉了我们他终生追寻的是什么，让我们的幻想走入一个新鲜的、奇异的境界。仿佛是，思特里克兰德的精神一直脱离了他的躯体到处漫游，到处寻找寄宿，最后，在这个遥远的土地上，终于进入了一个躯壳。用一句陈腐的话说，他在这里可谓“得其所哉”。我一踏上这个偏远的岛屿，就应该立刻恢复对思特里克兰德的兴趣，这似乎是一件很自然的事；但事实是，我手头的工作却占据了我的全部精神，根本无暇顾及与此无关的事；直到在塔希提住了几天以后，我才想到这个地方同思特里克兰德的关系。我毕竟同他分手已经十五年了，他逝世也已有九年之久了。现在回想当时的情况，在我到塔希提之后，不论手头的事多么重要，我本来应该立刻把它抛诸脑后的；但事实却不是这样，甚至一周以后我仍然无法从冗杂的事务中脱身出来。我还记得头一天早上，我醒得很早。当我走到旅馆的露台上时，周围一点动静也没有。我围着厨房转了一圈，厨房的门还上着锁，门外一条长凳上，一个本地人，旅馆的一个侍者，睡得正酣，看来一时我还吃不上早饭。于是我漫步到滨海的街道上。侨居在这里的中国人已经在他们开的店铺里忙碌起来了。天空仍然呈现出黎明时分的苍白，环礁湖上笼罩着死一样的沉寂。十英里之外，莫里阿岛伫立在海面上，象是一座圣杯形状的巍峨要塞，深锁着自己的全部秘密。我不太敢相信自己的眼睛。自从离开威灵顿以后，日子似乎过得非常奇特。威灵顿整齐有序，富于英国风味，使人想到英国南岸的一座滨海城市。这以后我在海上航行了三天，波浪滔天，乌云在空中互相追逐。三天以后风停了，大海变得非常寂静，一片碧蓝。太平洋看来比别的海洋更加荒凉，烟波浩渺，即使在这个水域上作一次最普通的旅行也带有冒险意味。你吸到胸中的空气象是补身的甘香酒，叫你精神振奋，准备经历一些你从来未料到的事。但是你除了知道已经驶进塔希提，朦胧中感到走近一块黄金的国土外，它绝不向你泄露别的秘密。与塔希提构成姊妹岛的莫里阿岛进入你的视野，危崖高耸，绚烂壮丽，突然从茫茫的海水里神秘地一跃而出，象魔棍召唤出的一幅虚无飘渺的彩锦。莫里阿巉岩嶙峋，有如蒙特塞拉特岛①被移植到太平洋中。面对这幅景象，你会幻想波利尼西亚的武士正在那里进行奇特的宗教仪式，用以阻止世俗凡人了解某些秘密。当距离逐渐缩小，美丽的峰峦形状愈加真切时，莫里阿岛的美丽便完全呈现出来，但是在你的船只从它旁边驶过时，你会发现它仍然重门深锁，把自己闭合为一堆人们无法接近的阴森可怖的巨石，没有人能闯入它那幽森的奥秘中去。谁也不会感到惊奇：只要船只驶到近处，想在珊瑚礁寻觅一个入口，它就会突然从人们的视线里消失，映入你眼帘的仍是太平洋一片茫茫碧波。①蒙特塞拉特岛是英属西印度群岛中的一个岛屿。塔希提却是另外一番景象，它是一个高耸海面的绿葱葱的岛屿，暗绿色的深褶使你猜到那是一条条寂静的峡谷。这些幽深的沟壑有一种神秘气氛，凄冷的溪流在它深处琤琤鸣溅，你会感到，在这些浓荫郁郁的地方，远自太古以来生活就一直按照古老的习俗绵绵不息地延续到现在。塔希提也存在着某些凄凉、可怖的东西。但这种印象并没有长久留在你的脑中，这只能使你更加敏锐地感到当前生活的欢乐。这就象一群兴高采烈的人在听一个小丑打浑，正在捧腹大笑时，会在小丑的眼睛里看到凄凉的眼神一样；小丑的嘴唇在微笑，他的笑话越来越滑稽，因为在他逗人发笑的时候他更加感到自己无法忍受的孤独。因为塔希提正在微笑，它一边微笑一边对你表现出无限的情谊，它象一个美丽的妇人，既娴雅又浪漫地向你展示她的全部美貌和魅力，特别是在船只刚刚进入帕皮提港口的时候，你简直感到心醉神驰。泊在码头边的双桅帆船每一艘都那么整齐、干净，海湾环抱着的这座小城洁白、文雅，而法国火焰式建筑物在蔚蓝的天空下却红得刺目，象激情的呼喊一般，极力炫示自己鲜艳的色彩。它们是肉感的，简直大胆到不顾廉耻的地步，叫你看了目瞪口呆。当轮船靠近码头时，蜂拥到岸边的人群兴高彩烈而又彬彬有礼。他们一片笑语喧哗，人人挥舞着手臂。从轮船上望去，这是一个棕色面孔的海洋。你会感到炎炎碧空下，色彩在炫目地旋转移动。不论从船上往下卸行李也好，海关检查也好，做任何事都伴随着大声喧闹，而每个人都象在向你微笑。天气非常热。绚烂的颜色耀得你睁不开眼睛。

Al Teatro Ringhiera di Milano “Chinglish”, testo sino-americano di David Henry Hwang sulla corruzione e la globalizzazione, con Annachiara Marchioro.- Tiziana Ricci sulla mostra “Chinamen” al MUDEC dedicata alla storia della comunità cinese a Milano. -“La ragazza Carla” di Elio Pagliarani torna in scena con Carla Chiarelli allo Spazio Banterle di Milano.- Antonio Serra e Adriano Barone, autore di “Warhol. L'intervista” (ed. BeccoGiallo) per la rubrica di fumetti.

Al Teatro Ringhiera di Milano “Chinglish”, testo sino-americano di David Henry Hwang sulla corruzione e la globalizzazione, con Annachiara Marchioro.- Tiziana Ricci sulla mostra “Chinamen” al MUDEC dedicata alla storia della comunità cinese a Milano. -“La ragazza Carla” di Elio Pagliarani torna in scena con Carla Chiarelli allo Spazio Banterle di Milano.- Antonio Serra e Adriano Barone, autore di “Warhol. L’intervista” (ed. BeccoGiallo) per la rubrica di fumetti.

Al Teatro Ringhiera di Milano “Chinglish”, testo sino-americano di David Henry Hwang sulla corruzione e la globalizzazione, con Annachiara Marchioro.- Tiziana Ricci sulla mostra “Chinamen” al MUDEC dedicata alla storia della comunità cinese a Milano. -“La ragazza Carla” di Elio Pagliarani torna in scena con Carla Chiarelli allo Spazio Banterle di Milano.- Antonio Serra e Adriano Barone, autore di “Warhol. L’intervista” (ed. BeccoGiallo) per la rubrica di fumetti.

Sommario della puntata ....1-Jesse Klaver, una campagna elettorale nel nome dei valori secolari dell'Olanda: ” libertà, tolleranza, empatia “...Ritratto del giovane leader della sinistra ecologista unica alternativa al populista Wilders. ( Roberto Festa ) ....2-Siria, sei anni dopo. Il conflitto raccontato dalle ong in prima linea. Lo speciale di Esteri sull'emergenza sanitaria, i corridoi umanitari e l'impunità dei criminali di guerra. ..( Emanuele Valenti, Riccardo Noury- Amnesty Italia, Alessandro Bechini-Oxfam Italia, Federica Nogarotto- Msf Italia) ..3-I pesticidi non sono nocivi secondo l'agenzia europea per le sostanza chimiche. Lo sdoganamento del Glifosato è in contraddizione con il parere dell'Oms secondo la quale il diserbante è cancerogeno. ( Intervista a Federica Ferrario ..Greenpeace Italia) ..4-Progetti sostenibili: da stazione sciistica a parco naturale. Compie 15 anni la resilienza del monte Dobratsch in Austria...( Fabio Fimiani )..5-Romanzo a Fumetti: Chinamen, un secolo di cinesi a Milano. La Graphic novel di Matteo Demonte e Ciaj Rocchi. ( Maurizio Principato)

Sommario della puntata ....1-Jesse Klaver, una campagna elettorale nel nome dei valori secolari dell'Olanda: ” libertà, tolleranza, empatia “...Ritratto del giovane leader della sinistra ecologista unica alternativa al populista Wilders. ( Roberto Festa ) ....2-Siria, sei anni dopo. Il conflitto raccontato dalle ong in prima linea. Lo speciale di Esteri sull'emergenza sanitaria, i corridoi umanitari e l'impunità dei criminali di guerra. ..( Emanuele Valenti, Riccardo Noury- Amnesty Italia, Alessandro Bechini-Oxfam Italia, Federica Nogarotto- Msf Italia) ..3-I pesticidi non sono nocivi secondo l'agenzia europea per le sostanza chimiche. Lo sdoganamento del Glifosato è in contraddizione con il parere dell'Oms secondo la quale il diserbante è cancerogeno. ( Intervista a Federica Ferrario ..Greenpeace Italia) ..4-Progetti sostenibili: da stazione sciistica a parco naturale. Compie 15 anni la resilienza del monte Dobratsch in Austria...( Fabio Fimiani )..5-Romanzo a Fumetti: Chinamen, un secolo di cinesi a Milano. La Graphic novel di Matteo Demonte e Ciaj Rocchi. ( Maurizio Principato)

Drunken Lullabies EP 40 “Chinamen Lite” FCF NETWORK * iTUNES * FACEBOOK * TWITTER * INSTAGRAM Drunkenlullabiespodcast@yahoo.com   Band/Label/Artist/Beer Twitter Handles: @revolutionbrew, @KneeDeepBrewing, @TriptychBrewing, @PipeworksBrewin, @DESTIHLbrewery, @radkey   Show Notes: The Voice is at Drunken Lullabies Studios with Beermansky, Freckles, and Speakeasy Bryan, as well a special exclusive interview with Instagram Craft Beer model Miss Hoppy Floppy. We drink beer from Revolution, Knee Deep Brewing, Triptych, Pipeworks, and Destihl.  Our Band of the Week is Radkey, and we enjoy two track from them. Topics discussed this episode are Pour Bros Taproom, That's a Good Juan, Tannins & Hops, I-L-L I-N-I, Just the Tip, Hoppy Floppy Interview, Don't Send Dick Pics, Arson Done Wrong, Freckles Likes Wrestling, Christmas Music, Destihl Bombastic, and Sneeze Break.

The boys are back again this week to bring you more stories about Casinos, Hookers, Religion and and two stories go head to head for the crown of Funnest Story Ever on the show.

The 'Can't Bowl Can't Throw' podcast turns ONE today and Brad Hogg joins us to celebrate. Left-arm chinaman bowler, capable lower-order left-handed batsman and an excellent fielder. He is Australia's sixth most successful One Day International bowler and second most successful spinner in terms of wickets taken. He was a member of Australia's victorious 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cup teams and is one of only 15 players to have won the Cup more than once. Many thanks to those of you that sent in questions for him. Cat Jones and I threw the best XI of those questions at him. As expected, Hoggy didn't back down from any of them. Our discussions included topics such as: That tongue - What it is like playing in 2 winning World Cup sides - Why are Chinamen bowlers so rare? - Why Mark Taylor was a better captain than Steve Waugh - His thoughts on chucking - Was he drunk when he did that rap for the 'Scorchers'? Hoggy also had four nominations to choose from for the Muller Award this week. Brad alludes to the fact that it may not have been Warney or Joe the Cameraman who sledged poor Scott Muller out of the game, but someone else. Who was it? A Bonus blooper reel can be heard at the end if you like that kind of thing.

This week 101 Films take their typically amateurish look at Rushmore, a listener recommendation. The boys discuss fifty years of Chinamen, the greatness of Bill ‘Dr Peter Venkman’ Murray, how good Wes Anderson’s later films are and how the Kinks … Continue reading →

A weekly handful of weird, wonderful and wacky happenings dredged up from the kaleidoscopic depths of San Francisco history. THIS WEEK: In 1856, the birth of a great newspaper; and in 1896, a legendary gunfighter referees a boxing match. December 1, 1856: Birthday of the "San Francisco Call" One of San Francisco's Gilded Age newspaper giants begins its life today: the San Francisco Call. San Francisco was lousy with newspapers in the Gold Rush era -- by 1858 there were at least a dozen -- but the Call, with its conservative Republican leanings and working class base, quickly nosed to the front of the pack to become San Francisco's number one morning paper. It would stay there for nearly half a century. By the summer of 1864, the Call already claimed the highest daily circulation in town, and it was this point that the paper famously gave employment to a busted gold miner and trouble-making journalist from Nevada by the name of Samuel Clemens -- er, Mark Twain. The Call had published a few of his pieces from Virginia City, but upon Twain's arrival in the Big City the paper employed him full time as a beat reporter and general purpose man. In just a few months at the Call's old digs at number 617 Commercial Street, Mark Twain cranked out hundreds of articles on local crime, culture, and politics. I don't know that Twain was cut out for newspapering. Years later he spoke of those days as "... fearful, soulless drudgery ... (raking) the town from end to end, gathering such material as we might, wherewith to fill our required columns -- and if there were no fires to report, we started some." Twain's attempts to liven up the work with the occasional wildly fictitious embellishment were frowned upon -- the conservative Call was apparently interested in just the facts, thank you very much. Twain also had a few problems with the Call's editorial policy. In a common sort of incident, notorious only because he'd witnessed it, Twain observed a gang of hoodlums run down and stone a Chinese laundryman -- as a San Francisco city cop just stood by and watched. "I wrote up the incident with considerable warmth and holy indignation. There was fire in it and I believe there was literature." Twain was enraged when the article was spiked, but his editor -- and this can't help but remind you that some things never really change -- his editor made it clear that "the Call ... gathered its livelihood from the poor and must respect their prejudices or perish ... the Call could not afford to publish articles criticizing the hoodlums for stoning Chinamen." A campaign of passive-aggressive resistance to doing any work at all was Twain's response -- perhaps better described as "slacking" -- and he was fired shortly thereafter. read on ...

Warning: episode 99 contians nudity as Martin does the show shirtless. We'll learn more about the chinamen who shot up Va Tech by digging into his videos and we've even put together an audio montage of his maniacal rantings.  We can't understand a thing he says but thats to be expected since he is speaking overdubbed. We'll also get some parenting tips from Alec Baldwin and premeire a new promo from the boys at Sick And Wrong.