Книга только для ознакомления
. "Yuan," says Arthur
H. Smith, was "a man of a wholly different stripe" from the one
removed, and "if left to himself he would speedily have
exterminated the whole Boxer brood, but being hampered by
'confidential instructions' from the palace, he could do little
but issue poetical proclamations, and revile his subordinates for
failure to do their duty."
When Yuan was made Governor of Shantung a number of the Boxer
leaders called upon him expecting to find in him a sympathizer
worthy of his predecessor. They told him of their great powers
and possibilities, and of how they were proof against the spears,
swords and bullets of their enemies. Yuan listened to them with
patience and interest, and invited them to dine with him and
other official friends in the near future.
During the dinner the Governor directed the conversation towards
the Boxer leaders and their prowess, and led them once more to
relate to all his friends their powers of resistance. He fed them
well, and after the dinner was over he suggested that they give
an exhibition of their wonderful powers to the friends whom he
had invited. This they could not well refuse to do after the
braggadocio way in which they had talked, and so the Governor
lined them up, called forth a number of his best marksmen, and
proceeded with the exhibition, and it is unnecessary to add that
if the Empress Dowager had invited Yuan to the meeting with the
princes when they discussed the advisability of joining the
Boxers on account of a belief in their supernatural powers, she
might have been spared the humiliation of 1900
|