One must not expect, however, simply because Li would not talk peace that he was strong enough to enforce peace. He was not. As soon as Li's letter went {96} back to Yuan there was activity in the Imperial camp, soldiers were to be seen moving away towards Hanyang, batteries were shifted, trenching went on apace, a pontoon bridge was started by the Imperialists across the Han and knocked to pieces by the Hanyang Revolutionary guns, and it seemed as if a battle was immediately imminent. And then it commenced again. One cannot describe the conditions. The war was brought to our very doors. Fellows had bullets whizzing in their bedrooms, shells dropped all over the Foreign Concessions. It was never safe to be out on the Bund or in the roads of the settlement. Revolutionists were dying in thousands. All hospitals were full. The country was in utter devastation. Up to an early hour on November 10th fighting still raged more or less fiercely. It was generally stated that the Revolutionists gave the enemy a thoroughly bad time, and had taken up an advanced position. The bombardment of Wuchang was hourly expected. Immediately behind the British Concession, not more than a hundred yards from the road dividing British from Chinese territory, three big guns of the Imperialists had their noses cocked most threateningly towards the capital city, and every one settled down to wait. A peculiar turn of events now was the organisation of night attacks. Invariably one's dinner hour was ushered in by the booming of cannon from either side of the river. But during these days the Imperialists again began indubitably to show their superiority as a fighting force. The great drawback of the Republican Army was that it was largely made up of nondescripts, as ignorant of warfare as is possible to imagine, whilst in the Northern Army there were none but highly trained men in whom were instilled strongly the absorbing lessons of the army. They knew nothing else. They did nothing else. They were fighting machines, and they fought on the same principle as machines in good order work. In making this {97} statement I am perfectly aware that there are certain great weaknesses in the Chinese military organisation that have yet to be removed. But with the Northern Army, that army which was founded by Yuan Shih K'ai himself--and he was looked upon as the greatest military reformer of the time--it had the minimum of these defects. The fact that the army of each province is for all practical purposes a separate body tells against efficiency. And it follows that the army that Yuan created, and which was now mainly engaged in fighting the Revolutionary enemy, was not so much a branch of the Chinese Army, but Yuan's Army, moulded as he wanted it. His soldiers, first of all, had been taught loyalty. What other soldiers in the world would have stood the test of loyalty as did those northern soldiers during