"It would appear that on Sunday, November 26th, began the evacuation. On Saturday, the Mei Tzu Shan battery had been silenced. On Sunday evening the Imperials effected a crossing between the Heh Shan and Tortoise Hill. Retreat followed from the San-yen Ch'iao hills, and so Heh Shan was forced to silence. Hanyang was captured on Monday, November 27th, the last place to be evacuated being the Tortoise Hill. "After the fall of Hanyang, the Imperials retained their strong river batteries, but moved up their 'Coffin Hill' guns to a position on the railway a quarter of a mile on the other side of Sin Shen Road. They threw two bridges across the Han, one about half a mile below the Waterworks, one at the Wu Shen Miao. They also fortified the base of Hanyang Hill, planting their guns, as in the case of the Griffith John College battery and 'Coffin Hill,' under cover of foreign buildings. This time it was the American Baptist Mission Hospital that was exposed. "Evacuation commenced, however, without any more serious fighting. The guns on the railway were removed. Incidentally two shrapnel guns and a quantity of ammunition were taken to the old position near the Griffith John College on New Year's Day, where they remained three days; but this was probably merely to prevent a possible crossing of the Revolutionists into forbidden territory. This ended the fighting in the vicinity of Hankow." {125} CHAPTER XI THE FALL OF HANYANG Three days before the naval escapade described in the last chapter started the great struggle made by the "Imps" for the recapture of Hanyang. Yuan Shih K'ai, impatient at the dauntless manner in which the enemy were standing their ground--and even gaining upon the Imperial Army--made an offer of 3,000,000 taels (some £375,000) for the recapture of Hanyang. The Revolutionary Army was now fighting as never before. The important news that Shantung had gone over to the Revolutionists was received on the 16th in a laconic message, stating briefly that the entire province was now flying the white flag. This news was all the more important inasmuch as about ten days before the Government granted all the demands of the Shantung people, with the exception of the evacuation of Peking by the Manchus. This, it was thought, would be a sufficient sop to Cerberus, but it seemed not so, and the Shantungites had apparently decided to go the whole hog in the same manner as their local compatriots.