to seek reparation for the murder of a missionary in Kwang-si)
took part in the campaign, and on the 1st of August 1860 the allies
landed without meeting with any opposition at Pei-tang, a village 12
m. north of Taku. A few days later the forts at that place were taken,
and thence the allies marched to Peking. Finding further resistance to
be hopeless, the Chinese opened negotiations, and as a guarantee of
their good faith surrendered the An-ting gate of the capital to the
allies. On the 24th of October 1860 the treaty of 1858 was ratified by
Prince Kung and Lord Elgin, and a convention was signed under the
terms of which the Chinese agreed to pay a war indemnity of 8,000,000
taels. The right of Europeans to travel in the interior was granted
and freedom guaranteed to the preaching of Christianity. The customs
tariff then agreed upon legalized the import of opium, though the
treaty of 1858, like that of 1842, was silent on the subject.

Great Britain and France were not the only powers of Europe with whom
Hien-feng was called to deal. On the northern border of the empire
Russia began to exercise pressure. Russia had begun to colonize the
lower Amur region, and was pressing towards the Pacific. This was a
remote region, only part of the Chinese empire since the Manchu
conquest, and by treaties of 1858 and 1860 China ceded to Russia all
its territory north of the Amur and between the Ussuri and the Pacific
(see AMUR, province). The Russians in their newly acquired land
founded the port of Vladivostok (q.v.).

T'ung-chi emperor; dowager empress regent.

Hien-feng died in the summer of the year 1861, leaving the throne to
his son T'ung-chi (1861-1875), a child of five years old, whose
mother, Tsz'e Hsi (1834-1908), had been raised from the place of
favourite concubine to that of Imperial Consort. The legitimate
empress, Tsz'e An, was childless, and the two dowagers became joint
regents. The conclusion of peace with the allies was the signal for a
renewal of the campaign against the T'ai-p'ings, and, benefiting by
the friendly feelings of the British authorities engendered by the
return of amicable relations, the Chinese government succeeded in
enlisting Major Charles George Gordon (q.v.) of the Royal Engineers in
their service. In a suprisingly short space of time this officer
formed the troops, which had formerly been under the command of an
Amer