t 12 or 13 millions perished. It
was vainly hoped that this loss of life, due mainly to defective
commumcations, would induce the Chinese government to listen to
proposals for railway construction. The Russian scare had, however,
taught the Chinese the value of telegraphs, and in 1881 the first line
was laid from Tientsin to Shanghai. Further construction was continued
without intermission from this date. A beginning also was made in naval
affairs. The arsenal at Fuchow was turning out small composite gunboats,
a training ship was bought and put under the command of a British
officer. Several armoured cruisers were ordered from England, and some
progress was made with the fortifications of Port Arthur and
Wei-hai-wei. Forts were also built and guns mounted at Fuchow, Shanghai,
Canton and other vulnerable points. Money for these purposes was
abundantly supplied by the customs duties on foreign trade, and China
had learnt that at need she could borrow from the foreign banks on the
security of this revenue.

In 1881 the senior regent, the empress Tsz'e An, was carried off by a
sudden attack of heart disease, and the empress Tsz'e Hsi remained in
undivided possession of the supreme power during the remainder of the
emperor Kwang-su's minority. Li Hung-Chang, firmly established at
Tientsin, within easy reach of the capital, as viceroy of the home
province of Chih-li and superintendent of northern trade, enjoyed a
larger share of his imperial mistress's favour than was often granted by
the ruling Manchus to officials of Chinese birth, and in all the graver
questions of foreign policy his advice was generally decisive.

Tongking and Hanoi.

While the dispute with Japan was still going on regarding Korea, China
found herself involved in a more serious quarrel in respect of another
tributary state which lay on the southern frontier. By a treaty made
between France and Annam in 1874, the Red river or Songkoi, which rising
in-south-western China, flows through Tongking, was opened to trade,
together with the cities of Haiphong and Hanoi situated on the delta.
The object of the French was to find a trade route to Yun-nan and
Sze-ch'uen from a base of their own, and it was hoped the Red river
would furnish such a route. Tongking at this time, however, was infested
with bands of pirates and cut-throats, many of whom were Chinese rebels
or ex-rebels who had been driven across the frontier by the suppression
of the Yun-nan and T