CHAPTER XX
THE BOMBARDMENT OF TIEN-TSIN
The first half of the month of July was a busy time for all the allied forces operating in and around the foreign section of Tien-Tsin.
In round figures the Allies did not number on July 10 more than sixteen thousand effective men. How many Boxers and Chinese government troops there were to oppose them will probably never be known, but they certainly footed up to forty or fifty thousand.
The enemy were located in the walled native city, where they had over fifteen thousand troops and four heavy guns; across the Pei-Ho, where they had several field-pieces, with more coming up every day; and on the great plain to the west of Tien-Tsin, where it was feared that an army was forming so vast that the Allies would be swept out of existence by the mere force of numbers.
The bombardment of the foreigners continued al-
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