Here a force of 25,000 men was landed
successfully, and attacked the fort in the rear, quickly
capturing its landward defenses. The stronghold was thereupon
abandoned by its garrison and occupied by the Japanese. The
Chinese fleet lay in the harbor, and surrendered to the Japanese
after several ships had been sunk by torpedo boats.
China was now in a perilous position. Its fleet was lost, its
coast strongholds of Port Arthur and Wei Hai Wei were held by the
enemy, and its capital was threatened from the latter place and
by the army north of the Great Wall. A continuation of the war
promised to bring about the complete conquest of the Chinese
empire, and Li Hung Chang, who had been degraded from his
official rank in consequence of the disasters to the army, was
now restored to all his honors and sent to Japan to sue for
peace. In the treaty obtained China was compelled to acknowledge
the independence of Korea, to cede to Japan the island of Formosa
and the Pescadores group, and that part of Manchuria occupied by
the Japanese army, including Port Arthur, also to pay an
indemnity of 300,000,000 taels and open seven new treaty ports.
This treaty was not fully carried out. The Russian, British, and
French ministers forced Japan, under threat of war, to give up
her claim to the Liao-tung peninsula and Port Arthur, which
stronghold was soon after obtained, under long lease, by the
Russians.
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