Although the sky is gradually brightening and a new day is coming, there is a hellish despair in the Tianjin Concession at this time.

It turned out that after Colonel Bauer led the army to leave the concession, the mood of the residents in the concession was a little calmer, but the sound of guns and cannons continued to reach the concession, and no one could sleep, so they could only wait for the outcome of the war with fear. There are also many people wandering at the intersection of the concession, as if they can get more news here.

And at about half past five in the morning, Colonel Bauer retreated to the concession with his troops, less than half of the number they had left, and they were all depressed and in low spirits, and many were wounded.

The news of Colonel Bauer's defeat soon spread throughout the concession, which immediately triggered panic in the concession, and at this time the gunfire outside also stopped, but the people in the concession were even more panicked, and many people guessed that at this time, Tianjin City had been broken by the enemy, and Tianjin City was breached, so the next target was naturally the concession.

In response to the old Chinese saying, blessing is incomparable, and disaster is not a single line, and at this moment, a Japanese army also came to the concession, that is, the Japanese army that was defeated at Dagukou. It turned out that after being defeated by the crossing army, Fukushima Yasumasa led a Japanese army to withdraw from Gegu, and collected some Japanese soldiers along the way, and cobbled together three or four hundred people before returning to Tianjin.

But when they were about to arrive in Tianjin, they heard dense gunfire, and the Japanese army did not dare to advance further, and Fukushima Yasumasa sent people to inquire only to know that Tianjin City had been lost, and the battle just now was to block the reinforcements of the concession.

After learning the news of the loss of Tianjin, Fukushima Yasumasa was so shocked that he was speechless for a long time, only then did he realize that he had greatly underestimated the strength of this group of overseas Chinese, they not only had a strong fleet, but the strength of the army should not be underestimated, and they were able to attack themselves at the same time, but also sent an army to attack the city of Tianjin, such a strength, I am afraid that even the main force of the Eight-Nation Coalition in Beijing may not be able to win, if this group of overseas Chinese cooperated with the Qing State, then the Eight-Nation Coalition Army may be buried on Chinese soil. Therefore, it is imperative to immediately inform Beijing to immediately halt the march on Tientsin, at least until the German fleet arrives, and the two sides will have a chance of winning together. So Fukushima Yasumasa immediately ordered to march to the concession, because in the concession it was possible to send a telegram to Beijing and report the current situation to Beijing.

However, after Fukushima Yasumasa led the Japanese army to the concession, he dealt a heavy blow to the residents in the concession, because after Bauer was defeated and returned to the concession, some people thought that the Japanese army stationed in Tianjin was attacking Dagukou, which was not far from the concession, so they could ask the Japanese army for help, or they could keep the concession, but now this last straw is gone.

The consuls of various countries were also frightened, and at the moment, the British Consul General in Tianjin, Jin Zhang (formerly known as Lionel 61 Charles 61 Hopkins), the French Consul General in Tianjin, Chayland, the German Consul in Tianjin, Dr. A. Zimmer-mann, and the Japanese Consul in Tianjin, Ijiin Hikoyoshi, led the four people, to gather consuls and representatives of various countries, as well as Bauer, Yasumasa Fukushima held a meeting at the building of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau of the British Concession in Tianjin to discuss countermeasures.

The Tianjin Concession began after the Second Opium War. On October 24, 1860, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Beijing and the Treaty of Tianjin with Britain and France, opening Tianjin as a treaty port and allowing merchants from the two countries to live and trade in Tianjin.

On December 4, 1860, the British Minister to China, Bruce, sent a note to Prince Gong Yixun, requesting that the British Concession be carved out of Tianjin. On December 17, the Qing government granted the request of the British Minister Bruce to establish a British concession, and the British concession in Tianjin was opened. The boundary sites are as follows: east to the right bank of the Haihe River (west bank), south to Bomuli Road (now Zhangde Road), west to Hai Avenue (now Dagu Road), and north to Baoshitu Road (now Yingkou Road). In March 1897, the British expanded the concession from Haihai Avenue to Qiangzihe (now Nanjing Road), covering a total area of 2,880 acres.

At the same time, the British Concession in Tianjin also modeled the British system in Tianjin, designed the political system of the British Concession in Tianjin, and established the Board of Directors of the British Concession in Tianjin in 1862, and the executive body under the Board of Directors was the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of the British Concession in Tianjin, which managed the administrative affairs of the Concession. In 1890, Gordon Hall was built as the office building of the Ministry of Industry of the British Concession in Tianjin.

Among the concessions of various countries at that time, the British Concession in Tianjin had developed trade and prosperous economy, and its administrative system and municipal administration were also more advanced than those of other concessions. Because the British Concession in Tianjin was established earlier, the British had strong national strength and the ability to invest in the construction of the concession, and the British colonial experience was rich, so by this time the development of the British Concession in Tianjin had been very considerable, and dozens of traffic arteries had been built in the concession, and a large number of new wharves had been built along the river, and various port facilities had been placed. Western-style high-rise buildings and running water began in 1898.

At this time, the industrial, financial, commercial and trade industries in the British Concession in Tianjin were very developed, not only attracting a large number of factories, companies, commercial banks, and banks to settle in, but also a considerable number of Chinese national capitalists set up factories and shops in the British Concession in Tianjin, and even Prussia, Denmark, Portugal and other countries also set up their consulates in Tianjin in the British Concession.

On June 2 of the same year, Chonghou, the Minister of Commerce of the Qing Dynasty, and the French Counsellor Gosage, signed the "Terms of French Lease of Tianjin Zizhulin". The boundary site is: adjacent to the British Concession along Baotutu Road (now Yingkou Road) in the south, Coastal Avenue in the west, and the Haihe River in the east and north, with an area of 439 acres.

However, due to the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War and the weakness of its national strength, the establishment of the French Concession in Tianjin has not improved for nearly 20 years. It was not until the 1880s that municipal construction began, but it lagged far behind the construction of the British Concession in Tianjin.

Subsequently, in order to show non-discrimination against the United States, the Qing government also intended for the United States to establish a concession in Tianjin, which was bounded by the right bank of the Haihe River (west bank) in the east, Kailuan Hutong (now Kaifeng Road) in the south, Hai Avenue (now Dagu Road) in the west, and Bomuli Road (now Zhangde Road) in the north adjacent to the British Concession. It covers an area of more than 131 acres. However, the U.S. Minister to China at that time, Anson Po, strongly opposed the concession system, because the U.S. national strength was limited at that time, and there were only a handful of American businessmen who came to China, and it coincided with the Civil War in China, and there was no time to develop the concession, and the concession was not administratively managed, and in 1880 and 1896, the United States proposed to the Qing government twice to return the American concession in Tianjin, but the Qing government did not accept it, and finally it was managed by the Tianjin Customs.

Of course, the United States did not return the Tianjin Concession because it was concerned with international morality, but because it felt that the concession was too small and of little value for development, and the US Government's policy in China was "open to the outside world and interests equally," that is, the interests of all the great powers in China had to be shared with other countries, so it did not matter if there was a concession or not.

In 1895, the German Minister to China, Shen Ke, sent a note to the Qing Premier Yamen, asking the Qing government to enjoy the same treatment as Britain, France and the United States in order to establish the concession in Tianjin, on the grounds that Germany had made a contribution to forcing Japan to return to Liao in the Sino-Japanese War. On October 30, Sheng Xuanhuai of Tianjin Customs, Li Minchen of Tianjin Province and German Consul Sgon signed the Tianjin Treaty Port Concession Agreement, allowing Germany to set up a concession in Tianjin. The boundary site is: east of Haihe, north of the original American concession, west of Dagu Road east, south of Xiaoliuzhuang, area of 1034 acres. However, the German Concession was established relatively late, and large-scale construction has not yet begun.

The establishment of the Japanese Concession in Tianjin was also after the First Sino-Japanese War, and on July 21, 1896, the Qing Dynasty and Japan signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Shipping. On August 29, 1898, in accordance with the provisions of the Sino-Japanese Treaty on Trade and Shipping, the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese government signed the Agreement on the Japanese Concession of Tianjin and its Subsidiary Protocol, demarcating the Japanese Concession at the site of the French Concession in the south and the old Tianjin City in the northwest. But no development was carried out. Only a consulate was set up in a building diagonally opposite the Li Shunde Hotel at the intersection of Tai'an Road and Jiefang North Road.

By this time, Tianjin's five concessions of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and Japan totaled 5,382 mu, with more than 3,000 foreign residents living for a long time, and about 4,000 Chinese settled in the concessions. After the Boxer Rebellion spread to Tianjin, a large number of foreigners and Chinese fled into the concession to escape, and after the Eight-Nation Alliance landed in the concession, they also stationed in the concession for a period of time, and established military camps and warehouses in the concession, and now the total number of people in the concession is about 12,000.

The consuls were negotiating urgently, but the residents in the concession were extremely panicked, and all kinds of rumors spread in the concession, some said that the Boxers had come back again, and the Boxers who came this time were all Boxers with real miraculous skills, and they were really invulnerable. I heard that there were hundreds of Japanese troops surrounding dozens of Boxers at the mouth of Dagu, and they were shooting and firing artillery, but as a result, people had nothing to do, and when the Japanese army was almost defeated, these dozens of Boxers opened their hands and were a few thunderbolts, and all the Japanese troops were chopped to death at once, and this time they not only recaptured Tianjin, but also had to bloody the concessions; it is also said that the governors and ministers of the southern Qing court all led their troops north to King Qin, and the army numbered hundreds of thousands, and they had recovered Beijing, and the eight-nation coalition army had completely failed, and the Chinese not only had to kill all foreigners, but also to recover all the concessions and force foreign countries to pay compensation。

Most of these rumors circulated among the Chinese in the concession, and among foreigners, there were also rumors that the consuls of various countries were negotiating at this time to prepare to flee the concession with their troops, regardless of the other people in the concession; others said that after studying it, the consuls decided that in order to prevent women and children from falling into the hands of the Chinese, when the concession was lost, the officers of various countries would kill their own women and children, and even said that each officer had received a list of women and children who were responsible for shooting at the last moment.

At this time, some people regretted why they did not leave China and remained in this dangerous place after the Eight-Nation Coalition occupied Tianjin and lifted the danger of the concession; some people were cleaning up their property and preparing to flee the concession; while the wharf in the concession was already crowded with people looking for a boat to leave; because it was dark at this time, and the steamer had not set sail, some people took out a lot of money and demanded that the ship leave immediately; of course, at this time, many people crowded in the church, praying to the Lord, hoping that God would bless them and turn the tide again, just like last time。

Almost the entire concession was plunged into a state of extreme despair.

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