55 Days At Peking [Extended English Version] - Alderon Tyran

A Classic song where the 8 Nation Alliance (United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary), The Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, as well as Chinese Christians, fought against The Yìhéquán (Boxers) and the Qing Empire. To my knowledge, this is the only instance where all 11 nations (12 if you count the Chinese Christians as another nation), were on the same side of any conflict. This English version features 2 additional verses by yours truly! Lyrics Below!

Lyrics:

[Chorus]
Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom
Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom
Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom
Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom

The year was nineteen hundred 'tis worth remembering
The men who lived through fifty-five days at Peking
T'was called the Boxers Insurrection a bloody oriental war
Against all nations of the diplomatic core
The flags of France and Britain
How they fluttered in the breeze
The Italian and the Russian and the flag of the Japanese
Then came the sound of bugles
And the rolling drums of doom
And the streets of Peking were as empty as a tomb

[Chorus]

The Nations built defences, ragged as they were
As their leaders got together, for the plan there to concur
Austrians joined with Frenchmen,
Ameri’cans with Germans too
Italians fought by Japanese
And The British held on true!
But all of this to not mistake
The fact that there were more
For 11 nations fought along with the Chinese Christian Corps

[Chorus]

The Nations numbered 400 but the horde we couldn’t count
Yet for each of us that went down, the odds we did surmount
But just as were almost lost,
and surrender sounded good
A young boy brought us good news
and we all understood
For only 100 miles
In the city of Tianjin
The Relief army was coming to save our skins.

[Chorus]

For many among the wounded, then joined the fray again
For the glory of our last defence was greater than any pain
But They stormed the French Legation
They attacked with shot and shell
And they came in blood red blouses
Screaming "sha’shau" (杀殺啊) as they fell
The drums have long been muffled
The bugles cease to ring
But through the ages you can hear them echoing