Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/75

 standing, Japan undertook the work of reform single-handed.

The Chinese Representative in Söul threw the whole weight of his influence into the scale against the success of these reforms. Still nothing immediately occurred to drive the two empires into open warfare. The finally determining cause of rupture was in itself a belligerent operation.

China's troops, as already stated, had been sent originally for the purpose of quelling the Tonghak rebellion. But the rebellion having died of inanition before the landing of the troops, their services were not required or employed. Nevertheless they were not withdrawn. China kept them in the peninsula, her declared reason for doing so being the presence of a Japanese military force. Thus, throughout the subsequent negotiations, the Chinese forces lay in an entrenched camp at Ya-shan while the Japanese occupied Söul. The trend of events did not impart any character of direct mutual hostility to these little armies. But when it became evident that all hope of friendly co-operation between the two empires must be abandoned, and when Japan, single-handed, had embarked upon her scheme of regenerating Korea, not only did the continued presence of a Chinese military force in the peninsula assume special significance, but any attempt on China's part to send reinforcements could be construed in one sense only, namely, as an un-