At the beginning of January, 1841, Elliot found himself, after six weeks of negotiations, no nearer a settlement than he had been before. He determined, therefore, to bring matters to a crisis and sent to Kishen an ultimatum (January 6, 1841) to the effect that, unless some definite basis for an agreement was proposed by Kishen by 8 a.m. on the following day, the Bogue forts would be taken possession of forthwith. No answer having been received next morning, the action, thenceforth to be known as the Second Battle of Chuenpi, commenced, at 9.30 a.m. on January 7, 1841, when the fleet attacked the two Bogue forts, Chuenpi (also called Shakok) on the East and Taikok on the AVest of the Bogue, whilst the troops (1,461 men all told) were landed in the rear of the forts and took them by assault. Within an hour and a half, eighteen Chinese war-junks were destroyed, some 500 Chinese soldiers were killed, some 300 more wounded, while the loss on the English side was 38 men wounded (mostly by explosions in blowing up Chinese powder magazines), and none killed. At 11 o'clock the action was over and the British flag fluttered lustily in the breeze over the smouldering ruins of the Bogue forts.
The Chinese historian gives the following account of the Second Battle of Chuenpi. 'Whilst the guns of the English fleet bombarded the two forts in front, a force of about 2,000 Chinese traitors scaled the hills and attacked them in the rear. A hundred or more of these were blown up by exploded mines, but the rest, far out-numbering the garrison of 600 men, came swarming up notwithstanding. Two or three hundred more were killed by our gingalls, but at last our powder was exhausted, and the steam-boats got round the forts and burned our fleet. The other three forts, farther up the river, commanded by Admiral Kwan, Rear-Admiral Li and Captain Ma respectively, had only a few hundred men in them, who could do nothing but regard each other with weeping eyes. Admiral Kwan sent Li to Canton to apply for more troops, but Kishen was obdurate and simply spent the night in writing out further peace proposals which he sent by Pao Pang to Elliot. Hongkong
