The Japanese had in their employ Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin), a famous Honghuzi leader who led his men against the Russians. One Russian position was swarmed by around 500 Honghuzi. Russian casualties reached 20 wounded and dead before the Honghuzi were driven away. The Chinese Imperial troops let the Honghuzi roam freely, since many of them used to be comrades, as described by Dr. Seaman: "They can not be caught, the plain truth being that the best of fellowship exists between them and the imperial troops, their old comrades of yore." Seaman also mentioned the reason for the Honghuzi hatred towards the Russians: The Chinaman, be he Hung-hutze or peasant, in his relation to the Russians in this conflict with Japan has not forgotten the terrible treatment accorded him since the Muscovite occupation of Manchuria. He still remembers the massacre at Blagovestchensk when nearly 8,000 unarmed men, women, and children were driven at the point of the bayonet into the raging Amur, until—as one of the Russian officers who participated in that brutal murder told me at Chin-Wang-Tao in 1900— 'the execution of my orders made me almost sick, for it seemed as though I could have walked across the river on the bodies of the floating dead.' Not a Chinaman escaped, except forty who were employed by a leading foreign merchant who ransomed their lives at a thousand rubles each. These, and many even worse, atrocities are remembered and now is their moment for revenge. So it was easy for Japan to enlist the sympathy of these men, especially when emphasized by liberal pay, as is now the case. It is believed that more than 10,000 of these bandits, divided into companies of from 200 to 300 each and led by Japanese officers, are now in the pay of Japan. Zhang Zuolin (Chung Tsor Lin) commanded a large army of Honghuzi, who were allied to the Japanese during the war. Louis Livingston Seaman wrote an account of his meeting with Zhang and his army:  While we were in Newchwang reports of raids by the bandit Hung-hutzes (commonly spelled Chun-chuzes in American newspapers), literally the "Red Beards," of Manchuria, although not one of them has a red beard, or any other kind of a beard, became so frequent that my companion, Captain Boyd, and myself determined to try to visit them.