<P> The Manchu General Ronglu concluded that it was futile to fight all of the powers simultaneously, and declined to press home the siege . The Manchu Zaiyi (Prince Duan), an anti-foreign friend of Dong Fuxiang, wanted artillery for Dong's troops to destroy the legations . Ronglu blocked the transfer of artillery to Zaiyi and Dong, preventing them from attacking . Ronglu forced Dong Fuxiang and his troops to pull back from completing the siege and destroying the legations, thereby saving the foreigners and making diplomatic concessions . Ronglu and Prince Qing sent food to the legations, and used their Manchu Bannermen to attack the Muslim Gansu Braves ("Kansu Braves" in the spelling of the time) of Dong Fuxiang and the Boxers who were besieging the foreigners . They issued edicts ordering the foreigners to be protected, but the Gansu warriors ignored it, and fought against Bannermen who tried to force them away from the legations . The Boxers also took commands from Dong Fuxiang . Ronglu also deliberately hid an Imperial Decree from General Nie Shicheng . The Decree ordered him to stop fighting the Boxers because of the foreign invasion, and also because the population was suffering . Due to Ronglu's actions, General Nie continued to fight the Boxers and killed many of them even as the foreign troops were making their way into China . Ronglu also ordered Nie to protect foreigners and save the railway from the Boxers . Because parts of the Railway were saved under Ronglu's orders, the foreign invasion army was able to transport itself into China quickly . General Nie committed thousands of troops against the Boxers instead of against the foreigners . Nie was already outnumbered by the Allies by 4,000 men . General Nie was blamed for attacking the Boxers, as Ronglu let Nie take all the blame . At the Battle of Tianjin (Tientsin), General Nie decided to sacrifice his life by walking into the range of Allied guns . </P> <P> Xu Jingcheng, who had served as the Qing Envoy to many of the same states under siege in the Legation Quarter, argued that "the evasion of extraterritorial rights and the killing of foreign diplomats are unprecedented in China and abroad ." Xu and five other officials urged Empress Dowager Cixi to order the repression of Boxers, the execution of their leaders, and a diplomatic settlement with foreign armies . The Empress Dowager, outraged, sentenced Xu and the five others to death for "willfully and absurdly petitioning the Imperial Court" and "building subversive thought ." They were executed on July 28, 1900 and their severed heads placed on display at Caishikou Execution Grounds in Beijing . </P> <P> Reflecting this vacillation, some Chinese soldiers were quite liberally firing at foreigners under siege from its very onset . Cixi did not personally order imperial troops to conduct a siege, and on the contrary had ordered them to protect the foreigners in the legations . Prince Duan led the Boxers to loot his enemies within the imperial court and the foreigners, although imperial authorities expelled Boxers after they were let into the city and went on a looting rampage against both the foreign and the Qing imperial forces . Older Boxers were sent outside Beijing to halt the approaching foreign armies, while younger men were absorbed into the Muslim Gansu army . </P> <P> With conflicting allegiances and priorities motivating the various forces inside Beijing, the situation in the city became increasingly confused . The foreign legations continued to be surrounded by both Qing imperial and Gansu forces . While Dong Fuxiang's Gansu army, now swollen by the addition of the Boxers, wished to press the siege, Ronglu's imperial forces seem to have largely attempted to follow Empress Dowager Cixi's decree and protect the legations . However, to satisfy the conservatives in the imperial court, Ronglu's men also fired on the legations and let off firecrackers to give the impression that they, too, were attacking the foreigners . Inside the legations and out of communication with the outside world, the foreigners simply fired on any targets that presented themselves, including messengers from the imperial court, civilians and besiegers of all persuasions . Dong Fuxiang was denied artillery held by Ronglu which stopped him from leveling the legations, and when he complained to Empress Dowager Cixi on June 23, she dismissively said that "Your tail, is becoming too heavy to wag ." The Alliance discovered large amounts of unused Chinese Krupp artillery and shells after the siege was lifted . </P>

What was a common goal of the eight nation alliance