 Many observers considered the troops lost on board the "Kow-shing" to have been the best the Chinese had.The German gunboat "Iltis" rescued 150 Chinese, the French gunboat "Le Lion" rescued 43, and the British cruiser HMS "Porpoise" rescued an unknown number.Commissioned by the new pro-Japanese Korean government to forcibly expel Chinese forces, on July 25 Major-General Ōshima Yoshimasa led a mixed brigade numbering about 4,000 on a rapid forced march from Seoul south toward Asan Bay to face Chinese troops garrisoned at Seonghwan Station east of Asan and Kongju.