China by Edward Rutherfurd (historical books to read TXT) 📕

this. “It’s nobody’s fault,” he cried to anyone who’d listen. “Who could have foreseen such a thing?” He even told me: “You should explain this to the Noble Consort Yi.” He must be scared, I thought, if he’s coming to me for help. When I told her, she just nodded, and I told Mr. Liu.

“Good,” he said. “Good.” I could see the thank you forming on his lips, but he thought better of it and just said, “You did right.”

He wasn’t much blamed, as it happened. I think everyone wanted to believe him.

I asked the Noble Consort Yi about the emperor again.

This time she answered: “He is very upset.”

“Not with you, I hope,” I blurted out.

“With everybody,” she said.

—

At first Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, with the main British and French forces, stayed down at the forts they’d captured and sent patrol boats up to the depot at the head of the canal—which was only a dozen miles from the walls of Beijing. Meanwhile, the emperor’s envoys went to Elgin. But instead of receiving them politely, he told them: “Give us everything we want, including compensation, or it’s war.”

At the Summer Palace, ministers were arriving every day with memorials telling the emperor how to destroy the barbarians, but they always came out of the Audience Hall muttering the same thing: “The emperor’s dithering.”

Then, one morning, I arrived as usual to find the Noble Consort in a sunny mood. Except for a single servant, kneeling in a corner, she was alone, sitting at a table inlaid with mother-of-pearl and sipping tea. She was dressed in green silk, I remember, with a flowered hair comb. Her face was serene, and she smiled at me as I bowed.

“You look happy today, my lady,” I said.

“I am, Lacquer Nail,” she replied.

“May your lowly servant inquire the reason?” I asked.

“His Majesty has made a great decision,” she told me. “The orders are going out this very moment. Since the barbarians have no manners and understand nothing but brute force, there will be no more talk. The emperor is ordering our armies to exterminate them.”

“That is wonderful news,” I said.

“I think so, too.” She inclined her head. “I was most pleased when the emperor told me.”

And it was probably you, my lady, who made him do it, I thought to myself.

The decree was sent out to all the provinces. It was excellent. Firm government action at last. It also offered rewards: fifty taels for the head of one of the dark-skinned troops the British had brought from India, and a hundred for the head of a white barbarian. That should bring Lord Elgin to his senses, I supposed.

But it didn’t. The next thing we heard, he was marching up to Beijing himself, saying he’d knock down the walls.

—

I was due to pay a visit to my family just then, and with twenty thousand barbarians approaching Beijing, I was anxious we should discuss what they should do. Permission was granted, as long as I stayed away only one night.

They were pleased to see me. I brought them money. And while my mother and Rose prepared the evening meal, I had a talk with my father. “Maybe you should get out of the city,” I said.

But he shook his head. “We’re safer inside,” he answered.

“Lord Elgin’s threatening to knock the walls down,” I told him.

“He’s bluffing,” said my father. “They’ve left their heavy cannon downriver. They’re only bringing light field pieces up here. You couldn’t make a dent in the walls with those.”

“How do you know they’ve left the big guns behind?”

“Every sailor and barge man on the canal knows it. I’ve been talking to them.”

“Assuming you’re right, what then?”

“Let them come. We’ve ten men to every one of theirs. We’ve got our own cannon, and the walls here are much bigger. They’ll be stuck outside, in the middle of enemy territory. In two months it’ll be winter. If they don’t starve, they’ll freeze.”

“Why have they come then? Are they stupid?”

“They’re gambling that if they race up to Beijing, we’ll panic. If we don’t, they’ll pull back.”

—

Just for once, I thought the old man might be right. At least, I hoped so. The next morning I went back to the Summer Palace, and who should I see but Mr. Liu. He was quite friendly, and I told him what my father had said.

“Your father is a wise man. That is exactly what I think. We should let Elgin and his troops get as close as they like, then trap them. They’ll never get home alive.”

—

As the British and French drew closer and closer to Beijing, couriers were still arriving at the Summer Palace every hour with messages from prefects, magistrates, and governors urging the emperor to stand firm. All this advice seemed to have affected the emperor, because he suddenly announced he was planning to lead the troops himself.

There was a whole division of bannermen, our best men, just below the city, right across the barbarians’ path, and with orders to annihilate them. Some were infantry with muskets. But the main force were the best of the Manchu cavalry. It might be old-fashioned warfare, but these mounted bowmen could loose their arrows so fast you could hardly believe it; and those arrows had a longer range than a musket ball. The barbarian troops had never faced this sort of cavalry on open ground before. They were in for a shock. Meanwhile, their patrols and ours were edging closer to each other every day. There was sure to be some kind of fight soon. We all thought so.

I was with the Noble Consort Yi when one of the court ladies came rushing in. “We’ve captured thirty or forty barbarians—in a skirmish,” she told us excitedly.

“What sort of barbarians?” the Noble Consort demanded.

“At least one of their negotiators. A dozen are being sent here for us to see.”

They arrived at the Summer Palace that afternoon. We all turned out to look at them, of course. It