My Splendid Concubine (91 page)

“
And Gordon was furious,” Robert said, “and believes his personal reputation was damaged. He thinks Li deliberately broke the agreement with King Nah. I am sure Gordon also believes that his word is worthless now, and this will affect his ability to defeat the Taipings.”

Kung stared at him.
“You understand?”

“
Yes. I’m also sure that Gordon is refusing to cooperate with any Chinese generals.”

“
He said he cannot trust them to honor his promises,” the prince replied, “and, the Longhaired Bandits are taking advantage of this situation. Our spies tell us they are gathering their forces to counterattack.

“
Robert, we are counting on you to meet with Li and Gordon before it is too late. We must have these armies fighting together again. The imperial council and the Empress Dowagers feel you are the only man who can mend this rift.”

This
trust was his burden. Although he had never met Gordon, he admired the man’s strengths. On the other hand, if Robert accepted this challenge and failed, the fate of an empire and millions more lives were at risk. “When will I leave?” he said.

He was already planning what he was going
to say to the two generals and didn’t want to consider that he might be making a horrible mistake—that he might fail.

Chapter 57

Before Robert and his bodyguards departed for Tientsin, where a steamship waited to take them to Shanghai, a shipment of books arrived from Ireland. He took two to read. One was
La Capitaine Fracasse
written by the French author Theophile Gautier. The second was also French by Victor Hugo,
Les Miserables
.

It should have been warmer since it was the beginning of spring, but it
was bitterly cold. He hated traveling in such weather and had trouble sleeping, so he filled his time by reading.

Gautier
’s book was a fairy tale where everyone lived happily ever after, but
Les Miserables
shocked him. The main character Jean Valjean, much like him, became a force for good. Jean saved one woman from a life of prostitution as Robert had saved Ayaou from a similar fate. Jean also raised this woman’s daughter as his own. In the end, Jean Valjean died but the adopted daughter went on to a happy life with her lover.

As he finished
Les Miserables
, he wondered if he were going to die like Jean Valjean. After all, he was on the way to a battle. If he died, Ayaou’s life and the life of his children would become a tragedy.

The solution wasn
’t one he liked to dwell on. He realized that to protect Ayaou and their children, he would have to marry her no matter how she felt. He could no longer ignore it. Of course, he expected that his parents and friends would not accept Ayaou since she was Chinese and was not a Christian. However, that wasn’t important. The children came first.

He didn
’t want them called bastards behind their backs and sometimes to their faces. Unwyn Fiske’s father had sent his illigitimate son to China, because he didn’t want anything to do with him. That mistake had resulted in great suffering.

When he finished reading the last book
, he decided to write a letter.

“
Ayaou,” he said, “when I accepted this task from Prince Kung, I was surprised that they still trusted me after my failure selecting Horatio Lay to purchase a modern navy. I should have listened to you when you told me not to be so hard on myself.”

H
e stopped writing and stared out the window remembering the first time he had sailed along this stretch of the Yangtze, which was soon after he’d arrived in China. There had been miles of beautiful scenery. The architecture of the farmhouses had caught his interest and the crops had turned the earth into a patchwork quilt of green shades. He had seen women washing their clothes and dishes in the river. Dogs and chickens had roamed free while children playing flutes rode on the backs of water buffaloes.

Staring at the destruction and desolation as the ship a
pproached Soochow, he remembered something Ayaou had said years ago. “Above there is heaven, below there is Soochow.” His vision blurred, and a phantom image of a laughing Shao-mei appeared on the glass. He could see her dimples then an image of Ayaou appeared beside her.

A thick wool blanket of despair that he hadn
’t felt for weeks and maybe months smothered him as if dark clouds had obscured the sun. He dipped the pen in the black pool of ink and continued writing.

“
It breaks my heart to tell you this, but Soochow is no longer heaven. The destruction I see on both sides of the Yangtze is unbearable. I see headless bodies rotting on both shores. I see no living men, women or animals in sight. The once lovely farms are either burnt or abandoned.

“
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the scars of war, but the destruction here is so total that it has struck me mute, and I wish that I were blind. I cannot describe to you how utterly melancholy this has made me. After witnessing such desolation, I am determined more than ever to mend the rift between Li and Gordon. Only when peace and order are restored to China, will these lands thrive again.”

Late that afternoon, he arrived in Soochow.

“
I am so glad to see you, my friend,” Li Hung-chang said, after Robert was ushered into the general’s headquarters. Li at six-foot-four towered over his five-foot-eight inches. Li took one of Robert’s hands in both of his and shook it for what seemed forever. It wasn’t a cold handshake but one expressing warmth.

Li was dressed in a casual Chinese knee-length gown. His hea
dquarters, the mansion of a local man of wealth, had spacious gardens. “Come this way. Tea is ready and you may join me for breakfast. How are your concubine and two children? The girl’s name is Anna, am I right? I have daughters, and they are a joy to behold. I was told your son’s name is Herbert. After the misfortune with the Longhaired Bandits, I hope your family came out of that trial in good health and high spirits.”

“
Thank you for asking,” Robert replied. “They are happy to be back in Peking. How’s your family?”

“
Too far away,” Li replied. “I haven’t seen them for months. All of this fighting against the Longhaired Bandits keeps me from home. Let’s drink to the end of this war so we can go home and build a strong China that will withstand the ravages of time.”

In Li, Robert
felt he had a friend that understood how precious his feelings were for Ayaou—something Prince Kung and the other royals didn’t understand. Li had been General ‘Head Chopper’ Tseng-kuo-fan’s apprentice, and was a capable and ruthless Han Chinese. The rulers of China were Manchu, but it was becoming clear to Robert that the future of China belonged to the Han.

After three cups of hot tea and idle conversation, he was ready to work. Before he could start, Li stopped him with an upheld hand.
“I know why you are here,” he said. “I am glad that Prince Kung sent you.”

“
Why do you think that?”

“
Because Gordon and I are both fans of yours,” Li replied. “I also have no problem speaking to you frankly. In my career as a military man, I have had thousands of rebels beheaded. I do not know why Gordon is so upset. I had no intention of harming his reputation.”

“
I understand that perfectly,” Robert said. “That is why there is no reason for what took place between you and Gordon. Explain to me why you beheaded King Nah and his generals.”

“
They were dressed in the imperial yellow, a color that only the emperor wears,” Li replied. “And they didn’t want to give up their ownership of the city.”

“
The solution should be simple. I have an idea that may heal your relationship with Gordon, but first you must be willing to go on a journey with me.”

“
If you will be the bridge, I will cross it,” Li said. “I trust that you will preserve my reputation and interests while achieving this.”

“
You have my word. Issue a statement explaining your reasons for the beheadings. In this way, Gordon will see that the beheadings were ordered for something that happened after he gave his word.”

“
It will be done immediately.”

“
When you write this statement, make sure it is clear that Gordon had nothing to do with the executions. That you are the only one responsible and make sure there is no confusion that the reason for the beheadings was King Nah disobeyed the imperial dress code and that he was greedy for more land than he was entitled to.

“
Also send Gordon silver taels, enough to cover a month’s worth of expenses for his army, another twenty thousand taels for his wounded and a report to the emperor crediting Gordon as the main force in attacking Soochow. After that, I will see what I can do to reimburse you for the taels you give to Gordon.”

Once immersed in solving the crises, Ayaou and the children b
ecame shadows that only visited in the early morning hours. Thoughts of marriage slipped away. He stayed with Li until Gordon had accepted all the gifts then traveled to Gordon’s fortress in the Kunshan Heights.

Chapter 58

Robert arrived at Gordon’s fortress early in April 1864. On his way from the Yangtze to the Kunshan Heights, he rode through a water-world of lakes, streams and canals. Farms covered the land and lush vegetation and forests blanketed the slopes of the nearby hills.

After leaving the farmlands, his guards approached the fortress on a dirt track that crisscrossed hills blanketed with a thick forest. Then they emerged on a steep hillside stripped of vegetation. The road crossed in front of a moonscap
e of earthworks holding cannons and a death trap bristling with sharp wooden spikes.

To his great deligh
t, Gordon arranged a military spectacle with his troops to welcome Robert. A tent with the sides rolled up sat near a bluff that plunged hundreds of feet to the shores of a lake. They stood under the canvas in shade and watched the troops march by as they moved in perfectly aligned formations.

He had never met Gordon before, who had gray eyes that had a distant look to them as if he had seen things most men never saw. He wore riding boots and a frock coat. He smoked one cigar after another and carried a small cane. Several young boys attended them, pouring tea, and offering sliced fruit.

Robert stared at the boys and doubted that any were ten years old yet.

“
They are orphans,” Gordon said. “The Taipings slaughtered their mothers and fathers. I saved these children from death at the hands of the Taipings and adopted them.” He snapped the little cane he carried against his baggy pants for emphasis. Robert had heard the troops calling that cane Gordon’s magic wand for victory. He often went into battle with no weapons and carried only the cane.

“
I hope you don’t expect to have wine with supper,” Gordon said. “There is no liquor in this camp, and I sent the opium smokers packing the first week I commanded this rabble.”

“
That was a wise move,” Robert replied, remembering how Ward’s army had been drunk when the Taipings attacked from the besieged city of Sungkiang. He almost died that day, but Ayaou saved him. “I heard that the Americans, French and the British didn’t want you to have this command. They wanted Ward’s second, Burgevine, to take it. I was against that from the start.”

“
You will be pleased to hear that Burgevine is dead. Drowned, thanks to Li. He said you advised the Dynasty not to place Burgevine in charge of
The Ever Victorious Army
.” Gordon snorted as he laughed. “Did you know that the Taipings called these men the Almost Always Beaten Army? They are still sadly wanting, but both men and officers, although ragged and perhaps slightly disreputable, are in capital order and well-disposed as you shall see.”

“
Putting Burgevine in charge would have been a disaster,” Robert said. “Ward earned the sobriquet, the Devil Solider, but he was dangerously intelligent. Some of those battles he lost were because of a spy in the Taiping’s pay that he trusted, and Burgevine was not intelligent enough to command an army. Both men were corrupt and worked with Boss Takee and Wu Hsu in Shanghai and were involved in the opium trade, gambling and prostitution.”

Gordon nodded while he puffed vigorously on his cigar.
“After I was given command of this rabble, I discovered that Burgevine was planning treachery against me. It was a good thing that he and the others were swept away by Li during the Shanghai campaign.” Gordon snapped his magic victory wand against his pants again.

He puffed on his cigar, pulled it from his mouth, and said,
“We should have met months ago. I understand you were with Major General Brown in October. The affair with the
Firefly
was unfortunate.”

“
Did you discover what happened to those missing ship’s engineers
?
”

“
No. They vanished.”