The Last Empress (37 page)

My speech had the desired effect. Several of the conservatives ended up voting to cancel any immediate action against the legations. Nevertheless, the Boxer movement continued to ferment, and I knew that before long I would run out of options.

Requests for instructions on handling the situation continued to come in from all over the country. Yung Lu and Li Hung-chang devised a strategy. The throne would focus on discouraging the Boxers in southern China, where foreign nations had the most commercial enterprises and where we were vulnerable to intervention. The edict read, "The main goal is to prevent the throne's decree from becoming an excuse for the banding together of disorderly characters."

Once again the edict sounded ambiguous. It didn't condemn outright, but granted a degree of autonomy so that Li Hung-chang and other southern governors could carry on business as usual with foreign countries and suppress the Boxers, when necessary, with their provincial armies.

"The throne would like to remind the citizenry that the nation has been forced to pay compensation for the murders of foreigners. In the case of Shantung alone, on top of the governor's dismissal and the
disbursement of six thousand taels of silver for bereaved families, Germany gained exclusive rights to our northeastern railways and coal mines and the license to build a naval station in Kiaochow. We lost both Kiaochow and Tsingtao; Germany gained them as leased concessions for ninety-nine years."

Guang-hsu did not raise his eyes from the clock he was fixing when I told him that ten thousand Boxers had taken control of the rail lines in the city of Chochou, fifty miles of Peking. "They attacked and burned down stations and bridges along with telegraph lines. The local authorities were repeatedly beaten for 'offering foreign devils the supply line.'"

"What else is new?" Guang-hsu muttered.

"Guang-hsu, the foreign legations have sent letters threatening military action if we don't suppress the Boxers, but if we do, the Boxers will topple the throne." I stopped, furious at Guang-hsu's apathy. For him, the world was enclosed in an old French porcelain mantel clock, clouds and cherubs painted on its surface.

Noticing my emotion, Guang-hsu looked up from the clock.

"For heaven's sake," I yelled, "say something!"

"Forgive me, Mother..."

"Please don't ask my forgiveness. Fight me or fight with me, Guang-hsu. Just do something!"

My son buried his face in his hands.

In early June 1900, the streets of Peking became the Boxers' parade ground. Crowds grew thick where "magic" was performed. The Boxers dashed forward and back, waving swords and spears. The weapons shone ominously in the sun.

East of the capital, near Tientsin, Yung Lu's forces tried to keep the
Boxers from cutting the rail link between the foreign ships off Taku and the legations in the city. Yung Lu thwarted them, but his capture of the Boxers made him extremely unpopular. Prince Ts'eng Junior told his friends that he had put Yung Lu on his death list.

On June 8, Boxers set fire to the grandstand of the Peking racecourse, a popular gathering place for foreigners. Overnight the "China crisis" had caught the world's attention. George Morrison of the London
Times
wrote, "It is now inevitable that we should have to fight."

The next day Prince Ts'eng, with several Boxer leaders in tow, burst into the Summer Palace. Ts'eng's red turban was sweat-soaked and his skin was the color of a yam. I was told that he had been building up his muscles by pounding a sledgehammer under the hot sun. He smelled of liquor and his ferret eyes sparkled.

Before I had a chance to question him about the burning of the racetrack, Prince Ts'eng ordered all my eunuchs into the courtyard. He and a Boxer leader named Master Red Sword proceeded to examine their heads. He wanted to see whether any of them had a cross there. "This cross is not visible to an ordinary eye," he said to Li Lien-ying. "Only a certain few can identify a Christian this way."

Minutes later, Prince Ts'eng came to my chamber with Master Red Sword. Ts'eng told me that Master Red Sword had discovered that two of my eunuchs were Christians. He asked for permission to execute them.

I could not believe this was happening. I sat unmoved as Master Red Sword performed his kowtows. I could tell the man was thrilled and nervous at the same time—an ordinary Chinese peasant could only dream of seeing my face.

"What else have you promised this man?" I said to Prince Ts'eng. "Are you going to make him the minister of the Board of National Defense?"

Not knowing what to say, Prince Ts'eng rubbed his nose and scratched his head.

"Has this master had any schooling?" I asked.

"I know how to read a calendar, Your Majesty," the Boxer volunteered.

"So you must know what year it is."

"Yes, I do." The Boxer was pleased with his own quick tongue. "It is the twenty-fifth year, Your Majesty."

"The twenty-fifth year of what?"

"Of ... of the Guang-hsu era."

"Did you hear him, Prince Ts'eng? What era again, Master Red Sword?"

"The Guang-hsu—"

"Louder!"

"The Guang-hsu! Era! Your Majesty!"

I turned to Prince Ts'eng. "Have I made my point clear to you? Guang-hsu is still the sitting Emperor."

I told the confused Boxer to remove himself.

Prince Ts'eng looked offended. "Your Majesty, you don't have to support the Boxers, but I need money to bring you victory."

"Shut up" almost rolled off of my tongue. I had to inhale a mouthful of air to calm down. "When I was asked to fund the Taku forts, I was told that it would keep away the foreigners for good. And when I was asked to fund a new navy, I was told the same. Tell me, Ts'eng Junior, how your bamboo spears will defeat the foreigners' guns and cannons?"

"Your Majesty, it will be fifty thousand Boxers against a few hundred foreign bureaucrats. I will select a moonless night and flood the legations with my men. We will be so near that their cannons will be useless."

"And how will you deal with the foreign rescue forces that will come by sea?"

"We'll take hostages! Legations provide the perfect base for negotiations. The hostages will be our bargaining chip. I'll just have to make sure my men don't behead their captives." Ts'eng laughed as if he had already won.

Prince Ts'eng insisted that he be given an opportunity to demonstrate his magic and that the Emperor be present. So the following day in my spacious courtyard, before Guang-hsu and me, the Boxers performed. Their martial arts skills were magnificent. They chopped hard stone with their bare hands. In an intense fight of one against ten, Master Red Sword went hand to hand against swordsmen, besting them all. He was then attacked with spears and bullets and scorched by fire, yet he walked away unwounded. His opponents, on the other hand, were all on the ground, stunned and bloodied. Disbelieving my eyes, I tried to figure out his tricks. From beginning to end, Master Red Sword seemed in a drunken trance, which Prince Ts'eng explained was called "spiritual engagement with the god of war."

***

I was impressed, though not convinced. I praised the Boxers for their patriotic passion. A strange feeling came over me when I turned to Guang-hsu and saw his none-of-my-business expression. I thought about Prince Ts'eng:
Terrible as he is, at least he is willing to fight.

I had failed both my sons, and both my sons had failed China. Every time the Western papers accused Ts'eng of being "pure evil" while honoring Guang-hsu as the "wise Emperor," my old scar would tear open. I envisioned how Guang-hsu would be "rescued" by the foreign powers and turned into a puppet king. I began to hear my voice turn soft when speaking to characters like Prince Ts'eng.

The next morning, after Prince Ts'eng left, my eunuch appeared dressed in a Boxer's ragged red uniform. When Li Lien-ying presented me with a uniform of my own—a gift from Prince Ts'eng—I slapped his face.

Around noon Guang-hsu and I heard a strange noise like the sound of distant waves. I couldn't locate its source: it was not squirrels clambering in the trees, not wind blowing through the leaves, not the creek running beneath the rocks. I became alarmed and called for Li Lien-ying, but there was no answer. I looked for him around the grounds. Finally my eunuch returned, out of breath. He pointed behind him with his finger and mouthed the word "Boxers."

Before I could figure out what was going on, Prince Ts'eng was in front of me.

"How dare you surround my palace with your bloody bunch of killers!" I said.

He performed a sloppy kowtow. "Everyone wants to personally hear your edict." Ts'eng acted as if the Emperor were not in the room. "Who says I am going to issue an edict?"

"It must be done without delay, Your Majesty." Prince Ts'eng's hands went to tighten his belt. "The Boxers won't leave until they hear your edict."

I noticed that Li Lien-ying was now pointing toward the ceiling. When I looked up, I didn't see anything unusual. I looked back down and saw a ladder being carried past my window. A few moments later came the sound of footsteps on my roof.

"The Boxers are getting ready to fire on the legations, Your Majesty," announced Prince Ts'eng.

"Go and stop them," I ordered.

"But ... Your Majesty!"

"Emperor Guang-hsu would like to order Prince Ts'eng Junior to remove the Boxers immediately." I turned to Guang-hsu, who was staring off into space.

Guang-hsu turned and said, "Prince Ts'eng Junior is ordered to remove the Boxers immediately."

Ts'eng's eyebrows twisted into a ginger root and his breath was thick. He went to grab Guang-hsu's shoulders and hissed, "The attack will take place at dawn, and that
is
your edict!"

The mighty Manchu had fallen so low that no one dared to defend the throne, and the throne was afraid to ask.

Prince Ts'eng Junior was not shy about speaking his mind. He believed that his young son should become the next Emperor. I could see him appointing the boy himself. What couldn't a man do when he had tens of thousands of Boxers and Moslem troops at his disposal? Ts'eng entirely dropped his pretense of being loyal to me, for he now controlled the palaces' security guards and the Board of Punishment.

Whispering had been going on behind my curtains. Eunuchs made secret trips outside the Forbidden City. They had been gathering information on how to escape. The ladies in waiting and the servants were preparing for the worst: they kept red Boxer clothes under their beds.

Prince Ts'eng had demanded that I order Yung Lu to remove his troops so that he could "move forward without worrying about being shot in the back."

I warned Ts'eng that an attack on the foreign legations would mean the end of the dynasty, to which he replied, "We will die if we fight and we will die if we don't. The foreign powers won't stop until the melon of China is sliced and eaten!"

I had ordered a telegram sent to Li Hung-chang, but during its transmission, the lines were cut. From then on, Peking was isolated from the outside world.

"I am sorry, Mother," Guang-hsu said when I told him that we
had lost control of Prince Ts'eng's Boxers and General Tung's Moslem troops.

Guang-hsu and I sat side by side in the empty audience hall. It was a bright morning in early summer. We stared at the teacups in front of us. I lost track of how many times the eunuchs had come to refill our cups with hot water. I had no idea what to expect of the situation. I only knew that it was getting worse. I felt like a convict in the lonely moments before her execution.

By ten o'clock Prince Ts'eng's message came. The Boxers had moved forward with their knives, bamboo spears, antique swords and muskets. The "outer ring," General Tung's twelve thousand "Moslem Braves," had entered the capital. They encountered an allied relief force and had been trying to take the "middle ring" position.

According to Yung Lu, the "inner ring" comprised Prince Ts'eng's "Manchu Tigers," a former Bannerman troop with tiger skins thrown over their shoulders and tigers' heads mounted on their shields.

"Prince Ts'eng's strategy is another Ironhat fantasy," Yung Lu said. His army had been keeping an eye on General Tung's Moslem troops. Yung Lu's best Chinese commander, General Nieh, was sent to scatter the Boxers.

On June 11, Prince Ts'eng announced his first victory: the capture and killing of a Japanese embassy chancellor, Akira Sugiyama.

I received the news in the afternoon. Sugiyama had been on China's most-wanted list. He was responsible for Kang Yu-wei's and Liang Chi-chao's escape to Japan. Sugiyama had left his legation in Peking to greet the Allies' relief force at the railway station. Before he arrived he was set upon by General Tung's Moslem soldiers, who dragged him from his cart and hacked him to pieces.

The murder escalated the crisis. Although in the throne's name I issued an official apology to Japan and Sugiyama's family, the foreign newspapers believed that I had ordered the murder.

The London
Times
correspondent George Morrison confirmed that the murderer "was the favorite bodyguard of the Dowager Empress." A few days later, the
Times
published a follow-up article by Morrison that contained this fanciful fabrication: "While the crisis was impending, the Dowager Empress was giving a series of theatrical entertainments in the Summer Palace."

With the help of Li Lien-ying I climbed to the top of the Hill of Prosperity. While looking down over a sea of rooftops, I heard gunshots
from the direction of the foreign legations. The legations occupied an area between the wall of the Forbidden City and the wall of inner Peking, a neighborhood of small houses and streets, canals and gardens. I was told that the foreigners in the legations had been building barricades. The exposed outer perimeter and all gates, crossroads and bridges were sandbagged.

Meanwhile, Yung Lu withdrew his divisions from the coast and attempted to insert them between the Boxers and the legations. He let the Boxers know that he wasn't against them, but he issued an order that anyone who violated the legations would be summarily executed.