My Splendid Concubine (89 page)

The wind came from the river rustling the trees and snapping the plain yellow banners. The soldiers opened a path between th
e columns allowing Robert’s dazed men to lead their horses through the Manchu ranks to the rear of the
niru’s
formation.

Anwar had dissolved the British square and had followed Robert.

Still sitting in the dirt, Robert turned and saw that the Taipings had halted at the curve in the road less than a hundred yards away and were milling about. The devil of an Englishman walked back and forth haranguing them, and the rebels started forming a battle line. The Manchu then moved forward to form their battle line between Robert and the Taipings.

We
are out of the demon’s reach, Robert thought, and he started to laugh, then Ayaou was there holding him. He buried his face in Anna’s hair and took a deep breath. She smelled of childish sweat and the sun and the sky.

Compared to the Manchu, the Taipings were a band of undisciplined bandits and only a third had muskets. Although the bannermen had been defeated by modern foreign armies in the last two Opium Wars, Robert knew that the Taipings were no match for these seasoned warriors. Besides swords and lances, they had muskets and those weapons were out and ready. He was sure that every man in this
niru
was a crack shot and could hit a target at a hundred yards at a full gallop.

A ragged crackle of musket fire came from the Taipings. A few of the Manchu were hit. Some fell from their saddles. The imperial battle line did not waver.

Robert pulled Ayaou and Anna to the ground covering them with his body. He heard a Manchu officer bark orders. The bannermen lifted their rifles, aimed and fired. The sound was like a solid clap of thunder. They started to reload.

Another ragged volley came from the Taipings. A few more Manchu were hit.
Since the bannermen blocked his view, Robert couldn’t see how many casualties the rebels were taking.

The Manchu commanding officer, whose rank Robert saw from the markings on the uniform, came and helped him up. Ayaou stood and Anna slipped between them holding her mother and father
’s hands.

“
I am here to deliver Prince Kung’s message,” the Manchu officer said. “He hoped the rescue would not be too late. General Li Hung-chang was ready when we arrived, and he directed my
niru
to take this road. The armies are looking for you along this side of the Yangtze. I am honored to be the one who found you.”

“
I am grateful,” Robert said. His voice sounded hollow, as if it didn’t belong to him. He pulled Ayaou closer, and she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. He lifted Anna from the ground, and she clung to him.

“
Prince Kung ordered General Jung Lu to send the banners to find you and make sure you returned to Peking safely.”

“
How many banners did he send?” Robert asked, having a difficult time believing he was standing in the middle of China while a battle was brewing talking to this man in Mandarin as if they were old friends. In fact, he knew this officer. “You were with me in Hankow when we confronted Governor General Kuan-wen.”

“
That is true. I have the privilege of serving you again.” The officer dropped to one knee and lowered his head.

“
No, don’t do that,” Robert said, and reached for the officer to get him to stand. “I won’t allow anyone to kneel to me. After all, your men saved my family and my friends.”

A strange look appeared on the officer
’s face as if he were seeing one of heaven’s creatures. “I was told,” he said in a hushed voice, “that if I didn’t bring ‘Our Hart’ back alive, my head might be removed. Inspector General, many thanks for holding on.” He signaled his men to get ready.

The Manchu army was divided into eight banners. Half were in Peking. The
niru
was the smallest unit. Five
niru
made up one
jalan
and five
jalan
made up one
gusa
or banner. So, under ideal conditions one full banner, like the plain yellow, had about seven-thousand-five-hundred fighting men.

“
Before you go into battle, I have one request,” Robert said.

“
Your words are my command,” the officer replied.

“
There is an Englishman in Western clothing with those Taipings. Do all that you can to capture him. It is important that I question him.”

The commander of the
niru
effortessly swung into his saddle. Taking Anna and Ayaou, Robert walked closer to the fight and climbed into a tree so he could see better. Ayaou stayed on the ground and stood behind the tree while peering around it.

The bannermen w
ere dressed in padded war robes and the horses draped with padded battle armor. They charged in a line sending up a boiling cloud of dust. More than a thousand hooves pounded the earth. The
neru
fired another volley. Robert saw hundreds of Taipings fall. Some lay still while others writhed and screamed. It looked like half the rebels were already down.

The bannermen slipped the muskets into the leather holders attached to their saddles and lowered their lances.
Every movement was precision and done at blinding speed.

The Taipings fired a ragged volley and several bannermen
tumbled from their horses. Then the Manchu warriors slammed into the Taipings like a tsunami hitting a beach.

After the lances had impaled hundreds more, out came the swords. Robert watched as the last of the day
’s sunlight reflected from the blades as they fell and came up bloody while the yellow banners fluttered and snapped in the breeze. He heard the ring of metal as swords clashed and the dull thuds of horses’ hooves pounding flesh.

Robert handed Anna to Ayaou then
climbed down. She leaned against him. Guan-jiah arrived to watch the battle with a fierce look on his face. His lips were moving but Robert couldn’t hear what the eunuch was saying.

“
What is it, Guan-jiah?” he asked.

“
I should be out there killing Longhaired Bandits for what they did to the mistress and the children.”

Robert
suppressed the urge to laugh, because too much killing was going on. This should be a serious moment. No place for levity. He had to show the right attitude as an example for his family and men. He would never have guessed that his gentle servant could be so dangerous looking—this philosopher eunich that lived to be an adopted uncle for his children.

The Taipings, like true zealots, fought to the last man without giving an inch. Near the end, a few formed a circle while the bannermen swirled around them like a tornado slashing with swords. After the battle, the
niru
suffered two dozen casualties and lost a score of men.

One bannerman came riding back, swung off his horse and bowed to Robert.
“Inspector General,” he said, while staring at the ground, “the commander sent me. We have captured the foreign devil as you requested. What do you want to do with him?”

“
Take me to him.” He had to do something about all this bowing and scraping. After all, he wasn’t the emperor. He wasn’t even a prince. He handed Anna to Guan-jiah. The soldier guided him through the carnage of the battlefield where soldiers were busy cutting off rebel heads.

One wounded Taiping struggled to stand. A bannerman walk up behind him, grabbed his hair, jerked his head back and slashed the cutting edge of his sword across the man
’s throat severing the head. A fountain of blood gushed from the neck stump as the bannerman pushed the body away from him. It hit the dirt with a dull thud. The bannerman tossed the head, and it bounced when it hit the ground.

In the middle of the battlefield a knot of bannermen surrounded the Englishman, who was on his knees. The man
’s arms were tied behind him and a bannerman was holding his hair forcing him to look at Robert as he approached.

The man
’s white face was smeared with a mixture of dust and blood. He had a fresh cut on his cheek that was bleeding. “You look familiar,” Robert said in Mandarin. “Do I know you?”

The man struggled and when he couldn
’t break free, he spat at Robert but even that fell short. “You bastard,” he said. “You ruined my life.”

“
How so?” Robert asked. “I honestly don’t know you and do not know what you are talking about.”

“
Captain Patridge dismissed me back in fifty-five after you told him you wouldn’t work with me. I had to become an opium smuggler and a common thief to survive.”

Robert knew where he
’d seen this man before, but he couldn’t remember his name. “We were in the same boat during that fight against the Taipings when Patridge recovered the opium. You were angry with me after that meeting in the captain’s cabin—before the fight. Patridge said you were the illegitimate son of an earl. I don’t recall your name.”

“
You should,” he said.

“
Why?”

“
I was behind the death of your concubine. I am the one who told Ward where that cottage near Ningpo was and goaded him so he would go after you. I wanted him to kill you, but he only killed that pregnant bitch.” He struggled to break free. The two bannermen holding him strained to keep him pinned in place.

He should hav
e been angry. Robert should have killed the man then, but he had a feeling this man was responsible for more than Shao-mei’s death. He wanted to know everything. “And you were the one that tried to have me abducted and forced to serve in a Britsh man-of-war headed for the Americas.”

“
That was Hollister. He didn’t have the stomach to have you killed. He just wanted to ruin your life as you did to us. Later, I hired a man to go after you, but that fool failed. You killed him. After that, none of my people could get close.”

“
I heard Hollister was smuggling opium,” Robert said.

“
He was until he lost two of our three ships to whores and gambling. I killed the fool and tossed his corpse into the Pacific and let the fish have him.”

Robert
wasn’t surprised.

The man
twisted his face into a mask of hate. “Hollister was riddled with syphilis and his brain was rotting. He deserved what he got.”

Then Robert remembered.
“You are Unwyn Fiske.”

Fiske cackled.
“So, you haven’t forgotten, after all.”

“
I haven’t thought about you for years,” Robert said. “Why should I? That battle was one day in my life—a few hours.”

Fiske peeled his lips from his teeth and leered.
“I have hated you from the moment you opened your mouth and wanted to save those boat people.”

“
How odd,” Robert said. “You didn’t speak Chinese then.”

“
There was nothing in Britian for me. After all, I was dismissed from Jardine and Matheson because of you. My father didn’t want me in England reminding him that he had a bastard. China offered opportunities, so I stayed and learned the language. Men were making fortunes. That stopped after they put you in charge of Chinese Maritime Customs. You ruined it.” He struggled to break free again.

“
You were the Englishman behind the thefts from the Forbidden City.”

Fiske
’s eyes widened. “How did you discover that?”

Robert looked at the Manchu commander. Since Fiske and Robert had been speaking Mandarin, the officer understood every word. Fiske had caused the emperor
’s upper banners to lose face, because they couldn’t stop the thefts. One bannerman had lost his legs and arms and been stuffed in a cage to hang from the barrack’s ceiling as a reminder of the banner’s embarrassment.

“
Guess who helped the Dynasty catch your partners in crime,” Robert said.

“
You?” What little color was left in Fiske’s face drained away.

“
Yes. After that failed, like everything else you have done with your life, you went to the Taipings and offered your services to them. Then you talked them into coming after me. When they couldn’t get near me, you persuaded them to take my family.”

“
Don’t give yourself credit for everything,” Fiske said. “I was being paid by the Taipings before you arrived in China. I was going to be rich and powerful. I was going to show my father.”

Robert kept his face composed as if that news had not surprised him. If what Fiske said was true, he was the reason for Jardine and Matheson
’s lost opium shipments. He was the man Patridge had been looking for. “Now, I understand. You were feeding information to the Taipings about Ward’s movements that led to his early defeats?”

“
You ruined that too,” Fiske said. “I could have become wealthy off Ward’s stupidity. I heard rumors that Li Hung-chang was behind Ward’s death. You and General Li have become close. I assumed you helped Li get rid of Ward to avenge the death of your bitch.”