The Last Empress - Anchee Min [103]
"I invited him because Russia and Japan won't talk peace with anybody else!"
"Mother, don't you find it suspicious?"
"What?"
"Li's foreign connections?"
When I learned that my son had again dismissed Li Hung-chang, I refused to speak to him for days. Guang-hsu had his eunuchs bring me an offering of lotus-seed soup, but he was not apologizing.
I held on to Li's telegrams until Guang-hsu couldn't bear to hear the name of Li Hung-chang anymore. My son insisted that China would be better off without him.
Instead of acknowledging Li Hung-chang's devotion, my son believed that every negative development was the result of Li's manipulation.
I began to realize that Guang-hsu lived in his own fantasy world. Like his mentor Tutor Weng, whom he had just fired, he hated yet worshiped Japan. In the future I would blame myself for believing that my son was capable of good judgment.
Guang-hsu despised me for continuing to seek help from Li Hung-chang, and I despised myself for being incapable of ending the trouble.
In responding to the throne's "Ito is no threat to China" edict, Li wrote in a memorandum: "In the world's eyes, Ito gives the impression that he is a supporter of Chinese culture. He might be a moderate, he might have opposed Japan's true political bosses like the militarist Yamagata Aritomo and other godfathers of the Genyosha, but he nevertheless conducted the Sino-Japanese War. China has fallen into a deep well because of its self-indulgence and ignorance, while Japan has proven capable of throwing heavy rocks."
I wished that I could tell my son how much I hated Ito. I wanted to yell, "Go and talk to the Emperor of Japan man to man instead of blaming Li Hung-chang!"
I had reasons not to respond to foreign and domestic attacks on me. It was to make sure that my son would not be held responsible for his possible failure. I betrayed Li Hung-chang in that sense—by purposely ignoring his warnings, I made Li a scapegoat. On my part, it was a self-betrayal before anything else.
I wondered if Li regretted his devotion.
Forgiveness was a gift I could not afford but which I fortunately received from Li Hung-chang.
There was no other way to love my son.
Guang-hsu wanted to prove to me that he and Ito could be friends. I did not know that they had scheduled to meet privately before the official meeting on September 20, to which I was invited.
It was impossible for me to concentrate on anything else. My son's words rang danger in my ears. "Mother, Ito only seeks to help me!"
I fought on the issue of trust, but my son's mind was made up.
I did not want to bring up Yung Lu's spy report, but I felt that I couldn't afford not to. "Japan's intrigues have been set in motion by Yamagata," I said to Guang-hsu. "Yamagata is the leading promoter of Japanese expansion and lord protector of the Genyosha."
"You have no proof that Ito is part of the Genyosha." My son was more than annoyed. "Yung Lu has fabricated this information to prevent me from meeting Ito!"
"But shouldn't we trust Yung Lu and Li Hung-chang more than Ito?" I pleaded.
"The only thing I can say is that Yung Lu has made himself an obstacle to reform. I should have dismissed him."
I went to sit down, weakened by what I was hearing.
"I am firing Yung Lu, Mother," Guang-hsu said in a flat voice.
I screamed, "For heaven's sake, Yung Lu is the last Manchu general who would die for you!"
My son stormed out.
Two days later I sent an apology to Guang-hsu along with Li Hung-chang's newly arrived telegram. It read, "The spy network set up by Genyosha agents has been operating under cover of a pharmaceutical syndicate with the trade name 'Halls of Pleasurable Delights.' To maintain their secrecy, the spies travel the countryside as salesmen. There is no evidence suggesting that the Japanese army, navy, diplomats and the representatives of Japan's trading houses, the zaibatsu, weren't behind Genyosha's assassinations, kidnappings and extortions."
32
The Emperor's secret meetings with Ito provoked a