The Last Empress - Anchee Min [127]
"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,