The Last Empress - Anchee Min [128]
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!"
41
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