The Last Empress - Anchee Min [90]
"Japan provided opportunities for him to make money. Am I not right that Li Hung-chang is the wealthiest man in China?"
"I will not kick the family dog," I said quietly. "I'd rather fight the bully neighbor. Li didn't want to take part in the negotiations in the first place. He was sent," I reminded Guang-hsu, "by you and me. The Japanese rejected the representative you had sent before him. Li was the only man whose credentials the Japanese considered adequate."
"Exactly!" Guang-hsu said. "They picked him because he was a friend. Japan knew Li would cut them a good deal."
"For heaven's sake, Guang-hsu, the bullet just missed Li's eye! If it hadn't been for his near assassination, Japan would have pushed for its original demands, and we would have lost all of Manchuria plus three hundred million taels!"
"It is not I alone who accuses Li." Guang-hsu showed me a document. "The court censor has been investigating. Listen." He read, "'Li Hung-chang was heavily invested in Japanese businesses, and he did not wish to lose his dividends through protracted war. He seems to have been afraid that the large sums of money from his numerous speculations, which he had deposited in Japan, might be lost; hence his objections to the war.'"
"If you can't tell that attacking Li Hung-chang is itself an action against the throne, there is no way that I can or should work with you." I was upset.
"Mother." Guang-hsu got down on his knees. "I only share with you what I know. You rely on Li so much. What if he is not who you think he is?"
"If only we had a choice, Guang-hsu." I sighed. "We need him. If Li hadn't played on international jealousies, Japan would not have withdrawn from the Liaotung Peninsula."
"But Japan charged us another thirty million taels in compensation and indemnities," Guang-hsu said bitterly.
"We were the defeated nation, my son. It was not all up to Li Hung-chang."
Guang-hsu sat quietly biting his lips.
I begged him not to take Li for granted. "Only we can balance Li Hung-chang's graft against what he is able to bring us."
When I asked how the reception with the foreign delegation went, Guang-hsu replied flatly, "Not well." He sat down and stretched his neck. "I am sure the foreigners were equally disappointed. They spent so much time and energy trying to secure the audience, only to find out how dull I was."
I remembered my husband Hsien Feng's comments when foreigners requested an audience with him. He felt that he would only be giving them an opportunity to spit in his face.
"I couldn't stand the sight of them," Guang-hsu said. "I tried to tell myself, I am meeting with individuals, not the countries that bullied me."
"You received all the delegates?" I asked.
Guang-hsu nodded. "Russia, France, England and Germany acted like dogs. They tried to make me commit to borrowing more money. What could I do? I told them China couldn't afford it anymore. I told them that all my revenues go to pay the Japanese indemnity."
The foreign bankers were savage dealmakers, I remembered Li Hung-chang once told me. "What happened in the end?"
"In the end? I borrowed from all of them, pledging my customs revenue and transit and salt taxes as security."
The pain in his voice was unbearable. I felt helpless and tremendously sad.
"I am unprepared for what's coming." My son sighed again. "The Russians continue to transport troops and supplies by our railway across Manchuria to the sea."
"We granted them the right only in times of war, not in times of peace." I could hear the weariness in my own voice.
Guang-hsu shook his head. "The Russians are determined to keep their Trans-Siberian running in times of peace as well, Mother."
Stepping out on the terrace for fresh air, I held my son's shoulders. "Let's hope Li's scheme of using one barbarian to control another will work."
Guang-hsu was not sure. "Japan is approaching Peking," he said, "and we have lost our sea defense completely."
I stood in the wind and tried to get through the moment.