Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang Read Free Book Online Page A

is done’. Sedan-chairs were the prestigious means of transport. The alternative for the envoys was to take the singularly uncomfortable mule-cart on potholed country roads, which was highly humiliating. Bruce refused to oblige the emperor and instead launched an assault on the Dagu Forts. To his great surprise he was repelled: the Chinese had been strengthening the forts for a year. The emperor’s confidence was enormously boosted, and he immediately gave orders to back out of the agreements.
    But the allies returned a year later, in 1860, with a much larger force, headed by Lord Elgin as the British ambassador-extraordinary and Baron Gros as the French ambassador. The two men first reached Hong Kong, then Shanghai, before pushing north by sea. They had between them 20,000 land forces, including a Cantonese coolie transport corps. This allied force seized the Dagu Forts, with heavy casualties on both sides.Lieutenant Colonel G. J. Wolseley commented: ‘England has never before opened a campaign with such a well-organised or a more efficient force.’ In contrast, most Chinese troops were ‘ill-clad, and wretchedly mounted and equipped, some having nothing but bows, others spears, and the rest, rusty-looking, old matchlocks’. Chinese war resolve was equally wanting to the European eye. ‘Had the Chinese adopted the plan of campaign which Wellington did in defence of Portugal in 1809, or of the Russians in 1812 in defence of Moscow, we could not have reached Pekin [Beijing] in 1860. They had only to lay waste the country, burn the standing crops, drive away all cattle and destroy the boats upon the Peiho, to have completely checkmated us . . .’ Wolseley also noted that when he landed, ‘people were most obliging, and seemingly gave every information in their power’. He observed that ‘they seemed to hate all the Tartar troops [the defending army was Mongolian], whom they described as “a horrible race, speaking an unknown tongue, feeding chiefly upon uncooked mutton”; and . . . “stinking more than you (the English) do” . . .’ The Lieutenant Colonel added good-humouredly: ‘highly complimentary to our national feelings, particularly as John Bull is prone to think himself the cleanest of mankind . . .’
    It is true, indeed, that the war was the business of the throne and not that of the average man. The emperor was infinitely remote from the common people. Even the average official was not particularly concerned. This was not surprising, as the regime’s policy was to discourage political participation from even its educated class, the literati. So the allies marched to Beijing with little hindrance. They were now not merely seeking ratification of the agreements signed two years earlier, but had added new demands, including opening up Tianjin as an additional trading port and the payment of war indemnities. Emperor Xianfeng, beside himself with fury, resorted to undignified sarcasms and abuses when counselled to accept the allies’ demands so that they would leave. To induce his army to fight, he offereda bounty: ‘50 taels of silver for each black barbarian head’ – meaning the Indians in the British force – and ‘100 taels for each white barbarian head . . .’
    Lord Elgin wanted negotiation and sent his forward representative, Harry Parkes, to a town near Beijing under a flag of truce. Parkes and his escorts were seized and thrown into the prison of the Ministry of Punishments. The emperor personally ordered ‘harsh incarceration’. So the captives were bound and cuffed in the most painful possible manner, the kao-niu , which was likely to prove fatal. In Chinese warfare, to harm the enemy’s messengers was the ultimate way of sending the message: we will fight you to the death. The Mongolian army commander, knowing that he could not win in a showdown, urgently pleaded for the captives to be treated more gently and provided with comfortable accommodation and good food.He was