The Blue Dress Girl

by E. V. Thompson

  When he hesitated, Sally said, ‘I know you won’t have very long with her and these few hours will be very precious for both of you. I promise I won’t intrude for more than just a few minutes, but please let me meet her.’

  ‘All right. She’s asked about you more than once – and I’ll keep you to that promise of visiting her while I’m away.’

  When Kernow entered the house in the company of Sally, She-she was utterly devastated. As he made his explanations and introductions with painful awkwardness, she was even more dismayed. He had come to tell her he was going away, yet had arrived in the company of this Fan Qui woman. It was more than her mind could take in for a moment and she was very close to tears.

  Sally saw her expression and recognised it for what it was. In a moment of spontaneous affection she reached out and hugged She-she.

  ‘I’m so glad to meet you after all this time. I nursed Kernow after he was wounded at the battle for the Pei-ho forts. He was calling your name even before he regained consciousness. Now I can see why. You’re a lucky man, Captain Keats. She’s lovely.’

  Smiling at She-she, Sally said, ‘Kernow and I have become like sister and brother over recent months. You mustn’t worry while he’s away. I’ll come to visit you, and I guarantee he’ll be back safely before long. He has to be. I want him – and you – to be guests when I marry Caleb Shumaker.’

  ‘You … have a man?’

  She-she’s relief was so patent that Sally’s heart went out to her. ‘Yes, She-she, I have a man and he’s here in China. But I promised Kernow I wouldn’t take up any of the precious time you two have left to each other today. May I come and see you while he’s away? Please?’

  ‘I would like that very much.’

  ‘Good, and if you’re ever in trouble, any trouble at all, you must come and find me at the American consulate. Do you promise?’

  She-she nodded. She was happy to have added to her small group of friends in Shanghai – but none of them could make up for the loss of Kernow.

  As Sally left the house She-she turned to Kernow and held out her arms to him. As they clung to each other she tried to clear her mind of the fear that was growing there.

  Kernow was going away to war. She might never see him again.

  Chapter 24

  LORD ELGIN WAS a very busy man. He spent most of the time he was in Shanghai writing and sending off very long reports. These were despatched to the British government; the British consuls in Shanghai and Hong Kong; Chinese Imperial authorities in Canton and Peking; and to his naval and army commanders-in-chief.

  Yet Lord Elgin found time to greet Kernow warmly when the young Royal Marine officer was shown into his cabin on board Admiral Hope’s flagship.

  ‘Glad to have you on my staff, Keats. We’ve a busy time ahead of us. For the time being I intend using you as my liaison officer with the Royal Marines and army. Later I’ll have need of you as an interpreter. When we get on land and head for Peking I’ll be relying very heavily upon you in my dealings with the Imperial authorities and their army leaders. They’re a tricky lot – but you don’t need me to tell you that.’

  ‘When do we sail, my Lord?’

  Kernow put the question more in hope than with any expectation of being able to spend another few hours with She-she.

  ‘At first light. General Grant has already sailed north with an advance party of the army. They’re looking for camping sites around the bay of Talienwan. It’s a large bay and conveniently situated. Not too far from the Faku forts at Pei-ho, yet far enough away to prevent the Chinese from launching a surprise attack against us. It’s Grant’s idea. He fought in China in eighteen-forty-two and became familiar with the country then, I believe. You’ll be working with him a great deal and I know you’re going to like him as much as I do.

  ‘Before we set sail, I wonder if you would translate some documents for me? They’re nothing to do with our war, but were sent from Nanking by an agent we have working for us there. They purport to relate to a proposed attack on Shanghai by the Taipings. It’s something I feel we should know about before we have all our troops beating a path to Peking. I’m afraid it will mean working through most of the night, but I have no doubt you’ll agree with me about their importance.’

  When Kernow met up with the British army commander-in-chief at Talienwan he found him all that lord Elgin had promised he would be. The army man was a stern disciplinarian and not good at expressing himself. Yet he had a quiet, honest and forthright manner that inspired confidence in those who served him. He was also a skilled musician and carried a cello with him on his campaigns, playing it whenever the opportunity presented itself. It was an eccentricity that endeared him to his men, but sometimes distracted his officers.

  When the two men were introduced, they found inmediate common ground.

  ‘You remind me of someone, Keats. A Royal Marine officer I met in hospital during the war of ’forty-two. Poor chap had to have a leg amputated. Come to think of it, his name was Keats too. A relative of yours, perhaps?’

  ‘My father, sir.’

  ‘Good Lord! That makes me feel incredibly old. Is he still alive?’

  ‘Yes, sir. He’s at home in Cornwall, doing his best to behave as though he still has two good legs.’

  ‘That sounds like the man I knew then. Please send him my warmest regards when you next write to him. If you’re as good a soldier as your father, I’ll be very pleased to have you with me. You’re to be on Lord Elgin’s personal staff, I believe, but I think I have a use for you before then. Do you speak French?’

  ‘I do, sir.’

  ‘Good. Then you can come with me to Chefoo, on the other side of the bay. General de Montauban and his French army are camped there. He seems to be spending his time thinking up excuses for not taking the field against the Chinese. Perhaps between us we can rouse him and his men off their backsides.’

  General Grant and Kernow managed to do more than rouse the French commander-in-chief from his lethargy. General de Montauban had an excessive share of Gallic pride. He was over-sensitive about the fact that his army was only half the size of that commanded by General Grant. Nevertheless, he was a first-class soldier and recognised the same talent in Grant. With Kernow interpreting, the two men were soon showing a mutual respect for each other.

  Many of the Frenchman’s problems involved obtaining horses for his cavalry and artillery. Grant was able to solve this for him. By the time Grant and Kernow left to return to the British army at Talienwan, a date had been fixed for the joint landings. Grant and de Montauban had also worked out the part the armies of each would play in the campaign to come.

  The allied landings took place close to the small town of Pehtang, some six miles from the Pei-ho river and the Taku forts. Offshore, more than two hundred warships and transports prepared to land twenty thousand soldiers to do battle with the Chinese.

  Two hundred men, led by Brigadier Sutton, a fiery senior army officer, formed the advance party. When the boats grounded there was still almost a mile of waist-deep mud and water to be traversed before comparatively dry land could be reached.

  Swearing in a fashion that would have been heartily disapproved of by the Bible-carrying Grant, the Brigadier set an example for his advance party to follow. Stripping off trousers, socks and boots, he tied these articles of clothing to his sword, slung it over his shoulder and slipped into the water. Bellowing for his men to follow him, Brigadier Sutton led the way ashore, grey flannel shirt-tail flapping beneath a mud-stained red serge jacket. Every time he stumbled on the uneven sea bed he called down dire curses on the heads of the staff officers who had chosen such a spot for a landing.

  The Brigadier, bandy-legged, ugly and very muddy, was the first man to reach dry land. When he finally hoisted himself from the ooze the men following him set up a cheer that startled a small party of Chinese Imperial cavalry waiting and watching from the shelter of a clump of low trees nearby.

  Without firing a shot, the Chinese
horsemen turned tail and galloped back along the causeway that led towards the Taku forts, pursued by the bullets of the leading soldiers and the fury of Brigadier Sutton. As he hopped about helplessly on one leg, the irascible Brigadier cursed them for cowards for not waiting around until he had his trousers on.

  Kernow accompanied General Grant ashore with the main body of soldiers and Royal Marines, less than an hour later. There was not an enemy soldier in sight and the army settled down in the mud for an uncomfortable but undisturbed night.

  The next day they moved into Pehtang, once again encountering no resistance. For the remainder of that day patrols were sent out along the causeway that led towards the Pei-ho river. They sighted small parties of Tartar horsemen, but did not engage them.

  There was more excitement in Pehtang than outside that night. It began with looting by the French and was closely followed by the systematic rape of the town’s women by men of the Chinese Coolie Corps, who were accompanying the army.

  The coolies had been recruited in the Canton area and had little love for their northern countrymen. The provost marshal’s men were out in force and many of the infantry were seconded to assist them, but their task was impossible in the darkness of a strange town. The rape of the women continued until morning.

  At dawn the following day the few coolies who had been arrested by the provost marshal’s men were summarily executed as a warning to their companions before the army moved off.

  A few miles along the causeway the Allied armies were confronted by an area of fortifications and entrenchments. At the same time between two and three thousand Tartar horsemen emerged from behind the fortifications and attempted to carry out a flanking action on the combined British and French army.

  The officer leading the horsemen was Shalonga, son of the Tartar war lord Tingamao. Kernow recognised him immediately, but it came as no surprise. He had been half expecting the Tartar officer still to be in the area.

  He reported the sighting to General Grant, adding that Shalonga’s father was commander of an army of fifty thousand men.

  ‘Do you think they are in the vicinity too?’ The thought of such an army was of great concern to Grant. Half his men were still on the high seas. He had kept the cavalry and much of the heavy artillery at sea until a more suitable landing place had been taken.

  ‘I’d like to be able to say no, sir, but when I met Shalonga a few years ago, near Canton, he was acting as an advance party for his father. He might be doing the same now.’

  Grant thought about the situation for some minutes, chewing on his heavy, black moustache. ‘I can’t afford to take a chance until I have the cavalry ashore. We’ll return to Pehtang.’

  ‘Let me try an attack on the enemy first, sir. We’ll soon see what they’re made of.’ The speaker was a young rifleman lieutenant who had come to China fresh from England and was eager to prove himself. He had listened to the conversation between Kernow and General Grant with increasing exasperation.

  ‘I’m sure you would, mister, but you might well find they’re made of sterner stuff than you’re expecting. You’ll have all the action you want before too long, but I’ll not throw good riflemen away unnecessarily.’

  When the order to retreat was given the British and French soldiers grumbled about ‘officers who can’t make up their mind’. But they trudged back more swiftly when the Tartar cavalry came thundering past, just beyond accurate rifle range. They put on a display of horsemanship that even the superb Indian cavalrymen of the British army would have found it difficult to emulate.

  General Grant watched the Tartar cavalry’s antics with grudging admiration. ‘They’re good,’ he said to Kernow. ‘Very good – but in a few days’ time they’re going to learn they’re not quite good enough.’

  Chapter 25

  GENERAL HOPE GRANT was a patient man, but the next few days tried his patience sorely. The artillery and cavalry had to be landed in the mud of Pehtang in far from ideal conditions. Pehtang was little more than a large village, situated in a sea of mud. It had insufficient fresh water and no food or fodder to meet the needs of an additional twenty thousand men and thousands of horses. Neither was there any to be obtained from the immediate countryside. As a result the army was forced to rely upon the stores it had brought with it.

  Then, when the British army was ready to move, the French army was not. The French commander, General De Montauban, complained there had not been sufficient time for his men to unload all their stores. As if such problems were not enough for Grant, the weather chose to throw its weight behind the Chinese. It rained almost continuously while the army was at Pehtang and neither men nor horses were ever fully dry.

  Not until nine days after the initial landing was the combined British and French army ready to move out along the causeway. Its first objective was the fortification straddling the route to the Taku forts.

  The Tartar horsemen were waiting for the allied soldiers. As soon as the British advance guard left Pehtang it came under attack. The Tartars were driven off by British cavalry, but it was only a beginning. The Chinese were determined to make the Allied army fight for every foot of ground that lay between them and the Taku forts.

  To make matters worse, when the British sent out flanking parties on either side of the advancing column of troops, the heavy cavalry horses were hampered by thick mud. Not until it reached firmer ground was the cavalry able to engage the Tartar troops who were attacking with great determination.

  A series of fierce hand-to-hand battles took place. At one time three thousand Tartar horsemen charged at the British infantry who immediately formed their traditional squares and fought them off until the situation was relieved by a regiment of Sikh cavalry who succeeded in scattering the Tartars.

  During these many engagements, both minor and major, Kernow looked out for Shalonga, but he did not see him.

  At the line of Chinese fortifications a fierce artillery duel developed. It continued until the position was stormed and taken by British infantrymen. The first hurdle had been overcome on the road to the Taku forts.

  There was one more. This was the fortified village of Tangku. It was taken only after a fierce artillery duel during which most of the village’s defenders were killed. The tenacity of the Chinese gunners was the subject of much surprised comment by the allies. When they occupied the village the reason the Chinese had not retreated was discovered. The gunners had been chained to their weapons.

  There now began another series of written exchanges between the Chinese authorities and Lord Elgin. The Chinese wanted the army to return to Pehtang while negotiations were commenced. Elgin refused point blank to consider such unacceptable conditions.

  Accompanying the first flag of truce were a number of prisoners captured by the Chinese during the fighting, returned to the British as a goodwill gesture. One was a sergeant of the Essex Regiment, another a Madras sapper. The remainder were Cantonese coolies from the Chinese Coolie Corps. They had been captured together with another soldier, a private of the Buffs.

  Taken before the Imperial Chinese general, they had been ordered to kow-tow. All except the Buffs private obeyed the command. Warned of the consequences of not obeying, the private remained adamant. He would not kow-tow to a Chinese, whatever his rank.

  At a signal from the Chinese general, the Buffs private was pinioned by his captors, there was the flash of an executioner’s sword and the British soldier’s head was separated from his body.

  When the story went around the camps of the various regiments there were cries for instant revenge. It would not be long in coming. The following morning General Grant ordered a reconnoitre of the Taku forts.

  Because Kernow had been to the Pei-ho before, he was sent by Grant to map out the forts, in order that the general might plan an assault.

  There were four forts, two on either side of the Pei-ho river. The defences had changed little since the day Kernow had lain in the glistening mud before them, convinced he would not live to see
another day. Looking at the scene now was sufficient to send a chill of sudden fear through him. Here were the same deep, water-filled ditches, the deadly crops of sharpened bamboo stakes planted thicker than barley growing in an English field. Beyond were dry ditches, ramparts of felled trees and, finally, the forts themselves.

  The fort selected by Grant for his first target was the smaller of the two on the northern bank of the river. Its smooth mud and brick wall was at least fifteen feet high, bristling with guns and clearly occupied by a strong force of Imperial troops.

  Taking it would not be easy, but at least the attacking forces would be advancing from the land-side and would not have knee-deep, oozing mud to slow their progress and leave them at the mercy of the fort’s gunners.

  During the night batteries were built for the artillery to dominate the northern fort and guns and mortars brought up. Arrangements were also made for four gunboats to inch their way as far upriver as they could travel and bombard the fort when the assault began.

  When all was made ready Kernow was sent under a flag of truce to try to persuade the commander of the fort to surrender.

  He advanced to the wall of the fort with a small escort and called upon the senior Chinese officer to come out and parley with him.

  At first the only response was a series of derisive catcalls from the Imperial soldiers manning the walls of the fort.

  Despite this, and the nervousness of his escort, Kernow persisted. Eventually an officer wearing a round hat on which was the red button of a mandarin of the first degree appeared at one of the gun embrasures.