‘What is it you want? Have you come to offer me the surrender of your general and the army which has invaded our lands and offended the Emperor of the Middle Kingdom?’
Hoots of approval from the listening Chinese troops greeted the mandarin’s derisive words.
‘I have come with a message from General Grant to offer safe passage for you and your soldiers if you abandon this fort immediately.’
‘If your general wants this fort he will need to attack with all his guns and men and pay for his failure with the lives of Fan Qui soldiers.’
The mandarin’s defiant stance brought shouts of delight from his listening garrison.
‘My general does not lose battles. He will take your fort as he has taken Pehtang and Tangku. His only wish is to save the lives of your men. I regret it is not your wish also. I will acquaint him with your words.’
‘Wait!’ The call came as Kernow and his escort wheeled their horses to return the way they had come.
He pulled his horse to a halt and turned to face the fort once more.
‘Tell your general I am agreeable to a truce until the Imperial commissioners from Peking reach here. I am assured they are on their way.’
‘I will take him your message, but I cannot promise it will find any more favour with him than it does with me.’
It seemed the Chinese mandarin in charge of the fort had no more confidence in the acceptance of his suggestion than did Kernow. When the small party was no more than a few hundred yards from the fort, the Chinese opened up a barrage with their guns that developed into a savage duel with the guns of the Royal Artillery.
Lord Elgin was at Grant’s headquarters and he agreed with Kernow’s assessment of the mandarin’s offer. It was no more than a delaying tactic. The British and French armies would continue their advance upon Peking. But first the Taku fort had to be taken.
The attack on the first fort began at dawn the following morning. It was preceded by an artillery duel that was fiercer than the one that had taken place the previous afternoon. It continued for three hours before the infantry was ordered forward.
The artillery barrage had put many of the Chinese cannon out of action and succeeded in exploding a magazine inside the fort – but it seemed to have had little effect on the defenders manning the walls. Their heavy fire caused many casualties among the advancing men. A special target for their musketry was a party of Royal Marines who had the unenviable task of going into action carrying huge and unwieldy pontoons, intended to bridge the stake-filled ditches guarding the fort.
Kernow found the sight of so many Royal Marines falling beneath the fire of the Chinese muskets and crossbows agonising.
‘Sir,’ he addressed General Grant when he could bear it no longer, ‘I request permission to go to the assistance of the Royal Marines pontoon party.’
‘Your loyalty to your corps is admirable, Captain Keats, but giving the Chinese one more target to shoot at will help no one. I have need of you here.’
Grant resumed his watch on the slowly advancing men, turning occasionally to send a messenger racing to one or other of the commanding officers fighting their way forward.
It soon became apparent that the casualty rate for the assault was going to be very high indeed and now General Grant was running short of messengers.
Eventually, he turned to Kernow. ‘Captain Keats, go and tell Lieutenant Colonel Gascoigne to pull his men back until the artillery has broken more of the wall around that north gateway.’
Lieutenant Colonel Gascoigne was in charge of the Royal Marines infantry who had now been joined by those of the pontoon party who survived. One of the pontoons had been hit by Chinese artillery and wrecked. The others had been abandoned as being more trouble than they were worth.
Kernow ran from the headquarters area, which was dangerously close to the fighting, to where the Royal Marines were now helping each other up the high wall of the fort.
By the time he reached the fort both the British and French flags were flying on the walls although fierce fighting was still taking place inside.
General Grant’s message was no longer valid, but Kernow made for a spot where a door, some eight feet from the ground, had been smashed open. A ladder placed against the wall beneath would provide him with access.
Kernow was carrying a ‘revolver’, a multi-shot pistol made by Samuel Colt, given to him as a parting gift by Consul Merrill in Shanghai.
Drawing the revolver, Kernow climbed the rickety ladder and leaped through the doorway into a scene that might have been painted by an artist depicting Hades. Bodies were scattered everywhere, lying in a series of grotesque attitudes. Between their dead companions wounded men were lying, sitting, limping or weeping, nursing wounds to every conceivable part of the body. There was a lone British surgeon here too who must have entered the fort with a fighting unit.
All around the fort soldiers tussled with their enemies in deadly hand-to-hand combat.
As Kernow paused he saw a force of Chinese soldiers spill from a small bunker built into the thick mud-and-brick wall of the fort. They immediately surrounded a party of Marines who were forced to fight for their lives.
Kernow ran towards this group, firing at the Chinese as he neared them. He fired twice, downing a Chinese soldier with each shot. His next shot saved the life of Lieutenant Colonel Gascoigne. The Royal Marines’ commanding officer was being threatened from behind by a Chinese with raised sword. One moment later and he would have brought it down on the Royal Marine’s head, cleaving it wide open.
Other Marines had seen the predicament of their commanding officer and moments later the brief but deadly tussle was over. So was the battle for the fort. The only Chinese soldiers left were either dead or seriously wounded.
‘I’m obliged to you, Captain Keats.’ Using his foot, Lieutenant Colonel Gascoigne turned the last Chinese Kernow had killed on to his back. It was the mandarin commanding the Chinese defenders.
Picking up the cap with the red button, the colonel looked down almost regretfully at the man who would have killed him.
‘He was a very brave man, Captain. He must have known he and his men would lose, yet he fought to the last.’
Looking around him, he squared his shoulders and said, ‘Well, this battle at least is over. We’ve won. It leaves three more forts.’
Chapter 26
THE SOLDIERS OF Generals Grant and de Montauban were not called upon to storm the remaining three Taku forts. One by one white flags rose to the flag-poles where Imperial banners had earlier fluttered their defiance. The occupants of the forts had witnessed the defeat inflicted upon their companions by the Allied armies and had no stomach for similar slaughter.
Many of the surrendered Imperial Chinese soldiers expected to suffer execution at the hands of their conquerors. The remainder waited resignedly for imprisonment. To their astonishment, after being disarmed they were told they were free to go.
As the Chinese soldiers filed from the forts and set off westwards, the rain came down again. So hard was it that before long the causeway along which the Allied armies had advanced to the Pei-ho river was lost beneath water which swirled for as far as could be seen.
Kernow spent a miserable night sharing a table with some of his fellow officers in the guardroom of the fort he had helped conquer. His knees drawn up to his chin, he kept dry until a leak developed in the mud roof above the table. The officers were far better off than their men. Most had struggled to return along the causeway to their semi-permanent camp in the village of Tangku, only to spend a night in flooded and leaking tents.
In the sunshine of a new dawn the navy moved up to clear the entrance to the Pei-ho river of the obstacles still remaining.
‘With any luck Admiral Hope’s sailors should remove the last of the blockade today,’ Lord Elgin told him as Kernow helped to pack everything from the British plenipotentiary’s headquarters which had been set up in a Tangku tax-collector’s office. ‘When that’s done we’ll trave
l upriver to Tientsin in style, in the flagship. There’s something rather majestic about arriving on a vessel, especially a warship of the British Navy.’
‘Will you need me with you, my Lord? The talk in the officers’ mess is that the war is virtually over now we’ve taken the Taku forts. They’re already planning a celebration when we reach Tientsin.’
‘They may be right, Kernow, but a celebration might prove premature. My experience is that the Chinese have a nasty habit of pulling something out of the hat when it’s least expected. I think you should stay with me for a while longer – however strong the pull to return to Shanghai. I suppose it wouldn’t have anything to do with that very attractive American girl who nursed you after you’d been wounded at the Taku forts last year? Never mind, you don’t have to answer. Rest assured I intend remaining in China no longer than is absolutely necessary. I have a great many plans for my life – and none of them lies this side of the China Sea.’
Lord Elgin’s words did little to ease the nagging worry in Kernow’s mind. Word had reached the Expeditionary Force only that day about the alarming movements of the Taiping army. It seemed they were advancing upon Shanghai at great speed, driving hordes of refugees before them and alarming Colonel Wolseley who had been left in charge of the garrison there. At his urgent request, General Grant had sent the Essex Regiment from his own army to reinforce Colonel Wolseley’s small defence force.
Kernow would have liked to accompany them, but it would not have been possible to go without giving Grant a very good reason. Concern for the safety of a Chinese girl would not have been acceptable to the conventional commander-in-chief.
Lord Elgin’s next destination was Tientsin, eighty-five miles from Peking. Ratification of an earlier treaty which had been agreed here was at the root of the current war. The significance of occupying this city would not be lost on the Chinese.
The small fleet nosed its way upriver prepared to do battle with the many small forts dotting the banks of the river Pei-ho. Landing parties put ashore along the route reported that every one of them had been hurriedly abandoned. Surprisingly, Tientsin too was surrendered without a fight, despite its recognised importance as the ‘gateway to Peking’.
Lord Elgin, his French counterpart Baron Gros, and Generals Grant and de Montauban, together with their staffs, commandeered a large house belonging to Tientsin’s Salt Commissioner. It was here, at the end of August, that they received three Imperial commissioners. The delegation had been despatched from Peking to sign a ceasefire treaty and then escort Elgin and Gros to Peking. Once there, it was promised, the 1858 treaty would finally receive ratification.
Although Kernow believed the fighting was over there was a nagging suspicion at the back of his mind that all was not well. It was not that he wanted it to be so. Quite the contrary. More news of the Taipings’ movements had reached British headquarters at Tientsin. The rebels had broken through the lines of the Imperial forces who had been slowly closing in upon Nanking and Taiping-held territory. Totally destroying one of the Imperial armies they had struck out for the coast, heading in the direction of Shanghai.
Kernow was impatient for matters to be settled here. He might then be given permission to hurry back to Shanghai and ensure that She-she was safe.
Unfortunately, for the moment he was involved with matters much closer at hand. Eventually he confided his suspicions to Lord Elgin.
After listening to Kernow thoughtfully, the plenipotentiary said, ‘I know exactly what you mean, Kernow. I feel uneasy myself, but unless we can prove something I will be obliged to agree to the Chinese offer. To refuse would be to risk censure at home in Britain. Do you have anything more than intuition to go on?’
‘No,’ Kernow answered honestly. ‘But the Chinese commissioners are too eager to please. They seem willing to agree to almost anything in order to maintain a ceasefire and persuade you and the French ambassador to accompany them to Peking. Such a sudden about-face worries me.’
‘What do the other interpreters think?’ There were two diplomatic interpreters with the party. One had been loaned from the governor’s office in Hong Kong, the other from the consulate in Shanghai. Both had spent many years in government service in China.
‘They’re as puzzled as I, but they’re hoping for the best. I don’t think we should go along with the Chinese on hope alone. I’d like some solid proof of their good intentions.’
‘Follow your instincts, Kernow. I’ll put off agreeing to anything for a couple of days. In the meantime find out all you can from the Chinese and their staff.’
The truth came out two days later when Kernow and the other interpreters were re-examining the credentials the Imperial commissioners had brought with them from Peking. Astonishingly, it was discovered that not one of the three had been given the Emperor’s authority to sign anything! Any decision reached at Tientsin would have been held to be meaningless.
At a hastily convened meeting between Kernow, the other interpreters, Lord Elgin, General Grant, Admiral Hope, Baron Gros and General de Montauban, the matter was discussed at great length.
The French view was that it was probably an oversight on the part of the Chinese. Lord Elgin was more sceptical. ‘In such matters I have always found the Chinese to be absolutely meticulous. I feel there is rather more to it than a mere mistake. What’s your opinion, Kernow?’
‘I believe that at best it’s a deliberate attempt to delay ratification of the treaty. At worst it may be an attempt to persuade you and the French ambassador to travel on to Peking with a light escort and risk being taken hostage.’
While the French protested that such suggestions were absurd, Elgin turned to General Grant. ‘What do you suggest, General?’
Grant was not a devious man. He had no time for diplomatic ploys and intrigues. ‘I suggest we bring the whole matter out into the open. One thing is certain – we can’t afford to stay in China for too long. It will soon be winter and we have insufficient stores to maintain a strong presence here. We’ll either be starved out of China – or die where we are.’
‘There I think we have the answer to the Chinese tactics, gentlemen. If they keep us here for long enough they won’t need to do any more fighting. Nature will do all that’s necessary on their behalf. We will tackle them with this matter in the morning.’
The following morning, in the presence of Lord Elgin, the diplomatic interpreters put it to the Chinese commissioners bluntly. They had no authorisation from the Imperial government. They had been wasting the time of the British and French ambassadors.
The Imperial commissioners smiled blandly. It was, of course, all a mistake. One that would quickly be cleared up. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros should remain at Tientsin. The three commissioners would return to Peking and inform the Imperial government of the unfortunate oversight.
‘No, gentlemen. You return to Peking. We will follow. Once there we’ll have it explained to us in person. Perhaps you will also make the necessary arrangements for quartering our army? They will be travelling with us.’
With this parting shot, Lord Elgin rose from his seat, closely followed by Baron Gros. Outside, the British and French armies prepared to march still further into China.
Chapter 27
GENERAL GRANT ADVANCED cautiously upon China’s capital city, intent upon securing an escape route to Tientsin and the Pei-ho river once his mission had been accomplished. Some of his troops, in particular his irregular cavalry, grumbled at the commander-in-chief’s apparent excess of caution. However, the vast majority of the soldiers under his command were content for their commander to do things his way. The bible-carrying general was intent on winning battles, not gaining personal glory. He would not sacrifice the lives of his men unnecessarily.
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros travelled with the army and all along the way were bombarded with letters from Peking. The letters protested that the lack of authority invested in the previous Imperial negotiators had been ‘an oversight’. New commissioners were
on the way. All would be well if the two ambassadors would only return to Tientsin and await the Emperor’s special emissaries….
When the Allied army was within a few miles of the Chinese capital, a message was received which Lord Elgin felt he could at last take seriously. A brother of the Emperor had been appointed to negotiate with Elgin and Gros. He would have all the powers of the Emperor himself. Meanwhile, arrangements were being made to accommodate the allied armies on a vast camp-site only a few miles ahead.
Calling Kernow to his tent that evening, Lord Elgin was in a jubilant mood. ‘I think the Imperial court has finally accepted we do not intend removing our armies from China until the treaty has been ratified, Kernow. They want me to send someone to meet their negotiators. I’d like you to go with my secretary. The two of you will be responsible for setting up a meeting with their commissioners and arranging my entry into Peking. I don’t need to remind you of the importance of this mission. It will be the culmination of two very frustrating years and bring to an end the war between our country and China. Nevertheless, you will accept no slights to the Crown, neither will you be expected to suffer any personal humiliation. You negotiate for me – and I represent Her Majesty the Queen. Remember that, Kernow. I wish you good luck.’
Kernow set out with a party of six diplomats and senior officers, escorted by a lieutenant and thirty cavalrymen. Behind them, Grant prepared to follow with an advance guard of some two thousand men.
Kernow and his party headed for Chang-kia-wan, a village about ten miles from the city of Peking. This was where the Chinese had suggested the French and British armies should make camp while the two ambassadors entered Peking.
Before Kernow and his party had ridden very far, he began to feel uneasy. They were passing groups of Chinese soldiers who watched them with undisguised hostility which occasionally became open derision. It was hardly the attitude of a nation with whom Britain was about to sign a peace and trade treaty.
The Blue Dress Girl Page 33