My Splendid Concubine (61 page)

“
Such a curious student.”

“
And knowledge is the food I crave. I am willing to trade Ayaou’s cooking for that.”

Ping laughed.
“I will help, but it is getting late. If I do not eat soon, I must be on my way. My wife will have dinner ready. She cooks for the family now.” He sighed. His bushy eyebrows lowered making his frog-like face look sad. “Alas, my wife needs cooking lessons. It seems her mother never taught her. She shrivels the vegetables and the rice is like eating pebbles. My mother criticizes her, but it does no good.”

“
Bring your wife next time,” Ayaou said. She stood in the kitchen doorway holding a wooden cooking utensil. “While you two talk, I will teach her tricks that will make your mother happy.”

“
A good idea,” Ping said. “What you are cooking smells delightful.”

“
Master Ping, tell me as much as you can about the Ch’ing Dynasty, and we will fill your belly before you leave.” Robert led the way to the kitchen.

They played this game often. He acted curious and begged for kno
wledge, and Ping, with a sparkle in his eyes, said it was getting late while being pleased he had such a curious student. Of course, stuffing him with Ayaou’s cooking helped.

“
The first Manchu emperor sat on the Dragon throne in 1644. However, the Manchu are not Han Chinese. They are horse people from north of the Great Wall. They came to power by accident. It is amazing they have ruled so long. They can be brutal even when unnecessary.” He stopped talking to fill his mouth.

“
How did this Manchu accident happen?”

Ping swallowed and patted his lips dry.
“They conquered China with cleverness. An opportunity presented itself and Prince Dorgon, the Manchu regent, plucked the moment as if it were a ripe peach.”

“
Details,” Robert said.

Ayaou placed a platter of steamed buns filled with a sweat bean paste on the table. Ping took one between his chopsticks and held it in front of his mouth.
“It is a long story,” he said. “After the last Ming emperor hung himself, two Chinese generals named Wu and Li met in battle with their armies to see who would sit on the Dragon throne. General Wu made a mistake by seeking help from the Manchu.”

Ping tore off half the bun with his teeth and sucked at the beans paste that filled the hollow space inside.
“Robert, you are a lucky man,” he said, as he finished the steamed bun.

“
Don’t forget, I’m trading Ayaou’s food to learn about the Ch’ing Dynasty.”

“
Of course.” Ping popped a ribbon of seaweed into his mouth. There were three types of tofu on the table. He selected a piece of each. “Dorgon, the commander of the Manchu army, waited until the armies of Li and Wu were battered senseless. When the earth was soaked with Han blood, Dorgon’s army slaughtered the survivors.

“
When Dorgon arrived in Peking, he claimed the throne for his six-year-old Khan, and Shunzhi became emperor of China instead of just the Manchu people.”

Ayaou set a bowl on the table filled with fresh green beans she had stir fried with peanut oil, ginger and garlic. Master Ping used his chopsticks to pick one.
“So fresh. So crunchy. So much flavor.” He rolled his eyes as he chewed. His chopsticks flashed back and forth from the bowl to his wide mouth.

“
You can’t leave me hanging like this,” Robert said. “I want to know the rest.”

Ayaou poured Master Ping a cup of jasmine te
a. He drank half. “The Manchu hold power for three reasons. The first is the fighting skills and brutality of the eight Manchu banner armies, which maintain the harmony in China.”

A steamed fish arrived, head and all. Ping used his cho
psticks to peel back the skin and selected pieces of the white meat that the chopsticks plucked from the bones.

“
The second reason is that the Manchu leaders adopted Han ways.

“
The third is that Taoism and Confucianism influences the way the Han Chinese think. Because of that, the Manchu are allowed to rule China.”

Master Ping leaned back in his chair, patted his swollen belly and belched. He looked contented.
“I am stuffed,” he said. “Ayaou, you are trying to make me into a fat man.” He stifled a yawn.

“
It is getting late. I must be on my way.” He walked to the front door where he stopped, and said, “The Manchu fear the Han will depose the Ch’ing Dynasty. That is the reason so few Han hold important positions in the government and army.

“
The Ch’ing often hires foreigners to run important parts of the government and to command elements of the imperial army as General Ward does near Shanghai. If you stay in China, you will see for yourself. The Manchu may even offer you a position.”

“
Does the Dynasty pay more than I earn as an interpreter for the British Consulate?”

Ping
’s bushy eyebrows danced. “Robert, I have heard that foreigners working for China are well rewarded. I do not know how much. Are you planning to work for the Dynasty?”

“
It was a thought.”

“
The emperor would be lucky to have you. You understand the Chinese and do not judge them like most foreigners. You do not want to exploit China or convert the Chinese to become Christians. I appreciate the fact that you have always treated me as an equal. No other Westerner has done that.”

Months later in mid 1859, Robert was not surprised when he was approached by Heng-ch’i, the Hoppo for Canton, along with Imperial Governor General Lao Ch’ung-kuang.

They offered him a position as the new Deputy Commi
ssioner of Customs for Canton, the same job Horatio Lay held in Shanghai.

He
’d met Horatio in 1854, and the man had recently left the British consulate in Shanghai to go to work for the Manchu Dynasty.

If Robert
accepted the position, his pay would leap from five hundred to fifteen hundred pounds a year—a three-hundred percent increase.

On May 29, 1859, he turned in his resignation to the British Co
nsul in Canton.

Horatio Lay, who Robert had not seen for several years, came south to help set up the new Custom’s house in Canton. Horatio stayed into 1860 before returning to Shanghai.

It didn
’t take long for Robert to be reminded that Horatio still held a low opinion of the Chinese.

“
Has Patridge been to see you?” Horatio asked. They were going over manifests and computing the duties that were to be paid to the Chinese by the foreign ships anchored in the river.

“
I haven’t talked to Patridge for months,” Robert replied.

“
Well,” Horatio said, “don’t be surprised if the scoundrel walks into your office in an attempt to buy you off so his ships won’t have to pay duties.” His brows lowered, and he started to storm about the crowded office knocking papers to floor. Robert knelt to retrieve them. It seemed that Horatio’s temper hadn’t changed either.

“
He had the audacity to offer me a bribe,” Horatio said. “I sent him packing after I gave him a piece of my mind. The gall of that man to treat me like a thief he could buy.”

Robert was still gathering papers from the floor. He avoided eye contact with his superior, thinking of the services he had provided for Patridge while still living in Ningpo. Should he tell Horatio? What would Horatio think if he found out about the money Patridge had paid him to do exactly what Horatio was angry about?

“This goes no further,” Horatio said. “What I have to tell you stays between us. Agreed?”

“
What stays between us?” Robert asked.

“
Do you agree?”

He was reluc
tant to agree to something he knew nothing about. What if Horatio was going to confess to murdering someone? On the other hand, he might learn something. He remembered the advice the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Bowring, had given him soon after he arrived in China.

“
Take everything that happens and learn from it,” Sir Bowring had said. “In the end you will be a better, stronger person. Don’t shy away from understanding things even if you disagree with them.” That advice had served Robert well so far.

He overruled his sense of caution, and asked,
“What is it?”

“
Only if you agree that what I tell you does not leave this room.”

It irritated him to be thrust into a situation like this.

“Look at me. I want to see the sincerity in your eyes.”

Robert realized he was not being given a choice. If he r
efused, Horatio would never trust him.

The mask he had worked hard to perfect slid into place.
He looked into Horatio’s eyes confident his expression would hide his true feelings. “I agree.”

“
Good,” Horatio said. “I’ve heard you can be trusted. While I was working with the British Consulate in Shanghai, Patridge bribed me to help with his shipments. However, the situation in China has changed. The last treaty between Britain and China forced the emperor to create a uniform Imperial Customs Service throughout the empire. The provincial governors will no longer be allowed to collect taxes for imported goods and keep the money. Those duties will go to the imperial treasury. Do you know the reason for that?”

“
So China has more money to modernize.”

“
You are so naïve.” Horatio shook his head.

Feeling resentment, Robert
maintained his neutral expression. He had forgotten how Horatio treated others as if they were all schoolboys. He had disliked Horatio from the day they had first met in Shanghai in 1854.

“
Robert, China still owes Britain, France and the United States reparations for losing the first Opium War. When the Treaty of Nanking was signed in 1842, China had to open five treaty ports for trade; pay an indemnity of six million for the opium destroyed by Commissioner Lin; three million for debts owed to British traders by Canton merchants, and another twelve million to England for the cost of the war. Two years later, France and the United states made similar demands.

“
Without a steady source of revenue, the emperor has no way to pay back those reparations.” Horatio laughed, then said, “I always find it amusing that Britain and France started the war, but the Chinese have to pay because they lost.

“
The emperor is lucky. Britain and France could have conquered China and divided it between them. and I believe it would have been better if they had.”

Horatio
’s smile vanished. “Before that, everyone working for the British consulate service was in the pay of someone like Patridge, but times have changed. If we allow the opium merchants to cheat the Chinese, the British, French and the United States governments will not be paid. Our loyalty must be to Britain first. There is enough theft among Chinese officials as it is. If the Ch’ing Dynasty is to survive and keep China stable so the opium trade flourishes, they need a steady source of revenue and that is our job. Do you understand?”

Robert stood with the papers he had gathered from t
he floor. “Yes, Horatio. I had the same thoughts myself. No more taking bribes.”

“
Exactly.” Horatio switched from English to Mandarin. “I thought you and I might have similar opinions. Knowing you were in Patridge’s pay, I wanted to sound you out to see if you had changed your ways.”

Robert
’s composure slipped for an instant. Horatio had been testing him.

“
I have been hearing good things from the Chinese about you, and Harry Parkes has nothing but good to say.”

He put a hand on Robert
’s shoulder as if they were old friends. Robert had an urge to shrug the hand off but didn’t. “Be careful, Robert. There are those who will trample you to climb to the top. You and I are on our way and if you are loyal to me, I will do right by you. One day, you will be assisting me in running China for Britain. When that time comes, the Ch’ing Dynasty will do our bidding as we see fit.”

Robert replied in flawless Mandarin.
“You have nothing to worry about, Horatio. We have both seen the last of Patridge’s money. I will not disappoint you.”

He didn
’t tell Horatio that when he accepted this job, his loyalties switched to the Ch’ing Dynasty. He refused to work for two masters. Horatio would learn that one day, but now wasn’t the time to let him discover Robert’s true feelings. He had to establish himself first.

The truth was that he wanted Britain and China to be friends. He a
dmired the Chinese that much.

“
My, my,” Horatio said. “You are as good as they say you are with this barbaric language. I remember when you first arrived in China and could not say one proper word in Mandarin. Now your accent is flawless and better than mine is. If I closed my eyes, I would think I was talking to someone from the imperial court.