My Splendid Concubine (86 page)

“
Most of my family lives in the city, and I picked their brains. My father believes that there are hundreds of Longhaired Bandits with crossbows. They have a few ancient muzzle loading cannons on the walls facing inland. Since the Ch’ing army is expected to attack the city by land, most of the Taiping soldiers are sleeping on the walls. Only a few are watching the river.”

“
Are you positive that the Inspector General’s family is being held in this temple?” Anwar asked.

Robert looked at the wild looking Welshman with gratitude. Anwar seemed to know he was having a difficult time.

“There were only a few guards outside the temple,” Guan-jiah replied. “I managed to sneak past them and find the room Mistress Ayaou and the children were in. But I did not see them. Food was taken into that room. When the door opened, I heard a child who sounded like Anna. A woman’s voice replied. It was Mistress Ayaou. I am sure of it.”

Robert felt relief, and h
e looked at Anwar. “Thank you,” he said. Anwar acknowledged with a nod. “How many Taipings inside the city?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“
Thousands,” Guan-jiah replied.

He felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, and his mouth turned dry. That was many times the number of Taipings Patridge had co
nfronted in 1855.

“
Guan-jiah, did you tell your father to take the family and leave the city?” Robert had told him about Apak and the Cantonese pirates.

“
Yes, Master, I did as you said. He promised to leave, and they should be gone by now.”

“Captain, wait until we return,” Robert said. “I’m counting on the
Nanzing
being here when we are done with our business in the city.” When Robert turned away to join his troop by the rail, he didn’t like the look he saw in the captain’s eyes. He was not sure he could trust the man, but what choice did he have?

With the sun
’s last rays fading along the western horizon in a swath of washed out yellow with strings of blood running through it, his men, disguised as Chinese peasants, left the
Nanzing
in sampans and glided into the city through the two water gates. Once they were on the lake, the sunlight died, and the evening gloom hid them.

They rowed the length of the lake and went ashore opposite the county school. Since Robert knew Ningpo
’s streets well, he decided to avoid the main avenues and use side streets to reach the temple.

He gathered his troop in a narrow alley across from the Yen-ch
’ing temple. It bothered him that the
Nanzing
was anchored far out in the river on the opposite side of the city. Trying to return to the steamer through the city would increase the odds of failure.

They couldn
’t use the water gate again, since it was closed for the night, and the newer cannons the Taipings had been buying faced the river. Even in the dark, his band would be easy targets all the way to the steamer.

It would be safer if they attempted making their escape through one of the land gates to a spot along the river far enough from the city to be out of reach of the Taiping cannons.

He gathered his men in a close huddle. “We might not be able to fight our way through the city once the Taipings know we are here. We must act quickly and make our escape through the closest gate before their generals realize that we are a small force.”

“
We must strike like the cobra and fly like the hawk,” Anwar replied. Nervous laughter answered him.

Robert sent Guan-jiah and two men outside the city to pu
rchase horses and hold them near the south gate at the Altar of Agriculture. He was counting on the eunuch to find enough horses.

“
Guan-jiah,” he said, “if we don’t get out of the city, you must take the horses and the two men with you and return to Shanghai and safety.”

Guan-jiah
’s eyes closed until they were narrow slits, and Robert didn’t like what the eunuch was probably thinking. “Guan-jiah, you must do as I say. After all, the rest of us might have to take a different route to reach the
Nanzing
if we cannot make it to the south gate. If you do not leave, all three of you might be caught.”

Guan-jiah did not say a word. He took
his repeating rifle and left, and the other two followed. Robert watched until the night swallowed them. He hoped his servant would survive.

It was a long wait in that dark alley until midnight. He worried that Guan-jiah had been captured and the Taipings were torturing him. He was sure that the eunuch’s loyalty to Robert’s family would keep him from talking despite the pain. What about the other two? Would they hold up under torture? If the Taipings discovered his plans, the rebels could be setting a trap inside the temple walls.

He checked his pocket watch for the hundredth time while the m
inute hand inched toward midnight. Finally, it was time.

“
Let’s go,” he said. He was the first out of the alley and heard the others behind him as they ran across the wide street. The guards at the temple’s main gate died under a storm of bullets that made the small band sound as if they were an invading army. They must have fired hundreds of rounds crossing that street to reach the temple grounds.

Robert heard voices shouting and yelling in the distance. He held up a hand to stop his band.
“I want Leopold and Brent to secure the gate,” he said. “Reload before going inside.”

A moment later, he led the way toward the locked door that
would let them into the temple. They battered the door until it crashed open. Several Taiping guards waited on the other side with crossbows. One managed to get off a shot that wounded Cooper. Then the guards were dead.

“
Cooper?” Robert asked.

“
It’s nothing,” Cooper replied. “A flesh wound.” He’d lost his bush hat and brushed a hand across his baldhead leaving a smear of blood. “Don’t stop on my account. I will keep up.”

They hurried down the hall to the door that Guan-jiah had marked on the detailed map. Robert feared that he would open the door and find the room empty
—the Taipings could’ve changed their minds and beheaded his family before the execution date, or maybe they had moved Ayaou and the children to a different location.

Dreading the worst, he pushed the door open and lunged in with his two Colt revolvers ready. A shrill scream halted him. It was Ayaou. Her hair was in disaray and there was a wild look in her eyes. She held a wooden bench above her head and looked as if she were ready to s
mash him with it.

Anna was holding Herbert and was hiding behind her mother
’s legs. When Ayaou recognized him, her eyes registered disbelief. She tossed the bench aside and hurled herself across the room into his arms.

He pushed her away.
“We don’t have time.” He thrust one of the revolvers into her hands. “I’m sure you haven’t forgotten how to use this.” She had fought beside him against the Taipings in 1855 and saved his life.

“
Ba, Ba.” Anna ran to him, and Robert hoisted her and Herbert into his arms. His eyes filled with tears. His chest was tight and he struggled to breathe. He swallowed hard to help bury his feelings. It wasn’t time to rejoice.

“
We run,” he said. Spinning around, he led the way down the hall, out of the temple and to the gate. As he reached the street, a crossbow bolt buried itself in the wood of the gate a few inches from Anwar’s face. Robert and Anwar fired at the same time killing the Taiping who shot at them. The other Taipings turned and ran. Robert’s men crowded into the street and started shooting, but there was no one to shoot at. The roar of rifle fire was deafening. Keeping up a steady barrage, they fled down the avenue.

His thinking seemed clear and focused, but everything around him was moving in slow motion. He guessed that they could sustain this rate of fire for about four minutes—not counting the time it would take to reload.

“Hold your fire! Save your ammunition! Shoot only if you see the enemy. To the south gate!” A wild desperation was driving him. “If the gate is closed, we fight our way out!” He realized that they could fail in an attempt to take the gate. That had not occurred to him earlier. He cursed himself. He should have brought explosives to blow the gate open.

The others ran in a pack surrounding Robert
’s family. The smell of their sweat and the sound of heavy breathing filled the air.

As they hurried down the street, the men reloaded their weapons. Except for distant yelling and a ringing in Robert
’s ears, it was as if a blanket had been tossed over the city to muffle sound.

Drums started pounding as the Taipings sounded the alert. Panic tugged at his heart.
Reinforcments would be sent to the gates and in a few moments they could be trapped inside the city. If they didn’t escape soon, there would be no place to hide.

“
Shoot sparingly and only when needed,” Robert said, loud enough to be heard above the throbbing drums. “We do not have an endless supply of ammunition.” He feared that a large troop of Taipings would be guarding the south gate.

To his surprise, they
discovered the gate was open, and the two men he had sent with Guan-jiah were there. The half-dozen Taipings who had been guarding the gate were dead—the bodies piled to one side.

“
Who thought of this?” he asked, and felt a jolt of fear. “Where’s Guan-jaih?”

“
Guan-jiah didn’t want to just go outside and buy horses,” one of the men said, “so we killed these guards and took the gate. The noise you were making at the temple was loud enough so no one heard us. Guan-jiah was worried we might find ourselves outside with the rest of you trapped. Once we took the gate, he went to find the horses. It was his idea that we stay.”

“
This way!” It was Guan-jaih, who had emerged from the darkness of the tunnel leading through the city wall. He was breathing hard and was drenched in sweat. “My cousins are watching the horses at the Altar of Agriculture. We must hurry.”

Robert stepped aside and
waved for the others to move, but they hesitated. “What are you waiting for? Go.” He followed with his children and Ayaou.

When everyone emerged from the t
unnel, he said, “Guan-jiah, you are truely amazing. Without your fast thinking, we could have been trapped inside the city and killed. What did I do to deserve such loyalty and steadfastness? Surely, God guided you to me when I first arrived in Ningpo.”

Guan-jiah
’s reply was classically Confucious in its thinking. “Well, you could thank your God for bringing us together, and you might be correct. But then there is no way to prove that your God actually exists.” The eunuch shrugged and led the way across the bridge spanning the moat. Someone shouted from the wall. His troop turned and fired a volley at the battlements, and screams were heard

After everyone was across, Guan-jiah said,
“Help me push this wagon to the bridge.” The wagon full of dry hay was heavy, and it took half the men to move the wagon, while the other half kept up a withering barrage on the city’s wall so the Taipings could not shoot back.

Robert watched in amazement as the eunuch set fire to the hay.

“That hay cost ten yuan,” Guan-jiah said. “I could not get the farmer to lower his price.”

Robert wanted to laugh but didn
’t. “Good thinking,” he said. “How did you accomplish all that in such a short time?”

“
Probably with your ghost God’s help,” Guan-jiah replied.

Once the fire was blazing, Guan-jiah led the way toward the Alter of Agriculture.
“It might be wise to thank your God just in case He does exist,” he said. “It is not a good idea to anger a god. Besides, you have been a good master and the money I have earned has helped my family live a better life so I am also thankful that your God brought me to you.”

The horses were waiting with Guan-jiah
’s cousins. The eunuch took his cousins off to one side and gave them money while the troop mounted.

As they started moving, clouds obscured the stars. It was early morning and the air was chilly. The weather reminded Robert of the many times he
’d taken walks along this river bank.

Hearing the Taipings swarming inside the city sounding like billions of bees attacking
a bear was enough to stir fear in any man. By now, the rebels had to know that Robert’s force was small. Soldiers on the wall would have seen and reported, so he led the way around the city in an attempt to reach the river to escape.

The Taipings on the wall
started shooting at his troop, but they were out of range of the muskets and crossbows. Then Robert heard the shouting of a large body of men coming from the direction they were headed. When he saw the vanguard in the distance, he knew that there had to be hundreds of rebels in that formation. “We have to turn back.” He wheeled his horse. “The way to the river is blocked.”

A cannon boomed.

His reaction was to jump from the horse and drag Ayaou and the children to the ground so he could cover them with his body. He expected to get hit by grapeshot or see some of his men blown out of their saddles. Instead, it appeared from the sound of the boom and the bright flash that the ancient cannon must have exploded and taken some of the Taipings on the battlements with it. They were fortunate that the modern cannons faced the river.