good brains they were, too, as I discovered, and for all his jokes and guffaws he was a dangerous and ambitious man. He had great charm, and when you sat with him in his big cluttered yamen (for he kept nothing like the sybaritic state of the other Wangs; rude comfort was his sort) it was like gossiping with a chum in the gunroom: the place was littered with port bottles, full and empty, along with three Colt revolvers on the side-table, boxes of patent matches, a broken telescope, a well-thumbed Bible next to the Woolwich Manual of Fortification, a shelf packed with jars of Coward’s mixed pickles, bundles of silver ingots tied with red waxed string and thrown carelessly on the bed, an old barometer, piles of French crockery, jade ornaments, tea-cups, a print of the Holy Well in Flintshire propped up against The Young Cricketer’s Companion, and papers, books, and rubbish spread in dusty confusion.
And in the middle of it all, that laughing fat rascal in his untidy yellow robe, swilling port by the pint and eating steak with a knife and fork, pushing the bottle at me, lighting our cheroots, chortling at his own jokes, and crying thanks after his servants – who were the ugliest old crones imaginable, for Jen-kan of all the Wangs kept no harem, or affected any grand style. Aye, it was easy to forget that in little more than a year he’d climbed within a step of supreme power in this crazy revolution, and held in his podgy fingers all the reins of state.16
The other Wangs were a surly crew of peasants beside him – Hung Jen-ta, the Heavenly King’s elder brother, who gave himself ridiculous airs and sported silk robes of rainbow colours; Ying Wang, the Heroic King, who bit his nails and stuttered; and the formidable Chen Yu-cheng, who had abetted Lee in the great defeat of the Imps a few weeks before; he was from the same stable as the Loyal Prince, but even younger and more handsome, dressed like a plain soldier, never saying a word beyond a grunt, and staring through you with black snake eyes. They said he was the most ferocious of all the Taiping leaders, and I believed it.
One other I met at Jen-kan’s house, a weedy, pathetic little lad of about eleven, tricked out in a gold crown and sceptre and a robe fairly crusted with jewels; everyone fawned on him and knocked head something extravagant, for he was the Tien Kuei, the Junior Lord, son of the Heavenly King – which made him Jesus’s nephew, I suppose.
Possibly they all talked sense in the Council, with Hung Jen-kan, though I doubt it; in public their conversation seemed to consist of childish discussion of the Heavenly King’s latest decree, or poem, or pronouncement, with misquoted references to the Scriptures every other sentence. It was like listening to a gang of labourers who’d got religious mania; it wasn’t real; if I hadn’t had Jen-kan to talk to, I believe I’d have lost all hold on common sense.
At least he could give me occasional news of the world outside, which he did very fairly and humorously (although if I’d known the thoughts that were passing behind that genial chubby mask I’d have got precious little sleep of nights). It was a waiting time, that early summer of ’60, not only for me, but for all China. Elgin had arrived at last, and sailed north with Grant and the Frogs to the Peiho mouth, whence they would march 15,000 strong to Pekin in August, Jen-kan reckoned, though it was doubtful if they would get there before September. By then Lee would have launched his sudden stroke at Shanghai, forcing Bruce to choose one side or t’other at last; meanwhile Jen-kan was bombarding him with letters to which Bruce didn’t reply. So there was a lull through June and July, with Grant and Elgin girding their loins to the north, and Bruce and the Taipings listening for each other at either end of the Yangtse valley. Only one minor portent disturbed the peace, and when Jen-kan told me about it, I couldn’t believe my ears. But it was plain, sober, unlikely truth, as follows:
With Shanghai in uncertainty, the China merchants there had got the notion to raise a mercenary force to help defend the city if the Taipings attacked. According to Jen-kan, it was a bit of a joke – a mob of waterfront rowdies, sailors, deserters, and beachcombers, everyone but the town drunk – oh, no, he was there, too, in force. There were Britons, Yankees, Frogs, wogs, wops, Greeks, every sort of dago – and who d’you think was at the head of this band of angels? None other than Mr Frederick Townsend Ward.
It just shows what can happen when your back’s turned. How he’d graduated from steamboat mate to this new command, I couldn’t imagine, but when they took the field in June it was the biggest farce since Grimaldi retired. For young Fred, not content with guarding Shanghai, led his amazing rabble upriver one fine night to attack a Taiping outpost at Sungkiang. They found the place, for a wonder, but most of ’em were howling drunk by the time they got there, and the Taipings shot the boots off them and they all tumbled back to Shanghai, Ward damning and blinding every step of the way.
But he didn’t give up, not he. Inside the month he was back with another crew, sober this time, and most of ’em Filippino bandits, with a few American and British officers. He’d drilled some sense and order into them, God knows how … and they took Sungkiang, bigod, after a fearful cut-and-thrust in which they lost sixty dead and a hundred wounded – and friend Frederick got a hundred and thirty thousand bucks commission from the China merchants.
Jen-kan was disposed to laugh the whole thing off, but I wasn’t so sure. It was beyond belief … and then again, it wasn’t; I’d only to remember that bright eye and reckless grin, and thank God I was well clear of the dangerous young son-of-a-bitch. And take note, he’d done a small but significant thing: he’d knocked the first dent in the invincible Taiping armour, and started something that was to change the face of China. Little mad Fred. But at the time I knew only what Jen-kan told me, heaving with merriment at the thought of how affronted Lee would be to have this Yankee pup nipping his ankle. “Will he be more wary now, when he marches on Shanghai?” he wondered.
I was doing some wondering on my own account, as July wore out, for Lee was due to march in late August, with me two days ahead of him, and I was counting the time with a will. And then, just after the turn of the month, Jen-kan showed what lay behind his genial mask, and frightened the life out of me.
We were boozing in his yamen after luncheon, and he was telling me of Ward’s latest exploit – a slap at another Taiping outpost, Chingpu, with three hundred men. Unluckily for him the rebels had ten thousand under two good leaders, Chow the Taiping, and Savage, a Royal Navy deserter; they’d torn Ward’s attack to bits, killing about a hundred, and the bold Fred had been carried home with five wounds.
“But they say he will come back to Chingpu!” cries Jen-kan. “Poor fellow! Loyal Prince Lee himself has gone down from Soochow to take command; he will crack this Ward under his thumbnail, and then …” he beamed, filling my glass, “…Šhe will sweep on to Shangahi.”
I sat up at this. “When do I go? Two weeks?”
He studied me for a long moment, with his fat crafty grin, and pulled his old robe round his big shoulders. “Let us talk outside … in English,” says he, collaring the bottle, and we strolled out into the warm sunshine, Jen-kan blinking contentedly at his miniature garden – you know the kind of thing, from Chinese exhibitions: dwarf trees and flowers set among tiny streams and lakes and waterfalls, with doll’s-house pagodas and bridges all to scale, like Lilliput.
“Why do we love things in little?” muses Jen-kan, admiring the line of tiny palms that fringed the garden. “Do they make us feel like giants … or gods, perhaps?” He sipped his wine. “Speaking of gods, I have often meant to ask you … what did you think of the Heavenly King?”
Now, neither of us had ever mentioned my visit to the Palace, though I was certain he knew about it. And while he was no fanatic, like Lee, I supposed he must be devoted to the Heavenly Loose-screw, so I hesitated how to answer. He settled his broad bottom on a rock under a tree. “I ask, because I am curious to know what you will tell Mr Bruce.”
“What
