04 Peking Nightmares (The Earl’s Other Son Series, #4)

by Andrew Wareham

  “Hold it until we need the money, is my first opinion.”

  “And mine, my lord. There are collectors who would pay through the nose for imperial jade. A few years and they may have bigger noses!”

  Magnus realised this was a joke and chuckled along with it.

  A month and they attended the Governor’s Ball where they found themselves important figures. The Governor had arrived from Hong Kong to act as host, as he did every year, and used the occasion to recognise the virtues of the Shanghai notables.

  Magnus was presented and made his bow and was publicly congratulated on his heroic conduct.

  “The second Distinguished Service Order, my lord, for the intaking of Tientsin and the promotion for your conduct in the battles on the march to Peking. As all will know, it is rare indeed for any officer to receive the DSO, most uncommon to be so distinguished twice. It might be observed that a member of your lower deck received a well-earned Victoria Cross while fighting at your back.”

  That had not been appreciated by the people of Shanghai, or those few of them who counted, who were all present. There was a restrained murmur of applause.

  Magnus and Ellen made their bows and stepped to the side to be surrounded by well-wishers, to the delight of neither. They survived the experience.

  Rather to their annoyance, there were newspapermen present and they were promised headlines in the local press. Both could imagine greater pleasures.

  They danced a little and patronised the buffet as was necessary and were invited to sit and eat at the Governor’s side.

  “You know your China, my lord. How widespread was this Boxer thing? Need we fear repercussions in Hong Kong?”

  “No, Your Excellency. In the highest degree unlikely. The Boxers were created by the great drought in North China. The rains have returned and the Boxers have disappeared back to their villages. The sole caveat I would offer is that the Boxers believe they achieved total success. They understood that if they exterminated the foreign godmen and their converts then the gods would send back their rain. A drought in the South might elicit the same response.”

  “How can we possibly counter that, my lord?”

  “Directly? We cannot but it is simple to avoid a famine – if the rains fail, then we must supply rice by the thousands of tons.”

  “But the expense, my lord!”

  “How much has the Uprising cost us, Your Excellency? I am sure the great hongs would respond most positively to your call – they will have no wish to be burned out again.”

  The Governor took a little comfort in that thought. A request for assistance accompanied by a judicious distribution of knighthoods would no doubt be successful.

  “Where did the Boxers obtain their guns, my lord?”

  “Germany, primarily, Your Excellency. Some as well came from the Qing. That will not happen a second time - the Empress’ fingers were thoroughly burned on this occasion.”

  “Some of the dead missionaries were German.”

  “Plenty more where they came from, Your Excellency. They died for the Fatherland, even if they were not aware of the fact. I cannot imagine that the German nobility – what do they call them, Junkers, is it? I doubt they care for the death of a few bourgeois missionaries.”

  “That’s true enough. Some damned strange people, these missionaries, you know, Eskdale. I met some at a reception hosted by the Bishop and one of them had the damned impertinence to enquire after the state of my soul! I told him straight he was here to convert the Chinks, not to have the confounded arrogance to question me!”

  “Quite, Your Excellency. Not the best bred of fellows, you know.”

  The Governor was glad Magnus agreed with him. They parted on the best of terms.

  Chapter Ten

  The Earl’s Other Son Series

  Peking Nightmares

  Admiral Bruce sat in Captain Grafton’s office, Magnus to his front.

  “Two gunboats designed specifically for the upper reaches of the Yangtse, Eskdale. Woodlark and Woodcock. One hundred and fifty tons. Flat bottomed, effectively. Main deck carrying her big guns fore and aft and a central superstructure of two decks taking up three parts of the length. Awnings a fixture and easily spread for the summer on both decks of the island. A pair of six pounders and four Maxims. Good for thirteen knots. One hundred and forty-five feet and twenty-four on the beam. One lieutenant as captain, a mid and a Chief Engine Room Artificer as the seniors. Twenty-two in the crew plus the unofficial Chinese to act as stokers, laundry room and galley hands and servants to the three important figures.”

  “A complement of twenty-five in total, sir.”

  “Exactly, Eskdale. They will steam up the gorge at low water and never return – based on Chungking. Crew can be shifted about, new men going up on commercial steamers, all very simple to arrange. You will want to go up yourself at least once a year.”

  Magnus was not sure that he would want that life himself. The lieutenants in command would be lords of their own little empires, which might suit some officers who were not anxious for promotion. Moor up at Chungking and patrol for a few days of every month. The rest of their time, they could spend in their no doubt luxurious accommodation onshore, with appropriate company to occupy their free hours. It would be profitable as well, bribes readily available, he did not doubt. For a man who fancied half-pay retirement to a villa in Hong Kong at forty, with a good few thousand tucked away and Chinese mistresses to occupy his spare time, it could be an ideal posting.

  The Admiral was also somewhat dubious.

  “Officers and crews will be appointed in Hong Kong from the Admiral’s pool of spare bodies as the ships are made ready in the yard.”

  Both knew that the Admiral always had a few officers hanging about, unwanted aboard their original ship and not sufficiently incompetent or criminal to be dismissed by a court.

  “The boats will be part of my flotilla in name only, it would seem, sir.”

  The Admiral agreed, pointing out that it was not his own choice.

  “For the rest, Eskdale, you are to have Taku, the destroyer Roger Keyes took, and four gunboats to patrol the lower reaches of the river. There will be Americans as well.”

  “Small, is it not, sir? Taku, that is. The rumours we had heard before we took her were false. Five inch guns, they said, and bigger than the latest British boats.”

  They both knew that the reality was different, almost certainly, because of the endemic corruption in the Qing government. No doubt mandarins of the Navy department had pocketed a proportion of the cash that would have bought the bigger destroyers.

  “Crew of fifty-eight. Six of German forty-seven millimetre guns and two torpedo tubes. I believe she will have some Maxims added. Not much of a ship, but ample for the river.”

  “Something like a three pounder, the forty-seven millimetre. A good gun for the river if it’s a quick firer. Probably make thirty knots, which is more than will ever be used on an inland waterway. Useful enough, sir. The gunboats – well we know all about them. Slugs!”

  “Thirteen knots, all four. Not really sufficient power for times when the river is in spate, that I will admit. But Taku will be able to get inland and doesn’t draw too much. Provided the boats are stationed in the right places, they should do some good.”

  Magnus was forced to admit that was probably true. The country was within reason quiet again – just the ordinary river pirates and brigands to put down.

  “What have you been able to give me, sir?”

  The Admiral showed a little uncomfortable.

  “Two old Redbreasts, Eskdale – heavily armed for their size. Six four inch quickfirers and a pair of three pounders. The yard is looking at the possibility of adding a pair of Maxims to the bridge.”

  Magnus grimaced.

  “Single shaft, if I remember, sir. They turn like pregnant cows in a thunderstorm! It needs to be a wide stretch of river if you wish to reverse course in a Redbreast. Add to that, they draw a good two fathoms.
”

  “Well… yes, I have to admit they have one or two drawbacks. A good seaman will always be able to clubhaul them – drop an anchor and use that as a pivot to turn in narrow waters. They will have a lieutenant-in-command and I shall pick young, go-ahead men for the position.”

  Magnus was forced to accept that in the command of a young, ambitious officer, they might be useful ships.

  “Lapwing is set up to be your flag, Eskdale. She has a large cabin and a pair of offices on her flag deck, and space for a paymaster, a lieutenant, to act as your secretary. Better you should be on one of the more heavily armed pair.”

  Magnus agreed that made sense.

  “What of the other two, sir?”

  “Brambles – smaller, I will admit – but twin shafts and well known for being useful inshore boats. They only draw eight feet. Two four inchers and four of twelve pounders and, again, the yard is fitting Maxims high on the superstructure. With a crew of eighty-five – ten more than the Redbreasts – they can muster a landing party as well.”

  “That gives me almost four hundred men, sir. Not a great number when one considers the size of the Yangtse and the population swarming on its banks.”

  “You will be able to call on aid from the Army, if the need arises. There will be a greater garrison in Shanghai from now. The government at home has woken up to the desirability of having a battalion or two posted to what is one of the richest cities in the whole empire. On top of that, I have decided to unify the sea-going – well, I suppose that should be river-going – command. You will have every vessel in Shanghai.”

  That sounded impressive, but Magnus was not aware of any other ships based on Shanghai. He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “The yard has some steam launches, not a lot more than picket boats, but they carry a machine gun and, being what they are, can float in two feet of water. They do some work with the Police. A petty officer with four deckhands to each – Chinese, of course, but entirely reliable. There’s six of them. If need be, they can tow a small lighter with half a company of infantry.”

  “I would imagine they could only be used in the immediate environs of Shanghai, sir.”

  “Of course, Eskdale. Useful for work with the Customs and for putting down riots in the Chinese townships. Good for keeping order in the docks as well.”

  The Admiral showed uncomfortable, unwilling to say more. Magnus immediately turned the conversation – wise new captains did not grill their admirals. He would ask about and find out from civilians in the know.

  “Don’t much like the news from Home, sir. The Queen seems not to be in the best of health.”

  “Anno domini, I fear, Eskdale. Her Majesty is a long way from being young. I much suspect that the Christmas coming will be her last. A pity that she cannot be given news of victory in South Africa to match the good tidings from China.”

  “It will be a different world without her, sir. Few of us in the Navy are able to remember Britain ruled by a king.”

  “More than sixty years on the throne, Eskdale. The Navy was almost entirely sail when she stepped up to rule. Better days, in some ways, you know.”

  “Muzzle-loading, black powder cannon, sir? Three deckers gliding into battles at two knots, or so they say. Not for me, sir.”

  “All the same, you young fire-eaters! We have too many wars these days. Nothing to beat the sight of great pyramids of sails in the sunlight – I remember them well from my time as a midshipman. I was too late for the Crimea and have never served in an expedition on land, Eskdale. I am two years from the end of my career – and I have never heard a gun fired in anger except a distant rumble from onshore as you took the Taku Forts. Never seen action at sea. Different for you, I know. It’s not the same Navy – nor should it be. The very thought of a German fleet daring to compare itself to us! Glad I shall be gone before it comes to war with the Kaiser. It will, you know, Eskdale. Another ten or twenty years and they will challenge us. You will be a battleship captain, or have a flotilla as a rear-admiral, by then. I wish you luck of it.”

  Magnus smiled and shook his head.

  “Not me, sir. I shall be put out to grass after this appointment, almost certainly. I have trodden on too many toes, sir. Three years here and I shall be sent Home and put on half-pay for a few years and then given a shore posting if my father is alive, or be informed that my services are no longer required if I have succeeded to the title. I doubt I shall ever tread the deck of a battleship, sir.”

  “Pity! You’re probably right, however. You have shown that you can think and are willing to take a risk. Not the sort the Admiralty wants aboard one of its floating castles. Not impossible they would give you a protected cruiser and a flotilla of destroyers – they want a different sort for that.”

  “I only wish they might, sir. That would be a service I could love. Small ships, ripping the battle line to shreds with a salvo of a score of torpedoes – there’s where the future should lie, sir.”

  “Off record, and I never said this, Eskdale, I agree. You’re right – but I want a knighthood when I retire, and I won’t get one if ever I am heard to speak against the battleship!”

  Magnus knew the Admiral was right. He retired from the presence inclined to think the Navy was unwise to gag its most intelligent thinkers, to demand conformity of all of its senior officers.

  The flag-lieutenant accompanied him to the side.

  “Your gunboats will be mustered in Shanghai in about eight days, sir. All of them. Taku is due in port from refitting in Hong Kong at much the same time, sir. Captain Grafton has the details. Ammunition for Taku, sir, may be a problem.”

  The destroyer would be the sole ship in the Navy equipped with forty-seven millimetre guns. Magnus presumed that ammunition would have to be purchased from Germany if the stocks captured at the Taku Fort were insufficient. He took the question to Captain Grafton.

  “There were no stocks at the Forts, Eskdale. The sole supply is sat in the ship’s magazine. That, at least, is full. You have two torpedo tubes, each with one up the spout and one reload. If you indulge in more than about four hours of fighting, you will have the Maxims that have been fitted and that’s all. I cannot imagine that the Admiralty will wish to buy in Germany so I don’t know where any additional rounds will come from.”

  Magnus agreed that it was a problem. He buttonholed Blantyre that evening.

  “I’ll have a word with Sia, my lord. He will have an answer and he wants to do me a favour just now.”

  It seemed probable to Magnus that the Imperial Navy had purchased ammunition stocks when it had bought its new destroyers from Germany. If the supply had actually been delivered, then it had been sold off by junior officers, as was normal practice in the corrupt Qing empire. It was entirely possible that the empress herself had arranged and taken a cut from the deal; she had no qualms about stealing from her own government. There was a good chance that the rounds were still in China, waiting for a buyer – they were not the easiest of goods to fence.

  “If they are still about in China, Sia will be able to locate them, sir.”

  Blantyre nodded.

  “I have been working more closely with him these last few weeks, my lord. We have been able to lay our hands on an amount of goods in Peking, between us, and have been shipping them out to Europe. He has contacts in London now but there are wealthy buyers in Vienna and Paris and Berlin who he does not know and I do. Quite a pretty little profit we have turned!”

  Ellen would stand to inherit a lot of that profit. Magnus was much in favour.

  “It sounds good business to me, sir. I find I am to have command of some armed steam launches from the dockyard. Do you know anything about them?”

  “Oh, yes! The Council demanded them about three years ago. There was some mention of a strike along the Bund – longshoremen and sampans and barges and such all to refuse to work without a rise in pay. You know what a strike is like here, my lord – it will always start with a riot and the burning down of a ware
house or two. This time they were faced with six machine guns on the river as well as the few rifles of the Shanghai Volunteers. They decided against their riot, seeing that there were Chinese hands on the triggers. They know that the gwailos will often threaten and then not shoot; they were damned certain of what their own people would do!”

  Magnus laughed, though he did not find the apparent contempt for human life so often displayed by the Chinese to be at all funny.

  “A week of idleness, my love. I have sat down with Grafton’s intelligence files and know as much as he does of what is happening on the river – that means I am still almost wholly ignorant. For the next few days, I have nothing to do.”

  It was not unpleasant to sit and talk and go out to the hotels and clubs and generally do very little for a few days. Magnus discovered that he was tired, had overworked himself in the months of the Rising. He needed to relax, and to talk over the horrors he had seen and which threatened his sleep some nights.

  “I had thought that we had something to offer China. It used to seem to me that we could teach Western ways to the great advantage of the ordinary people here. What I saw in Tientsin and Peking cured me of that delusion, Ellen. The savagery I saw unleashed, coupled with a massive degree of larceny, left me convinced that we are as primitive as any set of fuzzy-wuzzies out in the world’s jungles. It was the sort of thing one might have expected of the French or Italians – but we know they are of a lower sort of humanity. It was not what I thought I would ever see from British officers, and it surprised me in the Americans. The Russians – well, they are not true white men, far too much of the Asiatic in them – so one is not surprised that they are closer to the animal. But not from our people, naval as well!”

  “Theft on a grand scale – even our newspapers have animadverted on the looting – that I know about. But savagery, Magnus?”