11
The Forbidden City, 1860
There was a knock at my door. It was still early, but the sun was just peeking over the tops of the trees. I wrapped myself in a blanket and cracked open the door. I was shocked awake when I saw Prince Gong standing there. I ran my fingers through my hair and rubbed my eyes. I quickly bowed.
“Dress, quickly,” he said as he pushed his way into my tiny room. “Something dark and simple.”
“Why?” I asked as I went to my trunk. “What is happening?”
“I need your help. My brother has imprisoned several diplomats underneath the Ministry of Punishments. They are being tortured. If they die…” he looked at me. “…The revenge of the English will be very great.”
He turned away as I removed my sleeping robe and wrapped myself in a black garment. He handed me a metal file.
“Sheathe that close to your foot. The guards won’t dare go near your feet.”
I sat down on the bed and wrapped the file in gauze around my ankle. “Guards? What do you mean? What am I to do?”
“Come on,” he said opening the door. “We are going to rescue the prisoners.”
Prince Gong had a palanquin waiting for us. We climbed inside it and closed the curtains so no one could see who was inside. On the way to the Ministry of Punishment, Prince Gong quickly explained what was happening. The emperor had been at constant war with the Western powers for years. After the English had seized the Dagu Forts outside of Peking, the emperor had signed a peace treaty with them. A year later, the emperor was supposed to allow a European delegation to come to Peking to formalize the treaty and allow more trade ports to open, but the emperor refused. The Westerners attacked, but the Chinese army, to the surprise of all, repelled the Western invasion. But in the year since, China had not built up its army enough. A combined force of British and French forces had returned, and the emperor could not fight them. The European forces did not invade the city, though. Instead, they sent an envoy of twenty men, headed by a man named Harry Parkes, under a flag of truce to negotiate. However, the emperor seized the men, threw them into the Ministry of Punishments, and had them beaten and tightly bound.
“Some of the emperor’s advisors, including General Sushun, have advised my brother to kill the men. But if we do that, the British will attack and show no mercy. We didn’t take the men in battle as rightful prizes, they were kidnapped from under a flag of truce! The British believe my brother can no longer be trusted. We have to save the men, make sure they don’t die, as an act of good faith. I might still be able to undo the damage those wicked advisors have done.”
“Your brother won’t listen to you?” I asked.
Prince Gong looked pained. “My brother and I are not as close as we once were. We are at ideological odds. He thinks that my desire to work with the Westerners is a betrayal. But I am only trying to save his kingdom!”
“Betrayal?” I asked. “Is what we are doing treason?”
The prince looked at me with stern eyes. “I am asking you to risk your life, Yaqian, but it is the only way I know to save China.”
My heart beat hard in my chest. I was terrified, but I knew that I would be willing to do whatever Prince Gong asked of me. I trusted him far more than I should. But I trusted him more than the emperor, so his decision had to be better than letting the men die if that is what the emperor wanted.
“Tell me what to do,” I said.
The prince and I arrived first at the palace kitchens. The prince stayed hidden in the palanquin as I went in and asked a portly woman with a greasy face for a large kettle of beef broth and a small bowl. I told her it was for Imperial Concubine Yi. The woman seemed to doubt me, but when she saw the palanquin, she knew I must be there on important business. After only a few minutes, I climbed back into the palanquin with my ill-gotten broth.
The Ministry of Punishments was a small, dark building at the far southwest corner of the Forbidden City. When we arrived, the prince peeked out first to make sure no one was watching – even though someone was always watching. The prince had given me a piece of white linen to wrap my hair in. Between that and the black robe, I looked like a plain palace servant. The only thing that gave me away was my gait because of my bound feet. We entered a small side door carrying the kettle and bowl.
The emperor had ordered that the men only be given a small cup of weak tea every day. The prince feared that if the torture didn’t kill the men, starvation and dehydration would.
We came to a dark stairwell, and I carefully descended the stairs, balancing on my tiny feet as I carried the large kettle, as the prince instructed me, and he waited above. At the bottom of the stairs was a long dark hallway leading to a door guarded by a single man. I felt a drop of water drip on my forehead. I could hear the squeaks of rats. There was no natural light down here, only torches. I would never have guessed that such a dark and frightening place existed within the walls of the Forbidden City.
The guard watched me as I carefully walked toward him.
“Never seen you here before,” he grumbled.
I didn't reply. I kept my head down.
“Hold out your arms,” he ordered.
“What?” I asked.
“I have to pat you down. Make sure you don’t have any weapons.”
I put down the kettle and held out my arms. He slid his huge hands from my wrists to my shoulders and touched my breasts on his way to my waist. He slowly ran his hands over my hips and buttocks and thighs. I stepped back before he could go any lower.
“That’s enough of that,” I said, picking up my kettle.
“I didn’t check your lower legs,” he said.
I looked at him with shock and disgust. “How dare you! My feet are sacred. No man save my future husband is allowed to go anywhere near them.”
He scoffed. “Chinese…” he mumbled as he reached for his keys. He unlocked the door and let me in.
As I stepped into the room, the smell slapped me in the face. The room reeked of excrement, urine, decay, and death.
Prince Gong had told me there should have been close to forty men in the dungeon, but I only counted eighteen men lying on the floor, and they all started groaning as I entered. Some of the men were not moving, so they most likely were dead or very nearly were. Their bodies were so contorted, I would not have known they were men. They were all bound with their arms behind them as tightly as possible and their legs bent back, nearly tied to their hands. This kind of torture was known as kao-niu and was meant to prolong a victim’s pain for as long as possible. Every day, water would be poured on the men’s bonds so they would tighten a little bit each day.
I bent down beside one of the men to pour him some broth and got a better look at his hands. They were the most horrid things I have ever seen. They were crushed by the bonds and were green and black in color. Yellow pus was dripping from them. It reminded me of when my feet were crushed and reshaped during my binding years, only this was much worse. I had to hide my face in my sleeve for a moment to keep from gagging from the smell.
“Hurry up, girl!” the guard yelled, causing me to jump.
“Sorry,” I said. “Forgive me.” I poured some of the broth into the bowl and held it to the mouth of one of the men. He eagerly slurped the soup. I did my best to help hold his head up so he wouldn’t waste any. The men started crying and calling to me. I looked around and began to worry I wouldn’t have enough broth for all of them. Worse, the guard was watching me so I couldn’t do anything about their bonds.
“You there,” I heard Prince Gong call out. The guard turned around. “I’m here to check on your prisoners.”
The guard turned to him and explained the situation. I didn’t bother trying to hear what they were saying, how the prince was distracting the guard; I needed to focus on the men.
“Parkes?” I whispered. “Harry Parkes?” Prince Gong had taught me the name of the leader of the British envoy during our ride over. He said to make sure Parkes was a priority.
“Here,” one of the men softly groaned.
I picked up my things and went to his side. “Parkes?” I asked again. He nodded. I poured him a bowl of soup and helped him drink it.
“Thank you,” he said, one of the few English phrases I knew, but I could not reply in English. I only nodded.
I checked to make sure the prince was still distracting the guard. The door had swung shut slightly without the guard there to hold it open, so I pulled the file out of its sheath at my ankle and used it to loosen some of the ropes. I couldn’t completely cut them, that would be too suspicious, but I did loosen them enough so that the blood would flow again. Then I loosened some of the ropes that were holding his legs taut.
When Parkes realized what I was doing, he tried to tell me something else, but I didn’t understand him.
“I don’t understand, I’m sorry,” I said to him in Chinese.
“Who are you?” he asked me in Chinese.
I was so shocked I could only ask him, “You speak Chinese?”
He nodded. “Please, tell Prince Gong we must be released. If we don’t return, the British will attack. I have lost track of time, but they will attack any day. Warn him.”
“I will,” I reassured him.
He nodded and lowered his head, too exhausted to continue. I patted his shoulder and he grunted in pain. I realized that his arm had dislocated from his shoulder, but there was nothing I could do about that. I rushed to help the other men while I could.
I went around the room, feeding them and loosening their bonds. At least three of the men were dead.
“I’ll come back and check tomorrow,” I heard Prince Gong say, louder than normal. I sheathed my file just as the door opened and the guard returned.
“What are you doing?” his voice boomed. “Cooking them a ten-course meal? Get the hell out of here already.”
I gathered my things and headed for the door. As I exited the Ministry of Punishments, I saw Prince Gong berating a woman who had arrived with a kettle, undoubtedly the woman tasked with giving the men their weak tea. She dropped her kettle and ran away in tears. I have no idea what he said to her, and I didn’t care. I only wanted to get back into the palanquin and tell him what happened.
“You didn’t tell me Parkes spoke Chinese,” I said as soon as the Prince was in the palanquin.
“I didn’t think you would have enough time to talk to him,” the prince said.
“He told me the British are going to attack if they aren’t released,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “That is why I am trying to save their lives, so I can get them released alive.”
“He said they are going to attack any day, any moment!” I said.
The prince groaned and banged his fist against one of the palanquin’s support beams. “That is too soon. The emperor will never release them in time. Minister Jin and General Sushun are working against me every step of the way.”
“Then what are we to do?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
By then, we had arrived back at my room. The prince helped me out of the palanquin. In the sunlight of morning, I was able to see just how filthy I was. I had been so caught up in the moment, helping the men and then warning Prince Gong, that I had forgotten the horrors that I had just witnessed. In the calm daylight, it all began rushing back to me.
“The men…” I started. The prince nodded, as if he understood how I felt. “Some of them were dead. Their hands…” I held my hand to my mouth to keep from crying. “Why?” I asked.
“For some men, cruelty is the only way they know how to deal with any situation,” he replied.
“No,” I said. “Why me? Why did I have to see that? Why did you need me to help you?”
“Because,” he explained, “I needed a woman’s help and you are small and inconspicuous. You have bound feet the guard wouldn’t dare touch…and…”
“And?” I prodded.
“And because you are the only woman in this cursed city I can trust.”
At that, the prince took my face in his hands and kissed me. Even though I smelled of fecal matter and rotting corpses. Even though my clothes and my hands were smeared with filth. Even though our minds were riddled with the thought of torture and we knew the British were going to launch an attack on the Son of Heaven, he kissed me. And I kissed him back. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight. He moved his hands from my face to my waist and lifted me from the ground. It was my first kiss, and I suddenly realized why some women would leave the glorious service of the empress herself for a man. I would have left with him right there if we would have had anywhere to go and nothing else to do, but too much was at stake. He slowly lowered me to the ground and let me go. I pulled my lips from his and backed away.
“Pack your things,” he said. “You may have to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”
I nodded. “Should I warn Imperial Concubine Yi? Or Empress Zhen? Or the other ladies?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “Tell no one. No one must ever know you were involved in this. Remember, it is treason.”