Tung was kept waiting at Jung Lu’s door for over an hour; when finally admitted, he began to bluster, whereupon Jung Lu feigned sleep. “He gave no consent, but leant on his seat and slumbered.”[85] Tung then expostulated with Jung Lu for his rudeness, but the Commander-in-chief only smiled, and brought the interview to an end by remarking that Tung’s only way to get the guns would be to persuade the Old Buddha to give him Jung Lu’s head with them. “Apply for an audience at once,” he said. “She believes you to be a brave man and will certainly comply with any request you may make.”
Tung Fu-hsiang left in a towering rage, and made straight for the Forbidden City, although the hour for audiences was long since past. At the gate of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy (Huang Chi-tien) he made a loud disturbance, bidding the eunuchs inform Her Majesty that the Kansuh Commander-in-chief was without, desiring audience. It so happened that the Old Buddha was engaged in painting a design of bamboos on silk, and she was highly displeased at being thus disturbed. Tung was ushered in, however, and fell on his knees. “Well,” said Her Majesty, “I suppose that you have come to report the complete destruction of the Legations? This will be the tenth time since the end of last Moon.” “I have come,” replied Tung Fu-hsiang, “to ask Your Majesty’s permission to impeach the Grand Secretary Jung Lu as a traitor and the friend of barbarians. He has the guns which my army needs; with their aid not a stone would be left standing in the whole of the Legation quarter. But he has sworn never to lend these guns, even though Your Majesty should command it.” Angrily the Old Buddha replied, “Be silent. You were nothing but a brigand to begin with, and if I allowed you to enter my army it was only to give you an opportunity of atoning for your former misdeeds. Even now you are behaving like a brigand, forgetting the majesty of the Imperial Presence. Of a truth, your tail is becoming too heavy to wag. Leave the Palace forthwith, and do not let me find you here again unless summoned to audience.”
Reproduction of Picture painted on Silk, by Her Majesty Tzŭ Hsi.
Kang Yi declares that we shall never take the Legations so long as Jung Lu continues to exercise his present great influence at Court. Li Shan, who is also a great favourite of the Empress Dowager, is now on the side of those who would make peace with the foreigners, and has been impeached for it by Na T’ung.
The following proclamation is now placarded all over the city, in accordance with the Empress Dowager’s orders issued to Prince Chuang. They say that she means to pay the rewards from her own privy purse:
“Rewards.
“Now that all foreign churches and chapels have been razed to the ground, and that no place of refuge or concealment is left for the foreigners, they must unavoidably scatter, flying in every direction. Be it therefore known and announced to all men, scholars and volunteers, that any person found guilty of harbouring foreigners will incur the penalty of decapitation. For every male foreigner taken alive a reward of 50 taels will be given; for every female 40 taels, and for every child 30 taels; but it is to be clearly understood that they shall be taken alive, and that they shall be genuine foreigners. Once this fact has been duly authenticated, the reward will be paid without delay. A special proclamation, requiring reverent obedience.”
Much larger rewards than these were paid in the tenth year of Hsieng-Feng (1860) for the heads of barbarians, but of course in those days they were comparatively rare, whereas now, alas, they have become as common as bees!
This morning an important trial took place outside the gate of Prince Chuang’s palace; Yi Ku, Fen Che, and Kuei Ch’un presided. Over nine hundred people were summarily executed by the Boxers, in some cases before any proofs whatsoever had been substantiated in regard to their alleged connection with foreigners. Helpless babes even were amongst the slain. Fen Che is nothing more than a butcher and the Old Buddha remonstrated with Prince Chuang for not keeping the Boxers in better order.