Devil Number Six

POD #1: Qingpu, China, August 2nd, 1860

A bullet whizzed past Frederick Townsend Ward's head just as he stepped past this small garrison post's main gatehouse. It came so close he could feel a bit of his hair get trimmed off.

But he had expected this ambush. Now it was all just execution on his part. He drew his revolver, a Colt Dragoon, and began firing back at the Taiping troops trying to scurry behind cover to reload.

The other troops behind him, a motley mixture of deserters from the British Navy, American, Filipino and Irish soldiers of fortune and unemployed Frenchmen, had dived for cover as a hail of rebel musket balls flew towards them. They only returned fire slowly and sporadically, most of them desperately attempting to find a way out.

"I SHALL NOT ALLOW ANY MAN UNDER MY COMMAND TO BE A COWARD! FORM UP AND CHARGE!" Ward threw his now empty revolver to the side and drew another identical weapon from its holster, continuing to fire as ran right at the Taiping troops covering behind the walls of their barracks. As he got closer, he drew a bowie knife and a hatchet from his belt, hacking and slashing with wild abandon.

Inspired by the heroics of their leader, the 250 man Foreign Army Corps surged forward into the main courtyard, firing wildly before closing in with knives, axes, swords, bayonets and clubs. The rebels, backed into a corner, fought back desperately. One by one, Ward's force began to shrink, but for every one that fell, 4 or 5 rebels fell along with them.

The rebels began to give ground, retreating from the barracks and stables into the fort's main hall.

"Macanaya! They're shooting from our left! Take some firebombs and burn them out! Mr. Burgevine, take your men and follow me!"

Macanaya, Ward's Filipino adjutant, sprinted across the courtyard towards towards a small temple in a corner of the fort. The burlap sack he carried on his shoulders was filled with bottles of lamp oil. Other troopers nearby sprayed the temple with bullets from revolvers and rifles to keep the enemy's head down.

With a mighty heave and a crash of glass, the temple went up in a smoky plume of fire as Macanaya jogged back towards his positions.

Henry Burgevine, Ward's Executive Officer, rallied a couple platoons of men and charged towards the main hall. They took heavy fire from the remaining Taiping troops but quickly managed to close the distance. The struggle was brutal, but after an hour or so of fighting, the guns fell silent and blades were lowered.

By the end of the day, Qingpu would be under the control of Imperial Chinese forces.

"I think I have a future here", Ward thought to himself aloud as he surveyed the burning ruins of the garrison fort from the top of the walls.

"A very bright one indeed."
 
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20 Years Later, August 2nd, 1880:

Frederick Townsend Ward contemplated the mustachioed, bespectacled stranger in front of his desk.

"You are..." he began, not sure what to make of the young man. He looked towards his aides for guidance, Macanaya simply shrugged, while Wu Xu averted his gaze and stared at his shoes.

"My name is Theodore Roosevelt. I have come to Shanghai to offer my services to you."

"Yes, but what are you doing here in China of all places? My assistants tell me you graduated from Harvard Law School at the age of 20, top of your class no less. Why aren't you practicing law or running for political office?"

"General Ward, if I may ask, what are you doing in China of all places? There is a place in every sovereign's army for a general of your caliber, yet you wear the robes of a mandarin and call yourself a subject of the Emperor."

Ward nodded quietly in agreement. "Yes, I suppose fate has lead me here...but in a past life, I was an underpaid sailor on a tramp steamer. This was and remains the end of the line for me. You on the other hand, I've known you for all of five minutes and I see potential in you. You...you have gifts..."

"And why not let me show them to you?"

"You are a newly married man Mr. Roosevelt, in fact my daughter is entertaining your lovely young wife in my parlor at the moment. Are you sure this country is also right for her as well?"

"She understands that I am a man who needs to live the strenuous life. If your assessment of my abilities is correct General, then I have much to accomplish here."

Ward narrowed his eyes and stared at Roosevelt for what seemed to be an eternity before speaking again, "I have an open assignment in Ili, near the border with the Russian Empire. You will be observing General Stuart. The governor of the region is Dong Fuxiang and you will be reporting to him."

"I understand that the Chinese are having difficulties in that area."

"Yes, with the Russians. A show of force is in order. I assume you know how to ride a horse and shoot a gun." Ward reached into his desk and took a Colt Single Action Army from it, sliding it across his desk.

"That will be unnecessary. I have two on me already." Roosevelt pulled back his jacket to reveal a pair of holstered pistols.

"Please Mr. Roosevelt, I insist. Besides, you never know when you'll need it."
 
A timeline involving Frederick Townsend Ward? And it includes Teddy Roosevelt in China fighting the Taipings? Consider me subscribed. Although I must ask, are you sure the Taipings would really have had that many muskets? I heard they were a pretty motley bunch even by Chinese standards of the time.
 
Sorry for the disjointed ideas, I'm just typing whatever comes to mind at the moment.

By 1880, the Taiping Rebellion has been defeated. You will see Teddy fight other people though. And by fight, I mean brutally murder with extreme prejudice.

As for the first post, that was actually an incident that occurred in the Taiping Rebellion. In OTL, Ward was wounded in that encounter, the POD is that he sniffs out the ambush beforehand and is able to keep his forces together for a counterattack. This allows for his campaign to clear Taiping forces around Shanghai to progress far more quickly and gives him a larger core of foreigners to build his Ever Victorious Army around.
 
POD #2: Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 2nd, 1863

"I have never seen so many soldiers fail so utterly at the basics of marksmanship. Every single man in the 18th North Carolina is an appallingly bad shot, and for that, I am immensely grateful."

"We must have sent at least a thousand rounds your way, I'm surprised you survived that." Major John Barry was lucky. None of General Jackson's staff, or General Jackson for that matter had taken so much as a scratch despite over a minute of firing.

General Jackson had the good sense not to be too angry. Mistakes happened all the time in war. Things could have been much worse.

"Major, I am going to head back to camp, have dinner and get a good night's rest. You should try to save your ammunition, we still got ourselves some Yankees to kill."
 
At the Same Time as Chancellorsville, Suzhou, China:

Suzhou was a waterlogged maze of gardens, lakes and canals, with study walls, gates and narrow streets.

Taiping resistance in the city was extremely fierce. Snipers occupied every nook and cranny, while fighters barricaded streets, set booby traps and kept their cannon inside the city, ready to fire canister shot down the street at a moment's notice. The combat was intense and took place within arm's length of the enemy. Casualties on both sides were over 50% and climbing.

General Ward had brought the heaviest artillery pieces he could find to hammer Suzhou. Batteries of Blakely and Dahlgren guns were hurling shells weighing in excess of 650 pounds at rebel strongpoints while mortars were hurling incendiaries into the streets around the clock. Royal Navy gunboats moved up and down the canals, shooting at exposed rebel positions where they could find them. Teams of sappers with pickaxes and barrels of gunpowder were mouseholing, blasting holes in walls and floors so that teams of soldiers could kill the rebels on the other side.

Macanaya's lamp oil firebombs were coming in handy in flushing defenders from their hiding places, but the kerosene splashed unpredictably and burned out too quickly to be much of a deterrent. The Filipino soldier, ever the creative type, began adding tar, white phosphorus and quicklime to thicken the mixture. But the mixture was still very dangerous to handle and soldier who got shot while throwing a lit bomb was a danger to himself and to his comrades.

The history books spoke of the Byzantines, who used siphons and pistons to spray liquid fire. A couple fuel tanks mounted in a gunboat, or even a pump on the back of a rickshaw was devastating. They could burn the rebels out of their earthworks.

Ward had his men move street to street, house to house, room to room. His gave nor received any quarter.

And the carnage was a thing of beauty indeed.
 
Ili, Xinjiang, September 5th, 1880:

Theodore Roosevelt's jaw dropped when he saw Dong Fuxiang's mustache.

It was big, bushy and absolutely glorious.

It was immediately clear who was in charge. Even if he wasn't wearing the robes of a Mandarin, it was clear who was in charge.

"You are Ted, foreigner from Mr. Ward in Shanghai. You work for me. Yes?"

The governor's English was atrocious, thought Ted. That being said, it was far better than Ted's attempts at the Chinese language.

"Yes I am. My name is Theodore Roosevelt, General Ward sent me here."

"Mr. Ward good man. You will go with Mr. Stuart. You will ride with Mr. Stuart's men."

"Yes. Yes sir."
 
210px-Dong_Fuxiang.jpg


Dong Fuxiang and Dong Fuxiang's mustache.
 
Ili, Xinjiang, September 5th, 1880: (Later that day)

"And you must be the notorious Jeb Stuart, formerly of the Confederate Army, murderer of women and children."

"And you must be some goddamned carpetbagging, glory seeking Yankee son-of-a-bitch."

"At least I didn't flee here in a most cowardly fashion to avoid the noose."

"And I fought for a cause I believed in, instead of traveling to the other side of the world in a sick and misguided attempt to seek adventure."

"At least I didn't sell my comrades in arms to the Reconciliation Committee to save my own pathetic hide."

"Heh, touche. What's your name Four-Eyes?"

"Theodore Roosevelt."

General Stuart walked over to a gun rack and handed Ted a Winchester rifle. "They say you know how to ride and shoot. Go to the stables, take any horse you like and meet me outside of the gates in 15 minutes. You show me enough and you get your very own cavalry platoon, God only knows how much you paid General Ward to get one."

"Much obliged, General Stuart."

"By the way, unless you prove to me otherwise, you're now 2nd Lieutenant Roosevelt. If you can lead men half as well as you can talk shit, you got a future here. A very bright one indeed."
 
Earlier That Year, Shanghai (POD #3):

Seeking a better life, Andrew Carnegie's parents decided to move him and his brother Thomas to the United States from their native Scotland. They settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a small town on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. Andrew quickly found work as a bobbin boy in a textile mill.

The work was grim, ceaseless and paid next to nothing. Young Andrew wanted more than anything to flee Pittsburgh for more exotic shores. One night, he decided he couldn't stand it anymore, he ran away from home and headed down the Ohio River towards New Orleans.

Making his living first as a petty thief, Andrew quickly found that he was gifted with numbers. He rapidly built up a small fortune gambling in New Orleans' casinos. But Andrew fancied himself as a young man of adventure. He wanted something even more exotic. One night in 1850, Andrew fled again, boarding a clipper ship headed towards the newly built port of Hong Kong. Andrew's talent with numbers quickly landed him a job as a clerk and low level bookkeeper with Jardine Matheson.

But Andrew wanted more than that. He quickly went into business for himself, setting up the Carnegie Corporation. He made a fortune providing weapons to Frederick Townsend Ward's Ever Victorious Army during the Taiping Rebellion, then made a second fortune setting up the first modern steel and armaments factories in China. To better cultivate relations with the locals, he married a Chinese woman, Li Jingfang, the daughter of a minor local official named Li Hongzhang.

And now, sitting across from him in his parlor were Prince Gong, the Prince Regent of China, Lady Alute, Empress of China and Theodore Roosevelt.

"You are requesting my assistance because..." began Carnegie as he poured his guests tea.

"Because you not only stand to make a great deal of money from this exchange, but you will become one of the most powerful men in the world when this is all over." Prince Gong spoke English fluently, without the assistance of an interpreter.

"If I may ask, what is your intent?" replied Carnegie as he searched the faces of the two royals.

"We will reveal that in due time." While Prince Gong was regal and slightly aloof in his bearing, something about Alute terrified Carnegie. Her eyes shone with intelligence and she held herself like a predatory animal. "At this time, we merely require that we come to a mutual understanding."

Roosevelt was an enigma. The stocky, powerfully built American had arrived in China a couple of months before and had offered his services to the Carnegie Corporation. To date, Carnegie had used him to discreetly silence a few undesirable competitors, but the boy had so much more potential to remain just a mere thug. He had...gifts.

"What do you wish for me to understand?" asked Carnegie.

"That we are looking to save China. There is no such thing as Manchu, Han, Mongol, Hui or Tibetan. We do not seek to save the Aisin Gioro throne. The Manchu throne is already dead. It is just a matter of time. We need you to see this as well."

"And if I don't?"

"Well that would be a shame, wouldn't it?" replied Lady Alute. "But I know that you will fully support our endeavors. And as for Mr. Roosevelt, I wish to speak with him privately. I believe he has much to contribute."

Roosevelt nodded and followed Alute as she stepped out of the room.

"We also have some business to discuss" said Prince Gong as Carnegie poured the Prince another cup of tea.
 
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