A blistering, powerful retelling of one of the critical battles fought near Shanghai in 1860 between the Taiping Army led by Hong Xiuquan and a band of Euro-American mercenaries hired by the Qing government. The cinematic prose makes the action-packed scenes jump off the page, leaving the reader breathless from start to finish.
The Taiping Rebellion is a cataclysmic event that took place in 19th century China, which exposed the absurd incompetence of the Qing administration. Like other revolts in Chinese history, abject poverty and destitution of peasants exacerbated by famine was the root cause. On top of that, the Qing government had repeatedly bent to the will of foreign nations in terms of trade and territorial concessions and this had stoked the Han Chinese's anger and distrust of the Manchu rulers. Also, the Qing government shamelessly hired foreign military aid to crush the Han peasant rebels. It can be said that the Taiping Rebellion heralded the subsequent Boxer Rebellion.
There is an obvious dearth of English-language fiction that describes the Taiping Rebellion and this novel certainly fills a glaring gap.
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