The Mercenary Mandarin

WilliamMesny jumped ship at Shanghai in 1860 when he was just 18. Amid thechaos of foreign intrigue and civil war in 19th-century China, hebecame a smuggler, a prisoner of the Taiping rebels, a gun-runner andan instructor in the Chinese military. After five years of fiercefighting in remote Guizhou, Mesny rose to the rank of general andused this privileged position to travel around China, writingarticles, collecting plants and advising officials.