George MacDonald Fraser / Flashman and the Dragon 1st Edition 1986.

The eighth volume of the old soldier's memoirs, in which Harry Flashman-that jewel in the crown of Queen Victo ria's Empire who turned out to be the most glorious and Flashy fake-finds himself in China, smack in the middle of the Taiping Rebellion.

"When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman."

-Abraham Lincoln

Unfortunately for them, a lot of people did in China in 1860, but then they hadn't had the chance we've had to read the first seven books in this series... Among the inno cents: the sweet and lovely vicar's wife in distress (she was in a terrible hurry to sell her cargo of opium up the Pearl River); the British Minister lacking a daring agent who could penetrate the heart of the Taiping Rebellion; the Emperor's ravishing concubine, seeking a champion in her struggle for power in the tottering Manchu Empire; Lord Elgin, in search of an intelligence officer for his mission to Peking; Szu-Zhan, the female bandit colossus, who had-er-mislaid five husbands and was casting about for a sixth...