China’s Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was one of
\nthe bloodiest conflicts in human history; somewhere
\nbetween twenty and forty million people lost their
\nlives, in battle, or to starvation and disease.
\nWith the exception of World War II, more lives were
\nlost in this conflict than in any conflict in history.<\/p>\n
The Taiping rebels fought to spread their own bizarre
\nform of evangelical Christianity throughout China, and
\nto overthrow the Manchus who in 1644 had defeated the
\nChinese and established the Ch’ing Dynasty. The
\nTaipings were opposed not only by Ch’ing forces but
\nby various western adventurers and professional soldiers
\nwho formed their own private armies: men such as
\nAmerica’s Frederick Townsend Ward and England’s Charles
\nGeorge “Chinese” Gordon.<\/p>\n
Among the fiercest and most-feared soldiers of the
\nTaipings were the divisions of beautiful women warriors
\ndressed in gorgeous silks who often fought independently
\nfrom men. These were known as \u201cthe silken armies.\u201d<\/p>\n
On June 10, 1862, Thomas Rowley, 24 years old, serving
\nas a lieutenant to Ward, was separated from his men in
\nbattle and captured by Taiping women warriors. This
\nis his story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China’s Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history; somewhere between twenty and forty million people lost their lives, in battle, or to starvation and disease. With the exception of World War II, more lives were lost in this conflict than in any conflict in history. The Taiping rebels fought to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1036,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[118],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1029","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-uncategorized","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-variable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_brand&post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_cat&post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfendenpublishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_tag&post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}