The Warlord by Malcolm Bosse

A magnificent adventure on a huge, exotic canvas, The Warlord brings brilliantly to life the splendour, the brutality, the turmoil of post-Imperial China. Free from its corrupt emperors for fifteen years, China in 1927 is at the mercy of a new breed of tyrants - military adventurers who have carved up the land into little kingdoms by fear: the Warlords.
Into their private wars of conquests and revenge strays a young American, Philip Embree. In an open-necked shirt and seersucker suit, he sets out on a train from Shanghai on a journey that will change his life forever. Never in his wildest dreams did Embree imagine that he would abandon his vocation as a Christian missionary to ride with bandits, nor that one day he would become a member of the elite Big Sword bodyguard of General Tang Shan-teh.
But Embree isn't the only foreigner to become involved with Chiina's violent struggle for unity. Representatives from the victorious revolutionary Bolshevik party seek to extend their sphere of influence. The British and the Americans, the Japanese, gunrunners, mercenaries of all nationalities vie for political, and personal favour. And caught up in this whirling historical ferment, Embree finds his life further complicated by a romantic passion, a passion that is both dangerous and impossible. For the woman he loves is the Russian mistress of General Tang, the Warlord.
From the brothels and opium dens of Shanghai to the vast plains of Central Asia where private armies battle out their bloody destiny, the reader is propelled on an astonishing journey of the imagination. Superb history, spectacular drama, The Warlord is destined to become a popular classic.

Genres: Historical Fiction - Adventure - German Literature - Asia
Condition: Very good*
Published: 1983 by Hutchinson 
Pages: 575
ISBN: 0091534801
Weight: 895g
* Has some sun fade to spine.