In late 1870, General Zhou Dawu (周达武) was made commander-in-chief for military operations in Guizhou, and went on to supress the various Miao and Muslim uprisings in the province. Zhou appointed Mesny “Provincial Superintendent of Foreign Arms”, paid for the suspension bridge designed by Mesny that still spans a small gorge just west of at Chong’an town, and later took Mesny and his wife along …
Finding General Hou
Thought some of you might be interested to know how I went about researching Mesny’s life. Here’s how I identified one of the minor but still important Chinese officials that he knew, using online and written sources. Mesny was captured by the Taiping rebels at the Yangzi River town of Changshu in November 1862 and held hostage for five months, …