Outrage at Lincheng

the long version

In the dark hours of May 6, 1923, a thousand brigands swooped down from the "mountains where the bandits live" attacking the luxurious Blue Express, and forced thirty Europeans, Americans, and more than one hundred Chinese captives into the Shantung wilderness. This "outrage" was quickly called the worst incident between China and the West since the Boxer Rebellion of 1908. Nozinski follows the experiences of John R. Powell, publisher of the Chinese Weekly Review: Lucy Truman Aldrich, daughter of Senator Nelson Aldrich and sister-in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; and Commodore Guiseppe Musso, a wealthy and influential Italian lawyer, among many other figures caught in the hostage-taking. Understand, also, the frustrations of the recently discharged Chinese soldiers who had no place to go and few viable means to earn a living short of banditry. -- from dust cover.