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Dungan Revolt

Ethnic war in China between Chinese Muslim minorities and he empire's reigning Qing Dynasty (1862 – 1877).[1]

A dispute between a Chinese merchant and a Muslim Hui over the price of bamboo poles instigated the revolt, leading to the deaths of an estimated 8 – 12 million total deaths, including warriors and civilians on both sides, one of the most lethal civil wars ever fought.[1]

The Wrecker: In December of 1871[3] in San Francisco, Bret Maverick found himself in a bidding war for the wreck of the Flying Scud beached at Midway Island with a reported cargo of rice and fine silks from the Orient. When the bidding escalated to $5,500 for a wreck Bret expected to buy for only $300, he postulated that — with the war going on in China — the ship may have been carrying more than rice and silk, perhaps smuggling gold and other wealth out of the country.[4]