Flashman and the Dragon, Flashman on the March, Flashman and the Tiger (Flashman Papers 10-12)

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents -- horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. 'When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman' Abraham Lincoln In China in 1860, a lot of people mistakenly put their trust in Flashman: the English vicar's daughter with her cargo of opium; Lord Elgin in search of an intelligence chief; the Emperor's ravishing concubine, seeking a champion in her struggles for power; and Szu-Zhan, the female bandit colossus, as practised in the arts of love as in the arts of war. They were not to know that behind his Victoria Cross, Harry Flashman was a base coward and a charlatan. They took him at face value. And he took them, for all he could, while China seethed through the bloodiest civil war in history and the British and French armies hacked their way to the heart of the Forbidden City! In Hong Kong, Flashman is convinced by Phoebe Carpenter, a lovely minister's wife, to take a shipment of opium into Canton, with the promise of a later, more pleasant meeting. On the way he discovers that instead of opium he is carrying guns to the Taiping rebels. In Canton, Flashman manages to convince British diplomat Harry Smith Parkes that he was trying to stop the shipment. However, instead of being able to head for home as he originally intended, he is put on the intelligence staff in Shanghai. From Shanghai he travels to Nanking and meets the leaders of the Taiping rebels, in order to convince them not to march on Shanghai. Flashman then proceeds to the mouth of the Peiho to join Lord Elgin's staff for his march to Peking. After being captured by the Imperials, he meets Xianfeng Emperor and becomes the prisoner and lover of Yehonala, the imperial concubine. At the end of the novel, he witnesses the destruction of the Summer Palace Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world. An international mission calls for unflinching bravery in the bedroom ... Caught between an opium-selling vicar's wife, an Amazonian bandit queen looking for her next husband and the Chinese Emperor's ravishing concubine, Harry Flashman is busier than ever 10 Flashman and the Dragon 1985 11 Flashman on the March 2005 12 Flashman and the Tiger 2006 (Dates from Wiki)