I don't think Shandong was one of the provinces, although it may have gotten some mention. I bought that book over twenty years ago and loaned it out probably over ten years ago, so I would have to look it up myself. Sorry.
I do have "The White Rajahs of Sarawak" by Robert Payne, which likely isn't the most scholarly work on the Brookes, but was looking through it last night specifically for any details about the Chinese rebellion against James Brooke. It mentions the Chinese were buying guns from gun runners and they were heavily armed with spears and muskets during the fighting, so it looks like in frontier conditions, firearms were pretty popular with Chinese civilians.
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