1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 21 Poor Peasants
"According to the village rules, the excrement in our Qingfeng Village is considered unclaimed if it is not picked up within ten days, and anyone in Qingfeng Village may pick it up."

“My brother and I have been watching this pile of cow dung for ten days straight. Now it’s ownerless, so why won’t you let us pick it up?”

At the end of Qingfeng Village, a dozen teenagers argued heatedly over the ownership of a pile of cow dung.

Lu Qin, Lu Qian, and three other Hakka boys, barefoot and wearing tattered raincoats, looked like primitive people from the Stone Age and were surrounded in the middle.

Eight or nine Tujia boys dressed in homespun clothes arrogantly pushed and shoved the Hakka boy they surrounded, hurling insults at him as they did so.

"You say you've been watching for ten days, and that's it?"

"This manure is so fertile, it's obviously from our Zhou family's cows!"

"Yes! This is the Zhou family's cow dung; you Hakka people can't pick it up!"

"Beat them! Teach these scoundrels a lesson! Let them learn their lesson and see what the rules of Qingfeng Village are like!"

"What the Zhou family says is the rule of Qingfeng Village!"

Outside the crowd, a few scattered Hakka and Zhuang young men from the village stood watching the spectacle.

In Qingfeng Village, there is indeed such a village rule that any excrement left uncollected for ten days is considered unclaimed and can be collected by any villager.

Peng Gang knew a little about the Lu brothers, Lu Qin and Lu Qian. They were honest and always kept a low profile in the village, unlike the kind of people who were habitual liars.

Peng Gang glanced at the Tujia boys a few times and saw that the one leading them was Zhou Youwen, the grandson of Zhou Fengzhang, the village chief. He had already guessed most of the details of the matter.

The Zhou family is the only small landlord in the village, so they don't care about a few piles of cow dung. The young men of the Zhou family have often bullied the villagers and acted like tyrants in the countryside because they are distant relatives of Zhou Tuandong.

Peng Gang's second brother, Peng Yong, was so angry that he accidentally killed Zhou Changfang, the eldest son of the Zhou family, who had started the trouble and tried to steal his family's water. He has been missing ever since.

Previously, the matter of quarrying charcoal at Lianhuaping was still undecided, and Peng Gang had some concerns about his actions, as his younger siblings were still in the village.

Now that he was about to set off for Honglianping, he naturally had nothing to fear from the local gentry. Since his body had almost fully recovered, he would use these Tujia boys to test the physical condition of this body.

Peng Gang strode forward, grabbing two Tujia boys who were punching and kicking the Lu brothers as if they were piglets at home, and threw them away.

"You plague-ridden bastard, why are you meddling in other people's business? We, the Zhou family, haven't settled our score with you yet regarding your fugitive brother! If you know what's good for you, get the hell out of here!"

Zhou Youwen put his hands on his hips, looked up at Peng Gang, who was a whole head taller than him, and arrogantly pointed at Peng Gang's nose to lecture him.

Two Tujia boys beside Zhou Youwen wanted to show off in front of Zhou Youwen, so they stepped forward and confronted Peng Gang.

Peng Gang easily took them all down in a few moves, using no skill whatsoever, just brute force.

After dealing with Zhou Youwen's few lackeys, Peng Gang approached Zhou Youwen.

Without any allies, Zhou Youwen panicked. He still vividly remembered the incident a few years ago when Peng Xin's second brother beat his uncle to death. He was afraid that the big guy in front of him would act recklessly like his second brother and not know his own strength.

"Peng Gang, don't forget, my grandfather was..."

Before Zhou Youwen could finish speaking, Peng Gang slapped him twice across the face, making Zhou Youwen see stars.

“I don’t care who your grandfather is,” Peng Gang said, slapping his hand as he cursed.

"The village rules of Qingfeng Village were originally established under the leadership of your grandfather. What? Your Zhou family isn't from Qingfeng Village, so you don't have to abide by the village rules?"

"I," Peng Gang, was strong, and with just two slaps, Zhou Youwen was in so much pain that he wanted to beg for mercy.

"You still mention your grandfather?! I haven't even settled the score with you for your grandfather stealing my water yet!" Peng Gang slapped Zhou Youwen across the face again. "No... I was wrong! Third Brother Peng, please forgive me this time!" After just a few slaps, Zhou Youwen was terrified and begged for mercy with a mournful face.

Peng Gang only wanted to teach Zhou Youwen, who was used to bullying others in Qingfeng Village, a lesson, and also take the Lu brothers as his charcoal burners. He didn't intend to beat Zhou Youwen to death.

Seeing that Zhou Youwen was so weak and spineless, Peng Gang said a few harsh words, telling Zhou Youwen to get lost.

After the people around him gradually dispersed, Lu Qin bent down and picked up the cow dung into his basket, muttering indignantly as he did so.

"Why? Why? We clearly followed the village rules."

“Qingfeng Village is a one-man show run by the Zhou family,” Peng Gang said, patting the faint bloodstains and mud off his hands. “Their rules are used to control the weak.”

Every country has its laws, and every village has its rules.

The village rules of Qingfeng Village are just like the so-called national laws of the Qing Dynasty; those who make the rules do not abide by them, rendering them ineffective.

If the village rules drafted by the Zhou family were truly effective, Qingfeng Village wouldn't have so many disputes and conflicts every year.

"What brings you here, Master Peng?" Lu Qin gritted his teeth, picked up his basket, and walked towards his home.

Most of the families living at the end of Qingfeng Village were impoverished. The Peng family had no relatives or friends at the end of the village, so Lu Qin could easily tell that Peng Gang had come specifically to find the two brothers.

"Do you remember what I told you before?" Peng Gang followed the Lu brothers, Lu Qin and Lu Qian, to their humble abode.

The Lu family's courtyard has three small thatched houses, two of which have been mortgaged to the Zhou family, and the doors are now locked.

Only a small thatched hut remained, still belonging to the Lu brothers, Lu Qin and Lu Qian, who usually lived in this hut.

The only remaining thatched hut doesn't even have a door, let alone any furniture.

The only two things in the yard that might still have some value were probably two small, broken pots tied together with cotton wool.

One of the pots emitted a strong smell of feces, clearly indicating that it was specifically used for boiling feces.

Fresh manure is toxic and cannot be used directly; it must be composted before use.

If you can't wait for composting, you can only boil the manure before using it.

In his grandfather's generation, the Lu family could barely be considered a middle-class peasant family, with three small thatched houses, two and three-tenths mu of low-grade paddy fields, and eleven or twelve mu of barren hills.

At that time, the Lu family planted rice in the paddy fields, camellia trees, bamboo, and fir trees in the mountains, and sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes in the wasteland, which was enough to barely maintain the family's basic living standards.

Later, Lu Qin and Lu Qian's mother died in childbirth, and their father fell ill after performing corvée labor in the county, leaving them destitute and unable to make a living.

First, they sold two and a half acres of barren land, then sold the mountain land and bamboo, and finally pawned their abandoned houses to make a living.

Later, his younger brother Lu Jian and two younger sisters starved to death one after another, leaving only the two brothers Lu Qin and Lu Qian to eke out a living in a thatched hut and a small vegetable garden, barely surviving to this day.

"Is it to work as a long-term laborer for your family?" Lu Qin's eyes lit up as he put down his basket.

I heard that the Peng family's land rent is only 40%, which is much lower than the Zhou family's 60%. Working for the Peng family as a long-term employee would be a good choice.

"Come with me to Pingzai Mountain to open up the mountain and burn charcoal."

Peng Gang glanced at the three-tenths of a vegetable plot belonging to the Lu brothers. The fertile plot was covered with straw that had been picked up, and tender green seedlings stubbornly broke through the soil, revealing a pleasing green color.

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(End of this chapter)