1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 27 Fairness
“It’s okay if you can’t recognize all these characters right away. Lu Qin, Lu Qian, I can give you one more day. You can ask me, Xiao Dongjia, and Li Qi for help at any time,” Peng Gang said calmly to the Lu brothers.

"You two brothers are now the group leaders of a group. The group leader is the elder brother. From now on, the members of the group will be your brothers and comrades working in the same mountain area and living under the same roof. No elder brother would forget his brothers' names, do you understand?"

"Understood," the Lu brothers replied, somewhat bewildered.

"Whichever group leader and deputy group leader can memorize and write down the names of all the members of their group, and recognize each member, I will reward that group with six catties of smoked meat," Peng Gang said.

Six pounds of smoked meat? That's more than the set of dried smoked fish we got as a bonus today!
"Boss, what if I could memorize the names of all the members in Group 1 and recognize them all?" Li Qi was so excited that his voice trembled slightly.

"Then I'll give your group an extra three jin of smoked dried fish as a reward." Peng Gang met Li Qi's burning, expectant gaze, and then turned to look at the two Lu brothers.

"If you two can do it first, I'll give you the same reward."

"Great!" Li Qi was so excited he almost jumped up on the spot.

Li Qi recognized the names on both lists; all he had to do was match the names with each person's face.

For Li Qi, memorizing more than twenty faces was not difficult.

"Boss, this is not fair!" Lu Qian jumped out to object, ignoring Lu Qin's advice.

"Li Qi has read a lot of books; he can recognize all the characters on the roster!"

Chen Sanshui, who had been watching from the sidelines, immediately stood up to support Li Qi and said, "Lu Qian, when you were divided into groups yesterday, your group had a huge advantage. Almost all of your group members were Hakka people from Qingfeng Village. You didn't jump out and say it was unfair."

You can't only feel it's fair when you're the one who benefits.

Lu Qian was about to continue arguing when Peng Gang raised his hand to stop him: "Alright, stop arguing. Sanshui is right, Lu Qian. You can't only feel that it's fair when you're the one who benefits."

"The boss is wise," Chen Sanshui chuckled, not without a hint of pride.

“Li Qi, if you can teach those two brothers to recognize all the characters on the roster, I’ll give you an extra six catties of smoked meat as a reward,” Peng Gang said to Li Qi.

Li Qi looked very troubled and began to bargain with Peng Gang: "Teaching the two of them is no problem. As for Sanshui, you know him, boss. Sanshui is illiterate. It's better to teach Shui Niu to play the piano than to ask me to teach him."

"Master, how about this? I'll teach those two, and all I want is four pounds of smoked meat."

Chen Sanshui had zero educational background, and Li Qi felt that Chen Sanshui's two jin of smoked meat was really too difficult to carry.

"Li Qi, that's not fair of you! I was just speaking up for you! Who are you calling a water buffalo?" Chen Sanshui said unhappily, feeling disapproved of Li Qi's criticism.

“No way.” Peng Gang refused without hesitation. “Don’t try to bargain with me.”

“Boss, Brother Qi and Brother Sanshui have something else to discuss with you.” Zhang Ze poked Li Qi and Chen Sanshui with his finger, indicating that they should talk to Peng Gang about the matter of the second group leader and deputy group leader.

Seeing that there were other ways to enhance his prestige among the members of Group Two, Li Qi was somewhat reluctant to give up his position as group leader.

Chen Sanshui was quite enthusiastic: "Boss, we just discussed it, and Li Qi is willing to switch positions with me. I will be the team leader, and Li Qi will be the deputy team leader."

"Li Qi, is this how it is?" Peng Gang turned his head and asked, looking at Li Qi's face, which was red from the campfire.

Li Qi initially wanted to deny it outright and continue as his team leader, but after a fierce internal struggle, he nodded and said, "That's right, boss, we've reached an agreement."

“Since you all agree, then I agree.” Peng Gang got up and led them to the three stoves that had been built, pointing to two of them.

“Starting tomorrow, each of your groups will have its own stove. You’ll get the ingredients from me, but you’ll have to cook your own meals.” As he spoke, Peng Gang turned around and took six catties of bamboo shoots, handing them to the Lu brothers: “These bamboo shoots were dug by your group, so you should have a share.”

After finishing all this, Peng Gang, who was extremely tired, instructed the two groups to arrange for their members to take turns keeping watch tonight, just like yesterday, before crawling into his own thatched hut.

Before entering the mountains, Chen Xingwang, the garrison commander of Bitan, told him that there were bandits and thieves lurking in the Bitan garrison area, so Peng Gang dared not take it lightly.

This group of bandits is very likely the twenty-odd mountain bandits that Chen Xingwang mentioned when he reprimanded the soldiers that day, or there may be more of them.

He has been in this time and space for more than ten days.

Peng Gang can now confirm and affirm that he has no cheat codes.

Not to mention the system shop, he doesn't even have a cheat to enhance his physique.

If they were to be targeted and ambushed by these twenty-odd bandits, the twenty-seven young men and five adults from Honglianping would likely be in grave danger.

His current strength is very weak, and his margin for error is very low. He must be extremely careful, otherwise he may die before his business even gets off the ground.

Thinking of this, Peng Gang subconsciously hugged the long spear that Wu the blacksmith had made for him.

Before he went into the mountains, Wu the blacksmith forged five spearheads for him. After arriving at Honglianping, two carpenters whittled five pieces of mulberry wood to make spear shafts.

These five mulberry wood guns are the only standard-issue weapons Peng Gang currently possesses, and they have been issued to his three uncles, himself, and his younger brother Peng Yi.

Peng Gang thought of the two ferrymen who worked at Bitanxun on the Qianjiang River and the Xie family member from Shangdongtang, who was known for his rigid and unconventional background, whom Chen Xingwang, the ferryman, had mentioned to him.

This man seems to be quite capable; presumably, the soldiers under his command are somewhat stronger than those at Bitan.

Since Peng Gang was able to hire two carpenters from Bitan Xun to work for him in Honglianping, could he also hire a few soldiers from Shangdongtang to work for him while also acting as his bodyguards?
However, he did not know the character of this Xie-surnamed foreign commissioner, nor did he know the situation of the soldiers in Shangdongtang.

It would be bad if they didn't fall into the hands of the bandits, but instead ended up in the hands of these Green Standard Army soldiers.

The Manchu soldiers of this era were not the same as the people's army of later generations.

After much deliberation, Peng Gang decided to visit Xie Waiwei in Shangdongtang tomorrow before making a final decision.

As expected, Honglianping was spotted while they were going up the mountain.

Around midnight, three people dressed in rustic clothes and straw sandals, speaking in Hakka dialect, pointed and talked about the dimly lit Honglianping, discussing and planning their next move.

“They have grain. Yesterday, when they went up the mountain, I saw with my own eyes that they carried more than ten bushels of grain up the mountain. This amount of grain is enough for us to eat for a while.”

"The owner of the mountain must still have some money on him since he just started clearing the land."

"The mountain area is full of teenagers. Brother, just say the word, and we brothers will go all out and rob them!"

"Anyway, it's in the mountains. After we robbed them, we just buried them, and no one will know it was us."

Everyone focused their attention on the eldest brother they were talking about, waiting for him to make a decision.

(End of this chapter)