1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 282 The Four Passes of Wuhan
"The Heavenly Army and Holy Soldiers have already swept across half of the southeast. The military preparedness in Zhejiang is far worse than in Hubei. Rather than risk returning to Shaoxing, it is better to stay in Huangmei County." Chen Kerang smoothly changed the name of the Taiping Army from Long-haired and Short-haired to Heavenly Army and Holy Soldiers.

“I have accepted a year’s tuition from the master. Before the year is up, I am still the master’s man. Wherever the master goes, I will follow.”

Chen Kerang considered whether to return to Shaoxing for refuge, but at present, Jiangxi and Anhui were engulfed in war and the situation was turbulent.

It was virtually impossible for him to sneak away with his valuables and his family, safely traversing the war zone from Huangmei County back to Shaoxing.

Furthermore, what good would it do to return to Shaoxing?

The main force of the Taiping Army marched eastward down the Yangtze River, aiming to control the southeastern half of the country.

Even if they returned to Zhejiang, they could not escape the flames of war.

Chen Kerang's willingness to stay and stand with Yang Xun through thick and thin, even though it was due to the circumstances, still warmed Yang Xun's heart.

At least he won't have to face his unknown personal fate alone from now on.

"If that's the case, come with me out of the city to meet the Short-haired Army. If our county cannot escape disaster, at least we can save the people of Huangmei County. It can be considered as doing a good deed before I die." Yang Xun made up his mind with trepidation.

Hou Jiyong, deputy commander of the Fourth Regiment, was in charge of attacking Huangmei County.

Hou Jiyong was an old man from the Pingzaishan period and served as an external commissioner for Bitan Xunshang Dongtang.

He still had some impression of Yang Xun, the former magistrate of Guiping County. Peng Gang's position as director of the Zijingshan Youth League was bought from Yang Xun.

Faced with Yang Xun kneeling and presenting the seal to welcome the surrender of the city by the Left Army, Hou Jiyong accepted the seal presented by Yang Xun with both hands and gladly accepted Yang Xun's surrender: "So it is Magistrate Yang. Magistrate Yang is pragmatic and considerate of the people of Huangmei County. He is truly rare."

Yang Xun's surrender was very sincere. He not only brought his entire family to surrender, but also presented the complete register of Huangmei County and the official team.

This means that the Northern Palace was able to quickly grasp the population, land, and past tax revenue of Huangmei County, and establish a stable rule in Huangmei County.

The Northern Palace's capture of Huangzhou Prefecture was intended to protect the security of Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture, and to expand strategic depth.

Huangmei County, located at the junction of Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, was the last stop on Hou Jiyong's eastward journey.

In the future, Hou Jiyong will lead a battalion to garrison here, and work together with Shi Xiangzhen's troops in Jiujiang to defend against and guard against the Qing army in the Anhui and Jiangxi directions.

Hou Jiyong was very satisfied that this phase of the war could be ended in this way.

"I am a convicted official, and I am at General Hou's mercy. I only beg you not to implicate me and my family." After Hou Jiyong took the seal, Yang Xun, who was kneeling on the ground, put down the empty tray, took off his official hat and placed it on the ground, and said.

The family Yang Xun referred to included not only his wife, children, and elderly parents, but also the secretaries and servants employed by him.

"I am not a general, nor do I have the authority to punish Magistrate Yang." Hou Jiyong helped Yang Xun up and said, "Magistrate Yang is a man of great principle. I will report Magistrate Yang's righteous act to His Highness the Northern King."

Yang Xun was the first county official to voluntarily surrender the city, which had significant political implications. He could also be considered to have some connection with Peng Gang. Given the gravity of the situation, Hou Jiyong dared not make a decision on his own and deal with Yang Xun privately.

"Then I will trouble General Hou." Yang Xun breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and bowed to Hou Jiyong to express his gratitude.

"It's my duty, no need for thanks." With that, Hou Jiyong took Yang Xun with him into the county town.

Although Yang Xun came to surrender with sincerity, when it came time to officially enter the city, Hou Jiyong, with the mindset that one should always be wary, still carefully took Yang Xun and others into the open city gates of Huangmei County.

Only after his soldiers had searched the entire Huangmei County town and confirmed that there were no Qing troops lying in ambush did Hou Jiyong feel at ease enough to enter the county government office, deploy city defenses, and issue proclamations to reassure the people.

Having brought the situation under control in Huangmei County, Hou Jiyong, who was not highly educated, sought out Jiang Nianfeng, the company commander of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, who was a scholar from Quanzhou. Jiang wrote a letter to Peng Gang explaining the situation in Huangmei County and requesting instructions on how to deal with Yang Xun, the magistrate of Huangmei County.

Before Hou Jiyong could receive a reply from Peng Gang, something extremely troublesome happened in Huangmei County.

The Taiping army marched all the way from Xunzhou Prefecture in Guangxi to the outskirts of Anqing, and their ranks grew larger and larger like a snowball.

Before the capture of Wuchang, the people who joined the Taiping Army were mainly poor people from Guangxi and Hunan, and most of them joined voluntarily.

These people are quite determined, and there have been no serious incidents of large-scale desertion.

After capturing Wuchang, all the people of Wuchang Prefecture, regardless of their wealth or whether they supported the Taiping Army, were swept up into the Taiping Army's ranks.

Most of the new recruits in Wuchang were passively recruited into the Taiping Army and were incorporated into its ranks.

These people were unwilling to leave their homes and join the Taiping Rebellion.

With Anqing, the capital of Anhui province, about to fall to the Taiping army, and the situation in the southeast extremely favorable to the Taiping army.

Many Wuchang residents, longing for their hometown, risked execution to desert and return to Wuchang in groups.

Although Shi Xiangzhen, who was stationed in Jiujiang, intercepted most of the Wuchang people who were trying to escape back to Wuchang Prefecture and sent them back to the original palace.

However, the subsequent fugitives became more astute, choosing to bypass Jiujiang Prefecture in Jiangxi and escape back to Wuchang Prefecture via Huangmei County, which was under the control of the Northern Palace.

Within just two days, Hou Jiyong, Jiang Nianfeng, and others captured more than 700 people from Wuchang who were begging for food along the way and trying to escape back to Wuchang Prefecture through Huangmei County.

"Most of these fugitives are from Wuchang Prefecture, and most of them are fugitives from the East Palace and West Palace." After briefly questioning and understanding the situation of these fugitives, Jiang Nianfeng asked Hou Jiyong, the military commander of Huangmei County and deputy commander of the Fourth Regiment, for instructions.

"Deputy Commander Hou, the grain reserves in Huangmei County have long been emptied by the Eastern Palace, and we don't have much grain left either. What should we do with these escapees? Should we escort them to Jiujiang and hand them over to Prime Minister Shi of the Wing Palace?"

When Wuchang was recruiting new people, the East and West Palaces were the most active.

Therefore, most of the fugitives who fled from Jiangxi and Anhui to Hubei were from the East and West Palaces.

Jiang Nianfeng originally intended to call these deserters from Wuchang Prefecture who had gone off on their way back to their hometowns deserters.

But upon further reflection, he realized that many of these people were elderly, weak, women, or children, and even the young and strong had not received much proper military training, so they could hardly be called soldiers. Therefore, he referred to them as deserters.

If these people were ordinary refugees, they would be easier to deal with. The problem is that the people from Wuchang Prefecture have left their names in other palaces, making them hot potatoes.

If the current trend continues, the number of people fleeing from Wuchang Prefecture will only increase.

“These people from Wuchang Prefecture had no intention of following the army eastward. Even if we send them away this time, they will come back next time. Sending them to Shi Cheng in Jiujiang is only a temporary solution.” Hou Jiyong shook his head, disagreeing with Jiang Nianfeng’s point of view.

"First send it to Commander Cheng in Huanggang, the capital of Huangzhou Prefecture. The capital has plenty of grain, which can last them for a while. Huanggang is also closer to their hometown, Wuchang Prefecture."

Hou Jiyong felt that instead of passing the buck by paying grain to escort these people from Wuchang Prefecture, who were reluctant to leave their homes, to Shi Xiangzhen in Jiujiang, and then waiting for them to run back again, it would be a waste of money and grain.

It would be better to send them back to Wuchang Prefecture and resolve this matter once and for all.

Of course, this was a matter of great importance, and Hou Jiyong, as a deputy regimental commander, had no authority to make the final decision. All he could do was send these people from Wuchang Prefecture, who were eager to return home, to Huanggang for temporary accommodation, and await Peng Gang's decision.

Currently, the area under Beidian's actual control is not large, and Huangmei County is not far from Wuchang.

Peng Gang soon learned that Yang Xun had surrendered the city and that many of his Wuchang Prefecture members had deserted and returned to Wuchang Prefecture.

Hou Jiyong handled these two matters well, and Peng Gang praised and rewarded Hou Jiyong, and ordered that Yang Xun and his party, as well as the other fugitives from Wuchang Prefecture, be sent to Wuchang Prefecture.

All fugitives from Wuchang Prefecture who were subsequently captured within the territory of Huangzhou Prefecture were sent back for resettlement.

“These fugitives from Wuchang Prefecture are, after all, members of his palace, and most of them are members of the East and West Palaces. Shouldn’t we inform the Eastern King?” Peng Yi said with considerable concern.

"Furthermore, what are your plans for settling these people from Wuchang Prefecture back in their hometowns, Third Brother?"

"The Eastern King and his men are busy attacking Anqing and taking Jiangning. They don't have time to deal with such trivial matters. There's no shortage of people in Jiangnan. The Eastern King isn't that petty," Peng Gang said.

“Return to your original place of residence and resume your old occupations. If you are a farmer from Wuchang Prefecture, when the land is distributed, each person will be allocated five mu of medium-sized land to cultivate, according to the standard of half that of my palace soldiers and their families.”

Population is a more valuable resource than land.

With the main force of the Taiping Army taking away three or four out of ten people from Wuchang Prefecture, the return of some Wuchang Prefecture residents to their hometown is a good thing for Beidian.

"Should we postpone the payment of military salaries?" Peng Yi asked about the matter.

"Currently, my palace has eleven regiments, totaling more than 35,000 men. Even if we refer to the Qing court's Green Standard Army's standard of one tael and five mace for combat soldiers and one tael for garrison soldiers, we still need to pay more than 40,000 taels of silver per month. More than 40,000 taels of silver per month, that's more than 500,000 taels per year."

In the past two years, we have accumulated some wealth, with 4.13 million taels of silver and over 370,000 taels of gold in the imperial treasury.

However, the next step is to settle the families of the soldiers of this palace, which will require money. Third Brother wants to set up an ironworks, an arsenal, and a school, and any of these will be extremely expensive.

Currently, the Holy Treasury has no stable source of income, and if it continues to operate idly, it will inevitably run out of money.

I'm not against paying soldiers; it's only right that soldiers receive pay. My idea is, should we wait until we have a stable source of income before paying them?

The matter of paying military salaries had already been put on the agenda when the Northern Palace entered Hanyang.

Peng Yi, who was specifically in charge of managing the Holy Treasury, also supported the payment of military salaries.

In addition to distributing food to the North Temple personnel, the Holy Treasury was also responsible for distributing daily necessities such as oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, and even cloth.

Back when they were in Guangxi, the entire palace had tens of thousands of people, and they were all traveling by boat in a concentrated manner.

They are barely able to handle the distribution of supplies.

With the entry into Hubei, the number of personnel in Beidian has swelled to nearly 200,000, and now the various regiments and battalions are scattered and stationed.

The difficulty and workload of distributing supplies to Saint Ku have increased dramatically.

Peng Yi felt increasingly powerless.

Paying soldiers their wages and allowing them to use those wages to purchase supplies other than food would greatly reduce the pressure on the staff of the Holy Treasury.

Peng Yi supported paying military salaries.

Previously, the Holy Treasury relied entirely on the Qing government's treasury and wealthy households for all its supplies.

Once the fighting stopped and the battle lines came to a standstill.

The supply of materials to the Holy Treasury was cut off, and with no income, it entered a state of only expenditure and no income.

This made Peng Yi feel insecure. He preferred to wait until taxes were officially levied and there was a stable income before issuing military salaries in order to maintain the surplus of the treasury.

“Our soldiers are divided among the four prefectures and counties of Wuchang, Hanyang, Yuezhou, and Huangzhou, and their supplies are distributed by the imperial treasury. This is inconvenient and makes it difficult to ensure that everyone is well taken care of,” Peng Gang said.

"Paying military salaries is not only to make life easier for soldiers stationed in various places, but also to boost morale and revitalize and restore trade in various regions. Silver lying in warehouses and cellars is ultimately just inanimate material; only silver that is in circulation is truly valuable."

Furthermore, we guard the four major passes of Wuhan: Jiangguan, Hanguan, Chaoguan, and Zongguan. How could we possibly fall into a state of sitting idle and depleting our resources?

During the more than three months that the Taiping army lingered in Wuchang and Huangzhou, they almost destroyed the normal economic order of the two prefectures, especially Wuchang.

Peng Gang's purpose in distributing military pay to the soldiers of the Northern Palace was not merely to alleviate the pressure on the Holy Treasury.

Furthermore, it was to restore the severely damaged economic order of Wuchang and Huangzhou prefectures as soon as possible.

The three towns of Wuhan are a transportation hub connecting nine provinces. As long as the commerce of Wuchang and Huangzhou is revitalized and the old trade routes are restored, the problem can be solved.

By guarding the four traditional tax checkpoints in the three towns of Wuhan, the source of most of the military pay could be solved before the collection of traditional summer taxes and autumn grain.

The so-called four major customs checkpoints refer to the Jiangguan, Hanguan, Chaoguan, and Zongguan checkpoints in the three towns of Wuhan before Hankou was opened as a treaty port in 1861.

These customs posts were distributed along the Yangtze and Han Rivers, covering the main trade routes. They were coordinated by the Provincial Administration Commissioner and collected ship material tax, gate tax, deed tax, and goods tax, making them the most important source of commercial tax revenue for Hubei Province.

The special tax levied on bamboo and timber trade in Parrot Island alone generates an annual revenue of over 21,800 taels.

This was still based on the fact that the Qing government's yamen (official government office) in charge of the four passes was rife with corruption.

If efficient and relatively clean tax departments can be established in the four customs areas, the four customs areas of Wuhan's three towns can contribute a large portion of fiscal revenue.

“If we collect commercial taxes at the four major passes, we can immediately have a stable source of income.” Peng Yi thought for a moment and felt that restoring the four major passes and collecting taxes there was feasible. “We have protected Hanyang and Hankou, and the businesses of merchants in the two places have been preserved. It would be unreasonable for them not to pay a single penny.”

"Does the Holy Treasury have anyone in charge of managing trade relations?" Peng Gang asked Peng Yi.

In fact, Peng Gang had a suitable candidate in mind for managing the business affairs.

This person is Xiao Liang Liu Rong. Liu Rong is quite good at economics. When she was in the Xiangxiang County militia, Liu Rong was mainly responsible for managing the logistics of the Xiangxiang County militia.

Although Liu Rong is currently in the North Palace, she has no intention of serving Peng Gang. The only option left is for Zuo Zongtang to try and persuade her.

"Why not let Liu Xingwang try his luck at the Hankou Customs?" Peng Yi thought of Liu Xingwang, who had once served as the garrison commander of Bitan and had managed the Bitan garrison very successfully.

"Liu Xingwang is doing a good job managing the grain at Shengku, and he's clean-cut. If he's not up to par, we can always replace him."

(End of this chapter)