1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 319 The ship is coming
"Not worried about selling? Do you think foreigners can eat tea like it's food?" Peng Yi didn't quite understand. The 1,800 dan of Tongshan tea that had already been stored was enough for everyone in the three towns of Wuhan to drink for more than a month.

"It can't be eaten, but it can be drunk like water," Peng Gang laughed. "Go all out to collect it. Anhui and Zhejiang are in turmoil, and foreigners can't get enough tea in Jiangnan. The major trading companies have a huge tea shortage, and we can take this opportunity to fill that gap. Collect more black tea; the English love black tea the most."

After the opening of the five treaty ports, tea exports surged from 162,000 dan in 1843 to 900,000 shi in 1850, a five- or six-fold increase.

The amount of tea that Peng Gang has is enough to consume even in the city of London alone.

Representatives from trading companies from Britain, France, and the United States accompanied him to Wuchang to inspect and discuss cooperation matters, so sales were the least of his worries.

Of the five ports that were opened to foreign trade, Shanghai, where Western trading companies had a deep presence, sourced most of its tea from neighboring Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

The Taiping army has not yet entered Zhejiang, and Zhejiang's tea may still be able to supply major foreign firms.

However, all the cities along the Yangtze River in Anhui were occupied by the Taiping Army, and the tea trade was almost completely cut off, so the amount of tea that could flow into Shanghai was certainly much less than before.

As for establishing procurement channels for Fujian tea, tea can be purchased at the nearby Fuzhou port.

Historically, Western trading companies have indeed done this.

However, it's worth noting that a mature and stable tea supply channel cannot be established in just one or two years.

Moreover, Kim Neng-hyung, a partner at J.C. Cheung, who was the first to decide to invest resources in cultivating the Fuzhou port and establishing a procurement channel for Fujian tea, had already made contact with Peng Gang.

Now is the perfect opportunity to directly penetrate the Western market with tea from Hubei and surrounding areas.

“I understand.” Peng Yi nodded and looked at Peng Gang, asking.

"Is there anything else you need to tell me, Third Brother?"

"I plan to sell the porcelain to those foreigners at a high price through auction," Peng Gang instructed Peng Yi.

“When I visited Hankou last time, I remembered that there were many antique shops in Hankou. I wanted to find an antique shop owner who knew about porcelain to appraise and price the porcelain and preside over the auction.”

"I'll go right away," Peng Yi agreed, and left the Northern Prince's residence with his greyhound.

Peng Yi rode a horse and led a dog to Shengku, where he instructed his men to collect as much tea as possible. He then took a boat to Hankou.

When Chen Xingwang, the director of the Hankou Tax Bureau, heard that Peng Yi had come to Hankou, he assumed that Peng Yi was there on the orders of Peng Gang to inspect the city, so he hurriedly went out to greet him.

"I was unaware of the Emperor's arrival and have failed to greet you properly. Please forgive me." Chen Xingwang personally brushed the chair with his sleeve and invited Peng Yi to sit down.

"Your Highness wants to hold an auction to raise the price of porcelain and sell it to foreigners. He wants me to go to Hankou to find an antique shop owner who understands porcelain and is eloquent to host the event." Peng Yi sat down and explained his purpose directly.

"Director Chen, are you capable of handling this?"

"The things His Highness and the Emperor entrusted to us must be done, whether we can or not, and if we can, we must do them perfectly," Chen Xingwang assured Peng Yi, patting his chest.

Peng Yi chuckled and teased, "I've never seen Director Chen so sweet-talking before, back when we were at Bitan Xun."

"Times have changed. I owe my success today to the cultivation and promotion of Emperor Guozong. Emperor Guozong has been a great benefactor to me," Chen Xingwang said, bowing his head.

Chen Xingwang wasn't flattering Peng Yi with these words. Before becoming the director of the Hankou Tax Bureau, Chen Xingwang had been working for Peng Yi in Shengku, which was under Peng Yi's jurisdiction.

Peng Yi's recommendation was also crucial in his appointment as the director of the Hankou Tax Bureau, responsible for the tax revenue of the largest commercial port in the interior.

"Don't say anything unimportant, just do your job well," Peng Yi instructed.

"The foreigners will arrive in Wuchang soon. Who knows if they might suddenly decide to come to Hankou to take a look? Make sure to deal with your people and Hankou properly, so that the foreigners don't look down on us. Also, tell the tea merchants and tea guilds operating in Hankou that we, the Northern Palace, will take all their tea."

"Not only do we want the tea they have, but we, the Northern Palace, will also take all the tea they produce from now on. Let them go out and collect tea; however much they can collect, our Northern Palace will buy it all at the market price in Hankou."

April 3rd, the first year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1852).

This day was just an ordinary day for the people of Wuhan.

The local people went about their lives as usual. Farmers were busy tending to their newly allocated acres of land, fishermen were fishing, boatmen were rowing and ferrying people across the river, boat trackers were pulling the boats with loud shouts, laborers were carrying goods like ants, and peddlers were hawking their wares in the streets.

On such an ordinary day, a low, strange noise, which did not belong to any known sound on the Yangtze River, faintly came from downstream.

At first, people didn't pay much attention, thinking it was just the autumn wind sweeping across the river or the rumbling thunder from the distant mountains, or even that they were hallucinating.

But the strange sound continued and grew louder.

The sound was heavy and rhythmic, like the heavy breathing of some enormous monster, or the sound of countless giant war drums being beaten simultaneously.

Listen! What's that sound?

The fishermen on the Yangtze River were the first to notice the anomaly. They looked up and followed the sound, their cloudy eyes filled with confusion. Nine strange boats (six steam paddle steamers and three coal-carrying barges) – something the fishermen and boatmen had never seen before – were surrounded by dozens of vessels of various sizes flying the blue flag of the Northern Navy. They sailed upstream without oars or paddles, cutting through the waves.

As the strange fleet drew closer to the three towns of Wuhan, people at the docks in Hankou, Wuchang, and even Hanyang gradually stopped what they were doing and listened intently to the sounds they had never heard before.

The roar of steam pierced through the mist on the river, growing closer and clearer, carrying a chilling sense of oppression.

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed child pointed downstream and exclaimed in a trembling voice, "Smoke! There's smoke on the river! Huge plumes of black smoke!"

More and more people's attention was drawn to it.

Downstream, where the water meets the sky, several thick, inky plumes of black smoke shot into the air, like a giant, filthy brush smearing across the azure sky.

Beneath the billowing black smoke, several enormous ships, unlike anything seen before, were cutting through the waves against the current at an astonishingly fast and illogical speed!

"My God... what... what kind of monster is that?!"

"Look at the river! What kind of monster is that? It's emitting black smoke!"

Is this a boat?

"Good heavens! How can such a large boat travel so fast upstream without being pulled by boatmen? This is truly astonishing!"

"Look at those huge wheels! They're bigger than ten millstones put together! They can overturn rivers and seas, they must have tremendous power!"

"If I had a millstone that big, how many grains of rice and beans could it grind in a day?"

Amidst shouts and explosions, the banks of the Yangtze River in Wuhan were thrown into turmoil.

Whether terrified or curious, the people of Wuhan flocked to the riverbank, crowding the embankment and docks, eager to witness this horrifying scene.

The child was frightened and cried, the woman covered her mouth and gasped, backing away repeatedly. The sounds of discussion, exclamations, speculation, and even the child's crying were mixed together.

The scene on the embankment was extremely chaotic. If it weren't for the Northern Palace soldiers on the dock doing their best to maintain order, some of the bolder ones would probably have rowed their small boats closer to see what was going on.

The monster drew closer, and its appearance became clearer.

With a few muffled, long whistles, like the roar of a prehistoric beast, the usual sounds of wind, water, and boatmen's chants over the Yangtze River were suddenly torn apart.

Six steam paddle steamers towed three barges carrying coal as they gradually approached the shore.

These six paddle steamers all had a displacement of over 300 tons, especially the Lily, which flew the white flag and had a displacement of over 600 tons, making it significantly larger than the other paddle steamers around it.

These steam paddle steamers were as majestic as mountains, far surpassing any official ships or large cargo ships that the people of Wuchang had ever seen before, which broadened their horizons.

Most astonishingly, the enormous, wildly spinning, and extremely powerful paddlewheels on both sides of the ship were able to stir up mountains of white spray.

Peng Gang stood with his hands behind his back on the Hanyang Gate tower overlooking the river, gazing calmly at the steam paddle steamer that had already docked.

Compared to the shock of the people of Wuhan, Peng Gang was more curious about this kind of hybrid vessel in the transitional phase.

These steam paddle steamers look impressive, but they have many shortcomings. It's only a matter of time before they are replaced by more advanced paddle steamers, which are propelled by propellers hidden below the waterline.

After all, no new technology can be developed overnight. Early steam engines were inefficient, consumed a lot of coal, and had a relatively high failure rate.

In the mid-19th century, steam paddle steamers, especially those sailing on ocean voyages, almost all used a hybrid power system combining steam engines and sails.

Only in inland waterways where wind power is negligible and there are stable refueling and maintenance stations will sails be abandoned in favor of steam power for navigation.

Peng Gang's gaze was focused on the British warship HMS Lily, which was flying the white flag. This British warship looked very similar to HMS Nemesis, the star British warship of the Opium War that Peng Gang had seen in photographs in his later life.

Zuo Zongtang, standing beside Peng Gang, gazed at the imposing steam paddle steamer and muttered to himself, "Have their ingenuity reached such heights? This must be the 'strong ships and powerful cannons' that Lin Gong spoke of."

Zuo Zongtang dared not continue speaking, only feeling an endless sense of crisis and fear.

Although Zuo Zongtang had heard Lin Zexu talk to him about foreign steamships during a night conversation on the Xiang River, Wei Yuan's book on "the barbarians," "Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms: On Steamships," also briefly described steamships with illustrations.

However, the feeling of being deeply moved by what one sees with one's own eyes is completely different from the description in words.

One is text that requires you to fill in the blanks with your own imagination, while the other is text that is truly presented in front of you.

Zuo Zongtang, standing atop the Hanyang Gate tower, could even faintly smell the pungent, acrid smell of coal smoke.

(End of this chapter)