1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 34 Small Territory

Honglianping is located deep in the mountains and is isolated from information. Peng Gang was unaware that Hong Xiuquan had made the impulsive decision to smash the Ganwang Temple.

Of course, a member of the God-Worshipping Society at his level has no right to know, much less to inquire.

Xie Bin was much more reliable than Chen Xingwang. After Hou Jiyong led twelve soldiers from Shangdongtangtang and their families to Honglianping to do odd jobs, the mountain people and bandits near Honglianping immediately became obedient. At least on the surface, no one dared to covet Honglianping anymore.

With no external threats and the addition of twelve more workers, the construction of Honglianping was able to be accelerated.

By the end of March, Peng Gang had cleared out two and a half acres of flat land in Honglianping, and eight mud-walled sheds of varying sizes were erected thereafter.

The three largest sheds will be used as classrooms, canteens, and warehouses in the future.

To address lighting concerns, the sheds planned to serve as classrooms were not enclosed with earthen walls.

The two smaller sheds were used as dormitories for the boys in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively.

The smaller shack is where Peng Gang and his two siblings live.

The two smallest sheds were used as a kitchen in one and as a storage for Peng Gang's personal belongings and weapons.

By this point, Peng Gang's charcoal burning yard in Honglianping had taken shape. Although it was still very crude, at least they now had a place to live and no longer had to sleep in the wilderness and endure the wind and rain.

As for insect bites, even living in a shed cannot completely eliminate them; one can only continue to endure them.

Looking down at the charcoal burning plantation they had painstakingly cultivated through hardship and toil, Peng Gang felt a great sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.

After briefly surveying his little territory, Peng Gang plopped down on the threshold of the new house and began flipping through the account books.

This includes the ten taels of silver spent on bribing the head of the Bitan Flood Control Team and the external commissioner of Shangdongtang.

In a month, a total of sixty-five taels of silver were spent like water.

A month ago, Peng Gang went up the mountain with seventy-one taels of silver that he had brought from home.

If it weren't for the thirty taels of silver that Qiu Zhongliang lent him, he probably wouldn't have been able to support the remaining thirty or so people in Honglianping.

He now needs to find a way to get the mountain farm running and quickly recoup some funds.

Although the boys in Honglianping usually ate a mixture of rice and grains and rarely had meat, they could only eat meat once in a while when they received a reward from Peng Gang.

However, they are in a period of rapid growth, their stomachs are not rich in oil and fat, and they have to participate in high-intensity physical work, so the amount of food for more than 30 mouths is naturally quite astonishing.

On average, each person consumes about two and a half pounds of grain per day.

In addition, there were twelve hired laborers from Shangdongtang and fourteen mouths for the two carpenters.

In just one month, they consumed a total of twenty-eight bushels of grain.

Peng Gang held the ledger, staring at the pitiful balance on it, and then looked at his eldest uncle, sixth uncle, and Wei Shoushan's family who had moved to Honglianping one after another. He couldn't help but frown.

Adding three more households means adding sixteen more mouths to feed.

"Third Brother, I can't understand the words on this ledger."

Peng Yi received a good education and could recognize most of the less obscure characters.

However, Peng Gang uses Arabic numerals for bookkeeping. He has been so busy with things at the mountain site this month that he hasn't had the time or opportunity to teach his younger siblings Arabic numerals.

"I'll teach you to recognize it tonight." Peng Gang swiftly swatted a large mosquito that was biting Peng Yi's face.

As spring draws to a close, mosquitoes and other insects gradually increase in the mountains.

At first, Peng Gang was unbearably itchy and uncomfortable from the mountain mosquito bites, but after being bitten by the mosquitoes for several days in a row, he has now become numb.

As long as there aren't too many mosquitoes and their buzzing isn't too loud, so as not to annoy him too much, Peng Gang is too lazy to waste his precious calories dealing with these insects.

"Brother, are we almost out of money?"

Peng Yi scratched the swollen bump on his left cheek from a mosquito bite, then looked up at Peng Gang, whose face was full of worry.

Back when he was at home, Peng Yi helped his father manage the family accounts.

Although Peng Gang had personally handled all the money for the mountain area over the past month, Peng Yi had seen every single expense and could estimate that the money Peng Gang had brought was almost gone. "You don't need to worry about the money. Just make sure they do their jobs well. I'll figure out how to cover the expenses," Peng Gang said, patting Peng Yi on the shoulder.

"Brother, we only have five bushels of grain left. At this rate, it will only last us six or seven days at most," Peng Min, Peng Gang's younger sister, reported after she had just finished taking stock of the grain in the granary.

"I understand, brother."

As he spoke, Peng Gang walked toward Wei Shoushan, who was guarding the coal pile.

Wei Shoushan, the charcoal kiln foreman he had hired, had already rented out the small plot of land he owned and had brought his family to Honglianping half a month ago.

When Wei Shoushan arrived at Honglianping, the boys were still busy repairing the slope and building sheds, and there were no spare hands to dig and build kilns.

Peng Gang was also eager to burn a batch of charcoal to sell, so that he could earn money to buy food.

Wei Changgong had no choice but to hastily dig pits and burn two piles of charcoal.

One pile was bamboo charcoal made from burning bamboo, and the other pile was mixed charcoal made from burning miscellaneous wood.

Bamboo charcoal and mixed charcoal are relatively cheap in Xunzhou Prefecture and cannot be sold at high prices.

Peng Gang and Wei Shoushan chose to burn bamboo charcoal and mixed charcoal first because they did not want to waste the precious wood.

Peng Gang plans to wait until the kiln is built before firing the large and hardwood timbers from the mountain. Using a kiln to fire charcoal is easier to control the firing temperature than digging pits and piling them up on the spot, resulting in a higher and more stable charcoal yield and avoiding waste of timber.

"Uncle Shoushan, how are the two piles of charcoal burning?" Peng Gang asked Wei Shoushan.

Wei Shoushan dug up a patch of soil, picked out a few pieces of charcoal, and carefully examined their volume and color before saying, "Fortunately, it has met the master's expectations and is now fired. Does the master want to pack it into baskets and carry it out of the mountains to sell? Bamboo charcoal and mixed charcoal don't fetch good prices right now."

"What were the prices of bamboo charcoal and mixed charcoal at Bitanxun when you came?" Peng Gang asked.

“The price of charcoal in Bitan is not high, only three and a half coins a pound. If we can take it to Jiangkou Market to sell, we can get at least five coins a pound.” Wei Shoushan suddenly remembered a question and asked Peng Gang.

"Has the owner already joined the Xunzhou Prefecture Chamber of Commerce?"

"No, is there any intricacies involved?" Peng Gang replied truthfully, "I'm new to this line of work and don't quite understand the ins and outs of it yet. I hope Uncle Shoushan will be kind enough to enlighten me."

When Peng Gang rented the mountain land from Qiu Gusan, Qiu Gusan mentioned the charcoal guild to him. However, Peng Gang had not yet had the opportunity to learn more about the local chamber of commerce.

“In the mountainous areas of Pingzai Mountain and Zijing Mountain, if you want to sell your charcoal to Jiangkou Market, you have to join the local chamber of commerce. Otherwise, no one in Jiangkou Market will dare to buy your charcoal, even if you offer a very low price.”

Selling charcoal in small, sporadic amounts, basket or two at a time, would naturally be difficult for the Chamber of Commerce to detect, and even if they did, they wouldn't bother to investigate.

However, Peng Gang was selling charcoal produced by a small charcoal factory, and the output was relatively large, so it was impossible for him to sell it privately without the knowledge of the local chamber of commerce.

"The Chamber of Commerce will take a cut, right?" Peng Gang asked.

“The percentage taken is secondary; it’s usually one in ten. The key is that the price of charcoal in Xunzhou Prefecture is set by the Chamber of Commerce, and no one dares to break the rules,” Wei Shoushan sighed.

“If the owner wants to sell charcoal in Jiangkou Market, it is difficult to sell the charcoal directly to the dye house without connections.”

"Why?" Peng Gang asked, puzzled. "Does selling charcoal in Jiangkou Market require going through a middleman?"

“Middleman? That’s about it. Our small charcoal kilns, which we run ourselves, usually sell the charcoal to brokers in Jiangkou Market. The brokers only pay about 80% of what the Chamber of Commerce pays,” Wei Shoushan said, nodding slightly.

“The brokerage firm in Jiangkou Market is controlled by Wang Ji, the patrol inspector of the Dahuang River, and the tax collectors of the patrol office. It is almost impossible for the landlord to bypass them to sell charcoal.”

Peng Gang felt suffocated after hearing this. He had fallen so low as to be a penniless charcoal burner, yet so many vampires were clinging to his withered body, sucking his blood.

He did the math in his head and found that after being exploited by both the charcoal guild and the Jiangkouwei brokers, the charcoal that could have been sold for five coins a pound was reduced to only 3.6 coins a pound in his hands.

This is worse than selling it directly to the small dyehouse in Bitanxun!
Unfortunately, the small dyehouse in Bitanxun was too small to handle the charcoal produced by a small charcoal burning plant.

Moreover, given Chen Xingwang's attitude as the magistrate of Bitan, he would definitely try to drive down the price once he found out that his charcoal couldn't be sold at Jiangkouwei.

Oh, the evil old society!

Peng Gang doesn't have to pay Qiu Gusan 60% of the mountain rent yet. If he did, he would have to borrow money at exorbitant interest rates to work for Qiu Gusan.

(End of this chapter)