1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 39 A True Man Stands Between Heaven and Earth

The tools were washed clean, and the water in the large pool turned from clear to murky.

After checking all the tools and confirming that they were clean, Peng Gang ordered the young men to put the tools back in the warehouse and then come back to assemble, ready to conduct basic formation training for them.

Drills are the best way to train troops in discipline and collective consciousness. This has been practiced since ancient times and is not unique to modern armies.

The Northern Song Dynasty's "Wujing Zongyao" (Complete Essentials of Military Classics) detailed battle formations such as the "Pingrong Wanquan Formation" and the "Changshan Snake Formation." Soldiers were required to adjust their formations according to flag signals and drumbeats, and the formations were emphasized to be "orderly in advancing and stopping, and orderly in separating and joining."

Qi Jiguang of the Ming Dynasty proposed the "Mandarin Duck Formation" in his book "New Book of Military Tactics". This formation organized 11 people into a team with clear division of labor. Soldiers needed to be trained repeatedly to "walk in unison" in order to deal with the Japanese pirates' skirmish tactics.

To achieve proper order in movement, coordination, and synchronized steps, a well-organized formation is essential.

Even in the Qing Dynasty, there were "Imperially Approved Rules for the Eight Banners" and "Rules for the Green Standard Army," which made clear regulations on the formation training of the Eight Banners soldiers and the Green Standard Army soldiers.

The Eight Banners cavalry had to be divided by banner color, line up in strict order, and practice cavalry tactics of splitting and combining attacks, while the infantry had to practice linked gun formations.

The Green Camp emphasized synchronized movements, with firearms soldiers loading and firing in a three-step, nine-step, and nine-step, ten-step tactic.

The existence of explicit rules does not mean that the Eight Banners and Green Standard Army will implement them.

The biggest difference between the training of modern armies and that of medieval armies lies in the fact that medieval armies relied on the inheritance of experience in tactics, lacked written norms, and were extremely dependent on the generals who commanded them, such as Yue Fei and his Yue Family Army, and Qi Jiguang and his Qi Family Army.

Modern military infantry drill manuals specify each movement in a scientific and standardized manner. By simply training according to the standards of the manuals, civilians can be efficiently transformed into disciplined soldiers in large numbers, greatly raising the minimum standard of the army.

The young men of Honglianping did not line up in order of height, and their formation was uneven, like the peaks of the mountains in Guangxi, which greatly affected the visual appeal.

Peng Gang frowned as he watched.

Peng Gang gave the young men the order to arrange themselves in order of height from right to left.

However, Peng Gang overestimated these young men; most of them couldn't even distinguish left from right.

Peng Gang came up with the idea of ​​having them take off their left shoes and leave only their right shoes on, so that they could distinguish left from right.

This approach won't work if many young men don't even have a pair of straw sandals.

Peng Gang had no choice but to ask Zhao Hanwei and his aunt to cut some strips of cloth and straw rope, and tie the cloth strips to his right arm and the straw rope to his right leg.

And tell them that the arm that ties the cloth strips is the right arm, and the calf that ties the straw rope is the right leg.

Even so, many young people still can't wrap their heads around the problem and can't tell left from right.

Peng Gang had no choice but to put aside the task of distinguishing left from right for the time being and personally go down to compare everyone's height to adjust the queue.

"Remember your current ranks, remember who's to your left and right. From now on, the sound of the gong will be your signal. Once the gong sounds, everyone must take their spears and assemble in front of my residence, lining up in the current order. Do you understand?"

Peng Gang cleared his somewhat hoarse voice and said.

The long spears that were commissioned to be forged by blacksmith Wu have been completed, and now everyone in Honglianping can be given a long spear for self-defense.

"Understood~" came a sparse, weak reply from Peng Gang.

Not only were the responses sparse, but most of the young men came from humble backgrounds and were used to a submissive and submissive life. Even their posture was like that of a mantis shrimp, hunched over.

They are all teenagers aged fifteen to eighteen, the most vibrant and energetic age of their lives.

They all looked listless and lifeless, as if they were about to be buried.

"Why are you bowing your head?!" Peng Gang questioned.

"If you look up and stare at someone you shouldn't, you'll get beaten up," the young men blurted out.

Who are the people you shouldn't even look at?

"Officials and yamen runners".

"The General and the militia."

"A person who is well-dressed and of high status."

"They're just landlords and rich people!"

"What do government officials, yamen runners, Green Standard Army militia, and landlords eat?" "Grain, of course!"

Where does the grain come from?

"Grown from the ground."

What did you do before?

"Farmers."

"Have they all paid their taxes to the emperor?"

"I've submitted it."

"If that's the case, you are all government officials and yamen runners, the breadwinners of the Green Standard Army. Why should you be subservient to them, meek and submissive, and swallow your pride?"

"."

The younger generation was speechless. A few of them, like Lu Qin, Li Qi, Zhang Ze, and Huang Dabiao, seemed to have vaguely figured things out, though they were not quite clear on the point.

"A true man stands between heaven and earth; how can he live a life of meek subservience?!"

Cutting off the braid in the hearts of young people is not something that can be done overnight; it requires long-term, subtle guidance and education. Peng Gang is not one to rush things. He returned to the main point and pointed to a straight pine tree that stood proudly on the mountainside.

"Stand like a pine tree. Do you see that pine tree? If you want to stand, stand like it, straight and upright, reaching for the sky and standing tall."

With a snap, Peng Gang straightened his chest, legs, abdomen, and buttocks, leveled his shoulders, and opened his eyes wide, standing in a standard military posture, looking at the young men in front of him.

“If you’re going to stand, stand like me! Do you think you’re standing like pine trees? You’re all crooked and twisted, like weeds trampled on the ground!”

"Everyone, stand up straight, taking me as your example. I'll stand with you today, and we'll eat when I'm satisfied with how long you've stood there."

The young men looked at Peng Gang and then at the people around them. Peng Gang's posture was indeed more energetic and imposing than theirs, and he looked much more pleasing to the eye.

Although they didn't understand why they had to stand like this, Peng Gang made it clear that they would stand until he was satisfied before they would eat, so the young men didn't dare to object and followed Peng Gang's example and stood in the same way.

Peng Gang patiently stayed with them, demonstrating tirelessly and correcting their posture one by one.

Xiao Guoying didn't understand why Peng Gang did this, so she stepped forward and gently reminded him that he had wasted a whole day and missed the deadline for building the kiln.

Peng Gang didn't take it to heart. It was just a temporary measure when burning charcoal. He didn't care about burning less and earning less money.

In the midst of chaos, the young man before him, meticulously learning his posture, was his most precious treasure.

At midnight, the Huangjiang River was tinged with a rusty, bloody red.

Luo Dagang could no longer distinguish whether the crimson river water was reflected by the flickering firelight on the shore, or by the blood of floating corpses soaking into the river.

The knife wound on his right shoulder throbbed with pain, as if someone was twisting his bones.

"Where are the big-headed sheep and the big carp?"

Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Luo Dagang, with a knife in one hand and the other hand steadying the flag bearing the words "Rob the Rich to Help the Poor," questioned the whereabouts of his allies on either side.

The dense hail of metal bullets near the fleet and the gradually thinning gunfire within the river mouth gave Luo Dagang an ominous premonition.

Before the uprising, Luo Dagang, Zhang Zhao (Big Head Sheep), and Tian Fang (Big Carp) planned to advance in three directions simultaneously. Luo Dagang would take the waterway to attract the troops of the Dahuangjiang Patrol Office, while Tian Fang and Zhang Zhao would provide support from within the dike. With the help of both inside and outside forces, they would seize Jiangkou Dike.

"Is Zhang Zhao some kind of bastard who has surrendered to the Qing army again?!"

Known for his proficiency in water, capable of holding his breath and swimming shallowly for the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, Chen Ajiu, nicknamed "Flying on Water" in the martial arts world, retreated to Luo Dagang's side, grumbling and cursing as he held up his shield.

Zhang Zhao had a history of accepting amnesty from the Qing government, and Chen Ajiu suspected that Zhang Zhao had once again surrendered to the Qing halfway through the journey and betrayed them.

The Qing army's gunfire grew increasingly fierce, and members of the Heaven and Earth Society around Chen Ajiu fell dead, shot and wounded by arrows.

Those who were lucky enough to survive, seeing the situation was dire and had lost all will to fight, jumped into the river and swam to escape.

In the blink of an eye, Luo Dagang was left with only fifty-odd loyal followers, and the situation was extremely dire.

(End of this chapter)