1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 5 Kindness
After a while, Peng finally managed to find information about the two people in front of him from the original owner's fragmented memories.

It turned out to be the Lu brothers, Lu Qin and Lu Qian, from the Lu family at the end of the village.

They also had a younger brother named Lu Jian, but he starved to death three or four years ago in the winter.

His father, Peng Xin, had written a tombstone for Lu Jian before the end of that year, so Peng had a vague recollection of it.

It's called a tombstone, but it's really just a wooden plaque with a name on it. I guess the name on the plaque has long been washed away by the rain and left no trace.

In their early years, the Lu brothers often secretly studied outside the private school in their spare time. Other teachers would chase them away, but when Peng Xin was the teacher, he not only did not chase them away, but also allowed them to listen in outside the window. He even gave the three brothers decent names.

These two brothers probably remembered Peng Xin's kindness and came specifically to kowtow to him and say goodbye.

"Come in," Peng Gang said, gesturing for them to enter.

The two Lu brothers were about to kneel down towards the back hall.

Peng Gang grabbed them and said, "How can a student kowtow to his teacher over a wall? Go in and see your teacher one last time."

The Lu brothers looked at Peng Gang with great surprise: "We are dirty and afraid of soiling Master Peng's house."

The Lu brothers knew that Peng Gang was a very clean person and were worried about making his house dirty.

"As long as it's not dirty here," Peng Gang said, pointing to his heart. He then led the two Lu brothers to the back hall to pay their respects.

After kowtowing, Lu Qin took out the spinach and spring radishes from the vegetable basket and carefully placed them on the offering table.

In Qingfeng Village, only one or two out of ten people own land, three or four out of ten rent land, and four or five out of ten have no land to cultivate.

The Lu brothers belonged to the group of four or five out of ten who had no land to cultivate, and only had a small vegetable plot of about three-tenths of an acre.

Clearly, a small vegetable patch of about three-tenths of an inch was not enough to sustain the two brothers' most basic livelihood.

The Lu brothers made a living by doing odd jobs during the busy farming season and by begging at nearby markets during the off-season.

That's why they've barely managed to survive until now.

The spinach and spring radishes on the offering table were probably the only things they could offer.

The dishes looked excellent; they were clearly carefully selected.

Although the two Lu brothers were filthy, the vegetables were washed very clean, and there wasn't a speck of mud on the radishes.

Looking at the vegetables that the Lu brothers had carefully delivered, and thinking of the clansmen who had feasted at his house yesterday and were now trying to seize the land deeds, Peng Gang felt a mix of emotions.

He asked Peng Yi to go up to the granary on the second floor and fetch two bushels of rice.

Rural people do as much as they can afford. Peng Gang's main house has two floors, but only the left half of the second floor is covered with wooden planks, which divide it into two rooms.

One room was used as a granary, and the other as a study.

Therefore, the two Lu brothers could see Peng Yi going upstairs to the storeroom to get rice from the first floor, and they quickly waved their hands to indicate that they could not accept the rice.

Without saying a word, Peng Gang stuffed the sack containing two bushels of rice into the Lu brothers' hands.

“Master Peng, this is too much. These vegetables are worth at most six liters of rice in Qishi Market,” Lu Qin said somewhat uneasily.

“After I finish arranging my father’s funeral, I want to hire you two to work. These two bushels of rice and these two fish are my deposit for you.” Peng Gang then took two more fish out of the wooden basin and gave them to them.

The Lu brothers thanked Peng Gang, went to the front yard, took out the wooden bowl from their pockets, squatted down, and picked up the spilled porridge bit by bit and put it into the bowl.

Peng Gang turned his head away, unable to bear watching any longer, and with a soft sigh, asked Peng Yi, "Brother, where did you hide the land deed?"

"It's hidden in the haystack in the cowshed. Do you want to see it, Third Brother?" Peng Yi asked.

Peng Gang nodded.

In the blink of an eye, Peng Yi retrieved a locked camphor wood box and handed the key to Peng Gang.

After the Lu brothers left, Peng Gang closed the courtyard gate and took Peng Yi to the study on the second floor to take stock of the family property.

Their most valuable asset is seventeen mu of paddy fields, nine mu of which are of superior quality.

The nine mu of high-quality paddy fields were the most concentrated piece of land owned by their family, and it was also what their father, Peng Xin, often talked about as the lifeblood of their family.

The remaining eight mu of paddy fields are medium-sized paddy fields, and their locations are relatively scattered, with half of them located in neighboring villages.

The sixteen mu of dry sloping land was scattered, with patches here and there. The largest plot was less than six mu, and the closest one was in Qingfeng Village, less than two li from my home. The furthest one was in Putang, about thirty li away. In Guixian County, the market price for top-quality paddy fields was about twelve taels, while the market price for ordinary paddy fields was generally around seven or eight taels per mu.

Dry, sloping land isn't worth much; it's about 4 ounces per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.165 acres).

A rough estimate puts the market value of his family's land at around 230 taels.

However, if they were in a hurry to pawn it, given the tyrannical nature of the Qing Dynasty landlords, they would consider it a good deed for their descendants if they could get 150 taels of silver.

What about the mansion?
As I recall, last year a poor family in a neighboring village sold a house that was similar to his, and it sold for seventy taels of silver.

His family's house is estimated to be worth around sixty or seventy taels of silver on the market.

Of course, just like with products from Hotan, a market price of sixty or seventy taels doesn't mean you can sell them for sixty or seventy taels.

He wasn't really sure how much the two large animals at home, the water buffalo and the sow, cost on the market.

As for cash, the family has spent a total of thirty-six taels of silver over the past three months on medical treatment, exorcisms, and funeral arrangements, leaving them with very little money.

Only three taels and two mace of broken silver and two and a half strings of copper coins remained.

Fortunately, his family was relatively well-off, with no debts or usurious loans. In other words, they did not owe the Qing Dynasty any taxes or borrow money at exorbitant interest rates.

His family even gave Wei Changgong a sum of money for his farming.

It was called money, but it was actually three bushels of rice that had been lent to Wei Changgong during last year's spring planting season.

The agreement was that Wei Changgong would borrow three bushels of rice in the spring and return five bushels in the autumn, but he failed to repay the loan on time and the debt has been delayed until this year.

Wei Changgong's land deed for his own 1.6 mu of paddy field is still mortgaged here.

This slash-and-burn tax seems a bit low. As far as I can remember, in Guixian County, the slash-and-burn tax is generally one shi (a unit of dry measure) borrowed in the spring and three shi (another unit of dry measure) returned in the autumn.

Some of the more ruthless local tyrants and bullies, such as Qiu Gusan, the largest Hakka landlord in Guixian County, would borrow one shi (a unit of dry measure) of land in the spring and repay five shi in the autumn as payment for slash-and-burn agriculture.

If the loan is overdue, not only will the mortgaged land be confiscated, but the slash-and-burn agriculture fee will still have to be paid.

Can't pay? Want to become a deadbeat and refuse to pay?

How can that be? If you don't pay it back, and I don't pay it back, how will Master Qiu take nine concubines?
If they couldn't repay the debt, they would sell their children and themselves to Master Qiu, with the men becoming guards and the women becoming laundry maids, serving Master Qiu like slaves for the rest of their lives.

As dusk fell, the courtyard gate, which had been quiet for most of the day, was knocked on again.

Peng Gang didn't know who was visiting at this time. Peng Yi had told him last night that his uncle, the charcoal burner in Pingzaishan, wouldn't arrive in Qingfeng Village until tomorrow at the earliest, so the visitor was definitely not his uncle.

He is now destitute and physically weak, so he dares not let his guard down.

Peng Gang tucked the ox-tail knife into his pocket, tightened the slightly loose hemp rope around his waist, and arrived at the courtyard gate.

After seeing the visitor's face through the crack in the gate, Peng Gang smiled and opened the gate to welcome him.

"Mr. Feng, Brother Dakai, Brother Xiangzhen, please come in quickly!"

There were seven guests. Peng Gang recognized only three of them, while the other three were unfamiliar faces and he couldn't recall their names at the moment.

When Feng Yunshan passed by Qishi Market, he heard the news that Peng Xin and his son had both died of the plague. Remembering that Peng Xin had helped and taken in him when he was down on his luck, Feng Yunshan bought wreaths, paper money for the dead, and wrote two elegiac couplets to pay his respects.

Shi Dakai did not want to come, but out of consideration for his former classmates and out of respect for the dead, he put aside his unpleasant past and rode to Qingfeng Village.

When they saw Peng standing perfectly fine in front of them, Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai, and Shi Xiangzhen were all very surprised.

"You're still alive! It's good that you're alive! It's good that you're alive! I thought I'd never see you again!"

Shi Dakai tossed aside the unused funeral couplets in his hand, grabbed Peng Gang's arm excitedly, and said with great joy.

"I narrowly escaped death, but God took pity on me and brought me back to the human world," Peng Gang said with a smile.

Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai, and others remained noncommittal. These people were core members of the God Worshipping Society, not lower-level believers.

Many of the lower-class members of the God Worshipping Society truly believe in the existence of the Heavenly Father, the Heavenly Brother, and Heaven.

As for the upper echelons, perhaps only Hong Xiuquan believed that the world he imagined truly existed.

Compared to their devotion to the God-worshipping religion and to the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, the ambitions of the Heavenly Kingdom's leaders are far more fervent.

(End of this chapter)