1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 59 Yang Xiuqing's Talent
In the Mengchong Ganwang Temple case, thirty-one members of the God Society, including Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan, were arrested by the Mengchong Wang brothers and handed over to the authorities.

The Wang brothers of Mengchong went to great lengths and were willing to spend a lot of money to deal with the God Society.

Of the thirty-one members arrested, as many as eighteen died from torture.

Everyone below Feng Yunshan, including Lu Liu, was injured.

The loss of eighteen people seems negligible to the God Society, which claims to have five or six thousand members.

However, the followers who were arrested were led by Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan to smash the Ganwang Temple in Mengchong.

These were all core members who had joined the society before the 25th year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, and confidants of Hong and Feng. They could all become minor leaders in various places, so the loss was considerable.

Although Yang Xun was greedy, at least he did things after taking the money.

Lu Liu and his twelve wounded confidants, all from Xunzhou Prefecture, were released from the county jail before Feng Yunshan.

After being assigned two corporals, Feng Yunshan was released and sent back to Huaxian County, Guangdong.

Shi Dakai had some reservations about Yang Xun's handling of Feng Yunshan.

Peng Gang didn't think it was a big deal, as long as the person was released.

Although Feng Yunshan was subjected to some torture, considering his status in the God Worshippers Society, and the fact that the jailers in Guiping County were all locals and not stupid, they did not torture Feng Yunshan to death, but only went through the motions.

Feng Yunshan only had some minor injuries; he was neither crippled nor disabled. Once he was released from prison and regained his freedom, he could return to his hometown and sneak back to Guiping, and Yang Xun would have no say in the matter.

Peng Gang, Yang Xiuqing, and Shi Dakai pooled together twenty-one taels of silver to bribe the Huang brothers, Huang Chao and Huang Ba, who were responsible for escorting Feng Yunshan back to Huaxian, Guangdong.

Huang Chao and Huang Ba were both locals from Guiping. They were aware of the God's Society's influence in Guiping and did not want to offend them. So they were relatively friendly and, after receiving the money, patted their chests and guaranteed that they would safely send Feng Yunshan back to Huaxian, Guangdong.

As everyone was preparing to devour the powerful Wang family of Mengchong after seeing off Feng Yunshan, rain began to fall in Guiping, which had been sunny for several days. The rain grew heavier and heavier, and continued incessantly.

Guiping City is located at the confluence of the Qianjiang and Yujiang rivers. It is an area prone to flooding, and the river embankments have been in disrepair for many years.

The floodwaters of the Qianjiang and Yujiang rivers inevitably overflowed the riverbanks and poured into Guiping city.

There were already many disaster victims and beggars in Guiping City. The continuous heavy rains caused people from nearby disaster-stricken areas to gather around Guiping City to beg for food.

They fantasized that the prefectural and county officials of Guiping City, as well as the wealthy families in the city, would have the kindness to set up soup kitchens to provide disaster relief.

The prefectural and county governments did indeed set up soup kitchens to provide disaster relief.

However, setting up only three soup kitchens was a perfunctory measure, which was far from enough to satisfy tens of thousands of disaster victims.

As for wealthy families in Guiping City, very few of them set up soup kitchens to distribute soup.

Many wealthy individuals took advantage of the disaster to buy people and land at bargain prices, making a fortune from the hardship.

Less than five days after the flood, Guiping City was already overcrowded, with people sleeping under the eaves of houses on both sides of the street.

The gaunt refugees huddled together in knee-deep water, shivering in the cold, murky floodwaters, their groans, sighs, and cries as incessant as the sound of the rain.

On the sixth day, all six city gates of Guiping were closed. The Upper North Gate, Lower North Gate, and South Gate were only briefly opened each day when corpses were being transported.

These three city gates were very close to the river, making it convenient to throw the bodies into the river.

On the ninth day, the rain gradually subsided, and the floodwaters that had poured into Guiping City began to recede slowly.

Peng Gang walked out of the inn, looking for suitable candidates while taking out his notebook to note down the generous families in Guiping City who had helped those in need during the flood.

When the refugees saw Peng Gang buying people, they flocked to him, some wanting to sell themselves to him, and others wanting to sell their wives and children to him.

Upon learning that Peng Gang only wanted young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty who had attended private school and were literate, the refugees who did not meet the requirements sighed and left with disappointment.

A few refugees, still unwilling to give up, still tried to sell their daughters or even wives to Peng Gang for the price of a few kilograms of coarse grains.

Some parents, crying their hearts out, said they didn't want a single grain of rice, they just wanted Peng Gang to take their daughter away and give them a bite to eat.

During the great disaster, the literacy rate of residents near the prefectural city was much higher than that of those in the countryside.

Last time, Peng Gang searched for several days in the market near Qingfeng Village and only found Li Qi, a promising young man who had studied in a private school for two and a half years and had a rudimentary understanding of literature. This time, he found twenty-six promising young men with a rudimentary understanding of literature among the refugees in Guiping City.

Despite the fact that seven of them were over twenty years old, Peng Gang accepted them because it was difficult to find promising young men with a good education.

After a great disaster there will be a great epidemic.

Guiping City was densely populated, with appalling sanitation conditions, and so many people had died, making it an absolute breeding ground for disease.

Peng Gang dared not linger, so he hurriedly bought seventy-four strong young men, found two bankrupt blacksmiths and one stonemason in the vicinity, and purchased living supplies, books, writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstones.

Finally, together with Shi Dakai, Yang Xiuqing, and Xie Bin, they led the team away from Guiping City.

Upon exiting the North Gate, what greeted everyone's eyes was an endless expanse of refugees near the city wall, and floating corpses drifting downstream on the river.

"The price of grain in Guiping City has soared to four or five taels of silver per shi (a unit of dry measure), which is driving the people to the brink of despair," Shi Dakai couldn't help but sigh.

When they arrived, Guiping City had not yet suffered from the disaster, and the price of rice was normal, around one tael and five mace per shi.

The so-called normal rice price has made it unaffordable for at least half of the population, forcing them to rely on coarse grains for sustenance.

After a heavy rain, the price of rice tripled and is still trending upward. Isn't this pushing people to the brink of despair?
“Lord Shi should be happy,” Xie Bin suddenly interjected. “After the great disaster, even more people will join your God Society.”

Xie Bin's words were true, and Shi Dakai remained silent, his heart filled with conflict.

"I hope there's no disaster on Zijing Mountain." Yang Xiuqing sighed, hoping there was no disaster on Zijing Mountain.

“Even if there is no disaster in Zijing Mountain, the price of grain will inevitably rise.” Peng Gang shook his head helplessly.

"With grain prices soaring in Guiping City, the big farmers in Zijing Mountain will definitely try their best to transport their grain from Zijing Mountain to Guiping City to sell. Grain prices in Zijing Mountain will inevitably rise as well."

Tens of thousands of people near Xunzhou Prefecture were affected by the disaster. Such a large-scale disaster will inevitably drive up grain prices in the entire Guiping County and even neighboring counties.

They left the city and crossed the river.

The group found a teahouse and used its hot stove to have a hot meal.

During the meal, Peng Gang took out a map of Guangxi that he had been copying in Guiping City and gave it to Yang Xiuqing: "Brother Xiuqing, can you understand the map?"

Yang Xiuqing's eyes lit up. He put down the pickled vegetables he had just picked up, wiped his hands on his clothes, and took the map to look at it with great interest: "Brother Peng Gang, where are Guiping City, Jiangkouwei, and Mengchong? Please point them out to me."

Peng Gang pointed to the locations of Guiping City, Jiangkouwei, and Mengchong on the map.

Yang Xiuqing quickly borrowed a pen and ink, and drew a big X at the location of Guiping City, a large circle at the location of Jiangkouwei, and a small circle at the location of Mengchong.

With three settlements as references, Yang Xiuqing easily found the other settlements on the map: "This is Xinwei, this is Jintian, this is Fengmen'ao, this is Dachong, this is Bitanxun, this is Qishixu. Am I pointing them out correctly?"

Peng Gang and Shi Dakai stared at Yang Xiuqing in shock. Although Yang Xiuqing was illiterate and didn't recognize any place names on the map, he was completely ignorant.

However, he pointed out all the correct locations on the map, except for the Qishixu location, which was slightly off-target.

It turns out that peasant geniuses like Li Yunlong, who were born with the ability to read maps, really do exist.

Although Yang Xiuqing was illiterate, his talent for reading maps and his intuition for map directions were indeed superior to those of ordinary people.

"This gift is too precious! I don't know how to thank you enough." Yang Xiuqing was a connoisseur; he knew the value of maps, as ordinary people had no access to them.

Yang Xiuqing happily accepted the map and carefully rolled it up and put it away.

"If Brother Yang wants to thank me, just give me more money and grain after we take over the Mengchong Wang family." Peng Gang was not a noble and selfless person, and he stated his request very directly.

He couldn't give away the ninety-five taels of gold and twelve taels of silver he had bribed Yang Xun for nothing; he had to get some of it back from the Wang family in Mengchong.

“You were the one who started this whole thing. You paid for rescuing Mr. Feng and bribing the county magistrate, so you should get a bigger share,” Yang Xiuqing said, nodding in agreement.

Yang Xiuqing wanted to go back to Xiagupeng Village in Zijing Mountain to find Xiao Chaogui. Since it was not on the same route as Peng Gang and the others, after finishing their meal, they agreed to contact each other on another day to jointly attack the Wang family, a powerful family in Mengchong, and then parted ways.

(End of this chapter)