1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 81 Vigorous Vitality
By this time, the God Society had already expanded beyond the confines of Zijing Mountain.

To avoid the wrath of Xiao He and Yang Xiuquan and to evade government restrictions, Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan traveled north to spread Christianity and develop new bases. During this time, they successfully won over another major financial backer: Hu Yihuang from Huazhoushan Village in Pingnan County.

Hu Yihuang is the son of Hu Chen, the richest man in Pingnan County.

The ancestor of the Hu family, Hu Qizhuo, was originally a military officer during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. He rose to the rank of commander after accumulating merits in suppressing bandits during the late Ming Dynasty.

After the Manchus entered the pass, in order to escape their pursuit, Hu Qizhuo fled all the way from Linjiang, Jiangxi to Pingnan, Guangxi, where he sought refuge with his clansman Hu Zhongkang, who had served as a county magistrate and settled there.

Unexpectedly, Hu Zhongkang thought that Hu Qizhuo had already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and came to coerce him into serving the Manchus.

Hu Zhongkang refused to surrender to the barbarian Tartars and fled into the Dayao Mountains overnight to avoid Hu Qizhuo, and was never heard from again.

Hu Qizhuo then seized nearby fields, houses, and mountains, usurping their territory and becoming a wealthy man with over 10,000 mu of land in Pingnan County.

By the time of Hu Chen's generation, the Hu family's farmland and mountain areas had expanded to Teng County and Dayao Mountain, with more than 400 cattle. They could collect more than 100 taels of silver in usury interest every day.

Hu Chen has three sons.

Hu Yihuang is the second son of the Hu family.

The eldest son, Hu Yizhao, was a student of the Imperial Academy and also inherited the Hu family business, living the best life.

The second son, Hu Yihuang, pursued a career in martial arts. He was a promising young man who passed the imperial examination for martial arts, but fate played a cruel trick on him. When he was taking the examination for the title of martial arts graduate, he accidentally broke his bow, thus losing his chance to become a martial arts graduate.

The third son, Hu Yiyang, was a student at the Imperial Academy and lived a good life.

It was one thing for Hu Yihuang to pursue the military examination, but the real problem was that he didn't even manage to become a military officer. As a result, the eldest and third sons of the Hu family didn't like Hu Yihuang.

During his lifetime, Hu Chen had several court battles with the Zhuo family, another Tujia gentry family in the area, over land disputes, which created a deep grudge between them.

The sins of the father must be visited upon the son. After Hu Chen's death, the Zhuo family took advantage of the discord between Hu Yihuang and the eldest and third sons of the Hu family, and bullied Hu Yihuang by picking on the weakest link.

Although the Zhuo family was not as wealthy as the Hu family, they had someone holding an official position in the imperial court.

The eldest and third sons of the Hu family were timid and dared not stand up for themselves, watching their own brothers being bullied by the Zhuo family.

Later on, the Zhuo brothers even dragged Hu Yihuang into the Zhuo family's cowshed in broad daylight with their servants, pressed him onto cow dung, and beat him. After the beating, they shaved off half of Hu Yihuang's hair to humiliate him.

The news spread throughout Xunzhou Prefecture, and even the Yao people of Dayao Mountain knew about it, making it a popular topic of conversation.

Feng Yunshan had heard about this matter long ago and listed Hu Yihuang as a key target for development.

When passing through Shanren Village, Feng Yunshan would often stay overnight at Hu Yihuang's house and have long talks with him.

Hu Yihuang's career was fraught with setbacks, he was at odds with his brothers, and he was further bullied and humiliated by the Zhuo family, his sworn enemies. His usual acquaintances were mostly fair-weather friends who only wanted his money and were utterly useless in times of need. He was filled with resentment and frustration, and had no one to confide in.

Feng Yunshan was a man who didn't care about money, and he was also very eloquent. When it came to a real fight, he could verbally spar with the Zhuo family until they were speechless. Hu Yihuang quickly came to regard Feng Yunshan as a close friend.

Feng Yunshan would also occasionally, intentionally or unintentionally, reveal to Hu Yihuang that their God Society was the most united and could avenge Hu Yihuang.

At first, Hu Yihuang didn't really believe it.

After the God Society destroyed the Wang family of Zijing Mountain, Hu Yihuang joined the society without hesitation, bringing his own funds, and spared no effort in supporting Feng Yunshan's missionary work.

Although Hu Yihuang separated from the Hu family, he didn't get the lion's share.

However, the Hu family was well-off, and Hu Yihuang was still allocated several thousand acres of farmland and mountain land, eighty or ninety oxen, forty or fifty horses, and tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Hu Yihuang's wealth far exceeded that of Wei Changhui, a nouveau riche, making him the undisputed richest man in the God Society before the Jintian Uprising.

With Hu Yihuang's full support, the God Worshippers' base in Huazhoushan Village rapidly expanded. In just three months, Feng Yunshan recruited over two thousand believers there. Furthermore, Shi Dakai of Nabang Village in Guixian County, Qin Richang of Longshan in Guixian County, Tan Yao of Huali in Xiangzhou, Huang Wenjin of Bobai County in Yulin Prefecture, and even Ling Shiba of Xinyi County in Guangdong Province, have all recruited over a thousand followers.

Centered on Zijing Mountain, the God Worshippers Society flourished in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, showing a vibrant and thriving scene, gradually gaining momentum.

The God Society was thriving, but Yang Xun, having finished his official business in the signing room of the Guiping County Government, was exhausted and drowsy.

Yang Xun had a limited budget for hiring a secretary.

The criminal division hired the experienced lawyer Chen Kerang at a high price, while the other divisions had to cut their budgets and hire novices.

Yang Xun's money and grain clerk was a half-baked expert, so he had to handle the money and grain affairs in Guiping County himself.

Yang Xun took a letter from the clerk that he had no choice but to read. He squinted his sleepy eyes and forced himself to finish reading the contents of the letter. Yang Xun was so angry that he was no longer sleepy at all.

"You, Huang Tizheng, you're a Juren (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), and so am I. I'll let it go if you consider me a junior, and I'll even show you some respect because you're old and about to die. But you've really gone too far, threatening to report me to the Prefect and the Governor!" Yang Xun slammed the letter onto the desk with a loud bang.

"Go ahead and sue! I don't want to be a subservient magistrate anymore!"

Leaving aside the fact that taking Peng Gang's position as a member of the militia wouldn't solve the problem, Yang Xun had at least accepted Peng Gang's gold and silver, and it's really unreasonable that he took it after only half a year as a member of the militia.

Although Yang Xun said he didn't want Peng Gang's gifts for this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, Peng Gang still asked Xie Bin to send three hundred taels of silver and nineteen taels of gold as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.

The Huang family was large and powerful, with students all over Xunzhou. In the end, the gifts they gave to Peng Gang during the Mid-Autumn Festival were about the same, which clearly showed that they did not take him, the county magistrate, seriously.

If it weren't for the fact that this young man was suspected of treason, Yang Xun wouldn't mind making friends with Peng Gang and giving this clever and capable young man some pointers on how to improve himself.

Chen Kerang glanced at the contents of the letter and whispered to Yang Xun, "Master, Huang Tizheng is the most famous scholar and gentleman in Xunzhou Prefecture. If he really has the ability to complain to Governor Zheng about us, how should we respond? Or should we do as he says and take Peng Gang's position as head of the troupe? Peng Gang is too young after all, and he is just a newcomer with no real power."

“What good would it do to take Peng Gang’s position as a group leader if he took it?” Yang Xun shook his head. “He’s not the head of the God Society. Would the God Society disband if he took him? In my opinion, this old man probably has his eye on the fields and mountains of Pingzaishan and Zijingshan. He wants to build a legacy for his descendants before he dies.”

"How does the Master intend to reply?" Chen Kerang asked.

"What else can we reply to? Just like before, stall for time and try to keep this old man calm," Yang Xun said after thinking for a moment.

"Right now, the Heaven and Earth Society is the most pressing issue. Even Prefect Gu has no choice but to personally lead a group out of the city to help Li Dianyuan suppress Zhang Jiaxiang and Chen Yagui of the Heaven and Earth Society in your county."

At this critical juncture, we must first stabilize the situation on Zijing Mountain and keep the charcoal burners in place. We can't afford any trouble, otherwise neither of us can bear the consequences.

"That's acceptable."

Chen Kerang felt there was no better way. The autumn grain collected by the county had not yet been stored in the warehouse when Gu Yuankai intercepted it and used it to suppress bandits in the government. Huang Ti was about to make a move against the charcoal burners of Zijing Mountain and go talk to Gu Yuankai himself. However, Chen Kerang had another important matter to ask Yang Xun for instructions.

"The fighting between the local people in Mengxu has resulted in over three hundred deaths and injuries, and the fighting is still ongoing. In your opinion, how should this matter be decided? The patrol officers have been reduced to almost nothing by the magistrate Gu's reassignment, but the third shift still has some manpower. Should we send some strong and fast yamen runners over to make a show of it?"

“The yamen runners in the county are all locals. Which family doesn’t have some grudge against the visitors? They’ll only side with their own people and not with the truth, adding fuel to the fire.” Yang Xun sighed, picked up his tea to moisten his throat, and asked Chen Kerang.

"What has Peng Gang been doing lately? Has he been behaving himself?"

“Recently, Peng Gang had his uncle recruit blacksmiths and carpenters in Jiangkouwei and the markets near Guiping City, and purchased six or seven thousand catties of wrought iron, saying that he would buy it to make farm tools for land reclamation.” Chen Kerang paused and said truthfully.

“These past few days they’ve been buying mules, horses and oxen everywhere, saying that too many people can’t carry the charcoal, so they need to buy more livestock to carry it.”

Yang Xun might believe the suggestion that mules and oxen were needed to carry goods, but as for buying six or seven thousand catties of wrought iron to make farm tools for clearing land? What wealthy landowner would need six or seven thousand catties of wrought iron to make farm tools for clearing land?

Based on Peng Gang's actions, Yang Xun was now absolutely certain that the kid was going to rebel, but with so many people in the signing room, he couldn't just point it out directly.

Yang Xun secretly groaned in despair, and could only instruct, "Collect more New Year's gifts this year, and send people around to inquire where there are any vacancies, even small ones will do!"

(End of this chapter)