1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 86 Even if you don't die, you'll still be skinned alive.

"Grandpa, a letter from Peng Gang, the chairman of the Zijingshan Youth League."

Upon receiving the letter, Huang Yujiang hurried to the main hall and handed it to Huang Tizheng.

Huang Tizheng is 82 years old. He is hard of hearing and has poor eyesight. At this moment, he is hunched over and slumped in a soft-cushioned armchair.

He was no longer able to walk normally, and his eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping all depended on the two beautiful maids, who were seventeen or eighteen years old, to serve him.

Despite being old and frail, with a failing body, he lamented the disappointment of his younger generation.

Huang Tizheng had to let go of the trivial matters of the Huang family, but he couldn't let go of the important matters, so he still took care of them all.

"A mere village head, yet he puts on quite an air. It's only a few hours' journey from Bitan to Jiangkouwei, yet it took him almost a month to reply."

Trembling, Huang Tizheng grasped the reading glasses and magnifying glass handed to him by the maid. He struggled to read Peng Gang's letter and let out a weak snort.

“That’s really outrageous, they don’t know what’s good for them,” Huang Yujiang echoed.

In Xunzhou Prefecture, the line of people eager to curry favor with the Huang family stretched from Jiangkouwei to Zijing Mountain, but this kid was different; he waited for them for over twenty days before replying.

Huang Tizheng put down the letter, and the fat on his old face twitched involuntarily: "That little charcoal burner surnamed Peng said he couldn't leave because he was suppressing boat bandits in Pingzai Mountain, so he asked you to find other gang leaders to start a gang to suppress the bandits. How dare you! Trying to teach us how to do things."

"Suppressing boat bandits? I think it's more like 'running boats'," Huang Yujiang said with considerable frustration. "If I had known this would happen, I would have helped the Wang family when Yang Xun accused them of running boats and causing trouble. Otherwise, the God God Society bandits would have become so powerful in Zijing Mountain."

When Yang Xun accused the Wang family of causing trouble by boating, the Huang family chose to remain neutral because Wang Zuoxin was the one who came.

Huang Yujiang still feels deep regret whenever he thinks about this.

"It's just a God Society. Our Huang family isn't so destitute that we have to rely on someone who comes here." Huang Tizheng wasn't upset about the matter. He still thought it was right not to help the Wang family in the first place. His Huang family were the leaders of the local people in Xunzhou Prefecture. If they rashly helped someone who came here, what would the local people think of them?

Furthermore, who knew the Wang family would be so useless? After serving as the head of the militia for so long, their men couldn't even hold off a bunch of charcoal burners.

"Considering he's a scholar, I was thinking of giving him a hand. But since this kid doesn't know what's good for him and isn't willing to be treated kindly, then we'll have to be forceful."

Once Prefect Gu returns victorious from suppressing the bandits, I'll use my connections to personally write to him and ask him to arrest Peng Gang's gang leader. We'll then frame him for colluding with the pirates, and you can raise a gang to wipe him out. We'll make an example of him and use his blood to get yourself a promotion.

"These are turbulent times. Your grandfather's days are numbered. A mere military commander in the county can't protect the Huang family. From now on, the Huang family will depend on you, the younger generation."

Zijing Mountain is the stronghold of the God Worshippers, which now has nearly ten thousand followers, with at least two or three thousand able-bodied men. It won't be easy to wipe them out.

Otherwise, the Huang family wouldn't have retreated from their old home in Xinwei to Jiangkouwei to avoid disaster.

As for Peng Gang of Pingzaishan, Huang Tizheng heard that when Peng Gang was appointed as the head of the militia by Yang Xun, he had only about a hundred militiamen under his command, most of whom were newly recruited from the victims of last year's flood.

They must be the weakest of the God Society's bandits, perfect for sharpening our knives.

"Grandson will definitely wipe out this scoundrel!" Huang Yujiang was overjoyed. "Grandpa is still in good health and will live to be a hundred!"

"Of all these juniors, you're the most eloquent," Huang Tizheng said slowly, leaning back in his armchair, closing his eyes in thought for a moment.

"Before we wipe him out, we need to bleed him dry. I sent people to inquire, and it turns out that before he started burning charcoal, he was just a poor villager in Guixian County with no money. Now he supports his militia by selling charcoal, and he has also taken in several hundred refugees recently, all of which cost a lot of money."

Huang Tizheng was very well-informed; he had already found out everything about Peng Gang's background.

He speculated that Peng Gang was able to afford to buy the position of head of the militia from Yang Xun, most likely because it was related to the remnants of Zhang Zhao's bandits who had fled to Pingzaishan after looting Jiangkouwei last year.

Although Peng Gang later acquired some more money, land, and mountains from the Wang family, he had been buying iron materials, livestock, and sheltering refugees in the past few months, so the two windfalls he had made must have run out.

They should be relying on selling charcoal to support the militia and the several hundred refugees. If Peng Gang's source of income is cut off, he'll be badly hurt, even if he doesn't die.

At that time, the group will be able to launch another raid into the mountains to encircle and annihilate Peng Gang, achieving twice the result with half the effort.

"Does Grandpa mean to speak to the charcoal merchants at the Chamber of Commerce and make sure his charcoal can't be sold?" Huang Yujiang asked.

"You are a promising young man." Huang Tizheng nodded slightly and added, "Among the young men of our Huang family, you are the one who best pleases your father. Not only should you make sure his charcoal cannot be sold, but you should also ensure that no one dares to buy his charcoal. Go and make the arrangements. The mountain areas occupied by Peng Gang were all seized from the Wang family. Their acquisition was illegitimate. If you can eliminate him, I will speak with Prefect Gu and transfer these mountain areas to you."

At the end of March 1849, the chilly spring breeze of Lingnan swept across Pingzai Mountain.

At the Honglian Village shooting range, the sound of gunfire, like popping beans, was incessant.

Peng Gang was somewhat nervous and apprehensive, as this was the third time he had tested the flintlock gun, which was being imitated by the Honglian Village arsenal.

The flintlock guns manufactured in the first two batches, although their barrels were not as good as the original brown bass guns, were sufficient and not a major problem.

The problem lies with the flintlock ignition mechanism.

Although it was reverse engineering based on the original gun, the same flintlock mechanism was replicated according to the professional drawings drawn by Peng Gang.

The counterfeit flintlocks suffer from problems such as unstable ignition, skewed sparks, loose clamps, slow firing system response, and sluggish triggers, resulting in a misfire rate as high as 39%, which is far inferior to the original flintlocks.

Compared to the problems mentioned above, issues such as poor component break-in, stuck parts, and assembly difficulties are minor.

Having learned from his previous two experiences, Peng Gang realized that taking too big a step can really lead to disaster.

The flintlock mechanism he was made by was crafted by a group of blacksmiths and carpenters, not watchmakers. It was a bit of a stretch to expect that the flintlock parts they made by hand could even meet the standard of universal interchangeability.

This time, Peng Gang lowered the requirements, not pursuing interchangeable parts. As long as the single gun performed adequately and met the standard for usability, it would pass the acceptance test.

Five musketeers selected from a group took turns firing at round wooden targets at 60 paces (90 meters) and 120 paces (180 meters) using both the Brown Bess and flintlock muskets made by the Honglianping Arsenal.

The round wooden target made from a tree stump was four feet (1.33 meters) in diameter and underwent more than thirty rounds of testing throughout the morning.

With a light breeze and all flintlock muskets used foreign gunpowder in the test, the hit rate of the Brownbee at 60 paces was 48%, and the hit rate at 120 paces was 26%.

The hit rate of the replica flintlock gun was 37% at 60 paces and 18% at 120 paces.

The dispersion on the target was also significantly denser with the brown beaker than with the homemade flintlock gun.

In terms of misfire rate, the misfire rate of the Brownbes is 6%, while that of the imitation flintlock gun is 14%.

Peng Gang strictly controlled the variables before the test.

The two guns were tested with the same flintlock stone beforehand, and Peng Gang speculated that the reason for the large difference in the misfire rate was that the spring plates made by the blacksmiths had insufficient elasticity.

The musketeers who participated in the test also reported that the homemade flintlock muskets did not fire as powerfully as the muskets, and occasionally failed to ignite, but the situation was much better than in the first two rounds.

The screws that the Honglianping Arsenal made themselves didn't fit as tightly as the original brown bass screws. After firing a dozen or twenty shots, the screws holding the flint would loosen, and in severe cases, the flint would fall off.

There has been progress compared to before; previously, the flint would fall after firing five, six, seven, or eight shots.

It's likely that these craftsmen have accumulated enough experience in processing screws and threads in the first two rounds, and have gained some insights into the process.

The brown bass guns used in the test were all old guns with barrels that were more than halfway through their lifespan.

The homemade flintlock guns were all brand new.

In other words, the actual performance difference between the two guns is greater than the test results suggest.

Peng Gang was mentally prepared for this outcome.

The Honglianping Arsenal had very limited resources, and it was already at its limit that it could replicate flintlock guns of this quality.

A 14% misfire rate in clear weather and a tendency for the flint to fall off after firing a dozen or twenty shots are certainly serious defects.

Considering the enemy was the Qing army, these two shortcomings didn't seem so fatal and could be tolerated. At worst, we could just equip the flintlock musketeers with a flathead screwdriver.

(End of this chapter)