1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 97 Is this a village?

Mooring his boat on the green sandbar, Wang Ji, the patrol inspector of the Dahuang River, even if he were dull-witted or slow to realize things, would eventually sense that something was amiss when he reached the outskirts of Honglian Village.

Peng Gang's Zijingshan militia was even more intimidating than a standard battalion.

According to Li Mengqun, these troublemakers who weren't even afraid of the yamen runners were no longer ordinary troublemakers; they could be called rioters and mobs.

What kind of militia can be considered if they don't even respect the patrol inspectors?

Traitor?

The echoes from the opposite river valley were like rolling thunder.

The "Zijingshan Militia" marched in formation on the drill ground with firm, orderly, steady, and synchronized steps.

The soldiers in the front row stood shoulder to shoulder, knees aligned, step by step; the soldiers in the rear followed closely behind, without the slightest delay or a sound.

As the rhythmic footsteps approached from afar, gradually increasing in speed, and finally ceased like a sudden halt to war drums, Wang Ji and his entourage's smiles froze, their faces turned pale, and some of the older constables even quietly tightened their grip on their knives.

"This is a troop training exercise, how could it be..." Wang Ji couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "This isn't a charge... it's just marching drills?!"

I glanced at the two mountain-splitting cannons set up at the village entrance, the soldiers marching with live ammunition, and listened to the clanging of blacksmiths and the occasional sound of these cannons firing.

The soldiers' feet seemed not to be pounding the ground, but rather each step was pressing down on his heart, making it hard for him to breathe.

With a pounding heart, Wang Ji pondered how to return and report to Li Mengqun.

"Inspector Wang, Honglian Village is just ahead. I need to go back to Bitan Flood Control to handle flood affairs, so I'll leave you here. It's less than half a mile left, Inspector Wang, you can walk by yourself." Hou Jiyong waved his hand in front of Wang Ji, who was in a daze.

"If Inspector Wang doesn't believe that Commander Peng went to Lema to suppress the boat bandits, he can go into the village and see for himself. I won't accompany him."

Wang Ji glanced sideways at Hou Jiyong beside him.

The official robes and hats worn by Xie Bin and Hou Jiyong are inextricably linked to Peng Gang.

It's impossible that Xie Bin and Hou Jiyong were unaware that Peng Gang was manufacturing weapons, casting cannons, and firing guns right under their noses at Bitanxun and Shangdongtang.

These two Green Standard Army officers had most likely already joined the rebels and were now in cahoots with Peng Gang.

Wang Ji's legs trembled; how could he dare enter the village? This was no village! It was clearly a military camp!

He waved his hand repeatedly and said, "Since Commander Peng has gone to Lema to suppress the boat bandits, it is inconvenient for this patrol inspector to come and bother him. Captain Hou, please take me back to Bitan Xun."

Hou Jiyong glanced disdainfully at Wang Ji, whose eyes were clear but whose speech had become somewhat stammering, and found it rather amusing.

So you were scared away?

Just now, weren't they clamoring to go into Honglian Village to see what was going on?
What Wang Ji saw just now was merely Peng Gang's assessment of the second batch of trainees.

To record the good results, Peng Gang followed the example of the first cohort and presented outstanding students of the second cohort with watches and swords.

Qiu Zhongliang was the winner of the second round, a result that was expected by everyone.

Qiu Zhongliang's cultural level is far superior to that of any of the second-phase trainees, whether it's Chinese or mathematics.

Although Qiu Zhongliang's martial arts score was slightly lower, only ranking fourth, his overall score still won him first place by a huge margin.

The second place went to Peng Gang's cousin, Xiao Maoling, which is not surprising.

Although Xiao Maoling was a second-term trainee, he had already been exposed to military training through observation and experience during his time at Honglianping.

In addition, Peng Gang's aunt would occasionally ask Peng Yi and Peng Min to give Xiao Maoling extra tutoring to help him review his humanities subjects. It would be strange if Xiao Maoling's overall grades were not in the top three.

Peng Gang, who came in third, was somewhat surprised; Chen Picheng was the third-place winner.

It must be admitted that talent does exist.

Chen Picheng, who enrolled halfway through his studies, managed to achieve seventh place in the humanities subject thanks to his weak foundation in private school and his own hard work. His performance in the martial arts subject was even more outstanding, securing second place, second only to Xiao Maoling.

Seeing Chen Picheng, who was a head shorter than him and had only just enrolled and was still quite young, go up to the stage to receive the sword, he was the third to do so.

Some of the older trainees looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Sir, Brother Chen Miao said you gave him his name. My name sounds a bit awful. Could you please give me a better-sounding name?" Chen Picheng accepted the short sword bestowed upon him by Peng Gang and made a small request. Chen Picheng's name contained the character "Pi," and mischievous students would often joke about it. Chen Picheng wanted to change it to a more pleasant-sounding name.

“You have the potential of a rough gem. Since that’s the case, how about you be called Chen Yucheng from now on?” Peng Gang said without hesitation.

"Chen Yucheng, Chen Yucheng, Chen Yucheng," Chen Picheng repeated the name Peng Gang had given him three times, beaming with joy.

"This name sounds nice. From now on, I will be called Chen Yucheng! Thank you, sir, for bestowing this name upon me!"

The second round of student assessments has concluded, and the sword-granting ceremony has also been completed.

Peng Gang expanded the training to twenty more groups at his own pace, waiting for the coming spring.

The year 1849 was not good; there was drought in spring and locusts in summer, making it another year of many disasters.

This autumn harvest, Peng Gang only collected 180 shi of rice and 470 shi of various coarse grains from the vicinity of Dachong.

Even such a small amount of grain could be worth at least 1,500 taels of silver in this year of great disaster.

In previous years, the period around the autumn harvest was when grain prices were at their lowest, but this year even the grain prices around the autumn harvest are prohibitive.

In the grain markets of Jiangkouwei and Xinwei, the price of coarse grains is almost catching up with the price of rice in a normal year.

Natural disasters struck repeatedly, rice prices soared, bandits rose up everywhere, and war broke out frequently.

The barren and overburdened land of Guangxi can no longer support its millions of people, and the tolerance of these people for the corrupt world has reached its limit.

Following Zhang Jiaxiang, another powerful bandit, Chen Yagui, rose to prominence between Wuxuan and Xiangzhou!
Chen Yagui originally came from the submarine force. After the submarine force lost power, Chen Yagui broke away from the submarine force and started his own business.

Chen Yagui, who came from a boat corps background, changed the previous method of relying on rivers and government troops to fight. Instead, he went into the deep mountains to carry out mobile warfare, avoiding the enemy's strength and attacking their weaknesses. He not only broke through the Green Standard Army's encirclement and blockade, but also captured Niuling, Dapu, Luoyan and other fortified villages in September and October of the 29th year of Daoguang.

Chen Yagui captured several fortified villages, robbed the rich to help the poor, opened granaries to distribute grain, and his reputation soared.

By December, Chen Yagui's forces had merged with Qu Zhenzu's forces, who came from Wuxiu County. In a short time, the Heaven and Earth Society armed forces led by Chen Yagui and Qu Zhenzu developed into a massive band of thousands, spanning multiple prefectures and counties, and their influence gradually overshadowed Zhang Jiaxiang's.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in the thirtieth year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, Chen Yagui's Heaven and Earth Society members wore red headscarves, raised the banner of "Following Heaven and Acting Righteously," and proclaimed themselves "Great Kings."

Armed groups from the Heaven and Earth Society gathered in Xunzhou Prefecture, Liuzhou Prefecture, and even Guilin Prefecture, the provincial capital, in response.

Full of pride and ambition, Chen Yagui declared that he would attack Guilin, which shocked the entire province.

When the news reached Guangzhou, Xu Guangjin, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, was shocked and lamented that the situation in Guangxi had deteriorated to such an extent.

Astonished as I was, I was also filled with emotion.

Xu Guangjin remained unmoved, adopting a "mind your own business" attitude, showing no intention of sending troops to aid Guangxi.

Although the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi was in charge of both provinces, it was an open secret that he favored Guangdong over Guangxi.

After the opening of the five treaty ports, although the Guangdong Customs gradually weakened, it still collected more than 1.5 million taels of silver in customs duties every year, far exceeding the annual revenue of the entire Guangxi province.

Ensuring the operation of the "Southern Treasury of the Emperor" has always been the focus of the work of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Before and after the Opium War, the pressure on coastal defense in Guangdong and Guangxi exceeded that on land defense. Even in Guangdong province itself, 60% of military expenditure was allocated to the coastal defense forces, while the land forces in Guangdong only received 40%, not to mention Guangxi.

Even a capable minister like Lin Zexu, when he served as an imperial envoy in charge of military and political affairs in Guangdong...

When Liang Zhangju, the governor of Guangxi, sought help from Lin Zexu due to the Miao rebellion in Guangxi, Lin Zexu only provided very limited military aid to Guangxi.

Lin Zexu's military aid to Liang Zhangju was mostly due to the fact that the two were from the same hometown of Fuzhou.

The root cause of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi's preference for Guangdong over Guangxi lay in the performance evaluation system.

During the Qing Dynasty, the performance evaluation of officials was based on the core indicators of tax collection and maintaining public order, with tax collection being the most important.

Guangdong's land tax, salt tax, and customs duties combined accounted for 8% to 10% of the national total, while Guangxi's accounted for less than 2%.

For the sake of his career, the governor-general would naturally prioritize the protection of Guangdong's finances and order.

To put it bluntly, even if Guangxi were completely corrupt, as long as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi could guarantee the collection of taxes from Guangdong, he could still rest easy and continue to be a powerful regional official.

(End of this chapter)