1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 108 Dilemma
The great victory at Wuxuan was a great joy, with the county magistrate, assistant magistrate, and registrar all captured, and the amount of money and grain seized being incalculable.

Chen Chengrong and Lu Liu had already sent people to inform Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui and others at the Mengchong headquarters.

The news of the God Society's great victory in its first battle spread like wildfire, from word to word among the congregation, reaching every nook and cranny of Zijing Mountain.

The members of the God Society in the headquarters area were extremely excited and happy about the news, and their morale was greatly boosted.

While the five core decision-makers of the God Society were overjoyed by this great victory, their attitudes differed.

Among the five, the two happiest were undoubtedly Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan.

Peng Gang's capture of Wuxuan County made him an instant sensation.

Luo Dagang, Su Sanniang, and Qiu Ersao's boat crew also expressed their intention to join the God Society.

God will gain another great general, further strengthening his power.

Peng Gang had made such outstanding military achievements that Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were already discussing bringing him into the core decision-making body.

Their original plan was to recruit Hu Yihuang into the core decision-making team.

However, Hu Yihuang's qualifications are too shallow and his achievements are not enough, making it difficult for him to win people's hearts.

If it were proposed that Hu Yihuang be placed in the core decision-making body, Xiao Chaogui and Yang Xiuqing would have sufficient reason to refuse him entry.

Peng Gang's qualifications are decent, and his contributions are more than enough.

Given his great achievement in capturing Wuxuan, it was proposed that Peng Gang be placed in the core decision-making body of the God Worshippers Society.

Even if Xiao Chaogui and Yang Xiuqing were unwilling, they couldn't find a reason to refuse.

As long as Peng Gang enters the core decision-making level, even if Peng Gang does not side with Feng Yunshan, it will indirectly strengthen Feng Yunshan's position and voice in the decision-making level.

After the order to form a regiment was issued, Feng Yunshan began to work on formulating the military system of the God Society.

He planned to organize five armies, and news of the great victory at Wuxuan reached Mengchong.

Feng Yunshan decisively changed the original plan to form five armies to six armies.

While Xiao Chaogui and Wei Changhui were happy, they were also somewhat annoyed.

Although both of them knew that the capture of Wuxuan was planned by Peng Gang and the submarine force.

However, Yang Xiuqing and Feng Yunshan each sent Chen Chengrong and Lu Liu to assist in the battle, so they had some presence and could also get some credit.

The two of them alone had no sense of participation or presence in the great victory at Wuxuan.

Now even many members at headquarters have begun to discuss Peng Gang and have developed a sense of reverence for him.

As for Yang Xiuqing's attitude, it was somewhat contradictory.

He wanted to bring Peng Gang into the core decision-making level, turn Peng Gang into his Wei Changhui, and make him his right-hand man, so as to achieve a more balanced state of power with Xiao Chaogui in the core decision-making level.

Based on their understanding of Peng Gang, they knew that Peng Gang was not only opinionated but also far more capable than Wei Changhui.

Peng Gang will not be as dependent on Yang Xiuqing as Wei Changhui was on Xiao Chaogui, nor will he obey Yang Xiuqing's every command.

Last year, when Peng Gang's source of income was cut off by Huang Tizheng's family, Peng Gang's request for help from Yang Xiuqing was not purely for asking for money or food.

Instead, they traded weapons for food from the Mengchong headquarters.

Yang Xiuqing knew that such a self-respecting, strong, and capable person would not be content to be subordinate to him.

Moreover, Peng Gang not only had a good relationship with Yang Xiuqing, but also with Feng Yunshan.

Yang Xiuqing couldn't be sure who Peng Gang would choose if he had to choose between her and Feng Yunshan.

Or, to put it another way, Peng Gang would choose himself.

Yang Xiuqing believes the latter is the most likely candidate. If he were Peng Gang, he would also choose himself and start his own business.

Upon receiving Chen Chengrong's message, Yang Xiuqing instructed his attendant to deliver it to Chen Chengrong.

He ordered Chen Chengrong not to return to Mengchong, but to wait for him directly in Dongxiang, and he immediately set off for Dongxiang.

Peng Gang rose to fame in the battle of Wuxuan, while Xiao Chaogui and Wei Changhui were sharpening their knives for Xinwei.

Yang Xiuqing also needed to independently command a battle to prove himself and enhance his prestige within the association.

He understood that without merit, relying solely on the divine power of the Heavenly Father descending to earth would not be enough to win over the people.

The Wuxuan Huang Clan Earth Fortress in Dongxiang and the Wei Family Mountain Stronghold of the Zhuang chieftain in Wuxuan were the two most suitable whetstones. Upon learning that Yang Xiuqing intended to attack the Wuxuan Huang Clan Earth Fortress in Dongxiang, Peng Gang found it convenient.

The two 600-jin cannons that Yang Xiuqing had allocated to him before the war to attack Wuxuan County no longer needed to be brought back to Mengchong. They could simply be left in Dongxiang for Yang Xiuqing to use in attacking Huangjiatubao.

During the attack on Wuxuan County, Peng Gang captured six mountain-splitting cannons, 130 muskets, 18 matchlock guns, and 900 jin of gunpowder.

Peng Gang left half of it for Yang Xiuqing to use in attacking Huangjia Tubao in Dongxiang.

Peng Gang took the remaining half of the captured weapons back to Honglian Village to expand his army.

The shocking news that Wuxuan County had been captured by the God God Society and that the county magistrate, assistant magistrate, and registrar had been captured by the God God Society bandits quickly reached Guilin, the provincial capital.

To Min Zhengwen's surprise, Zheng Zuchen remained quite calm upon learning the news.

This greatly frightened Min Zhengwen, who thought that Zheng Zuchen couldn't handle such a shock and had lost his mind, after all, Zheng Zuchen was quite old.

Min Zhengwen comforted him, saying, "Your Excellency, they are just a bunch of religious bandits. After I have dealt with the petty scoundrels who presumptuously called themselves kings under Chen Yagui, I will lead the Biao Battalion to join forces with the Xunzhou and Nanning detachments to wipe them out. We will surely be able to destroy the God Society bandits."

Min Zhengwen wasn't just saying this to comfort Zheng Zuchen; he genuinely planned to do it.

Gu Yuankai and Li Mengqun have successfully pacified Zhang Jiaxiang.

This gave Min Zhengwen a glimmer of hope for resolving the situation in Guangxi.

Min Zhengwen believed that by freeing up the troops of the Xunzhou and Nanning detachments, and combining them with his own battalion and raising more local militias, they would surely be able to wipe out the God Society bandits in Zijing Mountain and Pingzai Mountain.

"The Xunzhou and Nanning brigades have been suppressing the Heaven and Earth Society bandits for a year, but they are still short of personnel and have not had time to fill them. The Green Standard Army of these two brigades alone is not enough to wipe out the God God Society bandits."

Zheng Zuchen, being a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) in two examinations, had a more profound and insightful understanding of issues than Min Zhengwen.

The last bandit to capture a county town in Guangxi was Zhang Jiaxiang.

At that time, the Green Standard Army, which still had a complete organizational structure in Xunzhou and Nanning, was unable to quell Zhang Jiaxiang and ultimately had to resort to appeasement.

The two Green Camp associations, Xunzhou Association and Nanning Association, are now in a state of disarray, so there's even less hope for them.

Zheng Zuchen was not entirely unaware of the crisis in Guangxi.

On the contrary, when he first took office as the governor of Guangxi in 1847, he was already aware that Guangxi was a powder keg with many conflicting interests.

Relying solely on Guangxi province's meager annual military expenditure of 500,000 taels of silver and the 23,000 ineffective Green Standard Army soldiers, it was impossible to cope with the crisis in Guangxi.

At the beginning of his tenure, Zheng Zuchen truthfully reported the situation in Guangxi to the Daoguang Emperor.

After all, he had just taken office as the governor of Guangxi and taken over the mess that was Guangxi.

Even though Guangxi was a mess at that time, if anyone was to be held accountable, it would be the previous governor of Guangxi, and he could speak freely.

However, his reports were all rejected by Pan Shi'en, the Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall and a member of the Grand Council at the time, on the grounds that "they should not report on the large number of bandits, lest they trouble His Majesty's thoughts."

Pan Shi'en was the top scholar in the imperial examination of the fifty-eighth year of the Qianlong reign (1793), and a veteran, important, and favored minister during the reigns of the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang emperors.

He was highly trusted and relied upon by the Daoguang Emperor and enjoyed great prestige among the court and the public.

He naturally dared not disobey Pan Shi'en's wishes.

Since Pan Shi'en had made it clear, Zheng Zuchen knew that any further memorials he submitted would simply disappear without a trace.

Left with no other option, Zheng Zuchen had to seek help from Xu Guangjin, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, explaining the dire situation in Guangxi.

Xu Guangjin's attitude was no different from Pan Shien's. His replies were all shirking responsibility and whitewashing the situation. He even lectured Pan Shien, saying that he was already quite old and should learn to blend in with the crowd.

Zheng Zuchen was caught in a dilemma.

Based on the words of Pan and Xu, playing with bandits will inevitably lead to great chaos in Guangxi.

If I were to submit a memorial against the wishes of Pan and Xu, they would surely obstruct it.

From that moment on, Zheng Zuchen had already foreseen this outcome.

"What does Your Excellency mean?" Min Zhengwen had never had any opinions of his own and always followed Zheng Zuchen's lead, so he sought Zheng Zuchen's opinion.

"Since things have come to this, we can only transfer the Green Standard Army from Liuzhou," Zheng Zuchen sighed helplessly.

"Mobilize the troops from Liuzhou?" Min Zhengwen initially thought he had misheard, but he still tried to argue.

"Aren't our battalions, plus the local militia of Xunzhou Prefecture, enough?"

(End of this chapter)