1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 119 Dismantling the Foundation of the Qing Dynasty

As Peng Gang's Taiping army withdrew to Pingzaishan, Yang Xiuqing stationed troops in Dongxiang to guard the western gate of the Zijingshan base area.

Wuxuan County is essentially an abandoned ghost town.

After successfully pacifying Zhang Jiaxiang's Heaven and Earth Society.

Gu Yuankai, the prefect of Xunzhou Prefecture, finally had the will and the ability to clean up the mess in Wuxuan County.

Upon learning that Min Zhengwen was about to mobilize elite troops from Guilin and Liuzhou to oversee the suppression of the God God Society bandits from Guiping City.

Gu Yuankai was overjoyed.

I also heard that the God Society bandits who occupied Wuxuan County have withdrawn.

Gu Yuankai ordered Li Mengqun to lead 150 Green Standard Army soldiers under Zhang Jiaxiang, the new commander of the Xunzhou Right Battalion, and 200 Guiping militiamen to recapture Wuxuan County.

If it were an ordinary county magistrate, such as Yang Xun and Wang Lie, the first two magistrates of Guiping County.

I definitely wouldn't dare accept this assignment.

But Li Mengqun is different from people like Yang Xun and Wang Lie.

For Li Mengqun, a second-generation official, wealth was secondary; he was more eager to achieve merit and establish a career.

Compared to the Heaven and Earth Society, which was causing a great uproar in Guangxi, Li Mengqun was more interested in Peng Gang and the God Society when he first took office.

He gathered a lot of information about Peng Gang and the God Worshippers Society.

The "God Society" is not the "Shangdi Society".

The headquarters of the God Society was in Jintian Village. The leader was not only Wei Zheng from Jintian Village, but also Feng Yunshan, a teacher from Huaxian County, Guangdong, who was wandering around without a registered residence, and Peng Gang, a student from Guixian County. All the intelligence information about the God Society was collected by Li Mengqun.

Even during the process of pacifying Zhang Jiaxiang, Li Mengqun kept a close eye on the God Society's every move.

As he predicted, the God Society posed a greater threat to the court than the Heaven and Earth Society.

The God Society not only quickly captured Wuxuan County, but also gathered tens of thousands of people in Jintian Village to raise the banner of rebellion against the Qing Dynasty.

Li Mengqun is one of the few Guangxi officials who has a relatively good understanding of the situation of the God Worship Society in Xunzhou Prefecture.

The God Society bandits gathered in places such as Zijing Mountain, Pingzai Mountain, Jintian Village, and Xinwei on the north bank of the Qianjiang and Xunjiang Rivers.

As for the southern bank areas of the Qian and Xun rivers.

After Shi Dakai and Qin Richang, the bandit leaders of the God Society in Guixian County, responded to the orders of the regiment and crossed the Xunjiang River to Jintian to join forces with the bandits at the headquarters.

There are no longer any God Society members active in the South Bank area.

Recapturing Wuxuan County was not as dangerous as it seemed.

Li Mengqun led Zhang Jiaxiang's Green Standard Army troops, along with two hundred Guiping militia members, and set off from Guiping City lightly equipped.

Instead of taking the Qianjiang waterway, they chose to travel by land along the south bank of the Qianjiang River, crossing Lianhua Mountain and Longshan Mountain.

Finally, on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, we arrived at Wuxuan County, a deserted city.

Before even entering the city, Li Mengqun wrote letters to Zheng Zuchen and Gu Yuankai, respectively, to indicate that he had defeated the God Society bandits and recaptured Wuxuan County.

The God Society bandits have fled to their hideouts in Pingzai Mountain and Zijing Mountain.

After finishing the letter, Li Mengqun, dressed in a mandarin duck-patterned robe, with a plain gold hat on his head and square-toed, thick-soled black satin official boots on his feet, rode his tall, green horse, surrounded by the local militia, with gongs and drums leading the way, and entered Wuxuan County through the south gate in a majestic manner.

When the people in Wuxuan City saw the government troops enter the city, they only glanced at them indifferently and went about their work. Few people knelt down to welcome Li Mengqun on both sides of the street.

Although Min Zhengwen's army had not yet reached Wuxuan County, the infamous reputation of Min's army had already spread throughout Wuxuan County.

The villages and towns along the Qianjiang River are the heart of Wuxuan County. Many residents of the county have land or relatives living in the villages and towns along the Qianjiang River.

Having experienced this ravages of war, they naturally found it difficult to develop any goodwill towards the government troops.

The people of Wuxuan who knelt on both sides of the street to welcome Li Mengqun and his army into the city were not all sincere; rather, they were intimidated by the tyranny of the government and tempted by the promise of half a bushel of rice.

Li Mengqun frowned and lectured the Wuxuan gentry who greeted him: "The people of Wuxuan are lazy, have no manners, have long lost their discipline, and lack education. What are you Wuxuan gentry and Liu Zuosu good for?"

The clerk Huang, who came out to greet Li Mengqun, hurriedly explained to him: "Lord Li, the God Society bandits used the slogan of sharing food to bewitch the people, and they have emptied all the grain in the granaries and grain shops. They have set up a soup kitchen in front of the county government office, serving three bowls of soup a day, so that everyone in the county can eat. Now that the people are not hungry, they are not afraid of the officials."

Huang, the clerk, thought to himself, "My Lord Li, you should be content."

Many of the Wuxuan people who are now welcoming you, Magistrate Li, are actually hired by the surviving Wuxuan clerks and gentry for half a peck of rice.

Li Mengqun sneered: "What 'share a meal'? It's clearly a Robin Hood-like tactic to incite people's hearts."

Upon reaching the street corner in front of the county government office, Li Mengqun reined in his horse and stopped.

The county government gate had been completely demolished, its plaque lying on the street, burned to ashes. Several large beams lay across the ground, and broken eaves timbers were piled up like firewood.

"This……"

Li Mengqun was furious. He dismounted, pushed aside the onlookers, and roared at the unrecognizable Wuxuan County government office.

"Do you know this is the imperial court's law enforcement office? It represents the dignity of the court and the emperor! How could it be burned like firewood?! Who has such audacity?!"

Huang, the clerk, carefully replied, "It was the God God Society bandits who demolished it. They said the government office was too big and would just sit empty anyway, and that no matter how grand the government office was, it was more important to feed everyone. The God God Society bandits distributed porridge to the people by using the firewood from the demolished county government office."

"You bastard!" Li Mengqun's face turned red with anger.

He strode into the ruins of the government office and saw that the entire county government office had been demolished beyond recognition, with only the main hall remaining.

However, the wooden plaque in the main hall that read "Governing with Virtue" had been repainted with "Oppose the Qing and Restore the Han." Li Mengqun's eyes widened, and he gritted his teeth: "The God Society bandits actually altered the government's plaque? This is simply outrageous!"

The clerk whispered in Huang's ear, "Your Excellency, many people sympathize with the God God Society bandits. If we want to rebuild the laws and regulations of Wuxuan, we must strictly enforce the law and make an example of them."

Li Mengqun said coldly, enunciating each word clearly: "The people will not be satisfied until the traitors are killed, and the people will not submit until the authority is established! If we do not wipe out the remaining traitors and rebuild the system today, everyone in Wuxuan will think that 'burning down government offices and distributing porridge' is the true justice! This is not justice, it is chaos for our Great Qing! This trend must not be encouraged!"

What angered Li Mengqun the most was not that the God Society bandits burned down the county government office.

Zhang Jiaxiang, who was by his side, had also done the deed of burning down the county government office.

Last year, Zhang Jiaxiang burned down the county government office in Guixian.

What angered Li Mengqun the most was that the God God Society bandits actually burned down the county government office and distributed porridge to the people of Wuxuan.

Zhang Jiaxiang sought wealth and official position, but the God Society bandits clearly had other motives; what they wanted was the hearts and minds of the people.

Where did God's Society demolish the county government office? Where did they cook porridge?
This is clearly tearing apart the very foundation of the Qing Dynasty and disgracing the emperor!
Thinking of this, Li Mengqun suddenly turned around and faced the crowd of onlookers on the street, his eyes sharp as knives: "You all remember this! The yamen is the face of the imperial court. Burning down the county yamen is slapping the emperor in the face!"
The porridge offered by the imperial court is a gesture of grace! The porridge offered by bandits is a trap! Drinking the porridge given to you by bandits is like drinking poison to quench your thirst! It's trading the peace and security of your descendants for a lifetime of your temporary hunger! You think the bandits have come to save you? They've come to harm you! To incite you to rebel!

In the distance, several ragged people were whispering among themselves.

"The porridge that tempts you to death tastes much better than your porridge that bestows grace."

"But at least they let us eat."

"I can't even afford to marry a wife, so how can I have descendants?"

Li Mengqun's hearing was exceptionally good; he heard these words clearly and was so angry he almost trembled: "Disregard for the law! How dare you conspire with thieves? Guards! Seize these troublemakers!"

After arresting a few "troublemakers," Li Mengqun instructed Huang, the clerk, "From today onwards, the entire county will be reorganized into a system of baojia (local security units), and household registers will be created. Anyone who has ever received porridge from bandits will be recorded!"

Clerk Huang was taken aback: "Lord Li, almost everyone in the county has drunk the porridge given by the God of War bandits!"

Upon hearing this, Li Mengqun felt dizzy. The God Society was more cunning than he had imagined.

He could kill one to warn a hundred, but he really couldn't kill everyone in the entire county.

At least the people he brought were not enough.

"Commander Zhang, take your men and go collect grain. Commander Min will arrive in Wuxuan soon, so do your best." Coming to his senses, Li Mengqun instructed Zhang Jiaxiang to collect grain.

The pretext of requisitioning grain for Min Zhengwen's troops was merely a formality.

Min Zhengwen has plundered along the way and has not yet reached Wuxuan County, so he must not be short of food and supplies.

The granaries in Wuxuan County are now empty.

The Green Standard Army and the Guiping militia brought by Li Mengqun also needed to eat and be paid, and the subsequent reorganization of the Wuxuan militia would also require money and provisions.

Min Zhengwen's Green Standard Army troops marched along without buying or borrowing anything, looting villages and ruins along the riverbank, leaving no one alive.

On the contrary, it helped Peng Gang and the God Society a lot.

Thousands of Wuxuan people who had suffered from the ravages of war came to Pingzai Mountain to seek refuge with Peng Gang.

This is not the first time Peng Gang has taken in people from Wuxuan.

The last time he left Wuxuan, he also took 1,300 people from Wuxuan with him.

Last time, the people from Wuxuan who came to him were mostly newcomers and poor people who were already living in poverty and destitution.

This time, among those who came specifically to Pingzai Mountain to seek refuge with Peng Gang, there were surprisingly a few wealthy households.

It seems that Min Zhengwen and his Liuzhou soldiers, who lacked common sense, treated the people of Wuxuan equally. They robbed everyone, rich or poor.

The Wu Xuan people who recently joined Peng Gang and the troops of Min Zhengwen have had direct contact with him.

The information they possessed was more detailed than the intelligence relayed back by the scouts Peng Gang had sent out.

Min Zhengwen's army numbered seven or eight thousand, and included many soldiers from the Liuzhou chieftain's army.

"Aside from the laborers, Min Yaotou's soldiers and militia number about four thousand."

After analyzing the intelligence gathered, Peng Gang estimated the number of troops under Min Zhengwen's command.

"I originally planned to wait three or four months in the Jintian camp before looking for an opportunity to annihilate the local Qing army."

After the Battle of Togo, I felt it wasn't necessary to insist on training new soldiers to the same level as the veterans before deploying them. The Qing army wasn't as combat-ready as we had anticipated. A truly strong army isn't built through mere training.

Yang Xiuqing was not intimidated or swayed by the four thousand Qing soldiers, and still firmly supported the fight against Min Zhengwen's Liuzhou and Guilin troops.

Yang Xiuqing's central army consisted of the Taiping Army's elite troops, all of whom had undergone more than a year of training. Most of them had participated in the Mengchong Fortress Siege and the recent Dongxiang Battle, making them the elite of the Taiping Army.

Apart from leaving 500 men to defend the western gate of Zijing Mountain in Dongxiang, Yang Xiuqing's remaining 2,000 central troops, along with 1,000 carefully selected soldiers, have all arrived at Bitan Flood Control.

Although Xiao Chaogui was responsible for overseeing the Jintian headquarters, preventing Li Dianyuan's Xunzhou Green Standard Army and Gu Yuankai's local militia from launching a surprise attack on the Jintian headquarters.

However, two battalions of the vanguard army, led by battalion commanders Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, were also dispatched to Bitanxun to assist in the battle.

Feng Yunshan's rear guard, Wei Changhui's right wing, and Shi Dakai's central army were all mobilized.

This demonstrates the importance the Taiping Army attached to this major battle.

Peng Gang's left-hand army goes without saying; Qianjiang is his home turf, and he will definitely go all out and bet everything he has.

If Min Zhengwen were allowed to swagger into Guiping City, his plans to expand his base, manage the south bank of the Qian River, and gain a wider space for activity would be impossible.

(End of this chapter)