1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 140 Peng Gang is the mastermind of the bandits!

The Chu army camp at Zhangzhong Bridge.

When the night wind rose, Zhangzhong Bridge was no longer the blood-soaked inferno of the day before; the corpses scattered on the ground had long been gathered up and were waiting to be buried.

However, a strong smell of gunpowder and blood still lingers on the scorched earth of Chang Chung Bridge.

Having survived the ordeal, Xiang Rong was still shaken by the fierce battle that had taken him from Taicun to Zhangzhong Bridge the day before.

At the height of the battle, the group of bald-headed, red-scarfed, strangely dressed, and incredibly fierce God's Church cult members were only sixty or seventy paces away from him.

If it weren't for the large numbers of Chu and Zhengan soldiers, the fierce protection of his loyal followers who had fought alongside him for many years, and the arrival of Qin Dingsan and Li Mengqun from Wuxuan City with their local militia to help him, he could barely stop his decline.

I'm afraid even he, a dignified admiral, will follow in Min Zhengwen's footsteps and become a victim of the God Society's gunmen.

Xiang Rong stood under a withered feng shui tree, his brows furrowed, his face covered in dust and streaked with tears.

It's not that he's never seen a dead person before.

He served in the military for decades, and he had walked over walls of corpses.

But this time was different. These dead Chu soldiers and Zhengan soldiers were his old Chu troops, whom he had personally trained and who were his trusted and elite troops whom he had earned through countless victories.

Eight hundred of their fiercest soldiers were lost in the battle.

This was a major setback that Xiang Rong had never experienced since joining the army.

As for the defeat, Xiang Rong only acknowledged in his heart that the Chu army had lost the battle of Taicun-Zhangzhong Bridge.

It is impossible for them to admit defeat in open conflict, especially in battle reports.

After all, the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers had indeed "defeated" the God God Society bandits and obtained more than thirty corpses of God God Society bandits, including some of the elite short-haired soldiers.

This was something no Qing army had ever been able to do before.

Based on this alone, Xiang Rong had the confidence to report the victory to Imperial Envoy Lin and the Ministry of War with a clear conscience!
In fact, that's exactly what he did.

The battle at Taicun-Zhangzhong Bridge alone had severely damaged the Chu and Zhengan armies.

In the short term, if the lost troops are not replenished in time, his Chu army and Zhengan troops will likely be unable to achieve anything.

Just as he was pondering this, a group of Chu soldiers, crying and shouting, moved closer to Xiang Rong.

Xiang Rong's attendant instinctively placed his hand on the hilt of his knife.

"General Xiang, although our army defeated the God Society bandits in the battle the other day, we also suffered heavy casualties, and many brothers are homesick." Deng Shaoliang, the Hunan Green Standard Army commander who came with Xiang Rong to suppress the bandits in Guangxi, came to Xiang Rong's side and said somewhat haltingly.

The Chu army was a formidable fighting force, willing to risk their lives. Apart from Xiang Rong, who came from the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Standard Army, leading troops was a cut above the rest of the Green Standard Army commanders.

The main reason is that Xiang Rong is willing to invest heavily.

According to past practice, for every victory, Xiang Rong would reward each Chu soldier with one tael of silver, with additional rewards for each enemy head taken.

Strictly speaking, the Chu army did indeed lose the battle of Taicun-Zhangzhong Bridge the day before yesterday, so the reward money should not be issued.

However, Xiang Rong still gave each of the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers a reward of one or two taels of silver.

However, this time the enemy of the Chu army was too strong, and the Chu army suffered heavy casualties. The Chu soldiers were obviously not satisfied with the reward of one tael of silver.

Xiang Rong had already guessed that these Chu soldiers had come to ask for a reward.

If he doesn't increase the rewards to incentivize his soldiers, I'm afraid these arrogant Chu soldiers will no longer fight for him.

In Xiang Rong's view, things that can be solved with money are not really problems.

Things that can't be solved with money are the truly troublesome.

Xiang Rong looked at the corpses of Chu soldiers covered with white cloth on the ground, and then at the Chu soldiers around him who were staring at him expectantly. He said loudly, "The reason I was able to defeat the God Society bandits the other day was all thanks to the bravery of my soldiers."

The God Worshippers are not like the Heaven and Earth Society bandits. The reward, naturally, must be increased. Issue my order: all those who participated in the battle the other day, whether from the Chu army or the Zhengan soldiers, will be rewarded with two taels of silver each!

With a wave of his hand, Xiang Rong gave each Chu soldier and Zhengan soldier an extra tael of silver as a reward, and at the same time established new rules.

"From now on, in any battle against the God Society bandits, the reward for victory will be two taels of silver!"

"Thank you for the reward, General Xiang!"

With the reward increased, the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers finally dispersed, satisfied.

Having resolved the issue of unrest among the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers, Xiang Rong and Qin Dingsan, carrying a fish-tail musket with a bird gun, arrived at a special military tent.

Li Mengqun, the magistrate of Guiping County, was waiting for the two of them inside the military tent.

The three of them were not gathered in this military tent to discuss matters, but to examine the thirty-seven remains of Catholic cult members that had been salvaged from the battlefield.

Although Xiang Rong witnessed firsthand on the battlefield that the short-haired cult bandits stole some of the cult bandits' remains.

However, the situation on the battlefield was too chaotic, and some of the cultists' corpses were still left behind.

Since the start of the war, the Qing army had not failed to obtain the remains of God Society members.

However, the remains of God's Society members that the Qing army had previously obtained were all from Taiping Rebels.

This is the first time that the remains and weapons of Peng Gang's short-haired cult bandits have been obtained.

The thirty-seven remains of Catholic cult members displayed in the tent were not all of them short-haired cult members.

Of the twenty-one corpses, twenty-one were common long-haired Taiping soldiers, belonging to Lin Qirong's troops. The remaining sixteen were the short-haired Taiping soldiers that Li Mengqun was so eager to find. Of the three, Li Mengqun examined the corpses with the most fervor and attention.

Xiang Rong and Qin Dingsan once wondered if Li Mengqun had some kind of special fetish.

"Magistrate Li, have you figured out what's going on?" Xiang Rong couldn't help but ask after entering the tent.

"They're all cult members, so why do some grow their hair long while others shave their heads like monks? What's the difference?"

This is also a question that Li Mengqun has always wanted to understand.

Li Mengqun coughed and pointed to the bodies of the Long-Haired and Short-Haired cult members respectively, saying, "The Long-Haired cult members were relatively thin, while the Short-Haired cult members were more robust. The Long-Haired cult members varied in age, while the Short-Haired cult members were generally younger."

Regarding clothing, the long-haired rebels wore tattered homespun short jackets, while the short-haired rebels mostly wore cross-collar short jackets from the previous dynasty, with very few wearing round-necked short robes. Furthermore, although the short-haired rebels' clothes were also made of homespun cloth, they were all new and without patches!

"So, there are different ranks among the various units of the God Society bandits? Are the long-haired bandits ordinary bandits? Are the short-haired bandits elite bandits? Are the bandits in round-necked short robes officers? Are the bandits in cross-collar short robes soldiers?"

Xiang Rong seemed to understand something. Recalling his experience fighting two different groups of cultists the day before yesterday, he realized that the short-haired bandits were indeed more capable than the long-haired bandits. It was indeed the cultist bandits wearing round-necked short robes who were commanding the bandits wearing cross-collar short robes. He nodded slightly and said.

"Short-haired people are indeed more skilled in combat than long-haired people, they have more firearms and are better at using them."

“That’s just one thing. Look, many of these cult bandits are literate, and they even know foreign words! Especially this cult bandit wearing a cross-collar short robe, he even has a strange dictionary and their military regulations on him, and he also carries paper and pen with him!” As he spoke, Li Mengqun led Xiang Rong and Qin Dingsan to a table.

On the table were more than a dozen notebooks stained with blood, including the one Li Mengqun mentioned, whose cover read "Dictionary of Commonly Used Characters".

"This is incredible! I myself don't know many characters, yet these religious bandits can read? And they even know foreign characters!" Xiang Rong was greatly shocked. "I've always heard that these religious bandits are devout followers of foreign religions, and the elite bandits even shave their heads like monks. Could it be that foreigners and foreign monks are also involved?"

“If foreigners are involved, this matter will become complicated.” Li Mengqun frowned. “It’s strange, but our county sent people to investigate Peng Gang. He is just a minor scholar in your county. He has never even been to Guangzhou and has no opportunity to come into contact with foreigners.”

Li Mengqun recalled that a surviving clerk from Wuxuan County had told him that many of the religious bandits were not only literate but also skilled in weighing and bookkeeping.

At the time, Li Mengqun was unwilling to believe it, thinking that the clerks in Wuxuan County were exaggerating and that it was impossible for so many scholars to rebel.

It wasn't until these pages were found on the short-haired corpse today that Li Mengqun had no choice but to believe that what the clerks in Wuxuan County had said was true.

"What a strange thing!" Xiang Rong also found it very strange. He had seen many rebels, but this was the first time he had ever seen so many scholars rebel.

Qin Dingsan had genuinely passed the military examination and was well-versed in literature. Driven by curiosity, he casually picked up a book with the words "Intermediate Chinese" on the cover and began to read aloud: "In the wilderness, they set up camp, built earthen walls, and a large flag on a pole fluttered in the wind. Outside the camp gate, two soldiers stood on the left and right."

In ancient times, weapons included spears, swords, bows and arrows. In modern times, cannons were the most common weapon, capable of both close and long range attacks.

Two boats were traveling on the river, one going out and one coming back. The outgoing boat had a favorable wind and hoisted its sail, so it moved quickly. The coming boat had an adverse wind and used its oars to paddle, so it moved slowly.

Li Mengqun had read all the pages on the table. Except for the "Pinyin Table" and the "Multiplication Table" written in strange characters, which he couldn't quite understand, he could understand the rest of the pages.

"Don't look at those useless things, General Qin, look at this." With that, Li Mengqun picked up a piece of mulberry paper with "The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention" written on it.

After reading it, Qin Dingsan exclaimed in surprise, "The cultists' ambitions are no small matter!"

Xiang Rong, puzzled, asked, "What does it say?"

Qin Dingsan handed the mulberry bark paper to Xiang Rong: "Go back and have your staff read it to you."

"General Qin, have you carefully inspected and test-fired the short-haired musket?" Li Mengqun glanced at the short-haired musket that Qin Dingsan had casually placed on the table after entering the tent.

This musket was actually a matchlock gun made by the Red Lotus Village arsenal.

Since the start of the war, the Taiping Army has captured more than two thousand muskets from the Qing army, while the Qing army has only captured this one matchlock gun produced by the Honglian Village Arsenal.

"We have inspected the muskets used by Duanmao, and they were not made by our ordnance bureau." Qin Dingsan nodded with great certainty. "Our Qing Dynasty's ordnance bureau could not produce such exquisite muskets."

Qin Dingsan realized he had misspoke, but since the words had already been spoken, he couldn't take them back, so he had no choice but to continue.

"It is not that I, the town mayor, am trying to diminish the prestige of others."

This was indeed homemade by religious cult members. The barrel, the shaft, and even the matchlock were all much better than the muskets used by the Green Standard Army.

Even this gunstock, though it looks strange, is more comfortable to hold than the Green Camp's muskets and is also easier to aim.

The cultists certainly put a lot of effort into making guns.

There are also short-haired long spears, which I, the commander-in-chief, have examined. The shafts are made of fine mulberry wood, and the spearheads are forged from superior wrought iron; they are excellent spears.”

“So, Ping Zaishan Peng was the ringleader! Wei Zheng from Jintian Village was just a follower!” Li Mengqun was even more convinced that his judgment was correct.

"This matter is of great importance. I trouble you both to keep the short-haired bandits at bay. I will now set off for Guiping City to find Imperial Envoy Lin and explain this matter to him. I earnestly request that Imperial Envoy Lin dispatch a large force to annihilate the bandit leader Peng Gang in the mountains!"

After speaking, Li Mengqun hurriedly wrapped up the pages of the book on the table, left the tent, and mounted his green horse.

Xiang Rong hurriedly chased after him and handed Li Mengqun the battle report in which he reported his victory and requested rewards. At the same time, he did not forget to hand over the Hetian jade that he had prepared in advance: "Magistrate Li, I have military affairs to attend to and cannot personally visit Imperial Envoy Lin. I would like to trouble Magistrate Li to put in a good word for me with Imperial Envoy Lin."

"If it weren't for General Xiang rushing to Wuxuan's aid overnight, how could Wuxuan have been saved? General Xiang, please rest assured in guarding against the bandits. I'm off!" With that, Li Mengqun set off with his entourage.

Although Xiang Rong's Chu army suffered a terrible defeat in the battle the day before yesterday.

However, it was the only battle in which the government troops were able to show any real skill against the short-haired religious rebels since the rebels started their uprising.

Xiang Rong's timely arrival in Wuxuan was also crucial. To ensure the safety of Wuxuan and Xiangzhou, Li Mengqun needed to win over Xiang Rong.

Even if Xiang Rong didn't specifically tell him, Li Mengqun would still say a few good words for Xiang Rong in front of Lin Zexu.

Teaming up with Xiang Rong to fight bandits is much more comfortable than teaming up with Zhou Tianjue and Min Zhengwen.

(End of this chapter)