1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 142 POW Camp Fun, No Thoughts of the Green Standard Army

The prisoner-of-war camp at Dachong, Zijingshan.

Chen Nanshan, former commander of the Xunzhou Green Standard Army, was transferred from the Honglian Village POW camp to the Dachong POW camp along with 120 Green Standard Army soldiers and 36 Wuxuan militiamen who were captured during Peng Gang's attack on Wuxuan County.

Upon arriving at the new prisoner-of-war camp, Chen Nanshan was surprised to find that there were over a thousand people there.

Chen Nanshan couldn't help but admire Peng Gang and his men's fighting skills.

In just eight months, they were able to accomplish the feat of capturing over a thousand Green Standard Army soldiers and local militia members.

Chen Nanshan had a vague feeling that these "rebellious bandits" who constantly indoctrinated them with the idea of ​​driving out the Manchu Tartars, restoring Han customs, and equalizing land distribution and exempting people from taxes might actually succeed.

Chen Nanshan was a seasoned prisoner who had been a prisoner for eight months.

He was already very familiar with what prisoners should and shouldn't do.

As a carefully selected leader of the prisoners of war from Wuxuan, Chen Nanshan now shoulders some of the responsibilities of managing the prisoners.

After the prisoners from Wuxuan were settled, Chen Nanshan blew his bamboo whistle and shouted.

"All groups, assemble!"

As soon as the crisp sound of the bamboo whistle rang out, 156 prisoners jogged and surrounded Chen Nanshan.

Seeing that most of the people had arrived, Chen Nanshan raised his left and right hands and said.

"Same as always, groups one to four, stand to my left; groups five to thirteen, stand to my right. Same as always, groups one to four chop wood; groups five to thirteen, pound rice."

Looking at the prisoners in front of him, who assembled faster and more enthusiastically than when they were soldiers in the Green Standard Army, and who stood more neatly than during the Green Standard Army's annual school autumn inspection.

Chen Nanshan couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Damn it, if these guys had shown this kind of spirit when they were in the Green Camp, I would have promoted them to garrison long ago."

But then I thought, being a garrison commander isn't so great either.

His former superior, Huang Can, was a garrison commander, yet he was still executed by gunfire.

After the assembly, Chen Nanshan led the prisoners to the prisoner management office to collect rice and machetes.

After receiving their items, they went to work under the guidance of their team leader.

Chen Nanshan was carrying a wood-chopping knife and was on his way to chop wood when he spotted a prisoner of war who had an even stronger presence than the deputy commander of Xunzhou. He was dressed well and was busy pounding rice.

Chen Nanshan couldn't help but stop and take a few more glances at the prisoners: "Is this brother new here? You used to be an officer, and not a low-ranking one, right?"

"Li Rui, the General of Guzhou Town, Guizhou." Upon hearing someone speak to him, Li Rui couldn't help but look up and glance at the person who had approached him.

"Oh! A general!" Chen Nanshan was somewhat surprised to learn that the other party had previously been a garrison commander. In his surprise, he introduced himself, "Chen Nanshan, former Assistant Commander of Xunzhou."

Finally, there were prisoners in the POW camp with higher ranks than him.

Chen Nanshan was a smart man; he understood what it meant that the commanders of the out-of-province troops had all been taken prisoner.

He used to think that Peng Gang relied on a sneak attack to defeat Wuxuan, and he was unconvinced.

However, as he had more and more contact with Peng Gang's troops, he came to understand them better.

Chen Nanshan is increasingly convinced that the DPP's lackeys and cronies are no match for Peng Gang.

General Li, who was in the same prisoner-of-war camp as him, was the best example.

Li Rui stared intently at the machete in Chen Nanshan's hand, sizing up the seemingly unharmed, relatively clean, and ruddy-faced Chen Nanshan. He lowered his voice, his tone tinged with confusion, and asked, "Are you a prisoner too? Why did they give you a knife? If you have a knife, why don't you escape?"

Chen Nanshan looked at Li Rui as if he were an idiot: "They provide meals here, and in the afternoons, there are young teachers who teach us to read, do arithmetic, and tell stories. Sometimes there are even plays to watch. It's much more interesting than being in the DPP. Why would I run away?"
Besides, if we run back, won't we just be thrown back to the battlefield and fight them again? We can't defeat General Peng; are we just going to wait to be killed or captured?"

Prisoners of war were mainly assigned two jobs: pounding rice and chopping wood.

Because wood-chopping required the provision of machetes or axes, only prisoners who had passed tests and were considered trustworthy could obtain this job.

Chopping firewood earns more work points than pounding rice. If you chop a lot of firewood well, you can even eat half a pound of fine rice every day.

Chen Nanshan worked hard for more than three months to get this job.

Chen Nanshan didn't feel there was anything wrong with being a prisoner here.

Back when he was in Wuxuan County, his boss Huang Can would often beat and scold him, and dump all the dirty, tiring and dangerous work on him.

When suppressing bandits, let him lead the charge; when rewarding merit, let him be ranked last.

The prisoner-of-war camp was great. After becoming a prisoner, Chen Nanshan only got beaten by Luo Dagang once for being stubborn. After the beating, he was even treated. He was never beaten at other times.

When calculating work points each day, the clerk in charge of work points was very fair; he would give you exactly what you were owed and would never deduct anything.

He now has something to look forward to every day: he looks forward to eating the food he earned by chopping firewood, he looks forward to the young teacher from the prisoner-of-war administration coming to tell them stories in the afternoon, and he looks forward to playing a few rounds of Dou Dizhu (a card game) with his brothers around the campfire before going to sleep at night.

Chen Nanshan felt much more comfortable and interesting here than in the DPP; there was less resentment and fewer upsetting things.

“That’s true, we can’t beat him, and we can’t outrun him.” Li Rui thought about it and felt that Chen Nanshan made sense, so he continued to pound rice in a sullen mood.

"Try to think positively. It doesn't matter where you live. Can you read?" Chen Nanshan asked.

"I actually took the military examination." Li Rui was puzzled by this question.

“Since you can read, these things are for you to read to pass the time. After work, I’ll teach you how to play Dou Dizhu (a card game), it’s very interesting.” With that, Chen Nanshan opened his cloth bag, pulled out a stack of books, and picked out some without illustrations, handing them to Li Rui. Li Rui, looking puzzled, took the books and began reading the short stories with great interest: “Greeting the Banner Master with a Blessing and a Bow,” “The Battle Belongs to the Green Standard Army, the Merit to the Banner Army,” “Soldiers Are Not as Good as Slaves,” “A Hundred Battles, One Reward; One Kneel, Half a Lime,” “No Connections, No Money, Yet You Want a Promotion?”

In the afternoon, Peng Gang led eight company commanders and twenty-five second-term trainees to the prisoner-of-war camp.

Due to the casualties and losses in the battles of Mocun and Taicun-Zhangzhongqiao, Peng Gang decided to select fifteen veteran prisoners of war from the POW camp to replenish the ranks.

The person in charge of managing the prisoner-of-war camp was Liu Zhenghao, a veteran from the first cohort.

Upon learning that Peng Gang was going to select fifteen prisoners from the POW camp to supplement the regular army, Liu Zhenghao was somewhat surprised: "Sir, we have many reservists who are of suitable age and qualifications. Why are you selecting people from the POW camp?"

"I can't just keep feeding these prisoners for nothing, can I?" Peng Gang asked. "I need fifteen people. Can you even pick out fifteen?"

Since the uprising began, Peng Gang has captured Qing troops on three separate occasions.

One of them was an attack on Wuxuan County.

One was the Battle of Dateng Gorge.

The last one was the recent battle at Mocun.

Frankly speaking, the highest quality of the three batches of prisoners were the Guilin-Liuzhou soldiers captured in the Battle of Dateng Gorge. Many of these Guilin-Liuzhou soldiers were model soldiers of the standard battalion and the elite of the Guangxi Green Standard Army.

However, the crimes committed by the Guiliu soldiers in Wuxuan were unforgivable. A quarter of Peng Gang's troops were from Wuxuan. After much deliberation, he did not accept the prisoners.

However, Peng Gang didn't feel too much regret, even though these veteran soldiers from Guiliu were good at fighting.

However, many of them were personal guards of Green Standard Army officers. They were well-treated and more cunning, making them much more difficult to reform and turn against than ordinary Green Standard Army soldiers and local militia.

“Yes.” Liu Zhenghao took out the roster of prisoners of war from Wuxuan and introduced the fifteen people as if they were his own treasures.

Peng Gang ordered Liu Zhenghao to blow the assembly whistle to gather the old prisoners from Wuxuan, and then sent the eight battalion and company commanders to select people.

Upon learning that the regular army was to select men from among the old prisoners of war in Wuxuan, Chen Nanshan hurriedly abandoned Li Rui, put away his playing cards, and rushed to the assembly, hoping to be selected.

Chen Nanshan was very dissatisfied that Liu Zhenghao, the director of the prisoner-of-war camp management office, did not recommend him, and that the battalion and company commanders who came to select people did not choose him either.

Upon seeing Peng Gang present, Chen Nanshan immediately protested, saying indignantly, "General, my performance in the POW camp is evident to all. Their decision not to target me must be out of favoritism!"

Peng Gang laughed and said, "You can read, and you've done a good job in the POW camp for the past eight months. After observing you for a while longer, I'll promote you to deputy director of the POW management office. I'll give you an official position, no matter what."

Liu Zhenghao had his reasons for not recommending Chen Nanshan. Chen Nanshan had managed the Wuxuan prisoners of war for five months and had done a good job. He had a knack for managing prisoners of war.

With the number of prisoners of war in the camp increasing from 156 to 1,220, the original staff of the prisoner-of-war administration was definitely insufficient. In order to manage so many prisoners of war, the prisoner-of-war administration also needed to be expanded.

In fact, Peng Gang captured more than 2,500 Qing soldiers in the Battle of Mocun.

However, Peng Gang did not take all of these prisoners; he selectively took only a few.

The officers and militia leaders of the Green Camp, who had a long history of misconduct and were heavy smokers, were made human targets after their public trial.

The old, cunning, and eccentric fellows were each given two qian of silver for travel expenses and sent away.

Peng Gang wasn't worried about letting these people go; they weren't even cats, let alone tigers.

If Zhou Tianjue and Xiang Rong were to accept these released prisoners, they would only be a hindrance on the battlefield.

Moreover, these people had spent some time in the POW camp, and even if they returned to the Green Standard Army militia, they would inevitably spread the news about the POW camp.

Knowing about the Left Army's prisoner-of-war camp, ordinary Qing soldiers and militiamen would not be too worried about being captured and executed if they encountered him in the future, and their will to resist would be greatly reduced.

The 1,220 prisoners of war left behind by Peng Gang were the best of the best.

After the battalion and company commanders successively selected their men and left the POW camp, Peng Gang handed over 25 second-term trainees to Liu Zhenghao to expand the POW management office.

“The prisoners of war in Wuxuan are mostly Han Chinese who can speak Mandarin and are easy to manage. The prisoners of war in Dachong include many Zhuang and Yao people, and many of them can only understand Mandarin but cannot speak it. Some of them cannot even understand Mandarin,” Liu Zhenghao complained to Peng Gang.

"Sir, please let me go to war, even just as a soldier! I want to fight the Qing army on the battlefield with real swords and spears."

Liu Zhenghao learned about the situation at the Dachong POW camp. The situation of these POWs was much more complicated than that of the POWs in Wuxuan County. He felt a lot of pressure because of this and was somewhat disgusted and reluctant to manage the POWs.

“You’re fighting a war while managing prisoners of war, and it’s a tough one. Your job is even more important than the jobs of the battalion commanders,” Peng Gang advised Liu Zhenghao.

"Let me ask you, is it easier to kill a Qing soldier, or to let a Qing soldier see the true face of the Qing court, to influence them, and to turn them into our soldiers who fight alongside us?"

“Of course it’s easier to kill a Qing soldier,” Liu Zhenghao said without hesitation.

When Liu Zhenghao heard Peng Gang say that his work was more important than that of the battalion commanders, he couldn't help but straighten his chest and feel very proud.

"So, do you think it's worth turning them into our soldiers? Tell me your honest opinion," Peng Gang continued.

“I can’t explain it,” Liu Zhenghao said. “But when those old prisoners of war in Wuxuan went from calling me ‘Little Bandit’ to calling me ‘Little Mr.’ and saw those battalion and company commanders picking people from me to add to the regular troops, I felt it was worth it.”

“Killing is easy, winning people’s hearts is hard. We want to change the world and let everyone live the kind of life we ​​had in Honglian Village. Killing is far from enough. We also need to win people’s hearts.” Peng Gang patted Liu Zhenghao on the shoulder and said earnestly.

"Many of the first batch of trainees are capable of serving as battalion or company commanders, and I think it wouldn't be difficult to select them. But it would be very difficult to find someone to replace you as the head of the prisoner-of-war administration department, do you understand?"

"Understood, sir!" Liu Zhenghao, as if he had just understood, straightened up and gave Peng Gang a standard military salute.

(End of this chapter)