1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 2 Whose cow is it?

"Brother, I cooked a pot of porridge. Please make do with this for now."

Just then, Peng Min brought over a bowl of steaming hot white rice porridge.

Peng Gang ate a plate of pickled vegetables and a salted egg at the Eight Immortals offering table in the mourning hall with relish.

His family was wealthy; they wouldn't be so stingy as to skimp on meat and vegetables for a funeral.

To ensure the funeral was properly arranged, the family even slaughtered a boar and five chickens and ducks.

However, the family's behavior was truly appalling. Under the pretext that Peng Yi and Peng Min, the two siblings, could not eat meat during their mourning period, they ate and took away everything, leaving them not a single scrap of meat or oil.

After eating three bowls of hot white rice porridge, Peng Gang felt much better.

There are a few bits of bran in this white porridge that weren't completely sifted out, which makes it a bit rough on the throat.

“Brother, since you’re not dead, and you’re a scholar, even a student of the first level of the imperial examination, I’ve thought it over carefully. With that status, the main family won’t dare to use force against us.”

Peng Yi picked up the fire tongs and poked at the unburnt paper money in the pyre basin, saying...

Qingfeng Village is a large village with about 120 households and more than 700 people, but there is not a single person with academic honors, only two students who have passed the preliminary examinations.

One was Zhou Fengzhang, an elderly scholar in his sixties and a local Tujia landlord.

Another one is Peng Gang, who just passed the county-level examination last year.

The Peng family has been a family of scholars and farmers for six generations, and only one person in six generations has become a student of the lowest rank.

This is not surprising, as Guangxi's cultural heritage was not thriving during the Qing Dynasty, and the number of Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) was only slightly higher than that of Gansu in the northwest and Manchuria outside the Great Wall.

Furthermore, more than half of the Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) from Guangxi came from Guilin, the provincial capital. The remaining prefectures rarely produced a Jinshi even after decades of hard work.

The scholars and officials who roam freely in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are as rare as endangered species in prefectures outside of Guilin, Guangxi.

Upon hearing this, Peng Gang shook his head inwardly. This younger brother was ultimately too naive and simple-minded, and he had oversimplified the issue.

“If it weren’t for what happened today, my status as a student of the Imperial Academy would naturally be useful.”

But now that our family and my clan have completely broken off relations, my status as a student of the Imperial Academy will only make them wary and more eager to crush us completely, so that I won't cause them trouble after I rise to prominence.

If his own family could be so ruthless to a fourteen-year-old boy from the same clan, Peng Gang had no unrealistic hopes for their moral bottom line. He certainly wouldn't pin his and his younger siblings' future on a foundation of nonexistent kinship or conscience.

"Sigh~ That's true, I didn't think it through enough."

Peng Yi thought about it again and realized that this made sense, so he couldn't help but sigh again.

What should we do in the days to come?

"Third Brother, it's getting late. You've just recovered from a serious illness and need to rest. I'll keep vigil for Father tonight. You should go back to your room and rest."

How could Peng Gang possibly sleep?

It was now the 28th year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, and Guangxi was already rife with undercurrents. The Taiping Rebellion, which was about to sweep across the country and shake the foundations of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, was less than three years away.

He was right at the center of this uprising, and he was determined to seize this opportunity and use this precious window of opportunity to build up his strength.

And these require capital.

With such a corrupt and incompetent clan, it was clearly impossible for them to serve as a base for rebellion.

Aside from his clan, his only asset was the family fortune accumulated by his ancestors over six generations.

No matter what, we must find a way to preserve the initial capital from our uprising.

Peng Gang did not oppose the Qing Dynasty for the sake of opposing the Qing Dynasty.

He grew up during the Republic's most enlightened era, a time of the most relaxed and tolerant public opinion, the most vigorous development, and full of hope and opportunities.

Riding the wave of the times, this rural boy from Guangxi was able to get into Xiangshan University in a neighboring province, and after graduating with a master's degree, he successfully passed the selection process to become a public servant.

A person who has seen the light can no longer endure the darkness.

The passing of bandits is like a comb, and the passing of soldiers is like a grate.

Three years later, Guixian became one of the main battlefields between the Taiping Army and the Qing Army. He could evade the Taiping Army's "bandits," but he could not escape the Qing Army's ravages. He could evade the local soldiers, but he could not escape the visiting troops from neighboring provinces who came to "fight" in Guixian.

While examining his father's letters, Peng Gang also sorted through the original owner's memories, trying to find social connections that he could rely on from his father's letters and the original owner's social relationships.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that there were quite a few.

His father, Peng Xin, was no pushover either.

Peng Gang found Hong Xiuquan's "Original Way Trilogy" (Original Way Salvation Song, Original Way Awakening Instructions, Original Way Enlightening Instructions, and Original Way Awakening Instructions) and some letters exchanged with Feng Yunshan in the bookshelf.

In the original owner's memory, when Feng Yunshan was preaching and passing through Qingfeng Village, he stayed at his house several times and worked there for a period of time.

The dates on the letters show that starting in April of last year, his father, Peng Xin, began to reply to Feng Yunshan in an increasingly perfunctory and indifferent manner.

The reason is not hard to guess. Peng Gang had just passed the county examination last year, ranking second and becoming a well-known scholar in the surrounding villages. This gave his father hope that the Peng family could continue on the path of the imperial examination.

Judging from this, his father most likely hadn't been baptized into the God-Worshipping Society, let alone himself.

At this time, Feng Yunshan was traveling through various counties of Xunzhou Prefecture, exhausted from preaching, appearing and disappearing like a dragon, his whereabouts difficult to find. Whether Feng Yunshan was willing to help him, an outsider, was another matter, but finding Feng Yunshan in a short time was almost impossible.

Peng Gang himself and the Shi brothers from that village, Shi Dawen and Shi Dakai, were classmates. In their youth, they studied together under Liu Bingwen, a renowned local scholar from Guixian County and a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the eighth year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign.

That village is closer to Qingfeng village, only about fifty or sixty li away.

The Shi family was the largest household in that village, and they owned businesses in the nearby Qishi Market, including a charcoal shop.

Qishixu is closer to Qingfeng Village, only about 20 li away. The Shi brothers are known in the county for their kindness and generosity. They had a good relationship when they were students, so it would be feasible to ask them for help.

Just as Peng Gang was about to discuss with his younger brother about asking the Shi brothers for help, a memory flashed through his mind like a bolt from the blue, freezing him in place.

When Peng Gang passed the county examination and became a student last year, the Shi brothers were the first to visit and offer their congratulations.

At that time, the original owner was smug and somewhat arrogant. He righteously and earnestly advised the Shi brothers not to believe in heretical religions and go astray, and even less to worship any foreign gods. He told them to worship Wenchang Dijun and Kui Xing Dijun instead. He urged them to follow the right path like him, to study the classics diligently, and to take the proper route of the imperial examinations.

Wenchang Dijun and Kuixing Dijun are the stars in ancient China that preside over literary fortune and academic success. Legend has it that they can bless those who seek fame and fortune with quick wit, fluent writing, and successive victories in the imperial examinations.

Superstition is rampant in Guangdong and Guangxi, and countless people believe in these two gentlemen.

The original owner's home had portraits of Wenchang Dijun and Kui Xing Dijun that were worshipped morning and evening.

He prayed to the God of Literature and the God of Literature to bless him so that he might pass the imperial examinations, become a student, a provincial graduate, a metropolitan graduate, and eventually be appointed to the Hanlin Academy.

Especially after passing the middle school entrance exam, the original owner believed that it was the spirits of Wenchang Dijun and Kui Xing Dijun, and he believed it until his death.

The Shi family members had all been baptized into the God Worshipping Society, which is a religion that worships only one true God. All other gods and immortals are considered evil, so how could they possibly listen to the original owner's words?

The proud and arrogant original owner was enraged and humiliated the Shi brothers in front of everyone.

Enraged, the Shi brothers severed ties with the original owner on the spot, and the meeting ended unhappily.

What a sin!
He's destined to be a king; why are you, a mere student, worrying about his future?!
Thinking of this, Peng Gang felt like slapping himself.

A promising start and future were ruined by the original owner himself!
Two of the five kings who led the Taiping Rebellion had connections with the Peng family, yet the Peng family failed to seize even one of these incredible opportunities.

Or should we take the matter to the authorities and have the local parents decide?
The idea only flashed through Peng Gang's mind before being rejected.

This was an era of rule by man, not rule of law. Not to mention that by the time of the Daoguang Emperor, the Qing Dynasty's bureaucracy had already collapsed and was extremely corrupt.

Imperial power has never extended to the countryside, and even an upright official finds it difficult to settle family disputes.

In the Qing Dynasty, civil disputes at the grassroots level were basically resolved by the local gentry and clan leaders themselves.

The most powerful local gentry in Qingfeng Village was Zhou Fengzhang, a small Tujia landlord. Four years ago, Peng Gang's second elder brother, Peng Yong, accidentally killed Zhou's eldest son in a fight over water resources and is still at large. This incident created a deep-seated feud between the two families.

The head of the Peng family is Peng Xianzhong. Instead of letting these two decide, it would be better to just hand over the family property now.

Peng Gang, who was urinating frequently after drinking porridge, went to the vegetable garden in the backyard to relieve himself. He saw his fifth sister, Peng Min, leaning against the fence of the pigsty, crying loudly.

"what happened?"

Peng Gang stepped forward and asked with concern.

"Piglets! All six piglets have been taken away!" Peng Min cried to Peng Gang.

“We already slaughtered a boar for them to eat, and they even took away our piglets. Each piglet is worth one and a half strings of cash!”

Peng Gang peeked inside and saw that there was indeed only a black old sow left in the pigpen; all six piglets were gone.

The family didn't take the old sow away; it certainly wasn't because they had a change of heart.

The clan chief, Peng Xianzhong, had six sons, and each of the six piglets was assigned one piglet to one branch of the family.

But dividing up a whole sow is not so easy.

Just as one problem was subsiding, another arose. Before Peng Gang could calm the sobbing Peng Min down, another commotion came from the other side of the cowshed.

"Put it down! This is our family's cow!"

All that could be heard was Peng Yi's stern rebuke to a furtive dark figure lurking in the cowshed.

"Hmph! Your cow? Nonsense!" The furtive black figure sneered contemptuously.

"This ox was lent to your family by our family before the New Year!"

Faced with the other party's distortion of the truth, Peng Yi was furious and stepped forward, pointing at the cow's rear end to argue, "Open your dog eyes and look carefully! My father's name is branded on the cow's rear end!"

"What right do you have to brand your father's name on my water buffalo's rump?"

The other party didn't even bother to glance at the letter on the cow's rump. When the attempt to steal secretly failed, they resorted to blatant robbery. They led the cow and swaggered toward the gate, completely disregarding Peng Yi.

Peng Yi lunged forward to snatch the cow from the other man, but how could a fourteen-year-old boy, whose body had not yet fully developed, possibly be a match for an adult?
He was quickly and easily pushed away, falling to the ground with a thud.

Seeing this, Peng Gang grabbed a carrying pole, strode forward, and smashed it hard on the other man's head.

The dark figure fell to the ground. As Peng Gang approached, he recognized the cattle thief as the eldest son of the clan chief, Peng Xianzhong.

(End of this chapter)