1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 228 Lingling
Lu Qin, who was helping to maintain order at the soup kitchen in front of the Yongzhou government office and whose injuries had almost healed, felt that a new recruit next to Chen Gan, the battalion commander of the Provisional Ninth Battalion, looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, Lu Qin could hardly believe his eyes.

Isn't this Brother Peng?
"Second Brother Peng?"

Lu Qin was a native of Qingfeng Village. He knew all the Peng brothers. The young man in front of him looked exactly like the Peng Erge in his memory, except that he had cut off his braid.

"...Lu...Lu Qin?"

Peng Yong stared blankly for a moment, looked Lu Qin up and down for a while, and then recognized Lu Qin.

Back in Qingfeng Village, the Lu brothers were always dirty. After washing their faces and changing into decent clothes, Peng Yong almost didn't recognize that the Zuo Jun officer in the round-necked short robe was a young man from the same village.

"Battalion Commander Lu, do you know each other?" Chen Gan turned his head to look at Lu Qin.

Chen Gan came to report his victory to Peng Gang, and also to bring Peng Yong, who had made the first ascent and captured the prefect of Hengzhou, to Lingling to confirm his identity.

Even Lu Qin knows Peng Yong, so it seems that Peng Yong's identity as the Emperor is almost certain.

Chen Gan was filled with emotion. He had finally found a talented person among the coal miners in Leiyang County and wanted to train and promote him to be his right-hand man.

Little did I know that this person had such a remarkable background.

With his status as the emperor's son and two great achievements, he will have to rely on Peng Yong for training and promotion in the future.

"Didn't Brother Peng tell you? He is the elder brother of His Highness the Northern King," Lu Qin said.

Upon hearing Lu Qin's words, Wang Yinan, Luo Bangyi, and other close friends of Peng Yong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

They had initially doubted Peng Yong's identity, worried that their friend might have mistaken a relative for someone else, since impersonating a royal relative is a serious crime.

"Is His Highness the Northern King at the government office?" Chen Gan explained his purpose to Lu Qin, "I have a report of victory from Hengyang that I wish to present to His Highness the Northern King in person."

"His Highness the Northern King is inspecting the docks outside Taiping Gate," Lu Qin said to Chen Gan and the others, temporarily putting aside his work.

"Brother Peng, Battalion Commander Chen, come with me. His Highness the Northern King will surely be very happy to see you."

After speaking, Lu Qin led them through the streets and alleys to the dock outside Taiping Gate.

It has been almost a month since Zuo Jun entered Lingling City. I heard that the short-haired soldiers who entered Lingling City are very disciplined. They only eat the rich and don't bother the common people. They even give porridge to the starving people.

The people of Lingling City who had fled to escape bandits and war gradually returned to Lingling City and resumed their normal lives.

Whether under the rule of the government or under the rule of rebels.

These ordinary people still have to live their lives as usual; they can't just hide in the mountains forever.

Therefore, Lingling City has not only regained its former vibrancy during peaceful times, but also, due to the Zuo army's frequent purchases of goods from merchants and common people, all industries in Lingling City are more prosperous than before.

Peng Yong kept up with Lu Qin's pace while asking Lu Qin about his family.

Upon learning that his father, Peng Xin, had died of the disease three years earlier, Peng Yong couldn't help but burst into tears, never expecting so many things to have happened in just three short years.

As they talked, the group walked through the bustling crowd and arrived at Taiping Gate, which overlooks the Xiaoshui River. As soon as they exited the gate, Lu Qin and his party saw a dense array of colorful boats moored on the Xiaoshui River.

The ships in the distance belong to grain merchants from the surrounding area, some of whom came from Daozhou, and even Guiyangzhou and Chenzhou.

The cities of Guiyang and Chenzhou were very small, even smaller than some wealthy county towns. Coupled with their weak defenses, they were basically powerless against Yang Xiuqing's Eastern Palace troops.

Yang Xiuqing has already captured Guiyang Prefecture and is now marching towards Chenzhou.

Yang Xiuqing would not spend money to buy grain. Grain merchants in these places, having heard that the "short-haired bandits" and "long-haired bandits" of Lingling City were different, would spend money to buy grain.

The grain merchants, disregarding everything else, hurriedly transported their stored grain to Lingling City by cart or boat to sell. The boats at the nearby dock belonged to Zuo Jun.

The craftsmen in the workshop were working hard, sweating profusely, to modify the ships.

Most of the ships owned by Zuo Jun were captured from Li Xingyuan in the Battle of Huangsha Pass.

After more than 20 days, most of the damaged ships have been repaired.

Chen Ajiu and the craftsmen of the workshop are now mainly engaged in the conversion of ships, transforming civilian vessels into inland river warships.

Due to the tight schedule and limited construction period, only simple modifications such as reinforcement, installation of mortars, and mountain-splitting guns can be carried out for the time being.

As for adding heavy artillery, due to the scarcity of heavy artillery, only the ships escorting Peng Gang can afford to be luxuriously equipped with heavy artillery to make a show of force.

Before long, Lu Qin and the others found Peng Gang, who was listening to the Fifth Battalion Commander Chen Ajiu report to him on the progress of the ship conversion.

Peng Gang attached great importance to the modification of the ships, after all, the Left Army would be fighting along the Yangtze River system.

The Qing government's naval forces along the Yangtze River were far superior to those along the Zuojiang and Youjiang rivers in Guangxi.

Without warships to escort them, the Left Army's supply fleet had little ability to protect itself against the Qing army's naval forces.

Peng Gang didn't have high expectations for his navy; he just wanted it to be able to protect the supply ships and defeat the Qing navy.

"Chen Gan, weren't you in Hengzhou? Did Deputy Commander Luo send you back?" Peng Gang turned his head to look at Chen Gan and Lu Qin, and felt that the young man standing next to Chen Gan looked familiar. He looked a lot like Peng Gang's second brother, who had committed murder and was on the run.

"Your subordinate Peng Yong greets Your Highness, the Northern King." Peng Yong was still unaware of Peng Gang's attitude towards him, so he did not address Peng Gang as "brother" in front of Peng Gang's subordinates, but only stated his own identity.

"Second brother?" Upon hearing the name Peng Yong, Peng Gang confirmed the other person's identity; it really was his brother.

"Brother!" Peng Gang called Peng Yong "brother" first, and Peng Yong then addressed Peng Gang as "brother," and the two embraced and wept.

"Let's go back to the government office to talk. I'll have A-Yi and A-Min come and meet Second Brother as well." With that, Peng Gang led Peng Yong and the others back to their residence at the government office.

Upon learning that Hengyang City had been captured, Peng Gang was not greatly affected.

The city of Hengyang had only a few hundred Green Standard Army soldiers and a couple thousand hastily assembled local militia and yamen runners, making its defenses weak.

It would be strange if Luo Dagang couldn't take Hengyang City.

Shortly after receiving the news, Peng Yi and Peng Min arrived at the government office.

Upon seeing Peng Yong and his sister, I was first taken aback, then overjoyed.

Peng Gang asked Peng Yi and Peng Min to take Peng Yong to the inner quarters to talk, while he himself had to deal with the military affairs of Hengzhou Prefecture first.

After reading Luo Dagang's letter, Peng Gang said to Chen Gan, "Tell Deputy Commander Luo that tomorrow I will send the women's battalion and the old men's battalion by boat to Hengyang for resettlement. I will not move to Hengyang for the time being. As for whether or not to attack Changsha, we will first send troops to scout it out."

Our army's treasury is currently full; conquering cities and seizing territory is not the priority. Recruiting and expanding the army is the most important matter. Now that we have captured Hengyang, let Deputy Commander Luo recruit and expand the army there.”

There are still Qing troops from Guangxi pursuing them in the direction of Quanzhou. Feng Yunshan is still struggling to hold on in Quanzhou. Peng Gang must stay and help Feng Yunshan, otherwise it will be difficult for Feng Yunshan to escape.

Furthermore, Xiao Chaogui's raid on Changsha failed, and the Qing army in Changsha was already prepared, making it difficult to take Changsha quickly. Therefore, Peng Gang was not in a hurry to attack Changsha.

The most urgent task is to continue to seize the time to recruit and expand the army in southern Hunan, strengthen our strength, and prepare for the attack on the provincial capital.

(End of this chapter)