1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 234 Prejudice Gradually Disappears
Despite his exhaustion, Zuo Zongtang couldn't suppress his curiosity before washing up and preparing to rest. He wanted to know if Peng Gang had made any achievements in the field of geography, which he was so proud of, and whether the trip had been worthwhile.

He then casually picked up "A Brief History of Tsarist Russia" and walked to the lamp.

Seeing the name Tsarist Russia brings back vivid memories of my nighttime conversation with Lin Zexu on the Xiang River, as if it were yesterday.

As the two were about to part, Lin Zexu's parting words kept echoing in Zuo Zongtang's ears: "Russia seeks territory but not profit, and will ultimately become a scourge to China. Is it Russia? I am old, and you will see it."

Thinking back on the past, Zuo Zongtang couldn't help but sigh softly to himself about the impermanence of life.

"I want to see what kind of knowledge this short-haired bandit leader, who even Lin Biao couldn't handle, has," Zuo Zongtang muttered to himself, casually flipping open "A Brief History of Tsarist Russia" and beginning to read it carefully.

The first thing that catches the eye is a simple map marking St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia, and its four boundaries, followed by a preface written by Peng Gang.

After reading the preface with great interest, Zuo Zongtang's weariness vanished instantly.

Zuo Zongtang was uncertain whether the geography and expansion history of Tsarist Russia summarized in the preface were true or fabricated by Peng Gang.

Although Qing dynasty geography had reached its zenith in terms of traditional geography, its core method was still the old-fashioned textual research, and its data collection methods relied on local gazetteers, historical books, and travelogues.

The way to verify the authenticity of material information is to cross-reference multiple materials and make relatively subjective inferences based on the personal experience of scholars. There are not many people who can do on-site verification like Xu Xiake of the Ming Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty's geography relied heavily on the authenticity of primary sources, and most fatally, this was...

Thanks to the Qing dynasty emperors' policy of isolationism, even the Han Chinese elite had no access to foreign information resources.

Of course, the absence of Han Chinese elites does not mean that there were no Manchu elites.

During the reigns of Emperors Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong, many Western missionaries served as officials in Beijing. Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest, and André André even served as teachers to Emperors Shunzhi and Kangxi.

Among them, the Belgian missionary André was also a mathematician, who not only taught Emperor Kangxi how to use Western scientific instruments but also explained practical geometry and mathematical principles.

Anton was highly accomplished in the field of mapmaking and surveying. He traveled to many places to draw relatively accurate maps and wrote "Usage of Measurement Instruments," which updated similar works from the late Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Kangxi learned the knowledge taught by Western missionaries, but he forbade the public dissemination of this information, allowing only his princes and Manchus to learn it.

As for the writings left by Western missionaries throughout history, which should have been a rare channel for obtaining Western information, they ended up like the scientific and technological gifts brought by the Macartney Mission, being shelved and left to gather dust by the Qing emperors.

The flourishing of textual research in the Qing Dynasty was essentially a result of the systematic blocking of new knowledge input from the outside world by the Manchu Qing, an academic shift under an extremely closed environment, and an academic haven fostered by high-pressure politics.

This is a kind of knowledge growth without development. The greatest effect of this involutionary academic style is nothing more than wasting the intellectual resources of the Han Chinese elites, who spend their lives collating vast amounts of documents, leaving them no time for anything else.

During the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, Jiao Xun, a scholar, in order to prove that the "shu" in "Confucius ate shushi" did not refer to coarse grains but to "shu" (wild vegetables), cited twenty-one documents such as "Zhou Li" and "Erya" and wrote "Shushi Bian" with 30,000 words of textual research.

The person above is relatively normal. To take a more extreme example, such as whether the well in the Mencius's "There are plums on the well" is square or round, such trivial questions can be brought up for research and debate.

As a result, both sides produced more than ten volumes of textual research, arguing heatedly, but no one cared about the archaeological evidence of the diversity of well systems in the Warring States period.

People at the time mocked him, saying: "To fight over the shape of a well, he dug through ten thousand scrolls of books."

By the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, textual research had reached a dead end of "textual research for the sake of textual research," becoming a "pseudo-scholarship" detached from reality and prone to nitpicking.

This has led to the bizarre situation where the more one researches, the more ignorant one becomes, and the more detached one is from reality.

Although Zuo Zongtang was an elite member of Hunan and a renowned geographer, he was still a prominent figure in the region.

However, his knowledge of geography was mostly derived from researching domestic geographical documents from various dynasties. Zuo Zongtang's achievements in the field of geography were limited to China.

He also lacked access to external information resources and knew very little about information from other countries.

Although Zuo Zongtang was unable to disprove Peng Gang's summary of the geography and expansion history of Tsarist Russia in the preface.

However, Peng Gang's evaluation of Tsarist Russia in the preface is strikingly consistent with that of Lin Zexu, who was exiled to the Western Regions and had contact with the Russians. In fact, Peng Gang's understanding of Russia is even more insightful and detailed than that of Lin Zexu.

This alone is enough to prove that Peng Gang was not arrogant and conceited, but actually knew about the situation in some Western countries.

Zuo Zongtang involuntarily swallowed, greedily absorbing new knowledge like a sponge.

After carefully reading Peng Gang's "A Brief Account of Tsarist Russia", Zuo Zongtang was deeply impressed by the image of Tsarist Russia as barbaric, cruel, greedy, militaristic, and treacherous.

Zuo Zongtang also learned that Tsarist Russia practiced serfdom, was recently planning to expand towards the Ottoman Empire in the Near East, was at odds with England, had a total population of nearly 100 million, an army of nearly one million, and its main ethnic composition.

Although these relatively obscure pieces of knowledge were learned by Peng Gang while playing the game Victoria 3, and are not entirely accurate, they can still serve as a general reference without much problem.

Zuo Zongtang clenched his fist and sighed, "Having such a wicked neighbor is a misfortune for China! If we do not rise up, we will surely follow in Poland's footsteps."

After finishing "A Brief Account of Tsarist Russia", Zuo Zongtang picked up another, even thicker book, "World Geography", and began to read it with great interest.

Compared to Peng Gang's "A Brief Account of Tsarist Russia," which was written specifically for Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang found "World Geography," a popular science textbook, much more difficult to read.

The geography studied by Qing Dynasty elites mainly focused on the systematic study of geographical elements such as territory, administrative regions, mountains, waterways, passes, and cities, with an emphasis on human geography.

Knowledge of physical geography is limited to describing the shapes of mountains and rivers, ignoring their causes; knowing what happens but not why.

Although Peng Gang's "World Geography" is rough, it is still systematic in general.

The opening of "World Geography" introduces popular science content on natural geography, including Earth's movements, land and ocean, plate tectonics, changes in land and sea, weather and climate, climate distribution, latitude and longitude, and contour mapping.

Even the five staff officers who had been personally instructed by Peng Gang still had no idea what this was about; they hadn't even learned the basics and could only memorize it by rote.

Not to mention Zuo Zongtang, who was reading it for the first time.

Zuo Zongtang had no choice but to skip the physical geography section and read the brief introduction to the human geography of major countries around the world.

Zuo Zongtang found the human geography section relatively easy to read, without any reading difficulties.

Zuo Zongtang became more and more engrossed in reading, finding the knowledge refreshing and captivating. He read it several times, and before he knew it, dawn had broken. Unable to stay awake any longer, Zuo Zongtang finally slumped onto the table and fell into a deep sleep.

Even when Peng Gang and Guo Kuntao knocked on the door, there was no response.

Peng Gang, worried that something might have gone wrong, pushed open the door to check. He saw Zuo Zongtang holding a book in his hand, and hadn't even blown out the oil lamp beside him. He shook his head and smiled, "I originally intended to discuss scholarship with Zuo Jigao today, but it seems I'll have to reschedule."

“That’s just how Ji Gao is; when he finds a book he likes to read, he’ll stay up all night.” Guo Kuntao had a deep-seated prejudice against Peng Gang and didn’t think Peng Gang was very learned. He went to bed early last night and didn’t read Peng Gang’s book. But now Guo Kuntao was also interested. There weren’t many books on geography that could catch Zuo Zongtang’s eye. If Zuo Zongtang had been reading Peng Gang’s works all night long, then the books must have some solid content.

Perhaps it was because my prejudice against Peng Gang was too deep-rooted, and I had been prejudiced against him from the start, always branding him in my heart as a bandit rebel.

With this in mind, Guo Kuntao made up his mind to take a serious look himself after finishing his meal.

Peng Gang stepped forward to help Zuo Zongtang to bed and covered him with a blanket.

During the journey, Zuo Zongtang showed no reaction, presumably because he had just fallen asleep and was sleeping very soundly.

After leaving Zuo Zongtang's residence, Peng Gang closed the door and went to have a meal with Guo Kuntao, who claimed to be Zuo Zongtang's student.

Zuo Zongtang wouldn't wake up anytime soon, and there was nothing important to do on military matters today. Peng Gang thought that it had been a while since he had visited the children at the Boys' Camp, nor had he shown his face to the third batch of trainees or given them a lesson.

Therefore, he ordered Zhang Ze, the most quick-witted and intelligent of the five staff officers, to stand guard in front of Zuo Zongtang's bedroom and accompany him, so that he could send someone to the Boy Camp to report to him at any time if anything happened.

After giving his instructions, Peng Gang mounted his horse and headed to the children's camp to become a geography instructor.

Geography is a newly introduced course, and currently only he can teach it clearly; he can't just sit back and do nothing.

Zhang Ze accepted the task and entered the inner courtyard to guard the door of Zuo Zongtang's bedroom.

Zhang Ze found it boring and a waste of time to just stand guard like this, so he took out "World Geography" and "Dictionary of Commonly Used Characters" and squatted in front of the door to study them carefully.

Although Zhang Ze was intelligent, his foundation was too weak.

Despite being a highly educated individual within the Left Army, he still couldn't read an entire book without a dictionary.

Zuo Jun's material conditions have greatly improved. The two books Zhang Ze is holding are not handwritten copies, but printed by the printing office of Yongzhou Prefectural School.

When Zuo Zongtang woke up naturally, it was already past noon.

I was quite surprised to find myself already in bed with a blanket covering me when I woke up.

Upon opening the door and looking down, I was even more surprised to see a short-haired officer, who looked to be only about seventeen years old, squatting on the ground reading.

He bent down to take a closer look and discovered that the book the short-haired officer was reading was the same book he had been reading the day before.

In Li Mengqun's "Collection of Information on Bandits," there is a record of them finding books on the body of a short-haired officer they found on the battlefield, based on which they speculated that the short-haired officer had a rudimentary understanding of literature.

Now that I have seen it with my own eyes, this account is true.

Thinking of the Qing Dynasty generals, many of whom were illiterate, Zuo Zongtang felt a mix of emotions as he saw the rebel leader, Mao, studying while fighting.

"Mr. Zuo, you're awake?" Zhang Ze noticed the movement behind him, got up, put the books into the cloth bag he was carrying, and stood up.

“It’s past noon, and you haven’t eaten yet. I’ll have the kitchen prepare some hot food for you.”

As he spoke, Zhang Ze called over the cook and instructed him to prepare a hot meal.

"My mind is hungrier than my stomach," Zuo Zongtang said, rubbing his stomach and pointing to his head. "Where is His Highness the Northern King now? I have many questions I'd like to ask him."

“His Highness the Northern King has gone to teach at the children’s camp and will be back later. If Mr. Zuo wishes to see His Highness the Northern King, I will send someone to inform him now,” Zhang Ze said to Zuo Zongtang, remembering Peng Gang’s instructions before he left.

"What did you say? Your Northern King not only leads troops into battle, but also teaches? Your Northern King certainly has a lot of skills," Zuo Zongtang said in surprise.

“Of course.” Zhang Ze said proudly. “Our Northern King is the reincarnation of the God of Literature, who knows everything and is omnipotent. I used to be completely illiterate, but the Northern King taught me to recognize many characters by hand. Now I can barely read with the help of a dictionary.”

Zuo Jun, especially the students taught by Peng Gang, do not believe in any Heavenly Father or Heavenly Brother, nor do they believe in any other gods.

Because Peng Gang is like a god in their eyes.

"Did you understand the book you were looking at just now?" Zuo Zongtang asked, his hands behind his back.

"I don't quite understand it, I only have a vague understanding. I don't even understand why we're standing on a sphere, and I don't really believe it. The teacher said that only through practice can one gain true knowledge. Later, he took us to the seaside to watch the fleet sail into the distance, and the masts disappeared at the end, which was proof of the curvature of the earth." When talking about academic matters, Zhang Ze unconsciously switched his address to Peng Gang as "teacher," and he shook his little head as he spoke.

"At present, there are only two and a half people in the entire army who can understand 'World Geography'. Besides Mr. and Mr. Xiao, Jiang Zhongxin understands it more, so we'll count him as half."

"Practice makes perfect, well said." Zuo Zongtang nodded approvingly. Given Peng Gang's power and prestige among the Mao Zedongs, he could have easily fooled or even forced his students to believe every word he said, yet he still managed not to use his power to oppress them and allowed his students to verify things for themselves, which was truly remarkable.

Many of the headmasters of Yuelu Academy cannot do this.

Zuo Zongtang also served as a headmaster. Most of the headmasters he knew did not even want students to ask questions, and required students to treat what they said as golden rules, to remember them firmly, and not to question them.

The name Jiang Zhongxin seemed vaguely familiar to Zuo Zongtang, who couldn't help but ask, "Is Jiang Zhongxin the brother of Chu Yong and Jiang Zhongyuan?"

“That’s right. He is Jiang Zhongyuan’s cousin. He has now abandoned the darkness and joined our Zuo Army. Does Mr. Zuo know him?” Zhang Ze asked, tilting his head.

"I have some impression of the Jiang family members in Xinning, but I wouldn't say we know each other." Zuo Zongtang found it hard to believe that even Jiang Zhongyuan's cousin, Jiang Zhongxin, had joined Peng Gang's cause, so he asked Zhang Ze about it.

Where does Jiang Zhongxin currently work?

“He is currently a student in the third cohort, and has not yet been formally appointed, but sometimes he will go on stage as a lecturer to teach mathematics.” As Zhang Ze was speaking, the cook brought out a bowl of steaming noodles with minced meat sauce and headed towards the main hall of the inner courtyard.

Zhang Ze felt something was missing, so he went into the kitchen, found a dish of chili peppers, and led Zuo Zongtang to the main hall where the banquet was being held to eat noodles.

After Zuo Zongtang sat down in a very natural and generous manner, Zhang Ze placed a dish of chili peppers on the table: "People from Hunan love spicy food. I don't know if Mr. Zuo also loves spicy food. Please keep this dish of chili peppers for Mr. Zuo."

"You've certainly handled things efficiently."

Zuo Zongtang smiled, picked up the plate and added some chili peppers to the bowl. He thought the short-haired officer was pleasant to listen to, handled things properly, and was quite likable. He then asked...

"What's your name, and what's your position in the military?"

“My name is Zhang Ze, Ze as in Enze, and I am the deputy chief of staff,” Zhang Ze replied.

(End of this chapter)