1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 36 Nothing can be done without rules

The young men of Honglianping Mountain still wear tattered black clothes that have been passed down for generations.

Their clothes were all tattered and filthy, covered with lice and grime, and smelled foul.

If you move into a new house wearing this outfit, the house will probably become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and bacteria within a few days, and you'll get dysentery sooner or later.

In this era, people mostly bought their own fabric and had it made by tailors; ready-made clothes were rarely available. While the mud walls of the houses in the mountain area were still drying and the beds were not yet finished, Peng Gang went to Bitan Xun and bought thirty bolts of coarse homespun cloth from Chen Xingwang on credit.

Grain prices in Guangxi remained high, and the price of homespun cloth had been falling again and again since the port was opened due to the impact of foreign cloth. The homespun cloth that Peng Gang bought was only a little over three qian of silver per bolt.

Of course, this is not good news for charcoal burners like Peng Gang.

Charcoal burning is part of the local homespun cloth industry chain. Since homespun cloth cannot be sold at a good price, dye houses will naturally lower the price of charcoal they purchase in order to save costs.

The only adult women in Honglianping are Peng Gang's maternal aunt and his younger maternal aunt, as well as Wei Shoushan's wife, Zhao, all of whom are skilled in needlework.

Peng Gang handed the cloth to them and asked them to cut a short jacket, a pair of trousers, a bed sheet, and a quilt for each of the mountain boys, according to their body shapes.

Upon learning that Peng Gang was going to make them new clothes, the boys were overjoyed and wept with excitement.

Most of them came from extremely poor families, where it was difficult for a family to even afford a single set of clothes to wear outside.

As for new clothes, forget about it.

Those who were well-off could receive hand-me-downs from their elder brothers, fathers, or even grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Those with poorer conditions are lucky to have even a piece of cloth to cover their bodies.

The young men swarmed around Zhao, who was taking their measurements, and Liu Siniang, Peng Gang's maternal uncle's wife, chattering excitedly as they shared their joy.

"The boss is going to make us new clothes!"

"And bedding!"

"My parents never made me new clothes."

"What's the big deal? I've never even met my parents."

"I don't even know who my parents are."

These young people are really unlucky; they turned a perfectly happy occasion into a contest of who's the most miserable.

"Line up! Have you all forgotten the rules of queuing?!" Peng Gang shouted at the chaotic crowd.

"Lu Qin! Chen Miao! How could you be such a team leader?!"

Peng Gang had taught them the rule of queuing for everything, but he had been busy with mountain planning, house construction, and rammed earth wall building recently, so he had very limited time and energy and neglected to supervise and discipline these young men.

These young men were quite cunning. When they ate breakfast and dinner, Peng Gang would keep an eye on them from nearby, and they could barely manage to queue up for their meals.

As soon as Peng Gang was away, they immediately reverted to their old ways and went their own way. Even the team leader had difficulty controlling them, especially the second team.

Peng Gang was mentally prepared for this.

It would be truly astonishing if these young men could treat an order as a golden rule and follow it meticulously.

Machines, not humans, are capable of doing this.

Furthermore, even machines need regular inspection and maintenance to function properly.

Eight or nine out of ten of these young men have experience begging; if they had the habit of queuing, they would have starved to death long ago.

Their survival instinct is to fight tooth and nail for extremely limited resources.

However, from now on, Peng Gang will take the time to gradually reshape and transform them over the remaining three years, turning them into something completely different.

Peng Gang's shout seemed to suddenly remind the young men of something, and under Lu Qin and Chen Miao's organization, they formed two ugly lines of varying heights, crooked and twisted like centipedes.

"Team leader is calling roll!"

Peng Gang looked at the group of young men with their heads tilted to one side, their bodies crooked, their legs bent, scratching their ears and cheeks, and their standing postures all kinds of strange and awkward. He could not hide his disappointment.

The only good thing was that after a month and a half of eating their fill, the sallow complexion on the young men's faces gradually disappeared, and their bodies became much stronger.

Although Peng Gang did not conduct any special military-style management or training for the group of teenagers this month, roll call was still required every day before meals, before work, and after work, according to the roster.

The two team leaders and deputy team leaders were already very familiar with the roll call process.

Lu Qin and Li Qi, who are relatively quick-witted and intelligent, can even take attendance without looking at the roster.

In a call-and-response exchange, Lu Qin and Chen Miao took turns calling the roll of their group members and reporting to Peng Gang:
"Group 1 should have twelve people, but eleven are present. Group 1 member Hu Daniu is absent!"

"Group Two should have twelve people, and twelve people are present. No one is absent!"

"Where did Hu Daniu go?" Peng Gang demanded.

"Hu Daniu poops and peees a lot, I guess he's probably hiding by the wall to do it," Lu Qin guessed, based on his knowledge of Hu Daniu.

"Go and fetch Hu Daniu." Peng Gang frowned and ordered Lu Qin to bring Hu Daniu over.

These young men have terrible living habits. Not to mention spitting everywhere, urinating and defecating anywhere are commonplace.

Especially Hu Daniu, this Hu Daniu is good in every way, honest and simple, hardworking and never complaining, a typical simple farmer.

The only thing that is hard to accept is that Hu Daniu likes to defecate anywhere, and he can't change his ways no matter how many times he is taught.

There are two simple dry toilets in the living area of ​​the mountain area.

Because of concerns about contaminating the water source and contracting cholera, the two dry toilets were built quite far apart.

In the northeast corner of the living area, there were two small huts, each about six feet square, with bamboo strips as walls and thatched roofs, which served as latrines.

Currently, only a large pit has been dug in the latrine to collect excrement. Peng Gang has commissioned carpenters Qin and Mo to make a large wooden vat to be placed in the latrine as a large chamber pot.

However, the two carpenters are currently busy making earthen hullers and bellows, and the large wooden vat will not be ready for some time.

Next to each latrine was an earthen wall for urination, which would facilitate the collection of saltpeter later.

Many young men find the outhouses too far away and sometimes have to queue, so they prefer to secretly relieve themselves on the spot rather than go to the outhouse.

No one knows the group members better than the group leader. Sure enough, Lu Qin brought Hu Daniu back shortly after he came back from relieving himself behind the tree stump.

"Dongdong's family."

Seeing Peng Gang waiting for him with an angry expression, Hu Daniu was too scared to look up and meet Peng Gang's eyes. He just kept his head down and hurriedly continued to fasten the belt that he hadn't had time to fasten yet.

"Do you know you're wrong?" Peng Gang asked coldly.

"I know I was wrong," Hu Daniu replied timidly.

"Where did you go wrong?" Peng Gang pressed.

"We didn't gather for roll call on time." Hu Daniu's voice trailed off.

"And another thing!" Peng Gang was not satisfied with Hu Daniu's answer.

Hu Daniu's first reaction was that the mistake was not assembling in time, which shows how weak his concept of hygiene was. He didn't take urinating and defecating anywhere seriously at all, nor did he take Peng Gang's words against urinating and defecating anywhere in the living area seriously.

Hu Daniu was speechless for a moment, not realizing where he had gone wrong, until he caught a glimpse of Zhang Ze pointing at his buttocks to remind him, and then Hu Daniu suddenly understood.

"I shouldn't have relieved myself anywhere."

In the past month, Hu Daniu was not the only one who was reprimanded by Peng Gang for urinating anywhere.

However, Peng Gang was preoccupied with trivial matters at the time, so he did not deal with them severely, mostly just giving them a scolding and education.

However, this approach had little effect; apart from the two group leaders, two deputy group leaders, and Zhang Ze, no one was able to relieve themselves in the living area at will.

The rest of the young men continued to do as they pleased, without any change, even when Peng Gang couldn't see them.

The young men in the group all thought that Peng Gang would, as usual, give them a lecture and that would be the end of it.

　Thank you to the readers "Little Niece Calls Me to Confess to My Uncle" and "2018061309052710" for their 100-yuan donations.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)