1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 40 Luo Dagang

Luo Dagang prepared for a whole year in order to successfully capture Jiangkouwei.

He learned from the failures in Lipu and Yong'an in the 26th year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign. This time, when he partnered with Su Sanniang, he carefully selected the members to participate in the operation, avoiding being greedy and only bringing more than 500 people.

The main force responsible for maintaining order at Jiangkouwei was about two hundred soldiers from the Dahuangjiang Patrol Office, followed by Green Standard Army soldiers from the nearby floodgates. The total strength of the troops would not exceed four hundred.

Luo Dagang believed that with his five hundred old brothers from the Heaven and Earth Society, plus Zhang Zhao the Big Head Sheep and Tian Fang the Big Carp, taking over the small Jiangkouwei would be a piece of cake.

Before they even entered Jiangkouwei, they were caught off guard by a surprise attack from the Qing army.

Before they even made it into Jiangkouwei, only fifty-odd loyal followers remained. Knowing that all was lost, Luo Dagang felt utterly disheartened.

Luo Dagang couldn't understand which link in the chain had gone wrong, that the Qing army was so well aware of his movements.

"The bandit leader Luo Dagang is on the fleet! Don't let him get away!"

Despite his still-healing cane wounds, Li Dianyuan, the deputy commander of Xunzhou, rode his horse along the south bank of the Dahuang River, surrounded by his personal guards. He pointed his whip at Luo Dagang's fleet and offered a generous reward.

"A reward of one thousand taels of silver will be given for capturing Luo Dagang, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society; forty taels of silver will be given for capturing a member of the Heaven and Earth Society; and twenty taels of silver will be given for killing a member of the Heaven and Earth Society!"

Li Dianyuan harbored deep hatred for the Heaven and Earth Society because of the pain of being flogged and the humiliation of being paraded through the camp with arrows stuck in his throat.

Even if it means heavy losses, we must teach the Heaven and Earth Society a lesson and intimidate these rebels!

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sit comfortably in his position as deputy general.

Encouraged by the generous reward and seeing that only one or two out of ten of Luo Dagang's Heaven and Earth Society bandits remained, the Green Standard Army soldiers of the Right Battalion of Xunzhou, who were responsible for the attack, were greatly encouraged.

As if injected with adrenaline, they fired muskets and arrows at Luo Dagang's fleet while rowing furiously to approach it, attempting to capture Luo Dagang alive for the reward.

As the soldiers of the Xunzhou Right Wing Army drew closer to their fleet, the sharp-eyed and observant Su Sanniang, using the blazing firelight from the abandoned ships on the river, finally saw the prominent "soldier" character on the dark green uniforms of the Qing soldiers and cried out in alarm.

"Oh no! These are the troops of the Xunzhou Green Standard Army! Not the troops of the Dahuangjiang Patrol Office!"

The uniform of the patrol officers of the Dahuangjiang Patrol Office was a blue cloth shirt with the three characters "Guiping Patrol" written on the chest.

Aren't the Green Standard Army troops of Xunzhou stationed in the prefectural city and the outpost? How come so many Green Standard Army troops suddenly appeared at Jiangkouwei?
The Qing troops approaching them were extremely arrogant, shouting slogans such as "Capture Luo Dagang alive" and "Kill all the bandits of the Heaven and Earth Society!"

Clearly, this is not the imposing presence that the garrison troops should have; it's more like the elite troops of the prefectural city!
The commander in charge of the troops was most likely Li Dianyuan, the deputy commander of Xunzhou!

"Brother Luo! Retreat quickly! As long as we're alive, we can always rebuild!" Su Sanniang was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

"If we get bogged down by the government troops until dawn, none of us will be able to escape!"

Outnumbered, they could still outmaneuver the Qing army under the cover of darkness. However, the Huangjiang River was not wide, and once daylight broke, their fleet would become easy targets for the Qing army's cannons.

Holding a steel knife, Luo Dagang took the lead and, ignoring Su Sanniang's advice, led his loyal followers to jump onto a Qing army ship that had already boarded their ship.

"Third Sister! If we're going to retreat, we have to fight off this wave of government troops first!"

This was not because Luo Dagang was eager for battle or acted rashly. Luo Dagang had fought against the Qing army for many years and he understood them.

The Qing army's morale is currently soaring; without crushing their fighting spirit, the hope of breaking through is extremely slim.

Once the Qing army's momentum is broken, given the nature of the Guangxi Green Standard Army, it will be difficult for the Qing army to organize a decent offensive in the short term.

The gaps in the Qing army's offensive were their best chance to break out.

As the "leader of the Heaven and Earth Society," who was jointly wanted by Guangdong and Guangxi, Luo Dagang was indeed extremely brave and fierce.

As soon as he jumped onto the Qing army's warship, Luo Dagang swiftly slashed and killed two musketeers who were frantically loading ammunition.

Although the Qing army's guns and arrows killed or wounded five or six bandits who boarded the ship, witnessing the bandits board the warship and kill or wound seven or eight of their own musketeers, and seeing that the bandit leader was extremely fierce and brave, was a stark contrast.

The surrounding Qing troops immediately scattered like birds and beasts, some retreating and others jumping into the river, completely losing their previous arrogance and their morale plummeting.

Seeing this, the Green Standard Army guerrillas on the warship tried to lead eight or nine of their men and five or six miscellaneous soldiers to fight off Luo Dagang and reverse the tide of the battle.

Luo Dagang stuck his steel knife into the deck, grabbed a musket with a ramrod still stuck in the muzzle, and seeing that there was still some priming powder left in the powder pool, he discarded the priming and opened fire on the spirited Qing guerrilla.

The shot went slightly off-target; at a distance of five or six paces, Luo Dagang's gun was aimed at the chest of the Qing guerrilla, but it ended up hitting the man's neck instead.

It was a lucky accident.

The Qing guerrilla who was shot fell to the ground. His men and soldiers, having lost their leader, were at a loss. Suddenly, someone couldn't help but shout.

Wang Yourong is dead!

No one knows who shouted it, but after that shout, even his close followers didn't dare to go forward and fight Luo Dagang and his men. Instead, they jumped into the river and swam towards the nearby friendly ships.

The nearby Qing troops were unaware of the situation on the boat carrying guerrilla commander Wang Jun, or why things were in such chaos. They panicked when they heard that even the battalion commander had been killed.

As darkness fell and the surroundings became difficult to see clearly, the nearby Qing troops mistook the friendly forces in the water for members of the Heaven and Earth Society, and opened fire with muskets and arrows. Unfortunately, the personal guards of Wang Jun, the guerrilla commander of the Xunzhou Right Battalion, who were charging at the forefront and were the bravest and fiercest, were not killed by the enemy's swords, but were instead killed by their own troops on the Dahuang River.

"Guerrilla Commander Wang? Wang Jun, the guerrilla commander of the Right Wing Battalion of Xunzhou?"

Luo Dagang then realized that he had just killed Wang Jun, the battalion commander of the Xunzhou Right Wing Battalion.

After killing Wang Jun, Luo Dagang seized the right battalion's command flag and threw it into the rolling Huangjiang River.

The news of the battalion commander's death spread rapidly through the attacking Qing army like wildfire in autumn, chilling them to the bone.

Despite still having a significant advantage, the Qing troops who launched the subsequent attack coordinated perfectly and unanimously chose to retreat back to shore.

Seeing his promising offensive momentum thwarted, Li Dianyuan, the deputy commander of Xunzhou, who was standing on the dry bank with his feet firmly on the ground, was furious. He ordered his personal guards to supervise the battle and forbade any retreating soldiers from going ashore, under penalty of immediate military law.

Li Dianyuan originally thought that if he couldn't capture Zhang Jiaxiang, a notorious bandit from the Heaven and Earth Society in Guixian County, capturing Luo Dagang, a water bandit from the Heaven and Earth Society, would be a good alternative.

This would also allow him to give an explanation to Min Zhengfeng, the Governor of Guangxi, make amends for his mistakes, and wipe away his shame.

Little did they expect that Luo Dagang was also an extremely troublesome and ruthless character.

The thieves are trapped in the middle of the Dahuang River, but they still have a chance!
Undeterred, Li Dianyuan set out to organize a second attack.

The Green Standard Army in Pingnan County, downstream of Xunjiang River, was also under the jurisdiction of Xunzhou County. Li Dianyuan had already ordered the Green Standard Army in Pingnan County to intercept the water bandits of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Even if Luo Dagang fled downstream, he couldn't escape his grasp.

Luo Dagang's repeated failures in his uprisings, yet his ability to escape unscathed and launch a comeback, demonstrate that he was not a mindless brute who only knew how to fight. What Li Dianyuan could think of, Luo Dagang had also considered.

Taking advantage of the lull in Li Dianyuan's second offensive, Luo Dagang and his cronies had already donned Green Standard Army uniforms, rowed Qing army warships, and swaggered up the north bank behind the routed Qing soldiers. They fought their way through and headed towards Pingzai Mountain without looking back.

Luo Dagang managed to escape into Pingzai Mountain, and then the great victory at Jiangkouwei was achieved. Luo Dagang and Tian Fang, the leaders of the Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) water bandits, were beheaded. The news of the great victory at Jiangkouwei spread throughout Guangxi along the Xunjiang and Yushui rivers.

When Qing officials from neighboring prefectures and counties learned that the two major threats that had plagued the Qian, Xun, and Yu rivers had been eliminated, they applauded and spread the news far and wide.

The Governor of Guangxi, Zheng Zuchen, and the Commander-in-Chief, Min Zhengfeng, were eager to write a report of victory to Emperor Daoguang.

Due to the lack of information in Pingzaishan Honglianping, Peng Gang was completely unaware of the battle taking place at Jiangkouwei.

From the end of March to the end of April, Peng Gang spent his mornings leading the young men of Honglianping in drills, and his afternoons either ramming the three earthen walls around the charcoal burning yard or going up the mountain to cut down trees and dig pits.

As for charcoal, they didn't burn many kilns, and they didn't earn much money.

The charcoal produced from the four kilns was sold to Shangdongtang at 60% of the market price at Jiangkou Market, in exchange for grain, to maintain the operation of the Lianhuaping charcoal kiln.

After the kiln was built, only four kilns of charcoal were burned in a month. Xiao Guoying felt that Peng Gang was not doing his job properly.

They would stand for half a day with the young men from Honglianping in the open space of the charcoal burning yard.

The young men lined up, then broke up again, and started standing in formation again, banging the gong.

Sometimes they would even ring a gong in the middle of the night to gather the young men into a line.

If they are not satisfied, they will either punish or scold them.

After a month, not only were the young men on edge, but even the uncles were kept on edge by Peng Gang.

Xiao Guoying and Xiao Guowei did not understand what benefits Peng Gang would gain from doing this.

Standing still, no matter how beautiful or impressive you look, what's the point besides wasting food and energy?

Only Xiao Guoda found it very interesting. Whenever he had free time, he would follow Peng Gang around and imitate Peng Gang in giving orders to the young men of Honglianping.

Peng Gang also generously taught Xiao Guoda a few commonly used short and long commands.

When he was too tired to handle everything, he would ask Xiao Guoda to temporarily supervise and train these young men on his behalf.

The young men had been tormented by Peng Gang for a month. Just standing upright in place, they were more imposing than the garrison soldiers of Bitan.

However, they are still not as good as the soldiers of Shangdongtang.

Xiao Guoda thought that Peng Gang must have been traumatized by the bandits who were spying on them when he first arrived at Honglianping. Once bitten, twice shy, he wanted to train a group of guards to protect the mountain area.

However, upon further reflection, this didn't seem right. Xiao Guoda had seen wealthy families in Guangxi who trained bodyguards, who mostly recruited down-on-their-luck镖师 (bodyguards), deserted soldiers, or martial arts vagrants as their bodyguard instructors.

He taught the male members of his clan and the loyal and reliable sons of the tenant farmers boxing, stick fighting, swordsmanship, and archery.

Wealthy families who were richer and had connections to acquire muskets and gunpowder would even teach their servants and guards how to use them.

Xiao Guoda had never seen anyone like Peng Gang before, who spent a whole month just teaching him to stand and walk.

(End of this chapter)