1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 67 volley fire
The enemy's shouts grew louder and louder, and they drew ever closer.

Accompanied by shouts of battle, eighty or ninety menacing enemies smashed through the bushes, their spears and machetes swung in a silver arc. The leader, Wang Dafa, roared with a spitting sound: "Follow me and smash this bunch of sons of bitches!"

"One group! Release!"

When the enemy was about thirty paces away, Peng Gang finally gave the order to open fire.

Of the twelve muskets in the group, eight or nine spewed orange-red flames.

Lu Qin was holding a large musket with a caliber close to one inch. It was thick and heavy, and its power was astonishing when fully loaded with gunpowder.

Even though Lu Qin was mentally prepared, he was still inevitably jolted half a step by the huge recoil, and his eardrums were ringing.

After the first volley of gunfire, the four enemies at the front fell. Lu Qin witnessed a tall enemy with a lead bullet embedded in his neck, and blood sprayed higher than the treetops.

I wonder who guessed that shot so accurately.

Before the smoke of battle had cleared, the barrels of the second group's bird guns were already peeking out from between the men.

"Group Two! Release!"

The second volley of gunfire was even more steady and orderly, the bullets bursting from the barrels sweeping across the charging enemy.

The second volley of fire knocked down five or six enemies, and one lead bullet pierced through the gap between them, directly blowing the skull off the scarred man waving the flag in the back row.

Li Qi vaguely saw white brain matter splattered on the blue flag. The flag swayed weakly for a couple of moments, carried by inertia, before being pulled into the bushes by the fallen body.

After the second volley of gunfire, the enemy's morale was completely shattered.

They were just a bunch of rabble; they couldn't even withstand three full volleys of gunfire.

"Three groups! Release!"

When the three groups fired their volleys, the enemy had already turned and fled.

The three groups of musketeers could only aim at the enemy's backs. The fleeing enemy ranks were scattered, and the distance between them had increased to thirty-six or thirty-seven paces.

The third group's volley was actually the least effective, managing to take down only two enemies.

"Su San Niang! Chen A Jiu! Lead the boatmen and pursue the remaining enemy!"

Peng Gang turned around and gave the order to pursue the friendly forces behind the pikemen.

Fighting when the tide is in their favor and pursuing the remaining enemy forces are the strengths of the Heaven and Earth Society's armed forces.

Upon receiving the order, the veteran soldiers and new recruits sped forward like arrows, hacking and slashing at Wang Dafa's men along the way.

The smoke from the thirty-six muskets was not very thick and was quickly dispersed by the mountain winds of Zijing Mountain.

Peng Gang held up the monocular telescope he had seized from Zhang Zhao to watch the battle.

In fact, the submarine force led by Luo Dagang and Su Sanniang was quite qualified, especially the veteran submariners, who were extremely brave and fierce, with outstanding close combat skills.

It's a pity that their discipline is a bit lax; with a little guidance, they could definitely become a strong army.

The battle ended quickly, but the submarine force was slow to regroup.

Many submarine crews were busy looting the corpses and ignored the order to retreat, especially the seasoned veterans.

Peng Gang turned a blind eye to this.

The submarine force was, after all, an allied force, not his subordinates.

Furthermore, these enemies are dressed in shabby clothes, so they are definitely not Wang Dazuo's elite troops, and they don't have much to offer.

"Thirty-seven people were killed and twelve were captured alive. The rest of those bastards ran too fast; we couldn't catch them even if we ran for our lives."

Chen Ajiu excitedly reported to Peng Gang.

Only three men in the submarine force sustained minor injuries in this battle. Although they did not acquire much wealth, the new recruits gained valuable experience.

Su San Niang and Chen A Jiu were both very satisfied with the result.

Peng Gang nodded slightly to Chen Ajiu to indicate that he understood, and then began to question the prisoners: "Who is leading your team?" "Fourth Master Wang."

"Tell me his name! What's his relationship with Wang Dazuo?!"

"Wang Dafa, he is Third Master. Bah! He is Wang Dazuo's younger brother."

Where is Wang Dafa?

"This heroine just killed him with a single blow."

Peng Gang then screened the twelve prisoners, classifying them according to their background into members of the Wang family, guards of the Wang family, and laborers coerced by the Wang family.

Chen Ajiu couldn't understand why Peng Gang went to such lengths. Why not just have all the newcomers beheaded and let them practice their courage?
Peng Gang wanted to establish his authority and make a name for himself at Zijing Mountain, so he naturally wouldn't be polite to the Wang family.

Peng Gang was more lenient towards the guards who were sold into the Wang family and the militiamen who were coerced by the Wang family.

After identifying the prisoners, Peng Gang inquired about Wang Dazuo's situation.

Wang Dazuo is currently hiding in his own yard.

The courtyard is built against the mountain. Currently, there are about ninety people guarding the courtyard. There is an ancestral homemade cannon, fifteen or sixteen muskets and homemade guns, and three archers, including Wang Dazuo himself.

In terms of personnel composition, apart from about thirty people who were Wang Dazuo's clansmen, the rest were all Wang Dazuo's guards.

"Are all of Wang Dazuo's guards truly loyal to him?" Peng Gang asked.

"It depends on the situation. The three Sichuan镖局 (escort agencies) that had disbanded were instructors and managers hired by Wang Dazuo at a high price. They were outsiders who had fled to our Zijing Mountain after hearing that they had committed a crime in Sichuan. They had no one to rely on after leaving the Wang family, so they were devoted to Wang Dazuo."

There were also eleven or twelve scoundrels from Zijing Mountain who were used to bullying others in the village because the Wang family supported them, and they were quite loyal to Wang Dazuo.

As for the remaining guards, it's hard to say.

One of the captured guards of the Wang family, seeing that Peng Gang treated them kindly and was not the wicked person the Wang brothers had described, explained the current situation of the Wang family compound to Peng Gang in detail.

"Who are the remaining guards?" Peng Gang pressed.

"They were all driven to desperation by the Wang family, forced to sell themselves into servitude as mountain villagers and tenant farmers to serve as guards," the guard replied.

"Selling oneself as a bodyguard" refers to peasants mortgaging their personal freedom to landlords, acting as the landlords' armed force in the form of debt labor. Its essence is the transformation of economic oppression into more powerful personal control.

To put it nicely, they were guards; to put it bluntly, they were debt slaves whose lives were completely dependent on the landlord.

The lease agreement for the mountain area signed between Peng Gang and Qiu Gusan also contained such a clause: if he was unable to continue leasing Honglianping after three years, Peng Gang would have to work as a bodyguard for the Qiu family to pay off their debts.

However, now that he is the head of the Zijingshan community in Guiping County, he has taken the initiative to become Qiu Gusan's bodyguard, and Qiu Gusan may not dare to accept him.

“Tell this young man about the plight of the mountain people and tenants in the Wang family compound who were forced to sell themselves into the Wang family as guards. You tell him what happened, and he will write it down,” Peng Gang said, gesturing for Li Qi to bring paper and pen to take notes.

"The new Magistrate Yang has long heard of the Wang family's bad reputation. He appointed me as the new head of the Zijingshan gang specifically to settle scores with the Wang family and stand up for you."

To eliminate the prisoners' concerns, Peng Gang brought in Yang Xun, the magistrate of Guiping County, to support him, so that they could speak freely.

The Wang family is at most the ruler of Zijing Mountain, while Magistrate Yang Xun is the true ruler of Guiping County.

Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Guiping County was an attached county, and Gu Yuankai, the prefect of Xunzhou Prefecture, was the one who truly held absolute power in the Guiping area.

"Lord Yang is truly a just and upright official!" Several captured guards cried with joy upon hearing this, and knelt down to kowtow.

They knelt before Yang Xun in the void, and then kowtowed to Peng Gang: "Lord Yang is the upright official of Guiping, and Director Peng is the upright official of our Zijing Mountain!"

Peng Gang was both amused and exasperated, and simply asked Li Qi to ask questions and take notes.

With Yang Xun brought up, the captured guards felt more confident and poured out their stories about Wang Dazuo's role as a guard in detail.

Even though they were ignorant, they knew that this time it wasn't just the newly appointed head of the village committee who wanted to deal with the Wang family, but also the county magistrate.

The Wang family is like grasshoppers in autumn; they won't be able to hop around for much longer.

No matter how powerful the Wang family is in Zijing Mountain, can they really go against the government?
(End of this chapter)