1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 83 Bestowing Swords and Expanding the Army
Xie Bin has a high alcohol tolerance; several bowls of Sanhua wine were not enough to get him drunk.

After reluctantly seeing Hou Jiyong and Zhou Songqing off, Xie Bin took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Peng Gang: "This is a letter from General Huang. The Huang family has their eyes on you, so be careful. In the years I've been in Guiping County, the county's leaders and heads of the militia have changed several times, but General Lian's position has never changed. They've all been members of the Huang family."

The Huang family refers to Huang Tizheng's family from Xinwei, and they were the most prominent gentry in Xunzhou Prefecture.

Xiao Chaogui expanded the God God Society's sphere of influence to the Xinwei and Jiangkouwei areas, inevitably leading to conflicts between the God God Society and the Huang Family Militia.

After taking advantage of the Wang family, a powerful household, Xiao Chaogui became arrogant and boasted that he would also take advantage of the Huang family.

Fortunately, Xiao Chaogui had a clear-headed and rational person by his side, Yang Xiuqing, who understood that the Huang family and the Wang family were not comparable. She persuaded Xiao Chaogui in time, otherwise, a great disaster would have occurred.

Zhang Jiaxiang is just the beginning.

Inspired by Zhang Jiaxiang's deeds, bandits from all walks of life rose up in Guangxi.

Yang Ruiqing of Daxu, Li Tedi of Wushan, Tang Xili of Huanglian, Zhong Achun of Qiaoxu, Zheng Tinghui and Tan Te of Sanli, Xu Ayun and Xu Er of Watang, Lei Shuchun, Huang Azuo, Huang Ayou, Huang Ashi, Su Shijiu, Zhang Zhasan and many other bandits, big and small, famous and unknown, have all begun to take action.

Even though these bandits, apart from a few ruthless ones like Zhang Jiaxiang, were mostly a motley crew, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.

Even if the Guangxi Green Standard Army exerts all its efforts to quell this wave of uprisings by the Heaven and Earth Society, the most optimistic estimate is that it will take one or two years.

Although the government had its eye on the God Society, there is always a priority in everything.

As long as the God Society doesn't act as aggressively as the Heaven and Earth Society, eradicating the Heaven and Earth Society will remain a priority for the government.

God will have some time to develop stealthily, meaning God will still have time to do so.

Peng Gang glanced at Huang Tiren's letter, which asked him to form a militia and join Huang's local militia to suppress bandits in the mountains. Afterwards, he was promised a scholar's degree and a career as a clerk.

The Huang family wielded considerable influence in Xunzhou Prefecture, with their protégés spread throughout the prefecture. Officials and clerks in all four counties of Xunzhou Prefecture had murky and unclear relationships with the Huang family.

Peng Gang had no doubt that the Huang family had the ability to interfere in the prefectural examinations and place their protégés in the county.

However, he wasn't interested; the Huang family's sweet talk had no effect on him.

The fact that the Huang family didn't deliver the letter in person, but instead had Xie Bin forward it, shows that they weren't sincere and still looked down on Peng Gang deep down.

What nonsense! Even if Huang Tizheng is a top scholar in the provincial examination, he's really just a mere provincial graduate.

Although Peng Gang's teacher, Liu Bingwen, had no power, influence, or money, he was a genuine Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations).

In terms of lineage, Peng Gang was actually no less accomplished than the students of the Huang family.

"They made such a confident promise that they could grant me the title of Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations), so the Huang family must be very powerful." Peng Gang calmly put away the letter.

The Heaven and Earth Society was a bandit group, and so could the God Society. The Huang family only mentioned in the letter that they had formed a gang to go into the mountains to suppress the bandits, without even explicitly stating whether they were suppressing the Heaven and Earth Society. It was clearly a trap, and he wasn't stupid enough to jump into such an obvious pit.

"The Huang family is powerful, so be careful. I've come to see you not only to say goodbye, but also because I have another request." Before leaving, Xie Bin asked Peng Gang to buy some bird guns. "The garrison is short of bird guns, so I'd like to buy eleven from you."

What goes around comes around. When Peng Gang first arrived at Pingzai Mountain, he was the one begging Xie Bin to buy a musket; now it's Xie Bin's turn to beg him.

Although the imitation of the brown bass has not yet been successful, Peng Gang has been able to manufacture the arquebus himself.

The current focus of the Honglian Village arsenal is on imitating the brown bass. The number of craftsmen responsible for manufacturing muskets is limited, and only seven or eight qualified muskets can be produced each month.

All domestically produced muskets have wrought iron barrels and fish-tail stocks. Each domestically produced musket undergoes rigorous inspection and testing before being accepted.

The muskets produced by the Honglian Village arsenal were of significantly higher quality than those previously purchased from the Green Camp.

Peng Gang had someone retrieve eleven muskets from the armory that he had previously purchased from the Green Standard Army and gave them to Xie Bin. At the same time, he took off the saber he was wearing at his waist and presented it to Xie Bin: "This saber is made of the finest foreign steel. I present it to you today, Commander Xie, and wish you great success and a triumphant return soon."

This statement was half polite and half sincere.

Peng Gang didn't care whether Xie Bin could successfully wipe out the Heaven and Earth Society, but he hoped that Xie Bin could live.

"Indeed a fine blade! Thanks for your kind words, brother!" Xie Bin drew his sword, admired the smooth, mirror-like blade, and praised it.

Of course it's a good knife; this is a saber specially made of spring steel by an old blacksmith at Peng Gang's request.

If he hadn't bought enough spring steel, he wouldn't have been willing to use the precious spring steel to forge his sword.

After watching Xie Bin leave, Peng Gang took the stack of test papers he had collected back to grade them.

The assessment before the New Year was divided into two subjects: humanities and military skills.

For liberal arts students, the unified exams are in Chinese and mathematics, and the content of the exams is the same for everyone.

The Chinese exam tests students' mastery of pinyin, stroke order, and the content of the test paper is basically about giving the standard pinyin tones of the characters on the blackboard, how many strokes the characters on the blackboard have, what the first stroke is, and some simple word combinations.

The most difficult question is nothing more than simple sentence construction.

The math exam questions are addition and subtraction: addition and subtraction within ten, addition within twenty without carrying, subtraction within twenty without borrowing, and addition within twenty with carrying.

Finally, there are a few simple multiplication and division problems, but they are not mandatory and are optional.

The martial arts examinations assessed musketeers, gunners, and spearmen separately.

The overall score is weighted equally between humanities and military sciences.

The assessment results were released a few days later.

Huang Bingxian was the top scorer in the humanities. He actually got a perfect score, and he not only solved all the extra simple multiplication and division problems correctly, but he also solved them all correctly.

Peng Gang wasn't surprised that Huang Bingxian got first place in the liberal arts exam. This kid had attended a private school for seven years and was the most well-educated among all the students.

Li Qi ranked second in the humanities, also achieving a perfect score. However, he made a mistake on one multiplication question and three division questions in the bonus section, slightly falling short of Huang Bingxian. Lu Qin ranked third in the humanities, almost achieving a perfect score, with half of the bonus questions answered correctly and half incorrectly.

Huang Dabiao ranked first in the martial arts exam, Li Qi ranked second, and Lu Qin ranked third.

In the final overall results, Li Qi came in first place, Lu Qin in second place, Zhang Ze in third place, Huang Bingxian only came in fourth, and Chen Xuyuan, the leader of the artillery group, came in fifth.

Huang Dabiao, who ranked first in martial arts, had such a terrible academic record that he didn't even have a good grasp of basic pinyin and tones. He didn't even make it into the top ten, let alone the top five, and only managed to rank eighteenth.

Hu Daniu, who was usually dull and seemed rather slow, surprised Peng Gang by getting into the top ten in overall performance and ranking ninth.

Peng Gang struck the assembly drum, ordering all the students to assemble on the playground.

After everyone had assembled and lined up, Peng Gang announced their scores aloud one by one from the platform.

"Those whose names are called, come up to the stage to receive your awards. First place goes to Li Qi!"

Li Qi got his wish and received a silver pocket watch for his own use, with the inscription on the back: "Presented to outstanding student Li Qi by Peng Gang in 1848."

Li Qi, with an irrepressible smile on his face, stood tall and proudly facing his classmates, holding up his silver pocket watch to show them.

This is a silver pocket watch! Only the master's younger brother and sister have them!
After the presentation ceremony, Peng Gang solemnly picked up a short sword from the table. It was made of spring steel and engraved with the words "First Class of Red Lotus Academy, Peng Gang presents to Li Qi, a student of the first class, invincible, success or death."

Standing at a ramrod straight, Li Qi, with a solemn expression and moist eyes, took the short sword from Peng Gang's hand and shouted in a trembling voice, "Thank you, Mr. Peng, for the sword!"

After Li Qi stepped down, Peng Gang personally presented short swords to each of the top twenty students in terms of overall performance.

He encouraged them, saying that while they are students in the classroom, they are the best in their respective groups and are qualified to be teachers. He hoped that they would take the lead in their groups, help their classmates learn, and make progress together.

Peng Gang also told them that next year, the competition will be held in groups, and the winning group will also receive a reward.

Due to time constraints and the prevailing circumstances, Peng Gang was unable to complete a full three- or four-year period of systematic training for the first batch of students.

The awarding of swords as a form of recognition does not mean that their learning and training have ended; they will still need to attend classes and train after the New Year.

The first batch of seeds sown have already begun to sprout, and Peng Gang will have an easier time with the teaching and training work. He won't have to do everything himself like before.

Huang Bingxian, Li Qi, Lu Qin, and his younger brother Peng Yi are not only literate, but also have mastered pinyin and grasped some of Peng Gang's teaching methods.

They can replace Peng Gang in teaching some basic courses. Among them, Peng Yi and Huang Bingxian are good at math, and they are already proficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, so they can also teach math.

The Heaven and Earth Society uprising has already begun, and now bandits are rising up everywhere in Guangxi, with flames of war spreading across the land.

Peng Gang's manipulation of the butterfly effect helped the God Society gain complete control of the Zijingshan area.

The situation for God is much better than it has been in history.

Peng Gang didn't know if the course of history would change, or if the God Society would issue the order to start the uprising ahead of time.

But there is one thing Peng Gang is certain of.

With his current force of 120 men, it would be difficult to even protect themselves amidst the turbulent chaos in Guangxi, let alone accomplish anything significant.

Military expansion is now imperative.

Of course, we cannot blindly expand the military.

A large-scale, blind expansion of the military in a short period of time will inevitably dilute the combat effectiveness of this batch of elite troops. Expansion needs to be maintained within a reasonable range so that the military can maintain a minimum level of combat effectiveness.

Peng Gang, the next batch of new recruits, has already found a suitable candidate.

Many of the refugees taken in by Peng Gang met the age requirements, and they came to Peng Gang as family and clan units.

Recruiting these teenagers into the team also allows them to be linked with their families and clans.

Peng Gang decided to expand the force by ten groups, increasing the total strength to 240 men.

In the newly expanded groups, the group leader and deputy group leader are selected from outstanding members of the old groups.

The newly formed ten groups will have their classes at different times than the original ten groups.

Groups 1 to 10 train in the morning and attend classes in the afternoon.

Groups 11 through 20 are the opposite, with classes in the morning and training in the afternoon.

As soon as Peng Gang announced that he was recruiting trainees, eligible children from Honglian Village flocked to the playground in front of the school to register.

Young men from nearby villages flocked to apply after hearing the news, including those from Shangdongtang and Bitanxun.

Villagers and mountain dwellers from nearby areas often come to Honglian Village to sell charcoal, and what they see and hear is the best form of publicity.

Peng Gang treated Lian Ding as his students, providing them with ample food and clothing, and occasionally even meat. He also acted as their teacher every day, instructing them in literacy and arithmetic, a fact that was common knowledge in Pingzai Mountain.

Upon hearing that Peng Gang was going to expand, the people of Pingzaishan were scrambling to send their children to Honglian Village.

The plan was to recruit 120 people, but as many as 370 or 380 people applied.

Peng Gang was also able to select the best candidates from among them.

The chosen young men cheered with joy, even happier than if they had found money, while those who were not chosen were full of disappointment, dejected, and reluctant to leave.

Peng Gang could only comfort them and tell them not to be discouraged. He said they could come to Honglian Village to listen to the training sessions in their spare time. He would recruit students again within six months, and those with some basic skills would be more likely to be selected next time.

(End of this chapter)