1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 89 Chen Picheng

"Brother Chaogui has gone to Shuijiantou. You've come all this way to see me, so you must have something important to discuss. You can tell me what it is." Yang Xiuqing pulled Peng Gang into the main hall and brought him tea.

Since taking control of the highest authority in the God Society, Xiao Chaogui, despite being plagued by illness, was full of energy and enthusiasm, traveling around preaching and recruiting new believers.

The God Society, especially in the Zijing Mountain area, is in such a favorable situation, and Xiao Chaogui deserves great credit for this.

Yang Xiuqing's statement that this matter could be discussed with him indicates that, at this stage, his influence within the core decision-making body of the God Society remains below that of Xiao Chaogui.

After all, Xiao Chaogui controlled the most elite armed forces and the purse strings of the God Society.

Peng Gang took a sip of tea to quench his thirst and soothe his throat. He then told Yang Xiuqing about how he had been expelled from the business and how the government had seized his charcoal shop in Jiangkouwei.

"These despicable gentry and corrupt officials!" Yang Xiuqing was outraged upon learning of this. After calming down, he asked, "What do you plan to do?"

Xiao Chaogui has a bad temper and can't control his temper. In the more than nine months that Yang Xiuqing has worked with Xiao Chaogui, she has been driven to the brink of stress by him. Old Xiao is a good person in every way, except that he is too impulsive.

Yang Xiuqing was worried that Peng Gang might act impulsively and incite them to attack Jiangkouwei together, or even raise the banner of rebellion right now.

Huang Tizheng was the top scholar in the provincial examination, although he failed the imperial examination five times.

He had served as a school official and instructor, especially as an instructor in Guilin Prefecture, a position he held for decades.

He was once hired as the headmaster of famous academies in Quanzhou, Guilin, Xilongzhou and Guiping.

Although the Huangti Zhengguan (a specific astrological configuration) is not large, he has a wide network of connections.

Its profound cultural heritage is far beyond what the likes of Wang Zuoxin can compare to.

This is why, even though the God Society had clearly won the conflict with the Huang family militia, Yang Xiuqing still stopped Xiao Chaogui from getting his hands on the Huang family's property in Xinwei, and didn't even let him enter the Wang family's courtyard.

Ultimately, it was out of fear of Huang Tizheng's connections in Guangxi, and they worried that if the Huang family got desperate, they would mobilize their connections in Guangxi's officialdom to deal with the God Society.

At the end of last year, Zhang Jiaxiang's uprising in Guixian County ignited the fuse of the Great Uprising of the Heaven and Earth Society in Guangxi.

The success of the Heaven and Earth Society greatly encouraged the God Society.

Within the God Society, voices emerged calling for taking advantage of the Heaven and Earth Society's influence to suppress the Huang family's uprising.

During the Lunar New Year, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, and Hong Xiuquan gathered together to discuss whether to take advantage of the Qing army in Guangxi being exhausted to extinguish the raging flames of the Heaven and Earth Society uprising.

After several days of discussion, the four members of the God Society's top decision-making body all agreed that the God Society's preparations were not yet sufficient and that it was not advisable to act hastily.

Although the congregation of the God Society has grown to a size of fifteen or sixteen thousand people.

However, the number of able-bodied men available for military service would not exceed three thousand.

Of these three thousand young men, probably less than half have completed the full training.

The most serious problem is that God will lack weapons, not only firearms, but also a large shortage of cold weapons.

Moreover, these three thousand able-bodied men were scattered in various places, with only half of them in Zijing Mountain, which was very detrimental to the uprising.

"I'm looking for someone willing to buy my charcoal to open up new sources of income," Peng Gang stated his purpose directly.

"Last year I purchased tens of thousands of kilograms of iron to forge weapons, and now the weapons workshop in Honglian Village is on the right track."

"I've heard that Mr. Feng trained some skilled craftsmen for you, so the weapons your weapons workshop makes must be of high quality," Yang Xiuqing said with a sigh of relief.

“I’m in dire need of a suitable weapon. Everyone is complaining that we can only train with useless bamboo spears and wooden swords. How about this? Mengchong has some surplus grain here. The association can allocate some grain to you, and you can also make some weapons for the association.”

Mengchong is the headquarters of the God Society. Although the God Society is a makeshift organization, it is still a complete makeshift organization.

Mengchong has workshops that specialize in making weapons.

However, Peng Gang had already beaten them to the best craftsmen in the God Society, and he had also bought up almost all the good iron materials in Guiping County last year.

In terms of both the quantity and quality of weapons produced, Mengchong's weapons workshop was inferior to Penggang's Honglianping arsenal.

"I came to Mengchong to discuss this matter with Brother Xiuqing and Brother Chaogui," Peng Gang said happily. "Thank you, Brother Xiuqing!"

The Honglianping Arsenal only had thirteen craftsmen capable of manufacturing muskets and cannons. The blacksmiths among the other craftsmen, although not capable of manufacturing muskets and cannons, were more than capable of making cold weapons.

Peng Gang had just seen the God Society members training on the drill ground in front of the fortress. Less than a third of them had decent weapons, and Mengchong had a great need for weapons.

“We are all brothers in the association, children of the Father, so there’s no need for thanks.” Yang Xiuqing called Chen Chengrong over and instructed him, “Chengrong, prepare fifty shi of grain and send it to Honglian Village.”

Chen Chengrong quickly prepared eleven mule carts and oxcarts, loaded with fifty shi of grain.

The next day, after dinner, Peng Gang took two men from Yunnan who came from a caravan, whom Yang Xiuqing had introduced to him, and drove back to Honglian Village.

Chen Chengrong, a former coachman, skillfully drove the oxcart at the front along the newly opened mountain road through the forest.

This robust middle-aged man from Teng County, Guangxi, was accompanied by two young men around twelve or thirteen years old. The two young men chattered incessantly like little birds the whole way, as if they had endless things to say.

These two young men are Chen Chengrong's nephew, Chen Picheng, and Chen Chengrong's maternal nephew, Zhang Handai.

Looking at the members of the second group who were leading the way, Chen Picheng said to Zhang Handai with great envy, "Cousin, these princes not only have horses to ride, but also muskets. How impressive!"

Young Chen Picheng found the older brothers, who were several years older than him and riding horses with guns, to be very impressive.

"There are two short swords too! How extravagant!" Zhang Handai pointed at Li Qi, whose movements were clumsy and unnatural, and said that his attention was drawn to the two short swords at Lu Qin's waist.

In fact, Li Qi only had a short sword that Peng Gang had given him as a reward; the other "short sword" was actually the bayonet of a brown bes flintlock musket.

When bayonets are not in use, a group of flintlock musketeers will insert their bayonets into the bayonet sheaths at their waists.

"These princes aren't as good at riding horses as I am at riding mules," Chen Picheng said with a laugh, looking at the musketeers who were nervously straddling their horses with stiff bodies.

As they were laughing, a musketeer almost fell off his horse due to a moment of carelessness. Seeing this, Chen Picheng laughed even harder.

The grain convoy moved very slowly, and as it went on, it got dark, so they had to stop and find a place to rest and spend the night.

During a break, Chen Picheng, eyeing the musket and short sword, came to Li Qi with a sweet potato in his pocket: "Brother, want some sweet potato? Let me touch the musket and short sword, and this big sweet potato is for you."

Li Qi showed off his fragrant, oily bamboo rice to Chen Picheng, then impatiently sent Chen Picheng away: "Go away, go play somewhere else. I'm not Hu Daniu, who cares about your sweet potatoes?"

"Brother, come here." Lu Qin's younger brother, Lu Qian, was killed by Zhang Zhao's gang of bandits last year. Chen Picheng reminded him of his own brother, so he called Chen Picheng over, took off the short sword from his waist, and said to Chen Picheng.

"The master has ordered that we are musketeers and must not be without our muskets. You may borrow my short sword to play with, but please don't break it. Return it to me when we reach the village tomorrow."

"Thank you, brother, you're so kind!" Chen Picheng was overjoyed. He took Lu Qin's short sword with one hand and handed the sweet potato in his hand to Lu Qin.

Lu Qin waved his hand and refused: "I have food to eat, you can keep the sweet potato for yourself."

Chen Picheng thanked Lu Qin, and together with his cousin Zhang Handai, broke off a tree branch near the camp. While using his short sword to whittle the branch, he exclaimed, "Tsk tsk, this sword is so beautiful and sharp! I thought it was just for show."

Peng Gang, who was having a meal with Chen Chengrong, looked at the two lively young men and asked Chen Chengrong, "Are they your children? They're both quite handsome."

Chen Chengrong was over thirty years old, making him one of the oldest among the core members who started the God Society.

It's reasonable to have two children who are twelve or thirteen years old. Peng Gang assumed that these two young men were Chen Chengrong's children.

Chen Chengrong shook his head and said, "If my child were as healthy and as clever as those two, I would have less to worry about. The older one is my nephew, and the younger one is my nephew."

Although Chen Chengrong had his own children, one died young and the other was in poor health, so Chen Chengrong rarely took his son on long trips.

nephew?

Peng Gang's eyes lit up. In his memory, Chen Yucheng, the pillar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in its later period, was Chen Chengrong's nephew.

Peng Gang continued, "What are the names of your two nephews and nieces?"

Chen Chengrong pointed to Zhang Handai and Chen Picheng, who were playing with tree branches by the campfire, and said, "The older one is my nephew, Zhang Handai, and the younger one is my nephew, Chen Picheng."

Chen Picheng, that is undoubtedly Chen Yucheng.

Many high-ranking members of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom changed their names after the uprising, either to avoid taboos or because they disliked their original names.

For example, Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang.

Chen Yucheng's original name was Chen Picheng.

“These two children do look bright and clever. I’m currently recruiting students. As their uncle, can you make the decision for them?” Peng Gang turned to look at Chen Chengrong.

At this time, Chen Picheng was just an ordinary farm boy, not yet a general capable of leading an army independently.

Chen Yucheng's ability to stand out from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's child soldiers and grow into a capable general in just a few years demonstrates his exceptional military talent.

Such rough gems, if brought under my wing and given a little polishing, and then provided with a stage to showcase their talents, will surely become great talents.

“It is their good fortune that Mr. Peng has taken a liking to them. I will have them come over and become your disciples right away.”

Chen Chengrong was an extremely shrewd man. He had long followed Yang Xiuqing, who often spoke highly of Peng Gang.

Few people can receive such high praise from Yang Xiuqing. Chen Chengrong believes that although Peng Gang is young, he will definitely have a place in the God Society in the future.

Furthermore, the guards around Peng Gang were all ruddy-faced, strong, well-equipped, and neatly dressed, suggesting that they received very good treatment on a daily basis.

Sending these two nephews and nieces to follow Peng Gang is a good way out.

(End of this chapter)