1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 6 Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai
Peng Gang curiously sized up the guests in front of him. At first glance, they seemed to be just an ordinary group of people, with nothing particularly different from others.

If he hadn't known this more than 170 years later, he would have found it hard to connect these people with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders who, three years later, turned half of the Qing Dynasty upside down and shook the foundations of the Manchu rule.

Feng Yunshan introduced Lu Liu, who was standing next to him, to Peng Gang, while Shi Dakai introduced Peng Gang to two other Shi brothers he didn't recognize: Shi Zhenlun and Shi Zhenji.

Feng Yunshan wore a faded, homespun long gown dyed in indigo, his skin was dark, his hands were calloused, and his brows revealed a scholarly air, giving him a refined appearance. His portrayal was not significantly different from his depiction in later film and television works.

As for Shi Dakai, his real image is very different from the image in later film and television works, and it can even be said that it subverted the stereotypical image of Shi Dakai in Peng Gang's mind.

Shi Dakai was only one month older than Peng Gang, and was very young.

He had dark skin, was a bit thin, had a long neck, a slight mustache, prominent cheekbones, and a somewhat pointed head. His appearance was neither ugly nor handsome.

Shi Dakai also possessed a scholarly air, but unlike Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai's scholarly air was mixed with a touch of江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry).

Shi Dakai was one of the younger brothers in the Shi family, but he was decisive and had his own opinions. He seemed to have a natural leadership quality, so his older brothers and even his uncles were willing to listen to him.

When Peng Gang uttered the word "God," Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai, and the others were somewhat surprised.

Previously, Peng Gang was extremely averse to and rejecting of the God Worshipping Society. He worshipped Wenchang Dijun and Kui Xing Dijun, and completely disregarded God.

Perhaps his sudden misfortune caused a drastic change in his personality. Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai didn't think of anything else.

Peng Gang led his guests into the house under the setting sun and into the back hall.

Feng Yunshan paid his respects to Peng Xin before his coffin. Shi Dakai had come for Peng Gang and was not familiar with Peng Xin, but out of respect, he joined Feng Yunshan in mourning the deceased.

While Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai were paying their respects at the funeral hall, Peng Gang, knife in hand, went to the pigsty. There he encountered the brothers Shi Zhenlun and Shi Zhenji, who were looking for a place to tie their horses.

The two were Shi Dakai's cousins. Neither of them had much formal education, but they were skilled in martial arts and followed Shi Dakai's lead without question.

Raising a horse costs at least seven or eight taels of silver a year for feed and fodder. If the horse gets sick, the cost is even more unpredictable.

Peng Gang's family had been farmers for generations. Raising horses was expensive, not very useful, and they were easy targets for horse thieves, so they did not raise horses.

"Let's tie the cattle to the shed. There's some hay there that we can use to feed the horses," Peng Gang said, pointing to the shed about eight or nine steps away.

The two thanked Peng Gang and led their horse toward the cowshed.

Looking at the grunting black sow in the pigpen, Peng Gang was a little worried, not knowing where to start.

In later generations, he slaughtered pigs, but he mostly assisted his elders and had no experience slaughtering pigs independently.

"Brothers Shi, please lend a hand." Peng Gang called to the brothers Shi Zhenlun and Shi Zhenji, who had tied up their horses, to come and help.

The brothers Shi Zhenlun and Shi Zhenji were straightforward and honest. When they saw Peng Gang was about to slaughter a pig, they excitedly stepped into the pigpen and held the pig down.

It must be said that the two of them were incredibly strong; they could pin a 240-250 pound sow to the ground with their bare hands, rendering it unable to move.

Shi Dakai saw Peng Yi building a stove with stones in the yard, and Peng Min dragging a clean wooden basin out of the house. Hearing the noise coming from the pigsty, he hurriedly came out to check the situation.

"No! Stop it!" Shi Dakai stopped Peng Gang.

“What’s wrong with that? Is our friendship as classmates really less valuable than a pig?” Peng Gang said.

"You and Mr. Feng, along with your brothers, have come from afar, and we don't have much to offer you at home."

Hearing Peng Gang say this, Shi Dakai stopped stopping him, rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward to help carry the pig to the blood basin in front of the main house.

Peng Gang aimed the knife at the pig's throat and made a single cut, but he was not a professional butcher and lacked experience. He didn't cut the blood vessels cleanly, and the blood only dripped intermittently into the blood basin.

“Master Peng, let a rough man like me do this kind of rough work.” Shi Zhenji chuckled, took the knife from Peng Gang, and casually stabbed it into the neck of the squealing black sow.

The blood flowed more smoothly, and after a few cries, the sow fell silent.

After removing the door panels and processing the pork, it was already high in the sky.

The night was as white as silver, and the moon hung like a hook in the evening sky.

In the agricultural era, the countryside was unusually quiet at night, so quiet that the only sounds were the chirping of insects in the grass and the boiling of water in a pot.

After cooking the meat and stewing the fish, Peng Gang brought out a jar of homemade rice wine from the cellar to entertain the guests.

When Shi Zhenlun, Shi Zhenji, and Lu Liu saw that there was meat, fish, and wine, their eyes widened, and they kept praising Peng Gang for his generosity.

Everyone drank and ate meat in the courtyard, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Peng Gang and his two siblings are still in the period of mourning and cannot drink alcohol. They can only eat fish and meat while watching others play drinking games and chat.

After having a few drinks, Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai put down their chopsticks and started talking with Peng Gang.

The conversation consisted mainly of stories about Feng Yunshan and his father, as well as comforting Peng Gang and his sister.

The five kings who initiated the Taiping Rebellion each had a different base of support.

The core of the Western King Xiao Chaogui and the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing consisted of charcoal burners, miners, and friends from the martial arts world on Zijing Mountain.

Bei Wang Wei Changhui was a wealthy Hakka family in Guiping County who could collect tens of thousands of shi (a unit of dry measure) of rent every year, with a solid family fortune as his foundation.

Wing King Shi Dakai was the undisputed leader of that village, whose core group consisted of about seventy or eighty united brothers and uncles, as well as about five hundred villagers who were known for their bravery and fighting and frequently participated in armed clashes.

Feng Yunshan was an outsider with no roots in Guangxi. His base consisted of loyal followers whom he had personally recruited and developed, and his core group consisted of intellectuals from Xunzhou Prefecture who had joined the group.

To be more precise, he was a minor intellectual like Feng Yunshan who had failed in the imperial examinations and was not successful in his career.

Peng Xin, who was willing to come into contact with the God Worshipping Society and was also a tutor, was seen by Feng Yunshan as a rare talent.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan had been trying to persuade Peng Gang's father, Peng Xin, to join the church, but Peng Xin hesitated and could not make up his mind, so the matter of joining the church was dropped.

Peng Gang was also a member of the lower intellectual class. Feng Yunshan wanted to recruit Peng Gang into the church, but he hesitated because Peng Gang's family had suffered a tragedy and he was still in mourning.

It would be tantamount to taking advantage of Peng Gang to bring up these matters now, so he only talked about everyday trivialities and kept quiet about the God Worshippers Society.

While the Taiping Rebellion had many flaws, it was, after all, the only peasant movement in over two hundred years to shake the foundations of the Qing Dynasty. It was at least more reliable than the White Lotus Rebellion and the Heaven and Earth Society.

In the mid-19th century, the Qing Dynasty's rule over China was only loosening, not yet collapsing. To achieve anything, it still needed to take advantage of the Taiping Rebellion's sweeping conquest of half the country. At least in the early stages, it needed to leverage this momentum.

“Mr. Feng, my father’s greatest regret was that he was not baptized and joined the church. Before he passed away, he told us siblings that he hoped we would accept God’s calling, believe in the one true God in the world, and be baptized and join the church.”

Peng Gang voluntarily applied to be baptized and join the church.

"If Mr. Feng does not despise me, I hope he will baptize me."

At this time, Peng Gang's purpose in joining the church was the same as that of the vast majority of foreigners who joined the God Worshipping Society: not because of faith, but because he hoped to gain the protection of the God Worshipping Society and preserve his family property.

As for the grand ideal of rebellion and changing the world, that will have to wait a little longer.

(End of this chapter)