The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 10 Rescue
Afterwards, Teng Yuzhao did not make any passionate speeches, but simply assigned tasks, and the vanguard army quickly set out in two groups.

The military situation was urgent and some time had been wasted, so Teng Yuzhao had to seize the time.

Now, not only did the Beiyang Military Academy need him to rush to reinforce immediately, but he also had to rush there as soon as possible to the small Christian & Co. on Zhenshi Street, otherwise hundreds of people would lose their lives in these two places.

Teng Yuzhao's arrangement was that Li Yulin would take the vanguard and the left sentry, escort the weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies in operation to the Military Academy outside the west gate immediately. All the personnel of the battalion headquarters would follow Li Yulin, and Li Yulin would also raise the flag of the vanguard army and march straight out of the west gate.

Teng Yuzao himself led Li Xianze's right sentry and Liu Changfa's rear sentry who was temporarily the sentry leader, as well as all the foreman, and immediately rushed to Zhenshi Street to rescue little Christian who was trapped in the foreign company.

According to the military regulations of the Wuwei Army, each regular soldier must be assigned thirty longfu. These longfu not only help to transport ammunition and supplies, but also replenish the casualties incurred by the regular soldiers during wartime. The longfu have also received military training and can be directly deployed to participate in the war, but they do not have weapons for the time being.

There were only two Maxim heavy machine guns in the camp, originally one each at the forward outpost and the right outpost. Teng Yuzhao asked Li Xianze to temporarily hand over the Maxim in his outpost to Liu Yuzhi's forward outpost. The regular soldiers in their two outposts now only had six standard German hard cowhide magazines on their waists, each of which contained three five-round magazines, so that they could move forward quickly and with light equipment.

The teachers of the Beiyang Military Academy were basically German. When Li Hongzhang sent him, Duan Qirui and others to study military affairs in Germany, it was the German teacher Reiner who helped to make the contact. Therefore, Teng Yuzao was deeply influenced by the German army. Even the present Teng Yuzao was also fascinated by the German army's equipment in his previous life.

When assisting Ronglu in training the Central Route Army of the Wuwei Army, Teng Yuzhao had been instilling in Ronglu the rationality and superiority of the German individual equipment. Ronglu was also very tempted, but he had limited money. However, Ronglu could not bear to ignore the advice of this teacher of the Beiyang Military Academy who had studied abroad and whom he valued very much, and promised Teng Yuzhao that the battalion could be equipped with German equipment as much as possible.

Therefore, although the individual equipment of Teng Yuzhao's battalion still has many differences from that of the German army, the main combat weapons and equipment and configuration are almost the same as those of the German army. It can be said that they are the domestic army that is most like the German army.

The 180 long-armed men who followed Teng Yuzhao on this mission, although they had no weapons, now each of them had a white wax stick, which they used in their daily assassination training.

The reason why Teng Yuzhao brought so many longmen was that he took into consideration that there would probably be a large number of Boxers at little Christian's place. Since he could not shoot and injure people at will, he would probably have to rely on his numerical advantage to intimidate Zhu's Boxers and snatch the people out quickly. With the cooperation of the regular soldiers' bayonets, their sticks would play a big role.

Led by Alwin, Teng Yuzhao ran all the way and rushed out of the north gate amid the astonished gazes of pedestrians, vendors, thugs, and groups of militiamen wearing red scarves coming and going.

Because the militiamen were going to attack the Lihe Foreign Company on Zhenshi Street, the residents and shops on the street had closed their doors and pedestrians were taking detours. The street seemed extremely deserted. At a glance, one could almost see the end of Zhenshi Street. From a distance, one could see only hundreds of militiamen with red scarves on their heads and some hooligans who were trying to take advantage of the situation and watch the fun on the front street. However, Alwin still led them to turn west and then rushed into the back street.

The back street is much narrower than the front street and can only accommodate one large vehicle.

Compared with the front street, the back street is even more deserted and can be seen from afar at the street entrance. Because the back street is narrow, not only are there no pedestrians or thugs watching the fun, there are also not many militiamen with red scarves on their heads. Only at the back door of Lihe Foreign Company, there are dozens of militiamen with red scarves on their heads and holding swords and spears, hiding idly in the doorways of several residents or sitting on the steps, laughing and chatting.

This was an agreement between Christian and Alvin. If Teng Yuzao came to pick them up, they would rush out of the back door of the foreign bank and head west. They could cross the Baihe River near the Beiyang Military Academy and enter the British Concession or the French Concession in Zizhulin. Zhenshi Street was a very long street. If the people inside suddenly rushed out of the back door, killed the militiamen blocking the back door, and then quickly retreated to the west, it would take some time for the militiamen at the main entrance of the front street to chase them, whether they took a detour or broke through the door and chased them.

While still inside the north gate, Teng Yuzhao was listening carefully to the movements on Zhenshi Street, but he did not hear any gunshots, which eased his worries a lot.

Lihe & Co. was the only domestic agent for the Hamburg Shipping Company, the German Krupp Steel Works, the Zeiss Optical Equipment Factory, and the American Goodyear Automobile Tire Company. In addition to German heavy machinery, precision instruments, railways and mining equipment, the main products they sold were arms.

There are a large number of guns in the foreign company, including Maxim's. Once the militiamen break in, the people inside will not sit there and wait to die. They will definitely open fire to protect themselves.

Since the time when Li Hongzhang was the Governor-General of Zhili, Lihe & Co. had an excellent relationship with the Zhili Governor-General's Office. When Ronglu was the Governor-General of Zhili, he sorted out the weapons needed by the Wuwei Army, and a large part of them were purchased from Lihe & Co.

This is also the reason why the Tianjin Wei Cao Futian Boxers did not take the initiative to attack them for a long time when the situation is so tense.

The sudden problem today was most likely caused by Zhang Decheng's No. 1 Regiment who had just arrived. They were not clear about the situation and might not even give face to Yu Lu, the Governor-General of Zhili. It is very likely that some members of the regiment were shopping when they suddenly discovered that there were still foreigners here, so they prepared to attack.

As for the reason why they have not launched the operation yet, Teng Yuzhao guessed that it was probably because they already knew the background of the foreign company and were consulting their eldest brother Zhang Decheng, waiting for his order.

Teng Yuzhao left Liu Changfa's rear guard at the entrance of the back street to prevent any militia members from rushing over and blocking them inside. He took Li Xianze's sentry and 180 foremen holding white wax sticks and lined up and ran quickly into the back street.

The dozens of militiamen blocking the back door of the foreign company did not panic when they saw the large group of armed guards running into the back street. On the contrary, some of them cheered.

Teng Yuzhao knew that these militiamen probably thought they were an official group and that the government troops would not make things difficult for them, so they came here to help them. It was common for the government troops and militiamen to fight together. Now in the foreign legation area in Dongjiaomin Lane in the capital, the government troops and militiamen were besieging and attacking it together.

Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Vanguard Army was at loggerheads with the militiamen.

However, what surprised the militiamen in the back street was that these government troops rushed up to them and surrounded them without saying a word. The densely packed and sharp bayonets forced the militiamen, who were divided into several groups, into several doorways. Caught off guard, they were forced to huddle together. Not only did they have no space to wield their swords and guns, but it was even difficult to pull out the big swords on their backs.

A leading man clasped his fists and said, "Don't get me wrong, we are an official group, subordinates of Senior Brother Zhang, the world's number one group. May I ask you..."

(End of this chapter)