The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 101 Don't Let Someone Rob You

Teng Yuzao pointed at the formation of the Second Battalion and said to Li Xianze, "Kangnian, you have trained your soldiers very well. It is not easy to achieve this level in such a short time!"

Li Xianze smiled softly and said, "Sir, you are flattering me. In fact, this is all thanks to the good rules you set for our vanguard army."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Discipline must be enforced, but to strictly implement it, it still takes a lot of energy and effort, and your achievements cannot be buried."

Seeing that Teng Yuzao didn't understand what he said, Li Xianze whispered, "This is actually not difficult to implement."

Li Xiance was afraid that Teng Yuzao would think he was showing off, so he hurriedly added, "The rules I'm talking about are not the discipline of the Vanguard Army, but the rules set by Your Excellency regarding the Vanguard Army's telegraphic pay, pensions, and our meals."

"I told them that although there are corresponding punishment standards for violating military discipline, and the serious ones may even be beheaded or shot, in my Second Regiment, there are a few more penalties. The lighter ones are deducting military pay and not being able to eat meat for a few days, and only having pickled radishes to eat with rice. For more serious ones, but not punishable by military law, it is also simple, just expelling them from the vanguard army."

At this point, Li Xianze laughed again, "Now driving them out of the vanguard army will be even more painful for them than beheading or shooting them."

Teng Yuzhao set these rules and principles at the beginning. It was not that he was unaware that such high treatment would become an extremely heavy burden for him in the future, but he still had to do so.

Because, if he wanted to expand the vanguard army, which was almost an empty shell, into shape in the shortest time possible and make it have considerable combat effectiveness, he had to recruit the best soldiers, or even poach soldiers from other Qing troops. To achieve this, his vanguard army must receive excellent treatment that no one else could match.

As for the fact that this will become an extremely heavy burden for him, that is a matter for the future. If the vanguard army cannot be expanded as soon as possible and cannot form a certain combat effectiveness in a short period of time, everything else is just empty talk and delusion, and there is nothing to talk about in the future.

What Teng Yuzhao had not anticipated was that the generous salary and benefits he formulated for the Vanguard Army would actually become a powerful means to ensure the military discipline of the Vanguard Army.

Teng Yuzhao and Li Xiangze walked to the top of the machine gun bunker. Seeing that no one was following them, Teng Yuzhao lowered his voice and spoke to Li Xiangze.

"Kangnian."

Knowing that Teng Yuzhao had something private to tell him, Li Xianze couldn't help but perk up and quickly turned his ear to the side.

Teng Yuzao seemed to say casually, "In addition to carrying out combat missions on Haidadao in the British Concession as planned, you should also pay more attention to the foreign companies located on Haidadao."

Haidadao in the British Concession in Tianjin is located on the river, with convenient water transportation. It is also located on the edge of the concession, so it is very convenient for merchants and people outside the concession to buy things. Therefore, many foreign companies are located on Haidadao. Even if the headquarters of some foreign companies are not here, they will open a store on Haidadao. Other large foreign companies are the same. Some even opened a branch in Tianjin city, such as Lihe Foreign Company.

But why did my superior ask me to pay attention to those foreign companies at this time?
Teng Yuzao didn't give Li Xianze time to think about it. He reached out and gently patted his shoulder, whispering, "There are a lot of good things in those foreign companies. I'm worried that someone will take advantage of the chaos to rob them."

Teng Yuzhao emphasized the word "robbery" very strongly.

"Yes." Li Xianze slapped his forehead excitedly and said, "There are many foreign companies there. I can't take care of all of them and all their goods with just my limited staff. I can only give priority to protecting the big foreign companies and their valuable goods. It's impossible to take care of them all. It's inevitable that some things in those foreign companies will be stolen occasionally. I can only do my best."

Seeing that Li Xianze obviously understood what he meant, Teng Yuzhao put his hands behind his back, looked towards the southern concession, and said in a deep voice.

"Once those foreign companies are robbed, the great powers will not let it go after the war. Not only will they demand compensation from the imperial court, they may even track down the murderer. So we have to be cautious in this matter to avoid causing unnecessary trouble to our vanguard army."

Li Xianze whispered, "Please rest assured, sir! I will take care of it."

Half an hour later, the commander of the first battalion called and reported to Li Xianze that the coalition forces had arrived one mile away from the position and seemed to be organizing their ranks.

Teng Yuzao looked at the dark wilderness to the south and said to Li Xiance, "Order the Second Artillery Battalion to fire a flare from 500 meters south."

Illumination flares were invented by the British man Southall more than 200 years ago. After more than 200 years of development, today's flares are no different from those used during World War II. The only drawback is that it is still a bit troublesome to launch flares now.

The reason was that there were no mortars at that time, so only small-caliber artillery could be used to launch flares. The angle adjustment of artillery was much more troublesome than that of mortars, and the speed was also slower.

Since artillery needs to adjust its elevation and azimuth angles according to the distance and direction of the area that needs to be illuminated, and all artillery has a limited elevation angle, before World War I, even the most advanced artillery had a very narrow range of elevation and azimuth angles, and this was still the case later.

For example, the Saint-Chamond 65mm mountain gun, which appeared ten years later and was still highly confidential in France, had an elevation angle of -10 to 45 degrees and an azimuth angle of only 6 degrees. The BL 9.2-inch heavy howitzer, known as the most accurate British artillery in World War I, had an elevation angle of only 15 to 55 degrees, but the azimuth angle was acceptable and could be adjusted by degrees.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the flares are lit above a certain close-range area, it is sometimes even necessary to raise the muzzle manually, such as digging a semi-hidden artillery position with a slope, or simply pushing the artillery up the hillside and adjusting the elevation angle with the help of the slope of the hillside.

The flares were already in the Xigu warehouse, and they were there when Li Hongzhang was the governor-general of Zhili. However, these flares were not prepared for the Beiyang New Army. They belonged to the Beiyang Navy, and were mainly used for night observation lighting for artillery positions and warships, and even for communication at sea.

The eight Gruson 37mm cannons in the Xigu warehouse were useless to Teng Yuzhao. Their caliber was similar to that of large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns in later generations. As artillery, they were good for scaring people, but their power was extremely limited. However, after the discovery of flares, these "useless" guns came in handy. Each artillery battalion was equipped with four guns, which were specially used to launch flares during nighttime artillery calibration.

A few minutes later, a flare exploded in the sky a mile away in the south. It was as if a small sun suddenly appeared in the sky. The dazzling white light made people dare not look directly at it.

As the flares slowly fell, the scenery on the ground became clearer and clearer. Teng Yuzao, who was observing nervously with a telescope, could not help but frown...

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(End of this chapter)