The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 109 The first credit should go to Ziyu

Teng Yuzhao was still a little unwilling to give up. If Seymour escaped alone, or brought back only a few people, it would be of no help to the Allied Forces' guarding force in the concession.

Li Xianze sighed and said, "According to the news from Xue Zhiqian's people, the number of coalition forces that followed Seymour back to the concession would not be less than 800, and it could even be close to a thousand."

Teng Yuzhao sighed softly and thought to himself that it was not just difficult to take over the concession now, but almost impossible.

This is not to say that the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces brought back to the concession by Seymour was so strong, but that Seymour fled back to the concession with nearly a thousand coalition forces, which brought the number of troops in the concession to more than 3,000. They took advantage of the terrain and fought desperately. Without the support of mortars, grenades and other weapons that were beneficial to close combat, it was impossible to eliminate the stubborn coalition forces and occupy the concession in a short period of time.

Because there is no longer enough time.

What's more, even if we can capture the concessions of Britain, France, Germany and Japan tonight, there is still the Russian concession on the east bank of the Haihe River, and the reinforcements from Dagukou still have a foothold under the city of Tianjin.

Even if he had time to lead the entire vanguard army to participate in the attack on the concession, he would have to wait until daytime. Not only was his troops too tired, but also because if he launched a fierce attack on the Allied forces who were using houses and buildings in the concession to resist at night, he would not be able to get artillery support.

Even if Teng Yuzhao ignored the fatigue and casualties of his troops and mobilized all the vanguard troops to participate in the attack on the concession, it would take at least one day according to optimistic estimates.

According to the original historical trajectory, in a few hours, that is, tomorrow morning, the reinforcements of the Dagukou Allied Forces will break through the layers of blockade of the Wuwei Front Army and reach Dongjuzi. And also tomorrow morning, the reinforcements of the Allied Forces will capture Dongjuzi under the pincer attack of the Japanese cavalry that broke out of the concession.

Under the fierce attack of the Allied Forces, He Yongsheng's training battalion stationed in Dongjuzi and part of the Boxers fled in disarray. Pan Jinshan had no choice but to break out of the Allied Forces' siege with his troops and part of the Boxers together with Wang Decheng. More than two million taels of silver and silver dollars in Dongjuzi fell into the hands of the Allied Forces.

In his previous life, whenever he saw these historical materials, Teng Yuzhao was always heartbroken by such sad results.

Dongjuzi is the abbreviation of Beiyang Dongji Bureau. It is not only the mint of Beiyang, but also the mint of the Qing court to a certain extent. It is responsible for the manufacture of silver dollars.

The earliest silver coin of the Qing Dynasty was not the Yuan Datou that is common in later generations. That would not appear until more than ten years later.

The earliest silver dollar of the Qing Dynasty was manufactured in the 1886th year of the Guangxu period, that is, in , by the Guangdong Mint founded by Zhang Zhidong, the then Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi. It used a coin-making machine from the British Birmingham Company and could produce silver dollars a day.

Unfortunately, Zhang Zhidong's good intentions led to bad results. At that time, foreign silver coins circulating in the country, such as the Eagle Dollar, contained 70% silver. Zhang Zhidong believed that as long as he made better and more exquisite silver coins, he could drive foreign silver coins out of circulation, so the silver coins he made contained 70% silver.

What Zhang Zhidong did not expect was that due to the high silver content of the silver dollars produced by the Guangdong Mint, the people would keep these silver dollars in their hands and first use foreign silver dollars with low silver content. As a result, not only did foreign silver dollars continue to circulate more and more widely in the market, but the silver dollars he produced were rarely seen on the market.

Afterwards, mints were opened in various places, and the shapes and forms of silver coins became diverse. Although they all had a five-clawed dragon pattern on one side and the year of manufacture and the words "place of minting" on the other side, the dragon patterns on the silver coins in different places were very different, so much so that there were silver coins with names such as long-bearded dragon, short-bearded dragon, ugly dragon, and reverse dragon. Such silver coins were very valuable in the collection world in later generations because of their scarcity.

Beiyang began to produce silver dollars in the 22nd year of Emperor Guangxu's reign. It was in this Dongjuzi that it was soon changed to Beiyang Silver Dollar Bureau, but everyone just called it Dongjuzi. He had to save Dongjuzi, not only to reduce the losses of the Wuwei Front Army and Zhang Decheng's Boxers, but also to slightly change history and save Nie Shicheng's life.

Moreover, even for the huge amount of silver, Teng Yuzhao had to rush to the rescue. He even wanted to rush over to replace Pan Jinshan and let him defend Dongjuzi.

However, Teng Yuzhao knew that Nie Shicheng would not agree to his suggestion, and even if Yu Lu gave the order, he might not agree.

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "Kangnian, the original plan remains basically unchanged, but there is one small change."

"I won't go to Central Street. You are in full command of the troops in the concession. I will wait for your good news here."

Li Xiance and Liu Yuzhi were the same. Not only did they have little practical experience, but they were both only sentry leaders before, and including the chief husband, they were in charge of less than two hundred people. Now, his half-regiment, which was not fully staffed, had more than two thousand people. They were in urgent need of more practical training. Teng Yuzhao stayed at the bridgehead to support Li Xiance with this in mind.

Li Xiance was pleasantly surprised to hear that Teng Yuzhao had handed over the command power to him and that Teng Yuzhao would stay here to take charge.

There is no troop commander who is unwilling to obtain this right, and Li Xianze is no exception.

"Yes!" Li Xianze answered excitedly.

Teng Yuzao continued, "Kangnian, there is one thing you need to pay attention to. Don't say that Seymour has already led the remnants of his troops back to the concession. The enemy's strength has increased. Even street fighting is extremely difficult, and it is even the most difficult to fight in all kinds of environments and terrains. I only have one request, and that is not to make unnecessary sacrifices. This time the main purpose is to train the troops."

Without waiting for Li Xianze to answer, Liu Shijiu waved his hand and said, "Brother, who cares about West Moore and East Moore? Leave this death squad to me. Before they have time to rest, let me lead the brothers of the death squad to charge forward and fight for a while. We must fight our way in even if we die."

Teng Yuzao waved his hands and said with a smile, "Brother, your death squad fought well in this battle! I will give you credit for the first place."

When Liu Shijiu heard Teng Yuzhao praising him in public, he was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. However, he still didn't forget Wu Peifu. He pulled Wu Peifu over and said.

"Brother, this credit should go to Zi Yu. Your flare plan was not good for the death squad and the defending coalition forces. It only created certain opportunities for us. But Zi Yu thought of a good way to use your flares. So in this battle, no one in our death squad was killed. There were only more than ten people who were slightly injured. Two of them sprained their ankles while running in the dark, and several others fell into the river."

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(End of this chapter)