The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 125: The Allied Forces Attack
Looking at the marching columns of troops passing by him, Teng Yuzao could clearly feel that these troops were far from reaching the standards of a strong army.

Apart from their high morale, everything else about this troop is unremarkable.

Liu Yuzhi's regiment was better. Although it had also recruited a large number of new soldiers, those were all trainees. At least they had received military training. Moreover, the military discipline of the trainees was not much different from that of the Wuwei Army. It could even be said that there was no difference. The only difference was the degree of strictness in the enforcement of military discipline.

Therefore, under the strict military discipline of the vanguard army, although these new recruits are still a little uncomfortable, they can immediately implement the military discipline requirements.

Take the marching formation for example. Under the strict demands and even whispered scoldings of the officers, a marching formation of nearly 3,000 people can basically be kept silent. There are already some signs of a strong army, even if only on the surface.

But the assault brigade was completely different. They were recruited by Boxers who had not received any training and were not much different from ordinary people. Although all the officers were from the battalion of Teng Yuzhao's old army, these officers also wanted to strictly discipline their troops, but after all, they had too few people, and these people from the Qian Corps also needed time to become familiar with the military discipline of the vanguard army.

There is also a crucial point. Except for the deputy captain Liu Yuanshou, all the deputy positions in the assault team are held by the leaders of the Qian Corps. These people also enforce military discipline extremely poorly. This inevitably makes those who originally belonged to the Qian Corps feel that they have a backbone, and it would be strange if they did not make great concessions in the execution of orders.

In the marching column of the Qian Regiment, not only were there constant whispers and laughter, but the formation was also crooked. The only thing that made Teng Yuzhao somewhat satisfied was that the team was in high spirits. Everyone had excitement on their face, and some even took off their military caps from time to time, touched their crew cuts, and giggled.

Teng Yuzhao sometimes even dared not to imagine what the result would be if such a force fought against the well-trained coalition forces.

The lack of training is not only in the assault brigade, but also in the two main regiments of Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze, which have been supplemented with a large number of personnel. This is also the most headache and helpless thing for Teng Yuzhao. Not only can he not change this fact now, but he will find it difficult to change it for at least half a year. The training of new recruits takes time, and half a year is the fastest time set by Teng Yuzhao.

Teng Yuzhao sighed secretly. Now they could only learn about war in battle. Or to put it more cruelly, these new recruits needed to use their lives and blood as tuition fees!

Although the cavalry battalion was the last to set out, they soon arrived at the front of the marching column.

This was because, not long after they set out, Teng Yuzao received an order from Yu Lu, who sent someone on horseback to deliver it.

In his order, Yu Lu said that the Allied Forces' reinforcements from Dagukou had not only broken through the Wuwei Front Army's defense line that blocked them along the way, but also advanced rapidly overnight and had reached Dongjuzi more than half an hour ago. Yu Lu asked Teng Yuzhao to rush with his troops to support Dongjuzi.

In his order, Yu Lu also told Teng Yuzao that as soon as the Allied reinforcements arrived at Dongjuzi, they began to launch fierce artillery bombardment on Pan Jinshan's troops, the defenders of Dongjuzi, with the cooperation of the Tsarist Russian army in the Russian Concession only two miles away from Dongjuzi, and then launched several consecutive fierce attacks on Dongjuzi. At present, Pan's troops are struggling to resist, but they have suffered heavy casualties and are short of ammunition. I am afraid they will not be able to hold out for long.

In addition, in order to seize the concession areas occupied by Britain, France, Japan, Germany, the United States and other powers in Hexi before the Allied reinforcements entered the concession, he had ordered Nie Shicheng, Zhang Decheng and other troops to immediately launch multiple attacks on the concession, and ordered Teng Yuzhao to rush to Dongjuzi as soon as possible and to defend it.

At the same time, Yu Lu also brought a handwritten order to Teng Yuzhao, which read, "If anyone holds this order, as if I were present in person, all the presidents of various departments and below can exercise control. Anyone who disobeys the order will be executed immediately." Teng Yuzhao listened attentively to the sound of artillery fire, and sure enough, there were artillery fire not only in the direction of the concession, but also a little further to the east.

Teng Yuzao couldn't help but curse himself. Why didn't he think that the gunfire in the morning came from the direction of Dongjuzi...

According to history, the coalition reinforcements should arrive in Dongjuzi in two or three hours. How come they have arrived here so early in the morning?

Could it be that because of these battles, the Allied Forces in the concession had been hurt so much that the Allied reinforcements had to rush to the rescue at full speed?

As for the fact that the Qing Dynasty's most loyal, best-equipped and most elite Wuwei Vanguard Army was short of ammunition, Teng Yuzhao was not surprised.

Although the Qing court made almost no preparations for the war with foreigners, such as expanding the troops and stockpiling ammunition and weapons, it did nothing at all, but foolishly fantasized about using these "invulnerable" Boxers to resist foreigners, the total amount of ammunition reserves of the Wuwei Front Army was actually not small.

The bad thing was that the weapons of the Wuwei Front Army were too advanced. The rifles equipped in their army included almost all the most advanced models of the European powers that year. Not only did they have two sets of training guns and combat guns, but the Mauser rifles alone had two models, M1871 and Mauser 1898. The caliber of the M1871 was 11.15, the caliber of the Mauser 1898, also known as the G98, was 7.92, and the caliber of the Mannlicher was 8.5.

Although the total amount of their ammunition was not small, the types were various and complicated, and the ammunition was not universal. It was impossible for them to carry several types of rifles together in combat.

Teng Yuzhao remembered the information he had read in his previous life. At this time, the Wuwei Vanguard Army had less than 50 rounds of ammunition per person for its combat-use Mannlicher rifles.

Teng Yuzhao let out a long breath and didn't have time to think about it. He couldn't remember how long Pan Jinshan had held off the attack of the Allied Forces' reinforcements in Dongjuzi in history. Now, under the desperate attack of the Allied Forces' reinforcements, it was hard to say how long he could hold out.

In the materials about the Battle of Dongjuzi that Teng Yuzhao had read in his previous life, there were not only records from Chinese people, but also records from Tsarist Russian officers who participated in the battle. During his research, Teng Yuzhao repeatedly compared more than a dozen pieces of information and believed that he had come to a relatively true conclusion about the battle.

First of all, in history, the Eight-Nation Alliance should have captured Dongjuzi a few days later.

Secondly, when the Allied reinforcements arrived at Dongjuzi, their number was no longer 2800, but over 6000, not including the Russian troops in the Russian Concession which was only two miles away from Dongjuzi.

After the first batch of 2800 Allied Forces reinforcements set out to rescue the concession, coalition forces from various countries continued to arrive at Dagukou.

A few days later, when the coalition reinforcements arrived at Dongjuzi, the number of people had increased to about 4000 to 2800. Although the coalition forces arrived ahead of schedule, the number of people would definitely not be the initial 6000. Even if it could not reach 5000, about would be enough.
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(End of this chapter)