The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 13: The Allied Forces Attack
Teng Yuzhao and Liu Bingyi's guard troop had just run a few hundred meters when they heard the sound of horse hooves on the official road ahead. Then, the big blue horse that Teng Yuzhao had ridden back from the Governor's Mansion came galloping from afar. When they got closer, they could see clearly that the people on the horses were none other than Li Yulin's guards.

The guard jumped off his horse, ran a few steps to Teng Yuzao, saluted, and reported, "Report, I am here to report to you, Your Excellency, under the order of the assistant commander. Before we arrived at the Beiyang Military Academy, the vanguard reported that they found nearly 200 British troops coming out of the British Concession. The assistant commander left a row of people to guard the supplies and the rescued foreigners, and personally led two patrols to the Military Academy and found that the British troops had already landed. I am here to report to you, Your Excellency."

Upon hearing that the British army had indeed crossed the Baihe River and was preparing to seize the Beiyang Military Academy, Teng Yuzao hurriedly jumped on his horse and turned back to tell Liu Bingyi, "You guys should run and follow."

He knocked on the horse's belly and urged the big blue horse to gallop along the official road towards the Military Academy.

On a pipeline two miles away from the Military Academy, Teng Yuzao encountered a row of soldiers guarding the vanguard army's supplies and little Christian. Several clerks, bookkeepers, and committee members from the battalion headquarters were also staying here, but the two medical officers were not seen.

The platoon leader told Teng Yuzhao that Li Yulin had just sent someone to deliver an order and the convoy should wait for the order on the spot.

Teng Yuzhao hurriedly greeted the anxious little Christian and told him to keep his men in check and not to move, as a battle was about to break out ahead and he would find a way to get them across the river as soon as the battle was over.

Then, Teng Yuzhao ignored Alice who was calling him repeatedly and was already a little exasperated, threw the big blue horse he was riding to the platoon leader, and ran towards the military academy.

This place is only two miles away from the Military Academy. If we continue riding horses, the British troops crossing the river may hear the sound of horse hooves.

Fortunately, it was only two miles, and one thousand meters was not far. In a lush forest three hundred meters away from the Military Academy, Teng Yuzhao met Li Yulin.

Li Yulin pointed in the direction of the Beiyang Military Academy and said, "Sir, when I arrived with my men, the foreign troops that crossed the river in the concession had already landed. They were not just British troops, but also German, Italian and Austrian troops. They had a total of 175 people, commanded by a British major. We were afraid of being bombarded by the British on the other side, and we were unprotected here, so there would be heavy casualties."

"So, I didn't dare to command the troops to seize the school wall from the front to stop the coalition forces. A quarter of an hour ago, I had Liu Yuzhi lead his sentry into the school from the north gate. I wanted to wait for the British troops to enter the school, and then I would lead my men to charge in from the south gate and try to block the British troops in the school and annihilate them. This way, the British troops in the concession on the other side would not know the real situation and would not rashly open fire."

Li Yulin's arrangement was not wrong. If they stayed on the river bank or against the wall, they would certainly be bombarded by the coalition forces on the other side. Not only would they be unable to completely destroy the coalition forces that had crossed the river, they would also likely suffer heavy casualties.

The Beiyang Military Academy is located on the east bank of the Baihe River, and the British Concession is on the west bank. Through the cover of trees, Teng Yuzhao could even see the dock on the opposite bank, where several ships were unloading cargo and many people were busy at work.

Following the direction of Li Yulin's finger, Teng Yuzhao saw that the Allied Forces crossing the river indeed had uniforms of several colors. At this time, the main Allied Forces had entered the school from the south gate, and only a dozen soldiers wearing gray uniforms and black cylindrical caps were left behind. Teng Yuzhao recognized that this was the attire of the Austro-Hungarian Army. He estimated that this squad of Allied Forces should be guarding the main gate of the wall.

Having lived here for more than ten years, Teng Yuzhao can be said to be very familiar with the Military Academy.

It covers an area of ​​more than 1000 acres and has a square earthen wall with passages and parapets. There are also artillery batteries at the north and south corners of the city facing the Baihe River. There are basements in the artillery batteries for storing ammunition.

There is also a moat outside the city wall, but because it has not been dredged for many years, many parts of the moat have become very narrow and no longer play much of a role.

What is somewhat bizarre is that when the Beiyang Military Academy was first built sixteen years ago, the moat was planted with willow trees. Now these willow trees have grown very lush, seriously blocking the view from the earthen city wall, seriously affecting the defense troops garrisoning the city.

Tucheng only has two gates on the west and north sides, which are the west and north sides of Beiyang Wubei Academy. The west side faces the river, facing Baihe River and Zizhulin Wharf in the British Concession opposite; the north gate leads directly to Tianjin City. Both gates have drawbridges. The two gates are not symmetrically distributed on both sides of Tucheng, but on the adjacent west and north walls.

Inside the earthen city, the central area is the teaching area and dormitory area, with more than 500 tiled houses.

There is a martial arts hall and a large training ground in the north area, and an ammunition armory and a polo room as well as stables and a shooting range in the east area.

The southern area is the dormitory for faculty and staff. In the southeast corner of the earthen city, a large pool was dug to divert water from the Baihe River. This pool was specially used for the school's engineering students to practice building military bridges.

There is a small island in the center of the pond, planted with flowers and trees, which serves as a recreational place for all faculty, staff and students.

In addition, there is a folk temple to the west of the big pond, which was built when the school was built.

To the west of the teaching area, there is a wide lawn which serves as a playground.

In short, the Beiyang Military Academy covers a large area and has numerous buildings and facilities inside, making it worthy of being the first university in the country to train military talents.

Letting the coalition forces in to attack the enemy at the door and make the coalition forces on the other side afraid to act rashly should indeed be the best tactic at the moment.

However, if they waited for the fighting to start inside and then rushed through the west gate, although that squad of Austrian troops would not be able to withstand the attack of Li Yulin's two platoons, there would still be casualties. If this squad of soldiers all went up to the earthen city, it would cause them even greater trouble.

Teng Yuzhao waved and called a soldier on the left sentry station not far away. For some unknown reason, the soldier ran to Teng Yuzhao, saluted, and stood there at a loss.

"Give me your rifle and magazine."

The soldier was even more flustered when Teng Yuzhao suddenly asked for his guns and ammunition. While he was still hesitating, Teng Yuzhao had already snatched the rifle with a fixed bayonet from the soldier's hand, and then reached out to pull out four cowhide bullet boxes from the soldier's belt and inserted them into his own belt.

Said to Li Yulin, "I will go in through the north gate, you proceed according to the plan."

After saying this, he bent his body and moved quickly through the woods. After he was out of the sight of the Allied soldiers at the west gate, he rushed out of the woods and ran towards the north gate not far away.

After passing through the North Gate suspension bridge, he rushed directly into the North Gate. However, after entering the North Gate, Teng Yuzhao did not go to look for Liu Yuzhi's sentry, but went directly up the stairs to the earthen city.

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(End of this chapter)