The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 14 Military Academy
Teng Yuzhao climbed up the earthen city wall and looked up in the direction of the west gate. The west gate was still empty. The last squad of coalition soldiers did not enter the west gate. They should have stayed outside the west gate to guard.

Teng Yuzhao guessed that because they did not encounter any resistance, the coalition forces thought that there were no students or other Qing troops stationed in the Military Academy, so they became complacent.

Looking inside the earthen city, apart from the playground, the martial arts field, the shooting range, the large pond, the criss-crossing roads and the space occupied by the densely packed houses, almost all other places in the school are planted with trees. In addition, there are many houses in the school, so it is impossible to check the situation on the earthen city from inside the school, or to see the situation inside the school from the earthen city.

Because of the dense willow trees planted along the moat outside the earthen city, the situation outside the city could not be seen clearly from the earthen city. Only by standing on the artillery platforms at the west and north corners of the earthen city could one barely see the British Concession on the other side of the Baihe River.

Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but secretly complain in his heart about this weird earthen wall. It was called a city wall, but it didn't have any military defense function. It was called a wall, but it was built with so much effort.

Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but sigh, thinking to himself, it's no wonder that after the Eight-Nation Alliance captured the capital, they said that they were fighting against a group of ancient people with modern weapons, and ridiculed the domestic army for not knowing how to fight a modern hot weapon war, and still being stuck in the combat thinking of cold weapons such as bows and arrows, swords and guns, especially in large-scale battles.

Teng Yuzhao had studied this issue in his previous life, and there was no need for in-depth research, as this issue was almost clear at a glance.

Although Li Hongzhang took the lead in opening the Beiyang Military Academy, the first and only army military school in the country, when he was in charge of the Beiyang Army, and even trained a large number of army military talents who were influenced by Western military thinking and tactical education, due to their low positions, they could not play any role in the troops after returning to their respective troops.

In addition, even in the Beiyang system's troops that attached the most importance to the military talents trained in the Military Academy, such as Nie Shicheng and Song Qing, their top leaders had never been educated in this new military thinking and knew nothing or very little about it. When fighting, they naturally still used the old methods and tactics that had existed since ancient times. At most, they had hearsay impressions of the invasion of the Anglo-French Allied Forces decades ago.

As for the other military commanders outside the Beiyang system, they were even worse. Having these commanders command a modern hot weapons war was like a sheep commanding a group of wolves. It would be difficult not to fail...
Teng Yuzhao didn't have time to think about it now. He could only sigh helplessly. Now, while the battle in the school had not yet started, he had to rush to the west gate as soon as possible to attack the squad of coalition soldiers outside the west gate from the inside.

Teng Yuzhao was not overly worried about the fighting in the school.

Historically, the ninety students who stayed behind abandoned the city wall and relied on the complex terrain advantage inside the school to repel the attack of nearly a company of coalition forces. Now, with the addition of Liu Yuzhi's sentry, their numbers have exceeded the coalition forces, and there will be no problem in repelling the coalition forces again.

What Teng Yuzhao was more worried about was that he would not be able to block the west gate in time, allowing the remaining coalition forces to rush out of the school and run to the bank of the Baihe River. In that case, if he wanted to annihilate this coalition force, he would have to risk the artillery fire of the coalition forces on the opposite bank. Not only would the casualties increase, but the school would also be bombarded by the coalition forces without any scruples.

You know, there are a large number of weapons and ammunition stored in the school, with more than twenty cannons alone. Once these ammunition are detonated, he will get nothing.

Teng Yuzhao ran all the way, and only slowed down his pace when he approached the west gate.

The two so-called city gates of the school have no gate towers, only steps leading to the city walls on all four sides.

Teng Yuzhao walked down the steps near the west gate to the foot of the city. As soon as one of his feet touched the ground, a crisp gunshot rang out in the school.

Teng Yuzao could tell that it was the sound of G98 rifles firing, and he knew that it was the students in the school or Liu Yuzhi's men who fired first. Because, in addition to his vanguard army, Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army, and Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Front Army equipped with this latest German rifle, the Wubei School also had a small number of G98s.

As for the coalition forces, they have weapons and equipment from all countries, but Teng Yuzhao is very clear about one thing: not only are no one in the major European countries equipped with the latest G98, but the German army itself has not yet equipped it. They are still using some old M1871 Mauser rifles.

G98 is also a product of Mauser. Its full name is M1998 rifle, but it is the latest model. Although this rifle has subsequent improved models, such as 98K, the German army was still using this rifle with high shooting accuracy until World War II.

Following the gunshot, the school was suddenly filled with the sound of intensive rifle fire.

Teng Yuzhao hurriedly hid himself beside the passage to the upper city and looked towards the west gate.

He was worried that some coalition soldiers would come in to check, but this did not happen. This was probably because they did not realize that the coalition forces entering the city would encounter danger and trouble.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang" At this moment, intensive G98 shooting sounds suddenly rang out outside the city. Li Yulin led two platoons of the left sentry outside the city to launch an attack.

Sure enough, as gunshots rang out outside the city, several screams and Austrian curses were immediately heard outside the city gate.

Austrian is almost a dialect of German, or rather, German is a dialect of Austrian. The pronunciations of the two are extremely similar. The current official language of Germany is based on the Hanoverian accent. Hanover used to belong to Austria and was occupied by Germany during the Franco-Prussian War for German unification. Therefore, Teng Yuzao could barely understand the Austrians' shouting and cursing.

The rifle in his hand had already been loaded with bullets. Teng Yuzhao hid behind the corridor and raised the rifle with the muzzle pointed at the city gate.

Amid screams and curses, eight Austrian soldiers crawled into the city. One of them had lost his rifle. He held his right arm tightly with his left hand, and blood kept flowing out from between his fingers.

As for the missing few people, it was not because they were fearless and stayed outside the exposed city gate to block the vanguard army's attack, but because those people were killed by the intensive shooting just now.

Teng Yuzao was speechless as more than half of the Austrian soldiers in the squad, who were unprepared and had no cover, were able to escape despite the concentrated fire of seventy or eighty rifles.

Teng Yuzhao, a former instructor at the Beiyang Military Academy, knew very well that if this squad of Austrian soldiers stood at the city gate, the view from the woods to the city gate would be blocked, and only when the vanguard troops rushed within a hundred meters would they be discovered by the people at the city gate.

Within a hundred meters, dozens of rifles fired intensively, but only killed a few people. This made Teng Yuzao secretly shake his head.
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(End of this chapter)