The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 150: Throw Some Cold Water
As soon as Wu Peifu uttered the words that Yu Lu, who was brought back by Wu Peifu, recommended Teng Yuzao to be the assistant director of Beiyang military affairs, everyone was shocked at first, and then they were overjoyed and stood up to congratulate Teng Yuzao.

The Assistant Director of Beiyang Military Affairs was only a temporary position, to be precise, it would only be established in wartime. Its duty, to put it bluntly, was to help Yu Lu manage Beiyang military affairs.

Now that it is wartime, naturally the main task is to help Yu Lu command the Beiyang armed forces to fight against the foreigners. In name, Teng Yuzhao is already above the generals of the Beiyang armies and can control the Beiyang armies. This is definitely a great joy for Teng Yuzhao.

However, this good news that surprised and delighted everyone did not make Teng Yuzhao happy. On the contrary, he was a little worried. Yu Lu's behavior was not a good thing for either Yu Lu himself or him, Teng Yuzhao.

The reason was simple, because the imperial court had already appointed Song Qing, the 80-year-old veteran, the president of the Wuwei Left Army, as the assistant director of the Beiyang Military Affairs.

Moreover, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Song Qing served as assistant director of Beiyang military affairs under Li Hongzhang.

Although Song Qing not only suffered a series of defeats in Liaodong during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and ultimately lost the war, he was even dismissed from his post and investigated.

During the period when Song Qing served as the assistant director of the Beiyang Military Affairs, although his military achievements were not very impressive, his own troops remained relatively intact. Compared with other generals who suffered heavy losses, he actually had a reputation for maturity and prudence in the eyes of the court.

After the court had issued an edict to appoint Song Qing, Yu Lu recommended himself to the court again. This showed that Yu Lu did not recognize Song Qing's ability and wanted to snatch the position that the court had already given to Song Qing.

Moreover, Yu Lu's move not only showed his dissatisfaction with Song Qing, but also expressed his dissatisfaction with Nie Shicheng.
Se Yulu's move was for the overall situation and of course for his own sake, but what would Song Qing think?
Moreover, it is impossible that the court would have just announced Song Qing as the assistant and then change its mind overnight and immediately appoint himself as the assistant just because of Yu Lu's recommendation!

Therefore, Teng Yuzhao believed that Yu Lu's recommendation was not only completely wishful thinking, but also futile, as it would create many enemies for himself for no reason.

Even if Song Qing doesn't care, what about his subordinates?

What about Dong Fuxiang of the Wuwei Rear Army, Nie Shicheng of the Front Army, and their subordinates? What would these people think?
What worries Teng Yuzhao the most is Ma Yukun.

Ma Yukun is now the assistant of the Left Army, and Song Qing serves as the assistant of Beiyang Military Affairs. Ma Yukun is the natural leader of the Wuwei Left Army.

Now that Yu Lu has made this blunder, he will immediately become the target of these people's criticisms and attacks, and there is even a possibility that they will secretly trip him up and hold him back.

Teng Yuzao waved his hand to signal everyone to sit down, and said calmly, "Song Qing will arrive in Tianjin soon to take up the post of assistant director, so let's just do our own work."

Teng Yuzhao's words were undoubtedly like a bucket of cold water poured over everyone's heads, and they all sobered up immediately.

Although this assistant post was not a permanent official position, it was a symbol of status after all, and was nominally the highest official position in the Zhili Army. In the Beiyang Army system where seniority was the basis for promotion, and even in the court where it was the same, how could a young man like Teng Yuzhao, who was selected by Yu Lu as an exception, be granted such an important post!
Liu Shijiu was the first to laugh at himself and said, "It's just an assistant. What's so special about it? In my opinion, it's better not to do it. If you want to do it, you can be the governor."

"Is there any other news?" Teng Yuzhao looked at Wu Peifu and asked.

At this time, Wu Peifu also calmed down, knowing that his teacher was not happy about this recommendation. On the contrary, he seemed to be deeply worried. He thought about it quickly and carefully in his mind, and understood the key point. He couldn't help but feel a little sad.

Wu Peifu had been in an excited state since he heard Yu Lu's recommendation. He thought that the greater his teacher's achievements were, the greater his student's achievements would be in the future. He was still clear about the idiom "chickens and dogs prosper", but he was overwhelmed by the excitement and thought the matter was too simple.

Wu Peifu secretly reminded himself, "Always stay calm when facing major events," and he should take this as his motto to remind himself from time to time.

Wu Peifu took a deep breath, tried to calm his fluctuating mind and said, "Master Qian also informed me of the situation of the attack on the concession in the past two days and asked me to report it to the teacher."

Yu Lu, who was already at a loss as to what to do, attached importance to Dongjuzi because he wanted to take over the concession first. As it was related to the battle situation in Dongjuzi, Teng Yuzhao and everyone else were naturally very concerned.

"The Wuwei Front Army and Zhang Decheng's No. 1 Regiment in the World divided their forces into two groups to attack the British Concession. Although it was not very smooth, they made considerable progress. Both groups have entered the Concession."

"The coalition forces had buried many mines on their path of attack. Zhang Decheng used a fire bull array to detonate many of the mines, breaking the foreign devils' mine array."

"When the Wuwei Front Army attacked the woolen mill in the British Concession, it used four field guns to bombard the signal tower set up by the Allied Forces Headquarters at the woolen mill to transmit orders, thus covering the two teams' attack on the woolen mill."

"The signal tower of the coalition forces was set on fire early this morning. It is said that several foreign officers who were commanding from it were burned to death. However, the woolen factory has not been taken down yet. The main reason is that the foreign artillery fire in the concession is very fierce. Many people were killed and injured in the explosion of the Wuwei Front Army and the No. 1 Regiment in the World." "In order to hit the morale of the foreign devils, Yu Zhongtang made up his mind and ordered General Nie to hand over the siege of the woolen factory to the No. 1 Regiment in the World, leaving only a part of the troops to cooperate with them. General Nie commanded the Wuwei Front Army to attack the German position, and with the permission of Yu Zhongtang, bombarded the British consulate."

"During this period, the British army once sent more than 200 people to try to attack from a detour and seize the artillery positions of the Wuwei Front Army. Fortunately, they were discovered early, and General Nie mobilized his troops to repel the British."

Wu Peifu took a breath and continued, "Before I came back, I just got the news that the foreign devils in the concession had hung up the white flag to show that they would not fight. However, General Nie and Yu Zhongtang both believed that this was a delaying tactic of the foreign devils and decided to ignore them."

"Yu Zhongtang asked me to tell you that the foreigners in the concession are at the end of their strength and will be captured soon. You must hold on to Dongjuzi. After taking the concession, he will lead his troops to the west and wipe out the enemies occupying Dagukou in one fell swoop to complete the mission."

"Just around the corner?"

Teng Yuzhao thought to himself, when there were only two or three thousand Allied Forces in the concession, they were unable to take it. Now that the Allied Forces have added another two thousand people to the concession, how can they take it down in a short time?
Moreover, although the people besieging the concession seemed to be numerous, in fact the main force consisted of only a few battalions of Nie Shicheng, with at most two to three thousand people. The Boxers did have a lot of people, nearly 20,000, but these large and small Boxers were only nominally affiliated with Zhang Decheng, and in reality they all fought on their own and looked after their own interests.

What's more, it would not be easy to fight street battles in the concession.

Teng Yuzao tried hard to dispel the worries in his heart and said, "Since we are asked to guard the East Bureau, we must discuss how to abide by the law. We will discuss this matter after dinner. Now I have something to arrange, so you all listen carefully."

When they heard that Teng Yuzao had something to arrange, everyone pricked up their ears. Even Liu Shijiu, who had already picked up the wine bowl, hurriedly put it on the table.

Teng Yuzao stood up and asked a few people with a smile, "What do you think of the battle at Dongjuzi? Did our vanguard army fight well?"

Liu Nineteen said carelessly, "Of course it's good! To put it bluntly, when the imperial court fought with the foreigners, they always wiped out thousands of allied forces at once. With our record, none of them can compare. If it was during the Jiawu Year, the imperial court would have praised our vanguard army to the sky. How can we say it's not good!"

Although what Liu Shijiu said was the truth, Teng Yuzao did not just look at the results. For every battle of the Vanguard Army, he paid more attention to the entire process of the battle. In order for the Vanguard Army to not only go further but also become stronger, Teng Yuzao decided to pour some cold water on these people.

Teng Yuzao paced on the ground with his hands behind his back, saying, "Brother is right. Our vanguard army did show great momentum and prestige in this battle. But in my opinion, this battle was not won because we fought so well. In fact, it was largely because the coalition forces underestimated the enemy. To a certain extent, it can even be said that the coalition forces handed such a huge victory to us."

Hearing Teng Yuzao say this, everyone in the room was stunned. Teng Yuzao ignored everyone's expressions and continued speaking.

"The coalition forces thought that they had conquered Dongjuzi, and that they only needed to eliminate the Wuwei Front Army and the Boxers who were still resisting to completely occupy Dongjuzi. Even the British, Japanese, and German troops who came from Dagukou did not wait to completely occupy Dongjuzi, but left early and rushed to the concession on the other side of the river."

"They were caught off guard by our sudden arrival. The coalition forces suffered a great loss from the attack from both inside and outside. If they had been prepared, or if we had met in the field, could we have easily defeated the coalition forces? Could we have achieved such a great result? I don't think so."

"The good thing about this battle was first of all the assault brigade, and mainly the individual bravery. Not only did they not suffer any loss in the hand-to-hand combat, but they also defeated the enemy. However, there are still many shortcomings."

"You can summarize the shortcomings of each of your troops yourselves, so I won't go into detail one by one. However, one thing is certain, that is, each of you has shortcomings, including me. These need to be summarized. We must constantly summarize every battle we have fought. We must not only find the good points, but also the shortcomings, and how to prevent and correct the shortcomings in the future."

Teng Yuzao said solemnly, "Now, I will issue an order. Starting from this battle, for every battle, no matter how large the scale is, the commander of the unit must write a battle summary and hand it over to Ningbo. Then I will review it. Those who have a good summary will be rewarded, and those who are perfunctory will have one month's salary deducted."

Battle Summary This is an excellent way to quickly improve personal command qualities. The generals of the vanguard army are still too young and have little combat experience.

In particular, Teng Yuzhao, who also graduated from the Beiyang Military Academy, was very clear that the military knowledge taught at the Beiyang Military Academy had many shortcomings and limitations, and it was far from enough to rely solely on what was learned there to command modern wars.

If we want to make the generals at all levels of the vanguard army grow quickly, only in this way can we rapidly improve the command capabilities of these people and make them become qualified commanders who can fight and know how to fight modern warfare.

"In addition, I also suggest that you read more classic Chinese and foreign war examples and our country's military strategies, such as "The Art of War" and "Thirty-Six Strategies". These military strategies of our ancestors are not only not outdated, but also our magic weapon for winning battles against foreigners."

Teng Yuzao looked at everyone and said, "You can find the military strategies yourselves, and the General Staff can help you find them, and then we will print them into volumes. We will try to get one for every officer above the rank of sentry. As for the classic Chinese and foreign battle examples, I will write them myself."

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(End of this chapter)