The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 152 Ambush
Tianjin is not only close to the sea, but also has many rivers within its territory. The main rivers include the North Canal, South Canal, Ziya River, Xinkai River, Haihe River, Jinhe River, Weijin River, Yueya River and more than ten other rivers. Due to the well-developed water system and the vast river basin area, the climate in Tianjin has always been relatively humid.

However, a climate with high humidity often makes people feel more stuffy, and it will only be slightly better at night.

However, due to the high amount of water vapor, the moonlight and starlight often appear hazy.

That was what happened tonight. At midnight, under the dim moonlight, after several hours of rapid march, the vanguard troops finally arrived at the ambush site east of Da'an, panting.

Teng Yuzhao, with his newly formed personal guard platoon, stood on the roadside, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

Because it was an ambush, his Andalusian white horse was too conspicuous at night. Teng Yuzhao did not have the white horse, but chose a black horse that was more concealed at night. Even so, he was still left halfway.

Not only Teng Yuzhao's horses, but also a large number of pack horses and vehicles they brought were left ten miles away, mainly because they were worried that the war horses would neigh and expose the whereabouts of the troops.

The place where they are now is the official road that must be passed from Beitang to Da'an. Because it is connected to the Dagukou Fort where thousands of troops are stationed, this official road was not only built earlier, but also well maintained and very wide, at least twelve feet wide.

Tianjin is located in a plain, and many sections of the road are very straight. If you stand on the official road during the day and look around, you can see endless expanses of lush green tents on both sides.

But at this moment in the night, in the dim light and shadow, wherever you look, it is pitch black.

There were large patches of green gauze tents not only in Tianjin at that time, but also in the entire Zhili area. Even decades or even hundreds of years later, many places were still like this. Every summer, there were large patches of green gauze tents everywhere. When the night wind blew, the large patches of green gauze tents made a "rustling" sound, just like the rise and fall of the tide, continuously.

Such a large area of ​​green gauze tent is not a good place for an ambush. Even if people hide in it, hundreds or thousands of people may not be able to find them.

Li Xianze, panting slightly, trotted along the side of the large group of soldiers who were parked on the road waiting for orders and came to Teng Yuzhao.

"Reporting to the Lord, we have arrived at the designated ambush area. Now the assault brigade and the Second Battalion of the First Regiment that cooperates with them are still advancing. They will arrive at the designated ambush area soon."

According to Teng Yuzhao's idea, the battle plan formulated by the General Staff was to ambush the two coalition forces in the front and back separately. Teng Yuzhao followed the Second Regiment to ambush the main force of the coalition reinforcements. Since Liu Yuzhi had to lead the battalion that was just exchanged back from Xigu that afternoon to stay in Dongjuzi, and was also responsible for guarding the prisoners and building outer trench fortifications overnight, the First Regiment only sent one battalion to cooperate with the assault brigade.

"What's the situation of the coalition forces?"

Li Xianze wiped the sweat from his head and replied, "According to the reconnaissance report, the coalition forces are about 20 miles away from here and about 15 miles away from the ambush area of ​​Captain Liu of the assault brigade."

Teng Yuzao nodded and pointed to the green tent on the side of the road. "Send someone to tell Liu Nineteen right away that they need to move faster. They must rush to the designated area and hide their tracks before the main force of the coalition arrives."

"Also, my command position is set up here. Unless there are special circumstances, you don't need to ask for instructions and can command independently."

"Another order is issued. The troops are to move to the rear of their respective ambush areas. No one is allowed to make any noise or light any fire or smoke."

"Yes!"

Li Xianze agreed and turned and ran away.

Teng Yuzao said to Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu behind him, "Let's go. We can't hold the Second Regiment back."

Teng Yuzhao and his guard platoon had just walked down the road when the troops of the Second Regiment, under the whispered orders of the officers, began to walk down the road, crossed the ditch on the side of the road, and began to walk into the green tents on both sides.

Teng Yuzhao and others pushed aside the dense sorghum leaves that stretched out between the ridges and blocked their sight, walked nearly a hundred meters, and stopped only when they reached the depths of the green tent. Wu Peifu directed the guard platoon to cut down a small piece of the unripe sorghum stalks nearby. Led by Teng Yuzhao, everyone sat down in the damp field.

After Teng Yuzhao sat down, the guards immediately dispersed with Teng Yuzhao as the center of the circle, surrounding Teng Yuzhao, Li Jinyu and Wu Peifu tightly in the middle.

The current guard platoon was newly formed in the afternoon, and the platoon leader was also replaced by a man named Xu Ting, who is also a veteran of Teng Yuzhao's guard squad.

The guard platoon and even the platoon leader were replaced, not because Li Yaoting made any mistakes, but because when Teng Yuzhao was testing his generals at noon today, he suddenly thought of a problem, that is, if he wants to keep a firm grip on these generals, it is far from enough to rely solely on his trust in them.

There is nothing wrong with the saying "Don't employ a person if you don't trust him", but Teng Yuzao disagrees with the saying "Don't doubt a person if you employ him". It is natural not to be suspicious of your subordinates, but if there is no preventive measure at all, then there will be some problems, so Teng Yuzao thinks he still needs a secret special organization.

This agency is not only responsible for screening and monitoring all suspicious personnel in the vanguard army in order to prevent infiltration by the enemy or people with bad intentions, but this special agency is also responsible for examining his generals.

Checking ordinary suspicious persons can naturally be done in a high-profile manner, but if one wants to achieve the purpose of examining and monitoring these generals, one cannot do it openly, because it is not only a question of whether these generals are disgusted, but also there are some means that cannot be brought to the surface and cannot be known to the public.

Moreover, Teng Yuzao even wanted to eventually expand this organization to other troops and even other places. All of this determined that this organization must not only be secretive, but also the personnel must be reliable. Especially the person in charge, who must not only be extremely reliable and stable, but also courageous and knowledgeable. There is no doubt that Li Yaoting and his guard platoon are suitable candidates for the time being.

Although this organization is special, its name cannot be too special. Its name is the Vanguard Army Security Department. Li Yaoting is the director. It is nominally under the newly established General Staff, but in fact it is only responsible to Teng Yuzhao.

Since the guard platoon was to be used for other purposes, Teng Yuzhao's guard platoon naturally had to be formed separately. This time, Teng Yuzhao did not hand it over to others, but asked Wu Peifu to select personnel based on the current guard squad.

The reason why this task was given to Wu Peifu was not because Wu Peifu was his student, but because Wu Peifu had just arrived at the Vanguard Army. He was not familiar with anyone in the Vanguard Army and it was impossible for him to place any private individuals there.

Ever since Teng Yuzao traveled through time, he has never absolutely trusted anyone, including Liu Yuzhi, Li Xianze, Li Yulin, Liu Changfa and others. He only has different degrees of trust in these people, and he never completely and absolutely trusts anyone.

Teng Yuzhao always believed that trust can only be relative, while suspicion should be absolute. If he wants to live long and firmly grasp the military power of the vanguard army, he doesn't mind using any shameful means.

Teng Yuzhao listened attentively to the friction sound of sorghum stalks and leaves about ten meters behind him, which gradually weakened. He didn't hear any talking, so he felt relieved.

The coalition reinforcements are about twenty miles away from here. If they march quickly, they can get here in about an hour.

According to Teng Yuzhao's plan, the assault brigade that went forward was responsible for ambushing the Japanese troops escorting baggage that fell behind, so the assault brigade needed to advance about five miles before hiding in the green gauze tent. From a time perspective, they could completely hide their whereabouts before the large force in front of the coalition forces.

Teng Yuzhao sat on the damp field, looking at the dark and dense sorghum stalks around him, which were like a forest of spears, and the sorghum leaves that were as dense as green gauze. He silently thought about his ambush plan and went over each step carefully again, trying to find out if there were any loopholes that he had overlooked.

The green tent was not only humid but also very hot and stuffy. Although Teng Yuzhao had already unbuttoned his shirt, he still kept wiping the sweat that was dripping down his forehead.

Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu also sat quietly opposite him, thinking about their own thoughts.

The three of them sat there for nearly an hour. Li Jinyu finally couldn't help it. After hesitating for a while, he moved closer to Teng Yuzao and asked in a low voice, "Sir, there are several thousand of us hiding in this sorghum field. The foreign devils won't find out that there is an ambush, right?"

The ambush plan was formulated by Wei Jinghai according to Teng Yuzhao's instructions and he organized the staff of the General Staff Office. Li Jinyu was among them and he even raised doubts.

However, after this battle plan was handed over to Teng Yuzhao, Teng Yuzhao modified it. He changed the plan to ambush only the main force of the coalition reinforcements to ambush the two coalition forces in front and behind, and made more detailed requirements on some details that needed to be paid attention to in the ambush.

Due to time constraints, the revised ambush plan was not discussed again by the staff and was directly issued.

Wu Peifu also came forward and said in a low voice, "No, how could this plan that Your Excellency personally revised go wrong!"

Li Jinyu continued with some concern, "On a night like this, there are green tents on both sides of the official road, and everything is dark. If you walk on this road alone, you will be afraid of being robbed. How can the foreign devils not be more careful? Don't they carefully search the roads on both sides?"

Teng Yuzhao was very determined to train the intelligent Li Jinyu, which was why he left Wei Jinghai and all the staff officers in Dongjuzi to oversee the construction of fortifications and the transportation of materials, and only brought Li Jinyu along as his companion.

Teng Yuzao nodded and whispered, "Yes, they will definitely send people to search the green tents on both sides. Any commander with a little military knowledge will do the same when encountering complex terrain during the march."

In the darkness, Li Jinyu widened his eyes and asked nervously, "Sir, if that's the case, why would you set up an ambush so close? In my opinion, we should move all the cannons over and bombard the foreign devils who are marching. Then, we should take advantage of their confusion to surround them from a distance, and then attack them from all sides and wipe out this group of foreign devils in one go."

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(End of this chapter)