The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 187 The Foreigners Have a Conspiracy
At one o'clock in the morning, on the roof of a house on the east wall of the Beiguan Trade Office.

In the night wind, Teng Yuzhao was standing on the roof, silently looking at the dark night sky in the east.

He had been standing here alone for half an hour.

Just stood there quietly, not saying a word.

Teng Yuzhao was not worried about anything, but Li Yaoting, accompanied by the people from the Security Department, had just quietly left the North Gate, escorting two million taels of silver. They crossed the North Canal on a floating bridge two miles to the east, then turned northeast, avoided the Ditou Town that had been occupied by the Russian army, and then turned north and headed straight for Xianghe.

Although they were accompanied by two guard sentries led by Liu Yuzhi and Li Xiance, as well as a battalion from Li Xiance's Second Regiment for protection, Teng Yuzhao was still a little worried. He was really worried that they would be discovered by the Russian army, resulting in unnecessary losses.

Teng Yuzhao was not very worried about the loss of more than two million taels of silver, he was worried about his troops.

He could find another way to deal with the money if he lost it, but his troops had been lost. It would take him a lot of time to train up a force of nearly two thousand people with combat experience in a short period of time.

After all, the team was too large, with more than 300 carts filled with silver, some gold and silver jewelry, foreign currency, and a large amount of military supplies.

In this battle, the total amount of silver in pounds, francs, dollars, and rubles seized from the coalition forces he annihilated was nearly 200,000 taels. The most found items were the gold and silver jewelry and silver they had looted. Among those gold and silver jewelry, there were many precious varieties. If these were converted into silver, preliminary estimates show that the value would not be less than 800,000 or 900,000 taels.

This was the result of Teng Yuzhao sending away thousands of seized rifles of various types in advance, otherwise the size of the convoy would have been even larger.

In the last battle inside and outside the city, more than 5,000 British, American, French, Japanese, and Russian soldiers were annihilated, and foreign currency was confiscated, as well as gold and silver jewelry looted from the people by these allied forces, and a large amount of military supplies such as gun belts and military kettles.

In particular, there were even more seized weapons and ammunition. Although more than 1886 guns, including the Japanese Golden Hook rifle, the French Lebel 1998 rifle, and the American M rifle, had been transported to Beicang and handed over to Yu Lu before the Russian army occupied Xigu, and he distributed them to He Yongsheng's training army and the training troops being formed by Yang Zonglien, the shipping envoy, in Yangliuqing, Teng Yuzhao still had some left.

The rifles sent to Yu Lu were all disliked by Teng Yuzhao. The Golden Hook rifle had poor accuracy, the American M1998 rifle also had big problems, and it was side-loaded. As for the French Lebel 1886 rifle, it goes without saying that this rifle was still using paper shell ammunition at that time.

However, so many weapons and ammunition cannot be wasted. Giving them to Yu Lu to train the army and the brave soldiers can make the best use of them.

Teng Yuzhao retained the remaining Mosin-Nagants and Lee-Enfield rifles used by the British, because Cao Futian and the group of Boxers who followed him were very dedicated in the battle to defend the city of Tianjin.

Teng Yuzhao also needed these people to help defend the city, and all the extra Mosin-Nagants had been given to them for use.

Teng Yuzhao gave all those Lee-Enfield rifles to the third battalion of training troops who remained in the city.

In fact, the Lee-Enfield rifle used by the British not only has good accuracy, but also has a ten-round magazine. Teng Yuzhao still likes it very much. However, its ammunition is special, with a caliber of 7.7mm, which is inconsistent with the weapons and ammunition of the vanguard army. Teng Yuzhao had to give it up reluctantly.

"teacher."

As the sound of someone climbing a ladder was heard behind him, Wu Peifu's voice rang out behind Teng Yuzhao.

Teng Yuzhao turned around and looked at the ladder behind him. Wu Peifu was climbing up the ladder to the roof.

"Let's go back. Director Li and his men have been gone for almost an hour, and there's no movement yet, which means the Russians haven't discovered them. Don't worry."

Seeing that Teng Yuzao didn't seem to have any intention of leaving, Wu Peifu hurriedly said, "The deputy chief of staff has something important to discuss with you. It seems that he has something very important to report to you."

Hearing that Wei Jinghai wanted to see him, Teng Yuzao finally breathed a sigh of relief, shook his head silently, and followed Wu Peifu downstairs. This Trade Office covers a large area, and the buildings inside are also very gorgeous. Whether it was Li Hongzhang's predecessor Chonghou or Zeng Guofan, including Li Hongzhang who had served in Zhili for more than 30 years, they all placed the Governor's Office here.

However, a large number of expensive mahogany furniture, some decorative ornaments, and many books had already been given to Ning Xingpu by Teng Yuzhao to be taken to Xuzhou and sold.

After the fall of Tianjin, this place was occupied by the Eight-Nation Alliance as a barracks. The valuable furniture and other items inside were swept away by the foreigners. Some of them were shipped back to their respective countries, and the rest were all bought by them.

Teng Yuzhao didn't want to let these invaders get away with it by selling them for silver; he had more important things to do.

The operations room is still located in the most spacious main hall here, which is actually the lobby of the former Zhili Governor's Office.

When Teng Yuzao walked into the operations room, although there were more than a dozen gas lamps lit in the room, illuminating the spacious operations room very brightly, it seemed empty. Apart from Wei Jinghai, who was bent over the desk and writing and drawing intently, there were only two staff officers who had just been promoted from the students of the Wuwei Front Army's camp school on duty.

Since the Wuwei Vanguard Army no longer existed, the Vanguard Army's camp school and the cavalry battalions naturally came into the hands of Teng Yuzhao.

The Wuwei Vanguard Army's Camp School has now been changed to the Qianfeng Army's Camp School. Teng Yuzhao has also submitted to the court the appointment of Zhang Xiyuan as the general manager of the school along with a petition for merit for the soldiers who had made contributions in several major battles.

With the addition of these cavalrymen, the Vanguard Army Cavalry Regiment was finally established. Su Xilin was very competent in the cavalry regiment, and he was officially appointed as deputy commander by Teng Yuzhao.

Seeing Teng Yuzhao and Wu Peifu coming in, the two young staff officers who were already feeling sleepy quickly perked up and stood up. Teng Yuzhao waved for them to sit down, then walked towards Wei Jinghai.

Hearing the footsteps, Wei Jinghai, with bloodshot eyes, raised his head and said nervously, "Sir, I have an important discovery."

Hearing that Wei Jinghai had made an important discovery, Teng Yuzhao was slightly surprised.

Although the coalition forces were probably still traumatized by the last time they broke into the city from the South Gate, which resulted in the annihilation of all the troops entering the city, they seemed to have given up the plan to enter through the city gate and break into the city.

These days, the coalition forces outside the city have been continuously and fiercely bombarding the southern city wall. In addition, a small number of troops launched several tentative attacks on the southern city wall every day. Then, when the Lianjun army and Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment troops who were defending the city went up to the city to prepare for their attack, they launched another fierce and sudden bombardment, taking the opportunity to kill the defending troops, but there were no other major actions.

But Teng Yuzhao always had an uneasy feeling in his heart. He always felt that he seemed to have forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what he had forgotten no matter how hard he racked his brains.

It was precisely because of his uneasiness that Hu Dianjia, who had suffered several heavy losses, asked him several times whether he could stop sending troops to the city when the coalition forces were not within 100 meters of the city wall, but was firmly rejected by Teng Yuzhao.

Teng Yuzhao walked quickly to the table. Wei Jinghai pointed to a sketch of the south city wall marked with numbers that he had just drawn on the table.

"Sir, the foreign devils have not launched an attack on the city in the past few days. They have only been bombarding the southern city wall. This makes us feel that the foreign devils have some conspiracy?"

"Yesterday I arranged for the staff to go to the south wall to observe the foreign devils' shelling. I discovered something very important. These foreign devils have a focus on shelling the south city. Your Excellency, please see."

Wei Jinghai pointed at a section of the wall near the southeast corner of the south city wall. "Although the foreign devils have been bombarding the entire south city wall, the most shells have landed here."

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(End of this chapter)