The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 20 Good Things from the Military Academy
The main entrance of the Military Academy is not the north gate, but the west gate. Although the overall layout is large, the entire academy is roughly divided into two parts on the left and right by the central axis. The entire building layout is almost exactly the same as the layout of government offices of this period, with nothing new to speak of.

After entering the school through the west gate, the entire school is like an old-style government office, and the long strip in the middle that runs through the east and west of the school is divided into six courtyards. Although these courtyards are large, they are still divided into six major parts by walls and arches.

Entering the courtyard inside the west gate, on the left is the guard room, and on the right are the command room, number room, and sundry storeroom; the second entrance is the office and lobby; the third entrance is the lecture hall, Sino-German teaching room, and instrument room; the fourth entrance is the dining room, large and small kitchens, barber shop, and bathroom; the fifth entrance is the student dormitory and study room; and finally is the rifle temporary storage room and repair room.

Teng Yuzhao was very familiar with the academy. He brought his guards, Liu Yuzhi's vanguard, and 61 uninjured students directly to the last entrance, where there was a temporary storage room and repair room for the students' rifles. The training guns and a small amount of ammunition used by the students of the Military Academy were stored here.

In addition, the equipment for repairing firearms in the repair room also needs to be taken away, as the Vanguard Army’s future repair shop will rely on these things.

In addition to the rifles taken out by the students who stayed in school, there were also 98 G1871s and Mauser s. All these weapons needed to be taken away and transported to the woods outside the school first.

Then head straight to the ammunition armory, hydrogen balloon room, and stables to the east.

As soon as he arrived at the East District, Teng Yuzhao's eyes lit up, because he saw that there were more than 160 war horses in the stable. These war horses were used for training by the cavalry students in the academy. There were slightly more horses than a cavalry company. He did not expect that they were all left here.

However, Teng Yuzhao thought about it and did not find it strange. When the school arranged for the evacuation of personnel, they even left behind weapons and ammunition. It was not surprising to leave behind training horses.

Although with the emergence of machine guns, automatic guns that can fire intensive fire continuously, the role of cavalry will become smaller and smaller, it must be admitted that there are no light machine guns now, only heavy machine guns, and the importance that countries attach to heavy machine guns such as the Maxim is far less than during World War I and World War II. Even now, the European and American powers do not pay enough attention to this powerful weapon.

The real emphasis on automatic weapons like the Maxim heavy machine gun did not come until World War I fourteen years later, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. After enduring seven days of saturation bombardment by the British and French heavy artillery, the German army used their more than 200 heavy machine guns to teach the British and French forces a profound lesson. The German water-cooled heavy machine guns killed 60,000 British soldiers in one day.

It is said that facing the rows of German heavy machine gunners who were rushing up in the rain of bullets and being shot and killed by heavy machine guns in rows, many of them were close to a nervous breakdown. Some even shouted at the rows of British and French troops who were rushing up to die, "Retreat quickly, don't come over!"

In the Russo-Japanese War, which was earlier than World War I, heavy machine guns also performed brilliantly. Within one day, 7,000 Japanese soldiers on the attacking side were killed, so much so that the Japanese commander thought that an extra zero was written in the battle report.

However, the power of heavy machine guns was still not taken seriously by the arrogant Saxons and Gauls, and they still used human wave tactics to launch offensive battles.

Therefore, before heavy machine guns received sufficient attention from various countries, that is, at this time, cavalry still posed a great threat to infantry, especially when dealing with troops with no, or only a small number of Maxim heavy machine guns, and when pursuing fleeing enemies. The cavalry's strong impact and rapid mobility often made it difficult for the opponent to defend themselves, and sometimes even played an unimaginable role in the outcome of a battle or even a campaign.

Moreover, the country is vast and rich in resources. Remote areas such as the north, northwest and northeast are often sparsely populated. Since it is impossible to have strong railway transportation capabilities in a short period of time, it is very necessary to have a strong cavalry unit.

The only thing that made Teng Yuzao a little dissatisfied was that the horses in the stable were all Mongolian horses, not the tall Arabian and European horses. But it was better than nothing, at least these Mongolian horses were much stronger than the Japanese horses at that time. The Japanese horses at that time were only about 1.3 meters tall. Not to mention that they looked obviously dumber than European and Arabian horses, even compared with Mongolian horses, the Japanese horses at that time were obviously not on the same level.

The history of effective improvement of Japanese horses only began after the war of aggression against China. Because the Japanese war horses were too short, not much bigger than a donkey, they were ridiculed by the Allied Forces as big rats, and even privately called the Japanese cavalry a dwarf army. This made the Japanese very embarrassed, and only then did they make up their minds to introduce excellent horse breeds to improve their horses.

However, even with such weak war horses, the Japanese cavalry in the Allied Forces still attacked frequently, and even posed a great threat and loss to Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Army vanguard.

Therefore, the need for cavalry to the vanguard army of the Wuwei Army is not just as simple as this. The vanguard army's demand for cavalry is also extremely urgent.

Not only did he have to take all the war horses away, but he also had to take away the entire set of cavalry equipment, including sabers. Even the hay and bean fodder stored in the school was not spared by Teng Yuzhao.

Although Teng Yuzhao was mentally prepared for the weapons and ammunition stored in the armory of the Wubei Academy, and he even roughly knew the specific types, when he broke open the heavy door of the ammunition armory, he was still shocked by the large number of weapons and ammunition inside.

What attracted Teng Yuzhao's attention the most was that there were 75 Krupp artillery pieces inside, including MM field guns and small cannons. Other guns and ammunition filled two warehouses.

Teng Yuzao remembered that in history, after the coalition forces led by Major Luke captured the school and caused the explosion of the armory, they still dragged back eight usable cannons.

These Krupp artillery pieces were almost the most advanced at the time, and according to historical records, the Eight-Nation Alliance initially had only forty 75MM artillery pieces, and in the later period, there were only two hundred and seventy-three at most, and this also included the artillery pieces of the Tsarist Russian invading forces in the Northeast.

In addition to artillery pieces, there were also hundreds of G98s and more than a thousand M1871 rifles in the warehouse, as well as a huge number of artillery shells and bullets.

The M 1871 was not only Mauser's first modern rifle, it was also the world's first rifle to use metal fixed ammunition and breech-loading. In addition, its first foreign user was the Huai Army of Li Hongzhang, the Governor-General of Zhili. Even the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau successfully imitated it in 1883.

Since the M 1871 has no magazine and is a single-shot rifle, its caliber is also relatively large, at 11.15mm, and was also called the single-shot 11mm by the Qing army.

It can be seen that the Qing army was keeping up with the world's pace in weapons and equipment at a very fast pace. This made Teng Yuzhao feel strongly moved again.

Your support is the driving force of Zuima!
Thanks: Yin Yangwuxing and Licking Dog Must Die book friends for their recommendations!


(End of this chapter)