The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 216 It’s rude to come and not return.

Chapter 216 It’s rude to come and not return.

When Teng Yuzhao suddenly called his name, Wu Peifu was slightly stunned, then he immediately stood up and spoke.

"Teacher, I agree with the Deputy Chief of Staff and Master Uncle's views. Moreover, I also think that the foreign devils dispatched more than 20,000 foreign devils with dozens of cannons to the north overnight, not to rush to Xigu to strengthen the blockade of our retreat to the north. They should be rushing to Beicang. They want to attack them and force us to break out from the west and rush to Beicang as soon as possible."

Wu Peifu's words suddenly made the conference room quiet, and everyone's faces showed surprise and astonishment.

Although Teng Yuzhao still had a blank expression on his face, Mark gave Wu Peifu a big thumbs up in his heart. In the complicated battlefield of Tianjin City, his thinking was not limited to the plight of the vanguard army. He was also able to think that the coalition forces would divide their troops to attack Beicang, which was not easy.

"Bang", Liu Shijiu slammed the table heavily, "Yes, Ziyu is right, the foreign devils have more soldiers, they don't need to arrange so many people in Xigu to intercept us, those more than 20,000 foreign devils must have gone to Beicang."

Hu Dianjia took a deep breath and said, "Xingfu, I have changed my opinion. Those more than 20,000 foreign devils must have gone to Beicang."

"The foreign devils are most anxious to rescue the besieged embassy district in the capital and rescue the foreigners there, so they must have gone to Beicang. This move of the foreign devils can not only speed up their pace of attacking the capital, but also force us to break through and rush to Beicang."

Wei Jinghai also said to Teng Yuzao nervously, "Sir, this should be the case. With more than 20,000 foreign devils attacking Beicang, I don't think Song Qing and Ma Yukun can hold out for long."

Li Xianze sneered and said, "It's not that they can't hold out for long. In my estimation, they can only hold out for a day or two at most, and then they will withdraw."

"Once Beicang is lost, in order to protect the capital, people like Song Qing and Ma Yukun will probably be immediately transferred back to the capital by the court. At that time, we in Tianjin will not only be trapped in an isolated city, but will become a completely isolated army."

Li Xianze's words immediately drew approval from everyone.

"Your Excellency is wise! You have long ago decided to evacuate Tianjin City as soon as possible. Otherwise, if we continue to kill here, I am afraid that once the foreign devils defeat Yu Zhongtang and his men, we will not be able to leave even if we want to."

Cao Futian, with whom Teng Yuzao had already talked, complimented Teng Yuzao at the right moment.

Considering that Cao Futian's fame in the Boxer Rebellion was second only to Zhang Decheng, he was a down-to-earth and hardworking person, at least when it came to resisting the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Therefore, Teng Yuzao had to give Cao Futian a suitable position.

However, it is not possible for Teng Yuzao to set up a fourth regiment with Cao Futian as the commander for the time being. Even if he arranges a deputy commander for him like Liu Shijiu did, it would be somewhat inappropriate. To put it bluntly, Teng Yuzao is still worried.

Teng Yuzao could trust the generous and straightforward Liu Shijiu, but at least for the time being, he would not completely trust Cao Futian. In Teng Yuzao's view, Cao Futian must appear honest and simple on the surface, otherwise how could he have gathered such a large group of Boxers.

And the most crucial thing is that Teng Yuzao will not give up two of the four regiment commander positions. Otherwise, his vanguard army would be somewhat distorted. At least the issue of the surname Teng should be put in quotation marks.

But it would not work to just give Cao Futian the position of detachment leader. Even if Cao Futian did not say anything, his subordinates would probably be dissatisfied.

After repeated consideration for a long time, Teng Yuzao met with Pan Jinshan and Cao Futian respectively before finally deciding that Cao Futian would be the captain of the independent detachment and Pan Jinshan would be the deputy captain.

In order to make room for Cao Futian, Teng Yuzao even demoted Pan Jinshan to a deputy position. For this reason, Cao Futian's people had nothing to say, and they would not even be dissatisfied. After all, Cao Futian could not be compared with Hu Dianjia.

After Teng Yuzhao implicitly stated that as long as Pan Jinshan did a good job as the deputy captain and cooperated seriously with Cao Futian, he would not be treated unfairly, Pan Jinshan immediately agreed to this matter happily.

In order to facilitate the transfer and fill the vacancies in each regiment, Cao Futian obtained more than 6,000 new Boxer recruits. He and Wei Jinghai had already completed the division last night. However, nothing, including Cao Futian's appointment, has been officially announced yet.

Since Liu Yuzhi's regiment had only one battalion left with Li Yulin in Xianghe, and now only had two battalions of infantry in Tianjin, a fourth battalion was added to the regiment, so that the regiment had four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion, becoming the largest regiment in the vanguard army. The rest of the troops were assigned to the second and third regiments and the assault brigade to make up for the vacancies, and the rest were incorporated into the independent detachment.

In addition, older people with less physical strength were organized into a baggage camp and handed over to Wei Jinghai's staff office.

Cao Futian complimented Teng Yuzao at this time, and Teng Yuzao did not object. Being tactful was not a disadvantage. At least it could ensure that Cao Futian would get along well with everyone.

Seeing that everyone had the same opinion, Teng Yuzao stopped and said to Wei Jinghai, "Ningbo, announce the order."

Wei Jinghai stood up again, took out the document signed by Teng Yuzhao from his folder and began to announce the appointments of Cao Futian and Pan Jinshan, as well as the new organization and personnel additions of various troops, and the appointments of relevant officers.

After Wei Jinghai read out the appointment, Li Xianze took the lead and everyone congratulated Cao Futian.

Teng Yuzao put out the cigarette butt in the porcelain bowl that served as an ashtray on the conference table and asked, "Yuxuan, how is the construction of the floating bridge that I asked you to prepare going?"

Liu Yuzhi stood up and answered, "Your Excellency, our regiment has collected a total of 180 sampans and enough planks. If we are building a floating bridge in the river network area in the east, we can build three floating bridges at the same time that can accommodate mountain artillery. The field artillery must be disassembled and carried across the river."

"The training for building a pontoon bridge has been going on for half a month. Due to some necessary modifications to the collected sampans, the time for building a pontoon bridge has been greatly shortened. A pontoon bridge can be built within ten minutes."

When the people of Tianjin City began to be evacuated, Teng Yuzhao had secretly instructed Liu Yuzhi to make relevant preparations for building a pontoon bridge. In order not to affect the morale of the army, Liu Yuzhi did all these things in secret. Apart from Li Xian who had heard about the strategy, even Wei Jinghai was not aware of it.

After hearing the questions and answers between Teng Yuzao and Liu Yuzhi, everyone looked at Teng Yuzao with surprise, excitement and admiration in their eyes.

Liu Shijiu said, "Xingfu, I really admire you. It's not an exaggeration to say that you are a banished immortal. You are simply a god who can predict the future! I am not worried at all about following you to fight the foreign devils."

Teng Yuzao turned to Liu Changfa again, "Qingyun, how are your special shells prepared?"

Liu Changfa also stood up and answered, "In reply to your words, according to the formula you gave me, I have modified it and made only 80 conscienceless cannon shells. After the test firing, the effect is very good."

"very good!"

Teng Yuzao continued, "Since we have decided to evacuate Tianjin City, we should act decisively and quickly. I estimate that the battle in Beicang may have started this morning. It is hard to say how long Song Qing and Ma Yukun can hold out. At most, it may be two days, or even one day. Therefore, we must evacuate Tianjin City on time at 1:00 a.m. tonight without further delay."

Teng Yuzao smiled coldly, "But we can't just leave like this."

"The foreign devils have taken great pains to set a trap for us, luring us to break out from the west of the city. We can't just not show any support. As the Book of Rites says, it's impolite not to return the favor. Before we evacuate, we should also make a feint to the east and attack the west."

"Tonight at 10:00 pm, we will launch a full-scale assault on the foreign devils who have retreated to the south city. The attacking force will consist of the assault battalion, the independent detachment, the second and third regiments, and the artillery regiment's conscienceless artillery squadron."

"The specific evacuation plan and the combat plan for attacking the foreign devils in Nancheng will be drawn up by the General Staff Office immediately."

Thanks: I Love Industrial Rabbit and Black Wind Bison for the tips!!!

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(End of this chapter)

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