The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 22 Germans Being Favored

Being hugged and kissed by a beautiful foreign woman in public under the gaze of hundreds of people made Teng Yuzhao feel extremely uneasy. He was worried that his soldiers who did not understand foreign etiquette would have bad thoughts because of this, which would be counterproductive.

Teng Yuzao's face flushed red as he pushed Alice away. He said in an embarrassed and frustrated manner, "Alice... you are doing this, ahem... it may not be a big deal in the West, but in the East, it is considered immoral and even treasonous."

Alice, in her excitement, waved her whip and said loudly in stiff Chinese, "Teng, you are a grown man, what are you afraid of? Besides, you are the supreme commander of this army, how can your subordinates laugh at you? And I love you! That's it."

Alice raised her head as she spoke.

Alice's words made Teng Yuzao even more anxious. He glanced at the vanguard troops around him. Li Yulin had already turned away with a red face. Some of the soldiers were stunned with their mouths open, while others covered their mouths tightly to prevent themselves from laughing out loud.

This situation made Teng Yuzao feel relieved, and he quickly turned away from Alice and spoke to Christian.

"Christian, I think you can understand my situation. After all, these German soldiers are not your relatives, nor are they employees of your company. I can't just let them go."

Christian nodded repeatedly, "Teng, of course I understand. Do you want a ransom?"

"Do not."

Teng Yuzao thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "There are a total of 33 German soldiers among the coalition forces that crossed the river this time. Twelve of them were killed in the battle, and there are 21 left, including those with minor or serious injuries. I can release them all, but I want 2,000 sets of German military uniforms and related equipment, and I will not release them until I get the things first."

"Also, please tell the Allied Forces that I will not use the Military Academy to attack the concessions. My people will be withdrawn soon. I also hope that the Allied Forces can preserve the integrity of this academy as much as possible. At least you Germans should find a way to prevent anyone from destroying the Beiyang Military Academy."

As long as Teng Yuzhao did not ask for weapons and ammunition, Christian believed that the German commander on the other side would definitely meet Teng Yuzhao's conditions.

Christian opened his arms, and Teng Yuzao did not hesitate this time, but hugged Christian tightly.

Major Luke and his army of nearly 200 soldiers crossed the Baiguo River in more than 20 wooden boats to attack the Beiyang Military Academy.

After the Allied Forces landed, in addition to the boatmen hired by the concession, there was also a squad of soldiers from the Allied Forces who stayed on the ship to guard the ship and were responsible for the reception. They were originally waiting on the shore on the north bank of the Baihe River.

But when this squad of Allied soldiers saw Li Yulin suddenly appear outside the west gate with two rows of vanguard troops, and drove back the Austrian troops defending outside the west gate of Tucheng with a volley of gunfire, forcing them to retreat into Tucheng, these Allied soldiers hurriedly urged the boatmen to row all the sampans to the center of the river.

As they were not aware of the outcome of the battle in the military academy, the coalition soldiers did not dare to leave the river bank too far. Even though the Baihe River was not wide, staying in the center of the river would put them within the range of the rifles on the shore. When Lukehan was escorted out by Li Yulin and shouted, they realized that the coalition army led by Major Luke, which was composed of troops from several countries, was not only defeated, but also completely annihilated.

For a moment, this result made the coalition squad on the ship a little overwhelmed. Although Luke was the commander of this coalition force, they were not soldiers of the same country after all, and Luke did not have much authority over them.

In the Beiyang Military Academy, the reason why the Allied Forces obeyed Luke's order to surrender was entirely because Major Luke's decision would save their lives.

The situation of the squad of Allied forces remaining on the ship at this time was completely different from that of the captured Allied forces, but the Allied forces on the ship still could not make up their minds. One wooden boat had already rowed back to the concession to ask for instructions on how to deal with the matter.

Teng Yuzhao would never keep these seriously injured soldiers of the coalition forces in his hands, and immediately ordered Li Yulin to start returning these people right away.

After Teng Yuzhao gave the order, Li Yulin immediately brought Luke to the Baihe River again. After some communication, the wooden boats parked in the center of the river began to carefully row to the shore in batches. Then, under the supervision of the vanguard soldiers, the staff of Lihe Foreign Company and some prisoners began to carry the bodies of the Allied Forces' dead and seriously injured onto the wooden boats.

As for the lightly wounded, Li Yulin ignored them all, which made Teng Yuzhao speechless. However, he had to compromise in the end. He went over to select them himself, and brought all the lightly wounded soldiers with leg injuries to Li Yulin, forcing Li Yulin to release them.

Teng Yuzhao didn't want to delay the marching speed of his vanguard army because of carrying these people.

In this way, more than 20 sampans made two trips back and forth before transporting dozens of coalition forces' bodies, more than 50 seriously wounded soldiers, and some lightly wounded soldiers with leg injuries to the Zizhulin Wharf on the opposite bank.

Christian was one of the first boats to reach the other side of the river. Having learned that the Allied Forces that had crossed the river had been completely wiped out, with nearly a hundred of them captured, the military commanders and merchants from various countries in the concession all ran to the Zizhulin Wharf in panic to inquire about the situation.

Since the main force of the Allied Forces, led by British Vice Admiral Seymour, with more than 2,000 soldiers, was now blocked in Langfang by the Boxers and the Qing Army, the hot-tempered Tsarist Russian Governor of Kwantung Province, Admiral of the Pacific Fleet, Alexeev, who had always been excluded by other countries in the Allied Forces and was the highest-ranking Tsarist Russian general remaining in the concession, temporarily became the supreme commander of the Allied Forces' remaining forces.

When Alexeev learned that the Allied forces were not only defeated but also had nearly a hundred people captured, he was furious. He immediately ordered the second batch of 3,000 Tsarist Russian troops who had just landed at Dagukou and were originally scheduled to participate in the attack on Laolongtou Railway Station to withdraw a battalion of troops to enter the concession and prepare to attack the Qing army on the opposite bank.

At the same time, he ordered the Allied forces in the concession to immediately bombard the Qing army on the opposite bank.

However, in stark contrast to Alexeyev's attitude, the commanders of Britain, Germany, Italy and Austria who remained in the concessions firmly opposed immediate shelling because they still had prisoners on the other side.

In particular, after hearing that the Qing army on the other side not only released their seriously wounded and some of the lightly wounded, but also agreed to allow the Germans to exchange two thousand sets of military uniforms and equipment for the remaining German prisoners of war, Britain, Italy and Austria also saw hope and sent representatives to follow Christian and the German representatives across the river by boat.

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(End of this chapter)