The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 220 A Brigade Headquarters
After leaving a row of people to protect Teng Yuzhao, Xu Ting excitedly led the rest of the soldiers of his special guard squadron and rushed into the Salt Administration.

Most of the houses in the Salt Administration had been blown down or shaken down. Not only were all the wooden objects burning, but even on some of the bluestone-paved corridors, there were clusters of flickering flames rising.

Inside the second courtyard, half of the main hall of the Salt Administration had been blown down, and the doors, windows, exposed beams and purlins were also engulfed in flames.

Teng Yuzhao pinched his nose and tried to hold back the unpleasant smell of barbecue in the air as he walked into the hot and blazing Salt Administration. Only occasional sporadic gunshots could be heard from inside. The soldiers of the Second Regiment and the Special Guard Squadron were conducting a thorough dragnet search of the entire Salt Administration in squads, looking for remaining enemies and cleaning up the battlefield.

During the battle with the Japanese army, not only Teng Yuzhao, but those generals also looked down on the Japanese army's golden hook rifles. If conditions permitted, they would naturally not give them up. After all, these things were also guns. A rifle with some bullets could be bought for a dozen or twenty taels of silver.

However, in the current tense situation, it is naturally impossible for them to collect these outdated rifles and then move them around.

Among all the Eight-Nation Alliance that participated in the invasion in the year of Gengzi, the Japanese army had the worst weapons and equipment at that time. Only their rifles were slightly better than the French Lebel rifles. The biggest shortcoming of the Japanese Army's Type 30 rifles was their lack of power, at least not as powerful as the various rifles of the Allied Forces.

The soldiers were collecting the 30-year-old Golden Hook rifles and bullets and piling them together. Some soldiers were dragging some half-burned wood and timber to the center of the yard to form a larger fire.

The big fire set up by the soldiers was used to deal with the Japanese weapons and ammunition.

Although the vanguard army did not need the Japanese Golden Hook rifles, they could not allow the Japanese to take them back to re-equip their troops. These weapons had to be destroyed, otherwise they would become aid to the enemy.

Japan was still an extremely poor country at that time. Even though they had seized a large amount of wealth from the Qing Dynasty during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan, which had been weak for a long time, needed money everywhere, and there would be little left after a small amount of allocation. The Japanese Navy in particular was a big spender on military expenditures, and the vast majority of military expenditures had to be allocated to the Navy.

Now, the Japanese army just wants to equip 10,000 more rifles, which will be a considerable expense for the Japanese finances. If these rifles are taken back by the Japanese army and continue to be used, it will go against its purpose of depleting the coalition forces and making the finances of their countries overwhelmed.

Among all the federal governments, the Japanese government will definitely be the first to collapse, so we must be ruthless towards the Japanese. Not only their weapons and equipment, but also their troops must be consumed and eliminated as much as possible.

Even Teng Yuzhao moved away the more than two million taels of silver in the Salt Administration, which should have been stolen by the Japanese army in history. To a certain extent, this was also the implementation of his goal.

However, when Teng Yuzao looked at the bodies twitching and becoming increasingly dwarfed by the burning, he knew that Xu Ting was destined to leave with great interest this time and return with a disappointed look on his face.

Inside the Salt Administration, not to mention the houses that were torn down by the fierce bombardment of nearly twenty heartless artillery shells, just under the extremely bizarre rain of fire, the Japanese soldiers who had no experience in dealing with this kind of fire, in such a small area, how many of them could survive!

As soon as Teng Yuzhao passed through the Moon Gate, he saw Xu Ting and two soldiers rushing out from the main hall of the Salt Administration, which was half collapsed and still burning. They were hunched over and holding several things in their hands as if they were treasures.

When he saw Teng Yuzhao, Xu Ting immediately ran over with a smile on his face.

"My Lord, I have found some good things, and you will be pleased to see them."

Teng Yuzao looked at what Xu Ting was holding in his hands. It turned out to be two brown leather satchels, which were usually used to carry documents in the military.

Teng Yuzao smiled, nodded and said, "It is indeed a good thing. You can keep it first."

Although Teng Yuzhao wanted to learn something about the Allied Forces from these documents, there was at most a brigade headquarters here. The internal situation of the Allied Forces would hardly or rarely be mentioned when it was delivered to the brigade. After all, the commander of the 5th Division, Yamaguchi Motoomi, was not the highest commander of the Japanese army in China.

As a military history researcher in his previous life, Teng Yuzao knew very well that although Fukushima Yasumasa was only a major general, he was a senior member of the Japanese Army General Staff. His status was higher than that of Yamaguchi Motoomi, the lieutenant general and division commander. Moreover, Fukushima Yasumasa had served as a military attaché in Europe for many years and had rich experience in dealing with foreign powers. "And more."

With Teng Yuzao's approval, Xu Ting's face was full of smiles. He was busy taking several swords with gorgeous scabbards and a revolver inlaid with gold wire patterns from the two soldiers behind him, as well as a Japanese military flag with only one corner left of it burned. In the few remaining pieces in the lower left corner of the flag, one could still see the word "Twentieth" written in Chinese characters.

"Sir, this should be the Japanese's headquarters in the city, at least a regiment, but we didn't find the regiment flag, only this almost burned military flag."

"These were collected from the dead Japanese soldiers inside. I think they can be useful."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Good! You did a great job!"

"These things are very useful, and this shouldn't be the Japanese regiment-level headquarters. The number of Japanese troops in the city will not be less than 5,000. This is most likely the Japanese brigade headquarters, and based on this Japanese flag, this is most likely the 21st brigade headquarters. All these things must be kept safe."

There are two brigades, the 9th and the 21st, within the 5th Division of the Japanese Army. Now it seems that this is the headquarters of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Army, otherwise there would not be so many panicked Japanese troops fleeing here.

Teng Yuzao was very happy to get the Japanese flag, which was burned to a corner. After all, it could prove that he had eliminated the Japanese army.
However, what happened next disappointed Teng Yuzao a little.

Because the Japanese military uniforms at that time were modeled after the American military uniforms during the American Civil War, and the Japanese army did not have epaulettes of military ranks. They had patterns and ribbons on their cuffs to indicate their ranks, and these things could easily burn if they came into contact with flames.

According to what Xu Ting said, the dozen or so devils inside were all burnt like charcoal balls, and their uniforms had long since turned to ashes. Without the uniforms, it was impossible to identify the rank and identity of the Japanese officers who died inside, which naturally made Teng Yuzhao a little disappointed.

Moreover, even if their uniforms were not completely burned, there was no need for Teng Yuzhao to cut off a few sleeves and take them away. Such sleeves would be a victory achievement that would be difficult to be recognized by others.

Teng Yuzao looked at Xu Ting, who looked a little proud, and deliberately asked, "How many living Japanese soldiers did you find in there?"

Having been touched on the sore spot by Teng Yuzao, Xu Ting immediately looked dejected and said bitterly, "Almost all the Japanese were killed by the artillerymen. Those who were lucky enough to survive were also killed by the people of the Second Regiment. There was no chance for us to get any."

"Boom boom boom."

"Ta-ta-ta-ta."

A burst of fierce gunfire and the sound of Gruson rapid-fire cannon shells exploding suddenly came from the direction of the collapsed east gate, which made Teng Yuzao, who was excited and wanted to joke with Xu Ting, feel nervous.

The main force of his troops were still fighting fiercely with the Japanese-Russian coalition forces in the South City. At this moment, such fierce gunfire suddenly rang out from the East Gate. There was no doubt that reinforcements of the coalition forces had appeared there.

Teng Yuzhao remembered that in the combat plan formulated by the Operations Department that he had revised, Li Xianze's Second Regiment and Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment were responsible for dividing their troops to guard the collapsed areas of the city wall near the east and west gates. This was to prevent the Allied forces outside the city from suddenly attacking and breaking into the city when the main force of the vanguard army was fully attacking the Allied forces in the south city.

But now.
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(End of this chapter)