The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 231 Everyone gets what he gets

Capital, Yongding Gate.

Under the scorching sun, Wu Peifu, dressed in military uniform, sat high on the saddle and stood outside the city gate, escorted by a squad of special guards. He looked at hundreds of carts loaded with silver, cloth, medicinal materials, rice, and live pigs, as well as a team driving thousands of sheep passing by. Wu Peifu couldn't help but smile happily.

Although preparations for the departure had begun in the morning, the team did not finally start to leave the city until noon. Thanks to the documents from the Grand Council, no one dared to make things difficult for the convoy as it left the city.

This time, not only were almost all the generals at all levels of the Vanguard Army, including him, rewarded, but he also received full support from the new Zhili Governor-General Ronglu and the Grand Council headed by Zai Yi, who fully handled all the military supplies needed by the Vanguard Army.

Despite the shortage of money in the imperial court, the emperor still gritted his teeth and took out 500,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Revenue to provide military expenses for the vanguard army, and also promised that more silver would be provided after the autumn taxes from various places were delivered. Of course, this was assuming that the vanguard army continued to have good news.

There was no shortage of rice and grain. There was a large amount of grain in the granary in the city alone. Zai Yi waved his hand and allowed Wu Peifu to take away 500,000 shi of grain. Originally, as long as he had silver, he could buy not only rice and grain, but also pigs, sheep, and even cattle outside the city. However, Zai Yi had thought of everything for Wu Peifu, or to be more precise, for Teng Yuzhao. He sent people to take care of all matters, no matter how big or small.

For example, this time when he came to the capital, in addition to delivering memorials, Teng Yuzhao also instructed Wu Peifu to do some things.

For example, Teng Yuzhao wanted to take the opportunity of delivering the victory report to formally determine the military system and ranks of the vanguard army. The relevant documents had been delivered to the Grand Council by Yu Lu in advance, but the Grand Council had not responded for a long time. This time, Zai Yi approved it immediately.

Although this required Empress Dowager Cixi's approval before it could be issued through an imperial decree, all of this was handled by the ministers of the Grand Council within a day. It has now been announced to the whole country, and all new armies must follow this regulation.

Originally, Teng Yuzao gave himself the rank of major general, but Zai Yi was arbitrary in this matter and did not seek Teng Yuzao's opinion and directly gave Teng Yuzao the rank of general.

As the vanguard army was temporarily short of manpower, the military ranks of other generals were still recorded one by one by the Ministry of War according to the ranks previously set by Teng Yuzhao.

The cap badge and epaulettes were also urgently produced by the Ministry of Works at the request of the Grand Council. Zai Yi was also willing to invest in these details. The stars on the cap badge and epaulettes were all gold-plated brass.

From then on, the military ranks of the Vanguard Army were no longer “black households”.

The cap badge was designed by Teng Yuzao, and Zai Yi fully agreed with it. However, when it was submitted to Cixi for review, Cixi thought that the golden dragon painted by Teng Yuzao was not majestic enough and did not reflect the mighty momentum of the vanguard army.

Zai Yi also found an expert painter in the capital, who specially painted a golden dragon with bared fangs and claws, looking ferocious and ferocious. The dragon head was located on the upper part of the dragon pattern. At first glance, the ferocious aura would immediately cheer up most people.

In addition, a batch of copper buttons were also customized. Due to the large quantity, it was difficult to complete all of them at once. However, Zai Yi promised that not only would they all be completed within half a month, but someone would also be sent to deliver them to the vanguard army.

After learning that Teng Yuzhao had also arranged for Wu Peifu to purchase a batch of fabrics for making military uniforms, Zai Yi not only did not ask Wu Peifu to pay, but also had all the 10,000 pieces of fine cloth purchased taken to the dyeing workshop to be dyed.

Originally, Wu Peifu planned to prepare everything himself, and would go back after placing the order and come back to pick it up after a while. However, he never expected that Zai Yi would be responsible for everything, and Wu Peifu didn't have to lift a finger during the whole process.

During these days, in addition to being found at home by Ronglu and having a handwritten letter from Teng Yuzhao presented to him in person, Ronglu also pulled him aside for a long conversation, introducing Ronglu to everything about the vanguard army in detail. Then he brought back a handwritten letter from Ronglu to Teng Yuzhao and a document with the seal of the Governor-General of Zhili.

This document from Ronglu was an authorization document granting Teng Yuzao the right to perform some of the governor's duties under special circumstances.

This is mainly because, during wartime, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between civil affairs and military affairs, and the purpose is to make it easier for Teng Yuzhao to act.

The rest of Wu Peifu's time was occupied by Zai Yi, who arranged it very thoughtfully.

Zai Yi arranged Wu Peifu and his entourage directly to stay at his own home. Not only did he ask Wu Peifu to tell him about the situation of the vanguard army and the battles of all sizes every night, he also asked about where Teng Yuzhao was from, the situation of his family, and even Wu Peifu's family affairs. He even gave Teng Yuzhao a large box of jewelry, saying it was a gift for Teng Yuzhao to get married in advance.

It is estimated that if Zai Yi had not considered Cixi's feelings, he would have married his daughter to Teng Yuzhao.

During the day, when Zai Yi was on duty at the Grand Council and inquired about the affairs of Teng Yuzhao's vanguard army, he also arranged for his family to accompany Wu Peifu and others on a tour of the capital. Wu Peifu was even fortunate enough to visit the Qingyin troupe in the Eight Great Hutongs.

As there were too many things to do, Wu Peifu had to send someone back to report the situation to Teng Yuzao. Teng Yuzao also sent a special person to rush to the capital overnight. In addition to telling Wu Peifu to take care of things, he also wrote a warm and grateful letter to Zai Yi. Teng Yuzao had no ill feelings towards Zai Yi. Although Zai Yi's advocacy of war was blindly obedient, foolish, and somewhat selfish, for the sake of his son, as a father, no matter what he did, it was not excessive and there was nothing to blame.

Therefore, Teng Yuzhao was very grateful for Zai Yi's care for the vanguard army. Even though these were things that the Prime Minister of the Grand Council should have been concerned about, the fact that he was so caring was so meticulous, even more enthusiastic than Ronglu, the Governor-General of Zhili. Teng Yuzhao could not but be truly grateful.

In his letter, Teng Yuzao not only expressed his gratitude to Zai Yi, but also implicitly expressed his intention to surrender.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that Yuan Shikai's status in Ronglu's heart might not be worse than his, not to mention that Ronglu did not oppose the Southeast Mutual Protection.

Teng Yuzhao even suspected that Yuan Shikai's participation in the Southeast Mutual Protection was entirely on his own initiative.

In addition, Teng Yuzao gave Zai Yi two Browning pistols inlaid with gold wire patterns and a captured exquisite German sword as gifts.

Zai Yi was ecstatic when he received the gift and letter from Teng Yuzhao. That night, Zai Yi dragged Wu Peifu to drink and have a great time. If he didn't have many things to decide on in the Military Affairs Council the next day, he would have been drunk.

It was not until today that Wu Peifu got most of what he wanted.

During these days, good news and bad news came one after another. The good news was that Teng Yuzhao commanded the vanguard army to attack the coalition's baggage train, seized a large number of military supplies and weapons and ammunition, and ambushed and destroyed more than 13,000 coalition troops that were encircling and attacking them, forcing the coalition to stay in the Beicang area of ​​Langfang and dare not continue to advance to Tongzhou.

Such good news naturally made Zai Yi, Gang Yi and other general military ministers celebrate. Ronglu and Cixi were also extremely excited. They directly changed Teng Yuzhao's recently deceased viscount to the third-class Earl of Yongyi.

The bad news is that the Allied Forces have increased their strength. Not only have the Japanese Army transferred all of its 5th and 9th Divisions to the country, but they have also added an additional regiment of cavalry artillery to each of the two divisions, bringing the total strength to 60,000.

The total strength of the Russian army has now reached 50,000.

In addition, the British, French and American armies all sent reinforcements from their Asian colonies. The vanguard army was now unable to stop the coalition forces and could only try its best to delay their advance. According to his judgment, the Lian army would soon march towards Tongzhou.

Naturally, these news had to be reported to the Grand Council and Ronglu in a timely manner. In order to show closeness, Teng Yuzhao also sent a private letter to Zai Yi.

In the letter, Teng Yuzao told Zai Yi to try his best to persuade Cixi to go west as soon as possible, and at the same time immediately and properly deal with the diplomats of the foreign powers in Dongjiaominxiang.

Moreover, Teng Yuzhao also sent a message to Wu Peifu, telling him to return to the vanguard army as soon as possible because the vanguard army would be transferred soon.

Wu Peifu's mission today is to escort the supplies that the vanguard troops urgently need back as soon as possible.

Seeing that the rear of the convoy had already left Yongding Gate, Wu Peifu turned his horse around and was about to leave with the team, but suddenly he heard the sound of hurried horse hooves coming from the city behind him.

Although the rumor had already begun to spread in the capital that the vanguard army commander Teng Xingfu's strenuous resistance in Tianjin had created time for the people in the city to evacuate, thus making the foreigners' attempt to vent their anger by massacring the city in Tianjin fail, the foreigners wanted to vent their anger by killing people in Tongzhou and the capital.

Because this rumor spread widely, it is said that most of the people in Tongzhou left.

By now, the common people and merchants in the capital have already begun to flee, so that the Yongdingmen, which used to be crowded with people, is now much less crowded with pedestrians and horses. But even so, it is still impossible to ride a horse at a high speed, because this is, after all, a populous capital, and there are always fewer pedestrians on the streets.

Just as Wu Peifu was about to urge his horse forward, he heard anxious shouts from behind.

"General Wu, General Wu, please stay! General Wu, please stay, my master will be here soon."

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(End of this chapter)