The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 263 Be prepared
In his previous life, Teng Yuzhao had conducted in-depth research on the battles commanded by General Su, who was praised as the best at commanding large-scale military operations.

General Su was not only unconventional in employing troops, but was also good at using limited troops repeatedly. His most notable advantage was that he was extremely bold in employing troops and had the courage to take the head of a general among a million soldiers. The Battle of Menglianggu best illustrates this.

Today, letting the American and British troops into the city gates to beat the dogs has already had a slight shadow. Can't I teach the foreigners a good lesson in this capital today?

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "We can increase the number of Japanese troops allowed into the city, but we must not allow more than 10,000."

Teng Yuzhao kept reminding himself in his heart that he must remain calm and not be carried away by the victory in front of him. The Japanese troops within 10,000 should be the bottom line, otherwise it would be easy to backfire.

"Also, tell the artillery commander Liu that his request will not be approved. We are setting an ambush, and the conscienceless cannon will easily hurt our own people. Moreover, I want to use the conscienceless cannon at night to give the foreign devils a big surprise."

Speaking of the conscienceless artillery, Teng Yuzao hurriedly said to the staff, "We must also tell Commander Hu that in addition to preparing more grenades, he should also go to Deputy Chief of Staff Wei to get more explosive packs. They can also produce huge power when ambushing the Japanese troops on the streets."

After giving instructions to the staff officer, Teng Yuzhao called Hu Daqiu over.

"Hua Zhang, you leave one sentry on guard at Chongwenmen and give me another sentry. Then you take the rest of the troops and report to Li Xietong immediately and follow his command."

"Tell him that I'm going to Qihua Gate. The battle in the outer city will be under the full command of Li Xietong."

Teng Yuzhao was somewhat worried about Hu Dianjia's bold actions, so he had to go there in person.

There were rumbling sounds of cannon fire inside and outside the walls of Qihua Gate, and the air was filled with smoke. Most of the three- or four-story majestic and magnificent city towers had been blown down, and a big fire had started.

Teng Yuzhao brought a sentry from the Guard Battalion and his personal guard squad to the Qihua Gate without alarming Hu Dianjia. After his communications squad set up the telephone, he made a phone call to Wei Jinghai and did not contact anyone else.

According to Wei Jinghai, the Japanese army had been attacking the city since morning, and not only had the artillery fire been very fierce, but the force of the Japanese army's attack was also very strong. Not only had they blown open the Qihua Gate a long time ago, they had also launched more than a dozen sieges and even used ladders to climb the city.

Although the Japanese suffered more than 2,000 casualties this morning, their siege efforts did not diminish in the slightest.

At Dongzhimen in the north, the Russian army's siege intensity was no less than that of the Japanese army. The Russian army even rushed into the city at one point. If the Gansu army had not assembled heavy troops at Qihuamen and Dongzhimen, the Japanese and Russian armies would have entered the city long ago.

However, the Gansu Army had suffered more than half of its casualties, and even two of Ma Fulu's nephews were killed. According to Hu Dianjia's words relayed by Wei Jinghai, it was estimated that the Gansu Army could only hold out for another hour or two at most. This was also the reason why Ma Fulu was willing to contact the vanguard army to defend the city together.

Wei Jinghai also said that according to Hu Dianjia, the Japanese army's artillery bombardment this time lasted a great deal longer, and was mainly concentrated near the Qihuamen tower. It seemed that there were at least 10,000 Japanese troops concentrated at their attack starting position.

According to Hu Dianjia's estimation, this time the Japanese army was most likely preparing to make a last-ditch effort and launch a general attack on Qihuamen.

The Japanese army actually assembled an attacking force of more than 10,000 people at one time, which made Teng Yuzhao a little worried. He even regretted not agreeing to Liu Changfa's request to use the unscrupulous cannon.

However, since the conscienceless cannon requires a preset position, it is too late to change the order now. Moreover, the soldiers in this ambush will not be too far away from the main street, and may even be in the courtyards and houses on the main street. The range of the conscienceless cannon is not accurate, and it may hurt its own people.

Wei Ningbo seemed to have guessed what Teng Yuzao was thinking and said, "Sir, Hu Dianjia took away 100 5-kilogram explosive packs and 10 10-kilogram packs. In addition to the 1,200 grenades that were allocated to them in advance, I gave him another 1,000 grenades, which is enough for him to use."

"very good!"

More than 2,000 Teng-type hand grenades and 100 5-kilogram explosive packs were enough to give the Japanese army a hard time. As for the ten large explosive packs, they could only be used to block the city gates.

Teng Yuzhao instructed Wei Jinghai, "Ningbo, tell Hu Dianjia that he must first use intensive firepower to inflict maximum casualties on the Japanese army before launching a charge. Also tell Liu Changfa that the artillery fire to cut off the Japanese reinforcements must be fierce. Whether all the Japanese troops that rush in can be wiped out in the end depends on the power of his artillery." After instructing Wei Jinghai, Teng Yuzhao was still very worried.

He was worried that since Hu Dianjia also wanted to inflict a heavy blow on the attacking coalition forces inside the city just as Li Xianze and Liu Shijiu had done in the outer city, he might let too many Japanese troops in, or something unexpected might happen when he tried to intercept the Japanese follow-up troops.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that since Hu Dianjia joined the vanguard army midway, and he had already reached the third rank when he was under Nie Shicheng, he had a high position and rich experience, so of course he did not want to lag behind others.

Hu Dianjia did not want to fall behind Li Xianze and Liu Yuzhi in terms of military achievements, and he was even more unwilling to fall behind Liu Shijiu who had been in the limelight recently. If he took over the command directly this time, it would probably seriously hurt his self-esteem.

Moreover, up to now, Hu Dianjia has gritted his teeth and not allowed his men to show up on the city wall again, just to give the coalition forces the most fatal and fierce blow.

Teng Yuzhao hesitated for a long time, but decided to trust Hu Dianjia completely. At this time, no further complications could arise.

Although Teng Yuzhao was very worried about the battle situation here, he still adhered to his usual style of deliberately cultivating the command capabilities of his generals. He quietly came to a side street three or four hundred meters away from Qihua Gate, chose a three-story restaurant here, and quietly set up his front-line command post on the third floor.

The soldiers of the Guard Battalion, under the command of the sentry leader, quickly set up guard positions at key points around them, and at the same time began to rummage through the drawers and cabinets in the restaurant to find food to prepare lunch.

Because it was already past one o'clock in the afternoon, they could even smell the aroma of braised pork as they approached Qihua Gate. Teng Yuzhao knew that there had been no fierce fighting here with Hu Dianjia all morning. He was just helping the Gansu Army to eliminate small groups of enemies that had broken into the city. There was plenty of time and their lunch was not delayed.

I asked the patrolling Hu Dianjia guard troops on the street and found out that their lunch not only included braised pork, but each person was also given a bowl of wine.

Teng Yuzhao did not say much about giving wine to soldiers before the battle. He knew very well that this was a long-standing custom in the domestic army. Whenever there was a major war, soldiers would often be given wine before the battle to boost morale, or in other words, to use wine to stimulate the soldiers' fighting spirit.

It was too late to send someone back to the headquarters to get their lunch, and Teng Yuzhao did not want to alarm Hu Dianjia, so it was even more impossible for him to go to the Third Association to get food.

But they couldn't let these soldiers starve, so they entered the restaurant and tried to find food. Sure enough, there was no shortage of ingredients here, but there was no cooked food, not a single piece of meat, and not even a single vegetable leaf.

This is easy to understand. There are no refrigerators or freezers nowadays. If there are meat and vegetables here, they will all go bad in two days in such weather.

The owner of the restaurant here should have left early, and the restaurant was very clean. There were only some rice, flour, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and other condiments. After the sentry asked Teng Yuzao for instructions, he arranged for people to start making a big pot of porridge, and if there was no vegetable, just mix it with some soy sauce.

Even so, everyone ate a large bowl and still felt unsatisfied. If there was more, the soldiers would have eaten some more.

However, before Teng Yuzhao finished his bowl of thick rice porridge, the gunfire from the direction of Qihuamen suddenly stopped. Teng Yuzhao knew that the Japanese army had begun its attack.

Ignoring the obstruction of the communications staff and guards, Teng Yuzhao, under the protection of several guards, hurriedly climbed onto the roof of the third floor of the restaurant.

The roof of the restaurant was not flat but had a ridge. Just as Teng Yuzhao stuck his head out over the ridge, dense but chaotic rifle firing was heard from the direction of Qihua Gate. The firing seemed to be much sparser than when Teng Yuzhao had just arrived.

Teng Yuzhao raised the telescope and saw that there were indeed fewer Gansu troops on the city wall near Qihua Gate who were still shooting at the outside of the city.

Moreover, the horse paths in the upper city were piled with sandbag walls as high as a person, and many Gansu soldiers were standing there with guns raised and ready to fight.
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(End of this chapter)