The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 271 The Marshal Arrives
"Everyone inside, listen up. I am Liu Chengxiang, the captain of the assault brigade under the command of General Teng Yuzao, the general manager of the Beiyang Zhili Military Affairs, and a third-rank general."

Listening to Liu Shijiu's rough and hoarse voice and his words with a hint of gangsterism, Teng Yuzhao in the operations room couldn't help but smile.

Liu Shijiu's big name is Liu Chengxiang, and his courtesy name is Kaitai.

Liu Nineteen was the nickname he earned in Shandong at the age of nineteen thanks to his excellent kung fu. As time went by, people forgot his real name.

Liu Shijiu was probably worried that the foreigners in the embassy district were not clear about the official position of the captain of the assault brigade, so he deliberately emphasized that he was a third-rank official.

As for calling Teng Yuzao the Marshal, this was not wrong, and it also made Teng Yuzao secretly feel a little happy.

In theory, Teng Yuzhao now commands tens of thousands of vanguard troops. In the era of cold weapons, it is not an exaggeration to call him a marshal, and it is even normal. What's more, he is now, at least in name, an official in charge of all military affairs of Beiyang Zhili.

What makes Teng Yuzhao happy is that in this era, the title of Marshal has become somewhat generalized. It not only refers to military generals, but is more often used to refer to governors and governors-general of frontier provinces.

For example, governors-general such as Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, and Zhang Zhidong, who are in charge of the military and political power of a place, can be called marshals.

However, Li Hongzhang also had more impressive titles such as Grand Secretary and Minister of Beiyang, so no one has called him that in recent years.

The person who liked to be called "Marshal" the most was the Governor-General of Huguang, Zhang Zhidong. He was even called "Xiang Marshal" instead of "Marshal".

Teng Yuzhao did not go up to a high place to watch the battle, but stayed in the lobby of the Ministry of Revenue, which had been converted into a war room by Wei Jinghai, listening to Wei Jinghai reporting to him the battle reports he had just received from Qihua Gate and the outer city.

Although Teng Yuzao also wanted to see the fire in the embassy district, the Ministry of Revenue was too close to the embassy district, with only Bingbu Street in between. To the east was the embassy district, and the Allied forces there had good marksmanship and could easily kill or injure him with a single shot. However, Teng Yuzao refused to allow such a thing to happen.

"Our commander-in-chief has not only repelled your attack on the capital at Dongzhimen, Qihuamen, Dongbianmen, and Guangqumen today, but has also wiped out more than 20,000 of your men in the outer city and Qihuamen. There are still 5,000 to 6,000 of your men surrounding you in the outer city. It is only a matter of time before we wipe them out."

Liu Shijiu probably felt that the deterrent effect was not enough if he didn't tell the exact time, so he added, "I promise you, we can destroy them in one hour at most."

"Also, I am hereby officially notifying you by order of our Marshal. Our Marshal wants you to surrender immediately and he will spare your lives. Also, send the diplomats and civilians out of the city immediately. Otherwise, the Boxers will immediately start attacking you."

"I warn you, don't have any evil thoughts. Xishiku has already been taken by the Boxers. You can't hold on here. Once the Boxers attack, our Marshal will be powerless. The Boxers will only give you one stick of incense. If you don't surrender, they will not be polite."

"Commander."

Wei Jinghai was obviously inspired by Liu Shijiu and took the lead in changing his words. He no longer called Teng Yuzhao "Sir" but "Marshal" instead.

Teng Yuzao could even sense that Wei Jinghai felt a little unwilling that the title of "Marshal" was first called out by Liu Shijiu.

"Hu Dianjia just called and said that the battle inside Qihua Gate has ended. The trapped Japanese soldiers have been completely wiped out. They are currently cleaning up the battlefield and counting the results of the battle."

"The artillery association also transferred the third battalion to Qihuamen, concentrating the firepower of two 60mm mountain artillery battalions and suddenly launched a fierce artillery attack on the Japanese troops that were attacking Qihuamen. Although it was only a three-round rapid fire, it blew more than a thousand Japanese troops into chaos."

"Under the fire cover of the Maxim heavy machine guns on the city wall, the 3rd Mixed Brigade rushed out and, with just one encounter, routed the chaotic Japanese soldiers. The 3rd Brigade took advantage of the situation and rushed into the large group behind the Japanese soldiers who had been bombarded by the artillery of the two battalions of the artillery brigade. Thousands of Japanese soldiers have now begun to flee."

"Hu Dianjia said that he saw through the telescope that his troops were chasing the fleeing enemy. Just now, they had occupied the devil's artillery position." Teng Yuzhao was delighted by the situation of the Third Mixed Brigade reported to him by Wei Jinghai. Although in the current coalition forces, in terms of combat effectiveness alone, the Japanese army was not the weakest in the coalition, at least it was much stronger than the colonial armies of France, Britain, and the United States, and even stronger than the army of the Noodle Country who came to make soy sauce.

But Teng Yuzhao discovered that as long as they dared to fight, the Chinese were not weaker than the Japanese army. At least in hand-to-hand combat, the short and thin Japanese soldiers would suffer a lot.

Although the hand-to-hand combat between the two sides was not as one-sided as that between the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War, where one Russian could deal with two or three Japanese soldiers, the vanguard army soldiers were not only not at a disadvantage in the one-on-one hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese soldiers, but they even had a slight advantage.

Especially after several battles with the Japanese army, the vanguard army now has a psychological advantage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army. When they encounter the Japanese army, they want to rush up as soon as possible to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japs.

He could imagine that as long as the troops of both sides engaged each other with bayonets, the 3rd Mixed Brigade would have no problem using the momentum of its victory to crush the Japanese resistance in one fell swoop.

Teng Yuzao is now somewhat worried about the commander of the Japanese Army's 5th Division, Yamaguchi Soshin. This time, the Japanese army should have deployed two brigades to attack Qihuamen, but not only did they fail in the siege, they were also chased out of the city by himself. Now, at least 15,000 to 16,000 people should have been wiped out by him, and it is even possible that an artillery regiment was also wiped out.

It can be said that these two brigades of the Japanese army were almost wiped out. Even if the Japanese army could quickly replenish its troops, the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Division would be greatly reduced.

In this situation, I wonder if Yamaguchi Motoomi would commit suicide by disembowelment to apologize to their emperor.

Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel ridiculous for his strange idea and shook his head slightly.

He really wanted to know whether he could get the French Schneider 1897mm field gun, also known as M, the fastest-firing artillery in the world, from the main Fifth Division of the Japanese Army this time.

Anyone who has watched "Bright Sword" should know Li Yunlong's Italian cannon. Its official name is the French Schneider 75mm field gun.

The reason why it is called Italian cannon is that France later exported it to Italy. The Italians engraved Latin on this kind of cannon. Later, the Italians sold this batch of cannons that they had eliminated to their own country, which is why people mistakenly thought it was Italian cannon.

The Schneider 1897 75mm field gun was the world's earliest flexible mount artillery. Compared with rigid mount artillery, its rate of fire was significantly improved, making it the best performing 75mm field gun at the time.

Its gun weighs only 1160 kg, is 36 times the caliber, has a wide firing angle range of -11°~18°, and can fire 5.5 kg high-explosive bombs and 7.98 kg shrapnel shells.

Although this type of gun was manufactured in 1897, it was rarely made public. This was mainly because of its extremely fast firing rate, which was nearly ten times that of ordinary artillery. One of its artillery regiments was almost equivalent to three regiments of the enemy. The French had always used this artillery as their secret weapon.

Teng Yuzhao remembered that it was during the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China that the French first unveiled this type of artillery. Now, at least two artillery companies in the French artillery forces are equipped with this type of artillery.

It would be great if I could get this kind of artillery.

Teng Yuzhao secretly made up his mind to get the Schneider 1897 from the two French artillery companies. If he had this kind of artillery in his hands, it would be equivalent to having two more artillery battalions.

Suddenly, Teng Yuzhao felt his nose itchy, so he closed it. A burst of spicy and irritating smell made his throat itchy, and he couldn't help coughing.

"Marshal, have a drink of water."

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(End of this chapter)