The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 28 Timely Rain

Master Qian smiled slightly, "Xingfu, Yu Zhongtang is very optimistic about you!"

"This time, the Beiyang Military Academy won a great victory. Yu Zhongtang sent someone to report the victory to the capital with an express horse at a speed of 800 miles, and also sent your army building plan along with it."

In fact, more than ten years ago, Tianjin had telegraph communications with the capital. Except for the need for detailed and confidential information to be reported, general messages no longer needed to be sent by express post stations. However, since the Boxer Rebellion entered Beijing and the large-scale rise of the Boxer Rebellion in Zhili, the anti-foreign goals have spread from the initial burning of churches and beating and killing of church members to everything related to foreigners. Even the telegraph lines built by the Beiyang government were severely affected. The Boxers had knocked down the poles and cut the copper wires on a large scale, and the telegraph communication between the two places had long been severed.

The mere mention of a great victory made Teng Yuzao feel ashamed. In his opinion, the achievement of annihilating less than 200 coalition troops could hardly be called a great victory.

But Teng Yuzhao also knew that with almost the same number of troops, they could wipe out the allied forces in one battle, which would be a well-deserved victory for Zhili, and even for the Qing army and the Boxers in the capital who were besieging Dongjiaominxiang.

Although this "Great Victory at the Beiyang Military Academy" was a bit of a trick and a surprise attack on the Allied Forces, the results were indeed very impressive. At least the comparison of casualties was enough to leave the Allied Forces speechless.

In this battle, a total of 12 people from the vanguard army and the students who stayed behind were killed, 8 were seriously injured, 16 were slightly injured, and the total casualties were 36. However, 175 Allied forces were killed or captured, including the British Royal Army and the German Empire, which is arguably the most powerful army today.

In contrast, the just-reported victory in Langfang saw the 2,000-strong coalition army surrounded and blocked by the Qing army and the Boxers, whose numbers were more than ten times theirs. Although the coalition army could not advance any further and finally had to retreat, the Qing army and the Boxers, who had an absolute numerical advantage, not only were unable to stop the retreat of the 2,000-strong coalition army, which eventually allowed the 2,000-strong coalition army to retreat back to Tianjin almost unscathed, but several days of fierce fighting only caused less than 200 casualties to the coalition army.

"besides."

Master Qian continued, "This time, Yu Zhongtang asked me to send the 200,000 silver coins he intercepted to Xingfu as military funds. He told you not to wait for news from the court and to seize the time to expand the army and train the soldiers as soon as possible. As for the training location, Yu Zhongtang meant the Xigu warehouse. The weapons in the warehouse can be used as long as your army needs them. Just keep a good list and avoid loss. This document is the procedure for you to take over the Xigu warehouse."

Master Qian did mention the weapons and ammunition in the Xigu warehouse in the morning, but he did not say that the vanguard troops could use them themselves. Now that so many weapons were suddenly handed over to him, Teng Yuzhao could not help but be surprised and happy.

Seeing Teng Yuzao's surprised expression, Master Qian slyly lowered his voice and said with a smile, "Xingfu, do you know what it means to ask you to use it yourself instead of asking Yu Zhongtang to do it?"

Seeing that Teng Yuzao was somewhat bewildered, Master Qian smiled and explained, "Xingfu, you also know that most of the weapons, ammunition, and military supplies in the warehouse in Xigu are not from our Zhili. Many of them were purchased by the governors of inland provinces to train their new armies. Yu Zhongtang has no right to use them."

"Originally, it was understandable that Yu Zhongtang used these weapons, ammunition and military supplies to protect Tianjin City. However, if that were the case, the governors and governors would probably ask Yu Zhongtang for these things after the war. Without weapons and ammunition, they would have to pay with silver, which would be very troublesome."

"But as long as it wasn't allocated by Yu Zhongtang himself, and the soldiers under him urgently needed to use it themselves, the lawsuit will be filed. Even the court can't do anything. You can't say that the soldiers were wrong to use these weapons in order to protect Tianjin City."

Master Qian sighed and said, "If Tianjin City is lost, there will be no way out. Can we just throw these weapons and ammunition to the foreigners? Besides, once the foreigners occupy Tianjin, those warehouses will definitely be looted by them. If they want these things again, they can only go to the foreigners."

Master Qian's explanation made Teng Yuzao suddenly understand that Yulu was not convenient to come forward and let him take the blame. However, Teng Yuzao was not afraid of taking the blame, and the more the better.

This was because Teng Yuzhao knew very well that the city of Tianjin would definitely not be able to be defended, and the issue of the missing weapons would then be left unresolved, and no one would ask him for anything.

This is not a scapegoat, it is a huge gift!

Although he now has the title of President of the Vanguard Army, he still has so many soldiers, less than a thousand. In the battle to defend Tianjin, the Vanguard Army cannot play a decisive role in turning the tide.

Even if he began to work hard to recruit soldiers and expand the army now, a modern army using hot weapons cannot be formed just by having sufficiently sophisticated weapons and equipment. Training takes time. He can only practice while fighting. If he does not take shortcuts, it will be a pipe dream for the vanguard army to fight against the coalition forces including the most powerful German army in the world at that time, and the nearly 200,000 Tsarist Russian troops outside the Great Wall on its own.

Moreover, by the time the Eight-Nation Alliance began to attack Tianjin City, the coalition's troops in Tianjin would exceed 20,000, and at its peak, they would have exceeded 50,000, not to mention the 170,000 Tsarist Russian infantry and cavalry that could rush into the city at any time from outside the Great Wall.

The total strength of the Qing army in Zhili and the capital was only 80,000. In addition to defending the capital, they also had to garrison Shanhaiguan with heavy troops. Of the Qing troops used in Tianjin, the Wuwei Army had only more than 10,000 people. Including the strength of the Tianjin general and the various training troops, the total was only more than 20,000.

As for the Boxers, although they had a large number of people and strong forces, as Master Qian said, they were still claiming that they were invulnerable to swords and guns. Facing foreign guns and cannons, they were of little use.

Although Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Qianjun was known as one of the most elite troops of the imperial court, compared with Western armies, its reputation as an elite did not live up to its reputation and it was not a truly strong army. To be more precise, the Wuwei Qianjun was only one of the most well-equipped troops of the imperial court, not the most powerful new-style army.

The possibility of winning the war with 80,000 old regular troops who were insufficiently trained and had little knowledge of modern warfare against 50,000 strong troops from the Western powers was not just slim, but non-existent.

Moreover, once the coalition forces in the Beijing-Tianjin area showed signs of decline, the Tsarist Russian army outside the Great Wall would immediately have a reason to enter the Great Wall. However, due to the strong opposition from Britain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries, the Tsarist Russian army had to stop outside Shanhaiguan.

This was a war doomed to fail, and Teng Yuzhao was only thinking about how to minimize the losses of the court and then end this war, which brought great shame and humiliation to the Chinese people, with the smallest losses.

After delivering the 200,000 silver coins as military pay, Master Qian left with another heavy cloth bag that Teng Yuzhao had stuffed into his hand.

The gifts that Master Qian brought to the Vanguard Army this time were so generous and precious. For the Vanguard Army, it could definitely be said to be a long-awaited timely rain!

Therefore, this time Teng Yuzhao also invested a large amount of money and directly asked Li Yulin to give Master Qian five hundred taels of silver.

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(End of this chapter)