The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 289 Seeking Skin from a Tiger
"Changed my mind!"

"why is that?"

Teng Yuzao's words surprised both Dou Nale and Kang Ge, and they both asked nervously in unison.

Dou Nale asked anxiously, "General, those seriously injured soldiers, or even all the injured soldiers, if they stay with you, they will be in a very dangerous situation!"

"you."

Dounale tried to choose his words carefully. "Since you are short of medicine, they may all die from the worsening of their wounds. Are you going to go against the humanitarian spirit that you have always upheld?"

Teng Yuzao spread his hands and said, "I have to admit, Sir Dounale, you are right. We are indeed short of medicines. You know that this is the case with the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty. Once they are injured, even if they are only slightly injured, in many cases, they can only wait to die. The reason is that they lack medicines, which causes the wounds to worsen and become infected, leading to death."

"I can tell you frankly that I am extremely short of medicines now. My soldiers also need medical treatment and medicines. If I send your seriously injured back, I will not be able to get medicines."

Teng Yuzao said sincerely to Dou Nale and Kang Ge, "So I changed my mind. Now I will not release your wounded. I will provide the medicines for treatment first, but I can't guarantee it after that. I need you to send us the medicines for them to use."

"I will find a way to inform you soon of the number of seriously injured soldiers in each of you. They are anxiously waiting for medicine!"

Under the surprised gazes of Dounale and Conger, "I can guarantee that for the sake of fairness, not only can 30% of the medicines you send be used on your wounded, but we will also never use the medicines sent by the Americans on the British, and vice versa. If you are worried, you can even send someone to supervise."

Teng Yuzao also shrugged in a very Western way and said calmly, "If there is no medicine, then they can only..."

"besides."

Teng Yuzao suddenly changed the subject and said to the two, "I will arrange for people to transport the bodies of your coalition soldiers who died in the city out of the city soon."

Teng Yuzhao jumped from the need for medicines for the wounded to the bodies of the fallen soldiers. It was obvious that on the issue of the wounded and medicines, Teng Yuzhao would not change his mind. He was even telling Dounale and Conger that his decision could not be changed.

After a brief thought, Teng Yuzao continued, "Let's set the location outside Qihua Gate and Guangqu Gate. You can send people to transport them away. Remember, those of you who come to transport these bodies cannot carry any weapons, otherwise we will open fire."

Dou Nale and Kang Ge wanted to say something else, but Teng Yuzao no longer had time to waste with them and waved to Wei Jinghai.

Wei Jinghai also knew what the most urgent matter was at the moment. He gave orders loudly and arranged for the soldiers to escort the foreign diplomats who had surrendered in the embassy area, their families, and the believers, and began to walk towards Chongwenmen.

In order to get away from the Boxers who were ruthless in killing foreigners and would not hesitate to attack regardless of gender, age or status, the ministers quickened their pace and walked towards the team leaving the city.

Only Kangge lagged behind by a few steps and spoke to Teng Yuzao somewhat embarrassedly.

"Dear General, may I ask you to release our captured senior officers for the sake of our President McKinley, who is now conducting diplomatic mediation with various countries for your country's peace efforts? And also to show the friendship from the Qing Dynasty to those officials in Washington."

Kangge knew very well that his request was a threat to Teng Yuzao, and he was worried that Teng Yuzao would be unhappy. Kangge blushed after he finished speaking, and he was even mentally prepared to be firmly rejected by this determined and wise Qing general.

But what he never expected was that Teng Yuzao waved his hand cheerfully and said, "Mr. Conger, I reiterate that personally, I am very grateful for the peace efforts of President McKinley of your country, and I am very willing to win your friendship. I also hope to have more trade exchanges with the United States of America after the war."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Mr. Kangge, based on the above reasons, I can agree to your request."

"Moreover, not only can I release the captured senior officers of your country, I can also make an exception for you and release all the officers of your country with the rank of lieutenant and above who are captured by our army this time."

Although the memories of his previous life made Teng Yuzao hate the country of America, this is after all China more than a hundred years ago.

At that time, the land of China was not yet the world factory that all the powers in later generations feared. Not only was the industrial base extremely weak, but there was almost no complete modern industry. Not to mention advanced and complex things, even a small nail had to be imported.

Not to mention all the advanced technologies and machinery and equipment, all of which must be imported.

In this land, in this era, if he wants to develop rapidly and improve the level of industrialization, he must find support from a powerful and capable country that can provide him with some help.

Among the current powers, countries such as Russia, Britain, France, Austria, Italy and Japan are obviously not suitable.

Tsarist Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Japan did not have a very high level of industrialization. At most, they were semi-industrialized countries, at least compared with the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

What's more, Tsarist Russia was only interested in territory and would never consider helping other countries develop.

Not only was the Austro-Hungarian Empire not very powerful, it was also on the verge of disintegration after World War I. It was a big tree that was about to fall and was not worth relying on.

As for Japan, not only is their level of industrialization low, they are also extremely greedy, always coveting the fertile land of China. They are always looking forward to the early decline and chaos of the Qing Dynasty so that they can profit from the chaos. How could they truly help themselves develop their industrial base!
What's more, in his heart, Teng Yuzhao was unwilling to deal with the Japanese, and even less wanted to get their help with ulterior motives, even a little bit of help.

Although Italy is also a powerful country in Europe, its industrialization is still worse than that of Britain, France, Germany and the United States. Moreover, the scale of Italy's industry is too small, and their own domestic market cannot even fully meet the demand. How can they be interested in investing in other countries?

The industrialization levels of Britain and France are beyond reproach, but these two countries are similar to Tsarist Russia, and historically they have no record of helping a particular region develop.

What Britain and France wanted was to occupy more colonies, plunder more wealth, and make these colonial countries into markets for them to dump more goods.

The only ones who are more reliable are Americans and Germans.

感谢：151225231824152、20210301104130671710、20221107044446168、20210301105267512670、云海100、颖枫、20240313434-ae、20200225095516560、铁甲第一战队、竹楼玉荷秋、20190523145033098、我独酌山外小阁楼、剑圣回归、深蓝等书友的月票、推荐票支持！！！

Note: Recently a book friend said that the Japanese Army's Type 30 rifle was only used during the Russo-Japanese War. Zuima did a careful search and confirmed that this type of rifle was used by the Japanese Army during the Eight-Nation Alliance.



(End of this chapter)