The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 29 Cold Water
When he returned to the camp, he saw several sentinels who had come for the meeting, their faces glowing with excitement as they gathered around the pile of silver boxes. Teng Yuzao still tried hard to suppress his equally excited mood, and calmly invited everyone to come into his tent for the meeting.

Looking back at the entrance of the tent, he saw the former rear sentry chief Sun Shijun, who was standing there awkwardly without moving, and Wei Jinghai, who had been standing in a row with a dozen students who stayed behind from the Military Academy. Teng Yuzhao was busy and affectionately greeting Sun Shijun and Wei Jinghai.

"Ziming, what are you still standing there for? Come in for the meeting. And you, Wei Ningbo, bring your people in for the meeting."

Teng Yuzhao's words made Sun Shijun feel warm in his heart and tears almost came to his eyes. He thought to himself, it seems that the captain has not given up on me after all!

Wei Jinghai was even more overjoyed. Although he had come here with a dozen classmates and junior students at the order of Teng Yuzhao, and Teng Yuzhao had been appreciated by Instructor Teng for his outstanding performance in school, Instructor Teng was now the commander of an army and he was still a student. Even if he returned to the army, he would at most start as a platoon leader, which was far from the rank of Instructor Teng. How could he be qualified to participate in such a military meeting?

At most, he would have just told them some things to do, but now, Instructor Teng actually called him in for a meeting. One can imagine how Wei Jinghai and the dozen or so students behind him felt. After being stunned for a moment, they came to their senses and trotted with their students to follow Sun Shijun into the tent.

The seats in Teng Yuzao's tent had already been rearranged according to Teng Yuzao's instructions. Behind the Eight Immortals Table was Teng Yuzao's seat, a high-backed mahogany chair that was different from the other chairs. This was the chair of Yang Zonglien, the general manager of the Military Academy, and Teng Yuzao had specially arranged for it to be moved in together with the Eight Immortals Table.

Originally, he planned to give assistant Li Yulin and platoon leader Liu Changfa a seat on each side of the eight-immortals table, but Teng Yuzhao gave up the idea in the end.

If one wants to truly control an army, there must not be anyone in this army whose status is second only to his. Otherwise, once he is replaced, someone else will replace him at any time. In this regard, he still needs to learn a lot from Yuan Shikai.

On both sides of the octagonal table, there is a row of chairs on each side, which are reserved for several sentries and students.

Although the seats were not arranged one by one, Li Yulin and Liu Changfa sat in the front row of the two rows of chairs respectively. Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze sat next to them. Sun Shijun also consciously sat behind Liu Yuzhi.

Wei Jinghai then took his students to sit on the chairs at the back on both sides.

Since all the officers and students present were from the Beiyang Military Academy, which was considered the most authentic and strictest German-style military academy in the country, their military posture was very standard. Everyone sat upright without looking to the side, which made Teng Yuzhao very satisfied.

Although the combat effectiveness of this unit is still very average, it at least looks very regular, and their troops also have a relatively solid foundation. As long as they receive more training, it is not impossible for them to become a strong army that can and dares to fight.

As there were so many things to do now and time was very tight for Teng Yuzao, he did not bother to be verbose and directly took out the casualties statistics of the troops in the battle at the Beiyang Military Academy, as well as the weapons and supplies captured in this battle and obtained at the Beiyang Military Academy, the list of weapons and supplies given to him by little Christian, and the army reorganization plan.

In addition, Teng Yuzhao also placed the Xigu warehouse handover documents brought by Master Qian on the table.

Teng Yuzao did not sit in his seat. Instead, he picked up the casualty statistics list, walked to the eight-immortal table, leaned on the table, and spoke.

"Today is the first military meeting of our Wuwei Army Vanguard Army since its formation. Let me briefly summarize the battle of the Wubei Academy." "The battle of the Beiyang Wubei Academy was the first battle of our Vanguard Army. This battle not only demonstrated the momentum of our Vanguard Army, but also our prestige. At the cost of more than 30 casualties, we annihilated and captured nearly 200 people from the coalition forces of the great powers. Such a huge disparity in casualties is definitely a great victory that is worth celebrating. Yu Zhongtang has already sent someone to report the victory to the capital at an expedited speed of 800 miles."

Teng Yuzao's words made everyone in the tent smile with joy, but when Teng Yuzao's next words rang out again, everyone in the tent immediately put away their smiles.

"But did our vanguard army perform perfectly in this not-so-big battle, without any problems at all?"

"No, in my opinion, it's just the opposite. This battle not only has problems, but it also exposes two very serious problems in our vanguard army."

Teng Yuzao continued to answer his own questions, "In my opinion, if the students who stayed behind in the Wubei Academy had not participated in this battle, we would have to pay a greater price to win this victory. Even if we won, it would probably be a tragic victory, a tragic victory that would seriously damage the vitality of the vanguard army. Why do you say that?"

"It is undeniable that this victory was a tactical victory, to be more precise, because the correct tactics put the invading coalition forces in an extremely unfavorable situation. Whether it was the students who stayed behind or Yuxuan, they all took the initiative to ambush the coalition forces inside the school, preparing to ambush the coalition forces. The tactics of the students who stayed behind were especially correct. Only by taking advantage of the familiar terrain inside the school could they repel the invading coalition forces with inferior forces."

"There was no problem tactically, but the problem became apparent in the following battle."

"Since the problem is not in tactics, then where is the problem?"

"The problem lies in the individual combat skills of the vanguard soldiers."

Teng Yuzao turned around and picked up the casualty statistics on the table, waved his hand, and said firmly, "Our soldiers' individual combat skills need to be improved urgently, otherwise we will never be able to become a strong and brave army that dares to fight and is brave and good at fighting."

"First of all, there is the issue of hand-to-hand combat. I know all about the hand-to-hand combat in the academy. Although we are at a disadvantage in height, weight and strength compared to Westerners, the students who stayed behind in the academy were the first to rush forward in the hand-to-hand combat. However, only three students were killed in the hand-to-hand combat, while the outpost soldiers who rushed forward later lost five people and seriously injured three people in the hand-to-hand combat."

"This shows a problem, that is, the soldiers of the vanguard army did not work hard on hand-to-hand combat during their usual training."

Teng Yuzao's words made Liu Yuzhi stand up involuntarily, "Sir, I didn't catch them well enough during my training. Please punish me!"

Thanks to: Love to joke, Yin Yangwuxing, 20180101105543142, Shenlan and other book friends for their recommendations!

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(End of this chapter)