The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 359: Another Hit on the Foreigners

The time goes back to the early morning of seven days ago, outside Fuchengmen in the capital, on the official road.

Teams of vanguard officers and soldiers, escorting carts and pack horses filled with supplies and captured weapons and ammunition, with even many soldiers carrying supplies on their shoulders and backs, were advancing in an orderly manner along the official road towards the west of the capital.

In the endless team, there were more than 2,000 German prisoners of war who were escorted by soldiers armed with live ammunition and were also moving along with the army. However, these prisoners were not empty-handed. Some of them were carrying things, while others were working together to push carts that were also full of supplies and were moving forward with difficulty.

Amid the faint sound of gunfire in the distance, Teng Yuzhao stood on a dirt embankment beside the official road, staring silently at the dark walls of the capital.

At this time, Teng Yuzhao's thoughts were quite complicated.

He never expected that the breakout battle, which he thought would be a big and fierce battle, would end so easily just when he raised his clenched fist high, ready to deal a heavy blow to the coalition forces. It was just the end at most.

In this battle, although the vanguard army suffered thousands of casualties, the results achieved were quite great, so much so that Teng Yuzhao now hesitated again.

Teng Yuzhao was hesitating, should he evacuate at this point?

As long as he uses the right tactics and responds appropriately, he should be able to compete with the coalition forces. When he thought of this, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel a surge of impulse in his heart.

However, when he thought that the time had not yet come for him to fight a decisive battle with the coalition forces with all his might, Teng Yuzhao's heart, which had been burning with passion, slowly cooled down to normal temperature.

But, this is the capital after all! Are we just going to give up like this?

For this reason, Teng Yuzhao had been silently struggling in his heart for more than an hour.

In the end, Teng Yuzhao's reason overcame his impulse.

Teng Yuzhao gritted his teeth secretly and decided to evacuate the capital according to the predetermined plan.

Otherwise, not to mention the hundreds of years old ancient city and luxurious palaces and gardens, they would most likely be destroyed by the war. Moreover, even what he did to the treasuries, dignitaries, and wealthy businessmen in the capital could not be covered up.

He looted almost all the government treasuries, mansions, and shops of the wealthy and powerful in the capital, and almost all of the money and valuables they had hidden were taken away by him.

It certainly doesn't make sense to put the blame entirely on the Boxers for such a big incident.

Only when the foreigners entered the city would there naturally be someone to take the blame for all the things that happened, and everything he had done could be perfectly covered up.

"Marshal, it's almost dawn. Should we order the 1st and 2nd Mixed Brigade to stop pursuing the main force of the Japanese 9th Division and withdraw as soon as possible?"

Behind Teng Yuzhao, the voice of Deputy Chief of Staff Wei Jinghai was heard.

Teng Yuzhao took a deep breath and turned around in the darkness.

Wei Jinghai, along with several staff officers, his two guards, and a small team of headquarters guards, had arrived at the foot of the embankment at some point.

The sky was no longer as dark as it was at night, and vision had improved a lot. Teng Yuzhao looked at the watch on his wrist and saw that the fluorescent hour hand pointed to five in the morning.

After discovering the Japanese troops in the west of the city and starting to evacuate their bases urgently at night, Liu Yuzhi's First Mixed Brigade, which had been preparing to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese 9th Division from behind, first launched a surprise attack on the 9th Division's retreating troops to the south.

Upon learning that the 9th Division of the Japanese Army was about to flee outside Fuchengmen, Wei Jinghai could not contact Teng Yuzhao who was on his way to Fuchengmen, and knew that his plan to severely damage the 9th Division of the Japanese Army could not be achieved, so he had to issue orders in a hurry.

According to the command plan, Li Xianze's Second Mixed Brigade, which was responsible for the frontal assault on the Japanese 9th Division, immediately cooperated with Liu Yuzhi's First Mixed Brigade to pursue.

An urgent order was issued to the main force of Cao Futian's Independent Column, which had just set out to block the two brigades of the Japanese Fifth Division outside Guang'anmen. It was ordered to march quickly from the flank and try to block the Japanese Ninth Division's southward advance, and to join forces with the First and Second Mixed Brigade to inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army.

The order was that Hu Dianjia's Third Mixed Brigade's mission remained unchanged and it should continue to prepare to block the Japanese reinforcements coming from Xizhimen.

However, the main force of the Japanese 9th Division withdrew very resolutely, using only the strength of two regiments to fight against the 1st and 2nd Mixed Brigade that were chasing them. The main force retreated quickly to the south without hesitation, and the main force of Cao Futian's Independent Column only had time to block the two regiments of the Japanese army that were left behind.

The two remaining Japanese regiments fought and retreated without building any solid positions. They were suddenly attacked from the darkness behind them by the Independent Column, and more than 6,000 men in the two regiments were immediately defeated and fled.

This made Li Xianze, who had accumulated strength for a long time, feel unsatisfied. How could he give up? After discussing with Cao Futian and Liu Yuzhi, he sent someone back to report the situation to Teng Yuzao and Wei Jinghai, and left Cao Futian's independent column to clean up the battlefield and search for the remaining enemies. He and Liu Yuzhi took two mixed brigades to continue to chase the Japanese 9th Division. In the darkness, Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Okay, send a signal immediately. In addition, urge the troops that have not left the city to speed up the evacuation, and then ask Hu Dianjia about the movements of the Japanese troops in the north of the city."

"If there is nothing going on over there, have Hu Dianjia lead his troops to withdraw from the blocking position and move closer to us."

With Teng Yuzhao's consent and under Wei Jinghai's command, the staff officer behind him immediately ordered the small group of soldiers to raise two large red Kongming lanterns.

Another staff officer led his men on horseback to the north of Che and into the city to convey Teng Yuzhao's orders.

Although the troops inside the city had begun to withdraw from Fuchengmen an hour ago, there were still too many captured and remaining supplies in the city, and the greatly expanded baggage battalion directly under the headquarters was still too busy to cope with the situation. In the end, not only did they use all the prisoners, they even collected hundreds of flatbed trucks in the city to transport the supplies.

Even so, there were still many soldiers who needed to carry things on their shoulders and backs, and some of them had to be carried entirely by manpower.

This was before the Allied Forces besieged the city. Li Xianze's Second Mixed Consortium Quartermaster Battalion transported a large amount of supplies out of the city day and night. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to take away such a huge amount of supplies.

Gold, silver, jewelry, jade, and some valuable antiques, calligraphy and paintings were all on the first list of items to be shipped out of the city, followed by military supplies such as furs and cloth, and then the largest amount of food.

There is still a lot of sorghum and miscellaneous grains such as mung beans and adzuki beans left in the government granaries and private granaries of grain merchants in the city, and the vanguard troops really do not have the ability to take them all away.

Someone suggested burning all the grains, but Teng Yuzhao ultimately disagreed.

The coalition forces would not use these grains for food. At most, they would feed their horses. If they were burned, they would still rob them.

After watching the two red Kongming lanterns rise slowly, Wei Jinghai finally breathed a sigh of relief, his face filled with excitement again.

Although the combined strength of Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze's two mixed brigades exceeded 30,000 men, as they gradually approached Guang'anmen, there would be Japanese troops to support them, and the strength of their two mixed brigades was no longer superior to that of the Japanese army.

Moreover, if the American, British and French coalition forces in the south of the city arrived again, Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze's troops would immediately be at a disadvantage, and they might even suffer heavy losses.

Fortunately, it should still be in time to ask them to withdraw now.

"Marshal, you should go to Yanjiachang first. Commander Liu has already sent people to settle there. I will keep an eye on the troops."

The evacuation plan also included a plan for the westward retreat route. Teng Yuzhao even arranged reconnaissance troops and artillery observation personnel to conduct detailed surveys of the terrain along the way and improve the map in their hands. Their first stop in the westward retreat was Yanjiachang.

Teng Yuzao did not directly answer Wei Jinghai's question, but asked.

"Ningbo, in order to severely damage the Japanese 9th Division during the breakout, we started preparing half a month ago, but we didn't expect that in the end, we let this little devil escape. Are you willing to accept this?"

Wei Jinghai didn’t quite understand what Teng Yuzhao meant, so he smiled and comforted her.

"Marshal, even though the Japanese got away this time, we still gained something in return."

"In the battle of Dongcheng, we achieved a victory far beyond our expectations. Not only did we annihilate 10,000 German troops and almost wipe out more than 20,000 Russian reinforcements, but we also defeated more than 10,000 foreign reinforcements from Nancheng."

"Such a big victory is enough to wipe out the main force of the Ninth Division of the Japanese army, which has less than 20,000 soldiers."

"The General Staff Office is now compiling the results of the battle. The clerks who followed Master Qian to join our vanguard army are preparing a victory report for you, Marshal. By the time you arrive at Yanjiachang, the results of the pursuit of the Japanese army should be almost complete. After the Marshal has reviewed it, you can have someone send it to Taiyuan by express horse."

Teng Yuzhao was still very satisfied with the staff affairs arranged by Wei Jinghai, but what he was thinking about now was not how to report the victory.

What Teng Yuzhao was thinking about at the moment was how he could deal a severe blow to the Allied Forces before their large reinforcements arrived in the capital, or when they had just arrived and had not had time to make necessary repairs. It would be best if he could bite off a large piece of meat from the foreign devils.

"Ningbo, you must arrange it immediately."

感谢：谨木寒、寻蔕道人、3461116、老牛和冰女、李质秉、铭玄、516313、三峡风1951、希格拉之耀、20201111170307869、稻草人1970、2019038130136427、20210301105267525784、121022092051640、20210115192435141、深蓝等书友的月票、推荐票支持！！！

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(End of this chapter)