The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 37 Reinforced Maxim Heavy Machine Gun Bunker
Teng Yuzao shook his head and said, "Don't say that we don't have enough time. Even if we could, there's no need. We came here mainly to rescue the students left behind in the Beiyang Military Academy. We don't need to stay here for a long time."

Seeing that Liu Yuzhi and the other two were a little surprised, Teng Yuzao explained, "This place is useless for defending Tianjin City. It is not necessary for us to give it up, but it is not suitable for long-term defense."

"However, we have not received the order from Yu Zhongtang yet, so we cannot evacuate immediately, but we must leave here."

Teng Yuzao continued to explain, "Although this place is not a place we must fight for, it is very important to the Allied Forces in the concession, because our Krupp cannons can directly bombard the concession here, which is something the Allied Forces absolutely cannot tolerate. Therefore, they must drive us away or even eliminate us in order to eliminate the threat we pose to the concession."

Teng Yuzao continued, "However, this is also better. We can also take this opportunity to train our soldiers well. I will instruct you all to remember that our defense is based on these four machine gun bunkers as support points. All infantry organizations must be organized around these four support points. This is a good opportunity for our soldiers to practice their marksmanship."

Li Xianze suddenly said, "Sir, the trees in this forest are not very old. Are they strong enough to build a machine gun bunker? And we don't have a saw to cut down trees!"

Teng Yuzao said, "I have thought about this problem. These trees are indeed not good. Now we have no choice but to go to the Wubei Academy and dismantle the buildings. We will start from the west gate. The beams are all large, dry, high-quality wood. Not only are they large in diameter, they are also solid hardwood. There will be no problem with their strength."

When they heard that the Beiyang Military Academy was going to be demolished, they couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in their hearts. The Beiyang Military Academy was their alma mater, and it could be said that they were able to have what they have today entirely thanks to this most advanced military academy in the country.

Seeing the expressions of the three people, Teng Yuzao felt a little heavy, but he still nodded firmly and said, "Even if the school building is demolished, we can still rebuild it. As long as our vanguard army is still there, as long as I, Teng Yuzao, am still there, we will not only rebuild the Beiyang Military Academy, I promise, we will also build a better and bigger military academy."

Liu Yuzhi waved his hand solemnly, "Yes, let's rebuild a better one."

Teng Yuzao turned to ask Wei Jinghai, "Ningbo, how is the saw I asked you to prepare?"

Wei Jinghai, who was illuminating the fortifications sketch with a flashlight, smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. I have searched through all the engineering tools we brought from the academy. I have not only found 28 hacksaws, but also hammers and nails, as well as imported iron wire that engineers often use to build bridges and houses."

Originally, Teng Yuzao only asked Wei Jinghai to prepare a saw, but unexpectedly, Wei Jinghai also brought a hammer, nails, and wire. This made Teng Yuzao secretly praise in his heart that this chief of staff might really be the right one.

Just as he was about to give some compliments, Wei Jinghai suddenly asked Teng Yuzao, "Sir, we are reinforcing the Maxim heavy machine gun bunker. Using only wood seems to be insufficient. Wouldn't it be better if we use steel rails?" Before Teng Yuzao could speak, Li Xianze frowned and said, "It will definitely be good, but I'm afraid we won't have enough time to tear up the railway and remove the steel rails."

Wei Jinghai's words had reminded Teng Yuzhao that there were steel rails in the Beiyang Military Academy. This was a plan a few years ago by the Beiyang Military Academy to set up a railway construction subject in addition to the basic subjects such as astronomy, geography, science, mathematics, chemistry, surveying and mapping, artillery and camp methods, formations, weapons, city building, classics and history, German, as well as various military disciplines and battlefield command subjects such as formations, shooting, and building camps. For this purpose, a batch of steel rails were specially purchased for the students of the academy to use for internship.

However, in the end, the school did not add this subject. Instead, it simply established the "Shanhaiguan Beiyang Railway Official School" in Shanhaiguan, a school dedicated to training railway talents. However, for some unknown reason, the specially purchased steel rails were kept in the school.

With the support of steel rails, not only Teng Yuzhao had more confidence in these machine gun fortresses, but Liu Yuzhi and Li Xiance also became more confident. Liu Yuzhi immediately began to organize his soldiers to work according to the sketch of fortifications drawn by Teng Yuzhao. In order to speed up the progress, Li Xiance suggested that one of the three platoons he brought be left behind to continue building their defensive positions, and two of his platoons were also transferred up to cooperate with the work of the regiment.

Originally, several sentries had engineering shovels and pickaxes, which came along with their German equipment. However, the vanguard army did not have individual soldiers carry them with them like the German army did. Instead, they were all handed over to the foreman. Now that the vanguard army has cancelled the foreman, these tools will only have to be carried by the soldiers themselves in the future.

Teng Yuzhao, who has lived two lives, has always admired this short and compact German-made engineer shovel. The shovel head is made of tough and hard manganese steel, and the tip of the shovel is very sharp. It can even be used to chop the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, which is very convenient to use.

Although Liu Yuzhi and Wei Jinghai repeatedly persuaded Teng Yuzhao to return to the tent built for him in the open space in the woods to rest for a while, Teng Yuzhao was not at ease. The upcoming battle was a real battle. It was not only a battle for the vanguard army to get a chance to train, but also a battle that would test the vanguard army's combat effectiveness. He had to be extremely cautious.

In order to speed up the progress, Teng Yuzhao even sent his guard squad to dig trenches. Only after Wei Jinghai insisted did Teng Yuzhao reluctantly leave six guard squad soldiers to follow him. He took several staff officers to run around the entire defensive position. As for the location of this half-hidden Maxim heavy machine gun bunker, the firing range, and even the reinforcement of the four walls and the layout of the top defense layer, Teng Yuzhao personally followed and guided the inspection.

In order to make the soldiers understand the pattern of cat ear holes, Teng Yuzhao even dug a few cat ear holes in the trenches of several positions with his guards and staff to demonstrate to the soldiers.

Along the entire defensive front, the soldiers began to build fortifications in the dark with the help of moonlight. Then Teng Yuzhao and several staff officers entered the west gate of the Beiyang Military Academy, dodging the soldiers who were dismantling the beams and door panels, and went to the two artillery positions facing the concession to check the situation.

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(End of this chapter)