The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 371 How many foreign devils were killed

Li Jinyu was very happy to see that Wu Peifu agreed to his plan, but he immediately reminded Wu Peifu.

"Zi Yu, what we are doing is beyond our mission. Should we consult the Marshal about this matter?"

Wu Peifu nodded and said, "Don't worry. After receiving the report from your people, I immediately sent someone to ask the Marshal for instructions, and also sent someone to notify Commander Hu."

"However, we cannot wait for the Marshal's approval for this matter. The fighting opportunity is fleeting. If something goes wrong, I will bear the responsibility."

Wu Peifu was right, "the opportunity for battle is fleeting", Li Jinyu agreed with this point very much, but Li Jinyu still felt a little uneasy in his heart, but he gritted his teeth and said it.

"Zi Yu, if there is any problem, I will also contribute to it. Although you are the chief officer of our Guard Association, I was the first to bring it up."

Although it was Li Jinyu who first mentioned the need to take advantage of the situation to capture Langfang, if we really want to trace it back, Li Jinyu was only the chief of staff and he could not take this responsibility. This responsibility could only be borne by Wu Peifu, after all, the final decision was made by Wu Peifu.

Although Wu Peifu thought clearly, he still patted Li Jinyu's arm and said with a friendly smile.

"Okay! Mingguang, if there really is a problem and the Marshal wants to investigate, we two brothers will shoulder the responsibility together."

"However, you don't have to worry too much. Although we successfully seized this munitions and supplies in order not to disturb the foreign devils, we did not initially plan to take Langfang."

"But the current situation is very favorable to us. If we can take Langfang in one fell swoop, it will cut off the transportation line between the foreign devils in Beijing and Tianjin. The foreign devils in Beijing will almost become an isolated army. They will definitely not sit idly by."

"This will be very helpful for us to quickly leave with the large amount of seized supplies. The Marshal will understand this."

Wu Peifu turned around and said to the sentry leader who was following him, "You take the sentry and clean up the battlefield immediately. I'm afraid we won't have time when we return from Langfang."

Li Jinyu could tell that Wu Peifu deliberately emphasized the word "carefully".

After instructing the sentry chief, Wu Peifu excitedly said to Li Jinyu, "Our Guards have captured a regimental flag of the Japanese. I guess the Japanese who escaped here may have another one. Tell the troops that anyone who captures a regimental flag will be awarded a great merit."

"besides."

Wu Peifu pointed to the electric poles on the roadside and said, "We must also remind our people not to destroy the telegraph lines along the way, otherwise it will delay the foreign devils in the capital from getting the news of the fall of Langfang."

Inside the temporary headquarters, Teng Yuzhao was concentrating on thinking about the map spread on the ammunition box, and his eyes were always fixed on Langfang.

Teng Yuzao had received the report from the person sent by Wu Peifu. Hearing that Wu Peifu had decided to attack Langfang without authorization, Teng Yuzao felt quite complicated.

But after a moment's thought, his mood calmed down again, and his initial anger turned into a hint of joy.

What made Teng Yuzhao angry was, of course, that Wu Peifu acted without waiting for him to express his opinion, which was equivalent to just telling him a word and then starting the action.

This is equivalent to challenging the authority of the teacher.

The reason why Teng Yuzhao calmed down was that he soon discovered that if Wu Peifu could capture Langfang, it would bring unexpected benefits, and the coalition forces in the capital would never watch their retreat being cut off by the vanguard army.

If it happened in ancient times, the coalition forces' food supply would be cut off, and the army would have no choice but to retreat, and might even be in danger of being wiped out.

Although the coalition forces are now short of food, they can get it by looting the civilians, but they have nowhere to rob their weapons and ammunition, so these must be transported to them from Tianjin.

In modern warfare, ammunition and rations are equally important. Without ammunition, even the best weapons in the hands of the coalition forces are just a firewood stick.

Therefore, this transportation line is also extremely important to the coalition forces in the capital, and Langfang between Beijing and Tianjin is the most critical node on this transportation line. The coalition forces will not ignore it and will at least send troops to rescue.

In this way, the coalition forces in the capital would be greatly reduced in their ability to block his way westward, which would have an unexpected effect on his safe retreat to the west with the large amount of captured supplies.

Teng Yuzhao believed that the Allied Forces could not hide the fact that he led his troops to retreat to Yanjiachang and built fortifications there.

Although the coalition's scouts were unable to obtain any information due to their appearance, the believers from Tianjin to the capital had been tipping off the coalition many times. Now that they were going deep into the interior, these believers would be even more active.

As long as the coalition forces hesitated for a moment and sent fewer coalition forces to block the retreat he had arranged, he would be absolutely sure to evacuate safely. In addition to the extremely favorable battle situation created by Wu Peifu, which made Teng Yuzao happy, there was another point that made Teng Yuzao feel happy.

That was Teng Yuzao. He seemed to have vaguely seen the shadow of Marshal Wu Ziyu, who was rebellious, stubborn, self-disciplined, and resolute in his memory. This was what made Teng Yuzao most happy.

Teng Yuzhao has always been a little worried. Without his experiences and hardships, would Wu Peifu, who was forced to grow up by him, still be the Wu Peifu who dominated history?
Teng Yuzao didn't need a good student, he needed a general who could truly stand on his own.

"Commander!"

Wei Jinghai, with an excited look on his face, came up to Teng Yuzhao with a cowhide folder in his hand. He observed Teng Yuzhao's expression and said with a smile.

"Through the documents we seized from the Japanese, we have confirmed that the brigade we destroyed this time was the 8th Brigade of the 4th Division of the Japanese Army."

"The Imperial Guards fought well in this battle. Not only did they capture a complete flag of the Ninth Regiment of the Japanese during the ambush, they also killed the Japanese Major General Ogawa Mataji, the brigade commander, and the Colonel Tamura Iyozo, the commander of the Ninth Regiment."

"The Third Mixed Brigade reported that after cleaning the battlefield, no traces of burned military flags were found. Commander Hu estimated that the flag of another regiment of the Ninth Brigade of the Japanese devils might be with the commander of the Japanese devils' brigade. So, Wu Ziyu might be able to seize two regiment flags of the Japanese devils this time!"

It was difficult to capture one of the Japanese regiment flags, let alone two at once. If two Japanese regiment flags were captured, then the numbers of two regiments of the Japanese would disappear, which would definitely be a great achievement.

However, Teng Yuzhao was thinking that the credit could not be given all to the Imperial Guards and Wu Peifu. Hu Dianjia intentionally gave the credit to Wu Peifu, so some of it should be shared with Hu Dianjia.

As for the Fourth Division, Teng Yuzhao is even more familiar to him.

The 1884th Division was established in Osaka Garrison in . All its soldiers were from Osaka, so it was also called the Osaka Division.

Most of the soldiers in the Osaka Division were businessmen. People in this division were good at business and would make some extra money almost wherever they went. Their performance on some battlefields was not satisfactory, so they were called the cowardly division by the Japanese.

In fact, the 4th Division did have some combat achievements, and was even called by the Allied forces as the only division in the Japanese army that fought with its brains.

Decades later during World War II, it was this 4th Division that actually forced the surrender of 60,000 American troops in the Philippines by means of infiltration and detours, which shows that its combat effectiveness was not bad.

However, now the Fourth Division has also appeared, which means that the Japanese army has increased its troops. Now in Zhili, there are already the Fifth and Ninth Divisions of the Japanese Army, plus the Fourth Division, a total of three divisions, accounting for one-third of the Japanese Army's regular strength. The total force in Zhili is estimated to be close to 90,000.

Although the 5th Division and the 9th Division suffered successive blows, especially the 5th Division, which had almost completely replaced its troops, they would be replenished soon, and the Japanese Army still had relatively sufficient reserve troops at this time.

It seems that the Japanese are a little angry and humiliated.

However, this also gave Teng Yuzao some hope.

According to Teng Yuzhao's estimation, the Japanese army would at most send one more division to Zhili. If they sent more, the country's current national strength would be unable to bear it.

Moreover, it is impossible for the Japanese to deploy all their troops to Zhili. The Russians have already marched outside the Great Wall. If their military losses are too great, the Russians will most likely not let go of such an opportunity and there is a great possibility that they will give them a severe blow. The Japanese will not be unprepared.

In other words, the possibility of the Japanese increasing their troops is no longer great, or they are already approaching their limit.

Seeing that Teng Yuzhao didn't say anything, Wei Jinghai thought that Teng Yuzhao was still upset about Wu Peifu's decision to attack Langfang without authorization, so he smiled and spoke again.

"Marshal, we have gained a lot from this battle! Huge!"

Wei Jinghai's extremely excited tone interrupted Teng Yuzhao's thoughts and also aroused his excitement.

"Ningbo, first tell me how many foreign devils we killed, and then tell me about the spoils we seized."

Teng Yuzao was not a money-grubber. He always believed that the most fundamental thing was to destroy more of the coalition forces, especially to make the five countries of Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Japan, except the Russian army, suffer heavy casualties, so that they would finally stop fighting and make peace.

As for the seizures, that is actually a by-product.

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(End of this chapter)