The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 374 Hidden Thoughts

When the villagers leave, they will naturally take the large livestock with them. These large livestock are not only not a burden, but on the contrary, they will be good helpers to them.

But poultry and livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep are completely different.

All the poultry and livestock were bought by the Vanguard Army, so that the Vanguard Army's lunch today was unusually rich, with not only chicken stewed with potatoes, but also braised lamb and braised pork.

However, there were fewer ducks, and they were all made into salted duck. Only some officers in each unit could eat it.

Teng Yuzhao never concealed nor was he shy about this inequality between officers and soldiers.

Teng Yuzao even publicly said that if any soldier wanted to obtain this privilege, he must work harder.

They must constantly improve themselves and can become officers by being brave in combat and making military achievements. However, such officers can only become platoon leaders at best.

If you want to be promoted higher, you have to work hard to improve your level, that is, to enter the military school, or to master the corresponding tactics of modern warfare through self-study and reach a certain level.

Napoleon once said that a soldier who does not want to become a general is not a good soldier. This statement has been best verified in the current vanguard army.

In the current vanguard army, many people have begun to participate in technical and tactical learning on a sentry basis after completing cultural studies, and some even want to be admitted to the camp school.

This is exactly the situation that Teng Yuzhao wants to see most.

What he lacks most now is qualified officers.

Although those who graduated from the Beiyang Military Academy and the Wuwei Vanguard Army's Camp School have now been employed, as the army continues to expand, there is still a large gap in officers in the vanguard army.

The Wuwei Vanguard Army's Camp School has now been changed to the Vanguard Army's Camp School. In order to fill the shortage of Vanguard Army officers as soon as possible, Teng Yuzhao had already required them to open crash courses in the four subjects of infantry, artillery, engineering, and surveying when they were still in Beicang.

However, crash courses also take a certain amount of time and are still unable to quench immediate thirst.

Therefore, in order to meet the demand for officers, Teng Yuzhao had to give up the requirement that platoon leaders must be graduates of the Beiyang Military Academy or the camp school, and had to promote a large number of platoon-level officers from soldier backgrounds.

These platoon officers who were promoted as exceptions were all squad leaders or soldiers in Teng Yuzhao's original battalion.

At the same time, Teng Yuzhao also requested that each post be taught the crash course material of the "Vanguard Army Camp School". Of course, the teaching of such materials, unlike cultural learning, did not force soldiers to attend and was completely voluntary.

Teng Yuzhao even stipulated that the number of people trained by each post should be the first important condition for promotion.

Although Teng Yuzao still followed his habit and took the opportunity of summoning several military commanders to have dinner together to arrange combat tasks.

However, since the troops were about to take action in the evening, the time for lunch was not too long.

This time, only Liu Yuzhi, Li Xiangze, Hu Dianjia, Liu Changfa, Liu Shijiu, Liu Yuanshou, Cao Futian, Pan Jinshan, as well as the brothers Lin Lianhui, Lin Liansheng and Li Yaoting were summoned.

Although Pan Jinshan was not the chief officer of the army, it was because of Cao Futian's joining that Teng Yuzhao persuaded Pan Jinshan to make room for Cao Futian.

Moreover, when in Tianjin at that time, Pan Jinshan was the first officer of the Wuwei Vanguard Army to take the initiative to propose to join the vanguard army. This played a positive role in encouraging Hu Dianjia to eventually lead his troops to join. Teng Yuzhao would never forget this.

Because of these things, Teng Yuzao actually looked at Pan Jinshan differently and did not treat him as a deputy.

As for Liu Yuanshou, there are other arrangements, which will also be announced today so that Liu Shijiu and Liu Yuanshou can prepare in advance.

The reason why Wu Peifu was missing was that he was still on his way back from Langfang with his troops.

However, since it was a victory after all, it was necessary to celebrate. Teng Yuzhao made an exception and allowed everyone to drink half a bowl of wine.

The headquarters' lunch was still extremely special, but due to time constraints, although there were many dishes, they were all very real and not too fancy.

There was a large pot of chicken stewed with mushrooms and a large plate of salted duck, and the rest included braised lamb, poached chicken, braised pork liver, and a large pot of cooked pig's head.

During the meal, Wei Jinghai announced the battle plan that had been revised by Teng Yuzao. In the original battle plan, there was no mission to capture Langfang, but now that Langfang was captured unexpectedly, the battle situation had changed, and it was normal to make corresponding adjustments to the original plan.

Therefore, no one objected to the change of plan.

Only Li Xianze suggested that he and the independent column should lead the way and if they were blocked by the coalition forces, they must fight quickly and decisively, so they needed mortars, which were weapons that could be deployed quickly, had high firepower density, and could provide artillery support almost at any time.

He suggested that a mortar post be sent to accompany Liu Shijiu's Independent Column.

Teng Yuzao believed that Li Xianze's suggestion was very good. Moreover, not only the assault column that was leading the way for the main force in front needed mortars that could provide artillery support at any time, but other troops were also very likely to encounter intercepting coalition forces while marching.

Especially the coalition cavalry, they should arrive here in a few hours.

Although cavalry does not pose much of a threat to a large army like theirs, it is still possible to harass their march.

Therefore, Teng Yuzhao simply took out all six posts of the mortar battalion temporarily. The independent column and three mixed brigades were each equipped with a mortar post, and the remaining two posts were left in the guards brigade at the rear.

In addition, in order to motivate his generals, he had to praise and encourage these subordinates one by one, especially Liu Shijiu and Liu Changfa.

Needless to say, Liu Shijiu, although he annihilated the enemy with a force twice that of the Japanese logistics regiment, and he was not regular combat infantry, he was the only one who did not rely on artillery support and led his troops to launch a direct charge. With minimal casualties, he seized all the ammunition and supplies needed by the Allied Forces of more than 100,000 people.

You know, this is the munitions that Teng Yuzhao urgently needs to expand his army!

Everyone also agreed with the praise for Liu Changfa and his artillery brigade.

Whether it was the breakout in the capital that night or today's ambush, the one who contributed the most was undoubtedly the Artillery Brigade. Without them, this ambush would have been very difficult and the casualties would not have been so small.

Then, Teng Yuzhao informed these generals that Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong had sent a group of officers from the Beiyang Military Academy to the vanguard army, and the imperial court also ordered officers who were students of the Beiyang Military Academy to be drawn from Shanxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, and the Green Camp in southern provinces to come to the vanguard army to participate in the war.

Most of these officers have already arrived in Shanxi.

However, among these officers from various provinces, the officers from Anhui were not dispatched by Wang Zhichun. They resigned from their jobs in the Huai Army and came here on their own after learning of the imperial court's order to recruit them and Wang Zhichun forbade them to join the vanguard army.

However, Yuan Shikai in Shandong politely declined the offer on the grounds that the Wuwei Right Army also urgently needed officers from the Beiyang Military Academy.

In addition, the imperial court had already agreed to send Zhou Fu and Yang Shixiang as the vanguard troops, as well as the defeated troops of the Wuwei Vanguard Army in Lutai, most of which had already arrived in Baoding, waiting to be incorporated by Teng Yuzhao.

After withdrawing across the Yongding River this time, the vanguard army will use the captured weapons and ammunition, as well as the officers who have come from all over the country to expand the army on a large scale.

In order to expand the army, Teng Yuzao has even sent people to contact the Vanguard Army Support Association in various provinces, asking them to help recruit new soldiers and so on.

Many of these were news that Li Yaoting’s people had just sent back.

Li Yaoting's intelligence actually included the information that Ronglu was meeting with the officers from various provinces one by one, and that Cixi had also summoned Zhou Fu and Yang Shixiang.

However, Teng Yuzao did not say anything about these.

Moreover, although Teng Yuzhao had already known some of these things from Zai Yi's letters to him, today was the first time he talked about them with his generals.

Teng Yuzhao was very clear about the intentions of Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and others, and even the intentions of the imperial court.

Therefore, in addition to motivating his subordinates to fight hard today, Teng Yuzhao also had another purpose, which was that he really wanted to see how these people would react to all parties placing personnel in the vanguard army.

Based on these people's reactions, Teng Yuzhao can make corresponding arrangements.

Some of them will be increasingly valued in the subsequent military expansion, while others will need to continue to be observed to see the results.

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(End of this chapter)