The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 378: Three Towns
Liu Shijiu's words immediately made Wei Jinghai, Li Xianze, Liu Yuzhi, Liu Changfa, Hu Dianjia, Liu Yuanshou and others burst into laughter, and even Teng Yuzhao couldn't help laughing.

Only the smiles of Cao Futian and Pan Jinshan were vaguely obscure.

"Brother, just tell me your request as soon as possible. I have something else to say."

Liu Shijiu put away his smile and spoke seriously.

"Marshal, since Yannian came to my place, he has brought those who graduated from the academy to teach us the infantry course and study culture of the Beiyang Wubei Academy every night."

"Now, not only Decheng and I, but also the deputy officers of the battalions, squadrons, and squads who have never been to the academy, and even the platoon leaders and squad leaders, are attending the class. In addition, in each battalion and squadron, there are also officers who have been to the academy to teach like this."

"This class is well taught! For us peasants, it is really a wake-up call and has given us a lot of knowledge. Now that he is gone."

"So, I would like to ask the Marshal to pick another outstanding student like Yannian from among your students for our assault column, so that these rough guys in our assault column can improve their skills. In this way, when we fight, we will not weaken the reputation of our vanguard army."

In the assault column, although apart from the special existence Zhu Kaishan, the captains, squadron leaders and platoon leaders were either officers from the Beiyang Military Academy or people from Teng Yuzhao's original battalion, in general, the majority of the soldiers in the assault column were Boxers.

Most of these people have never been to school.

In fact, it was not just the assault column. Other troops were not much better, especially the new recruits recruited later, most of whom were members of the Boxer Rebellion.

It would obviously be inappropriate if none of the Boxer leaders, both big and small, were given a job, but it would also be inappropriate to arrange them as military officers. It would definitely be bad to let these people who only know how to wield swords and sticks to command modern wars.

It would also be inappropriate to send these people to Sun Shijun's teaching brigade or the camp school because of their limited educational level.

Therefore, after Teng Yuzhao's initial military reorganization in Beicang, he required all the regular officers at all levels of the Beiyang Military Academy and the camp schools in each unit to spare time to teach the school curriculum to these officers of all ranks who came from the Boxers, so that they could understand how to use modern weapons to fight against foreigners.

Over the past six months, this teaching method has achieved very good results. Most of the officers who came from the Boxer Rebellion, led by Liu Shijiu and Cao Futian, as well as those from the Wuwei Front Army, the Green Camp, and the Training Army, have a general understanding of how to command their subordinates who use hot weapons in combat. Some of them have even stood out and have now been promoted to full-time positions.

Since Liu Yuanshou arrived at the assault brigade at that time, the assault brigade has achieved the most obvious results.

Liu Shijiu's request actually hit the mark exactly what Teng Yuzhao wanted.

Because Liu Shijiu was humble and eager to learn, and never gave blind orders on things he didn't understand, Liu Yuanshou's position as deputy captain of the assault column was almost like that of a trainee captain.

Moreover, Liu Shijiu seemed to have a natural talent for rallying the troops and boosting morale. His subordinates both respected and feared him and were completely obedient to him. No one dared to contradict Liu Yuanshou, let alone disobey his orders. This made Liu Yuanshou's position in the assault column very stable.

Therefore, even if Liu Shijiu did not say it, Teng Yuzhao was ready to arrange another person he valued to be the deputy commander of the assault column. He really wanted to train another Liu Yuanshou from here.

"Okay! I agree to your request. I will personally select the candidate for you and I guarantee you will be satisfied."

Teng Yuzao's words drew a series of thanks from Liu Shijiu, and also made some people feel deeply happy for the person who was about to be chosen by Teng Yuzao.

The person selected by Teng Yuzhao himself must be one whom he has high hopes for. In the future, it is possible that, as Liu Shijiu said, the assault column will have another assistant commander, or even a town commander.

Teng Yuzao looked at Liu Yuanshou, whose face was flushed with excitement, and said, "You must be rewarded for your merits. Yannian, you don't need to say anything more. Please stay for a while after the meeting. I have something else to tell you."

"Yes!"

Liu Yuanshou stood up and gave Teng Yuzao a standard military salute. Teng Yuzao waved his hand to signal Liu Yuanshou to take a seat, "And more."

Teng Yuzao continued, "The Empress Dowager's edict pointed out that no one in the court understands Western warfare, and has no idea how to manage a new army like this."

"So, this new army will still be under my control for the time being."

Teng Yuzao's words left everyone unable to react for a moment, but in just a moment, everyone understood.

In theory, although the imperial court encouraged the training of new armies, it did not care about the military expenses, supplies and equipment of the new armies trained by the provinces. This also led to the fact that the troops in each province only listened to their superiors in the province, and some military generals in each province also had to obey the orders of these civil officials.

But this time, although the army was no longer under the jurisdiction of Huguang, the court only provided military pay, and completely abandoned the officers and weapons. Even the control of this new army was handed over to the Vanguard Army, which was almost the same as the Vanguard Army’s own troops. ”

"This is equivalent to taking the military power from Zhang Zhidong of Huguang and handing it over to Teng Yuzao. This is almost a disguised way of increasing the number of troops in the vanguard army.

Especially since the officers were all from the vanguard army, even if Zhang Zhidong wanted to take back the military power one day, it would be completely impossible. Even if the court wanted to mobilize this army, it would probably have to get Teng Yuzhao's approval.

Of course, in this case, since the military pay of the vanguard army was originally raised by Zhili itself, the imperial court probably wanted to save on the military pay, so the so-called imperial court paying the military pay was just talk.

"it is good!"

Liu Nineteen slammed the table excitedly again, "This is the most correct thing the court has done since the war began. Only by handing over this new army to us can we avoid wasting manpower and money."

Seeing that it was getting late, Teng Yuzao said, "Although the court has only agreed to our expansion of the army, it has not yet given our town a number. However, we can't just sit there and wait."

"Even if we can wait, the foreign devils will not let us wait. They will definitely mobilize heavy troops to encircle and attack us."

Teng Yuzao paused for a moment, then said in a serious tone, "Let me tell you something. If we retreat to the west of the Yongding River this time, we will have reached the south-central part of Zhili. If we continue south and west, we will soon enter Henan."

"If Zhili is destroyed, we can still find ways to rebuild it ourselves, but if Henan is destroyed, no one will take care of it. The court cannot afford to pay, and Henan has always been poor, so we must not bring the war to Henan."

"That is to say, we can only stay in Zhili, and at most enter the Taihang Mountains. That is our final shelter, and it is also the place where we will decide the outcome with the foreign devils."

"The foreign devils now have about 150,000 or 160,000 troops in the capital. This time, we ambushed them severely and they suffered heavy losses. I am worried that the foreign devils will not increase their troops step by step like this."

"The foreign devils are likely to think of achieving their goal in one fell swoop and desperately mobilize a large force to attack us, so we must also expand our army as soon as possible."

"Once we get near Baoding, we will immediately start large-scale military expansion and preparation for war."

Teng Yuzhao looked at Liu Yuzhi, Li Xiangze, Hu Dianjia, Liu Shijiu, Cao Futian in turn, and finally swept his eyes across Pan Jinshan's face.

"What I mean is that, given that we are still a little short of weapons, the camp office still has 30,000 new recruits who have been training for two and a half months. By then, they will be almost fully trained. For the time being, the three mixed brigades will be set up according to the town's organization, and their weapons and equipment will have to be given to them first."

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(End of this chapter)