The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 384: The Prototype of the Officer Corps

By marching with such a distance between troops, if an emergency occurs, timely rescue will be received quickly.

There is another obvious benefit to retreating according to Wu Peifu's plan.

That is, although the troops' forced retreat speed was very fast, there would be a rest period every half hour. At the same time, it could also, to a certain extent, prevent the troops from becoming too tired due to the forced march and being unable to respond in time when they were fiercely pursued and ambushed by the Allied cavalry.

In Wu Peifu's plan, he would lead his troops in the front to open the way, Teng Yuzhao would coordinate in the middle, and Chief of Staff Li Jinyu would be in the rear to provide cover for the large force and block the pursuit of the Allied cavalry.

However, although Wu Peifu's plan was good, something unexpected happened. That was because Teng Yuzhao insisted on staying until the end.

This was not because Teng Yuzhao was trying to be a hero, but because he really didn't feel comfortable leaving Li Jinyu or Wu Peifu behind.

According to reconnaissance intelligence, the Allied cavalry consisted of only one U.S. 6th Cavalry Regiment and one cavalry regiment each from the Japanese 5th and 9th Divisions, with a total of more than 6,000 people.

Logically speaking, if it were during the day or on an open plain, such a large cavalry unit would pose a great threat to the marching infantry.

But now, not only is it impossible for the cavalry to launch a long-distance fierce charge at night due to the visibility problems of both people and horses, but there are also large areas of sorghum and corn stalks that have not yet been cut and collected left in the fields, so it is impossible for the cavalry to risk charging at night.

The only threat to the Imperial Guards was if the Allied cavalry abandoned their horses and hid in the dry green gauze tents, ambushing the Imperial Guards' marching column.

However, the vanguard army, which was accustomed to being ambushed by others, would not be so careless. As for the retreat route, they had already sent out reconnaissance troops in advance, waiting at the edges of the green tents along the way. As long as they heard the sound of a large number of troops entering the green tents, they would report immediately.

But even so, Teng Yuzhao still insisted on staying until the end with the principle of being cautious. His experience from two lifetimes and his understanding of war history and examples were his assets.

At least, his ability to respond is far stronger than Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu.

Due to Teng Yuzao's insistence, Wu Peifu had to let Li Jinyu lead his troops to open the way, while he and Teng Yuzao stayed in the rear guard.

In addition to sending out reconnaissance personnel along the way early on, Teng Yuzhao also asked Wu Peifu to arrange for the various units of the Imperial Guard to take some measures to prevent ambushes by the Allied cavalry.

In addition to repeatedly emphasizing that Wu Peifu should remind the three groups of retreating troops to remain highly vigilant along the way and be prepared to meet the ambushes of the Allied cavalry at any time.

When the people in the village where they were stationed were evacuated, they bought dozens of flatbed carts from the people at a high price. These flatbed carts were scattered among the three troops, and each of them had more than a dozen soldiers taking turns pushing and pulling them during the march.

These vehicles were not empty, but were equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns.

In order to ensure that this two-wheeled flatbed vehicle can remain stable when stopped, matching benches are temporarily made for it. If it is suddenly attacked, these crudely made benches will be quickly placed under the vehicle.

Thanks to the support of these benches, the flatbed cart can remain stable after the soldiers release the handles. In this way, the Maxim heavy machine gun on the flatbed cart can return fire at the fastest speed, covering the soldiers to quickly launch a counterattack on the spot.

In addition, in order to prevent the horses from being hit by stray bullets after an attack, causing the horses to rush around in the team, breaking up the troops' battle formation or even trampling and injuring soldiers, almost all the horses of the Guards Association have been handed over to Liu Yuzhi to lead in the transport unit.

Even Teng Yuzhao's warhorse and the warhorses of his special guard squadron were in Liu Yuzhi's possession.

Among the three armies of the Imperial Guard at this time, only the horses of the communications corps were still there.

In addition, there were horses used to carry mortars and ammunition for the mortars of that post, and these horses were led by the soldiers during the march.

Because of the ambush on the Allied transport convoy, some of the Allied pack horses were inevitably injured, and the horses pulling the artillery were almost all either killed or injured.

Even the horses pulling the carts in the Japanese transport teams and the short pack horses of the Japanese army were killed or injured by the hundreds, and some carts loaded with ammunition and supplies were damaged, or pulled into the washboard-like fields by frightened horses and overturned, so that these vehicles could not be repaired, resulting in loss of transport capacity.

Not to mention the large number of weapons, ammunition and supplies carried by the Japanese transport teams that were captured, just the more than 10,000 weapons, ammunition and artillery captured from the US, British and French allied forces occupied many vehicles and horses.

Fortunately, Teng Yuzao came prepared this time, bringing many vehicles and pack horses, so that the soldiers would not have to retreat with a large amount of supplies. In the night breeze, Teng Yuzao was still dressed in his cavalry uniform, and walked on the dirt road under the moonlight, under the protection of the guards in front and behind.

In the rear marching column of more than 3,000 people, in addition to the rustling footsteps, two hundred meters away on both sides, the night wind blew the green gauze tent with yellow leaves, making waves like surging "rustling" sounds.

At this time, Teng Yuzhao no longer had the joy of having obtained huge harvest as expected after the battle. His mood was quite complicated. To be precise, he was surprised, happy, and worried!
What surprised Teng Yuzhao was that he never expected that Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu had actually joined Li Zixiong's secret organization, and he could say with certainty that these two people had joined within the last one or two days.

This was because Teng Yuzao had just received a report from Li Yaoting three days ago about Li Zixiong and others organizing more than 20 officers from the Royal Guards Association with the intention of pushing him to the position at a certain time.

Teng Yuzhao was not only happy to see this secret organization organized by Li Zixiong and bent on pushing himself to the top, he even felt a little proud of it.

Moreover, Teng Yuzhao was eager to have an organization spontaneously organized by officers in the vanguard army, so much so that he was considering with an urgent attitude how to create the necessary conditions for the emergence of such an organization.

Now, the appearance of Li Zixiong is like a pillow appearing when he is about to doze off. Although it is hard to say whether this pillow will make him sleep soundly, at least he has the pillow. Next, it depends on how he can adjust the pillow quietly so that he can be more satisfied.

At the same time, the appearance of this group of middle and low-level officers headed by Li Zixiong also shows that his prestige in the vanguard army is extremely high, especially in his old battalion and the nearly 100 students from the Beiyang Military Academy who were rescued by him. They all respect and admire him, which makes Teng Yuzhao much more confident.

With Teng Yuzao's deliberate promotion, these officers have now been distributed to various units of the Vanguard Army. They are the absolute core backbone of the Vanguard Army and the foundation and basis for Teng Yuzao to control the Vanguard Army.

However, these people's loyalty to him was entirely out of gratitude to him personally and the fact that he had led the vanguard army to victory after victory in a series of fierce battles with foreigners and grew rapidly in just a few months, thus gaining great reputation.

Such loyalty could not make Teng Yuzhao feel at ease. He could not guarantee how many of them would stand on his side without hesitation if these officers were faced with making a choice between him, Teng Yuzhao, and the court.
He had more means to control or check senior generals like Hu Dianjia and Liu Shijiu, but Teng Yuzhao was unable to reach the middle and low-level officers under them.

People like Hu Dianjia, Liu Shijiu, and Cao Futian have more convenient conditions and means to bribe and win over the officers under their command than he does. If one day the imperial court does something to Teng Yuzhao, or if these people have other ideas, then there will likely be problems within the vanguard army.

Although Teng Yuzhao had no good feelings towards the corrupt and cowardly Qing Dynasty, he was not like the protagonists in the online novels of his previous life, who could gather followers immediately by raising their arms and calling for help, and everyone would follow him to overthrow the court that had existed for more than two hundred years.

If things go wrong, he will be crushed to dust and his entire family will be executed.

Now, with the appearance of Li Zixiong, he finally found a way to solve this worry.

However, Li Zixiong is only a captain, and his rank is still a bit low. Moreover, the people he connects with are all concentrated in the Guard Association, so his influence will be very limited.

Except for a few captains, the rest of the followers were officers such as sentinels, assistants, and even platoon leaders, all of very low rank.

This is also the reason why he wants to take advantage of this opportunity of military expansion to vigorously promote these people.

Originally, he just wanted to make Li Zixiong and others more grateful and loyal to him through Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu, but what surprised him was that from the obvious changes in their expressions after seeing the names on the list, he had concluded that these two people were fully aware of what Li Zixiong and others had done.

This situation made Teng Yuzhao both happy and worried.

Fortunately, there are finally senior military officers involved in this organization;

What worries him is that Wu Peifu cannot be the only one in power in this organization. Otherwise, if he becomes too powerful to be controlled in the future, it will be troublesome and there may even be a bloody storm.

But I think Wu Peifu would understand what he said. As long as Li Xiance, Liu Yuzhi, Liu Shijiu and others joined in, there would no longer be a monopoly, and he would be relieved of this worry.

In this way, there will be a group of officers in the vanguard army who firmly support him. Although it is only a embryonic form now, with his support and connivance, it will sooner or later grow rapidly.

At that time, anyone who wanted to shake his position would absolutely fail!
Suddenly, Teng Yuzao's heart skipped a beat. He stopped and listened attentively.
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(End of this chapter)