The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 4 Do you think I don't dare to kill people?
Although the Wuwei Army was trained in imitation of the Western-style army, Teng Yuzhao believed that its organization was somewhat out of place, or in other words, the Wuwei Army was a product of the combination of the Western-style army and the Qing army.

For example, the Wuwei Army was divided into five armies: front, rear, left, right, and center. Each army had a president who was in charge of the entire army. Under the president, there were only battalion organizations, but no division, brigade, or regiment organization.

Among them, Nie Shicheng is the president of the Wuwei Front Army, stationed in Lutai and Kaiping; Dong Fuxiang is the president of the Wuwei Rear Army, stationed in Jizhou; Song Qing is the president of the Wuwei Left Army, stationed inside and outside Shanhaiguan; Yuan Shikai is the president of the Wuwei Right Army, and is now acting as the governor of Shandong. The Wuwei Right Army is now stationed in Shandong to suppress the Boxer Rebellion; the Wuwei Central Army directly under Ronglu is stationed in Nanyuan, the capital.

The five armies, front, rear, left, right and center, are not five military units in the modern sense, but the names of five armies. Since they were all transformed from the Qing army into the Wuwei Army, although they can be regarded as the direct troops of the court, their number is not the same, and even their weapons and equipment and uniforms are not exactly the same.

For example, the predecessor of the Wuwei Vanguard Army was the Wuyi Army commanded by Nie Shicheng within the Huai Army.

The Wuwei Front Army was one of the two best-equipped and well-trained armies in the Wuwei Army. It was also the strongest and best-equipped unit among all the Wuwei armies during the period of resisting the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

There were more than 15000 officers and soldiers of the Wuwei Front Army and more than 4000 longfu, with a total number of 20000 people and thirty battalions.

There are five cavalry battalions and five artillery battalions. The five artillery battalions are equipped with Krupp 75mm and older 60mm artillery. In addition, each infantry battalion is also equipped with German mm and mm artillery.

Apart from the newly formed Wuwei Right Army, the Wuwei Front Army was the most valued unit by the court at that time. They employed German instructors and had a full set of German equipment, including the latest G98 Mauser rifles, Maxim machine guns, etc. Even their uniforms were the same as those of the Right Army, which was modeled after the German army. They were even called "fake foreign devils" by the people.

The predecessor of the Wuwei Rear Army was the Dong's Third Battalion of Dong Fuxiang of the Gansu Army. After it became the Wuwei Army, its organization was expanded to eight battalions, including one battalion each for artillery, cavalry, and engineering, with a total of 7,400 people.

The Wuwei Left Army also originated from the Huai Army. Its commander was Song Qing, who was as famous as the Huai Army's fierce general Liu Mingchuan. The Huai Army was almost completely destroyed in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and the remnants were reorganized into the Wuwei Left Army by Ronglu, which had only more than 10,000 troops.

Although Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army had the smallest number of people, it was a completely newly formed army, and most of the soldiers were trained from scratch. A large number of graduates from the Beiyang Military Academy were recruited to join. Not only were they the best trained, but their weapons and equipment were also no weaker than those of the Wuwei Vanguard Army. Although there were only more than 7,000 people, it was completely modeled after the German Army divisions at that time. In terms of combat effectiveness, it was much stronger than the Wuwei Vanguard Army.

In addition to the inconsistent number of troops, the Wuwei Army's troop organization was also somewhat incongruous.

For example, the organization of a battalion. An infantry battalion includes one commander (battalion commander), one assistant commander (deputy battalion commander), and one battalion instructor (chief platoon leader). They are in charge of four sentries: front, rear, left, and right. Each sentry has three platoons, and each platoon has a platoon leader. They are in charge of three tents, each with one officer and twelve regular soldiers.

The battalion consisted of 2 officers, 500 soldiers (chiefs and regular soldiers), 2 clerks, 180 medical officers, 711 committee members, clerks, and foremans, for a total of people.

The Changfu were not civilian laborers but auxiliary soldiers. The difference between them and regular soldiers was not only the difference in monthly salary, but also that they had to do miscellaneous work and serve as porters during marches.

And "book knowledge" is actually another way of saying document.

As for the head of the tent, he is the squad leader.

The sentry leader is the company commander.

Even these military positions and organizations were not unified within the Wuwei Army, and the names were quite confusing.

The only thing worth mentioning is that in each army of the Wuwei Army, in addition to the camp affairs office in charge of logistics and the teaching office in charge of teaching, as well as the ordnance bureau and the military medical bureau, there is also a food and salary bureau, and committee members are set up in each camp to ensure that food and salary can be distributed in full to each soldier.

Although Teng Yuzhao complained a lot about the Wuwei Army's weird organization, that was the reality, and when he was unable to change it, he could only ignore it.

Seeing Li Yulin, the leader, coming in, Teng Yuzao stood up quickly, calling his guard to come over and put away his Mauser pistol bullets and holster, and put the box pistol directly on the belt around his waist, while asking Li Yulin, "Qionglin, are the troops not ready yet? Is there any problem?"

All the officers above the rank of platoon leader in this battalion were recruited by Teng Yuzhao from the Beiyang Military Academy or poached from other troops. They were all students he was familiar with while teaching at the school. Naturally, Teng Yuzhao did not need to be overly polite to Li Yulin.

Li Yulin sighed and said, "Everything is ready!"

Teng Yuzao felt a little strange about Li Yulin's demeanor and asked, "Since everything is ready, why are you sighing?"

Li Yulin smiled bitterly and said, "It's all because of the Boxer Rebellion."

The imperial court's attitude towards the Boxer Rebellion was very contradictory. It first suppressed and banned the Boxer Rebellion, and then encouraged the Boxer Rebellion to attack foreigners. As a result, the two factions within the imperial court were in serious conflict. It was not until Empress Dowager Cixi took action and directly killed five ministers who strongly opposed the Boxer Rebellion that the opposition voices within the imperial court were barely suppressed.

However, despite this, local governments still focus on suppression, and even Yuan Shikai in Shandong still does so now. Only the capital region allows the Boxers to rebel.

A large part of the Boxers in the capital area came to the capital because they could not gain a foothold in Shandong.

Moreover, as far as Teng Yuzhao knew, Ronglu, Yulu, including Nie Shicheng and others were all opposed to the rise of the Boxer Rebellion from the bottom of their hearts. Yulu even went on a killing spree in Zhili for a time. But after Cixi took action, Ronglu and Yulu both kept their necks down and remained silent. Yulu even became the eldest brother of the Boxer Rebellion.

Only Nie Shicheng, although no longer calling for the killing of the Boxers, his attitude towards the Boxers was still very stiff, so that the Wuwei Front Army and the Boxers were now at loggerheads, and they were killing each other in secret.

In particular, the Boxers not only killed Christians, burned churches, and removed power lines, but also destroyed railways. This caused Nie Shicheng a lot of headaches after he received a letter from Yu Lu on May 30th asking him to send troops to protect Lubao and the Beijing-Tianjin Railway.

Soon after, the Boxer Rebellion destroyed and burned the Huangcun Railway. This made Nie Shicheng, who was responsible for protecting the railway, furious. He sent a patrol troop to stop them, but they were met with attack by the Boxers and ran back with dozens of people injured.

After that, more than 3,000 Boxers came to demolish the Langfang Railway. This time, Nie Shicheng personally led his troops there and they were attacked by the Boxers again. The two armies fought and more than 500 Boxers were killed on the spot.

Because of this incident, Nie Shicheng was severely reprimanded by Prince Duan Zai Yi, Grand Secretary Gang Yi and others who controlled the court at that time. Nie Shicheng was even investigated and punished by being retained in office. Yu Lu had no choice but to order Nie Shicheng to lead his troops back to Tianjin.

At that time, there were more than 20,000 Boxers in Tianjin, and only ten battalions of Nie Shicheng's vanguard army were left, with about 5,000 people. Soldiers of the vanguard army who were left alone or in small groups taking to the streets were often beaten or even killed, which deepened the feud between the Wuwei Vanguard Army and the Boxers.

Worried that the Wuwei Vanguard Army would be treated unfairly and lead to mutiny, Ronglu, the Grand Councilor who had already lost power in the court for opposing the Boxer Rebellion, wrote a letter to comfort Nie Shicheng, saying that the Wuwei Army's uniforms were Westernized and could easily be misunderstood.

Since the uniforms of Teng Yuzhao's battalion were exactly the same as those of the front army, and could only be distinguished by the armbands, his soldiers were accidentally injured several times.

Li Yulin's words immediately turned Teng Yuzao's tone cold, "Could it be that one of our people was injured again?"

Li Yulin shook his head and said, "No, this time they are not only trying to injure our people, but also trying to incite the soldiers in our camp to rebel!"

Li Yulin's words had made Teng Yuzao's face turn pale instantly. "Qionglin, hurry up and tell me! What's going on? Do you think I don't dare to kill anyone?"

(End of this chapter)