The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 408: All the Shells Were Used

Teng Yuzao looked at Harris seriously and said, "If the money on you is not confiscated, you will probably use it to bribe my people. I must take precautions in advance."

Teng Yuzao then added, "Also, Colonel Harris, please remember that this is not France. There is no Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, the Declaration of Human Rights does not cover prisoners."

The so-called "Declaration of the Rights of Man" was drawn up by the French more than a hundred years ago. One of its famous contents is that "private property is sacred and inviolable."

Although Harris could not accept Teng Yuzao's weird ideas, he had to admit that the second half of Teng Yuzao's sentence was correct.

This is not France, nor any Western country, this is the Qing Dynasty, and they are prisoners of war, not ordinary citizens. They should have the feeling or awareness of prisoners of war.

Seeing that Jack seemed to have finished writing the letter, but was still holding his gold-plated pen and looking at it, Teng Yuzao couldn't help but laugh.

"Jack, are you wondering how this pen can write so many words without using any more ink?"

Jack nodded doubtfully, acknowledging that Teng Yuzao was right.

Teng Yuzao said proudly, "This fountain pen is a new invention. It was recently produced in Shanghai by our Qing Dynasty company. It can absorb a lot of ink at a time and is very convenient to use. It should be patented in your country soon."

Teng Yuzao's words not only attracted Harris's attention, but also several British officers nearby looked curiously at the pen in Jack's hand.

Teng Yuzao smiled and made a bet, then waved his hand and said, "If you like it, I'll give you this pen."

Before Jack could express his gratitude, Teng Yuzao reached out and took the letter from Jack.

"Jack, I promise that your letter will be delivered to your brother within a few days, believe me."

Then he turned to Li Jinyu and said, "Mingguang, you make the arrangements. Just do as I just said."

Then, Teng Yuzao said to Harris, "Colonel Harris, I wish you good luck!"

That night, at 13:10 in the morning, at Laishui County Government Office.

The county government office, which used to be dark at this time, was now brightly lit.

On the stone steps in front of the door, a dozen vanguard soldiers with serious expressions and armed with live ammunition were standing guard on duty.

From time to time, staff officers and communications soldiers ran in and out.

In the county government office, dozens of lanterns were hung in the courtyard and under the eaves, making the light exceptionally bright.

In the brightly lit lobby of the county government, Teng Yuzhao sat in his usual position as the magistrate of Laishui County. On the table in front of him, besides a cup of strong coffee, there was also a ceramic bowl that served as an ashtray.

There were chairs and low tables on both sides below, and on these tables, without exception, there were strong tea and ceramic bowls.

Those sitting on the chairs included Liu Yuzhi, Li Xiance, Liu Shijiu, Liu Changfa, Wu Peifu and others.

Li Xianze and Liu Changfa had just arrived at Yi County with their troops when they were asked to attend an emergency military meeting. Wei Jinghai's seat was at one end of the table, but at this moment he was standing in front of the table with great interest, informing everyone of the results of the Battle of Juma River.

"In this battle, even if we don't count the foreign devils killed or wounded by the three battalions of the Imperial Guards during the blocking battle, 4,142 Russians, 2,636 Japanese, and 3,853 British and French devils were killed on both sides of the Juma River alone."

"Although we cannot count the number of foreign devils killed in the Juma River, we estimate that it is definitely more than a thousand. In other words, a total of more than 11,000 foreign devils were killed in this battle."

Although these generals already knew that the seriously understaffed Imperial Guards had just won a victory and blocked more than 50,000 pursuing foreign troops, and even knew the course of the battle, Wei Jinghai's words still surprised these generals.

"In addition, this battle captured a total of 5,333 people, including the Russians, the Japanese, and the real and fake foreigners from Britain and France."

As soon as Wei Jinghai finished speaking, Liu Yuzhi, Li Xiangze, Liu Shijiu, Liu Changfa and others all looked at Wu Peifu with strange eyes. Liu Shijiu even glared at Wu Peifu fiercely.

Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and said to Wu Peifu, "Don't look down on Ziyu. He has his reasons for doing this. If we didn't have those prisoners, we wouldn't be able to clean up the battlefield. The foreigners have more than 200 cannons."

"You have to know that we need a large number of weapons to expand our army. If Ziyu really kills all those foreign devils, and they fire again, not to mention that our soldiers are still on the battlefield, the losses will be huge, and there won't be many weapons left."

After thinking about it, they all understood that they had no choice under the circumstances, but Liu Shijiu still bared his teeth at Wu Peifu in a demonstrative manner before letting him go.

Teng Yuzao signaled to Wei Jinghai to continue speaking.

Wei Jinghai was not disturbed by these senior generals and continued to speak with undiminished emotion.

"In this battle, we seized 5,638 intact British Enfield rifles, 3,616 Russian Mosin-Nagants, 3,620 Japanese Golden Hook rifles, 1,066 French rifles, and 38 intact heavy machine guns. We haven't had time to count the bullets and other property yet."

"Besides, it's a pity that so many guns were destroyed by mortars."

The so-called other property naturally refers to the money carried by the Allied forces who were killed or captured other than military supplies.

However, not to mention that we haven't had time to count the numbers yet, even if we have counted them, it would be inappropriate to report these numbers at an emergency military meeting like today.

Wei Jinghai sighed and said, "Our losses are not small either. The Imperial Guards suffered more than 3,000 casualties. Including the ambush in Langfang and the subsequent capture of Langfang by the Imperial Guards, the Imperial Guards have suffered more than half of their casualties. Now, including some lightly wounded soldiers, we have more than 6,000 troops."

Since the breakout from the capital began, the assault column and the guards corps suffered the most casualties, which made several generals sigh.

Liu Nineteen stiffened his neck and said, "I still say the same thing. There will always be casualties in war, especially since we are fighting against the foreign devils."

Liu Shijiu said to Teng Yuzao again in a hurry, "Marshal, now we can fight not only the foreign devils chasing us from Dongxianpo, but also the foreign devils on the east bank of Juma River who were just beaten badly by the Imperial Guards. Tell us quickly, what should we do next and which group of foreign devils should we fight."

Liu Shijiu's words clearly expressed what everyone was thinking, and several people turned their eyes to Teng Yuzao.

Teng Yuzao nodded and said to everyone, "We will discuss this issue soon. Now let the deputy chief of staff tell you about the situation of both sides."

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(End of this chapter)