The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 435 Let’s Go to Baoding
After Teng Yuzhao introduced Yang Shixiang to everyone, he quickly glanced at the meeting room and saw that all the generals were seated, so he announced the meeting.

"Let's start the meeting now. It's still the same old rules. First, Deputy Chief of Staff Wei will report on yesterday's great victory."

After receiving Teng Yuzhao's instructions, Wei Jinghai opened his cowhide-covered notebook without much thought and began to report the results of yesterday's battle.

According to Wei Jinghai's report, the results of yesterday's battle were extremely brilliant. It was the largest field victory achieved in all battles since Teng Yuzhao launched his uprising in Tianjin.

Not only in terms of spoils of war, but even in terms of the number of foreign devils killed, it was the largest ever.

In this battle, a total of more than 48,900 Japanese and Russian coalition forces were wiped out, and only more than 1,000 people escaped. It can be said that the 50,000 coalition forces were completely wiped out in this battle.

Not only was the Russian supreme commander, Lieutenant General Stesheli, killed by intensive artillery fire during the battle.

Among the four infantry regiment commanders of the 9th Division of the Japanese Army, three regiment commanders, including Mototaro Sakai of the 7th Regiment, Tameyoshi Saji of the 19th Regiment, and Shigeo Mihara of the 36th Regiment, were killed.

Out of more than 50,000 allied troops, only more than 1,000 escaped. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire army was wiped out.

The commander of the Japanese 9th Division, Hisanao Oshima, escaped the ambush with only a few hundred troops including the commander of the 35th Regiment.

If the Japanese army had not paid great attention to protecting their regimental flags, the four regiments would have been able to burn their regimental flags in time at the critical moment. Otherwise, at least three Japanese regimental flags would have been captured in this battle. If that had been the case, the 9th Division of the Japanese Army would have almost been eliminated from the Japanese army sequence.

In this great victory, not only did we kill a large number of enemies, we also captured a great deal of spoils.

Twenty-four 75mm Krupp guns, six French 87mm guns, and eight British Armstrong 165mm guns were captured.

Thirty-six Maxim heavy machine guns and twenty-eight Hotchkiss heavy machine guns were seized.

More than 16,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles and cavalry rifles were seized, and more than 18,000 Golden Hook rifles were seized.

There are more than 800 revolvers, more than 3,000 Japanese and Russian sabers, and the ammunition has not been counted yet.

Although the generals knew that tens of thousands of foreign devils had been killed, they were still not sure of the exact number. After hearing Wei Jinghai's report, they became even more excited.

You know, if we count the coalition forces of Britain, Japan, Russia and France destroyed at the Juma River, the number of foreign devils destroyed in the past two days has exceeded 60,000. If we also count the coalition forces destroyed north of Langfang, the number of coalition forces destroyed has reached nearly 90,000.

Liu Shijiu laughed excitedly and said, "Marshal, in my opinion, since the foreign devils on the east bank of the Juma River have escaped, we should go to Baoding and take care of those tens of thousands of foreign devils as well!"

Although Liu Jiujiu's words caused a group of generals to laugh out loud, Teng Yuzhao could feel from their laughter and expressions that many people agreed with what Liu Jiujiu said.

Teng Yuzhao smiled bitterly in his heart, and even his expression became a little serious.

"I have to remind you that, including the battle of Langfang, although we have won these three battles with great victories, or even complete victories, it does not mean that the foreign devils are completely vulnerable, nor does it mean that the combat effectiveness of our vanguard army is far stronger than that of the foreign devils."

"We used ambush tactics and concentrated artillery fire to catch the foreign devils off guard and cause them to suffer heavy losses. Then we set out our ambush troops everywhere and finally defeated or even wiped out tens of thousands of foreign devils' heavy troops." "The combat effectiveness of the foreign devils must not be underestimated, let alone underestimate the enemy, otherwise we will be the ones who suffer heavy losses."

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "In these victories, we should say that we won in the use of tactics and methods. Each time we did not fight the foreign devils head-on."

"Think about it carefully, everyone. Since Tianjin, we have fought so many battles with the foreign devils, big and small. How many head-on battles have we fought?"

"All our victories were achieved due to the proper use of tactics and strategies."

Teng Yuzhao's words made all the generals stop smiling and their expressions became serious.

"So, don't think that we can wipe out the remaining hundreds of thousands of foreign devils in Zhili in one fell swoop. We must pay great attention to the combat effectiveness of the foreign devils, seize the opportunity, and give them a heavy blow. This is still the fundamental tactic we need to adhere to in future battles with the foreign devils."

Teng Yuzao exhaled heavily and said, "Next, let Deputy Chief of Staff Wei report our losses."

When the losses were mentioned, almost all the generals' faces turned gloomy.

Wei Jinghai sighed lightly, flipped through the book in his hand and said, "Although we won a great victory in this battle and had strong support from the artillery and artillery, our losses were still not small."

"The Third Mixed Brigade suffered nearly 10,000 casualties all the way back from Dongxianpo. The casualties of the other units added together amounted to more than 7,000. If we count from the time we withdrew from the capital, our casualties have exceeded 30,000, with the number of deaths alone exceeding 13,000."

Wei Jinghai's words not only made these generals look gloomy and silent, but also shocked Yang Shixiang and Duan Qirui.

More than 30,000 casualties, this is a huge number. With such a high number of casualties, if it were an ordinary army, it would probably have been unable to fight again. However, the vanguard army can still continue to win battles!
This is not only related to the fact that there is a commander like Teng Yuzhao who has won victory after victory, which keeps the vanguard army in high morale, but it is also probably related to the fact that a large number of people in the vanguard army are from the Boxers.

Most of the people who came from the Boxer Rebellion were brave and aggressive, and they were indifferent to life and death. Especially after winning battles one after another, they did not care much about large numbers of casualties, so their morale was not affected.

Wei Jinghai continued, "When we were in the capital, the total number of our troops inside and outside the city exceeded 70,000, but now, including the independent column, our number is less than 50,000."

Seeing that everyone's faces looked unhappy, not to mention Hu Dianjia's face, it was so gloomy that it seemed like water was almost dripping from it.

Teng Yuzao said, "Although the number of casualties is large, most of them are wounded. Except for a few, most of them can return to the team after they recover. By then, they will all be the backbone veterans of our vanguard army, and the combat effectiveness of our vanguard army will be greatly enhanced."

Seeing that Hu Dianjia was about to stand up, Teng Yuzhao hurriedly waved his hand to stop Hu Dianjia.

"The reason we can have this great victory today has a lot to do with the 3rd Mixed Brigade holding off more than 50,000 Japanese and Russian troops. If the 3rd Mixed Brigade had not suffered such huge casualties, these 50,000 foreign devils would have formed a pincer attack on us together with the foreign devils on the east bank of the Juma River, and we would have been much more passive."

"Under the attack of more than 100,000 foreign devils, let alone achieving two great victories, even if we can escape unscathed, I'm afraid the casualties we have suffered will be much greater than they are now."

Teng Yuzao looked at Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu, "The power of the foreign devils' artillery is not only not less than ours, but even greater than ours. Their number is also much greater than ours. Ziyu and Mingguang should have experienced this deeply."

(End of this chapter)