The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 487: Post-War Remnant (Part )

Not only was the retreat route cut off, but the coalition forces now had insufficient rations as all of their logistical supply stations had been lost.

Time was urgent, and Gasley immediately held emergency consultations with the commanders of Germany and France. They finally agreed that they must withdraw to Tianjin or Shandong as soon as possible. In short, they needed a city with a seaport to rely on, otherwise the supply of nearly 200,000 troops would be cut off. At that time, the only way left was surrender.

Between Tianjin and Shandong, Tianjin is naturally the first choice.

Tianjin not only has a large amount of supplies, but also has tens of thousands of troops to support them. Moreover, retreating to Tianjin will also provide some support for the garrisons along the line from Tianjin to the capital of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, in order to safely withdraw to Tianjin, it is necessary to avoid mountainous and hilly areas. For this reason, the Allied Forces did not attempt to recapture Tangyin and Cizhou, but went straight through the two places and entered Linzhang.

After the allied forces entered Linzhang, Teng Yuzhao understood the allied forces' intentions.

The coalition forces wanted to go through Cheng'an, Guangping, and Quzhou, enter the plain area between Dezhou and Hengshui, and escape all the way to the northeast back to Tianjin.

Now that he had determined the direction of the coalition forces' march, Teng Yuzhao was even less worried.

Immediately, express horses were sent to notify all the counties and cities along the way that the coalition forces should pass through, asking the people to take shelter as much as possible to avoid the coalition forces' clutches.

At the same time, he ordered Pan Jinshan, who was stationed in Tangyin and Cizhou, to continue to take on the task of harassing the coalition forces at night, resting during the day and harassing the coalition forces at night.

He also ordered Hu Dianjia and Liu Yuzhi, who were chasing after the coalition forces out of the mountains, to lead the first and third regiments to pursue the coalition forces closely. They could launch organized long-range artillery attacks on the coalition forces during the day, and look for opportunities to launch night raids on the coalition forces at night. Their only goal was to speed up the coalition forces' retreat.

Because their safety will only be guaranteed if they retreat to the vicinity of Tianjin.

As for the rearguard troops left behind by the coalition forces, we must show no mercy and must resolutely destroy them.

Teng Yuzhao himself led the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Artillery Regiments and marched quickly to Jizhou and Hengshui areas to take shelter and wait for the arrival of the coalition forces.

Along the way, the allied forces of Britain, France and Germany were the rear guard. In order to reach Tianjin as quickly as possible, they marched at a forced pace every day. However, because they carried a large number of heavy artillery, they could only travel sixty or seventy miles a day at most.

Although Teng Yuzao had sent people to notify the people in the counties and prefectures along the way to avoid the coalition forces, they could only leave with valuables. There was no time to take food with them, especially for the wealthy families.

It was absolutely impossible to burn the food, so the coalition forces did not run out of food.

But the coalition forces could only find food to fill their stomachs. There was no meat to grab, and it was impossible for the coalition forces to stay in one place for too long.

After holding out for a few days, the fleeing coalition forces discovered that after they passed Tangyin and Chizhou and entered the plain area, although there were constant harassment from small groups of vanguard troops along the way and more than 100,000 vanguard troops chasing them from behind, there were no vanguard troops blocking them in front, so they couldn't help but feel relieved.

The marching columns started out as a group and then slowly moved apart. Four days later, the German troops, who had fewer heavy artillery pieces, even sped up the march in the front in order to collect more food and even meat for the British and French troops who were taking turns to follow behind.

However, the rearguard troops went out every day without returning, and the Allied forces had lost nearly 20,000 people in four days. The British and French armies no longer dared to send out rearguard troops, so they had to gather more than 100,000 troops together and retreat.

Eight days later, the coalition forces finally arrived in Hengshui.

Teng Yuzhao ignored the German troops in the lead, and instead chose the British and French forces that were densely gathered behind.

That night, there was first a intensive artillery attack, and then, except for Cao Futian's Independent Column with only more than 3,000 people left and Pan Jinshan's Sixth Regiment as a reserve, which was also responsible for protecting the safety of the artillery town, the 130,000 troops from the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Regiments were concentrated to launch a fierce attack on the British and French armies, which had about 120,000 to 130,000 troops.

Due to the huge number of captured cannons, the artillery town has been urgently expanded, and the original seven mountain artillery battalions have been expanded to twelve. This is because Liu Changfa really cannot gather so many gunners, otherwise a few more mountain artillery battalions would not be a problem at all.

Because there were more than 200 mountain cannons, the artillery fire of the vanguard army was extremely fierce. In order to avoid the counterattack of hundreds of cannons from the British and French armies, under the cover of artillery fire, the vanguard army ignored casualties and launched multiple assaults almost immediately after the artillery started.

Under the cover of fierce artillery fire and timely fire support from mortars, the vanguard army, after suffering heavy casualties, divided the more than 100,000 British and French troops into several groups in one fell swoop, and first eliminated the threat of hundreds of artillery pieces of the British and French coalition forces to the vanguard army.

Then, some of the British and French forces in the encirclement were not trapped for the time being, while others were surrounded and annihilated by concentrated forces.

However, the vanguard army's strength was almost the same as that of the enemy, and they did not have an advantage in terms of manpower. After a fierce battle until dawn, nearly 30,000 British and French troops broke out of the encirclement and escaped.

Although the vanguard army also suffered heavy casualties, with a total of nearly 40,000 casualties, they still pursued without hesitation. After receiving support from the German army, although the British and French forces had surpassed the vanguard army in terms of manpower, they no longer had the courage to fight on facing the powerful vanguard army and could only flee.

The vanguard army kept close to the rear of the coalition forces all the way, and was not satisfied with just annihilating the coalition forces responsible for cutting off their rear. At night, they even launched assaults of more than 10,000 people on the coalition forces, continuously destroying the coalition forces' manpower.

It was not until three days after the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms gathered together again that they received support from the Tianjin Allied Forces at Shahe Bridge east of Hejian. Only then did the vanguard army stop launching large-scale attacks on the Allied Forces.

The coalition forces surrounded Luzhou Prefecture with heavy troops, hoping to wipe out the vanguard army in one fell swoop, thereby cutting off the Qing court's intention. However, this attempt was completely thwarted, and the tragic ending with serious casualties came to an end.

In this unprecedented war, the number of combatants on both sides was so large that it had not been seen in the country for hundreds of years.

Although major wars involving millions of people were common in Europe, they were indeed rare in China. The number of troops directly participating in the war on both sides was close to 700,000. What's more, the relatively weak vanguard army actually wiped out more than 300,000 troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance, which had an absolute advantage in strength!
This great battle caused a strong response in the country. People all over the country cheered and praised the vanguard army and its commander Teng Yuzao. They praised Teng Yuzao as the reincarnation of Yue Wumu and the rebirth of Guanjun Hou.

The people in various places did not just sigh and lament the heavy casualties suffered by the Vanguard Army, but donated money on their own initiative. These donations, both large and small, were remitted to the Vanguard Army's accounts opened at the Aurora Bank and the Dadeheng Bank owned by Qiao Zhiyong through the Vanguard Army Support Association in various places. Although most of these donations were only a few taels of silver, and some even donated dozens of copper coins, the total amount was huge, and the total amount was still very astonishing.

Of course, there were also large donations from wealthy businessmen, and it was not uncommon for donations of tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Now, in just over half a month, according to the data held by Teng Yuzhao, the amount of donations has exceeded 30 million taels.

In addition, people from all over the country also enthusiastically joined the army. With the help of the Vanguard Army Support Association, batches of young people from all over the country were continuously sent to Baoding. In just over ten days, according to statistics from various places, more than 300,000 young people requested to join the Vanguard Army.

This situation even frightened Teng Yuzhao, who hurriedly notified local support associations to suspend recruiting for the vanguard army.

Three hundred thousand to four hundred thousand troops is the limit of what Teng Yuzhao can do within three years. If he has more, it will be a bit difficult for him.

All newspapers and magazines praised this war without exception. They not only said that this war was the largest battle since the pacification of the Three Kingdoms, but also said that this was the greatest victory the Qing Dynasty had achieved since the reign of Emperor Kangxi. Some newspapers even published articles saying, "From now on, the Qing Dynasty will regain the might of the Han Dynasty."

This war also caused a strong response overseas, especially in the major powers that participated in the war, and even triggered a large-scale wave of protests in Britain, France and Germany.

The Times even published a long article on the front page titled "The awakened Chinese dragon will make the world tremble again", praising the wise Teng Yuzao, who was not only the first person in the Qing Dynasty to open his eyes to the world, but also the world's best military strategist. Under his leadership, the world had to respect their sovereignty, face up to their reasonable demands, and must recognize the reality that they are a world power.

US President McKinley also once again publicly called for an immediate end to this bloody war and the start of post-war negotiations with the Qing government as soon as possible, since the Qing government had already taken the initiative to suppress the Boxer Rebellion.

Faced with the surging anti-war waves and calls for peace in their own countries, only Germany, Russia and Japan openly clamored to continue to send reinforcements to the Qing Dynasty and to expand the war to the entire territory of the Qing Dynasty until the vanguard army was completely wiped out and the Qing general Teng Yuzhao was wiped out of the world.

However, in response to the war threats from Germany, Japan and Russia, Britain, France, Italy and Australia all chose to remain silent.

The great victory of the vanguard army also made the court officials who fled to Xi'an cheer.

The gloomy mood of the past few months was swept away from the faces of court officials and local governors, and everyone's face was filled with joy and happiness. Except for Yikuang, everyone praised Teng Yuzao. Some suggested that the court promote Teng Yuzao to a higher position, and some suggested that a monument and biography be erected for Teng Yuzao.

Some even suggested that, given that the vanguard army led by Teng Yuzhao was invincible and even frightened the foreign powers, Teng Yuzhao should be promoted to the title of Grand Marshal of the National Army, commanding all the troops in the country to prevent the foreign powers from coveting the territory of the Qing Dynasty.

Unlike the court officials who could only talk, the governors and governors-general who held great power were much more direct. Not only was Zhang Zhidong, whose reputation in the court was second only to Li Hongzhang, the first to send an enthusiastic congratulatory telegram to Teng Yuzhao and the vanguard army, but almost all the governors and governors-general from all over the country also sent telegrams to Teng Yuzhao to congratulate him on the great victory.

Even Yuan Shikai and Wang Zhichun, two provincial governors who participated in the Southeast Mutual Protection and had always been resolute in implementing the mutual protection treaty, sent telegrams of congratulations.

Of course, there were also those who did not send congratulatory messages, such as Li Hongzhang and Liu Kunyi, the Governor-General of Liangjiang.

Although the court officials were all overjoyed at this great victory and their excitement was beyond words, Cixi, who was at the absolute center of the court, seemed a little too calm and only issued an imperial edict in the name of Guangxu.

In addition to praising Teng Yuzao greatly, he was also given the title of Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace, Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, and promoted to the third-class duke.
"Commander."

Xu Shichang, who was a little thin, took the initiative to end the two people's pleasant conversation about this battle that attracted worldwide attention.

Xu Shichang smiled and said, "The Marshal's reputation in the hearts of the people is now unparalleled. This is really cause for celebration!"

"This also changed the image of domestic soldiers in the eyes of the world. I heard from Chief of Staff Wei that several officers from our General Staff Office had a meal at a restaurant in Yongqing City, and the restaurant owner even refused to accept their money. In the end, these officers came back and told about this matter. They were severely reprimanded by Chief of Staff Wei, and then they returned to Yongqing again and resolutely handed over the money for the meal to the restaurant owner before they were willing to leave."

"This incident has even been published in the Ta Kung Pao."

Xu Shichang sighed and said, "This matter can be big or small. Originally, it was just a way for the people to show their gratitude to the Vanguard Army, but after this incident, it has brought glory to the Vanguard Army and the Marshal!"

"Chief of Staff Wei is so talented! Shichang is really happy that the Marshal has so many talented people under his command!"

Teng Yuzhao knew about this matter, and he was very happy with the way Wei Jinghai handled it. Afterwards, he even had a drink with Wei Jinghai and praised him highly.

Although Teng Yuzhao was also very excited that the Vanguard Army was so popular among the Chinese people, he still said it lightly.

"As the saying goes, good men don't become soldiers, and good iron doesn't become nails. This situation is caused by some generals who indulge their subordinates in looting and even raping and plundering the people. If this continues, it will inevitably seriously affect morale. Talented and ambitious people will disdain to join the army, which will affect the development of the army."

"Now, the Vanguard Army must change this trend with its own image."

Xu Shichang cupped his hands in admiration and said sincerely, "What the Marshal thinks is beyond the reach of others. Shichang has learned a lot!"

Then, Xu Shichang suddenly said, "Marshal, there are court officials who suggest that the court appoint you as the Grand Marshal of the Army. If the court really does this, people's concept of military service will definitely change drastically, just like the people from all over the country are now eager to join the vanguard army. It's just..."

Teng Yuzao had always felt that Xu Shichang seemed to have something to say, but the two of them chatted about this and that for a while, and Xu Shichang kept talking about other things, which made Teng Yuzao somewhat confused. After listening to Xu Shichang's words, Teng Yuzao finally understood that Xu Shichang was trying to find out what he had to say!
Although Teng Yuzao knew very well from Xu Shichang's actions after he followed Yuan Shikai that Xu Shichang was never a royalist, but a person with a "rebellious mind" like himself, Teng Yuzao still did not dare to reveal his true feelings until Xu Shichang made it clear.

Teng Yuzao couldn't help but smile calmly at Xu Shichang's words.

(End of this chapter)