The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 500 Langfang
Half a month later, at night, it was already past midnight, and Jiuzhou Town, west of Langfang, had obviously been baptized by war.

Not only is there a sandbag bunker with a Maxim heavy machine gun mounted on it and groups of soldiers strictly guarding the town entrance, but there are also teams of patrolling vanguard soldiers constantly shuttling back and forth on the streets in the town, and fully armed soldiers are also standing guard at the intersections of the town streets.

The faint sound of artillery fire in the distance to the east made Jiuzhou Town seem even more alert, as if facing a powerful enemy.

Jiuzhou Town was occupied by the coalition forces stationed in Langfang the day before yesterday, and was only recaptured by Liu Shijiu's Fourth Town last night.

In front of a relatively intact wealthy family's house, security was even tighter. Except for senior military officers, anyone entering or leaving had to be strictly questioned by the duty checkpoint before entering the yard.

Although it was past midnight, lights were on in almost all the houses in the yard. Curtains were drawn on the glass windows of the main house. Standing in the yard, one could see human figures swaying in the lighted rooms. This was Teng Yuzhao's command center.

Leading a powerful army that rose in a short period of time, and facing the coalition forces of old powers that had already been famous, it was Teng Yuzhao's old habit to always command from the front and pay close attention to the progress of the battle.

Although the generals under his command have gradually mastered the control of modern warfare, and even occasionally come up with brilliant ideas beyond Teng Yuzhao's expectations, Teng Yuzhao still cannot completely relax.

At this moment, he was standing on the roof of a tall building in the backyard, hunched over a gun scope, looking at the dark eastern sky, where dark red flashes were constantly bursting out.

This is the First Artillery Battalion, which is cooperating with Liu Shijiu's Fourth Battalion to eliminate the outer positions of Langfang garrisoned by the Allied Forces.

Although Jiuzhou Town was more than ten miles away from the battlefield, it was just outside the range of the Allied Forces' artillery fire that had been compressed to the vicinity of Langfang. Even with the help of an eight-fold artillery scope, Teng Yuzhao still could not see the details of the battlefield. However, he could still roughly judge the situation on the battlefield by the changes in the position of the artillery shell explosions.

There was no way. As long as he couldn't see the situation on the battlefield, Teng Yuzhao would always be worried.

Although not only was Liu Jiujiu, a genius, becoming more and more adept at commanding operations, but he was also always assisted by a group of staff officers from the Beiyang Military Academy and the Military Academy, and Teng Yuzhao even personally selected a chief of staff for Liu Jiujiu, he was still a little worried.

The attack on Langfang has been going on for two days. So far, the Fourth Town, with the support of powerful artillery fire, has been fighting relatively smoothly. The main positions surrounding Langfang, such as Jiuzhou, Anci, Damingzhuang, Wusi, and Shazhuang, are currently attacking Chengguan Town in the east.

After a long time, Teng Yuzao stood up, sat down on a chair beside him, took out a cigarette, lit it, and sat there quietly thinking about his worries.

The next day, Yang Shixiang hurried back to Baoding with a handwritten letter from Teng Yuzhao to Li Hongzhang.

The memorial written jointly by Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang was also sent to the court far away in Xi'an, and even copies of the memorials to Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were sent out afterwards.

However, the memorial fell on deaf ears and no feedback was received for a long time.

Even from the information sent back by Yang Shixiang, Teng Yuzhao learned that not only he, but also Li Hongzhang, who was looking forward to it like Yang, had not received any news about his departure.

Fortunately, from the news sent back by Yang Shixiang, Teng Yuzhao learned that Li Hongzhang was very excited after reading Teng Yuzhao's handwritten letter of thousands of words.

Even Li Hongzhang, who was nearly eighty years old, rarely drank alone until he was slightly tipsy.

According to Yang Shixiang, apart from being extremely skeptical about Teng Yuzao's claim that Zhili would invest 1 billion taels of silver in the next ten years, Li Hongzhang agreed with everything else Teng Yuzao said.

Zhang Zhidong, who was far away in Wuchang, also had no news. Only the intelligence personnel of Li Yaoting's security department reported back that the British Consul in Hankou, Frederick, had negotiated with Zhang Zhidong several times, but Zhang Zhidong seemed unmoved.

It was said that there was news that the ammunition produced by the "Hanyang Gun Factory" flowed into the hands of the vanguard army, and Zhang Zhidong was asked to strictly control the "Hanyang Gun Factory". Fortunately, good news was also constantly reported back through Li Yaoting's intelligence personnel, which made Teng Yuzao very excited.

First of all, the court did not consult Teng Yuzao on the peace talks, and as expected, the news spread to all large and medium-sized cities in the country through Chinese and foreign journalists who stayed in Xi'an waiting for news, immediately causing an uproar.

In the streets and alleys, everyone was angry that the court wanted to negotiate peace with the foreigners when the situation was so good, and they also felt unfair that the court bypassed Teng Yuzao, a peerless general who fought bravely on the front line, and did not seek his opinion.

In many places, there were even protest marches by scholars and businessmen, including those from the Vanguard Army Support Association.

The most intense conflicts occurred in Anqing, the capital of Anhui, and Shanxi. The literati and scholars even clashed with the local government officials who went to suppress the riots. Zhao Daiwen, chairman of the Shanxi Vanguard Army Support Association, was arrested and imprisoned.

Although Xi Liang had been impeached and removed from his post as Governor of Shanxi at this time, he hurried to find the new Governor of Shanxi, Chen Chunxuan, and only with Xi Liang's personal guarantee did Zhao Daiwen get released.

Zhao Daiwen and Teng Yuzao met once when they were in Shanxi.

Zhao Daiwen, a native of Wutai County, Shanxi Province, is a very famous scholar in Shanxi.

Although he was teaching in a school in Qi County to make a living at that time, he was the Shanxi chairman of the "Vanguard Army Support Association" and a very capable person.

Teng Yuzhao also knew that Zhao Daiwen would later become the main person in charge of the Tongmenghui in Shanxi, and just ten years later, he would serve as Minister of the Interior and President of the Supervisory Yuan.

As for Zhao Daiwen, Teng Yuzhao secretly hoped that he could use him for his own purposes.

Teng Yuzhao ignored the heated discussions and protests in various places, and focused on the training of the troops. He even stayed in the sixth and eighth towns to check on the training situation of the troops.

It wasn't until three days ago that the order was finally issued.

With Liu Shijiu's Fourth Regiment as the main attacking force, Pan Jinshan's Sixth Regiment cooperating and the First Artillery Regiment providing fire support, Teng Yuzhao personally commanded the attack on the coalition forces of Langfang's foreign powers.

In order to prevent the coalition forces in the capital from taking the opportunity to break out, Liu Yuzhi's first town moved forward to Fangshan and Daxing areas.

Li Xianze's second town moved between Daxing and Langfang at the same time.

Hu Dianjia was the commander-in-chief, commanding the Third Regiment, Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment, Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment, and the Second Artillery Regiment, who secretly occupied the line of Matou Town and Douzhangzhuang south of Langfang, preparing to ambush the coalition forces that might come to Tianjin for reinforcements.

"Commander."

Following the sound, Wei Jinghai poked his head out from the ladder on the eaves.

"General Counselor Yang is back!"

(End of this chapter)