The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 517: The Foreigners Have a Code
In Jiuzhou Town, in the brightly lit meeting room of the Vanguard Army Headquarters.

"Marshal, are there any signs of movement from the foreign devils in Tianjin and Beijing? Which group of foreign devils should we attack first?"

As soon as Teng Yuzhao and Wei Jinghai walked into the conference room, Liu Shijiu, who had been waiting anxiously and spinning around on the ground, rolled up his sleeves and asked loudly.

In the conference room, not only Liu Shijiu was present, but also Li Xiance, Wu Peifu, Liu Changfa, Li Jinyu and Pan Jinshan. As Liu Shijiu asked questions, they all looked at Teng Yuzao with excitement.

With the cooperation of the fierce artillery fire of the artillery town and the eight towns of Li Jinyu and the sixth town of Pan Jinshan, Liu Shijiu had completely cleared the strongholds of the coalition forces outside Langfang two days ago. Now, according to Teng Yuzhao's order, the fourth town of Liu Shijiu has withdrawn from the attack position.

The Japanese, Russian, Austrian and other coalition forces, which had lost more than 30,000 peripheral troops, now had to retreat to Langfang Town and hold their ground, enduring the fierce artillery fire from the vanguard army every day.

Under the intensive and fierce artillery bombardment of the vanguard army, the coalition forces in Langfang suffered heavy casualties every moment.

The task of besieging Langfang has been completely handed over to the Sixth and Eighth Towns of Li Jinyu and Pan Jinshan.

Although most of the soldiers in these two towns were new recruits, after besieging Langfang for the past few days and eliminating the coalition forces' outer strongholds one by one, the coalition forces were only able to defend themselves but had no ability to fight back. This made the new recruits in the two towns not only more courageous, but also greatly boosted their morale.

Especially the artillery town that raised observation balloons every day. The bombardment was not only fierce and intensive, but also capable of deploying several artillery groups in the north, west and south, some responsible for the bombardment and some responsible for suppressing the coalition artillery.

Since the artillery group responsible for the suppression mission was well prepared, as soon as the coalition artillery opened fire, they would bombard the coalition artillery positions in the shortest time possible under the instructions of the observation post on the observation balloon, and their reaction was very quick.

In the past few days, under the fierce artillery attack from the artillery town, the coalition artillery stationed in Langfang has been completely destroyed, and the dozens of remaining artillery pieces no longer dare to fire.

Under the fierce attack of the vanguard army, the Langfang coalition forces were on pins and needles every day and were in a state of panic. They sent several telegrams a day to the Tianjin coalition forces for help through the telegraph lines intentionally left by the vanguard army.

However, apart from telegraphing the Langfang coalition forces to hold their ground to the death, the Tianjin coalition forces themselves have remained on hold for the past few days.

Hu Dianjia's Third Regiment, which had been ready to block the coalition forces in the direction of Tianjin, had been on the battlefield in Wuqing, Huanghuadian and Douzhangzhuang for three days in vain.

Not only Hu Dianjia's Third Town, but also Liu Yuzhi's First Town, which was originally stationed in Zhuozhou, has moved forward to the Fangshan and Daxing line to prepare for blocking the more than 100,000 coalition troops staying in the capital from escaping to Tianjin or Shandong from the west.

At the same time, occupying Daxing can also effectively prevent the coalition forces in the capital from leaving the city directly to Langfang for rescue.

Since the coalition forces in Tianjin, which was closest to Langfang, refused to come out, Teng Yuzao had to change his battle plan to deal a heavy blow to the Tianjin defenders.

He has now secretly assembled Li Xiance's Second Regiment, Liu Shijiu's Fourth Regiment, Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment, and the Second Regiment equipped with artillery, between Damingzhuang, Dakoutun, Wubaihu, and Anping, east of Langfang and south of Xianghe, ready to attack the reinforcements from Tianjin or the more than 100,000 coalition forces fleeing the capital.

Teng Yuzhao's purpose was to use Langfang as bait and prepare to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements.

Otherwise, with his superior forces and powerful artillery, Langfang could have been taken long ago. Of course, Teng Yuzao would try to avoid such a battle against a town. However, Teng Yuzao's specific plan to attack the reinforcements would depend on the movements of the coalition forces in Tianjin and Beijing.

In the past few days, because the coalition forces in Tianjin and the capital have been silent, the commanders of these towns have become anxious and restless. Even Liu Shijiu has been clamoring to lead the Fourth Town back to rejoin the battle to besiege the coalition forces in Langfang.

This evening, they received a notice from Wei Jinghai, asking these town commanders to come to the headquarters immediately to attend a military meeting. This made them all extremely excited.

In response to Liu Shijiu's question, Teng Yuzao just smiled and waved his hand to signal Liu Shijiu to take a seat, then he also sat down in his seat and spoke.

"Time is urgent and the meeting will start immediately. We have waited for several days and it has finally paid off."

Before Liu Shijiu asked again, Teng Yuzao had already signaled Wei Jinghai to introduce the military situation.

Wei Jinghai walked to the map behind Teng Yuzhao and introduced the Zhili map hanging on the wall with his finger.

"We just received a telegram from Commander Liu of the First Town, and intelligence from Commander Hu of the Third Town. The more than 100,000 foreign devils who were staying in the capital have all evacuated the capital from Dongcheng after dark, and are marching to Tongzhou at a rapid pace."

"According to their marching route, the foreign devils withdrawing from the capital should go through Xianghe to Anping and Damingzhuang. They can go forward to rescue Langfang, and retreat to Tianjin as soon as possible, or even directly withdraw to Lutai or Dagukou to ensure the retreat of the Tianjin coalition forces."

"In the direction of Tianjin, according to the intelligence provided by Hu Zhentong, the coalition forces have dispatched about 150,000 troops. They are heading along the railway line towards Wuqing and Huanghuadian. Their goal is to break through the blockade of the Third Town and rescue Langfang."

"Damn it, the foreign devils are fine if they don't move, but once they move, they all move together, as if they had discussed it beforehand. Didn't the foreign devils in Tianjin and Beijing distribute some insignificant power banks these days?"

Wei Jinghai had just finished introducing the military situation when Liu Shijiu cursed in confusion.

Teng Yuzao said, "Yes, the foreign devils had discussed it in advance."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him in surprise, Teng Yuzhao continued.

"I have carefully studied the telegrams intercepted by the Telecommunications Department between the foreign devils in Tianjin, Beijing, and Langfang. Although their telegrams seem to be about trivial matters, in these insignificant telegrams, the foreign devils should have hidden secret codes or passwords that we don't know."

"Although the Telecommunications Department is trying to decipher the foreign devils' telegrams, it may be difficult to complete in a short period of time, so I have asked the General Staff Office to cut off the telegraph connection between Tianjin and Langfang."

"At the same time, order the First Town to send a small number of troops to enter the capital overnight to maintain law and order in the city and provide relief to the people who are short of food."

"The First Town is using its main force to chase after the foreigners who are withdrawing from the capital. Just now, weren't you eager to ask which group of foreigners we were fighting? Now you should have figured it out."

(End of this chapter)