The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 587: This is the rhythm of joining the war
"Although the imperial court wants to remain neutral, there is no guarantee that the Russians and the Japanese will not expand the war. Now, let Ningbo talk about the preparations for war."

Teng Yuzao emphasized that there was a possibility that Japan and Russia would expand the war, in order to give a warning to those present, including Xu Shichang, Ye Zugui, Sa Zhenbing and others except the army generals, that he would definitely not stay out of the Russo-Japanese War outside the Great Wall.

Of course, he cannot take the initiative to join the war, otherwise he will still be accused of disrespecting the court's laws, and the careful people will remember him even more.

Teng Yuzao was extremely secretive about this matter, and only Yang Shixiang knew his true thoughts. Yang Shiqi, Wei Jinghai, Li Yaoting and a few others knew nothing about it, and even Li Xiance and Liu Shijiu were not aware of it.

Wei Jinghai, who understood what Teng Yuzhao meant when he was called upon, began to introduce the troops' combat readiness without any notebook.

According to Wei Jinghai, among the Zhili troops waiting to go out of the pass to take over the Northeast, the number of Liu Shijiu's Fourth Regiment, Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment, Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment, including Li Xiance's current First Regiment and Liu Yuzhi's Second Regiment have been greatly expanded.

Specifically, the Western troop organization is still adopted, and the organization of each town has been changed to four organizations, that is, there are four infantry brigades under the town, and each brigade has four battalions, and so on.

Now, the population of each of the towns one, two, four, five and eight has reached 80,000, and the population of the remaining towns has also exceeded 40,000.

According to the plan, Panjinshan Third Town will also be expanded soon.

The Su Xilin Cavalry Town, which was temporarily under the command of Wu Peifu, had expanded to 40,000 people. However, the so-called cavalry town no longer existed. The town has now been expanded into a mounted infantry town.

Even the two towns of Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu each had an army brigade equipped with horses, which were equivalent to mounted infantry.

If the more than 40,000 troops from Cao Futian's Seventh Town are added, the total number of troops available to go out and fight in a short period of time will exceed 400,000.

If the 26th Regiment rushed from Sichuan to Zhili, it would also provide additional troops to the 26th Regiment, increasing its total strength to 80,000.

In terms of weapons and equipment, the entire army has been readjusted since the armistice. The rifles of the above-mentioned towns are all Russian-made Mosin-Nagant, and even the 26th Town will replace its rifles.

In order to ensure the ammunition supply for these troops, a 7.62 caliber bullet production line was built with the help of Americans in the former Beiyang Arsenal under the Ordnance Department.

This was the first time that Teng Yuzhao publicly disclosed the number of Zhi army troops. According to Wei Jinghai, including the Zhi army in Liangjiang and Fujian, as well as Liu Bingyi's Ninth Regiment and three artillery regiments and nearly 30,000 military police, the total strength of the Zhi army has exceeded 700,000!

Moreover, the size of a town of 80,000 people far exceeds the requirement of the Army's Preparatory Office that each province should train a new army, and each town should have no less than 12,000 people.

The imperial court set a lower limit on the number of troops only to prevent the provinces from training new troops to cope with the tasks, but no one expected that Teng Yuzhao had quietly increased the number of troops in each town of the Zhi army.

Although the military strength of Yuan Shikai's six towns exceeded 16,000 people, it was still far inferior to the Zhi army.

Even if compared with Yuan Shikai's Henan Army, the number of people in one main town of the Zhi Army was similar to that of the five towns of the Henan Army.

Shortly after the ceasefire, Xu Shichang rushed to the Army Preparatory Office in the capital. Since the Zhi army was responsible for its own military expenses and did not need the court's intervention, he had no idea about the number of troops under Teng Yuzhao's Zhi army. He was greatly surprised when he heard the number announced by Wei Jinghai.

He even understood that Teng Yuzhao was going to take on the twenty-six regiments from Sichuan in one go. If the twenty-six regiments were expanded, the total strength of the Zhi army would probably exceed 800,000.

But Xu Shichang was still a little confused, and asked Wei Jinghai in confusion.

"Didn't we build a joint venture with the Germans to build an arsenal in Baoding, producing Mauser rifles? Why are our troops still using the old guns captured from the Russians?"

"Besides, don't we have an agreement with the Germans to purchase no less than five million Mauser rifles within ten years?"

"Now, most of our troops are using the Russian Mosin-Nagant. What should we do with the German guns produced? Are we not going to buy guns from this joint venture factory? What about the agreement with the Germans? Are we going to break the contract?"

There were many people who shared the same feeling as Xu Shichang. Teng Yuzao smiled and took over Wei Jinghai's words.

"Kikuto, we must keep our word. The agreement with the Germans cannot be changed, so we have taken full responsibility for the firearms produced by the arsenal. Since it was completed and put into production the year before last, the output has gradually increased. By the end of last year, it had reached the design requirements, with an annual output of 300,000 Mauser rifles. So far, a total of more than 750,000 Mauser rifles have been produced."

"It's just that these rifles have not been equipped to our troops yet. Instead, we have sold them back to the Germans."

Teng Yuzhao's words made these people even more confused.

Xu Shichang asked in surprise, "Don't the Germans produce Mauser rifles anymore?"

Teng Yuzao waved his hand. "Of course they have to produce, but they also have to sell large quantities of arms to the countries on the Balkan Peninsula, and to the armed forces of the colonies occupied by the French in North and West Africa. They even secretly sell weapons to the Boers in Africa, causing trouble for the French and British. Even their own domestic army has just been fully equipped, and they also need to have appropriate inventory for war preparation."

"Therefore, their domestic production is somewhat insufficient. Under the strict organization of Qionglin and the guidance and inspection of German engineers and technicians, the weapons and ammunition produced by our joint venture arsenal fully meet the German requirements, and the cost price is much lower than that in Germany."

"So, the Germans buy our Mauser rifles and sell them to other countries. This way, they can make money without having to mass-produce rifles. Why wouldn't the Germans do that?"

"The cost of the rifles produced by our arsenal is nearly thirty taels of silver lower than those produced in Germany. We only make eight taels of silver from selling each rifle to the Germans. After deducting the shipping cost, they can still make about five taels of silver by shipping it back to China."

Teng Yuzhao's explanation made everyone suddenly realize that they had never expected that this arsenal could actually make money from the Germans.

But then everyone had another question.

Ning Xingpu asked, "Xingfu, if we sell it to the new armies in various provinces in the country, can we make more money?"

Teng Yuzao smiled and nodded, "That's true."

Then Teng Yuzao changed the subject and said, "It's like this. If the Japanese really want to drive away the Russians and hand over the three northeastern provinces to us as they say, and they just want to protect their interests in Korea, then everything will be fine."

"Maybe our Zhi army doesn't have to participate in the war at all, so it doesn't matter what kind of firearms our Zhi army uses."

"It is even possible to sell the Mauser rifles produced by the arsenal to the new armies in various provinces in China. For example, Yuan Shikai bought 150,000 new rifles from our arsenal just because he liked the Mauser rifles produced by our arsenal."

"Yuan Shikai purchased 150,000 new guns?" Xu Shichang couldn't help but be a little surprised.

"He only has less than 100,000 men. Why would he buy 150,000 new guns? Does he want to expand his army to 250,000?"

In response to Xu Shichang's surprise, Teng Yuzao said with a wry smile.

"Kikuto, there are still many things to do in the Army Department Preparatory Office. I wanted to remind you that the Army Department not only has to manage the establishment and pay of the new armies in each province, but also has to manage the domestic arsenals and the equipment of the new armies in each province."

"But I didn't expect that the court was still a little worried about you, a Han Chinese, and left the position of Minister of the Army vacant, so I didn't bother to say anything."

"We announced to the public that we have 500,000 troops, but Yuan Shikai only has less than 100,000. How could he be content? In my opinion, he would not be satisfied with 250,000. His goal would be at least 500,000." "As for the establishment, he can take his time."

Li Xianze laughed disdainfully and said, "He wants to compete with us and replace the Marshal in the future!"

"Damn it!"

Liu Nineteen said with a dark face, "Marshal, we have to be more careful about Yuan Shikai. During the Eight-Nation Alliance, he hid in Shandong and signed the Southeast Mutual Protection Agreement, refusing to participate in the war."

"Now he refuses to send troops to help defend the border. I guess he is planning to stab us in the back if we lose the battle after joining the war."

Teng Yuzao waved his hand and said, "What you said makes sense, but let's not worry about Yuan Xiangcheng, let's just focus on our own business."

Teng Yuzao turned to Xu Shichang again and said, "Juren, no matter who wins the battle between the Russians and the Japanese, they will not withdraw from the Northeast and will all want to take it for themselves."

"Even this time, even if we give the Japanese 200 million taels of silver as we did during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, they will not agree to return the three northeastern provinces to us. Even if we give them a few hundred million taels more, they may not agree."

Not only Xu Shichang nodded in response to Teng Yuzao's words, but Yang Shixiang and others also nodded in agreement with Teng Yuzao's point of view.

Teng Yuzao waved his hand and said decisively.

"So, it's impossible for us not to participate in the war this time."

"Correct!"

Liu Nineteen said bitterly, "To deal with these bastards, we have to use cannons and our swords to talk to them."

By this time, everyone present had understood that Teng Yuzao was determined to join the war.

This surprised Tang Shaoyi and Liang Dunyan, while Li Yulin frowned slightly, but none of the three said anything.

Teng Yuzao continued, "The reason why I told our troops not to use the captured Russian Mosin-Nagant in large quantities is to participate in the war. Otherwise, we would have captured a lot of Mosin-Nagants but would have nowhere to consume them. We can't just burn them all in one fire."

"First, our troops can use it, and second, it can also be used to equip the new armies in various provinces."

"As for the weapons at the Baoding Arsenal, we can only replace them after everything is completely stable."

Li Yulin smiled bitterly and said, "If that's the case, I estimate that our replacement process will take ten years. Who knows how long the Germans and French will continue to compete with each other in Africa."

Ten years, Teng Yuzhao thought to himself, he probably would have to wait until the world war was over before he would have time to change his clothes.

He also wanted to make a fortune from arms sales during the war.

Fortunately, this Mosin-Nagant is still very practical and has sufficient accuracy, so it is completely fine not to need to be replaced for fifteen or even twenty years.

"Does the Marshal want to join forces with the Japanese to deal with the Russians?"

Tang Shaoyi couldn't help but say, "If the Russians are tigers, then the Japanese are hungry wolves. Maybe we drive the tiger out the front door, but the wolf comes in through the back door!"

"Please think twice, Marshal!"

Teng Yuzao nodded appreciatively and said, "What you said."

Teng Yuzao paused and said, "If neither the wolf nor the tiger wants to stay, the only way is to sit back and watch the fire from the other side of the river and reap the benefits."

Teng Yuzao didn't want to continue this topic in such an occasion. After all, Ning Xingpu, Zhou Shoushen, Zhou Xuexi, Cao Jiaxiang and others were not soldiers. If he was not careful, they might inadvertently reveal his thoughts.

Teng Yuzao put away his smile and said, "I want to emphasize that for the safety of the Zhi army's troops going out of the border, everything that happened at today's meeting must be kept strictly confidential and not revealed to anyone."

Then, Teng Yuzao said to Wei Jinghai.

"Ningbo, keep talking."

Wei Jinghai then smiled bitterly and said, "The Mosin-Nagant rifles of the participating troops have been basically solved, and there are 7.62 million rounds of bullets and million new grenades."

"If we assume that 500,000 people will participate in the war, there will still be insufficient rifle bullets and hand grenades, only 600 and 12 per person respectively."

Wei Jinghai glanced at Li Yulin and said, "Now several factories of the Ordnance Department are working overtime, but because these jobs are very dangerous, they must be done by workers who have undergone rigorous training, which takes time."

“It is still very difficult to meet the needs of the troops.”

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Qionglin, bullets are easy to deal with. We can replenish some captured ones, but the number of grenades is still too small. These things are indispensable for fighting mountain warfare."

"Let's arrange the staff to work in three shifts."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "You don't have to worry too much. We may not join the war within half a year."

Hearing that there was still half a year left, Li Yulin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Because meat is difficult to preserve, the Logistics Department has prepared two million cans of meat. We are still in contact with Zhou Daotai and are stockpiling more."

"Do not."

Teng Yuzao quickly stopped them and said, "Just these canned foods. The Northeast is covered with ice and snow from November to April of the following year, and the canned foods will freeze. We must ensure that the soldiers can have hot meals and hot dishes in such cold weather. These canned foods are enough for special use."

"So, we have to find a way to ensure meat supply."

Teng Yuzao looked at Liang Dunyan again, "Songsheng, how is the pig breeding in Zhili and Shandong going?"

Although Liang Dunyan was the governor of Zhili, he also contacted and collected information about the situation in Shandong, and finally reported it to Yang Shixiang.
(End of this chapter)