The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 638 Reinforcements have arrived
But when the students learned that Ma Longbiao had brought an assistant to the military academy, their reactions became excited again.

The guard team was led by Major Liu Zhengang. The military positions corresponding to the rank of major were very unified in the new armies in various provinces in the country. In the new armies, the rank of major corresponded to battalion-level commanders.

Alternatively, he may be the deputy of the next higher level, or the chief of staff of the unit.

Of course, the Zhi Army is different from the new armies in other provinces in the country. There are no deputy positions at all levels of military posts in other provinces, only so-called adjutants, while the Zhi Army has deputy positions at all levels. Therefore, Liu Zhenggang may also be the deputy commander.

In other words, Liu Zhengang's guard team should be the size of a battalion.

When a battalion faces a brigade, the difference in strength between the two sides should be huge. If a fight really breaks out, the guard team will definitely suffer.

The guards were sent by Marshal Teng to protect their safety. How could they feel at ease when they saw the people protecting them suffering losses while they, the real leaders, just stood by and watched!
How can I have a clear conscience and feel at peace?

Therefore, the students still strongly requested Zhang Xiyuan to open the armory and distribute weapons to them so that they could join the battle in time when necessary to avoid the escort team from suffering heavy losses!
Since the Military Academy was separated from the Vanguard Army's Camp School, and the Vanguard Army, the predecessor of the Zhi Army, had been in urgent need of a large number of officers to be replenished in a timely manner since its establishment, the Camp School had always attached great importance to practical training courses in its studies.

Since the instructors of the military academy are mainly instructors from the vanguard army's camp schools, the current military academies have inherited the tradition of attaching importance to practical teaching and training. The students in the military academies have many practical training courses, which allows them to quickly adapt in a short period of time after entering the army.

Now, this batch of students will graduate soon, and their practical skills are already quite good.

Although they could not compare with the Zhi army, they were not much inferior to the Shuntian army which had been formed not long ago.

Even the former Henan Army troops in the Shuntian Army might not be much stronger than them.

After all, each town of the Henan Army has nearly doubled its troop strength in the past one or two years.

But Zhang Xiyuan didn't dare to issue weapons to these hot-blooded students. If they had weapons, during the confrontation between the guards and the Shuntian Army, if any student lost control and opened fire, the military academy would immediately become a battlefield with a river of blood.

Even the casualties among the students are probably incalculable, and Zhang Xiyuan cannot bear this responsibility.

Teng Yuzhao repeatedly reminded him that the Zhi Army was still in urgent need of a large number of officers with modern warfare concepts, and asked him to find a way to get as many students as possible to join the Zhi Army after the first batch of students graduated.

Zhang Xiyuan always kept Teng Yuzhao's instructions in mind. He had to ensure the safety of these students.

Moreover, Zhang Xiyuan believed that after this incident, when these students graduated, most of them would gladly join the Zhi Army and become the backbone of the Zhi Army's subsequent development.

With this concern, Zhang Xiyuan was even more reluctant to give weapons to the students.

Zhang Xiyuan told the students in a firm tone that it was absolutely impossible to distribute weapons to them.

In order to appease the students, Zhang Xiyuan told them not to worry. As far as he knew, although the guard team was indeed only composed of one battalion, this Zhijun battalion was a large and reinforced organization with about 3,000 people.

Not only is the number of soldiers much larger than that of a battalion of the Shuntian Army, but the number is also almost the same as that of a brigade of the Shuntian Army.

According to the Army Department's organizational regulations, a brigade only has 3,600 people.

Of course, neither the Zhi Army nor Yuan Shikai's Henan Army followed this regulation.

As for military expenses, there is no need to mention the Zhi army, Yuan Shikai also has his own ways.

When Yuan Shikai was the governor of Henan Province, he would secretly take out some money from Henan's treasury every year for military expenses.

After leaving his post and returning to Beijing, the extra military pay for the Henan Army was supplemented by dividends from several local Henan merchants in which Yuan Shikai had invested with more than 100,000 taels of silver during his tenure in Shandong and Henan.

This allowed the original Henan Army's extra soldiers to barely maintain their salaries.

Most of the officers and soldiers of the arsenal's guard team were veterans who had been seriously injured in battles with foreigners. Although their physical strength was not as good as before, their rich combat skills and ruthlessness in combat were definitely not comparable to those officers and soldiers of the Shuntian Army who had never been to the battlefield, not even Yuan Shikai's Henan Army could compare to them.

There were more than 20,000 wounded veterans in this group. Those who were willing to retire were given the pensions they deserved, but there were still more than 16,000 who stayed. Teng Yuzhao naturally would not disappoint these officers and soldiers who stayed, so he had to organize them into several guard teams directly under the General Staff, which were mainly responsible for the security work of the arsenals and military bases related to the Ordnance Department.

Some of these officers were even placed in the Beiyang system's patrol bureau and the Zhishan provincial patrol corps.

In fact, Zhang Xiyuan had nothing to say. The organization of the Zhi Army was not just this guard team that was specially strengthened. All the troops of the Zhi Army were super large.

In the Zhi army, although the number of soldiers in a battalion is not as terrifying as that of this guard team, it is also a large battalion with more than 1,500 people.

Moreover, although this escort team is mainly composed of veterans who have been seriously injured, it is not because these veterans are unable to fight, but only because their bodies are relatively weak. Long-distance marches will cause them to be physically exhausted and slow down the marching speed of the troops.

But these people have absolutely no problem in positional warfare and siege warfare. Not only are they extremely combat-capable, they are even more powerful and ruthless.

Teng Yuzao was just considering that for a long period of time thereafter, not only would it be impossible to have a complete transportation network in the country, but he would also be temporarily unable to equip the troops with a large number of qualified trucks to motorize the Zhi army.

Therefore, he must enable his troops to have the ability to march long distances, and even the ability to march at high intensity.

After all, the mobility of troops is very important at all times.

Therefore, Teng Yuzhao reluctantly arranged these wounded veterans who were unwilling to retire to the guard team.

Although Zhang Xiyuan temporarily dispelled the students' idea of ​​asking for weapons, he was still worried, and in front of the students, he left four instructors to guard the armory.

He even gave orders in front of the students that no one was allowed to open the armory without his permission, and that the instructors could shoot anyone who forced their way in.

Then he warned the students not to step out of the school, otherwise their safety could not be guaranteed.

There are quite a few commanding heights inside the school gate, including the small building where Zhang Xiyuan and Duan Qirui work. The teachers' office buildings and dormitory buildings are all near the gate, with a total of more than a dozen buildings.

The dozen or so German teachers climbed to the roof and looked outside before the students.

The vanguard's superior combat effectiveness and flexible tactics left a deep impression on William II, and also gave him a new understanding of Oriental people.

According to the reports of the German envoy and Colonel Lehman, William II learned that Teng Yuzao had a very good impression of the German Empire and he seemed to be somewhat disgusted with Gallic chickens.

All of this made William II feel very close.

Moreover, it was proved that this invincible general of the Qing Dynasty was also an inventor, and his extremely valuable military technology was willing to be shared with the great Germany, which made William II even more delighted.

As a result, this Qing general has become a very close friend of the great German Empire. William was very generous to his friends. The German instructors transferred to Zhili were either instructors of the German military academy or officers with actual combat experience transferred from active troops.

These people were very interested in the army that could defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance, including the powerful German army. Naturally, they would not miss the opportunity to closely observe the Zhi army that suddenly appeared outside the military academy wall.

Therefore, regardless of the danger, he had already climbed to the roof to watch the battle.

Although all the buildings in the military academy are only two stories high, this height is enough.

Soon, the rooftops inside the gate, the roofs of higher houses, and even the trees were occupied by students. Some students even ran into the unlocked rooms on the second floor and squeezed in at the windows to look outside.

Zhang Xiyuan left in a hurry because he was in a hurry to stop the students from attacking the armory. The door of his office was not locked, and was rudely occupied by students who were eager to know the battle situation outside as soon as possible, and they crowded at the window to look out.

Since the matter involved him, Zhang Xiyuan was not prepared to deal with Ma Longbiao immediately. The Shuntian Army that arrived would naturally be blocked by Liu Zhengang and his guards. He would only come out when necessary.

When Zhang Xiyuan and the remaining dozen or so instructors rushed to the gate, they saw that people had already gone up to the rooftop of the small building where he and Duan Qirui worked, and even the door of his office was open.

Zhang Xiyuan had no choice but to smile bitterly and order several instructors to get some telescopes, and then led everyone to the two small Western-style buildings where the dozen or so German officers lived.

In order to prevent accidents from happening to the German teachers, Zhang Xiyuan specially arranged six teachers to guard the entrance of the two western-style buildings. They not only prohibited the students from approaching, but also prevented the German teachers from leaving the buildings. That is why there are only a dozen Germans inside so far.

However, after ringing the doorbell, no one came out to open the door for a long time, which made Zhang Xiyuan feel a little strange.

After asking several teachers who were guarding outside the door and confirming that the German teacher had not gone out, Zhang Xiyuan pushed open the door and walked into the living room of the western-style building with several teachers.

Standing in the living room, Zhang Xiyuan called a few more times, but seeing still no response, he couldn't help but raise his voice.

It was not until then that someone heard some movement on the stairs, and soon a German instructor in a dark blue military uniform poked his head out from the second-floor stairs.

The German military uniform has changed a lot in recent years. Although this dark blue uniform was finalized in 1985, it was not fully distributed and equipped in the country until after the Eight-Nation Alliance War.

"Oh! Hello, respected assistant! Colonel Karl invites you to the rooftop!"

Zhang Xiyuan asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"

The instructor smiled and said, "We are all watching the game on the rooftop, it's higher up there."

Upon learning that the Germans had reached the roof, Zhang Xiyuan did not hesitate and immediately took a few instructors to the second floor, and then climbed to the roof along a short and steep wooden staircase.

As soon as we reached the roof, we saw Colonel Karl in German military uniform and a dozen German instructors standing by the parapet, holding binoculars and carefully observing the situation outside.

Hearing the noise, Colonel Carl turned around and pointed to the empty seat next to him.

"Oh, my respected assistant, please come here quickly. Let us take a closer look at the Zhi army and Shuntian army in front of us, so as to assess their combat effectiveness."

Zhang Xiyuan didn't care about Karl's words, because since Karl came to the military academy, he had repeatedly asked Duan Qirui and Zhang Xiyuan to watch the training of the Zhi Army, the Henan Army and the Shuntian Army.

However, neither of them agreed.

Although Duan Qirui always had a favorable impression of Germany, he even insisted that the German army was far superior to the new armies in various provinces in China in terms of overall quality and strength, and the same was true even when compared with the Zhili Army.

Moreover, after the Battle of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Duan Qirui now had a suspicious attitude towards all foreigners. He was unwilling to give any foreigner the opportunity to observe the situation of the Henan Army up close, including the Shuntian Army and all the new armies in the country.

Therefore, Duan Qirui firmly rejected Karl's request.

Although Zhang Xiyuan did not firmly refuse, he did not dare to make the decision on his own, but asked Wei Jinghai for instructions.

However, Wei Jinghai and Duan Qirui had similar ideas and also disagreed.

Now that there is such an opportunity, how could Colonel Karl let it go.

But when Zhang Xiyuan came to Carl and looked outside, he was not surprised.

Outside the gate of the Military Academy, there is a large open space.

Different from history, Teng Yuzhao had high hopes for the development of the military academy in the early days of its establishment. Therefore, the academy occupied land in one go and reserved land for its expansion.

Therefore, although the open space in front of the military academy is only 200 meters wide, the open space on the left and right and behind the academy is 500 meters wide.

Outside the open space in front of the military academy, facing the gate of the military academy, there is a wide street. The shops on both sides were developed by Huang Chujiu's company.

Teng Yuzao had another consideration for reserving the open space, which was that the teaching at the military academy should not be disturbed by outside vendors.

At this time, on the originally empty space, there were already more than a thousand guards lined up. There were four rows in the front, with three to four hundred people in each row. Zhang Xiyuan could see that there was one sentry in each row.

On both sides of these four rows of troops, there was a pair of fifty to sixty officers and soldiers, as if guarding the flanks.

The soldiers' rifles were all equipped with shining bayonets.

On the stone steps outside the wide gate of the military academy, sandbags had been piled up, and four Maxim guns had been placed on top, all of which were equipped with ammunition chains.

Looking further away, the street two hundred meters away that was filled with shops and vendors was now empty, with only vague shadows swaying on the roofs of the shops.

Zhang Xiyuan quickly raised his telescope to look, and saw that a Maxim gun had been set up on several taller roofs there.

He even saw through the telescope the black muzzle of a gun sticking out of the window on the second floor of the only restaurant.

This is a posture of wanting to fight if persuasion fails.

"Zhang, the soldiers on both sides of the line, what weapons are they holding!"

(End of this chapter)