The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 7 Dissidents
On the parade ground in the military camp, under the newly hoisted red flag with the big characters "Wuwei Vanguard Army" inscribed on it, more than 98 people, all holding G German rifles, fully armed and carrying cowhide backpacks, have lined up in a neat square. More than a dozen large carts are also mostly loaded with ammunition, food and other supplies. Even the only two German-made Maxim heavy machine guns in the camp are mounted on two large carts with ammunition chains hanging on them, just waiting for Teng Yuzhao's order for the entire battalion to move out.

Although this battalion came from Ronglu's Wuwei Central Army, and its personnel were all recruited from bannermen's sons and young peasants, and were all new recruits trained from scratch, their weapons and equipment were configured with reference to Nie Shicheng's vanguard army. Like the Wuwei vanguard army, each battalion had two Maxim guns. The only difference was that the battalion did not have small-caliber artillery like the vanguard army.

Although the entire battalion was ready to go, at this moment, among the more than 700 people in the battalion, except for a few who knew the situation, including a few sentries, all of them were staring at the red flag flying in the wind on the flagpole in front of the team, and whispering to each other. However, the expressions of these people were different. The officers generally had happy expressions on their faces and kept silent, while the soldiers mostly asked each other in confusion.

At this moment, Teng Yuzhao, with a revolver slung diagonally on his belt, took big and firm steps towards him. His leather boots clanged on the bluestone floor of the yard. Behind him, Erwin followed closely with blood on his face.

The appearance of Erwin immediately caused quite a stir in the team.

Teng Yuzao strode to the front of the Vanguard Army's flag and stopped. Li Yulin ran to Teng Yuzao in small steps, saluted, and reported loudly, "Captain, all 710 soldiers of the Vanguard Army are fully equipped and lined up, and can set off at any time."

After Teng Yuzao raised his hand to signal, Li Yulin and Liu Changfa immediately ran to both sides of Teng Yuzao and stood slightly behind Teng Yuzao. All the soldiers in the battalion also fell silent at the signal of the officers.

After Teng Yuzao scanned the somewhat chaotic team twice, he raised his voice, "There are people from all the posts who want to join the Boxers."

Teng Yuzao went straight to the point, which made Li Yulin, Liu Changfa, and even the four sentries change color.

However, it was too late to stop it. The outpost leader Liu Yuzhi and the right sentry Li Xianze looked at each other, then turned back and gestured to their respective platoon leaders. They also quietly opened their gun holsters, silently preparing for someone to suddenly attack.

Although there was no prior arrangement, Teng Yuzao had noticed the expressions of the four sentries. The small movements of Liu Yuzhi, Li Xianze and the two sentries behind them who were secretly on guard did not escape his eyes, which made Teng Yuzao feel even more relaxed.

This time, he not only wanted to eliminate the unstable personnel in the team, but also wanted to use this incident to see what these officers he personally selected were like.

Teng Yuzao's words immediately caused a commotion among the left and back sentinels, but no one stood up.

Teng Yuzao raised his voice again, "Everyone has their own aspirations. I have no objection to joining the Boxers, but you cannot stay in the army to incite and deceive my soldiers. You step out of the line and I will let you go. Otherwise, if anyone incites others to join the Boxers or secretly joins the Boxers in the camp in the future, they will be killed without mercy once discovered!"

When he said the last few words, Teng Yuzao's tone was so cold that it made people feel chilled.

The team was silent for a moment, and someone from the left sentry team shouted, "Brothers, we are joining the Boxers to kill foreigners. This is an aboveboard thing, and there is nothing to hide. Those who have red scarves, bring them, and let's go."

The shouting awakened those who were hesitant and dared not leave. Tying a red scarf meant that they were already members of the Boxers. In the city of Tianjin, except for the Wuwei Vanguard Army who dared to kill the Boxers, no other Qing army dared to touch them.

Following the shout, more than 30 people in the two sentries immediately took off their wide-brimmed hats and threw them on the ground, then took out red silk scarves from their arms and tied them on their heads, and then walked out of the team one after another, preparing to leave the vanguard army camp. As expected, those who tied red scarves and walked out of the team were the rear sentries and the left sentries. The rear sentries had the most people, with 24 people, and even a tent head. This person was the one who just shouted. There were also more than ten people without red scarves, and a total of 41 people, more than a platoon.

Seeing that so many people in their own sentry wanted to join the Boxers, the two sentinels, the left and rear, could not help but feel ashamed and annoyed. They wanted to speak up to stop them, but not only did Teng Yuzao have something to say, but most of these people had already openly tied red scarves and no longer admitted to being their soldiers. The two of them had no choice but to stand awkwardly in front of their somewhat chaotic queue in silence, feeling ashamed and angry.

Seeing the arrogant look of these people wearing red scarves, Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze had already drawn their pistols, but because Teng Yuzhao did not give the order, they did not dare to move for the time being.

"Stop." Teng Yuzhao shouted coldly.

Although the soldiers who stepped out of the line had been bewitched and secretly joined the Boxer Rebellion, they had not yet left the barracks. Teng Yuzhao's cold voice still frightened these people, and they almost subconsciously tightened their rifles in their hands.

Teng Yuzao asked, "Before you leave, I would like to ask, which altar are you worshipping at?"

Hearing Teng Yuzao's question, the leaders all showed satisfaction on their faces, "We are worshipping the altar of Senior Brother Zhang, the world's number one group!"

Although there are several Boxer Rebellions of various sizes in Tianjin, the most famous ones are only Cao Futian from Tianjin Wei and Zhang Decheng from Jinghai, which is known as the best group in the world with more than 7,000 people. Both of them have a large number of people.

Teng Yuzao nodded and said calmly, "Okay, put down your guns, bullets, belts, and backpacks, and you can leave."

Although Teng Yuzhao did what he said and really let them go, he only asked them to put down their guns. However, they refused to do so. The Boxers valued the foreign guns in their hands. With the guns in their hands, they would be small leaders in the Boxers, but without guns they would be nothing.

Not only did these people not put down their rifles, on the contrary they held their guns even tighter and looked at the three people in the lead.

It was the head of the tent who said, "The best regiment in the world is an official regiment that is recognized by the imperial court and is paid with food and wages. Our guns are to be used to kill foreign devils, and we will not hand them over."

At that time, the Boxers were divided into several types. The so-called official groups were those registered with the court and recognized by the court. They obeyed the court's orders, and the court would also give them a certain amount of food and wages. The second type was the miscellaneous groups, which were not recognized by the court and did not receive food and wages. They would not obey the court's orders, and everything they did was decided independently by their eldest brother. The last type was the so-called pseudo-group or fake group, which was not only not recognized by the court, but even by the authentic Boxers.

The two men behind the shed head also stepped forward and stood with the shed head. They raised their guns and reached for the bolt, shouting, "Yes, we will not put down our guns."

(End of this chapter)