The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 70 Wu Peifu's Benefactor
At this time, Wu Peifu was already certain that the officer in front of him was Teng Yuzhao, and he quickly shook off Teng Yuzhao's hand.

Although Wu Peifu was a little thin, his hands were very strong and he managed to break free from Teng Yuzhao's tight grip.

Wu Peifu took a step back, saluted Teng Yuzhao seriously again, and then asked in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

"General, there is something I don't understand, and I don't know whether I should tell you or not."

Teng Yuzao waved his hand and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it."

Wu Peifu hesitated and said, "General, our Captain Shen said that you asked me to come to the Vanguard Army because of an old friend. I wonder if you have mistaken me. My family is poor, and I only have a widowed mother. I also have a cousin who does some fur business in the capital, which is also a small business. Apart from that, I don't have any relatives or friends in this world. Is there anyone who would care enough to ask you to look after a soldier like me?"

It was indeed a man of character, and Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but admire him secretly in his heart.

Teng Yuzao still couldn't hide the joy in his heart and said, "It can't be wrong, the person I'm looking for is you."

"You are from Penglai, Shandong. You lost your father ten years ago. In the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, you were the third scholar in the Bingshen year of the Dengzhou Prefecture. In the autumn of the 23rd year, you overturned the opium table of the Shandong dignitaries because you criticized men and women for performing on the same stage. As a result, you were stripped of your title of scholar. Not long after, you fled to the capital to avoid disaster. You make a living by writing Spring Festival couplets and fortune-telling. Only two years ago, you were sponsored by your cousin Wu Liangfu and joined the Wuwei Front Army. Am I right?"

Teng Yuzhao was very clear about Wu Peifu's history. Wu Peifu was not lustful, not greedy for money, and had great integrity. In Teng Yuzhao's opinion, his only shortcoming was that he was a bit old-fashioned.

For example, the cause of this trouble was that he couldn't stand men and women performing on the same stage and thought it was immoral.

Seeing that Teng Yuzao had revealed his details, he knew that he was not wrong, and hurriedly asked, "Sir, did you hear my cousin tell you about it?"

Teng Yuzao shook his head and said sincerely, "Wu Ziyu, I don't know your cousin. I heard about you from someone who was familiar with your cousin. At that time, that person mentioned you as a joke. After hearing that, I felt sorry for you."

"Although you haven't received a modern Western education, you were able to pass the exam to become a scholar. In our country, that's rare. If you continue to waste time like this, perhaps your potential will be wasted. I happened to think of this last night, so I asked General Nie to bring you here."

Teng Yuzao had already thought of an excuse for how to handle the matter of knowing Wu Peifu's background.

Although Wu Peifu was deeply moved by Teng Yuzhao's words about cherishing him as a promising talent, it was the first time he heard someone feel sorry for him so much since he was stripped of his title of scholar and fled to the capital to avoid disaster. What's more, this man had become the president of an army at such a young age, a second-rank official.

However, although he was very grateful to Teng Yuzao, Wu Peifu was still a little dissatisfied with Teng Yuzao's statement that he "had not received Western education" and said, "Your Excellency said that I had not received Western education, but I don't think so..."

It should be said that Wu Peifu had a somewhat stubborn character, which he never changed throughout his life. Teng Yuzhao knew that his casual remark had accidentally touched the reverse scale of the proud Wu Ziyu, so he smiled and waved his hand.

"Zi Yu, I know you don't agree with what I said, but you have to know that without learning these ingenious and lewd skills from the West, we can't build strong ships and powerful guns, as well as many other advanced things. The foundation of these advanced things of the Western powers is Western learning. As for the advantages and disadvantages of Western learning and Chinese learning, I think we don't need to argue. In a word, at present, taking Chinese learning as the basis and Western learning as the application is a compromise solution." Teng Yuzao asked again, "I heard that the former army will soon promote you, a scholar, to be a team officer in the artillery camp. Is this true?"

When talking about going to the artillery battalion to be a team officer, Wu Peifu immediately looked reluctant and said.

"That's true. Many people in the artillery team are illiterate or don't know how to calculate the firing parameters, so they are going to let me be the team officer. However..."

Teng Yuzao saw Wu Peifu's expression and smiled, "Don't feel sorry. You are just a team officer. Kaiping Military Academy is now in our army. I will give you a rank of staff officer in our army. Then you can go to the infantry department of the Military Academy. In your spare time, you can follow me and gain some experience. After you graduate from the Military Academy, I will let you start as a sentry officer. As for your future, it depends on your own luck."

"Yes, I will obey your orders!"

Teng Yuzhao's words made Wu Peifu overjoyed. He knew that he had met the noble person of his life, and he answered loudly and excitedly.

Li Dazhu, who was standing by, couldn't help but say something sour when he saw that the scholar was promised to be at least a sentry leader in the future as soon as he met his master.

"Mr. Wu, you are so lucky! As soon as you saw me, I gave you a post as sentry commander. I don't know which ancestor of yours had such good deeds."

Wu Peifu was so happy that he didn't care about Li Dazhu's sour words. He just stood there and grinned foolishly.

Teng Yuzao scolded with a smile, "Li Dazhu, you don't need to be sour. You can also learn a few words. You can go to the camp school with Wu Ziyu. Now take him to find Sun Ziming and tell him that I said that your names should be added to the infantry department. If you can graduate, I will also give you a sergeant position."

At noon, in the large training ground in Xigu Reservoir area, more than 7,000 people were divided into three groups and stood there in some confusion waiting for Teng Yuzhao's lecture.

Among the three groups, more than 2,000 people were Green Camp soldiers selected in advance by a group of officers of the Vanguard Army. These 2,000 people were assigned to Liu Yuzhi's regiment, Liu Changfa's running regiment, and Xue Zhiqian's cavalry battalion. Liu Yuzhi, Liu Changfa, and Xue Zhiqian, who were overjoyed, had already skillfully completed the allocation and organization of these Green Camp soldiers who were to be incorporated into their army.

The first batch of Green Camp soldiers selected were all proficient in using modern firearms or artillery, and were also able to ride horses.

Although these Green Camp soldiers used to use old and miscellaneous Western rifles, whether they were breech-loading rifles or muzzle-loading rifles, the design principles were generally the same, and they could quickly become familiar with them.

As for the artillerymen, there is not much difference. The Green Camp's artillery are also modern Western artillery, and the operating principles are not much different. It's just that the vanguard army's artillery is now more advanced and has a longer range.

The weapons and equipment of the Green Camp soldiers were better than those of the Training Army. The weapons they had used were either old models eliminated by the Wuwei Army or the Huai Army and Yi Army of the Beiyang Army, or domestic imitations. Although the precision and accuracy of the weapons were not very good, they were modern weapons anyway. There were definitely no large numbers of cold weapons such as swords and spears.
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(End of this chapter)