The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 77 Military Meeting
On both sides of Teng Yuzao are Li Yulin, Wei Jinghai, Liu Yuzhi, Li Xianze, Sun Shijun and Liu Changfa. Among these six people, only Li Yulin's shoulder straps and collar badges show his rank of colonel, while the other five are lieutenant colonels, while Xue Zhiqian and Liu Bingyi have the rank of major.

The first batch of military ranks worn by the vanguard army were also in accordance with modern Western standards. The regiment commander was a lieutenant colonel, the battalion commander, who was also the captain, was a major, the company commander, who was also the sentry leader, was a captain, and the platoon leaders were all temporarily rank second lieutenants, and their ranks would be raised as appropriate when they had military merits.

Except for one person who was left behind to guard the phone, Teng Yuzao allowed the rest of the staff officers in the headquarters to attend the military meeting. The purpose was simple: to make them grow up sooner.

Taking into account that there would be staff officers at the regimental and battalion levels, and that these staff officers would often deal with those at the regimental and battalion levels, Teng Yuzhao set the military rank of all staff officers in the headquarters as major.

The only exception was Wu Peifu. Teng Yuzao temporarily only gave him the shoulder straps of a second lieutenant, but this also made Wu Peifu extremely excited.

When Li Yulin, the general manager of the camp office, gave Wu Peifu the epaulettes and collar badges, he told him that with this military rank, he could get a platoon leader's monthly salary of fifty taels a month, or six hundred taels a year. This was something he had never dared to think about before. He was now planning to bring his mother to Tianjin.

Among the people attending the meeting, the only one who had no military rank and whose military uniform was not the style of the Vanguard Army but the style of the Wuwei Vanguard Army was Zhang Xiyuan from the "Kaiping Camp School".

This is not because Teng Yuzhao has any other ideas, but because the Kaiping Camp School is still under the name of Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Front Army.

As time was tight, Teng Yuzhao directly asked Chief of Staff Wei Jinghai to introduce to everyone the military intelligence just reported by Master Qian.

After Wei Jinghai introduced the latest military situation, at the suggestion of Teng Yuzhao, Wei Jinghai distributed a Xigu trench fortification defense map to Liu Yuzhi and Li Xianze respectively. This defense map was drawn by several staff members including Li Jinyu organized by Wei Jinghai. The defense concept was basically modeled after the fortification layout design in the "Beiyang Military Academy", and Teng Yuzhao only made minor changes.

Wei Jinghai once again explained to the two the key points of the trench defense and the defensive operation plan of the two regiments.

Although now in the West, especially in the German Army, these matters are formulated by the Chief of Staff and the staff, and Teng Yuzhao does not need to worry about them at all, but this is not feasible in the vanguard army for the time being.

Not only did Wei Jinghai and others lack practical experience, but also their military concepts, and even those of the Western powers including the German army, were too outdated. The concept that Teng Yuzao mentioned refers to tactical rather than strategic. In terms of strategy, at least the German army's strategic thinking cannot be described by the word outdated.

Therefore, the layout of these defensive fortifications was reviewed by Teng Yuzhao, and only after his revision was Wei Jinghai allowed to issue it.

In addition, the combat plan was formulated by the General Staff in principle, and Teng Yuzhao took full charge of it. He also had to give Wei Jinghai and his General Staff some time to learn.

The specific arrangement of defensive fortifications was simpler than that in the Beiyang Military Academy, mainly because time was tight and Xigu was very large. There was not enough time to enclose the Xigu warehouse area with complete defensive fortifications.

Moreover, the Xigu warehouse area stores a large amount of munitions, and the coalition artillery must not be allowed to enter the warehouse area, so this defensive blocking position must be pushed forward and be five kilometers away from the warehouse area. If a defensive position is built around the Xigu warehouse area within a radius of dozens of square kilometers, the amount of work will be almost unimaginable.

Therefore, the defensive position this time was centered on the Maxim heavy machine gun fort, with only three circular defensive positions built five kilometers away in the south and north, and then connected with trenches.

As for the cat ear holes for protection against artillery fire, they are still necessary.

After Wei Jinghai finished speaking, Teng Yuzao stood up, walked to the map, pointed to the key points on the map and said, "You have heard what Director Wei said just now. Seymour's coalition forces have crossed the Ziya River. If Seymour does not retreat to the concession via Laolongtou, but goes straight to Xigu, then Seymour will lead his troops to Xigu before dark tonight, so we don't have much time left. After the meeting, the first and second regiments will immediately start repairing trench fortifications and prepare to meet Seymour and the possible support troops from the concession." "Liu Yuzhi."

Teng Yuzhao called out Liu Yuzhi's name, and he was about to start putting forward his specific demands.

"exist."

As Teng Yuzao spoke, Liu Yuzhi stood up.

"Since we have no reinforcements, at most we will have Liu Nineteen's Boxers to help us, so we can only rely on your group to stop Seymour."

"Guarantee to complete the task." Liu Yuzhi answered loudly.

Liu Yuzhi's straightforward answer made Teng Yuzao somewhat worried. After the two victories of the Beiyang Military Academy, the morale of the veterans in the battalion on which the Vanguard Army relied was extremely high, and they even felt overconfident. This inevitably made Teng Yuzao uneasy, and he said in a deep voice.

"Yuxuan, although we have won two battles in a row, we were able to catch the enemy by surprise in both of those victories. We cannot say that the coalition forces are vulnerable, especially since the First and Second Regiments have been supplemented with a large number of Green Camp soldiers this time. These Green Camp soldiers are good at fighting in favorable situations, but once the battle goes against them, they will most likely collapse at the first blow."

"Although these people in your group are selected, they are not as good as the soldiers in our old unit, and they also need to be familiar with each other, so you must not underestimate the enemy. Your mission is to stop the Seymour coalition forces and prevent them from passing through the Xigu warehouse area and retreating to the concession. If they bypass the Xigu warehouse and escape into the concession, you don't have to bear the responsibility."

Knowing that his attitude made Teng Yuzao worried, Liu Yuzhi hurriedly said, "I will follow your instructions, sir. I will never underestimate the enemy."

"but."

Liu Yuzhi asked, "If Seymour takes a detour, can I give chase?"

"Yes, as long as you are careful and don't suffer any loss."

Although Teng Yuzhao didn't think that Liu Yuzhi would fully understand his advice about not underestimating the enemy, he didn't want to say more now. If it was just a small loss that he could bear, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Teng Yuzhao nodded and looked at Li Xianze again.

Li Xian Ce stood up in response. Teng Yuzao said worriedly, "Kang Nian, Yu Zhongtang will launch an attack on the concession coalition tonight. So I estimate that if the concession sends troops to support Seymour, the maximum number of troops that can be dispatched is about one thousand, or even less. Are you sure you can stop the support troops?"

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(End of this chapter)