The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 86 Liu Shijiu's Wine

Teng Yuzhao wanted to give Liu Shijiu a Maxim heavy machine gun. It was not a false gesture, but a sincere one.

In addition to the common characteristics of all Boxers in the world, such as killing foreigners and Christians indiscriminately and hating everything about foreigners, Liu Shijiu's Boxer Rebellion also had its own unique and distinctive characteristics, the most notable of which was good discipline, which was even better than that of many regular government troops.

Liu Shijiu's Qian character group was able to achieve such a level. To be precise, this was entirely due to the good discipline of Liu Shijiu, the eldest senior brother.

Teng Yuzhao attached great importance to Liu Shijiu and his Qianzi Regiment. If he could get Liu Shijiu's entire Qianzi Regiment over, it would be of great help to the vanguard army. With a little reorganization and training, he could immediately establish a third regiment, and it would be the kind that would quickly develop a certain combat effectiveness.

Teng Yuzhao knew very well that such an opportunity would appear soon, and he did not want the Qian Group to suffer a heavy loss now.

Because he was so focused on how to do more before incorporating the Qianzi Group, Teng Yuzhao completely overlooked the fact that the Maxim was a big consumer of ammunition. Liu Shijiu absolutely could not afford such a horrific amount of ammunition. When fighting, one minute of ammunition consumption could cost dozens of taels of silver!

You should know that the caliber of the Maxim heavy machine gun at that time was still 11.43mm. There was no heavy machine gun that used 7.92 rifle bullets that appeared later. Its ammunition was separate and could not be used interchangeably with rifle ammunition.

In Tianjin, it was originally very convenient to buy weapons and ammunition. As long as you went to a larger foreign company, you could buy all kinds of weapons and ammunition. But when the war broke out, not only did the foreign merchants hide in the concessions or flee to Shanghai and Hong Kong, they could no longer be found in Tianjin. Even if they could be contacted, no one was willing to sell to the Beiyang Army. Not only the Western powers, but also the governors and governors-general participating in the Southeast Mutual Protection, all refused to allow weapons and ammunition to be transported into Northern Zhili.

To the extent that heavy machine guns and artillery shells are now in short supply, in order to increase the Maxim ammunition reserves of their own troops, Nie Shicheng's Wuwei Vanguard has sent people to find black market merchants, buying them at the price of one tael of silver for ten Maxim bullets. These black market merchants also have ways to constantly get some ammunition, although not much each time, but it will always accumulate slowly.

Although Teng Yuzhao had never inquired about the source of these ammunition, he could infer that there were only two channels. One was from other troops in Zhili that had Maxim heavy machine guns, and the other was from the southeastern provinces where new armies were established, avoiding those cautious governors and buying them directly from the troops using them in secret.

To be more precise, it should be that they were smuggled out by collusion between insiders and outsiders, or simply stolen by the employer.

Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying in a self-consistent way, "Brother, don't say that the Maxim bullets are very expensive. It's hard to buy them even if you have money. I was negligent. Let's put this matter aside for now..."

Dinner was still one meat and one vegetable. In addition to the braised lamb, there was also radish stewed in lamb soup, which made the people of the Vanguard Army and the Qianzi Group eat very happily.

It was only a month ago that the imperial court recognized a part of the Boxers as official groups. Due to Yu Lu's attitude towards the Boxers, it was not until half a month ago in Tianjin that Liu Jiujiu's Qianzi Group was recognized by Yu Lu under pressure from the situation. Although Liu Jiujiu did not withhold the food and wages issued by Yu Lu, the imperial court only provided food and drink to the official groups and did not provide official military wages. Liu Jiujiu was not like some other Boxers who could use various means to get some extra silver, money and supplies, so the Qianzi Group had always been in a difficult situation with food.

Their food was also very ordinary. Only when a few wealthy families in Gaojia Village sent them some supplies every now and then could they improve their food. This time, they could eat braised lamb in the vanguard army, and there was enough of it. How could they not feel happy? They wished that Liu Shijiu would take them to fight with the vanguard army from now on.

Teng Yuzao, Liu Jiujiu, Li Xiance, Li Jinyu, and Wu Peifu were all invited by Teng Yuzao to have dinner together. It was obvious that Liu Jiujiu liked wine, so Teng Yuzao took two wine bowls and placed one in front of Liu Jiujiu and himself. Because Teng Yuzao saw two young men carrying gourds beside Liu Jiujiu, Teng Yuzao judged that the gourds would not contain water. If they were water, there would be no need to bring two.

Moreover, just before the meal, the two militiamen carrying gourds dropped their bowls and chopsticks and ran over to look at Liu Shijiu curiously. It was not until Liu Shijiu waved for them to leave that the two ran back to eat.

Although drinking was prohibited in the army, Liu Shijiu was not a member of the vanguard army after all, and he brought people with him to help in the battle. Naturally, Teng Yuzhao could not treat Liu Shijiu the same as the people of the vanguard army.

Seeing Liu Shijiu's surprised look, Teng Yuzao said with a smile, "Brother, seeing you brought so many good wines, I am also a little greedy, but Captain Li doesn't have any wine here, so I have to let you pay for me to drink your good wine."

When Teng Yuzao said this, Liu Shijiu could not understand that Teng Yuzao wanted him to drink some wine. He felt warm in his heart and said with an embarrassed smile.

"Brother, I do like wine, and I even carry wine with me all the time, but I know the importance of wine, and I have never missed a job because of wine. I appreciate your kindness, but now it is different from when I was in the Qianzi Group. After all, this is the military, so it's better not to drink this wine."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "It's okay, let's have a drink before the battle, it will just help us to refresh ourselves."

Liu Shijiu had been unable to hold back for a long time, and seeing that Teng Yuzao insisted, he stopped refusing and hurriedly turned around to call a small leader of the Qianzi Group, "Go, get a bottle of the best Fenjiu that the liquor store sent today."

Fenjiu was a top-notch wine not only at that time, but even until the Republic of China. From princes and ministers to officials and wealthy people, as long as they had a certain status, they only drank Fenjiu.

Teng Yuzao hurriedly stopped him, saying, "Brother, you should keep the good wine for yourself. Just bring a bottle of ordinary wine. And don't drink too much today. I'm just accompanying you to drink half a bowl. If there's a problem someday, we can drink your good wine again."

Seeing that Teng Yuzao was not lying, Liu Shijiu nodded and said to the little leader, "Okay, bring a bottle of each of the five kinds of wine and let my brother choose for himself."

Soon, the leader brought five coarse porcelain bottles of liquor and placed them all on the table. Liu Shijiu waved his hand and said, "Brother, these are all. You can choose."

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(End of this chapter)