The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 98 Light the way for them
Teng Yuzao's words today contained many treasonous statements. If the court knew about this, not only would Teng Yuzao lose his official position, he might even lose his life.

Teng Yuzhao waved his hand, signaling Li Xiance not to threaten the two staff officers anymore, and gave Li Xiance further instructions with a cunning smile.

"You and my brother should quickly select the members of the suicide squad. Also, you should tell the Second Battalion of the Artillery Regiment behind to prepare flares. When the fleeing coalition forces reach the pontoon bridge, they should continuously fire flares into the sky above the bridge to light their way and prevent them from falling into the river..."

Liu Shijiu, Li Xianze and Wu Peifu were going out to arrange the related matters arranged by Teng Yuzhao. Teng Yuzhao noticed that Wu Peifu, who was left behind, quietly closed the lid of the Browning pistol holster that Liu Shijiu had given him and hung it on his waist belt before following the two of them out.

Wu Peifu originally had a revolver hanging on his belt. After receiving the pistol from Liu Shijiu, he simply hung the Browning on his belt as well, except that the revolver was in front of his right waist and the Browning was behind his right waist.

After the three of them went out, Li Jinyu also closed the safety of the revolver, put the gun back into the holster at his waist, and even secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

Seeing the actions of the two, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but feel secretly delighted.

Although for Liu Jiujiu and Teng Yuzao, one is their superior and division commander, and the other is an outsider, even if Liu Jiujiu is the superior's ally, when there is a conflict with their superior, or even when the superior's life may be endangered, it is natural for these two people to stand on the side of their superior and division commander. It does not mean much, but Teng Yuzao still attaches great importance to it.

Not to mention Wu Peifu, even Li Jinyu was a hero among men. Teng Yuzhao even believed that if Li Jinyu and Wei Jinghai had not stayed together in the "Beiyang Military Academy" and died, they might have been famous generals in the Beiyang Army in history. They were all worthy of training, especially those who were loyal to him.

Teng Yuzao didn't say much, just nodded slightly to Li Jinyu, then lowered his head to look at the map on the ammunition box.

“Draw your sword! Draw your sword!”

Suddenly, there was a burst of shouting that was getting stronger and stronger outside the machine gun bunker. From the sound, it seemed that not only the officers and soldiers of the Second Regiment were shouting, but also the people of Liu Shijiu's Qian Regiment were shouting. Teng Yuzhao felt more at ease, because this showed that Liu Shijiu not only convinced the people of the Qian Regiment, but also was using his words to boost morale.

"Ring, ring, ring!" the telephone in the command center rang again.

This time, it was Li Jinyu who picked up the phone first. Wei Jinghai's anxious voice came from the receiver, "Mingguang, is the president here?"

Hearing Wei Jinghai's anxious voice, Teng Yuzhao's heart sank and he walked over to take the microphone.

"I'm Teng Yuzao, Ningbo, what happened?"

"Your Excellency, you are right. Seymour has indeed escaped." Wei Jinghai's hurried voice came from the receiver. "Don't panic. Tell me what happened slowly."

Teng Yuzao's calm tone seemed to calm Wei Jinghai down a lot, so he briefly reported to Teng Yuzao what had happened.

It turned out that according to Teng Yuzhao's order, Wei Jinghai asked Liu Yuzhi to send people to investigate the assembly area of ​​Seymour's coalition forces. Although it was dark and the exact number of attacking troops could not be seen clearly, it was still found that Seymour's troop assembly area was very empty. There were only dozens of artillerymen operating cannons, bombarding the positions of Liu Yuzhi's regiment from time to time. Judging from the situation, those artillerymen seemed absent-minded, as if they would drop the cannons and run away at the slightest disturbance.

Moreover, the coalition's attacking force finally launched an attack half an hour ago. After being fiercely strafed by more than 20 Maxim guns deployed on the front line by Liu Yuzhi, the attacking coalition forces did not retreat to their assembly area, but dispersed. Combined with the reconnaissance situation, Liu Yuzhi judged that Seymour should have led part of the troops to take a detour as Teng Yuzhao had expected, so he had led his first battalion to charge the enemy.

The news just came back that Liu Yuzhi had led his first battalion to occupy the rest and assembly camp of the Seymour coalition forces. The artillery there had also fled, leaving behind more than 200 wounded soldiers. Four British Armstrong cannons and dozens of artillery shells were seized. Liu Yuzhi only left a patrol troop to search for the remaining enemies and clean up the battlefield. Now Liu Yuzhi has led his first battalion to take a shortcut and pursue them.

In addition, he had ordered the Third Battalion of the Second Regiment and the Cavalry Battalion remaining in the Xigu Warehouse area to rush to the road leading to the concession in the west to intercept the fleeing Seymour Coalition. At the same time, he ordered the First Battalion of Liu Changfa's Artillery Regiment and the Second Battalion of Liu Yuzhi's First Regiment to urgently withdraw to the Xigu Warehouse area to replace the Third Battalion of the Second Regiment that had just been dispatched to guard the empty Xigu Warehouse area.

Although Wei Jinghai's arrangements were all in execution of his orders and there were no eye-catching and brilliant deployments, Wei Jinghai, who was commanding for the first time, did a decent job. For a student who just graduated this year and had not yet been assigned to the army, this was already very good. Teng Yuzhao praised Wei Jinghai a few words before hanging up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Teng Yuzhao paced on the ground alone, thinking.

If Seymour really managed to escape as he expected, then after learning that his cavalry unit was destroyed by the cavalry battalion, he should have sensed the defensive strength of Xigu, so he did not launch a fierce attack on Xigu and occupy the reservoir area in one fell swoop as he did in history.

Teng Yuzhao began to reflect on his own command. What would have happened if he had not sent out cavalry to intercept Seymour's cavalry reconnaissance unit?
After thinking about it, Teng Yuzhao believed that this would still make Seymour adopt the strategy of sacrificing pawns to save the chariot, because he would also discover the solid defense of Liu Yuzhi's regiment. The only way was to conceal and ambush Seymour's coalition forces, such as using the cover of the green gauze tent and superior forces to encircle and annihilate Seymour's coalition forces in one fell swoop.

It's not that Teng Yuzao had not thought about this plan, but he didn't dare to take the risk. What if Seymour had the chance to launch an artillery attack on the Xigu reservoir area, where a large amount of weapons and ammunition were stored? What if the ammunition was detonated by some strange coincidence? Then he, Teng Yuzao, would have no place to cry.

Moreover, his vanguard army now seems to have seven or eight thousand people, but most of them are newly reorganized Green Camp soldiers. Once hand-to-hand combat or a field battle without the support of positions breaks out, his troops may not only be able to destroy the Seymour coalition, but they may even be rushed past by him and head straight for the Ku region.

Or, it would cause chaos and losses to Li Xianze's Second Regiment, which was trying to pass through the reservoir area and attack from behind to block the concession's support troops.

In addition, a failed ambush would not only result in huge casualties, but would also deal a huge blow to the morale of these newly reorganized Green Camp soldiers. Such a cost is something the fledgling vanguard army cannot afford.

Thanks: Muye Feng, 20190617140419458, Zhijing Shenghui, Monks Like Washing Hair, ET1978, Feiniao’s Book, 20210301106504283180, Shenlan and other brothers, sisters and sisters who like this book for their strong support!
Your support is the driving force of Zuima!


(End of this chapter)