The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 156 Kill
"Not one left!"

Teng Yuzao couldn't help but be a little stunned by Liu Shijiu's words.

Seeing Teng Yuzhao's expression, Wang Decheng's face became even more surprised. He stammered and wanted to speak, but the smile on Liu Shijiu's face had turned into a bitter look, and he spoke with a bitter face.

"Xingfu, yesterday I heard you say that these foreign devils are still very tenacious. I didn't quite believe it at the time, but this time I believe it."

"As soon as the battle started, these little Japanese soldiers were swept by our heavy machine guns. However, these dwarf-like little Japanese soldiers kept howling and screaming "on board, on board". Facing the heavy machine gun fire from us, they just held their golden hook rifles that were taller than themselves and charged forward with their bayonets pointed. Their small bodies could not withstand the bullets from our heavy machine guns."

Liu Shijiu bared his teeth, his face changed color again, and he cursed angrily, "Damn it, these little Japanese soldiers were not only shot into sieves by our heavy machine guns, but many of them had their entire bodies broken by our heavy machine guns. If I hadn't thought about saving some bullets, more than a thousand little Japanese soldiers would have been shot to death by our heavy machine guns."

The Japanese soldiers were extremely desperate and ruthless, and Teng Yuzhao completely believed what Liu Shijiu said.

"I thought that the soldiers would be able to capture a few alive during the bayonet fight, but I didn't expect that these dwarfs who looked like children would not show any fear when fighting hand-to-hand with us."

Many Chinese people in later generations had doubts about the height of Japanese and Chinese people at that time. Teng Yuzhao often saw such netizens when he was reading online articles in his previous life.

However, Teng Yuzhao read an article written by a Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, which was very convincing.

The author was a Japanese cavalry captain named Saburo Inagaki. In the year of Jiawu, he was in Jinzhou, Liaodong, and wrote a letter to his friend in Japan, describing the every move of the Qing soldiers that he observed up close. Since many of the details were never heard of by the Japanese, a Tokyo newspaper published it as soon as possible. This has become an important historical material for understanding the height of the Chinese people, which is rare today.

In a letter, Saburo Inagaki sadly told a friend, "The height of the Kiyomizu is nearly six feet, and it is not a lie that the Kiyomizu regard me as a dwarf."

How much was six feet during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895?

Teng Yuzao carefully checked the old Japanese system at that time, and found that 6 feet was approximately 1 meters or more.

Although what this Japanese said may be somewhat exaggerated, the average height of Chinese people at that time was over 1.65 meters, so there should be no problem. In other words, Chinese people were generally more than ten centimeters taller than Japanese.

Regarding the height of the Japanese at that time, according to historical records, the height of the Japanese was approximately between 1 meters and 45 meters, and very few were taller than 1 meters.

During the period of the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China, there was a photo in which officers from various countries were arranged in order of height. The Japanese officers were at the end, and were even shorter than the soldiers in French South India, which was their colony of Vietnam.

However, the Japanese have a strong sense of self-esteem and they never draw themselves short in their portraits or cartoons. For example, the Japanese once drew Li Hongzhang, who was 1 meters tall and nicknamed "Crane in the Clouds", as being shorter than Ito Hirobumi, who was 8 meters tall, at the negotiation table of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

In addition, Japan had the "most powerful general in the Warring States Period", Honda Tadakatsu, known as the "Japanese Zhang Fei", who was only about 1 meters tall. Takeda's red-armored commander-in-chief, Yamagata Masakage, was only 4 meters tall, and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was only 1 meters tall.

Liu Shijiu continued to speak bitterly, "Originally, our soldiers were reluctant to kill these child-like devils, but these devils didn't care. They pointed their bayonets and stabbed us. They stabbed more than a dozen soldiers to death. I got angry and killed them."

Liu Shijiu almost told the truth when he was so excited, but fortunately, he reacted in time and immediately changed his words and said seriously, "These bastards were angry for a moment, and I didn't have time to take care of them, so they killed them all."

Although Liu Shijiu's lies were told in a very serious manner, everyone understood them clearly. They wanted to laugh but did not dare to. Only Wu Peifu, who was standing behind Teng Yuzhao, secretly made a face at Liu Shijiu, but Liu Shijiu glared back at him.

Teng Yuzhao also heard it clearly. Liu Shijiu only said that he didn't keep an eye on them, so all the Japanese soldiers were killed. He didn't say whether they were all killed in hand-to-hand combat or those who surrendered were also killed.

However, Teng Yuzao still had some hope and asked again, "Is there no one left alive?"

Liu Nineteen said with some disdain, "That's all. These little devils look fierce, but when it comes to fighting, they are so small that they are no match for us. One cut from the sword will make their heads fly far away. One cut in the waist will easily cut them in two. I really don't understand how so many troops were chased from Korea to Liaodong by these little devils during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895!"

When mentioning the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Teng Yuzhao could not help but feel a pang of pain in his heart. His troops were armed with much more advanced weapons than those of the Japanese army, and their numbers were no less than those of the Japanese army. Not to mention the battle in Korea, they were also defeated in Liaodong. In the end, not only did they cede the Formosa Boulevard, but they also had to pay Japan 200 million taels of silver as compensation.

If the great powers had not been worried that the benefits would be monopolized by the Japanese and their interests would be damaged, and therefore strongly opposed and intervened, even the Liaodong Peninsula would have been ceded to Japan.

With the 200 million indemnity, the Japanese national strength began to increase rapidly, and their ambitions also expanded rapidly.

Teng Yuzao sighed softly and said to Liu Shijiu and Wang Decheng, "In the modern era of hot weapons, fighting depends not only on courage and weapons and equipment, but also on morale and wisdom. Generals must understand the methods and means of hot weapons warfare. The Qing Dynasty..." Teng Yuzao considered his words and continued, "The generals of the Qing Dynasty's army are all a group of old-fashioned soldiers who are self-satisfied and conservative. They are all outdated. Relying on these people to command an army with the best equipment will still lead to defeat. Therefore, it is very important to learn Western military affairs. You two must study hard, otherwise you will also fall behind."

Liu Shijiu put away his playful expression and said seriously, "Xingfu, don't worry about this. I understand what you said. Since yesterday, whenever Liu Yuanshou has time, he will tell me and my brothers about how the West fights wars. In the future, I will also bring Lao Wang in to listen together."

Teng Yuzao nodded. "As for these little devils, just kill them. They are not only very tenacious, but also very fierce and cruel. The only way to deal with them is with swords and guns."

"I want a live one. I don't mean anything else. I just want to find out the number of this Japanese army and the number of troops they are going to Tianjin. Since there are no survivors, you can arrange for someone to search the battlefield. It would be best if you can find some Japanese military documents for me."

Teng Yuzao's words made Liu Shijiu stunned for a moment, then he smiled and said, "Damn it, we should have left one person alive and asked him clearly."

"However, I haven't forgotten what you told me to do, which is to collect the ranks and belongings of the foreign officers we killed. I will immediately arrange for someone to handle the documents you mentioned."

Since the ambush here was over, Teng Yuzhao did not stay long. He briefly understood the situation and patrolled the battlefield. He told Liu Shijiu to clean up the battlefield quickly and return immediately with the spoils, then left with the guard platoon.

Liu Shijiu ambushed the Allied Forces' baggage train and seized a lot of spoils. Teng Yuzhao took a rough look and found that there were more than 400 carts full of supplies, and there were also many pack horses with supplies tied on their backs. The baggage they carried was mainly ammunition, including not only ammunition for Russian weapons, but also standard weapons and ammunition from various countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Austria, the United States, and Japan, as well as medicines and some canned food, coffee, and foreign wine.

Teng Yuzhao guessed that this should be transported by the Allied Forces to the troops in the concession.

Those carts were all vehicles forcibly requisitioned by the coalition forces from the common people in the villages and towns near Dagukou, including the laborers who drove the carts and led the pack horses, who were also forcibly captured. Only a few of these laborers died in the ambush, and some others who were slightly injured have all been treated.

Teng Yuzhao asked Liu Shijiu to release all the injured civilians and asked them to inform the coalition forces at Dagukou so that they could send people to collect the bodies.

Teng Yuzhao now had no time to bury these Japanese soldiers, including the large number of Russian soldiers killed in the previous ambush, so he could only let the coalition forces collect and bury the bodies themselves.

Teng Yuzhao hurried back because Li Xiance sent someone to report that the remnant of the Russian army of several hundred people in the village, who had indeed come out to support the captured coalition forces, had been defeated by Li Xiance's troops, and about a hundred people fled back to the village. Li Xiance had now surrounded the remnant of the Russian army in the yard of a wealthy family.

At the entrance of the village, he met Li Xianze who was waiting there. Many torches had been lit at the entrance of the village. With the light of the torches, Teng Yuzhao saw that in the yard at the entrance of the village, there were many soldiers surrounding more than a hundred embarrassed Russian prisoners squatting on the ground, as if they were ready to rush up and kill all the prisoners at any time.

Although Teng Yuzao was a little surprised, he heard sporadic gunshots in the village and asked.

"Kangnian, what happened to the remnants of the Russian army? Why are you here if you're not going to command the troops?"

Li Xianze said bitterly, "This group of foreign devils is very tenacious. The walls and houses of the wealthy family they are defending are not only tall, but also made of bluestone, very solid. After blowing up the gate, they rushed in several times but were beaten back by the Russian army hiding in the dark. I plan to wait until daybreak and then launch an attack on the remaining Russian troops inside."

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Okay."

Before Teng Yuzao could continue to ask, Li Xianze gritted his teeth and said, "There were nearly a hundred households in the village. After the Russian army arrived, they raped and looted, and killed many villagers. According to the surviving villagers, every family in a wealthy family was killed by these foreign devils. I stayed here just to ask for your advice, sir."

Before he could finish listening to Li Xiance's words, Teng Yuzao's face had turned blue with anger.

Li Xianze said, pointing to the forty or so Russian officers and soldiers who were surrounded separately, "These people are the Russian troops that were taken back from Dongjuzi. They participated in the massacre of the villagers. What should we do with these people?"

Teng Yuzhao knew that the Russian army was brutal. In his impression, the Russian army, like the Japanese army, were both extremely vicious beasts. He was unwilling to kill prisoners. What he was most worried about was that in the future battles with the Allied Forces, those foreigners would fight to the death. But this did not mean that he did not dare to kill prisoners.

Teng Yuzhao's face turned ashen, and he drunkenly blurted out a word coldly.

"kill!"

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(End of this chapter)