The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 162 The retreat is cut off

Teng Yuzao raised his voice slightly, "I will write four letters myself in a while, two of which are to Qionglin and Yuxuan. Dongjuzi and Xigu are only a few dozen miles apart. After last night, the things that need to be taken away should have been transported almost completely. Qionglin should lead the camp office, the camp school, the recruit training brigade and the camp escort troops in Xigu tonight, take all the baggage and supplies and rush to Xianghe tonight to prevent Song Qing from making plans to take over their place again."

Teng Yuzao thought for a moment and said, "You also need to tell Yuxuan and Ningbo that when I'm not in Dongjuzi, Yuxuan will be in charge of everything. You need him to stay at Dongjuzi and not make any mistakes."

Logically, the General Staff Office has the responsibility to manage the overall situation. If Li Yulin is there, it would naturally be Li Yulin who would be responsible. However, although Wei Jinghai's loyalty has been recognized by Teng Yuzhao, he is still young after all, and his foundation in the vanguard army is much shallower. Teng Yuzhao is very afraid that Wei Jinghai will not be able to control the old people who follow him, so he can only let Liu Yuzhi take charge of the overall situation.

Teng Yuzao looked at Wu Peifu and said, "As for the other two letters, one is for Yu Zhongtang and the other is for Song Qing. These two letters need to be written by a scholar like you, Ziyu."

Teng Yuzao's calligraphy in both lives was not very good, and in terms of literary talent alone, not only him, but no one in the vanguard army could compare with Wu Peifu. Only Wu Peifu could write such official documents.

"I'll tell you the general idea. You can decide on the specific wording. I'll sign and seal it after you finish writing it."

Teng Yuzao lit a cigarette and paced as he spoke, "In the letter to Yu Zhongtang, I should first express my gratitude for his kindness to me, and then express my determination to defend the Dagukou Pass to Tianjin City, which is the only way for the allied reinforcements. It would be best to express between the lines that I am determined to die. Remember, the tone should be tragic and heroic."

Although Yu Lu was the Governor-General of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, he was different from Li Hongzhang who founded the Huai Army. The generals under him had little fear of him, and some, such as Song Qing, even dared to confront him. It was estimated that this time he was put in a desperate situation, and Yu Lu would have no way to deal with Song Qing.

After all, he knew nothing about military affairs, so the court appointed Song Qing as assistant military affairs, which meant handing over the military power of Zhili to Song Qing.

The purpose of Teng Yuzhao's move is naturally self-evident. He hopes that Yu Lu can support him when necessary. As long as he has Yu Lu's support, he dares to compete with Song Qing, the assistant military affairs officer.

Teng Yuzao continued, "Just write to Song Qing and tell him that I will obey his orders, but don't be too blunt."

Teng Yuzao took a puff of his cigarette and said, "We are not afraid of people knowing about the things we have seized here. After dinner, Kangnian, you will take the battalion of the first regiment and your battalion to escort these seized items back to Dongjuzi immediately. Give the letter to Yuxuan and Qionglin, and then leave the two battalions to him. Then you will come back as soon as possible."

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "Dongjuzi is too big. Although there is a canal in the south to facilitate the transportation of materials to Dongjuzi, the water depth has been reduced to more than one meter due to years of siltation. It cannot stop the enemy. The Russian army broke through from there yesterday. If there are fewer soldiers, they may not be able to take care of it."

"You should also remind him that although we will defend here, the coalition reinforcements may split up and take a detour to attack Dongjuzi directly. Tell him to be careful and build stronger fortifications. The wood materials can be obtained locally from Dongjuzi. If necessary, the house can also be demolished."

"The troops remaining here must also be divided into two. They cannot all be trapped inside by the coalition reinforcements. A troop must be ambushed outside to support the internal and external forces. They can even provide support from outside when we need to break out."

Finally, Teng Yuzao told Wu Peifu, who was in a hurry to go back and write a letter, "You should personally deliver the letters to Yu Zhongtang and Song Qing. In addition, you should discuss with Li Yaoting and contact the newspapers in Tianjin City to have them publish the stories of our vanguard army's successes in the newspapers in Tianjin City."

"It would be best if we could publish it in newspapers in the capital, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Hankou. In short, the wider the spread, the better. It would be best if they could spread the news of our victory throughout the country. There is only one purpose, which is to create public opinion and make Song Qing be more careful in his actions. We can't let him arbitrarily confuse right and wrong. For this, it is worth it even if we pay some money."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said to Liu Shijiu, "Brother, there is one more thing I need you to do."

Liu Shijiu patted his chest and said, "Xingfu, just tell me what's going on. I won't blink an eye even if you go through fire and water."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "This is very simple. You select some smart people from your assault team and give them 20 to 30 taels of silver from the seized silver. Ask them to go to Tianjin and the capital. Don't do anything else but spread the news that Song Qing is jealous of talented people and is suppressing our vanguard army. Tell them that they will be rewarded if they do a good job."

After Teng Yuzao finished speaking, Liu Shijiu said with a smile, "Xingfu's trick is brilliant. Many people are illiterate, and if someone spreads these rumors, it will spread quickly."

"By the way, after you select these people, give them to Li Yaoting, right?"

Teng Yuzao gave a lot of instructions, and then they wolfed down their meal and started to rush to take care of the things that Teng Yuzao had instructed them to do.

Wu Peifu and Li Xianze escorted the seized materials back to Dongjuzi. Teng Yuzao was also busy. He asked Liu Shijiu to tell someone to tell all the surviving villagers in the village that there would be a big battle here and they should leave the village quickly. He gave each of them some silver to buy their houses. Teng Yuzao wanted to dismantle the beams and door panels here and use them to build fortifications.

Just after he had handed over the fortifications to Liu Shijiu, Li Jinyu came running to report that a sentry from the Second Regiment who had stayed near the battlefield last night to monitor and guard had called back and reported, "Sir, the coalition forces have sent a representative to reply. They are very grateful for your kindness and fully agree with your request. They will soon send someone to collect the bodies of their fallen soldiers."

"In addition, according to the reports from the investigators we sent out, hundreds of civilians were driving horses and carriages coming from the direction of Dagukou, including many pushing carts. They were followed by only one company of American soldiers, including several American, Japanese and Russian officers on horseback." Hearing that the other party only brought hundreds of civilians, Teng Yuzhao couldn't help but frowned.

"They must be here to collect the body. You will be in charge of this matter. Remember, you must see the signature of the highest commander of the three countries before you can let them take the body away."

"Also, there are too few of them. You should pay attention and see what tricks these foreigners are going to play."

At noon, Li Jinyu hurried back to the village on horseback and handed to Teng Yuzhao the document signed by the supreme commander of the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces at Dagukou, approving Teng Yuzhao to return the bodies of their respective fallen soldiers. Teng Yuzhao read all three documents and found no problems, so he asked Li Jinyu.

"Have you found any problems?"

Li Jinyu shook his head. "I didn't find any problems. The three officers representing Japan, Russia, and the United States were very polite. They were very grateful for letting them collect the bodies of their own fallen soldiers. Especially the American officer, he praised you as the most benevolent and civilized general he had ever met in the Qing Dynasty."

"However, the Japanese and Russians said that they had too many dead soldiers and it might be impossible to transport all the bodies back today. They wanted to continue transporting the bodies at night. I didn't agree, so they wanted to continue transporting the bodies tomorrow. I feel that the Japanese and Russians don't seem to be in a hurry."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Well, this is expected. They probably want to paralyze and delay us. Since they want to transport the bodies at night, it means that their reinforcements from the sea should arrive in the evening. We just need to be prepared and tell the surveillance troops in front to closely monitor the movements of the coalition forces. We should not interfere with anything else."

In the evening, Li Xianze and Wu Peifu rushed back together.

Li Xianze reported that Wei Jinghai and Liu Yuzhi both expressed their firm obedience to Teng Yuzao's orders.

When Li Xiance rushed to Dongjuzi, all the things that needed to be transported had indeed been transported away. After Li Xiance transported the seized items to Xigu, Li Yulin had already begun packing the various supplies that needed to be transported, and would start evacuating Xigu tonight.

Li Xiance also told Teng Yuzhao that he had talked with Wei Jinghai. According to Wei Jinghai, Song Qing's arrangement for the vanguard army not only made Yu Lu very dissatisfied, but Nie Shicheng also seemed to disapprove. Pan Jinshan also sent someone to contact Wei Jinghai and told Wei Jinghai that if Dongjuzi was in danger, the Wuwei Vanguard Army would not sit idly by.

Teng Yuzhao had expected the attitudes of Yu Lu and Nie Shicheng. If the vanguard army was seriously damaged or even Teng Yuzhao was killed in battle, it would definitely be something Yu Lu did not want to see.

Among the generals in the late Qing Dynasty, Nie Shicheng was a rare and relatively upright general. He was naturally very disdainful of Song Qing's little tricks, and it was normal for him to express his support through Pan Jinshan.

The content of Wu Peifu's report was richer.

According to him, Yu Lu was very concerned about the vanguard army and asked Wu Peifu to tell Teng Yuzao that he was still the Minister of Beiyang and the Governor-General of Zhili, and that if Teng Yuzao had any difficulties, he could report to him directly and he would make the decision for Teng Yuzao.

Song Qing read Teng Yuzao's letter carefully, and then asked in detail about the ambush near Da'an. He praised Teng Yuzao and said that he would also recommend credit to Teng Yuzao.

After discussing with Li Yaoting about contacting the customs brokerage firm as instructed by Teng Yuzhao, the two of them jointly visited the Guowen Bao and Leilei Bao, two newspapers run by Chinese. Both customs brokerage firms were very interested in the news about the vanguard army that Li Yaoting could provide them free of charge in the future.

In particular, the "Leilei Newspaper", which had a rather strange name, was very interested in Li Yaoting's ability to independently deliver news to major cities across the country. They had already made an agreement with Li Yaoting that they could do it if Li Yaoting paid them 500 taels of silver every month.

With the hard work of more than 4,000 people, the trench fortifications of the vanguard army were finally hastily completed before dinner.

After dinner, Teng Yuzhao, Li Xianze, Liu Shijiu and others discussed for more than an hour, and then Liu Shijiu led the assault team and quietly left the village in the dark.

Teng Yuzhao also lay down to rest early.

However, before dawn, Teng Yuzao was awakened by Li Xianze.

Li Xianze reported the situation hastily, "Sir, the sentry outside the village just reported that there were horse hoof sounds in the west of the village, and judging from the sound, there were a lot of horses. I guess the cavalry of the coalition army went around to our rear, and our retreat was cut off."

Thanks to: Ling, Nianhuayixiao, 20180927104339797, Shenlan and other book friends for their support!
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(End of this chapter)