The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 189 I Trust the President's Judgment

The time goes back to half an hour ago, inside the headquarters of the 3rd Regiment of Hu Dianjia in Nancheng.

Under the command of Qian Yunhua, the chief of staff of the Third Regiment, two staff officers of the regiment headquarters quickly shook the magnetic telephone to quickly convey Hu Dianjia's order to the city walls on the southeast corner of the South City.

The chief of staff of the Third Regiment, Qian Yunhua, whose courtesy name was Gancheng, was one of the students who stayed behind at the Beiyang Military Academy. He graduated from the Infantry Department. This time he was also promoted to the Third Regiment to serve as an assistant to Hu Dianjia.

Watching the two staff officers pass down the orders one by one, Qian Yunhua put on his military cap and said to Hu Dianjia.

"Captain, I have to go to the front to take a look. According to the president's order, the most important requirement for us is speed. I will not feel at ease unless I see the troops below do their job well."

After explaining Teng Yuzhao's order to the chief of staff, Hu Dianjia stood in front of the desk with his arms folded, looking at a map of Tianjin city on the desk, thinking silently about something.

Ever since Teng Yuzao handed over the defense task of South City to the Third Regiment, Hu Dianjia has never dared to relax for a moment. He knew that Teng Yuzao had given him the most critical task of defending Tianjin. How long Tianjin City can be defended depends largely on how long his Third Regiment can defend the inner city wall of Tianjin.

Since then, Hu Dianjia has never slept with his clothes off. Although the war was not tense, Hu Dianjia's bed was next to the operations room, and he slept here with his clothes on every night.

This is also the reason why Hu Dianjia quickly took over the phone and immediately arranged Teng Yuzhao's order.

However, although Teng Yuzao's tone was stern on the phone and the order he issued had to be executed without delay, Teng Yuzao did not explain the reason, which made Hu Dianjia still feel confused.

Hearing that Qian Yunhua was going to the front to supervise in person, Hu Dianjia raised his head and asked with some confusion.

"From Xingfu's tone, it seems that he thinks the coalition forces outside the city will attack the city from the southeast corner? Is there anything special going on there tonight?"

"No."

Qian Yunhua answered very straightforwardly, but he then added, "If there is anything special, it is that the foreign devils' artillery fire outside the city tonight is not only very dense, but they have also launched many exploratory attacks. So far, it has happened four times in a row, especially in the southeast corner. The foreign devils' exploratory attacks have rushed to the city every time, but they did not use ladders to climb the city. It seems that they are just familiarizing themselves with the siege road and preparing for the next ant-like siege."

Hu Dianjia nodded and asked, "Gancheng, what do you think of Xingfu's order?"

Qian Yunhua pondered and said, "From the president's orders, I can feel that the president seems to think that the foreign devils outside the city will soon break into the city. All his orders have only one meaning, which is to prepare emergency defense measures as quickly as possible and in the shortest time after the foreign devils break into the southeast corner of the city."

Hu Dianjia smiled bitterly and spread his hands. "Don't say that the coalition forces have only been conducting exploratory attacks so far and have never actually attacked the city. Even if they attack the city right away, according to our arrangement, the city wall won't be breached immediately!"

"But judging from Xingfu's orders, it seems that he thinks we are doomed to fail."

Hu Dianjia took a deep breath, "The walls of Tianjin City are high and thick, and they are all covered with bluestone. Unless the coalition forces dig tunnels to blow up the city, it is impossible for artillery fire to cause any damage to the walls. But now the coalition forces have not thought about digging any tunnels to blow up the city walls, because the eavesdropping urns we set up under the city didn't hear any movement."

The so-called "listening in a jar" is actually a pottery jar sealed with a thin skin and placed in a deep pit dug near the city wall. A special person is responsible for putting his ear against the pottery jar and listening carefully. If someone is digging a tunnel outside the city, the corresponding digging sound will be heard, which is called "listening in a jar".

In ancient times, the "Wengting" device was mainly used to prevent the enemy from digging tunnels during sieges.

Hu Dianjia continued somewhat unwillingly, "Besides, how could Xingfu be so sure that if the coalition forces broke through our defenses on the city wall, it would definitely be in the southeast corner, not the southwest corner? Could it be that it was simply because the coalition forces fired slightly more artillery there?"

"But the caliber of the coalition's artillery outside the city is about the same as ours. They don't have siege artillery, and they haven't even pulled up the heavy artillery. With their current artillery caliber, they can't blow up the walls of Tianjin City at all."

Qian Yunhua nodded repeatedly in response to Hu Dianjia's series of questions. Hu Dianjia's questions were also his questions, but Qian Yunhua still spoke to Hu Dianjia in a firm tone.

"Captain, the president has been very thorough in his planning since the start of the war. There must be nothing wrong with his orders. Although I don't understand why the president issued such an order, we just need to strictly execute it. I believe in the president's judgment."

Qian Yunhua's attitude made Hu Dianjia feel helpless.

Hu Dianjia did not doubt Teng Yuzao's command ability, and he even recognized Teng Yuzao's command ability and admired him deeply. Indeed, as Qian Yunhua said, Teng Yuzao had won every battle since the war began. Under his leadership, the vanguard army had never suffered a loss in the battles with the coalition forces, which was something that no other Beiyang general, including Nie Shicheng, could do.

To put it bluntly, even the performance of other generals was only one-tenth as bad as that of Teng Yuzao.

But the problem is, Hu Dianjia discovered that these vanguard army officers and generals seemed to have developed a habit in their bones, that is, as long as the order was issued by Teng Yuzhao, there would be no problem and it was absolutely correct!
This situation made Hu Dianjia speechless!

However, Hu Dianjia was also very curious in his heart. He wanted to see whether Teng Yuzhao's judgment was still accurate this time.

Hu Dianjia nodded and said, "Go ahead and urge the Second Battalion Commander to strictly execute the order as quickly as possible, otherwise the military law will be ruthless!"

The Trade Office was outside the North Gate. Although Teng Yuzhao, along with his guards and a squad of communications soldiers following closely behind the guards, ran along the deserted streets of the city towards the South City for more than twenty minutes, they still only managed to reach a location more than a mile away from the South City Wall.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta."

"Boom, boom."

The intensive gunfire coming from the southeast corner of South City had been going on for more than ten minutes, and it was getting more and more frequent. Teng Yuzhao could even hear the explosion of Teng-style grenades from time to time.

Teng Yuzhao was anxious and eager to find out the situation of the battle there. When passing by a high-walled courtyard, Teng Yuzhao left the street and rushed into the open gate.

Not only was the yard pitch black, but there was no one in sight.

Although such wealthy families left behind family members and servants to look after their properties, a few days ago, all the people in the city were half persuaded and half forced out of the city by the vanguard army, and there was no civilian left in the city.

Moreover, in preparation for street fighting, tall buildings like these in the city had already been numbered, and even ladders were placed near these taller houses for easy access.

Teng Yuzhao stopped in front of a small building in the backyard. Before the breathless Wu Peifu could speak, Xu Ting had already directed several soldiers to erect a long ladder under the corner of the wall. Teng Yuzhao quickly climbed to the top of the building along the ladder.

In Tianjin city, except for a few taller buildings, most of them are two-story buildings, with just slight differences in height.

Although this two-story building is not very tall, there is no building taller than it to the south. Looking south from the top of the building, the view is extremely broad and the situation of the southern city wall can be seen at a glance.

However, it is impossible for Teng Yuzhao to see the situation of the south city wall clearly now, because the area in the southeast corner of the south city wall is still shrouded in gray smoke and dust.

As soon as they reached the roof, Wu Peifu, who was following closely behind Teng Yuzhao, handed Teng Yuzhao's telescope to Teng Yuzhao's outstretched hand.

Teng Yuzhao took the telescope, immediately raised it to his eyes, and looked nervously at the area in the southeast corner that was covered by smoke and dust.

Although the huge and dull explosion in the South City had been heard for more than 20 minutes, and even though flares were promptly fired in the southeast corner of the city wall, in Teng Yuzhao's telescope field of view, it was still gray, which showed how violent the explosion was.

The only thing that could be seen was tongues of fire constantly shooting out from the city walls, the foot of the city, and the houses outside the smoke, pointing towards the southeast corner of the city wall in the smoke. Occasionally, the short figures of Japanese soldiers could be seen rushing out of the smoke, but those Japanese officers and soldiers who were exposed outside the smoke and howling fearlessly were almost instantly beaten to the ground covered in blood.

There were even more unfortunate Japanese officers and soldiers who were so severely hit by the dense rain of bullets fired by the Maxim heavy machine guns that their flesh and blood flew everywhere and their entire bodies were shattered in an instant.

Seeing the scene before him, Teng Yuzao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, judging from the positions of the flames above and below the city, Hu Dianjia's deployment was timely. According to Teng Yuzao's instructions, there were fire points and corresponding blocking positions. The coalition forces' dream of taking advantage of the defenders' panic and unstable front to break into the city in one fell swoop was doomed to fail.
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(End of this chapter)