The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 338 Wu Peifu's Decisiveness
Wu Peifu felt confident when he thought of his invincible teacher Teng Yuzhao by his side.

Because Wu Peifu knew very well that if there were any serious mistakes in his combat command, Teng Yuzhao would correct them immediately and would never sit idly by.

Wu Peifu waved his hand decisively and said, "You can notify Deputy Chief of Staff Wei, but the military situation is urgent, so there is no need to wait for Deputy Chief of Staff Wei's reply. While informing Deputy Chief of Staff Wei, we will start changing the combat deployment at the same time."

"Pass on my order. From the seven battalions that are scheduled to attack the three German villages, withdraw four battalions to reinforce the troops on the left and right wings of the battlefield to block reinforcements."

"The remaining three battalions on the front, each battalion is responsible for a village, and they should quickly approach within 200 meters of these three villages, but do not attack the villages. They should set up blocking positions on the spot. If the foreign devils in the village try to break out, they should resolutely stop them and not let any of them escape."

"Tell the three captains that they will be dismissed on the spot for poor organization of the battle, and those who cowered in the face of the enemy and caused the foreign devils to escape will be prosecuted by military law."

"Also tell them to strictly enforce battlefield discipline. Anyone who deserts the battlefield will be killed without mercy."

Teng Yuzhao was very pleased with Wu Peifu's decisive handling of the situation, and his worries were no longer so intense.

If it is gold, it is gold wherever it is and it will always shine.

As for strictly enforcing battlefield discipline, Teng Yuzao was not worried at all.

In history, Wu Peifu was not only a good trainer, but also a decisive killer. It is said that during the Northern Expedition, when the Beiyang Army retreated from Tingsi Bridge, many officers shot by him were hung on the trees along the roadside.

Teng Yuzhao was very happy that he could see Wu Peifu's strengths in him.

"Good! The assault column has rushed into the village." Teng Yuzhao said, pointing to three sky lanterns slowly rising in the night sky in the distance.

This was required by the combat plan. The assault column released three red sky lanterns, which meant that the assault column had rushed into the village occupied by the German army.

Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu also looked out the window, and Li Jinyu said excitedly.

"Assistant Commander, your judgment is correct. The assault column has already entered three villages. The Germans did not expect us to suddenly attack them. I guess they can't escape this time."

Teng Yuzhao knew that this time the German army was in trouble.

Ever since the coalition forces began to blockade the city gates of the capital, Teng Yuzao had already begun to consider the deployment of a breakout. The harassment war against the coalition forces that began half a month ago was part of Teng Yuzao's breakout plan.

Teng Yuzhao organized his troops to launch harassment warfare against the coalition forces, with the aim of compressing the defense space of the coalition forces in various locations to the maximum extent possible.

Just because of the fear that this isolated and weak German force would withdraw, or that the Allied forces would reinforce them, the harassment of the German forces in the east of the city was less severe than the harassment on the other three sides. In addition, Teng Yuzao issued strict orders to his troops, not to harass the rear of the various Allied forces' bases.

This is to make the coalition forces pay more attention to their frontal defense and relax their precautions in the rear.

But even so, the German guard positions had to retreat a lot.

This created excellent conditions for tonight's raid.

Looking at the three Kongming lanterns still slowly floating up in the wind, Teng Yuzhao felt relieved and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Just as Wu Peifu said, as long as the assault column rushed into the village, with the support of grenades and the broadsword team equipped with a large number of pistols, as long as the German army did not escape, they would be defeated.

Seeing the three red Kongming lanterns released by the assault column, Wu Peifu felt more confident and said to Li Jinyu, "Send the order immediately."

As soon as Wu Peifu finished speaking, a shrill ringtone rang from the telephone in the corner of the attic.

As in the past, wherever Teng Yuzao was, there had to be a telephone to keep in touch with the headquarters.

Seeing that Li Jinyu was about to answer the phone, Teng Yuzao stopped Li Jinyu and said, "You go and convey the order. I will talk to Deputy Chief of Staff Wei about changing your combat plan."

Teng Yuzhao's words made Wu Peifu's eyes warm. He knew that his teacher was worried that he would be blamed by Wei Jinghai if he changed the battle plan without authorization, so the teacher wanted to take the initiative to take responsibility for this matter.

The teacher had put a lot of thought into it for him. Wu Peifu wiped his eyes secretly in the dark.

Teng Yuzao leaned over and picked up the phone. It was indeed Wei Jinghai who called. Wei Jinghai said excitedly, "Marshal, the observation post on Qihua Gate just called and the assault column has sent a signal. They have already attacked the three villages where the foreign devils are stationed. If nothing unexpected happens, we can say that we have basically won this battle. It is also entirely possible to completely wipe out the foreign devils here."

"Now, it seems unnecessary for us to ask the Guards to launch another attack from the rear of the foreign devils. We should leave a way for the foreign devils. If we can force them out of the village, the Guards and the assault column can cooperate to eliminate the fleeing foreign devils in the wild, which should be more beneficial to us."

Wei Jinghai's words made Teng Yuzhao feel relieved. Wei Jinghai, who was still a student of the Beiyang Military Academy a few months ago, was also growing rapidly.

"Very good! You and Ziyu have the same idea. He suggested changing the battle plan and withdrawing four battalions from the seven battalions originally intended to attack the rear of the three villages where the German troops are stationed."

"Reinforce the blocking forces on the left and right wings respectively to buy more time for the assault detachment and completely annihilate the German army. I have agreed to his suggestion and was about to tell you about this when your call came."

"very good!"

Wei Jinghai said only one sentence and then changed the subject. After all, if he praised Wu Peifu now, it would be suspected that he was praising himself.

"Since the assault column has already entered the village and is engaged in a battle with the Germans, there is no point in the mortar battalion staying with the assault column."

"Marshal, do you think we should immediately move them back to the city, set up positions on the city walls, and make preparations in advance to support the assault column and the guards to withdraw into the city?"

Teng Yuzao thought for a moment and said, "Order that battalion to withdraw, but temporarily withdraw to my place and wait for orders. Whether to withdraw to the city or not will depend on the situation."

Although the annihilation of this large group of German troops had achieved or even slightly exceeded his expectations, Teng Yuzhao seemed to be greedy for more. He wanted to take a closer look to see if he could find new opportunities.

"Ningbo, what are the movements of the coalition forces in other directions?" This is the issue that Teng Yuzhao is most concerned about now.

"Marshal, the communication department's monitoring personnel just intercepted that the German army has asked for help from the Russians in the north of the city. Our observation post in the north city also called back and said that the Russians have already made some movements. It is estimated that they will send troops to rescue soon."

"Also, our observation post at Dongzhimen also reported that more than a hundred Russian cavalrymen had just passed through Dongzhimen and were heading to Qihuamen. Their mission should be to investigate the situation and pave the way for their subsequent rescue."

Wei Jinghai spoke so quickly that he had to take a breath when he got to this point.

"There has been no movement from the Japanese devils in the west and the British, French and Australian coalition forces in the south."

The Communications Office not only monitored telegrams, but also the Allied Forces' telephone communications. However, before tonight's action, the telephone contacts between the German army and the British, French and Australian Allied Forces in the south of the city had been cut off.

Teng Yuzao's plan to cut off their telephone contacts was to let the British, French and Australian forces in the south know that his surprise attack on the German army was planned.

The purpose was twofold: first, to make the allied reinforcements in the south suspicious and afraid to rush to the rescue;
Secondly, the combined rescue forces in the north and south would have to act inconsistently. If the assault column could eliminate or defeat the German army within two hours, and the Russian reinforcements were insufficient, the assault column would then take advantage of the situation to inflict heavy damage on the Russian rescue forces.

If he could fully achieve the above-mentioned combat objectives, the breakout in the early morning would not only be more certain, but he might even have enough time to take another bite out of the Japanese devils.

"Ningbo, if that's the case, then we can just make some bigger changes to the planned battle plan."

Teng Yuzao pondered and said, "The assault column's attack was beyond our expectations and went very smoothly. The German army was not as strong as we thought. This created very good conditions for our next move."

"The rescue of the British, French and Australian coalition forces in the south of the city will be delayed, and the Russian army in the north of the city will definitely not send all its troops to rescue the German army. They will be worried that we will take the opportunity to withdraw from the capital from the north of the city. I estimate that they will send out at most 20,000 people, which gives us an opportunity."

"Order the assault column to immediately send their reserve troops to the battlefield and destroy the main force of the German army here as soon as possible, even if there are only a few remnants left."

"Then, we need to move the assault column quickly and rush to the east side of the battlefield where we will block the Russian reinforcements, and set up an ambush in the green tent."

"Order Liu Changfa to transfer all the conscienceless artillery here, and also transfer the artillery battalion that was originally used to block the reinforcements from the coalition forces in the south of the city, plus the mortar battalion, and deploy them all on the west side of the pre-set battlefield to block the Russians."

"Order the Imperial Guards to change their mission of blocking the Russian reinforcements. They are to set up an ambush on the west side of the designated blocking battlefield and prepare to ambush the Russian reinforcements."

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(End of this chapter)