The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 456 How to Fight This Battle

As soon as Teng Yuzhao finished speaking, Zhou Fu couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh out loud with excitement.

"Sun Tzu said, 'He who plans for victory before the battle has made many plans; he who plans for defeat before the battle has made few plans.' Listening to General Fu's words, I can say that he has grasped the essence of Sun Tzu's Art of War. With a commander like General Fu who is neither arrogant in victory nor discouraged in defeat, it will be difficult for the vanguard army to lose the battle. Now I feel much more at ease."

Teng Yuzao waved his hand and said, "Mr. Zhou, you are too kind. The victory or defeat of this war is of great significance. If we win, we can force the foreign devils to negotiate peace with us. If we lose, the whole country will be shaken, and we will have to pay compensation and cede territory. I can't afford to make any mistakes. I have to pay great attention to the foreign coalition forces and dare not underestimate them."

"Commander."

Liu Nineteen slammed the table and said, "After what you just said, I have nothing to worry about anymore. The foreign devils' military strength is not much greater than ours. What's more, the foreign devils divided their forces to attack. They seem to be aggressive and scary, but in fact, they are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. If they fight against us individually, they will not have the advantage."

"Even two of its armies have fewer troops than us. As long as we concentrate our forces, it won't be difficult to wipe out one of their armies in one fell swoop. Just tell me how we should fight."

Teng Yuzao was not unhappy about Liu Shijiu interrupting his conversation with Zhou Fu. On the contrary, Teng Yuzao secretly gave Liu Shijiu a thumbs up in his heart.

Liu Jiujiu, a rough man, is actually very smart. Teng Yuzao's words just now have cleared the haze in the hearts of those worried generals and restored their confidence in defeating the coalition forces. Liu Jiujiu is cooperating with Teng Yuzao at this moment, and the time is right.

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Strong on the outside but weak on the inside, that's a good saying. The foreign devils want to divide their troops and attack from multiple directions, so that we can focus on one and lose another. But they are also worried about being defeated by us one by one, and they dare not disperse their forces too much."

"But in this way, not only will it be difficult for the foreign devils to achieve their goal of making us lose sight of the big picture, but their forces are too many and insufficient. Not only will they fail to achieve their goal, but they may also create opportunities for us."

"Before the decisive battle, they did not have the determination and courage to risk everything. This was their biggest mistake. Therefore, their three-way siege this time was a stupid tactic that was doomed to fail."

"Now, let me tell you about our battle plan."

Teng Yuzao stood up, walked to the map on the wall and said.

"The purpose of the foreign devils' three-pronged attack is very clear. They want to use their superior forces to mobilize and disperse our forces, so that we cannot concentrate our forces to launch a powerful attack on any of their forces."

"Now that we have seen through the foreign devils' conspiracy, we will naturally not be fooled. Let's concentrate our forces and strike hard at the old Russians and the little devils."

Teng Yuzao's words made Li Yulin a little anxious, and he interrupted Teng Yuzao without caring about etiquette.

"Marshal, you mean to concentrate our forces and defeat them one by one, and eliminate one of the Russians or the Japanese first. But if we do that, the other two groups of foreign devils, especially the more than 200,000 foreign devils in Tangyin, will attack Luzhou Prefecture."

"The camp office still has a large amount of food and other supplies that have not been transferred yet. It will take at least a month to transfer them all to Qinyuan!"

Although the camp office had already started to transfer supplies to Qinyuan before the New Year, Teng Yuzhao had collected too much food and other supplies through various means, both overt and covert, in recent days. Just a few million shi of food was a huge amount, and it would not be possible to transfer these things in a short period of time.

Even if the vanguard army had tens of thousands of pack horses, it would still not be able to do it in a short time. This was the result of the camp office selling a large part of the food. Otherwise, the food alone would be an astronomical figure. These grains could not be left to the foreign devils for nothing. Li Yulin could not help but be anxious. Teng Yuzao understood Li Yulin's mood very well, and said with a wry smile, "Qionglin, don't be anxious, listen to me first."

Teng Yuzao looked at everyone and continued, "In order to destroy our vanguard army, the great powers have spent a lot of money this time. The European powers led by Britain, France, and Germany have mobilized almost all the troops they can. If they are defeated in this battle, even if we destroy the armies of these three countries, they will not send reinforcements."

"Because in Europe, they are still on guard against each other. I don't think anyone will withdraw troops to come here for the sake of face, regardless of life or death."

"Although the Russians and Japanese can continue to increase their troops in order to occupy our land, both countries are financially strapped and do not have the military funds to continue the war. If they want to fight, they will have to continue to borrow money from Western powers."

"But the problem is that the great powers are unwilling to see the two of them gain greater benefits in the Qing Dynasty, especially unwilling to see them cede our land alone."

"In a word, the Western powers don't want to see the Russians and Japanese get what they can't get, so they won't continue to support any country to fight against us alone."

"In other words, this battle can be said to be the final battle between us and the coalition forces of the great powers. As long as we win this battle and hurt the foreign devils, the day when the great powers withdraw from Zhili will not be far away."

Teng Yuzao waved his hand heavily, "So, in this battle, we must not only win, but also win big. Even if we suffer some losses, even huge losses, it is worth it."

"It is far from enough to just give the foreign devils a hard beating and just wipe out all the foreign devils along the way."

Teng Yuzhao's words attracted a lot of surprised looks.

Everyone has understood that Teng Yuzao wants to destroy more than one coalition force, but the combined strength of any two coalition forces will exceed 200,000. Using a newly expanded force of 250,000 to destroy a coalition force with almost the same strength, the difficulty can be imagined!

If our retreat is cut off by another coalition force, we will not only not win a great victory, but will definitely suffer a crushing defeat.

If they attack the three coalition forces separately, it will be 250,000 against more than 400,000. There is no hope of winning, and it is almost like hitting a rock with an egg. The best result will be a mutual defeat with the coalition forces, but if things go wrong it will also be a major defeat.

This made all the generals gasp, and even Zhou Fu, Shen Jiaben, Yang Shixiang, Xu Shichang and others had gloomy expressions on their faces again.

Teng Yuzao seemed to see everyone's concerns and continued.

"You heard it right. I didn't just mean to wipe out one group of foreign devils, and of course I didn't mean to wipe out all three groups of foreign devils. I meant to wipe out the two coalition forces, that is, the old Russians who set out from Yongnian and the Japanese who attacked from Cizhou."

Teng Yuzhao explained that he did not intend to destroy all three coalition forces in this battle. Although this made everyone feel a little relieved, the expressions on their faces did not relax.

Even if there are two coalition forces, if they are to divide their forces to attack the two coalition forces, the strength of the two coalition forces is roughly the same as the strength of all the vanguard forces that can participate in the battle now. This will still be a fierce battle. If things go wrong, they may still be cut off from behind by the coalition forces coming from the direction of Tangyin, and eventually they will be passively caught in the situation of being attacked from both sides by the coalition forces.
(End of this chapter)