Chapter Seventy-Seven: To Fight or Not to Fight
After solving Ronglu, Wang Jundao asked all the ministers and high-ranking personnel of the embassies of various countries to be tied in a row with iron cables, all of them were hung on the city wall, and shouted to the coalition forces under the city, as long as the coalition forces continued to attack, then these ministers would become live targets.
Sure enough, under the threat to the lives of the ministers of various countries, the gunfire of the coalition forces immediately stopped.
The coalition forces stopped attacking, and Wang Jundao began to implement the next plan: to take control of the Wuwei Central Army. He replaced the officers of the more than 100-member ranks of the Wuwei Central Army and asked the soldiers of the guidance battalion to pick them up.
The Wuwei Zhongjun originally had 30 battalions, the establishment was extremely strict, and each battalion had more than 1,000 people, but after experiencing the defense of the outer city of Yanjing City and the whole day of the inner city wall guarding battle, more than 10,000 were killed and wounded, and 10,000 people were still stationed in various strategic points in the inner and outer cities of Yanjing City, and now there are only more than 10,000 people.
Wang Jundao combined some of the disabled battalions together to form a new battalion, ensuring that each battalion had more than 1,000 people, Wang Jundao directly appointed the deputy platoon commander and squad leader of the guidance battalion as the battalion commander, and the ten soldiers of the guidance battalion in each squad were respectively appointed as the captains of the 100-man team, so that Wang Jundao only used 100 elites in the guidance battalion to completely control the 10,000 Wuwei Chinese troops who had experienced the baptism of the war.
Although the command ability of the battalion commanders, captains and other grass-roots commanders of the Wuwei Central Army at this time may have decreased compared with the original Wuwei Central Army, there is less factional strife, and the cohesion has been improved compared with the original, making it more convenient for command.
As for the rest of the more than 10,000 people who added up to the Eight Banners old soldiers, the green battalion soldiers with weapons and garbage, and the undisciplined Shenji battalion soldiers, Wang Jundao directly replaced them from the city wall and let them rest in the barracks.
This can make these Eight Banners old soldiers, green battalion soldiers, and Shenji battalion soldiers very happy, they don't want to fight hard, although Wang Jundao accepted the cold and hot weapons on their bodies, they still didn't resist, but were even more happy, and confiscated their weapons, doesn't it mean that they don't need the battlefield anymore?
They also want to continue to oppress the people of Yanjing City after the end of the war, collect all kinds of fees, and enrich their own pockets.
It's a pity that they are destined to be unable to do such a thing again, Wang Jundao confiscated their weapons, that is, after the war is over, and then settle accounts with them after the autumn, the shooting that should be shot, the coolies who should be coolies, Wang Jundao will not cheapen these soldiers who plague the people.
In the future, the development of the country, the construction of roads, mines, factories, etc., all need a large number of laborers, these people will only lose the battle when they become soldiers, and will only affect morale.
As for the newly formed Tiger God Battalion of the Qing Army, which was only formed in the past few months and was used to suppress the people and fight the foreigners, although they belonged to the establishment of the forbidden army, their combat effectiveness was really not very good, and they did not know how many people were harmed in the process of suppressing the people and attacking the foreigners.
Wang Jundao is not afraid of them bombing the camp, if they really want to bomb the camp at that time, he is not afraid, and he will directly retreat these people to the front line to be cannon fodder.
As for those Boxer soldiers who had always insisted on fighting on the city wall, Wang Jundao asked them to continue to stick to their posts and assist the soldiers defending the city to fight.
As soon as the matter of Zhengyangmen came to an end, Wang Jundao asked Zhang Decheng to rush to Chongwenmen in the east with an edict to control the Wuwei rear army led by Dong Fuxiang, which was the Gan army originally stationed in Jizhou.
The reason why Wang Jundao asked Zhang Decheng to go to Chongwenmen had two considerations.
The first is that Zhang Decheng worked with Ma Yukun and Song Qing, who are now defending Xuanwumen, when he was in Tianjin, and his Boxer status will definitely not convince Ma Yukun and Song Qing.
The second is that most of Cao Futian's Wuwei rear army is a horse team, which is suitable for cavalry combat, and Zhang Decheng's former 'first regiment in the world' has more than 1,000 cavalry, and now he is also bringing 1,000 cavalry, which is just suitable for controlling the Wuwei rear army, and after control, he can also directly lead the cavalry team.
Although the rear army of Wuwei was the Gan army and the discipline was extremely poor, these people took the opportunity of the Boxer Rebellion to rob, seize and chaos in Yanjing City...... But Wang Jundao decided to recover them first, let them fight a fierce battle with the coalition forces, and then settle the account for them after suffering heavy losses.
After Zhang Decheng went to control the Wuwei Rear Army, Wang Jundao handed over the defense of Zhengyangmen to the 10,000 forbidden troops led by the commander of the Tiger and Par Battalion and the newly incorporated 10,000 Wuwei Chinese Army, and at the same time left five 'Piercing Sky' heavy machine guns and 15 'Piercing Sky' light machine guns in Zhengyangmen.
Wang Jundao personally led a large army to control Song Qing and Ma Yukun's Wuwei Left Army and the remaining more than 10,000 people in Wuwei's front army.
Before night fell, Wang Jundao followed the method of controlling the Wuwei Central Army, and with the dissatisfaction of Cixi and Guangxu, he threw Song Qing and Ma Yukun a big charge of disadvantage in the battle, resulting in the fall of Tianjin, Yangcun, Beicang, Tongzhou and other places, and without any obstruction, he controlled the Wuwei Front Army and the Wuwei Left Army, with more than 11,000 soldiers.
Wang Jundao temporarily combined the more than 1,000 troops with the large army he brought, and there were more than 25,000 people, of which 15,000 were cavalrymen with spears and sabers.
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And Chongwenmen is different, Dong Fuxiang does not want his Gan army to be controlled by others, and he does not obey the order.
Zhang Decheng didn't have time to ink with him, and according to the arrangement given to him by Wang Jundao in advance, he cut Dong Fuxiang with one knife on the grounds of disobeying the decree, contempt for the king's law, and not taking Cixi and Guangxu in his eyes.
The generals under Dong Fuxiang's command, Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu, were even more unruly, and wanted to take this opportunity to pull the team to read, Zhang Decheng was naturally ruthless, and killed the two immediately on the grounds that the two tried to rebel.
Subsequently, Zhang Decheng summoned more than a dozen extremely high-ranking Ganjun officers with Dong Fuxiang's orders and cut them down together, these people are Dong Fuxiang's cronies, the reason is that these people tried to rebel with Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu, and after killing these people, Zhang Decheng directly transmitted their crimes to the army.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Decheng took one hundred elites of the guidance battalion as officers of more than 100 people, and the soldiers of the 1,000 cavalry battalion as the backbone, and one cavalry led ten soldiers of the original Gan Army, so he easily controlled more than 10,000 Dong Fuxiang's armed guard rear army!
As the saying goes, the common people do not fight with the soldiers, and the soldiers do not fight with the officers, although many of the soldiers of the armed guard army have grievances and do not accept the new officers, they dare not speak out, because these new officers are too ruthless, and if anyone refuses to accept it, if he rises up to make trouble, he will either be shot or disabled.
So in a short period of time, all the soldiers chose to appoint, anyway, whoever followed was to be a soldier to eat food, and the military salary brought by the new officer was nearly twice as high as the military salary given by the original officer.
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After Wang Jundao took control of the Wuwei Front Army and the Wuwei Left Army of Xuanwu Gate, he left 5,000 people to garrison the city gate, and he personally led more than 20,000 people out of Xuanwu Gate overnight.
These more than 20,000 people, in addition to the 10,000 soldiers of the former Wuwei Front Army and the Wuwei Left Army, there are also machine gun battalions, pistol battalions, assault battalions, artillery battalions, and thousands of palace guards who are completely controlled.
Wang Jundao's purpose was obvious, that is, to attack the flank of the coalition army from the west overnight, drive the coalition army out of Yanjing City as much as possible, transfer the war to the outside of Yanjing City, and then negotiate with the allied forces with the ministers and control missionaries and believers controlled by various countries.
As long as he can squeeze out a few days, Wang Jundao will be able to completely control Yanjing City, and when the time comes, he will integrate all kinds of available resources and make Yanjing City like an iron bucket, then even if he starts a war with the coalition army again, as long as the coalition army has no reinforcements for the time being, with the strength of the coalition army of 20,000 or 30,000 people, he will still be a tired army, he will not have any fear at all.
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More than 10,000 coalition troops stationed in Tongzhou and other countries have also rushed to the temporary camp of the coalition forces attacking the inner city, because the ministers of various countries have been hoisted to the city wall, even if the coalition forces have more soldiers and more guns and sufficient ammunition, they cannot continue the attack.
The commanders of the countries were holding an emergency meeting, and at this time, the commanders of the countries were arguing fiercely about two topics: whether to attack Yanjing City or not to attack Yanjing City.
It is Russia and Yuben who advocate attacking, because since they landed at Dagukou, up to now, they have invested the most troops and lost the most troops, and even both countries have sacrificed two lieutenant commanders because of this war, if the offensive is stopped at this time, then everything that has been paid before will be wasted!
For both Yueben and Russia, since a commander has already died, then even if another minister dies, it is not a big deal, as long as the inner city of Yanjing City can be captured, it is worth it, because everyone knows that the huge wealth of the Great Qing Kingdom has accumulated in the inner city.
Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria held opposing views, and for them, the fuse of the war was the Qing army's attack on the embassy in an attempt to kill the ministers of various countries.
The direct purpose of their war is also to rescue the ministers of various countries, if they continue to attack at this time, then the ministers of various countries will be killed, that is the last thing they want to see, even if they win the war and return to their own country, they will not be able to account to the people.
Even if they can seize a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, and Chinese treasures, they will not be able to bear the anger of their own people, after all, the looted things, no matter how many, will not be seen.
Sometimes, the power of public opinion is so amazing!
I am afraid that these commanders will be removed from their posts as soon as they return to China and become victims of the interests of those in power, even if they will send more troops to China to expand the war in the future, it has nothing to do with them.
Based on this consideration, the commanders of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria insisted on not attacking.
The meeting lasted for two full hours from dark to a final inconclusion.
Just as the meeting was about to end in vain, the rumbling explosion of shells rang out from the west side of the coalition garrison, and some of the shells were already not far from the conference room.
The faces of the commanders of various countries changed in an instant, and the allied forces of various countries at this time were really leaderless, and when they were attacked by such artillery fire in such a dark night, there was only one result - the whole army was in chaos.