The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 555 Immediate results
At this point, Cixi seemed to be truly shocked by Teng Yuzhao's methods, and sighed.

"Even, Wu Ziyu was just a poor soldier at the time, but he was spotted by his discerning eyes. After only one year of training by him, he has now become a good general commanding tens of thousands of troops."

"There is also Liu Shijiu who was born in the Boxer Rebellion. He is a man of the underworld who refuses to obey the king. It is said that he can't even recognize a few words. But now he is quite good at fighting. He has become a figure like Zhang Fei under Teng Xingfu."

After expressing her feelings, Cixi sighed and said, "The most important thing is that all these people who were promoted by Teng Xingfu are as good as his arms when he commands them. This is particularly rare. In terms of the ability to identify and employ people, there are really few people in our Qing Dynasty who dare to say that they can compare with Teng Xingfu."

"Logically speaking, Li Zhongtang should be counted as one of them. There are countless outstanding people recommended by him, but he can also make mistakes sometimes!"

At this point, Cixi said with deep emotion, "There is a talent like Teng Xingfu hidden in his Beiyang, and he didn't even discover it for more than ten years!"

"If Teng Xingfu had been used earlier, even at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, Li Zhongtang would have been able to recognize talents and use Teng Xingfu, a talented person. Not to mention the subsequent cession of territory and payment of indemnities, we would not have been beaten to the point of being powerless by the Japanese in Liaodong. I estimate that Li Zhongtang would have regretted not discovering Teng Xingfu, a rare talent, and would have regretted it until his death."

Cixi seemed to be still unsatisfied and sighed heavily, "In terms of identifying and employing people, only Zhonghua can barely compare with Teng Xingfu."

Before Ronglu could speak awkwardly, Cixi waved her hand gently on the imperial carriage to stop him and continued speaking.

"Zhonghua, don't be so modest. If you hadn't been so discerning, not only would you have discovered Teng Xingfu, a great talent, and recommended him to Shoushan, the imperial court would have lost face this time!"

Cixi's words scared several people, and Ronglu hurriedly said.

"Empress Dowager, this is my fault. I often regret it. If I had not just given Teng Xingfu the position of captain, but had recommended him to the Empress Dowager to be the commander of an army, such as appointing him as the commander of the Wuwei Front Army, or simply giving him the Wuwei Central Army, perhaps the situation would be much better than it is now."

Cixi smiled and said, "Zhonghua, don't regret it, and don't blame yourself too much. I have thought about what you said. Take what you said about recommending Teng Xingfu to lead the army. Not to mention that you may not be able to see that Teng Xingfu has such a great talent, even the civil and military officials in the court would not agree, and even I would never agree."

"Besides, if you let Teng Xingfu lead the army, who among his veterans would obey him? Could you ask him to kill people?"

Cixi sighed again and said, "After experiencing this national disaster, I finally realized one thing. Wars now are very different from the past. The times have changed. There will no longer be two armies facing each other and fighting each other. Those stubborn old generals will not fight such a war."

"Personal bravery and good riding and shooting skills are completely worthless in front of foreign guns and cannons. If you want to win a big victory, you have to use foreign methods. As Wei Yuan said, learn from the strengths of the foreigners in order to defeat them."

Cixi glanced at Tieliang, then turned to Ronglu and continued.

"Zhonghua, Baochen was also discovered by you. If it weren't for your recommendation, Baochen would still be working as an aide. I hope this is the second Teng Xingfu you discovered."

Baochen is Tieliang's pen name. He was originally Ronglu's aide. It was Ronglu who recommended Tieliang to Cixi, and Tieliang became the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

As soon as Cixi finished speaking, Tieliang saluted Ronglu and Cixi respectively on horseback.

"I will never forget the kindness of the Empress Dowager and Lord Rong in promoting me. I will devote myself to the court and the Qing Dynasty."

Cixi nodded and said with a smile, "Okay, let's talk about these things later."

Cixi nodded and suddenly looked at Yuan Shikai, "My dear Yuan, please tell me how Teng Xingfu learned from the foreigners in the field of Western military affairs and was better than the foreigners. Why do you say this?"

Yuan Shikai still had a lot to say. He could make the most of the move regarding Teng Yuzhao's employment of people, but Cixi had already asked him to skip this one, so she had no choice but to turn to this last one.

Fortunately, what Teng Yuzhao had just said about the silver in his hands had already achieved the result he wanted, which made Yuan Shikai feel excited.

Although after he finished talking about the military pay and silver for the vanguard army, not only did no one mention it again, even Ronglu couldn't wait to change the subject.

But the more this was the case, Yuan Shikai thought, the more it proved that his words hit the nail on the head for Teng Yuzao and the court, and the more it proved that this was the so-called trying to cover up one's own guilt.

Only if the imperial court is afraid of Teng Yuzhao, will they pay more attention to him, a frontier official who disregards the safety of the imperial court. His Wuwei Right Army can also take advantage of the situation to expand. As for the future, he still needs to make more plans, and it is still uncertain who will win in the end.

Yuan Shikai bowed on his horse and saluted Cixi on the imperial carriage, and said with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. What you just said about learning from the barbarians to defeat them is very good. It sums up Xingfu's tactics in commanding the vanguard army, and it also makes me suddenly enlightened."

"Although the Western tactics Xingfu learned came from Germany, he was not rigidly following them. Every battle he fought was in line with the tactics handed down by our ancestors."

Yuan Shikai originally wanted to talk about the military tactics passed down by his ancestors, but suddenly he remembered that the current court was Manchu. The ancestors he was talking about who passed down the military tactics were the ancestors of the Han people, and had nothing to do with Manchus such as Cixi and Ronglu.

"In the battles of Xingfu, he was particularly good at using terrain and features to set up ambushes and night battles, and he pursued the goal of annihilating the enemy in one battle. Therefore, he always assembled a large number of troops to attack suddenly, and finally annihilated part of the foreign coalition forces in hand-to-hand combat, thereby obtaining a large amount of weapons and equipment, as well as other military supplies and property, thus achieving the goal of fighting to support the war."

Yuan Shikai also did not forget to remind Teng Yuzhao of the source of the money for his vanguard army. He did not do this to explain where the money went for Teng Yuzhao. He just wanted to deepen Cixi's impression that Teng Yuzhao had much more silver than the imperial court.

"Xingfu is extremely intelligent. He studied infantry at Beiyang University, but he also studied artillery at the same time. Therefore, Xingfu is not only good at infantry combat, but also very good at using cannons. Duan Qirui specializes in artillery combat. According to Duan Qirui, Xingfu's use of cannons is far beyond his reach."

"According to Duan Qirui's colleagues, Xingfu designed and manufactured two types of cannons that even foreigners didn't have. One is called the conscienceless cannon, and the other is called the mortar. Both are extremely powerful, but he kept it a secret. Even when I sent Duan Qirui to his army to assist in the battle, he was not seen."

Yuan Shikai continued speaking while secretly observing the expressions of Cixi, Ronglu, Zai Yi, Tieliang and others.

"Duan Qirui witnessed the battle of Laishui with his own eyes. In that battle, Hu Dianjia was defeated at Dongxianpo and was routed all the way to Laishui. Xingfu personally commanded Wu Ziyu, Liu Shijiu and Li Xianze, three under-commissioned corps, and Hu Dianjia's troops, who suffered heavy losses and were routed, to engage in an ambush against more than 60,000 Russian and Japanese soldiers."

"The Russians and thousands of Japanese cavalry were bombarded by his sudden and heartless artillery and mortar fire, and then supplemented by Maxim machine gun fire. In just a short while, there were only a few left."

"That kind of heartless cannon, with great power, exploded, leaving nothing within a few feet. All the people and horses within were either torn to pieces or thrown high into the air." "What's worse, almost all the people and horses within a radius of more than ten feet who were not blown to pieces died with blood gushing from all their orifices."

Yuan Shikai was extremely surprised when he saw that Cixi, Ronglu and Zai Yi all looked very surprised, and added.

"The cannon was so powerful that it killed almost no one wherever it went, so it was called the conscienceless cannon."

Seeing that he had successfully frightened Cixi, Ronglu, Tieliang and others, Yuan Shikai continued.

"Xingfu also invented another small cannon, the so-called mortar. It is said that although this type of cannon is small in size, it is very powerful. There are almost all kinds of calibers. Of course, the larger the caliber, the more clumsy it is."

"In several major battles in the later period, Xingfu used thousands of artillery pieces of various types in each battle. He would often scatter and defeat the foreign coalition forces with just intensive bombardment, and then he would ambush and destroy the enemy in one fell swoop."

"Also, when the ambush troops attack, as long as they encounter resistance from the enemy, their small artillery, that is, mortars, will fire a group of shells, and the foreign coalition forces will not be able to gather together to resist."

"It's a pity that Xing Fuduo's two types of artillery he created are kept under very strict control. Not only are people not allowed to approach them, they are not even allowed to see them."

Yuan Shikai spoke for a long while before Cixi came to her senses and spoke.

"He has thousands of cannons! Where did Teng Xingfu get so many cannons? Did he make them all by himself?"

Yuan Shikai smiled bitterly and said, "Empress Dowager, Duan Qirui told me that there should be thousands of these two kinds of self-made cannons, all made by the technicians from Dongjuzi that Xingfu recruited."

"When he was in Luzhou Prefecture, he should have had 200 to 300 foreign cannons, but now he probably has thousands of these cannons."

Cixi looked at Ronglu hesitantly, and Ronglu nodded and said, "Empress Dowager, it should be about the same. The artillery captured in the several battles in Xingfu will definitely not be less."

Cixi looked at Zai Yi again and said, "Prince Duan, did Teng Xingfu mention these unscrupulous cannons and mortars in his memorial?"

This was the first time Zai Yi heard these two names today. Although he knew that Yuan Shikai was trying to flatter Teng Yuzhao, he had no choice but to smile bitterly.

"Xingfu didn't mention it in his memorial. I guess he has some unspeakable secret."

Cixi was stunned for a while, then suddenly smiled and said, "If we can equip our new army with these two types of artillery in large quantities, we won't have to worry about the intimidation of foreigners. They were invented by Teng Xingfu himself, and can be made by technicians from the East Bureau. I think they are not complicated."

"Well, since you are the chief minister of the military affairs council, why don't you go talk to Teng Xingfu and see if he is willing to give us these two types of artillery so that we can produce them ourselves."

Zai Yi had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Cixi looked at Ronglu and suddenly said, "I never thought that Teng Xingfu's power would be so great. If I had known this earlier..."

Seeing that Ronglu just lowered his head and said nothing, Cixi suddenly spoke again.

"We still have a long way to go to the Forbidden City, and since you guys are all here, let's discuss a few things."

"Let's talk about the training of a new army first. To train a new army, we must first cultivate talents. Although we cannot be complacent and send people to the West to learn, we cannot rely solely on foreigners. We still need to think of more ways ourselves."

"In this regard, Teng Xingfu is ahead of us. He submitted a memorial, saying that the court should select people to study abroad. Of course, it is not just about military affairs, but also other aspects. Today we will only talk about military affairs."

"He said he wanted to restore the Beiyang Military Academy and move it to Baoding. He also said he wanted to change it to Baoding Military Academy. This is a good thing. We can't let Teng Xingfu worry about everything. I think the preparatory office of the Ministry of the Army should take over the military academy, and then each province should select talents to enroll."

Cixi's words made Zai Yi grin, knowing that Yuan Shikai's words had worked. Cixi wanted to snatch the Beiyang Military Academy away from Teng Yuzhao!

Cixi looked at Yuan Shikai, who pricked up his ears, and said, "Speaking of the Preparatory Office of the Ministry of War, I want Baochen to be the general manager of this preparatory office in his capacity as the Minister of War. Yuan Aiqing, you also need to contribute, and Teng Xingfu can also contribute. These two people will be the co-directors."

Yuan Shikai had long expected that the Wuwei Right Army would be involved in this preparatory office, and had even selected the candidate. But when he heard Cixi's words, he immediately spoke up.

"Empress Dowager, if you want me to send someone, I think Duan Qirui should go."

Cixi hesitated for a moment and said, "Although Duan Qirui is talented, he is still a bit unruly. He is indeed not suitable to control the military power in the capital. Let him go to Baoding as the director of the military academy as a co-director, so as to temper his temper."

Cixi's arrangement was exactly what Yuan Shikai wanted, and Yuan Shikai nodded repeatedly.

"Your Majesty is wise! This humble servant also means that the army commanders in this place must be led by a kind and respectful person."

Cixi nodded and asked, "I wonder who you will entrust this battle to?"

"My Queen Mother, this man's name is Cao Kun, courtesy name Zhongshan, from Dagu, Tianjin, and he is a very loyal and hardworking person."

Cixi continued, "My idea is that Baochen will be the general manager of the Baoding Military Academy, Duan Qirui will be the director as a co-manager, and Xu Shichang will be the other co-manager of the preparatory office."

Although she said it was a discussion, Cixi actually had no such intention. She was just talking to herself.

(End of this chapter)