Tianjin Port, evening.

With a nervous mood, Michang waited for a huge ship to dock in the distance. He disguised himself as a merchant, surrounded by loyal bannermen from various royal palaces, all disguised as porters. They are like the countless bitter people in Tianjin Port who support their families with hard labor, and they are inconspicuous in the crowd. If it can make people feel a little unhappy, it is that the braids left by their group are too natural, obviously caused by long-term "edification", but it is not surprising that it is calculated, after all, the Republic of China has not been established for a long time, and many old and young people still refuse to cut their braids, and even the master of Chinese studies Wang Guowei keeps it.

But the only thing that makes people suspicious is this braid, because it is extremely inconvenient to keep braids because of the need to work as coolies, so at least in the dock worker industry, there are very few people with braids, let alone this group of people.

Liu Duoquan, the head of the Tianjin Station of the Fengqi Bureau, had already been ordered to keep an eye on this group of unusual characters. Tianjin is an extremely important stop of the Fengqi Bureau in the Guannai, comparable to Beijing. The Bureau has been working here for a whole year, and has initially established corresponding sources of intelligence collection and delivery channels. Of course, the news of the "Zongsha Party's" purchase of arms from the Japanese was personally informed by Gao Jiyi and asked him to find out the specific time, place, and method of the arrival of this batch of arms in Tianjin "at all costs."

Because this batch of arms is very important to Zhang Hanqing and even Zhang Zuolin.

It is a much-needed cannon for the troops.

Before the advent of tanks, artillery was a veritable king of land warfare. Even tanks are just highly motorized artillery. After the international arms embargo agreement was imposed on China in 1915, the channels for the Beiyang Army to obtain advanced technology, especially weapons, from abroad were closed.

The army under the central government is better, and they can continue to obtain domestically produced artillery, but the Feng army, which has gradually been reduced to the support of the queen, will inevitably be affected.

To say that China's artillery at that time was not as "poor and white" as later generations propagated, our artillery was also brilliant for a while. Back in 1903, the Beiyang New Army was equipped with six advanced German-made Krupp 14 times 75 mm tube mountain guns, which was the most advanced mountain gun in the world at that time. After rigorous testing, the performance of the gun was very powerful, and then 72 more guns were added and armed to the earliest Beiyang Six Towns.

In 1905, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau imitated the artillery according to it, and finally succeeded in manufacturing, of course, there is still a certain gap with the original factory, which is determined by the industrial level. Its gun carriage is a two-wheeled one-legged type, with a total weight of 405 kg, carried by four horses or towed by one horse, and has a range of four kilometers. Except for the most advanced component at that time, the recoiling spring, which was purchased from the United States, the other parts were made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau! However, due to the relatively advanced, the annual output is only six.

It was improved in 1913, and later had several names, generally called the Shanghai-made Krupp 75 mm mountain gun, referred to as the Huke 75 mountain gun. With nearly 500 mountain cannons imitated before, it became an important striking force for the armies of various factions in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. At that time, the 27th Division was allocated 18 guns---- which was just enough to form an artillery battalion. To be able to get this cup of soup, I still borrowed the light of the 27th Division, which is still considered the foundation of the Beiyang veteran troops.

For the Beiyang Army, mountain artillery is even more important than field artillery, because most of the Beiyang Army is light infantry, and artillery is mainly used as infantry fire support, so it is very important that artillery can keep up with the speed of infantry. At that time, China's roads were in poor condition, and in many places there were no roads at all, only dirt roads, small roads, and mountain roads. In this kind of terrain, field artillery cannot exert its power, because this kind of terrain is basically impossible to be dragged by mules and horses. Therefore, a mountain cannon that can be broken down into several parts, carried by mules, horses and even soldiers, is an excellent weapon.

Several years have passed, and the 27th Division still has this kind of family background, so it has purchased some sporadically. However, the world's military has undergone tremendous changes, and this kind of mountain artillery, which was relatively advanced at the beginning, soon fell behind. Although when developing the world's most advanced artillery, it was claimed that it "had all the most advanced artillery design concepts in half a century".

Artillery is different from other arms of the army, and artillery with backward performance is better than no artillery. Artillery, which is far inferior to the enemy, does not play a role in actual combat, but wastes a large amount of logistical supplies and military resources, and the gains outweigh the losses. In 1908, the Japanese designed and successfully produced a new artillery ---- the 41 mountain gun, which was designed by Fumihachiro Shimakawa, and its performance comprehensively surpassed that of the same type of mountain cannon made in Shanghai.

Due to its good accuracy, easy disassembly and combination, very light weight (540 kg), 2 soldiers can push and move, high mobility, and it is very convenient to use in various terrains, and its performance is better than that of the Huke 75 mountain gun. The cannon later swept the Northeast Army and North China, and was copied by various arsenals of the Republic of China, which can be regarded as fruitful.

Due to the limitations of Japan's industrial strength, such a new type of artillery could not be used by brigades and wings, and it was just decided to use it as the core of divisional support artillery, and it was not until seven years later in 1934 that it was distributed to all wings to directly support infantry. Compared with the mountain artillery of the countries of World War I, at this time it was only used by the artillery companies directly under the ordinary infantry regiments, and their infantry divisions were already equipped with 75 to 105 mm ** guns, which shows that the strength of Japan's army is not at the same level as that of the European powers. Of course, China should not be mixed up.

The members of the Zongshe Party knew that Zhang Xun had a small number of soldiers, and in order to give a boost to this restoration, the focus of arms procurement was on this new artillery with excellent performance. Of course, Japan also gave great assistance, and a batch of 41-type mountain artillery that had not yet been armed with the first-class division was given priority to them.

Because the performance of this artillery is far superior to that of the Huke 75 mountain gun, the Japanese military circles have also made a big deal of it, making the arms procurement that should have been kept secret transparent. Zhang Hanqing's shell still had some connections in the Japanese military circles before, and he generally knew about it, and if the Bureau did not pay attention to it, it would be a serious dereliction of duty.

According to the price of 40,000 yuan per gun, Michang arranged for Xiande, the son of Prince Su in Japan, to purchase 30 guns, and ship them on board with 6,000 rounds of shells, ready to dock secretly in Tianjin, and then transfer the boat through the Haihe River to the canal into Beijing. In order to prevent accidents, the Japanese garrison sent a squadron to escort them. Because of the treaty, the Japanese soldiers were all dressed in civilian clothes and patrolled in the distance.

Originally, at the beginning of the establishment of the concessions, the countries did not have the right to station troops, but the Treaty of Xincho gave the powers this right. Under the pretext of protecting the security of their legations, consulates, and their own nationals, the great powers stipulated in Article 3 of the Treaty of Xinchou with the Qing government that "the imperialist powers may station their troops in 12 places along the railway from Shanhaiguan to Beijing." As a result, countries officially began to station troops in China.

Japanese troops came to Tianjin in 1901 and were initially stationed in the British Concession. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion occurred, and the Japanese army participated in the Eight-Nation Alliance's attack on Tianjin. Major General Fukushima Yasumasa of the Japanese Army led the 2nd Infantry Brigade to take the lead in attacking the city, and broke through the Haiguang Temple near the barracks and reached the south gate of the old city of Tianjin. After the signing of the Treaty of Xincho, Japan assigned Haiguang Temple to the Japanese concession.

At that time, the dormitories of the Japanese garrison were "well clean, especially the barracks in Changli, which were the best among all countries" and were able to maintain good hygiene. In 1912, four barracks and outbuildings were built to house a wartime infantry brigade. At the same time, the Tianjin Infantry Gendarmerie and the military hospital also laid running water pipes to facilitate the soldiers' cooking and bathing water. The clothes were mainly brought by the troops to which they belonged, and the polished rice eaten by the soldiers, as well as the oats and barley needed by Ma Liang, were directly transported from the interior of Japan, and other deficiencies were now solved. In particular, the wheat straw and hay needed by the war horses were directly purchased from the local area.

In May 1913, due to the increase in the number of troops dispatched, the commander of the garrison in China, Kojiro Sato, requested the Minister of War to increase the funds for the construction of a temporary barracks to accommodate the newly dispatched officers. On September 2, 1913, it was reported to the Japanese Ministry of War that the Haikoji Barracks used stoves for heating in winter, and because the ashes were buried in the ground, they were prone to fires, and it was hoped that a special ash disposal site could be built. In 1917, the Haiguangji Barracks applied to the Ministry of War for funds to renovate the bathhouse on the grounds that the bathhouse was in disrepair and that there was no place to put shoes and boots at the door.

It's the rhythm of the long stay.

It was also because of the Eight-Nation Alliance's entry into Beijing that the Great Powers stationed troops in 12 places along the line from Beijing to Shanhaiguan. Within the Shanhai Pass, the Jingfeng line may be cut off by the powers at any time, which makes Zhang Zuolin, who wants to develop in the Guannei, have a lot of scruples, and of course it is also one of the reasons why he can be self-contained---- and the central government is also beyond the reach of the whip. Because of the reality of the "management" of the multinational communist party on the Jingfeng line, this artery has always been calm and unaffected by the political situation.

But suddenly one day, the peace was broken. Frequent travelers on this line noticed something unusual: the Gyeongbong line was paralyzed. At Mukden Station, they were informed that because of the crusade against Zhang Xun, all trains destined for Guannai were temporarily requisitioned. Then, the heavily armed officers and men boarded train after train and galloped south when they were full.

But the people at the other sites were weird. What's going on? Even when the White Russian devils fought with the Oriental devils, there was no such hard-to-find incident on the Jingbong Line. You must know that the Jingbong line is a "safe" line jointly guaranteed by all countries, why is the Chinese army like this, well, how to say it, arrogant?

Some have the audacity to question the legitimacy of the move. Also, the Republic of China, the people's wisdom has been opened, and the concept of cooking has sprouted in the minds of some people. The Guards Division requisitioned the train, and in the name of rebellion, I heard that Zhang Xun was restored. Zhang Xun's restoration is restored, he was originally the emperor, wasn't he forced down by President Yuan. Even Lao Yuan wants to be the emperor, what's wrong with people re-ascending to the Dragon Court? But the newspapers haven't heard about it, have they? Let me get in the car first!

This is just a matter of saying after all, and in the face of the army with loaded guns and neat appearance, complaining can only be expressed in private. But who is this army? I feel that the temperament is very different!