Yuan Shikai may regret it, the thought of regret flashed in his heart, regret never affected Yuan Shikai's mentality, since it is no longer possible to directly kill the northwest, then put this thing aside, first consider the matter of this batch of weapons, 120,000 rifles, and a sufficient number of bullets, not to mention the follow-up Makqin and 75 guns, just these, it is enough to support the next stage of Beiyang's army expansion.

Sorting out these arms and putting them into storage one by one, Yuan Shikai and the top leaders of Beiyang began to actually consider the issue of army expansion, and this has long been a commonplace issue, and since the day Beiyang was founded, Yuan Shikai has been thinking about army expansion all the time.

It's just that because of the restrictions on military salaries and weapons, the Beiyang Army has slowly developed in the past 20 years, from the beginning of the Beiyang Military Academy, to the later Beiyang under the leadership of the construction of various military schools, middle schools, almost all over the provinces, which is also the beginning of China's professional soldiers and officers. These schools, which provided the Beiyang Army with a certain number of officers, also, of course, for some reason and strict control, eliminated a part of the officers and servicemen.

Some of these soldiers entered other channels under reasonable arrangements, and most of them were idle at home, and these people were the first batch of recruits.

The conscription began, with a relatively complete file, most of these people found the total, but these people really did not come back, the establishment of new armies in various places, coupled with the attraction of the factory in Baotou, there are not many who are really still idle at home, can only be called a strong supplement, in just over a month, these people have recruited a total of about 4,000 people.

Xu Shichang headed by the top of the Beiyang Army, did not put all the plans on this, their confidence lies in the huge Beiyang army and the Beiyang system, inherited the old foundation of Li Hongzhang, whether it is from the factory, or a variety of yamen, Beiyang is a huge institution, plus the military guard, Ruizi battalion and other time-honored Qing court army, under the huge system, 20 years of multiplication, the number of Beiyang children growing up is very large, this is the focus of the expansion of the army, to the false and the true, More than 50,000 people were recruited.

The rest is the direct recruitment in Zhili and other places, these people, according to the previous recruitment, will be eliminated three-quarters, not everyone can withstand the recoil of the German guns, not everyone can become a soldier in the strict training in Beiyang.

This batch of new guns in Baotou is strictly in accordance with the physical standards of the Orientals, under such physical standards, as long as the body is healthy, height and weight, and even strength, it can be slightly relaxed, basically, except for the really unqualified, 50,000 people will be eliminated at most one-tenth.

That is to say, the first two kinds of people have been replenished by almost 50,000, and the expansion of the Beiyang Army of 70,000 to 120,000 is already a limit.

Yuan Shikai took the initiative and added the students of the Armed Forces Academy and some other army primary and secondary schools to the Beiyang Army on a large scale, which barely completed the establishment of the new army, and the large-scale change of uniforms began.

The first batch of dress-ups must be the third town, Duan Qirui is Yuan Shikai's absolute henchman, and the third town is now worthy of the first strong army in Beiyang, because next, there are arms that Baotou may support, and they can even be bought, the price is much cheaper than foreign goods, at least squeeze it, Beiyang can still buy it, Duan Qirui saw the strength of the Northwest Army, and also began to pay attention to artillery fire and Makqin.

The third town is also a minority, not filled with too many new troops, some soldiers who returned from injury, plus the prisoners who were released, only supplemented with less than 6,000 Beiyang eliminated soldiers and supplementary soldiers, and the new Beiyang third town was formed.

The new Beiyang Third Town, with the support of personnel, the Third Town formed 2 infantry associations and an artillery association, of which the infantry association is in accordance with the reinforced standard, composed of 3 standards and an artillery battalion, the total number of more than 9,600 people, the 2 infantry associations are close to 20,000, as for the artillery association, although there are only about 4,000 people, but there are 80 Makqin, 60 75 guns and 60 37 guns, almost more than 3 times the density of the previous artillery fire and machine guns.

The combination of more than 100 guns, plus Makqin, is called machine guns in this era, such an artillery combination is absolutely amazing, plus the artillery battalions in the 2 associations, the whole town has more than 200 artillery pieces of all kinds, which is definitely the first in China, not to say that it is the first in addition to the northwest.

These artillery and Makqin have not been completely in place, for the time being, it is only the original artillery and Makqin, and the staffing has been expanded, in addition to the previous Makqin, 56 of the 100 Makqin promised by the rear bread head are also supported in the third town, plus the previous 24, the third town has 80.

The Baotou New Army, the centralized use of Makqin, a certain Cheng dù above, gave Duan Qirui a little inspiration, Makqin must be used intensively, and even when the Beiyang Army has enough Makqin, the combat effectiveness will be improved on the basis of the original.

This requirement made Yuan Shikai very difficult, it was easy to get so much heavy firepower, if it was evenly distributed, it would make the new town get enough improvement on a large distance, Yuan Shikai who came out of the old army knew very well the important role of the number of soldiers, and no matter how elite the troops, if there were not enough people to support them, they would also be of great use.

At this point, Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui had a lot of disputes, and in the end, it was Duan Qirui who persuaded Yuan Shikai that Yuan Shikai was not a high-ranking official who did not understand military affairs, he came from the bottom and participated in the tragic battlefield fighting, and Beiyang was also a crystallization of his attempt as a new army in a sense.

The battle with the northwest, all of a sudden, lost a town, this is only a few days of artillery fire and Makqin created, real combat results, under Duan Qirui's well-founded explanation, Yuan Shikai no longer insisted, relative to the number and scale, strength is more important. After knowing the strength of Baotou, deep down, Yuan Shikai regarded the new army as an imaginary enemy and a big trouble, although he did not intend to anger the other party for the time being, it did not mean that he did not try better methods, once he found Baotou's weakness, or that the strength of Beiyang was already above Baotou's army, he would not hesitate to pounce.

It's better to try, expand the scale of the six towns, and under some circumstances, reduce the stimulation of the Qing court, the external environment, the northwest and the suppression of **to, they let themselves recover, but their vigilance against him has never been lowered, it seems that getting a large amount of arms from the northwest seems to make the whole person relaxed, completely forgetful, now is not the time to be happy.

Of course, not only Duan Qirui's reminder, Yang Du's persuasion also occupies a large aspect, the benefits have already fallen, there is no need to touch the Qing court in some aspects, although the current Qing court is no longer a concern, but to consider the opinions of the great powers, for the time being, Britain has no intention of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and supporting him as the next leader of China, that is, for the time being, it needs to slowly accumulate strength.

With the help of the soldiers recruited before, plus a large number of munitions, Yuan Shikai completed the first reorganization and expansion of the six towns, which is equivalent to the expansion of 50,000 soldiers, and the total strength has reached 120,000.

It is still the original 6 towns, but each town is no longer what it used to be, more than 10,000 people, and even some towns that are just close to 10,000, have become integrated towns, with an average population of about 20,000, and the lowest sixth town has more than 17,000 people. Among them, the third and fourth towns are the most powerful, and they are the highest in terms of weapons and soldiers, because they have the most veterans, and among the recruits, the best soldiers and officers are directly supplemented to them.

120,000 committee 1888, sent to the hands of every soldier, these 120,000 people, all soldiers, without any empty salary, the real threat of Baotou, so that the Beiyang Army swept away the previous slackness, and devoted itself to intense training, especially after the follow-up Makqin and 75 artillery arrived, the good quality and quantity of huge shells surprised all the top leaders of the Beiyang Army, and they were also rare and generous, and urgently carried out 3 months of live-fire training.

Soldiers, it is not said that if they are issued a gun, they can become soldiers, the new army in the south can do this, but the Beiyang Army is absolutely not, in that case, even if it has a huge number of people, the final combat effectiveness is very weak, and it will lose the name of the Beiyang Army.

For the first time, you can ignore bullets, on average, each soldier has knocked out 100 rounds of bullets, which doesn't seem to be much, but 120,000 people, 120,000 is 12 million rounds, if it is replaced before, Yuan Shikai is absolutely reluctant, but when the supply price in the northwest, the price of bullets has almost decreased by eight times, 12 million rounds, it is only 30,000 yuan, such a huge military force, 40,000 training costs, this is no problem for Yuan Shikai, who has millions in his hands.

It's a big deal, I went to the northwest to buy it again, after the 1888 rifle in the northwest, especially the 7.0 bullet used, not only in terms of power, it is not weaker than the 7.9 at all, and the weight has also dropped a lot, and the strength of the soldiers has been slightly improved.

The high-intensity training has made the new Beiyang Six Towns quickly form combat effectiveness, and at this time in the south, the ** party still has not discovered that the powerful Beiyang Army has completely completed the expansion and reorganization, and the strong team of 120,000 people is gradually growing in strength every day, and the catastrophe has gradually come. R1152