From the winter of 1901 to the beginning of 1903, Yuan Shikai's expansion was mainly based on the Beiyang Standing Army, and the two infantry divisions of the Beiyang Standing Army Zuozhen and the corresponding artillery, engineering troops, baggage troops, and the third association of the Beiyang Standing Army Youzhen were expanded by various means.

It is worth noting that the Beiyang Standing Army has not yet carried out the reorganization of cavalry, and there is no large-scale cavalry unit for the time being, whether it is the left town or the right town.

The main reason for this is that cavalry is more difficult to train than infantry, infantry can be built from scratch in just a few months, but cavalry is not good, and it is extremely difficult to build cavalry units from scratch, so the cavalry training in the Beiyang New Army has been very slow.

In addition, there are many old army horse teams in Zhili Province, relatively speaking, although the infantry and artillery in the old army are not good, but the cavalry can still see it to some extent, so the formation and training of cavalry units have been suspended.

Of course, the main thing is: Yuan Shikai has no money!

However, at the beginning of 1903, when Yuan Shikai's hands were slightly relaxed, on the one hand, many arms that were originally scheduled to be imported to the Western powers were saved.

Although the Fuyuan machine factory is only a small-scale production, and many raw materials have to be imported, but in the end it belongs to a commercial enterprise, and those managers are staring at the words cost and profit every day, and when it is not fully completed, it is to start trial production of Type 88 rifles, bullets, shells, grenades and other products to supply Beiyang military supplies, although the price of these products is not low, but it is not high.

For example, shells and bullets are much cheaper than imports.

In addition to saving a sum of money on military purchases, it is also related to the fact that Yuan Shikai took out several batches of money from the southern provinces.

The point is that at the beginning of 1903, he had millions of taels of spare money in his hands, and for a military person who was keen on expanding the army, it was simply intolerable not to expand the army if he had money.

On the one hand, he squeezed out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to buy artillery from the German Krupp factory, which was scheduled for the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, adding up to 48 guns, and the establishment of the artillery battalion of the Beiyang Standing Army in 1903 was not as perverted as the 18 guns of the later battalion, and now it is a decent 16 guns, and the three battalions have to ask for 32 long-barreled field guns and 16 mountain guns. The price of these guns themselves, plus the shells attached to each artillery, adds up to seven or eight hundred thousand taels of silver.

The rest of the money was pulled out by him for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, which was used to purchase various ordnance from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and the products included all the products that the Fuyuan Machinery Factory could produce now and in a short time, including Type 88 rifles, 79 round-headed bullets, 57 mm shells, 75 mm shells, grenades, etc.

As for the Japanese-style 6.5 mm bullets requested by Yuan Shikai, they cannot be produced for the time being, because if the Fuyuan Machinery Factory wants to produce Japanese-style 6.5 mm bullets, it will actually have to establish another 6.5 mm bullet production line, and it will also need a certain amount of capital to purchase equipment, etc., and it is estimated that it will not be able to produce 6.5 mm bullets until next year.

The large-scale construction of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory has not yet been completed, and the orders from the Beiyang New Army have been piled up, which makes Zhao Chenbin and others see a large number of profits at the same time, it also makes Zhao Dongyun feel a huge political pressure, you must know that this Fuyuan Machinery Factory can be regarded as his, and it is also he Zhao Dongyun persuaded Yuan Shikai to give up the reconstruction of the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, if something goes wrong with the Fuyuan Machinery Factory in the end, and tens of thousands of new troops in Beiyang have no guns and ammunition available, It is estimated that Yuan Shikai was the first to take responsibility for himself.

In fact, not only from the Beiyang New Army, the headquarters of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory in Tianjin has received orders for ordnance from several other provinces, most of which are mainly for the purchase of new rifles, and a considerable number of them are for the purchase of bullets and shells.

Funnily enough, the old army of Zhejiang Province ordered 300 new German Mauser rifles from a foreign company, and then the British foreign company directly found the Fuyuan machine qì factory to place an order for 300 rifles, and specially asked for an inscription of German origin, and then sold them to the old army of Zhejiang Province at a high price.

Skipping the Fuyuan Machinery Qì Factory, it is said that Yuan Shikai has spare money in his hands, on the one hand, he is buying a large number of arms to redress his army, and on the other hand, he is also preparing to continue to expand the army.

Only this time he did not continue to expand the infantry troops, but prepared to expand the cavalry troops!

He first prepared to train four horse battalions and organize them into the left mark of the Beiyang Standing Army Horse Team, which was prepared to be assigned to the left town of the Beiyang Standing Army.

In addition, although there is no shadow of the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, he still plans to integrate the Baoyang horse team and the horse team in the Yuanzi camp first, and prepare to train a horse team standard in the name of cutting and training new ones.

At this time, something related to Zhao Dongyun came, because the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army has not been formally established until now, and there is only one third association, so where should this horse team mark be attached? It can't be directly managed by Yuan Shikai, and in the end, he followed the precedent of the second battalion of the machine gun team and temporarily managed it under the management of the Third Association.

This is also convenient for Yuan Shikai to reorganize the Yuanzi battalion, after all, in addition to the cavalry of the Yuanzi battalion, those infantry also have to be reorganized, these are good, the cavalry is directly integrated with the Baoyang horse team into the right mark of the Beiyang Standing Army horse team, and those infantry are reorganized into the third association.

After Zhao Dongyun heard that Yuan Shikai pushed the reorganization of the Baoyang Horse Team and the Yuanzi Battalion to himself, he almost made him scold his mother again! The Baoyang Horse Brigade and the cavalry of the Yuanzi Battalion are all good to say, because they are still more cautious about the reorganization of the cavalry, except for those large and small officers who are mentioned to the corners, most of the cavalry will be retained, so that the reorganization is not easy to be rejected by those cavalry, and even many cavalry of the old army welcome this kind of integration.

Because after the reorganization, the equipment is good, the military salary is higher, and even the food can be eaten better, so this is a good thing for the lower cavalry.

However, it is also the old army, those infantry are not so lucky, this is also a reorganization but the implementation is to cut and train the new, nine times out of ten the old army, whether officers or soldiers, will be kicked out of the new army sequence, only a very small number of young and strong old army can get the opportunity to join the new army of Beiyang.

Just like the last time the reorganization of the Su Yi pro-army, this time the reorganization of the Yuanzi battalion is also a chore!

And this time, after Zhao Dongyun thought about it, he felt that he didn't bother the two masters, and the principle that the pit people should be pit to the end, and with a wave of his hand, he threw the matter of reorganizing the Yuanzi battalion to Chen Guangyuan, so that he could worry!

Anyway, Chen Guangyuan has gained experience in reorganizing the Su Yi pro-army in the past few months, although there are Liu Fufu factors who have secretly helped Zhao Dongyun a lot, but Chen Guangyuan is still doing the bulk of the work, although the process is a bit bumpy, there have been several examples of Su Yi pro-army soldiers making trouble, and even used troops to suppress it two or three times.

In order to prevent the fifth standard under his command from being stuffed with too many soldiers of the old army, the old and weak, he did not show any mercy when he was reorganized, Zhao Dongyun originally expected to leave at least seven or eight hundred people, at least one infantry battalion of the old army of young and strong, but he Chen Guangyuan was reduced to only more than 300 people, and all the rest were put forward by him Chen Guangyuan by various means.

Regarding this matter, Zhao Dongyun felt that Chen Guangyuan still had some means, and his ability was not bad! And since he has the ability and means, then Zhao Dongyun naturally has to put more pressure on Chen Guangyuan.

After Chen Guangyuan heard that Zhao Dongyun threw all the reorganization affairs of the Yuanzi Battalion Infantry to him, he angrily overturned several tables in the Bidding Office.

I have heard a little about Chen Guangyuan's madness Zhao Dongyun, but after hearing it, he just laughed and passed, you can't expect people to shut up obediently!

The reorganization of the Yuanzi Battalion Infantry Team is a chore, but the reorganization of the Baoyang Horse Team and the Yuanzi Battalion Horse Team cannot be considered so, because the reorganization of the Horse Team will also establish the right standard of the Horse Team, and the person in charge of the affairs of the integrated Horse Team will be able to obtain the real power positions such as the horse standard commander, the pipe belt, and the team officer.

For a time, many cavalry officers in the Beiyang system mobilized their personal connections to try to find a shortage on the right side of the horse team.

The position of the right standard commander of the horse team is the same as the previous position of the two infantry standard leaders of the Third Association, which is already a middle and high-level position in the Beiyang New Army, and it is a key point of contention between various factions.

For a while, Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai, and Feng Guozhang's various factions came and went, and they were fighting for a lively time, and in the face of the only two horse team leaders in the Beiyang Standing Army, Yuan Shikai was not easy to make a decision for a while, and before there was no one who met the interests of the faction, he could only continue to drag.

The horse team's right standard was not decided, but the horse team's right standard couldn't help but practice, and finally Zhao Dongyun, an infantry officer, drove the ducks to the shelf, and first set up the shelf of the horse team's right standard.

The position of the right standard of the horse team is too important, and it is not easy to decide for a while, and Zhao Dongyun is not easy to interfere with, but it is much easier for the pipe bands and team officers below.

Zhao Dongyun flipped through his resume among many of his subordinates, and soon found a few cavalry-born officers, not to mention a few unfamous ones, who were directly transferred by Zhao Dongyun to the right mark of the horse team and served as a team officer, but there is one person who has to be emphasized, he is Hua Zhenji.

After returning to China last year, due to the fact that he could not get an actual position for a long time, he finally went to Tongguò others to thread the needle and put himself under Zhao Dongyun, and was appointed by Zhao Dongyun as the assistant of the second battalion of the fifth standard.

However, he was born in the cavalry, and he is also an extremely rare non-commissioned officer in Japan in this year, so it is a pure waste of talent for him to be an infantry battalion leader.

Now that the right standard of the horse team is established, Zhao Dongyun is based on the premise that he can promote his own people, and he is not worried that Hua Zhenji is just a hairy young man with insufficient ability, so he directly mentioned him to the position of the first battalion of the right standard of the horse team.

As for whether the ability is enough, even if this Hua Zhenji's ability is really not good, Zhao Dongyun will have enough time to remove him in the future, and then replace him with other officers of his lineage, anyway, he will occupy the position first.

Coupled with the three pipe bands of other factions and more than a dozen team officers selected by Zhao Dongyun, the right mark of this horse team can be regarded as barely setting up a shelf.

However, at this time, if someone takes a closer look at the Third Association, then they will find that the Third Association is very different from the two infantry associations in Zuozhen of the Beiyang Standing Army, because the current Third Association also directly governs a machine gun battalion, a target horse team, and even various informal battalion organizations within the Third Association. If we say that the Third Association is given another artillery battalion, and then the establishment of some baggage and engineering troops, this is completely a mixed association!