After listening to Liu Tinggui's words, Wang Zhanyuan on the side put down the binoculars: "This estimate is more difficult, today's exercise is a simulation of a field encounter, and the heavy machine gun of Team B is directly erected on the mountain, and there is not even a basic fortress fortification, so it will be so easy to be hit by the mortar of Team A, but if this machine gun is arranged in the fortress fortifications, this 60 mm mortar may not be able to knock the machine gun fortress!" ”

Liu Tinggui didn't care: "It's good that this 60-millimeter cannon can hit the machine gun fire points in the field fortifications, as for those fortress fortifications, naturally there are brothers in our artillery mark!" ”

His words made Wang Zhanyuan only respond in vain, just rely on those 75-millimeter field artillery under your command to hit the field fortifications, and if it encounters a fortress fortification like Lushun Fortress, it can't be defeated.

However, this is naturally not going to be said, it was not easy for him Wang Zhanyuan to gain a foothold in the third town, and he was called brothers and sisters with a group of Zhao Dongyun's descendant officers, but he would not break the current harmonious relationship without being able to break the current harmonious relationship and lead him to be rejected by everyone.

At this time, Wang Zhanyuan turned around and continued to watch the follow-up exercises, but the more he looked at it, the more he thought, and he had been in Jinzhou for a year, he was no longer the kind of person who had no understanding of the third town, he knew very well that among the current four towns in Beiyang, although they could all be said to be full, but when it came to the level of training and equipment, the third town under Zhao Dongyun was definitely among the best.

In terms of equipment, the rifle is no different, but the difference in artillery is big, the artillery mark of the third town has been replaced with a German-style tube gun, which is no different from the second town and the fourth town, but the third town has a mortar that other Beiyang troops do not have, although there is no actual combat to prove the combat effectiveness of the mortar so far, but how can not ignore the more than 100 mortars in the third town

There are also machine guns that are the most in the four towns of Beiyang, and the 56 heavy machine guns in the third town far exceed the number of equipment in other towns of about 24 and 30, and Wang Zhanyuan heard that Zhao Dongyun was far from satisfied with this, and wanted to continue to increase the number of heavy machine guns, and increase the number of machine guns in the battalion from two to four, which is not counted, and I heard that a light machine gun would be purchased from Europe to continue to expand the scale of machine gun equipment.

At the same time, due to the large number of mortars and heavy machine guns, the number of operators of the above weapons has increased, but also the personnel of the logistics troops, so the personnel of the third town, especially the logistics personnel, are much more than the standard establishment of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, so it is natural that the total strength of the third town of the third town has exceeded that of other Beiyang troops, reaching more than 14,000 people.

If it is natural that the strength of the third town is based on the millions of military expenditures invested by the imperial court and Beiyang every year, then Zhao Dongyun has single-handedly made this Jinzhou patrol battalion No. 1 mixed association that exceeds Wang Zhanyuan's expectations.

The whole army of this mixed association is nearly 6,000, but it only takes 10,000 silver per month from Fengtian and Zhili, and the rest is Zhao Dongyun's own funds.

It's okay to get the money to train a mixed association, but the battle of this mixed association doesn't seem to be much weaker than the third town, how can you make other provincial governors who can't even train a new army in a town for several years embarrassed.

At present, the sum of the first mixed concord and the third town, the combat troops plus auxiliary and other fragmentary personnel, the total amount is close to 20,000 people, and the troops controlled by Zhao Dongyun are not much worse than Yuan Shikai in the year of Gengzi.

After these thoughts flashed in his heart, and then looked at Zhao Dongyun who was talking to Meng Enyuan in front of him, Wang Zhanyuan felt a little weird, a few years ago, this Zhao Dongyun was about the same status as himself, even after Zhao Dongyun served as the leader of the third mixed association, he could only be regarded as a second-echelon person like Wang Zhanyuan, but since Zhao Dongyun became the commander of the third town, the gap between the political status of the two was quickly widened.

In the past, although Zhao Dongyun, Wang Zhanyuan, Cao Kun, and Xu Bangjie had different factions, they were still brothers on weekdays, but today only Zhao Dongyun said to them Brother Wang and Brother Cao, and Cao Kun and Wang Zhanyuan categorically couldn't respond with a sentence of Brother Zhao, and had to use a sentence of 'Lord Zhao' and 'Zhao Commandery'.

Calling someone else's so-and-so brother, in addition to having a good personal relationship, is usually the one with a high status who shouts that his status is low, especially in the officialdom, you can't call your colleagues, especially your boss, brother so-and-so, otherwise others will think that you are belittling him.

Looking at Zhao Dongyun, who has become one of the big men in Beiyang, Wang Zhanyuan is envious, but he has no jealousy, he and others know that Zhao Dongyun relies on today not luck, but his strength.

If you look at the Third Town and the First Mixed Association that Zhao Dongyun practiced single-handedly, you will know why Yuan Shikai called him the hero of Beiyang. When you look at the many military theory books that have emerged in Beiyang in recent years, most of them are followed by a 'written by Zhao Dongyun' or 'compiled by the Third Town Supervision and Exercise Office', and you will know why Yuan Shikai sent a special report to Zhao Dongyun to ask for his opinion on many matters concerning the compilation and training of the Beiyang New Army.

In the history of the Beiyang New Army and even the New Army in the late Qing Dynasty, many affairs and regulations were shared by Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang, but now the role of the above three people in this time and space is greatly weakened, and a considerable part of the limelight has been stolen by Zhao Dongyun.

Wang Zhanyuan was thinking nonsense in the back, and Zhao Dongyun in front also continued to talk to Meng Enyuan, at this time the exercise had come to an end, Zhao Dongyun said: "This also looks decent, after a while, these battalions and the troops of Xinmin, Liaozhong, and Panshan will be rotated on one side, increase some experience in marching and garrisoning, and then go to suppress the bandits and see blood, and then they can almost be pulled out!" ”

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's comment, Meng Enyuan was overjoyed: "Thanks to the guidance of the adults on weekdays, otherwise there would definitely be no day when the army will be formed today!" ”

After the words fell, Meng Enyuan was slightly puzzled, and then said: "I heard as soon as possible that the imperial court wants to train the new army and unify the new army numbers of the provinces. ”

When Zhao Dongyun heard Meng Enyuan's question, he naturally understood what Meng Enyuan was worried about, what he was worried about was not that the imperial court would give them a number, but that the imperial court would turn them into a local army in Fengtian Province, and immediately said: "Don't worry, although there is such a thing as the imperial court to train the new army to unify the number, but our Jinzhou side is in a special situation, and we will not act rashly unless we have to!" ”

After saying that, Zhao Dongyun felt the need to give Meng Enyuan and other middle and senior officers of the First Mixed Association a reassurance: "No matter how the number changes in the future, but in the eyes of me, Zhao Dongyun and Lord Duxian, this First Mixed Association is always our Beiyang troops, so you can let the people below rest easy, don't follow the crowd!" ”

Meng Enyuan listened, and then he was greatly relieved, the reason why he asked Zhao Dongyun these things today was because he heard that the imperial court had recently ordered the general training of the new army and unified the number. The reason why the imperial court did this was quite clear, that is, to bring the new armies of the provinces, especially the Beiyang Standing Army, under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court Training Office, that is, to turn the private armies of the provinces into the central army of the imperial court, which was an important measure for the Qing court to concentrate military power.

But Yuan Shikai and a group of Beiyang people naturally have opinions on this, for example, after this is awarded the unified number, who do the four Beiyang towns listen to, listen to Yuan Shikai or listen to the Ministry of War?

Yuan Shikai took this opportunity to ask the imperial court to solve the funds for the fifth and sixth towns, and the imperial court wanted to organize the four Beiyang towns from the local troops of Zhili into the central army of the imperial court.

Of course, these disputes are all disputes between the bigwigs of the DPRK and China, and naturally Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang bigwig, has to worry about it, and as for Zhao Dongyun and others, they can only wait for the follow-up results with peace of mind.

Originally, the matter of unification was originally only a matter of Beiyang and the imperial court, and it basically had nothing to do with other provinces, because the new army trained by other provinces, that is, the standing army of each province can basically be ignored, but this time Fengtian Zengqi said that once the new army is trained, Fengtian should have at least two towns of troops, otherwise it is not enough to deal with the crisis of Fengtian, and then it is also proposed that the Fengtian patrol battalion can be reorganized into a town, and then the Jinzhou patrol battalion can also be reorganized into a town, so that Fengtian can have two towns.

This is what Meng Enyuan said about his worries, Meng Enyuan naturally hopes that his family can become the control of a certain town, but he is even more reluctant to break away from the Beiyang system.

In these years, Meng Enyuan wore a layer of Beiyang lineage skin and became a mixed leader in the Beiyang system, but it was much stronger than being a town in a local province.

In late October, the Beiyang system announced the transfer of the Wuwei Right Army, the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, the Ziqiang Army and many troops in the first and fourth towns, and officially organized into the fifth town and the sixth town, of which the fifth town composed of the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army as the main body is still struggling in Shandong, and the sixth town formed by the Wuwei Right Army as the main body is stationed in Zhili.

Therefore, the Beiyang system already has six towns of the standing army, it is worth noting that this Beiyang six towns are different from the six towns of Beiyang in history, because the current six towns of Beiyang do not include the standing army of the Beijing Banner, if you add the standing army of the Beijing flag controlled by the Beiyang system, then the number of new troops in the Beiyang system should be seven towns, if you add the Jinzhou patrol battalion under Zhao Dongyun, then it should be said to be seven and a half.

If the new army of these seven and a half towns were fully loaded, the total strength would exceed 100,000.

It's just that it's still far away from being fully equipped, and the newly established Fifth Town and Sixth Town still need to replenish their troops, and more importantly, they have to be equipped with new rifles and weapons, the Manlixia in the hands of the Sixth Town and the single-outfit Mauser in the hands of the Fifth Town are both outdated and can no longer be outdated, and the artillery in the Sixth Town is better, but the Fifth Town also needs to be re-equipped, and Yuan Shikai has to come up with at least three million taels of silver just to replace them with clothes.

Therefore, it will take at least a year for these two towns to be fully equipped and form combat effectiveness.

At the same time, the training department also promulgated a new charter for the new army, requiring all provinces and new armies to be organized and trained in accordance with the new charter, and the establishment here is different from the previous establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army, for example, the four battalions under the jurisdiction of the cavalry standard have been changed to three battalions, and the artillery has also been changed from four artillery pieces in one team, four guns in each battalion, 48 guns in one standard and three battalions to six guns in one team, and 18 guns in each battalion and 54 guns in one standard and three battalions.

Different from history, this time the establishment of the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty also officially included machine guns in the establishment table, stipulating that each town must have a machine gun battalion under its jurisdiction, and 24 heavy machine guns in it.

Because the Qing court's general training of the new army needs each governor to solve the military expenses on his own, the Qing court does not care about anything except the expenses of the Beiyang Standing Army and the Beijing Banner Standing Army, so if the governors have money and ambition, they will train a few more battalions, and if they have no money and ambition, they will not train the training office.

The training regulations of the new army are given, but whether you abide by them is also your own business, and the training department will not give you an official number at most.

At least Zhao Dongyun's Third Town and Jinzhou Patrol Battalion did not plan to comply with the new establishment of the training department, although Zhao Dongyun's troops were serious Beiyang descendants, but even Yuan Shikai knew that the Third Town was different from other Beiyang troops because it was equipped with more machine guns and mortars.

This is also what Yuan Shikai acquiesced in and supported, because Yuan Shikai also wanted to see what Zhao Dongyun's so-called new tactical concepts could do in the end.

In addition, the cavalry is also a troublesome matter, whether it is the Beiyang Standing Army or the cavalry establishment of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, it does not conform to Zhao Dongyun's ideas, Zhao Dongyun is more like the Jinzhou patrol battalion of the Dalian small battalion cavalry force, rather than the traditional small battalion and large regiment system in Beiyang.

He was even going to change the cavalry standard of the third town to the same as the cavalry battalion of the first mixed association, and make three large cavalry battalions, but then the number would be much overnumbered, probably from 1,200 to 1,800, if you add the cavalry battalion in the Jinzhou patrol battalion.

There are four cavalry battalions with a large establishment, and Zhao Dongyun's subordinates can also pull out a cavalry brigade.

In October and November, because of the frequent actions of the new army charter and the reunification number, Zhao Dongyun paid less attention to the Russo-Japanese War, but in December, when he looked back at the current situation between Japan and Russia, he found that the situation was different from what he expected.