The Third Mixed Association is going to be expanded into the third town, although there is money from Beiyang and the imperial court, and there is no need to worry about the funds required for this expansion, but it does not mean that the expansion will be expanded, and it is also facing many problems.

First of all, the source of troops, the third mixed association to expand into the third town, at least three new infantry battalions, two artillery battalions, a baggage battalion, and an engineering battalion need to be built, which is not a mortar unit for the time being, because the mortars in the third town are considered to be Zhao Dongyun's own supernumerary troops, not in the regular establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army.

The above newly formed battalions need at least 4,000 recruits, and such a huge shortage is also a headache for Zhao Dongyun.

The second is ordnance, although Beiyang and the imperial court household department will give the third town expansion funds, but having money does not mean that there are ordnance, Beiyang is still a whole, so the procurement of ordnance is Yuan Shikai's unified planning, and each unit is specifically responsible, for example, artillery is Yuan Shikai personally purchased and then distributed to the towns, and a large number of rifle purchases are also personally responsible for Yuan Shikai, and then distributed.

However, Yuan Shikai will only be personally responsible for the subsequent consumption and replenishment of small arms, the shells and bullets used in the consumption, as well as the procurement of military uniforms, military quilts, food and other daily necessities, etc., are generally the responsibility of the towns themselves.

At present, Beiyang's artillery and machine guns are mainly imported from Germany, and the artillery used in the newly formed Second Town this year is the new tube-annealed artillery of the German Krupp. Now the artillery and machine guns that are lacking in the third and fourth towns will also be imported from Germany, and this batch of orders will be at least hundreds of artillery, tens of thousands of shells and dozens of machine guns, and the total price is millions of silver.

If this third town wants to get artillery, it will have to wait more than three months, to say the least.

In terms of rifles, Yuan Shikai is not very personally in charge, because in the autumn, Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong joined forces to promote the 88-type rifle has been designated as the national standard rifle, and the Fuyuan machine qì factory is the only rifle supplier in Beiyang, so the towns can directly go to the Fuyuan machine qì factory to buy guns if they are short of guns.

However, there is a problem here, the Fuyuan machine qì factory has just been established for more than a year, and the current production of Fuzao 88 rifles is far from reaching the design level, and the output in October is only about 30 per day, and it is expected that it will be able to reach the design level of 50 per day in March and April next year, even if the Fuyuan machine qì factory has adopted overtime production in order to cope with almost the entire North China rifle order, but the daily output after overtime is still only 50 pieces.

In this way, the monthly output is only about 1,500 pieces, but the Fuyuan Machinery Qì Factory is to supply almost the entire North China rifles, and since its establishment more than a year ago, it has not only received a large number of orders from the Beiyang Standing Army, but also received orders for rifles from many old armies in the northern provinces.

As the only three manufacturers in China that can mass-produce Type 88 rifles, plus the reliable performance of the Type 88 rifle, the price of 32 is slightly cheaper than that of the Hubei Gun Factory and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, so the provinces are flocking in, and the orders are almost piled up on the desk.

More than 10,000 rifles in the third and fourth towns, plus thousands of rifles from the old army in the provinces, are enough for the Fuyuan machine factory to produce until next summer.

Even if Zhao Dongyun is the big boss of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, it is not good to move all his orders to the front, after all, the meaning of the ordnance order is too strong, and Yuan Shikai will not allow the newly established Fourth Town to receive the rifle after three or four months.

In this way, it means that in the next three months, it will be difficult for the expansion of the third town to get a large amount of ordnance support, and it can only rely on the old family to train, but fortunately, the third town has a stock of thousands of old guns, which can barely be used for old gun trainers first, and then change the outfit when the Fuzao 88 rifle is produced in the Fuyuan machine Qì factory.

Personnel and ordnance, these two are the big problems faced by the third town to expand, but no one can not expand without grabbing!

"Yongquan, you have to do this recruitment in person, and I don't worry about others!" Zhao Dongyun did not hide his trust in Lin Yongquan at all, although Zhao Dongyun already felt that his ability might be lacking, but as the number one descendant under Zhao Dongyun, he was still the most trusted person by Zhao Dongyun.

This recruitment is far more important than the purchase of ordnance, and Zhao Dongyun is not at ease when others recruit soldiers.

"Yongquan knows, I will set off for the south after arranging things in the past two days, and the source of troops in Zhili is estimated to be small, so I will go directly to Shandong and raise enough new soldiers to do my best!" Lin Yongquan said without hesitation, and there was excitement on his face.

This time he failed to become the commander of the Sixth Association, although Lin Yongquan was dissatisfied in his heart, but he was robbed by Wang Zhanyuan, but since he couldn't lead the soldiers, then he had to grasp the recruitment and training of recruits in the Education Department, as long as he grasped these rights, then he, the town staff officer and the general office of the Education Department, still held real power, and after accumulating a year or two of qualifications, Zhao Dongyun pushed himself back, and he may not be able to compete for the position of the leader of the Association.

Zhao Dongyun said: "Although the focus of this recruitment is in Shandong, the two prefectures of Hejian and Zhengding in Zhili will also go to see the military families, do a good job in military-civilian communication, and strive to let more children of Hejian and Zhengding join the army." When recruiting soldiers, it is appropriate to recruit some literati, and now the town headquarters and the headquarters of the two associations are still short of dozens of copywriting books! ”

When the Beiyang New Army recruits soldiers, it will generally recruit a large number of people who are familiar with literature and ink, and these recruits are generally stored as deputy officers during the training period, and at the same time, there is no main purpose during the recruit period, and after the recruit training, those deputy heads will be converted to the main head if they are qualified, and the position of the deputy head will be promoted and appointed from the regular soldiers, that is to say, under normal circumstances, the main eyes in the Beiyang New Army are literate.

But the literati in Zhao Dongyun's mouth does not refer to them, the literati in Zhao Dongyun's mouth refers to people who can be competent for a large number of copywriting work, such as children who have not been admitted to Xiucai or simply Xiucai, these people will serve as copywriters for various headquarters, and they will not join the military, but work in the army as a mercenary.

This can be seen from their salary hall, those soldiers give a salary, while theirs is a salary, the difference between the two is still relatively large, placed in the old army, in fact, is the personal staff of the commander of the army.

The work of these staff members is still quite attractive to some literati, and if they mix well, they can be directly awarded officials, and Zhao Dongping is a typical example.

Lin Yongquan went south to recruit troops, and Zhao Dongyun also sent Zhao Dongping to Tangshan, not to fight for the rifles of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, but to buy other ordnance, such as mortars, in addition to some consumable ammunition, in September and October, although Zhao Dongyun's men did not suffer many casualties, but the consumption of ammunition was relatively large, and the inventory had to be replenished in time, so as to avoid running out of bullets and shells in the war.

After the first few days, that Wang Zhanyuan also came to Jinzhou!

"Brother Wang, can this journey be smooth?" After Zhao Dongyun invited Wang Zhanyuan in, he gestured slightly to signal him to sit down.

Wang Zhanyuan said: "If you are worried about the labor system, the staff department will take the train all the way east, which is fast and convenient!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "That train is indeed a good thing, and it is much more convenient to travel with this thing!" ”

After the two exchanged a few polite words, Zhao Dongyun took the initiative to speak: "Now that I am the third town, and your sixth association is the top priority of this expansion, I will ask Brother Wang in the future!" ”

"The ruler is serious, it is my duty to practice this sixth association, and I must be diligent and diligent to practice this sixth association as soon as possible!" Wang Zhanyuan also immediately expressed his position.

Zhao Dongyun nodded with a smile on his face: "Well, this Sixth Association only has one eleventh standard now, two of which are adapted from a supplementary standard that I trained a few months ago, and there is also a foot battalion in Tangshan." This eleventh standard barely has a shelf, but the twelfth standard is a little troublesome, I'm afraid I have to start over, I have asked Yongquan and a few of them to go south to recruit troops, it is estimated that the first batch of recruits will be able to arrive in half a month, and after the initial training of the recruit camp, I will transfer you here! ”

Wang Zhanyuan was slightly stunned when he heard this, and said a little puzzled: "New barracks? ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't think so: "You didn't know very well when you first came, this recruit camp is under the Education Department, and it is specially responsible for the initial training of recruits, and when they finish training, they will be sent directly to your Sixth Association." ”

Wang Zhanyuan also heard a little before he came, the third town is far away in Jinzhou, and many things are not good to ask Baoding side one by one, so Yuan Shikai approved the third mixed association at that time, that is, the third town now to establish many auxiliary institutions, in the other three towns of the four towns in Beiyang, there are no institutions such as the education department, the ordnance department, the quartermaster department, and the law enforcement department, but Yuan Shikai also saw that it was difficult to completely manage the affairs of the four towns with the military department of the Beiyang Standing Army. Therefore, the example of the third town has begun to be followed and a large number of subordinate organs have been assigned to each town, so that the town headquarters has a complete set of battalions, command and combat and other institutions.

However, Wang Zhanyuan had only heard about it slightly, and he had not come to the third town in person, and others would not tell him about the recruits, training and other affairs of the third town.

Zhao Dongyun continued: "In addition, my third town has adopted new infantry tactics, and the training of the troops will also be in accordance with the new infantry tactics at that time, and the relevant training and drill manuals will be explained to you by the supervision and drill office at that time!" ”

Wang Zhanyuan is not surprised by this, it is not a secret that Zhao Dongyun is engaged in new infantry tactics, and even sent several reports to Yuan Shikai requesting the formal application of new infantry tactics, but Yuan Shikai still feels that it is good to be safe. However, he also knew that Zhao Dongyun continued to use new infantry tactics in his third town.

He nodded immediately: "Before the department came, I also studied the new infantry tactics written by the commander, and I dare not say that I have gained a lot, but I also know a little bit about it, and the future training should be based on the new book and tactics!" ”

"Well, that's good!" Zhao Dongyun continued: "I won't take your time when you first come, you go and settle down first, go and meet your colleagues, and come over for a banquet in the evening!" ”

Wang Zhanyuan immediately got up and said yes and then retreated!

The whole meeting process can be called friendly and harmonious, but the more this is the case, the more dissatisfied Zhao Dongyun is, if Wang Zhanyuan shows any obvious expression, he can grasp something to attack, but this Wang Zhanyuan is not leaky, and he looks like he is doing business, which makes Zhao Dongyun a little difficult to start.

"That's it, the coming day is long, there is always a chance to clean him up!" Zhao Dongyun shook his head and said to himself: "There is still a dinner party this night, let's deal with it first!" ”

Taking advantage of the geographical advantage, the Li family said that they would invite Zhao Dongyun, Chen Guangyuan, Wang Zhanyuan and a group of third town chiefs to congratulate Zhao Dongyun and others on their promotion, and many civil officials from Jinzhou would also come over at that time.

For Zhao Dongyun, it can be regarded as his first public appearance after taking charge of the third town.