On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, from Yuan Shikai to ordinary Beiyang officers in the Beiyang system, they were all like facing a great enemy, and they were scared, and at this time, the southern governors and those important ministers of the court who spoke cool words at the back naturally did not have a good feeling, especially the resentment of several wealthy provinces in the south, and you refused to take out some money to support my Beiyang military expansion, and shouted every day that we should fight the Russians, so it is strange that there is no resentment in my heart.

Zhao Dongyun knows that this is not just as simple as standing and talking without back pain, Yuan Shikai and Cen Chunxuan are mortal enemies, the competition between the two of them almost revolves around the entire New Deal period in the late Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Zhidong, as the leader of the Nanyang faction, although he and Yuan Shikai cooperate with each other in the reform of the New Deal, but they are still-for-tat on the principled issues of the struggle between the South and the South Ocean.

China today is not a monolith.

"They say theirs, we do ours!" Zhao Dongyun didn't care about the urging of those southern governors, not to mention that those feudal officials sent him a telegram, even if Cixi personally sent him a telegram asking to send troops, he dared to directly refuse.

On key issues involving troop movements and operations, he didn't listen to anyone except Yuan Shikai's orders!

This is not just a matter of standing in line, but a matter of survival for the entire Beiyang system!

First of all, with Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang New Army, he Zhao Dongyun and his third town, once Yuan Shikai and Beiyang fall, his Zhao Dongyun's fate will definitely not be much better, so even if it is for his own interests, he must unswervingly support Yuan Shikai.

For example, on the current situation in Northeast China, the interests of Yuan Shikai and Zhao Dongyun are the same: that is, from the perspective of Beiyang's own interests, as for the interests of the country and the nation, they have to be ranked behind.

"I'm afraid the pressure on Lord Governor's side is even greater than ours right now!" Lin Yongquan said: "Since Lord Governor Xian proposed outside neutrality, there have been scolding inside and outside the government and the opposition, and now there are many people who are shouting that the alliance will send troops to Russia!" ”

In the face of this complex situation in the Northeast and the domestic situation, Zhao Dongyun also feels powerless, his current status is still too low, and there is no way to affect the domestic situation for the time being, what he can do now is to use the army in his hands as Yuan Shikai's backing, just like Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, and let Yuan Shikai fight for the interests of Beiyang on their behalf.

"The general direction is naturally in the hands of Lord Duxian, we don't have to worry, just do our part!" Zhao Dongyun still trusts Yuan Shikai, both history and reality have proved that Yuan Shikai is a veritable hero in troubled times, Zhao Dongyun believes that Yuan Shikai can handle a series of complex problems at home and abroad.

What he has to do is to train the third town well and guard the Liaoxi Corridor for Yuan Shikai, as for the future, he can only resign himself to fate!

"And Zhang Zuolin is here again, I think he is about to be unable to hold on, and now my eastward detachment to suppress bandits is almost ready, is it time to do it!" Meng Enyuan spoke at this time.

"Oh, the eastward detachment is ready?" Zhao Dongyun continued: "Now that you are ready, then don't delay any longer, let Zhang Zuolin and them lead the way, and destroy Du Lisan first, remember that this eastward attack is the same as last year's northward bandit suppression operation, the first task is to seize property, not how many bandits are killed or injured!" ”

Meng Enyuan said with confidence on his face: "Don't worry, this time I will also take a few old camp heads, they are all old brothers who have done well, and they all know how to do things!" ”

In fact, the anti-bandit operations in September and October last year were just drills in advance, but the scale and results of the drills were only somewhat larger than previously planned.

At the end of last year, Zhao Dongyun began to prepare for the 'Suppression of Bandits Eastward Detachment', this time the combat commander is still Meng Enyuan, after all, the suppression of bandits is mainly cavalry operations, and Du Lisan's territory is too close to the Liaohe River, it is impossible to bring a large number of slow-moving infantry over, in fact, even if it is a detachment to suppress bandits to the east, it will not wear military uniforms, but will change civilian clothes and pretend to be bandits, so as to avoid causing tension among the Russians.

Even in order to avoid a conflict with the Russians, Zhao Dongyun also privately took the initiative to inform the Russians that his troops would carry out anti-bandit operations in Xinmin, Tai'an, Panshan, and Liaozhong, so as to avoid the Russians from becoming too nervous.

Zhao Dongyun was scheduled to carry out a bandit suppression operation in the area east of Jinzhou, which naturally caused a high degree of tension among the Russians, but now that a war between Japan and Russia was about to break out, they were not willing to drag China into the war again, so they acquiesced in Zhao Dongyun's eastward attack to suppress bandits, but also required Zhao Dongyun not to send more than 3,000 troops, and absolutely not to get close to Fengtian and Yingkou and other places, otherwise they would be regarded as a war provocation to them.

When Zhao Dongyun first arrived in Jinzhou, the Russians protested every day, saying that China had violated the "Treaty on the Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces," because the treaty stipulated that China was not allowed to send new troops to the three eastern provinces, and that additional troops had to be notified to Russia.

However, now they basically have no opinion on Zhao Dongyun's control of the Jinzhou area, and even when Zhao Dongyun sent a large number of cavalry to Panshan, Tai'an and other places to suppress bandits, they turned a blind eye, which would have been absolutely impossible if it had been placed in 1903.

This also shows how dangerous the situation facing Russia at the beginning of 1904 was!

"Your army wants to exterminate Du Lisan, Feng Delin and other bandits, and my country maintains a welcoming attitude, but now that the situation is tense, I hope that your army can maintain restraint and avoid making some misunderstandings!" It was a bearded foreigner in a suit and holding a staff of civilization, and the beard alone was enough to tell people about his race: the Slavs.

This person's name is Andrei 61 Ivanovich 61 Stouff, the tuxedo and civilization staff on his body are in the Far East, and he also appears in Zhao Dongyun's headquarters, so he can be identified as a diplomat!

Andrei is a diplomatic official sent to Jinzhou by the Russian military authorities in Mukden, and his main task is to monitor the movements of Zhao Dongyun's third town and negotiate some foreign affairs, such as this time Zhao Dongyun wants to send troops east to suppress bandits, in order to avoid unnecessary troubles and military conflicts with the Russian army, he took the initiative to inform Andrei.

After some negotiations, Andrei said that the Russian army would allow Zhao Dongyun's anti-bandit operation, but also asked Zhao Dongyun's troops not to get close to strategic places such as Fengtian and Yingkou as much as possible, and to avoid crossing the Liao River as much as possible if necessary to avoid a conflict between the two armies.

This is already a very rare concession for Russia, which has always been arrogant, and in 1903, if Zhao Dongyun wanted to enter this area, he had to fight a battle with the Russian army first.

After talking about this matter related to the suppression of bandits, Zhao Dongyun did not send off the guests as soon as possible, but continued: "As far as I know, your country's Lushun defense has been quite tense recently! ”

Andrei listened to a series of diplomatic tones: "The empire has built the world's most powerful fortress defense system in Lushun, which is enough to withstand any enemy attack!" ”

When he said this, Andre was already wondering in his heart, what does Zhao Dongyun care about Lushun Defense?

Although the Qing court still maintains a tough attitude towards Russia and has not officially announced any terms other than neutrality, Andrei, a foreigner, knows that the only Chinese forces involved in the situation in the northeast are the Beiyang side, which means that whether China is neutral or not has nothing to do with the Qing court in the capital, nor does it have anything to do with the southern governors, and only Yuan Shikai can really make a decision.

And Yuan Shikai's attitude is already very clear, that is, to carry out armed outside the neutral, Zhao Dongyun's third town stationed in Jinzhou is the product of this policy of armed outside the neutral policy.

Considering Yuan Shikai's attitude, in fact, Russia, Japan, and other countries have already decided that it is impossible for China to enter the war.

That's why Andre was puzzled by Zhao Dongyun's inquiry: what does he care about this? Could it be that my Lushun defense force is insufficient, and your third town can still come to help! ”

However, Zhao Dongyun obviously did not have the habit of buying Guanzi, but said directly: "I recently purchased a lot of new machine guns from Germany, and I am going to use them to replace the original heavy machine guns. You also know that my third town is a small business, so the replaced batch of machine guns is ready to shoot, I don't know if your army is interested, I think it is okay to have another batch of machine guns in Lushun! ”

Andrei was even more surprised when he heard it, this Zhao Dongyun wants more machine guns to sell, and he is still selling them to the Russian army? This is already against common sense!

Not to mention where Zhao Dongyun got so many machine guns, the mere fact that he took the initiative to sell machine guns to the Russian army is worth questioning his motives.

You must know that the current public opinion in China is to unite with Japan and reject Russia, and there are a large number of people who support an alliance with Japan to fight Russia together, and even within Beiyang, if it is not for the lack of its own strength, it is estimated that there will be such a public opinion.

Even if the strength is insufficient and Japan does not join forces to reject Russia, it is impossible to help Russia in turn!

Now Zhao Dongyun's behavior is completely a traitorous behavior of the enemy in the eyes of the majority of Chinese people today, and this Zhao Dongyun does not look like a brainless person, and the reason why he made this decision must have his reasons.

It's just that for this reason, Andrei couldn't think of it for a while!

Andrei thought a lot, but the only thing he didn't expect was that Zhao Dongyun didn't want Russia to lose so quickly, he wanted Russia to support for a longer time than in history, it was impossible to directly send troops to help the Russians, and there was no need to support artillery or rifles, but machine guns were different.

Taking advantage of the fact that all countries have not reacted now, if Zhao Dongyun sends a large number of heavy machine guns to Russia, whether it is deployed in Lushun or in the Mukden Theater, it will be 100% able to bring a large number of casualties to the Japanese army, so that the Japanese army will be able to eliminate the slightest advantage of the Japanese army in the original history.

The situation in the Northeast is like this now, Zhao Dongyun has no chance to fish in troubled waters, and if the Japanese army defeats the Russian army as in history, then Zhao Dongyun has no chance.

So no matter what happens in the future, now he has to muddy the waters first.