Linyu County, to which Yongping Mansion belongs, is Shanhaiwei during the Ming Dynasty, and of course it has a more resounding name: Shanhaiguan.

The strategic position of Shanhaiguan has been highlighted as early as the Ming Dynasty, and this place has been a strategic location until modern times and even in the following decades. In ancient times, it became a strategic location because it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, but now, in addition to being easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is also a transportation artery in and out of the customs inside and outside.

If nothing else, the mere fact that this is the gateway to and from the Kannai and Nai railways is enough to make him one of the strategic locations.

If Jinzhou is a strategic place to hold the eastern end of the Western Liaoning Corridor, then Shanhaiguan is an important checkpoint to the western end of the Western Liaoning Corridor.

As early as 1903, Zhao Dongyun's Third Association was dispatched to Jinzhou, and now Zhao Dongyun's third town is still stationed in Jinzhou, plus the fortification system that has been built for many years, but it is very well prepared.

On the eve of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai sent the second town to live in Shanhaiguan, and later successively sent some cavalry units to change the guard, such as the first cavalry standard of Beiyang under Wang Yingkai, the fourth cavalry standard under Duan Qirui, and the fifth town and the sixth town have successively sent a standard or a cooperative force to Shanhaiguan for rotation stationing.

However, they all stayed for a short time, Wang Yingkai's first cavalry was stationed for a longer time, but it was only a year, and the others were basically less than a year, and after 1906, as the Russo-Japanese War subsided, it stands to reason that Shanhaiguan did not need to continue to garrison heavy troops, and a second town was enough, but Yuan Shikai sent another Duan Qirui's fourth town over, if you add several battalions stationed in the Tangshan area of Luanzhou to protect the Fuyuan Machinery Qì Factory, Then the area around Yongping Mansion is a place worthy of the gathering of heavy soldiers.

Zhao Dongyun arrived at Shanhaiguan in the afternoon, but he didn't have much mood to see the majestic city wall of Shanhaiguan, and he didn't have much leisure to pay attention to how the troops of the second town near Shanhaiguan were trained. Except in public, he didn't speak much, and he always maintained a kind of calm.

And this kind of calm is extremely abnormal, as if Li San saw that when Zhao Dongyun was fighting for the command of the third town and last year for the general of Shengjing, Zhao Dongyun at that time also maintained an unusual calm in private, and seemed to be thinking about military affairs all day long.

However, these states of Zhao Dongyun can only be seen by Li San, and Zhao Dongyun seen by other outsiders is always full of confidence and majesty!

"Brother Wu, don't say anything else, I still admire your ability to train soldiers, and those young men from your second town all the way seem to be in good spirits!" Zhao Dongyun said to Wu Fengling with a smile on his face.

Wu Fengling, who was next to him, listened to Zhao Dongyun praise him for his good training, although he knew in his heart that what Zhao Dongyun said in front of him was just kind words, but he was also very useful, and he muttered to himself in his heart, he came back from Liude, this Zhao Dongyun is obviously much better than his predecessor Duan Qirui.

"Speaking of military training, we are in the vast Beiyang, but there are few people who can compare to you, Brother Ziyang!" Wu Fengling said: "Look at your Fengtian, it's only been more than a year, and two towns have come out at once, I went to Baoding the month before last, and I heard someone say that when it comes to contemporary military training, only Zhao Suqian, my old Wu may be reasonable in front of others, but I don't dare to say that you are training in front of Brother Ziyang." ”

The so-called Zhao Suqian, naturally Zhao Dongyun, Zhao Dongyun is a native of Suqian County, Xuzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu, and according to some contemporary customs, when someone ascends to a high position to become a governor or a central minister, outsiders generally do not call their names directly, but will be called by their surname and place of origin, or by their 'number'. For example, many people in contemporary and later generations call Yuan Shikai 'Yuan Xiang City', which is Yuan Shikai's hometown. Hefei in Duan Hefei is Duan Qirui's hometown, and Nanpi in Zhang Nanpi is Zhang Zhidong's hometown.

Now that Zhao Dongyun is one of the ministers of the feudal territory, his subordinates naturally still call him an adult or a general, but people from the outside world rarely call Zhao Dongyun by name and surname, and they are mostly called 'General Zhao', and occasionally they will be replaced by 'Zhao Suqian', and some shameless people even shout 'Suqian Gong'.

Wu Fengling and Zhao Dongyun then praised each other, you said that I was good at training, I said that you were well commanded, in short, they had a harmonious conversation and a friendly atmosphere.

After a few small conversations between the two, a guard trotted in, and then whispered to the two adults: "Lord Duan and Lord Wang have arrived!" ”

Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling glanced at each other, and then stopped talking one after another, and soon Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai appeared outside the gate.

Although Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling are all in charge of one town, there is still a difference in prestige and seniority, and Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling, as juniors in the power field, all stood up one after another to greet each other.

Wang Yingkai hasn't even come in yet, so he said loudly: "Brother Ziyang, you are not authentic, and you don't wait for my brother, otherwise we can come in together!" ”

Duan Qirui, who was on the side, also said after coming in: "Is it smooth along the way?" ”

Zhao Dongyun is not good at this time in front of Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai What kind of score of General Shengjing, well, although the three towns under his command do have more troops than everyone else present, but qualifications and prestige These things can't just count how many people you have under your hands.

Zhao Dongyun naturally smiled and greeted Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai!

For a while, the four people present were all smiling when they talked, and they couldn't see that these people present were actually competitors within Beiyang.

It was a long nonsense, and it wasn't until a quarter of an hour later that everyone sat down around a square table.

You must know that this square table was prepared by Wu Fengling, as the host, why? In order to avoid the embarrassment of choosing a seat at this time.

In the Chinese tradition, the seating is quite elegant, if it is a traditional position, who will be the first? Who's seated? Wu Fengling and Zhao Dongyun have nothing to say, they must be sitting below, but what about Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, if no one wants to let it happen, it will not be easy to do it, so Wu Fengling simply made a square table, and no one on one side is better than the other!

In fact, only Wu Fengling would have such concerns, if it was replaced by Duan Qirui's local master, Duan Qirui would definitely be the first to take the lead.

However, Wu Fengling obviously does not have the confidence of Duan Qirui.

Wu Fengling's background in the Beiyang system can only be said to be very ordinary, and his person is Yuan Shikai's son, what is a child? That is the son born to Yuan Shikai's slave! In the early years, he was Yuan Shikai's servant, companion and the like, and when Yuan Shikai joined the army, he also ran to be a follower.

Later, Yuan Shikai was sent to Tianjin Wubei Academy for further study, which only then did he get a formal background and served as an officer of the horse team in the new army, and later he was similar to other Yuan Shikai's lineage, and he got up step by step, and was one of the main cavalry generals under Yuan Shikai, and later Wu Changchun, the commander of the second town, was transferred to preside over the training of the fifth town, and Wu Fengling was raised by Yuan Shikai as the commander of the second town, and became the official step into the Beiyang bigwig class after Zhao Dongyun.

However, the background of a domestic slave, a small servant, and a pro-soldier has always been a stain on his life, and he is despised by many officers, especially those young officers who joined the army from traditional literati and studied step by step to enter the military academy, most of them look down on these older generation soldiers, not to mention Wu Fengling, an old soldier born as a domestic slave.

In the past few years, in addition to Wu Fengling who has climbed up to become the commander of a town, there is another person who has also risen up and become the commander, he is Zhang Huaizhi.

After Wu Changchun, the commander of the second town earlier, was transferred to the fifth town as the commander, he died of illness in office this year, if Liu Yongqing is added, 1906 is a tragic year for the Beiyang system, and the death of the two bigwigs is quite a blow to the Beiyang system.

As soon as Wu Changchun died, the fifth town system fell into the hands of Zhang Huaizhi, who is Zhang Huaizhi?

He was the original leader of the First Town and the First Association, the number one general under Wang Yingkai, and his position in Wang Yingkai's faction was similar to Zhao Dongyun's status in Duan Qirui's faction in 1903. Back then, he was one of the best figures in the second echelon together with Zhao Dongyun, but in 1903, Zhao Dongyun began to break away from Duan Qirui's faction, and later after serving as the commander of the third town, he could be regarded as a complete parting from Duan Qirui and became his own faction.

But Zhang Huaizhi has always followed Wang Yingkai, this time Zhang Huaizhi relied on Wang Yingkai's strong support and his old qualifications, and finally came out of the position of co-commander and became the commander of the fifth town.

After everyone sat down, Wang Yingkai was the most powerful in the Beiyang faction, and he wanted to be the first to speak, but before his mouth opened, Duan Qirui on the side unceremoniously snatched his words: "Now everyone is gossiping, and Brother Shaochen and Brother Ziyang are all coming in secret, and it is estimated that it will not be delayed for too long, so let's get down to business now!" ”

As soon as Duan Qirui opened his mouth like this, Wang Yingkai's opening remarks that he had prepared for a long time were swallowed back, how uncomfortable it felt was, if it wasn't for the fact that today's occasion was too important, Wang Yingkai would probably have to go crazy on the spot!