The 29th year of Guangxu did not get too many radical changes compared to the previous years, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty still seemed to be very stable on the surface, but for those with a forward-looking vision, they already knew that this dynasty, which had existed for more than 200 years, was already full of cracks, and it would be broken at the slightest wind and clouds, and it would become a historical term.

However, in this country full of decay, depravity, and ignorance, a small group of people are struggling, trying to break the shackles on their bodies, tear the curtain of the sky, and let the sun of civilization shine on this country.

As Hitler said, 'It is always only a few who dare to sacrifice for the country and the nation', and these few act as the eyes and mouths and hands of the people, seeing what ordinary people cannot see, saying what people dare not say, and doing things that others do not do.

"Those Russians are really too deceitful, seeing that the second phase of the withdrawal period is about to expire, but they still have no movement to withdraw their troops, but instead put forward many unreasonable conditions to us, according to my opinion, they clearly see that we are easy to bully, and they want to do things like Yellow Russia!"

In Baoding Chongyulou, a large group of Beiyang officers sat together, and when they poured down a glass of wine, all kinds of words were spoken, including various comments on the current situation, and the most talked about was naturally the things in the northeast.

Cao Kun put down his glass and continued: "In this situation, if we still do nothing, what is the use of the millions of military funds that the country spends on us every year! ”

As soon as Cao Kun's words fell, someone said: "That is, even if we don't send troops to directly march east of the Liao River, it is still necessary to send troops to the west of the Liao River and Fengtian in case of contingencies!" ”

This is Li Chun, who is also an old man who trains troops at a new station, and previously served as a promotion in the Coaching Office of the Beiyang Military and Political Division, when Zhao Dongyun was a deputy in the Coaching Office, he had a slight relationship with him, but the contact was not deep, this person was transferred to the pipe belt of the first cavalry battalion of the Standing Army of Beijing Banner at the beginning of the year, and barely stepped into the threshold of the second echelon of the Beiyang system, so as to be eligible to participate in today's gathering.

After this person finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Dongyun again: "Brother Ziyang, do you say that this is the reason!" ”

Zhao Dongyun did not answer for the first time, but looked at the officers present, and the eyes were all young middle-level officers, mainly in charge and command, and they were worthy of the name of the young Zhuang faction in the Beiyang system.

But as one of the organizers of this gathering, the number one person in the second echelon of the Beiyang system, and the leader of the Shaozhuang faction in the Beiyang New Army, Zhao Dongyun naturally would not say those embarrassing words.

He did these gatherings to build contacts and accumulate fame, not to embarrass people, so he would never say: You don't have to worry about the Russians, the people themselves are now expanding their armaments, we can just sit and watch the drama next year! This kind of thing comes from.

He immediately said: "The Russians will not die in the heart of occupying the three eastern provinces, and we also have to defend it, if we can send troops to the northeast, it is naturally the best, but now my Beiyang New Army is only tens of thousands, and I have to control and defend the Gyeonggi Heavy Land, which is to squeeze out enough troops to go to the northeast, I am afraid it will be difficult!" ”

At this time, Wang Zhanyuan also said: "Speaking of this, I am angry, my Beiyang construction of the new army has been fruitful for several years, and it is the time to allocate more military funds to expand more new army, but the princes in the court have hindered my Beiyang army expansion, and they are reluctant to allocate funds, otherwise we can at least hold three or five standing armies today!" ”

No matter what faction Wang Zhanyuan, Cao Kun, and Zhao Dongyun belong to in Beiyang, but factional battles are factional battles, but they are still a whole, and most of them have personal contacts on weekdays, at least Zhao Dongyun has a good relationship with Cao Kun, and Cao Dasha's cheerful personality is very appetizing to him, and he often mixes a bunch of people to eat and drink together.

And today's kind of gathering, because it is positioned in the Shaozhuang faction, middle-level officers, and Zhao Dongyun's status as the initiator is relatively high, plus Xu Bangjie, Wang Zhanyuan, and Cao Kun are there, so there are more people who can be invited, and because most of the discussions at the gathering are the current situation in the country, military and political affairs, it will not involve some small details within Beiyang, so everyone will not be too restrained when they speak, and they basically want to say it.

To put it bluntly, this kind of gathering is like an angry youth in a forum in later generations discussing the destruction of the United States and the massacre of Japan, but now these young Zhuang officers do not know much about the United States, and they actually do not hate Japan as much as later generations imagine, in fact, the Chinese of this era still have a lot of good feelings towards Japan, which is known from the fact that countless people went to Japan to study in Japan and supported Japan during the Russo-Japanese War.

In the past few years, the most hated thing by these young Zhuang officers is Russia!

In these past gatherings, one of the most common questions discussed by Zhao Dongyun and Wang Zhanyuan was: once a war with Russia starts, how to recover the three eastern provinces!

This time is no exception!

"As we said a few times ago, if there are ten towns of troops, it will naturally be effortless to recover the three eastern provinces, but my Beiyang is now only 30,000 elite soldiers, and it will take ten years to build ten towns of elite soldiers. However, in the past few years, it is not a problem to build the strength of the five towns.

If we have the strength of the five towns, the five towns will attack Lushun at the same time, the two towns will attack Lushun on the Liaodong Peninsula, and the remaining three towns will go north to cut off the connection between Fengtian and Lushun, and after the two towns go south to conquer Lushun, the five towns will gather troops and go straight to Fengtian, and the first battle will be determined to destroy 100,000 Russian soldiers, and then the northeast will be decided! ”

This is what Yang Shande said, the five towns regained the Northeast, which basically has the same strong atmosphere of self-deception as using J-8 to fight F22, as if it will become a reality if you say too much.

"Five towns are a little less, if there can be one more town, the grasp should be more than ninety!" Cao Kun is also full of nonsense.

"Hmph, there are too many troops in the six towns, and now even though the combat power of my Beiyang Standing Army is not as strong as that of Germany and France, it is also a first-class strong army in the Far East, and the three towns are enough to sweep the three eastern provinces!" Wang Ruxian also joined the ranks of talking big and not asking for money

I drank too much wine, and I didn't go through my brain when I spoke, and finally Wang Zhanyuan even said, "If I take a town of troops eastward, he promises to take down Vladivostok."

After saying this, Wang Zhanyuan was unsteady, and then fell down, and then looked closely and found that he had fallen asleep, looking at other people, one by one, they were also staggering, and they were shouting that they would wave millions of troops to level Moscow, row wooden boats to land on the islands, and slaughter the European continent, but no one said that when they snatched all the European oceanhorses, well, in the aesthetics of today's Chinese people, those foreign women really make them unable to raise sex, so they will kill all the women and men together.

In short, their slogan is: as long as the land does not want people!

Zhao Dongyun also drank a little too much, looking at the angry young people of this era, he wanted to laugh a little, in fact, they are also quite cute!

After supporting each other, or simply climbing out of Chongyulou, the soldiers of each family who were waiting on the side hurriedly picked up their own adults, and then helped them to get into the carriage or helped them to leave, and some of the soldiers trotted behind, some rode high-headed horses to accompany them, and some also sat in the accompanying carriage.

At this moment, the past was full of cultural atmosphere, and the quiet and noble Chongyulou was as lively as the door of the brothel, with the sound of horses' hooves and the bells of the Oriental car gradually subsided, Zhao Dongyun was also walking out, he drank a little too much, standing at the door and letting the wind blow the wine was half awakened.

Li San, a pro-soldier on the side, helped Zhao Dongyun onto his four-wheeled carriage, and then he himself rode on the horse with several other pro-soldiers, the sound of horses' hooves and the sound of Oriental wheels crushing stone slabs were intertwined, constantly echoing on the long bluestone street.

Zhao Dongyun sat on the Toyo car, his eyes fell on the streets on both sides as before, but two years have passed, and there doesn't seem to be much change, even the driver is still the same as before.

The coachman's name is Yuan Jiu, the person who originally pulled the Oriental car for Zhao Dongyun, Yuan Jiu is only forty-three years old this year, but his hair has turned white, and the whole person is strong and dark, and he is a very typical peasant man. A few years ago, he has been pulling a Dongyang car, and has become a semi-fixed coachman of the Zhao family, and he will come over to wait when the Zhao family needs to use the car.

In the past, he was the only one in this family, and in the past, he traveled fast to ride a horse, and he spent more time doing Yuan Jiu's Oriental car. But after Zhao Dongyun got married last year, this way was not good, because he was also a high-level in Beiyang, and he was the commander of the new army, which made his wife take a Toyo car to show up and travel It was a bit cheap, and he didn't like two-wheeled carriages or sedan chairs and other means of transportation, so he simply bought a four-wheeled carriage and raised a few horses that pulled the cart.

Then invited Yuan Jiu to be a private coachman, and Yuan Jiu heard that Steward Xu said that he would hire him as a private coachman, and when the moon was four taels, this man almost cried.

For a peasant man who wants to gain a foothold in the city and doesn't know a word, it is not easy to have a fixed job with a low salary, and more importantly, he didn't know how to drive this Western-style four-wheeled carriage at that time.

Maybe for others, this is Zhao Dongyun's great kindness to Yuan Jiu, but for Zhao Dongyun, there is no such feeling, the reason why he uses Yuan Jiu is only because the driver is the same as the driver in later generations, if he can use acquaintances, he can use acquaintances, otherwise there will be a lot of trouble!

The four-wheeled carriage of the double horse is very fast, and in the sound of horses' hooves, everyone soon returned to the Zhao Mansion, originally this manor did not have any signboard at the door, only one representative of the main family name 'Zhao' word, and later as Zhao Dongyun gradually rose to the official, the gate of the post fence outside the manor hung a sign of the Zhao Mansion, but it always looked weird, so Zhao Dongyun personally changed a signboard, called 'Zhao Mansion'.

It's very modern, and when you hear it, you know that there's a warlord living in it.