In Baoding City, Yuan Shikai put down Zhao Dongyun's letter and said: "It seems that Dongyun has worked hard in Jinzhou, not only trained the third town, but also made a mixed association, if all the monarchs and Dongyun are as dedicated to doing things for the country, I can't say that my four towns in Beiyang have already become six towns or even eight towns!" ”

Yuan Shikai didn't seem to have any other look when he said this, but it seemed that he was appreciating Zhao Dongyun on the surface, but the other people present heard Yuan Shikai's dissatisfaction.

This dissatisfaction is not that Yuan Shikai is dissatisfied with Zhao Dongyun's formation of a Jinzhou patrol battalion, but with the slow training speed of several other Beiyang bigwigs.

Since the Beiyang Four Towns Plan was put forward last year, Beiyang's main efforts in 1903 and early 1904 were focused on the expansion of the third town and the training of the fourth town, but now half a year has passed, Zhao Dongyun's third town has already been full, not to mention, and a Jinzhou patrol battalion has also been made.

Zhao Dongyun used the facts to once again prove to Yuan Shikai that he had an incomparable ability to train the army, you must know that the Jinzhou patrol battalion did not cost him Yuan Shikai a dime, and the funds mainly came from the old army of Zhili and Fengtian's assistance in the past.

In contrast, the training speed of the other three towns in Beiyang is a little slow, for example, the first town, as the pillar of the army expansion, has not been fully staffed for many years, if it is because the first town has been transferred too many personnel from each town for a long time, it is understandable, then the slow training speed of the second town and the fourth town made Yuan Shikai a little dissatisfied, and now although the second town has a shelf, there is still a lack of some soldiers. As for the fourth town, half a year has passed, and there are still two infantry battalions and two cavalry battalions.

You must know that they also have sufficient funds, but the speed of forming an army is never as fast as Zhao Dongyun's third town, which naturally attracted Yuan Shikai's dissatisfaction.

In addition to the four towns of Beiyang, Yuan Shikai was also quite dissatisfied with the change of the three armies of the Wuwei Right Army and the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army and the Ziqiang Army, and the reorganization plan of the above three armies began at the end of last year, and at the beginning of this year, the military spending on the Beiyang side was slightly more generous, and Yuan Shikai was the reorganization of the three armies officially put on the agenda.

But the progress made Yuan Shikai a little disappointed, three or four months have passed, and he is stunned that he has not even set up a shelf, and it is not easy for Yuan Shikai to even ask for funds for the concert.

The difference between good and bad things is actually compared, if there is no example of Zhao Dongyun's formation of the third town and the example of the Jinzhou patrol battalion in front of him, then Yuan Shikai may be satisfied with the training work of several other troops, but after this comparison has a gap, Yuan Shikai began to feel that the next few months have been delayed.

Wang Shizhen and the others below naturally heard Yuan Shikai's dissatisfaction!

After Yuan Shikai secretly said these few words of dissatisfaction, he did not continue to say anything accusatory, because he himself knew that there was only one military training talent like Zhao Dongyun under his hands, and he couldn't treat everyone as Zhao Dongyun.

After all, Zhao Dongyun's ability to train the army has been reflected in the Xin Chou year, and the subsequent reorganization of the old army and the training of the new army in a series of processes are quite eye-catching, in the past few years, Zhao Dongyun has been able to train the third town and the Jinzhou patrol battalion, it can be said that it relies on the ability to reorganize the old army.

In the past few years, Yuan Shikai has asked Zhao Dongyun to reorganize a lot of old armies, including Yuanzi Battalion, Su Yi Pro-Army, Baoyang Training, Yongping Training, Jinzhou Training, all of which are still large-scale old armies with more than 1,000 people, and there are more fragments that have been reorganized one after another.

Sum up, Zhao Dongyun at least used the name of reorganization to eliminate more than 30,000 old troops, otherwise how did Zhao Dongyun's Third Town and Jinzhou Patrol Battalion get the funds? It's not that you rely on the funds of the old army!

Now in China, when it comes to the ability to cut and train new ones, Yuan Shikai can naturally boast of it, but in the Beiyang system, the ability to reorganize the old army is naturally headed by Zhao Dongyun, and if it continues to be narrowed down to the scope of the third town, in fact, it is all done by Chen Guangyuan alone......

To be more honest, it was actually Chen Guangyuan who single-handedly eliminated the old army of Zhili......

After expressing his dissatisfaction slightly, Yuan Shikai continued to speak: "Now although Dongyun has come up with a Jinzhou patrol battalion by relying on new methods of cutting and training, you have also read his letter, a mixed association of more than 5,000 people needs a lot every month, and that small place in Jinzhou naturally can't afford to raise it, how can you solve this fund?" ”

Yuan Shikai's words show that he agrees with and supports Zhao Dongyun's move to expand the army, especially this kind of thing of taking money and relying on himself to loot below to form a new army is more supportive, if every bigwig in the Beiyang system is like Zhao Dongyun to make a mixed association by himself, the Beiyang New Army under his command would have been expanded to be called Beiyang Six Towns or even Eight Towns and Ten Towns.

In fact, from Yuan Shikai's point of view, Zhao Dongyun's training of the Jinzhou patrol battalion has always been his concern and support, and it was he who sent part of the old army of Zhili to Jinzhou last autumn, and then discussed with Zengqi to come up with a Jinzhou patrol battalion number, and appointed Zhao Dongyun as the general office.

Therefore, perhaps in Zhao Dongyun's view, the Jinzhou patrol battalion is his own private army, but in fact, in Yuan Shikai's view, this Jinzhou patrol battalion is no different from the third and fourth towns, and they are all his troops under Yuan.

Therefore, he later supported the allocation of more than ten artillery pieces replaced by the third town to the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and only after these more than ten artillery pieces did he lay the foundation for the expansion into a mixed association.

After listening to Yuan Shikai's words, Duan Qirui spoke first: "This Jinzhou patrol battalion is responsible for the defense of western Liaoning, so naturally it has to be paid by Fengtian, and we can't let our direct subordinates come to pay for it!" ”

Duan Qirui's words actually mean one thing: I don't care what you Zhao Dongyun likes to do outside, but it is absolutely impossible to make money from Baoding.

The money in the Beiyang system is not anyone's alone, but to support the Beiyang army, if Zhao Dongyun takes more, it means that the other towns will be less.

At this time, Wang Shizhen also spoke: "Our side is also short of funds now, and now we haven't even found the ordnance money needed for the reorganization of the three armed forces!" ”

Although the reorganization of Beiyang's Wuwei Right Army, Wuwei Right Army Vanguard, and Ziqiang Army has not yet been completed, Beiyang is already scheduled to be reorganized into the fifth and sixth towns, and Yuan Shikai has already told Wang Shizhen that the sixth town of these two towns has been prepared for him.

So although he has not yet become the future commander, Wang Shizhen still has to fight for the interests of the future Sixth Town, not to mention anything else, at least you have to leave me the ordnance money for the purchase of artillery and guns!

Wang Yingkai also shouted on the side: "The artillery in my first town has long been outdated, and if you have money, you should replace it with a new type of tube!" ”

This is purely a gag, even if the performance of the artillery in his first town is old, it is not that it can be replaced, at least there is no hope for the next two or three years, but if he doesn't say something at this kind of meeting to discuss military spending, people will still think that he Wang Yingkai agreed to give Zhao Dongyun money!

Yuan Shikai listened to the words of his subordinates, he naturally expected this reaction, and in fact, he didn't plan to give Zhao Dongyun much money again.

At this time, Duan Qirui spoke again: "Now there is still a shortage of 50,000 taels per month on the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and there is no need to purchase new guns and artillery, I see, let Fengtian add another 20,000 or 30,000 per month, and then ask the imperial court to pull out another 10,000 or 20,000. ”

He said it simply, let Fengtian Province give more money? Let's not talk about whether Fengtian has money or not, even if there is money, Zengqi will not give it anymore, you must know that now Fengtian Province needs to pay about 40,000 taels of silver every month for the third town and the Jinzhou patrol battalion.

And Zeng Qi has been thinking about organizing the Fengtian patrol battalion into the Fengtian standing army in the past six months, and now if Beiyang wants to leave him behind to get the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and also want him to pay, people will definitely not want to!

As for the household department of the imperial court? They're rich!

Although the central power in the late Qing Dynasty had a very weak ability to control the localities, and the binding force on local officials was far less powerful than in the late Ming Dynasty, there was one thing that was good, that is, the imperial court was too short of money, especially after the reform of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the income was more and more year by year, and the indemnity of hundreds of millions of taels of silver was given by gritting his teeth.

So don't think that this last dynasty had a very hard time, in fact, in the last years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, many political, military, educational, economic and other reforms were quite successful, and the household department of the imperial court could also come up with tens of millions of military expenses every year, not only to support the new army of Beiyang but also to invest heavily in rebuilding the navy.

The main reason why it will be finished is that its reform was so successful that it was finally killed by the three words 'people', freedom, and nation', so the Manchu Dynasty is the most bizarre and funny dynasty, and it is estimated that it did not know why when it died......

But the household department will not give it casually if they have money, and it is also because the central government's control over the local government is too weak, so it is absolutely impossible for the imperial court to allocate funds to the local army for military training every day, and their money is generally spent on the central imperial court army represented by the Beiyang New Army, etc., and it is absolutely impossible to give money to other provinces below to train the new army.

Whether it is Fengtian or Hubei, don't want to get a dime of military expenses from the imperial court, if you want to train a new army, you can only scavenge it in each province by itself!

As for the Zhili and the Beiyang New Army, although later generations regarded them as private local armies, in fact, in this era, the Beiyang New Army played the role of the central army of the imperial court and the national defense army, which was essentially different from the new armies of other provinces.

Therefore, the imperial court will give Yuan Shikai money to train the Beiyang New Army, but it does not mean that the imperial court will give money to Fengtian to train the Jinzhou patrol battalion!

The imperial court has money and does not give it, Zhili has no money to give, and Fengtian refuses to give it and has no money to give!

In the end, Zhao Dongyun looked at the approval of the imperial court: "The patrol battalion of Cha Jinzhou has trained the new army to form a mixed association, and the sacred heart is very relieved, and I hope that the member will continue to work hard and raise his own needs." ”

I almost want to scold my mother, Lao Tzu has already practiced a mixed association without taking money, and you don't even want to give the follow-up maintenance fee? Damn, you let me get nearly 100,000 dollars a month?