The financial situation of the Soviet system has always been bad, and the problem of lack of money has run through almost all the development periods of the Soviet system, but the development of the Soviet system will not stagnate because of the poor financial situation.

Militarily, even though the military expenditure of the contemporary Soviet system has far exceeded the upper limit of the Soviet system's finances, the expansion of the army and the war have never stopped.

Beginning in October 1906, the field forces under the control of the Soviet Union expanded from three divisions and three brigades to nine infantry divisions, seven mixed infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades, eight patrol cavalry battalions, two independent heavy artillery battalions, and four heavy mortar battalions

For example, the 15th Division currently has only one brigade that is not satisfied, and there is not even a division commander, the First Division under Lu Yongxiang is also dissatisfied with the division, and there is a lack of an artillery battalion, and the 16th Division of Zhang Dianru's Division, which has just surrendered to Chengcheng, has only 10,000 people, and there is an extreme shortage of ordnance, and there is only one battalion of artillery, and its combat effectiveness is not even comparable to that of a brigade of the Third Division, the main force of the Feng Army. The Second Cavalry Brigade had only more than a thousand horses, and the other units also suffered more or less losses in the process of fighting south.

However, after December last year, after the rest and replenishment plan implemented by the General Headquarters, many of the main forces in the Feng army have been restored to full strength, and many of the main forces, including the 3rd, 9th, and 10th divisions, have been restored to full strength. In terms of ordnance replenishment, on the one hand, the captured weapons were replenished on the spot, and on the other hand, the weapons transported from the rear were replenished, so that these main forces gradually recovered the number of heavy weapons such as artillery, mortars, and machine guns.

By the end of January 1908, that is, before the Chinese New Year, the total strength of the regular field army of the Feng army (including the main force of the lineage, the surrender troops, and the patrol cavalry troops) had swelled to about 170,000, including about 12,000 cavalry troops.

The above-mentioned units had 26 100-mm cannons, about 350 75-mm guns of old and new types, 50 captured 57-mm guns, and dozens of old guns of various kinds. The heavy machine guns are mainly Makqin machine guns, and there are also some Japanese-made Hatch Chase heavy machine guns, with a total of more than 600 units. Although there are many ways to import, seize, and manufacture light machine guns, they are all unified into the Madsen light machine guns, with a total of about 1,500 units.

The number of mortars was even higher, and the four independent mortar battalions under the jurisdiction of each division and brigade had about 150 120-mm heavy mortars, another 80-mm mortars about 500, and 60-mm mortars even more, reaching 1,300.

In addition to the above-mentioned heavy weapons, as a light weapon of rifle guns naturally there are also a lot, the total number of cavalry and infantry used in the total number of rifles 150,000, of which the Fuzao 88 type rifle gun is the main, in addition to a large number of captured, Cheng brought the Han 88 type rifle, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau produced the 88 type rifle gun and the Japanese '30-year-style, 38-year infantry' gun, although the source of the Soviet Feng army is more complicated, but the regular army's rifle gun is currently only equipped with the 88-type rifle gun and the Japanese-style infantry.

The 88-type rifle gun is naturally equipped because this rifle gun is the main rifle gun of the Soviet system, and as for the large number of Japanese-style rifles, it is purely because too many have been captured.

Before the direct army was all Japanese weapons, after the defeat of the direct army, whether it was surrendered or captured, basically these weapons and equipment fell into the hands of the Feng army. The Anhui army used to be the same as the Feng army, mainly using German weapons, but last year it also purchased a large number of Japanese ordnance, so the Anhui army is also used together with the self-produced 88 type and the imported German original 88 type. As for these captured Japanese-style rifles, the Feng army naturally could not but waste them, and basically they were all used in a centralized manner by several divisions.

Therefore, in the current Feng army, it is possible to find several units equipped with Japanese-style rifles, including Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division, Bao Guiqing's 1st Mixed Brigade, the newly organized 11th Division, and the 11th Mixed Brigade.

In fact, in addition to the Type 88 rifle and the Japanese rifle, there were many miscellaneous rifles in the Feng army, including the Austro-Hungarian Manlisha rifle, the Russian Mosin Nagant rifle, and even a small number of the latest German Mauser 98 rifles. In addition, there are many old-fashioned single-mounted rifles, such as the Mauser single-mount rifle gun, the Martini rifle, etc., some of these messy, old-fashioned rifles are from the original inventory of the three eastern provinces, and more are captured after the southward battle.

However, these chaotic rifles are generally not equipped with regular troops, and out of the factor of logistical unity, the Soviet system command has already clearly ordered that the standard rifles of the regular troops are 88-type rifles, and the large number of captured Japanese-style rifles can be concentrated and used by a limited number of troops. After the other rifles were collected, they were assigned to the patrol police units in various models.

This also caused the dozens of patrol regiments in the Feng army to be equipped with a variety of equipment, very complicated, some equipped with Fuzao 88 rifles, some equipped with Japanese-style rifles, and some simply equipped with Russian Mosin Nagant rifles, but there were also equipped with Martini, Mauser and other single-mounted rifles.

In short, it is a mess, and all the guns that can be found in contemporary China can basically be traced from the dozens of patrol police regiments of the Feng Army.

Let the patrol force be equipped with a large number of these miscellaneous guns, naturally there is no way to do it, the expansion of the Feng army is too fast, although the Fu factory has long started to work overtime, but the guns produced are still far from enough to meet the needs of the Feng army, and even forced to import guns to supplement the gap, so that naturally there is not much energy to spare to the patrol force to change the uniform, can only use what is there first.

At present, there are 30 regiments and 18 independent battalions in the patrol units, which are in disarray of equipment and are not as strong as the combat effectiveness there, and the number of each regiment varies from more than 2,800 to 1,000 in the Fifth Patrol Regiment stationed in northern Jiangsu, and the number of independent battalions ranges from 1,000 to 5,000.

The total number of these patrol units (excluding the patrol cavalry battalion) is about 70,000.

The total number of troops under the control of the Soviets was about 240,000 when the regular troops and the patrol forces were combined.

Compared with last year's entry into the customs, the number of troops has more than doubled.

However, in terms of the total number of troops, the Feng army is not much, and although the Anhui army under the command of Duan Qirui has lost tens of thousands in northern Jiangsu, the current Anhui army has not decreased compared with last year, but the number has further increased, according to the speculation of the intelligence department of the headquarters, the total number of various troops controlled by the Anhui system is nearly 200,000, which is not much less than the army of the Soviet system.

In addition, the various branches of the Southern Federation are relatively scattered, but the troops of Zhao Erxun, Zhang Zhidong and others combined are at least 300,000 or 400,000, and Zhang Zhidong alone has more than 150,000 troops deployed in the three towns of Wuhan.

Therefore, simply comparing the total strength of the troops, the Feng army controlled by the Soviet system cannot occupy much advantage, but the facts cannot be compared in this way.

Of the 240,000 Soviet troops, as many as 170,000 were able to be brought to the battlefield, of which about 100,000 were the main force.

On the other hand, although the army is also 200,000, there is only one fourth division and the first mixed brigade that can confront the main force of the Soviet Feng army, and it is very difficult for the other troops to fight against the three main divisions of the Feng army, the third, ninth and tenth divisions.

The Southern Federation is similar, don't look at the total number of troops, but in fact, there are only a few that can be fought, which is nothing more than the nineteenth town controlled by Zhao Erxunzhi and Zhang Zhidong, the first town led by Zhang Biao, the commander of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, and the second town led by Li Yuanhong, the commander of the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition. As for the other two main forces of the Southern Federation, they have disappeared, the tenth town under the command of Xiliang has been completely annihilated by the Anhui army in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and the thirty-eighth town under the command of Duanfang has also been severely damaged in Guangzhou, leaving only less than 5,000 remnants to retreat to Guangxi, and have been incorporated into the seventeenth town, and now even the number has been revoked.

So don't look at the total number of troops of the Feng army is not too much, but the main force is far more than other warlords, and even the main forces of the Anhui system and the Southern Federation combined, they may not be able to beat the 100,000 main forces of the Soviet system.

After all, neither the Anhui system nor the Southern Federation are equipped with this kind of weapon on a large scale, only talking about barreled artillery and machine guns, and the Soviet Feng army has 350,000 75mm guns with 170,000 regular troops, most of which are still the most advanced barreled artillery. More than 600 heavy machine guns.

It would be good to have 200 large and small artillery pieces of the Anhui system, and there are only more than 200 heavy machine guns, and the Southern Federation is probably about the same number. As for the gap between light machine guns, the gap is even greater, because the Anhui and Southern Federations can't buy them with money, and the production capacity of the Madsen company is limited to supply the European powers, so they will be sold to the Anhui system, while Fengjun purchased and reserved a large number of light machine guns in the early stage, and relied on the production of Fuchang in the later stage, so that he could accumulate more than 1,000 light machine guns.

It was precisely the above-mentioned gaps that gave many Soviet generals confidence and actively prepared a plan for crossing the river in the south.

The Feng army was preparing to cross the river, and the Anhui army on the opposite side wanted to hold the Yangtze River, so in the first month of 1908, both sides were nervously preparing, and anyone who knew a little about the domestic situation knew that it would not be long before a large-scale war broke out between Suzhou and Anhui, which would determine the true ownership of the lord of the Beiyang, and even who would be able to unify China in the future.

For such a war, countless people were keeping a close eye on the movements of the Anhui army and the Feng army with wide eyes, and even Wu Fengling, Wang Shizhen, Zhang Zhidong, Zhao Erxun and others in Hubei and Shanxi also coincidentally stopped the large-scale war, and then turned their attention to the Yangtze River.

And in this tense atmosphere, Zhonghai in Jingshi Xiyuan also ushered in the first large-scale political banquet of the New Year!

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhao Dongyun and his wife sent out invitations, inviting military and political dignitaries and foreign ministers in Beijing to attend the Spring Festival garden party in Zhonghai, Xiyuan.