In fact, the biggest problem in the expansion of the Jinzhou patrol battalion has already been solved ahead of schedule, and the most difficult thing in organizing and training the new army is the cavalry and artillery units, and relatively speaking, the infantry is actually the easiest.

In terms of cost alone, it costs at least 300,000 taels of silver to train the artillery and spare shells needed to train an artillery battalion, while an infantry battalion only uses rifles, six or seven hundred guns, and a piece of 30 taels of silver is only more than 20,000 taels of silver.

Including the Beiyang Standing Army, the formation and training of the new army generally first organized and trained the infantry, and then slowly supplemented the artillery and cavalry, which is why many new armies in the southern provinces of the late Qing Dynasty only had full infantry in the new army, but the artillery and cavalry were strictly insufficient.

But the Jinzhou patrol battalion is the opposite, this unit does not lack cavalry and artillery, what is lacking is infantry.

In May, in order to facilitate trade with the Russians, Zhao Dongyun had already combined the two cavalry teams into a cavalry battalion, with Lu Shuanggun as the battalion and Shi Yang as the leader, of course, they also served as the officers of the original cavalry team, in addition, Zhao Dongyun also transferred some people from these two cavalry teams, and then transferred dozens of people from the third standard of the cavalry team. A third cavalry corps was formed, which was counted as a cavalry battalion with three corps.

Although this cavalry battalion is full of gangsterism, but after more than half a year of training, it can barely be regarded as a new type of cavalry, and Lu Shuangshu has great prestige among his subordinates, so it may not be as good as the cavalry troops of the third town in terms of tactical application, but the actual combat effectiveness is not too weak, at least there is no problem with pulling out Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin's cavalry.

As for the artillery, there is no problem, the artillery used by the artillery battalion of the Jinzhou patrol battalion is the same Japanese artillery used by the original Third Mixed Association, and when it was transferred to the Jinzhou patrol battalion, some gunners were also transferred to the past, and in a certain way, this artillery battalion is actually the highest unit of the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and the combat effectiveness of the artillery and officers is not inferior to that of the artillery unit of the third town.

When the artillery and cavalry were solved, Zhao Dongyun only needed to train three more infantry battalions, and he would actually be able to set up a mixed shelf.

After more than half a year of development, the Jinzhou patrol battalion is very difficult to expand into a town, but if it is only expanded into a mixed association, then the difficulty is much smaller, at least the artillery and cavalry do not need to get it, as long as they are getting three infantry battalions.

However, these actual situations are really unknown to ordinary people, and even if they do, they will subconsciously ignore this problem, at least Lin Yongquan did not think of this for a while, after he heard Zhao Dongyun say that he would expand the Jinzhou patrol battalion into a mixed association, he just thought in his mind: This is the strength of the army to be doubled!

It doesn't matter what Lin Yongquan thinks, Zhao Dongyun wants to expand the army, which is what he has been doing since he arrived in Jinzhou, but last year he focused on the third town, and now the third town has just begun, and he is also focusing on the Jinzhou patrol battalion.

After driving Lin Yongquan out, Zhao Dongyun called Zhao Dongping again!

"In the past two months, we have been able to earn at least 400,000 taels of silver from the hands of the Japanese and the Russians, although the bulk of it will be used for the mortar equipment of the third town, but it is not a big problem to use some of it for the Jinzhou patrol battalion!" Zhao Dongping said as he estimated the cost of expanding the army and the cost of maintaining the existing military budget.

Although he is the general office of the Ordnance Department, Zhao Dongping is also responsible for the custody of the property obtained by the bandits and the current arms trade with Japan, so he is the actual person in charge of the small treasury of the third town, although this position has no official name, but everyone inside and outside the third town knows that this person is Zhao Dongyun's money bag and personal representative, otherwise his status in the third town would not be so special.

Zhao Dongyun listened and said: "Then I can rest assured, although there is no need to purchase artillery for the time being, machine guns, rifles and mortars are all to be equipped, this batch of expenses is not small, you have to try to make up the money over there!" ”

If it is only according to the standard of the Beiyang Standing Army, then the cost of expanding this Jinzhou patrol battalion into a mixed association will not be too large, but if Zhao Dongyun still wants to equip this Jinzhou patrol battalion with mortars and heavy machine guns, then he will have to add a large part of the additional expenses.

Zhao Dongping said: "Don't worry, now our ordnance trade is not bad, we are already preparing for next month's list, if we are a qiē shun lì, we will be able to earn at least 300,000 taels of silver next month!" ”

He smiled as he spoke: "The money of these foreigners is really easy to earn, they want fifty taels of silver for a shell, tsk, we only get twenty-five taels of silver from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and this back and forth is directly doubled!" ”

Zhao Dongyun listened and said: "This is the arms business!" ”

The reason why Zhao Dongyun's ammunition is so expensive is very simple, only he can pour arms into the war zone, and the Russians can only buy additional arms from Zhao Dongyun in addition to transporting them from the mainland. In order to prevent the Russians from obtaining a large amount of arms from Zhao Dongyun, the Japanese themselves also spent a lot of money to grab goods.

In this way, it is difficult for Zhao Dongyun's arms business not to make money!

"But you also have to pay attention to finding new sources of goods, in the past few months, there has been a lot of pressure on the Fuyuan Machinery factory, Uncle Bin has written to say that the training department has written several times to ask why the output of shells and bullets has been greatly reduced!" Zhao Dongyun continued: "You have to think of a way to see if you can purchase a batch of arms from the Germans and the British, or you can go to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Hubei Gun Factory to have a look, as long as there is a sufficient supply of goods, we can make money for the two companies!" ”

"Did the training department notice it?" Zhao Dongping frowned when he heard this: "It shouldn't be a big problem, the output of Fuyuan Machine was only 10,000 rounds at the end of last year, and now although it has increased, outsiders don't know!" ”

"There are more people staring at the factory of Fuyuan Machinery Qì Factory, and it is found that the production has been expanded, but there is no cannon popped out, and the problem will naturally be found!" Zhao Dongyun said.

Due to its particularity, the Fuyuanji Qì Factory can be said to be stared at by a large number of domestic military figures, not only the towns of the Beiyang Standing Army are waiting for the supply of the Fuyuanji Qì Factory with their eyes wide open, but other provinces are also waiting for the ordnance of the Fuyuanji Qì Factory, which is strange that no one pays attention to.

At the same time, due to the large-scale expansion of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, the Military Training Department even listed it as a designated purchaser of many new equipment, and last year issued an order: The northern provinces should first purchase the weapons of the Fuyuan Factory, and if the Fuyuan Factory does not have such equipment, they can buy foreign goods.

This is a supplementary measure after the imperial court positioned the Type 88 rifle as a standard rifle last year, that is, to avoid the provinces from purchasing foreign guns indiscriminately.

So many provinces have placed orders for the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and they are waiting for the arrival of the goods, but after the expansion of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, the rifle is still good to say, it has reached the design output, but although the output of shells and bullets has been greatly increased, the increased part of the output was bought by Zhao Dongyun, and the share left to other provinces is still only last year's output, so it naturally caused dissatisfaction among the provinces, and the director sent an official letter to inquire.

"Although for the time being, we don't get much goods from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, but now the Russian side is fighting too tightly, and the consumption of shells and bullets is very tight, so it can be said that they will have as much as we have, but if we take too many goods from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, it is estimated that the training department will have an opinion, so you look for those foreign companies and see if you can buy them!"

Zhao Dongyun and the arms business of Japan and Russia has a unique political factor, other foreign companies are not in their hands without a large amount of arms, but they simply cannot transport it to Fengtian, China is now pursuing neutrality and is very strict with the control of the railways inside and outside the Guan, and the trains arriving in Jinzhou are closely monitored by Zhao Dongyun, not to mention the shells, and it is impossible for a single bullet to fly through Jinzhou to Fengtian without Zhao Dongyun's permission.

To put it simply, Zhao Dongyun is not selling goods, but a channel for transportation!

Zhao Dongping said: "I'm afraid that the goods of the foreign company are not cheap, we only get 25 taels of silver for a shell from Fuchang, but I am afraid that we will get more than 30 taels of silver from the foreign company!" ”

Zhao Dongyun was unimpressed: "Even if the cost is higher, we still make money!" ”

The difference is only to earn more and earn less, but whether it is more or less, the money made by Zhao Dongyun, a second-class dealer, is a huge profit!

Zhao Dongping also enlightened when he heard this: "Also, earning more is earning, earning less is also earning, I will go to Tianjin to find a source of goods in the next two days!" After that, he sighed again: "It would be good if the Japanese and the Russians continued to fight, as long as we did this business for a year, it would be enough to earn three million taels of silver!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said with a smile: "This possibility is still there!" But that's still a little less! ”

In the Russo-Japanese War, the military expenditure between Japan and Russia was measured in billions, and the Japanese family alone spent 1.7 billion yen, according to the official exchange rate in the Xinchou Treaty, it was 2.3 billion taels of silver, and if Zhao Dongyun did not get tens of millions of taels of silver from it, he would be embarrassed to say that he made war money!

If China's main fighting faction wants to intervene in this Russo-Japanese War, not to mention the question of whether the troops are enough and what the combat effectiveness is, the military expenditure alone must prepare hundreds of millions of dollars in advance, and then you are qualified to consider the question of whether the troops are enough and whether the combat effectiveness is good......

So, for this war, Zhao Dongyun didn't think about waving tens of thousands of troops and the Japanese or the Russians fighting to the death, what he wanted was actually very simple, to make some money and expand the army, this is what he was looking forward to.

However, such a simple request, there are still people who say 'no' to him!