The Third Association became the Third Mixed Association, perhaps it was just a change in title for Yuan Shikai, and the Third Mixed Association did not add a single soldier because of this, but the changes brought to Zhao Dongyun, Chen Guangyuan, Meng Enyuan and others were huge and obvious.

At least Chen Guangyuan is no longer as arrogant and dissatisfied as before in the face of Zhao Dongyun now, it seems that Chen Guangyuan, who fights with Zhao Dongyun everywhere, has disappeared, and there is only one left, Chen Guangyuan, who works hard.

Seeing that Chen Guangyuan accepted the reorganization of the old army without any hesitation, this made Zhao Dongyun feel a little uncomfortable, and the subordinates who did not deal with him became subordinates who obeyed orders, which made him feel very strange.

Not only did Chen Guangyuan's attitude change, but even Meng Enyuan also changed his previous attitude, and after Zhao Dongyun asked Meng Enyuan's cavalry to increase patrol and reconnaissance in eastern Jinzhou, Meng Enyuan did not bargain with him or shirk anything as before, but directly agreed.

This made Zhao Dongyun quite puzzled, you must know that expanding the scope of investigation is a chore for the third standard of the cavalry, in order to make Meng Enyuan agree not to affect the investigation on the periphery of Jinzhou, Zhao Dongyun is ready to give the third standard of the cavalry six heavy machine guns as compensation.

But Meng Enyuan didn't even ask, and agreed without saying a word, which made Zhao Dongyun not say what he had prepared!

However, since the four machine guns are already ready to be given to the cavalry as the third target, this is certainly a compensation that Zhao Dongyun planned to give to Meng Enyuan, but this is also a necessary match to increase the combat effectiveness of the cavalry troops, and it cannot be said that Meng Enyuan will not give it if he does not open his mouth.

"The daily patrol range should be kept at least 40 kilometers, and I don't want anyone to sneak down on my nose!" Since Meng Enyuan agreed without any objection, Zhao Dongyun naturally would not be polite to him, and directly asked to increase the scope of daily patrols.

Meng Enyuan said: "If you are on daily alert patrol, you don't need too much troop density, on the one hand, it can also represent daily training subjects, this problem is not big!" ”

Although Zhao Dongyun was not accustomed to Meng Enyuan's responsive state, the equipped machine guns still had to be sent out, and he immediately said: "This time, Baoding sent six machine guns to our Third Mixed Association, so I plan to set up a machine gun team in the third bid of the horse team, which will be transported by pack horses and accompany the cavalry to fight!" ”

When Meng Enyuan heard this, he immediately appeared overjoyed: "Is there really a machine gun team?" That's great! ”

Meng Enyuan began to ask for machine guns at the beginning of the year, saying that he would set up a cavalry machine gun team, although Zhao Dongyun supported his idea, but he has not been able to get a machine gun.

In 1901 and 1903, China was also subject to the arms embargo, although in fact this restriction was only superficial, but it still created a lot of trouble for the Beiyang Army to purchase imported ordnance, and these troubles were finally reflected in the price.

Last year, when Zhao Dongyun took control of the newly built machine gun battalion, he purchased a large number of machine guns, and then the various machine gun battalions in the new machine gun battalion were dispersed and assigned to various armies, and the Beiyang New Army did not stop the development of machine guns, but continued, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, Beiyang successively purchased two batches of dozens of German-made Makqin machine guns, the model is still MG01, which is used to supplement and equip four machine gun battalions and a number of independent machine gun teams.

In this process, because foreign cavalry units also began to be equipped with machine guns, the Beiyang New Army, which has always paid attention to keeping up with the world trend, was naturally not far behind, and tried to incorporate machine guns into the cavalry units, and Yuan Shikai also specially found Zhao Dongyun for this division.

Although Zhao Dongyun is no longer in charge of the machine gun unit, as an officer who started with machine guns, he is a veritable first machine gun in Beiyang, just like Duan Qirui is the first artillery in the Beiyang New Army, and this machine gun-related things basically can't bypass him.

After referring to the cavalry units of Germany, France, Russia, Japan and other countries, especially after referring to the establishment of machine guns in the cavalry brigade of Japan, Zhao Dongyun asked Yuan Shikai to allocate a machine gun team to each cavalry standard of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Here we have to talk about the cavalry establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army, which is different from the new army of the late Qing Dynasty in the period of 36 towns, which is well known to later generations, and even has a great difference.

For example, in terms of artillery, an artillery battalion of the Beiyang Standing Army had 16 guns, but an artillery battalion in the late Qing Dynasty and the New Army period had 18 guns.

The same is true for cavalry, the cavalry in the late Qing Dynasty was only more than 1,100 cavalry in three battalions, and now the cavalry standard in the standing army period is more than 1,300 people in four battalions.

In fact, the number of cavalry members in the Beiyang New Army is too large, and a cavalry regiment of the Western powers is generally about five or six hundred people, but the number of cavalry members of the Beiyang New Army is as high as more than 1,000 people, which is basically twice that of the Western cavalry regiment.

There are two main factors here, one is influenced by traditional military concepts, even Beiyang officers who have received modern military education still believe that cavalry is an indispensable and important military force.

The second is related to the geographical environment in which the Beiyang Army is located, and the Beiyang New Army is mainly deployed in northern China, with Shandong, Zhili, Northeast and other regions as its main defense areas, which have a vast North China Plain and Northeast Plain, which are more suitable for cavalry operations.

The sum of many factors, coupled with the fact that the Beiyang Army is not short of horses, it is much easier to form cavalry than artillery, so the cavalry establishment in the Beiyang Standing Army is relatively large, not to mention the rest, Zhao Dongyun's Third Mixed Association is the third standard of the cavalry team with more than 1,300 people, you must know that his Third Mixed Association is only more than 7,000 people in total.

For a cavalry of more than 1,000 people, the standard equipment is six machine guns, which is actually far from enough, but now that Zhao Dongyun has such a machine gun in his hand, there is no way to do it if it is not enough.

Meng Enyuan said: "If there is a machine gun team here, it can be attacked in the future, and it can be defended when it retreats!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "Brother Meng, you are an old cavalryman, naturally you know how to fight cavalry, I don't know much about this cavalry on weekdays, but I still know some about this machine gun, although the heavy machine gun can accompany the cavalry forward, but its maximum power is still used for defense, I hope you can keep this in mind!" ”

"In addition, you don't have anyone under you who knows machine guns, so I'll send a few people from the machine gun battalion to you to practice, but it's okay to let them play machine guns, but it's probably not impossible to ride horses, and your cavalry will have to come by themselves when the time comes!" Zhao Dongyun continued.

The machine gun team of the cavalry unit is naturally different from the ordinary machine gun unit, first of all, although they all use machine guns as weapons, but one is cavalry and the other is infantry, which is not very eye-catching in nature. The infantry's machine guns were mostly used to construct fixed fortifications and act as important nodes in the defensive line. The machine guns of the cavalry had to accompany the cavalry in mobile combat, so the machine guns had to be carried on horses, and the machine gunners and ammunition men had to ride forward, in case of a battle, most of the enemy cavalry units were also faced.

So you can't do the same thing!

Meng Enyuan said: "Don't worry, I'll go back and select some clever people to form a machine gun team, as long as the people from the machine gun battalion teach them how to operate the machine gun, and we'll do the rest ourselves!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded, and then said, "It's hard work!" ”

After saying this, Meng Enyuan also knew that it was time for him to go out, and immediately went out after giving a military salute.

The person who came was none other than Lin Yongquan!

After he came in, he took a stack of articles in his hand and handed it over: "This is the establishment of the various institutions of the association headquarters that we have preliminarily drafted, please take a look!" ”

Zhao Dongyun took it, and then looked at it carefully, since Yuan Shikai changed the name of the Third Association to the Third Mixed Association on the 27th of last month, it also means that the Third Mixed Association is a force with independent combat capability, plus the Third Mixed Association is in Jinzhou, Liaodong, it is impossible to get the support of various institutions of the Beiyang Standing Army in everything, and it belongs to the kind that relies on itself for everything. Therefore, the various establishments and institutions of the original Third Association of Infantry Teams are definitely not suitable for the Third Mixed Association.

In the end, considering that the Third Association originally had some informal institutions, Zhao Dongyun submitted a detailed organization of the Third Mixed Association to submit a detailed organization of the Third Mixed Association.

Before the Third Mixed Association, there were various informal institutions, such as the recruit barracks, the ordnance section, the law enforcement section, etc., but most of these institutions were not officially recognized, but belonged to the private institutions within the Third Association, and the positions in them were also held by officers at all levels.

Now that the Third Association of the Infantry Team has become the Third Mixed Association, the best way is naturally to integrate and adapt it according to the many existing informal institutions.

Lin Yongquan explained: "The new barracks do not conform to our Beiyang system, and I am afraid that many people will say that if we continue to keep it, it can be changed to the Education Section, which is responsible for the recruitment of new recruits, preliminary training, and supervising the training of active soldiers in various units."

The original ordnance section and law enforcement department can be retained, and in addition, the military horse section and the quartermaster department have been newly established according to your requirements. ”

Zhao Dongyun looked at the plan in his hand, it seems that it is similar to what he expected, this time to add many institutions to the Third Mixed Association, Zhao Dongyun is holding a one-time solution, from training, logistics, military supplies and other aspects of the solution, you must know that these departments actually existed in the past, but they are all informal institutions, the staff are part-time, and many people are unwilling to work overtime without paying.

Therefore, this time, Zhao Dongyun plans to have more establishments, and then enrich the administrative command organization of the Third Mixed Association, which is a number of seven or eight thousand people who are alone outside, and he can't always rely on the original Infantry Association's copywriter and other personnel to manage the battalion affairs.

In the era of the Beiyang Standing Army, there were few built-in institutions of the town and mixed association, because these institutions were all taken over by the military department of the Beiyang Standing Army, and now the third mixed association is outside, so far away from Baoding, it is naturally impossible to find the military headquarters of the Beiyang Standing Army for everything, so it is necessary for the third mixed association to establish its own various battalion institutions.

"Well, it's done well, and now it's all right!" Zhao Dongyun said: "Now our third mixed association is okay, and I can't trust others, so you continue to be the head of the education department!" ”

Lin Yongquan was not surprised by this decision, because the predecessor of the Education Section was the new barracks, and he Lin Yongquan was the general manager of the new barracks.

This Lin Yongquan's position in the Third Mixed Association is not as simple as a staff officer, he is actually responsible for all related things such as recruiting and training recruits of the Third Mixed Association.

Otherwise, he would not be regarded as Zhao Dongyun's right and left hand, the second person in the Third Association, and most of the other section chiefs remain unchanged, such as Zhao Dongping, who continues to serve as the chief of the ordnance section. Perhaps on the surface, this change only turned the original private institution into an officially recognized formal institution, but its significance is very important.

Because this means that the Third Association has become self-contained, from the recruitment of recruits to training and even to the procurement of military supplies, the procurement of ordnance is all its own decision, and there is no need to deal with the military headquarters of the Beiyang Standing Army for everything as before.