The situation in Northeast China from the Gengzi Year to the Russo-Japanese War was very complicated, because the Russian army fully occupied the Northeast after the Gengzi Year, although Russia was forced to sign the "Treaty of Surrender of the Three Eastern Provinces" with the Qing court under the pressure of Britain, Japan, the United States and other countries, and withdrew from the western Liaoning region in the first half of 1903.

Originally, according to the "Treaty on the Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces", the Russian army needed to withdraw from the territory of the three eastern provinces, but the Russian army refused to implement the second phase of the treaty, so it did not continue to withdraw its troops, on the contrary, it once again sent troops to occupy Yingkou, Fengtian and other important cities along the Liaohe River.

On the Chinese side, to be precise, the Beiyang side reacted to the refusal of the Russian army to withdraw its troops by sending Zhao Dongyun's troops, which was only the Third Association at the time, to Jinzhou, and some local troops in Fengtian, such as the Fengtian Patrol Battalion, the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion, and other parts of the chaotic old army, respectively controlled Xinmin, Liaozhong, Tai'an and other areas west of the Liaohe River.

Thus, on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, Heilongjiang and Jilin in the northeast, needless to say, there are still some nominal Chinese local troops, but in fact they are under the full control of the Russian army, and Fengtian is roughly bounded by the Liao River, including Fengtian, Yingkou, the area east of the Liao River, and the Liaodong Peninsula are all under the actual control of the Russian army.

The Fengtian Patrol Battalion and the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion west of the Liaohe River were controlled by the Chinese side, while Jinzhou and the Liaoning West Corridor were controlled by Zhao Dongyun's Third Town, a situation that did not change much even after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War.

Today, in August 1904, the western Liaoning region was still under the control of China, but the difference now is that many of these areas were originally under the control of the Fengtian Patrol Battalion, but now they are being taken over by the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion and the Third Town under Zhao Dongyun.

It is worth noting that the Russians and the Japanese themselves do not pay attention to the Fengtian Patrol Battalion under Zengqi and other local troops, and they are tossing around in Xinmin and other places, but it does not mean that they will also ignore the third town under Zhao Dongyun.

No matter who knows, the only one who can fight on Fengtian's side is the third town under Zhao Dongyun, even if the combat effectiveness of this third town is not as good as that of the great powers, but it is also a regular army with the nature of a modern army, and it is definitely not to be regarded as an old-style, bandit army, and the third town has a lot of troops, if you count the Jinzhou patrol battalion, Zhao Dongyun has more than 15,000 people.

This more than 15,000 troops may not be anything in front of the hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of Japan and Russia, but at the critical juncture of the battle of Liaoyang between Japan and Russia, the whereabouts of Zhao Dongyun, the 10,000 people, will naturally attract great attention from both sides.

Therefore, even though China and Yuan Shikai talk about neutrality every day, Japan and Russia still keep a close eye on the movements of Zhao Dongyun's department.

Zhang Zuolin, who sent troops to attack Xinmin Mansion, although he was in the name of suppressing bandits, also made many people nervous!

However, Zhao Dongyun did not intend to intervene in the war between Japan and Russia, the reason why he stationed in the Xinmin Mansion was just to make money, and as for the control of the Xinmin Mansion, it could only be regarded as an incidental income.

However, after defeating the Xinmin Mansion and sweeping away Zhang Zuolin's troops who were entrenched in the Xinmin Mansion, at the same time, in order to ensure the smooth flow of military trade with Russia in the future, he had to station a part of his troops on the side of the Xinmin Mansion.

"The direct force of our third town was definitely not good in the past, but now the Russians have a big opinion, if we keep the infantry battalion of the third town, it is estimated that the Russians will not be able to eat!" Lin Yongquan said: "Xinmin Mansion is only dozens of miles away from Fengtian, and every move of our third town has attracted the attention of the world, if our department is directly stationed there, I am afraid it will cause unnecessary trouble!" ”

Although it is said that the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion and the Third Town are both armies under Zhao Dongyun, the political content of the Third Town is much greater than that of the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion, and in the minds of many outsiders, this Jinzhou Patrol Battalion is estimated to be the same as the Fengtian Patrol Battalion, but it is a local army that Zhao Dongyun made out after he arrived in Jinzhou to collect bandits and the old army, which is used to fight the bandits, but it can't fight a big war.

However, the third town, everyone knows that it is one of the four towns of Beiyang, and it is also the second army in the Beiyang system, the second town, the fourth town, and the fifth town and the sixth town that are still in preparation are all latecomers. The predecessor of the Third Town was the Third Association, and the Third Association was established in 1902, so don't look at the number of the Third Town, which was obtained at the end of 1903, but in fact, the establishment time of the Third Town under Zhao Dongyun should be traced back to 1902.

Not to mention whether his combat effectiveness is strong or not, but Zhao Dongyun's third town is the Beiyang lineage, and what people see from it is not only what Zhao Dongyun does and thinks, but also what Yuan Shikai does and thinks.

For example, if Zhao Dongyun suddenly sent troops to Liaodong, whether it was to fight Japan or Russia, then people would never think that this was Zhao Dongyun's own intention, but would 100% think that it was Yuan Shikai's instigation. Or that Zhao Dongyun suddenly led back to Zhili, and then attacked Beijing, the first reaction of the Qing court was not that Zhao Dongyun wanted to rebel, but that Yuan Shikai wanted to rebel!

In other words, the meaning of the politics represented by the third town is no longer just Zhao Dongyun!

At the critical juncture of the Liaoyang Battle between Japan and Russia, if the Third Town acted rashly, it would affect the entire course of the Russo-Japanese War, so Zhao Dongyun would not send troops to station Xinmin for a long time unless necessary.

At this time, Chen Guangyuan also said: "Now the plan can only rely on Brother Meng's first mixed association, he still has a few battalion leaders under him, and sending a foot battalion and a cavalry team to station Xinmin can barely maintain the situation, and in this way, the Russians will not be able to say anything!" ”

Meng Enyuan naturally looked at Zhao Dongyun at this time and said, "The job department is all under the orders of the adults!" ”

Zhao Dongyun took his gaze back from the map on the desktop and said: "Xinmin's side is still too sensitive, stationing too many troops can easily cause a transitional reaction of the Russians, and we also have to station troops in Liaozhong, Tai'an, and Panshan respectively, and it is not easy to divert too many troops for a while!" ”

With the large-scale suppression of bandits in the Liaohe area at the beginning of 1904, and Zhang Zuolin was destroyed this time, he successively controlled a lot of territory, which was stationed in the name of the Jinzhou patrol battalion, especially in the county towns of Liaozhong, Tai'an, and Panshan counties, where a certain number of troops were stationed.

In addition to Jinzhou Xu Fangyuan, there is also the Fengtian patrol battalion, which has a total of four roads before, namely Zhang Zuolin's front road, Feng Delin's left road, Zengqi's personal control of the right road, and the back road that has not yet been formed. Zhang Zuolin won't talk about it, it's over now, there are not a few people on the back road that has not been formed, don't talk about it, and the defense area controlled by Feng Delin after being incorporated is the intersection of Yingkou, Panshan, Liaoyang, and Tai'an, that is to say, he occupies a certain amount of territory in the above-mentioned counties, but he does not control the county seat of the above-mentioned territory, and takes the road of suburbs and rural areas.

Although there are thousands of people, their combat effectiveness is not as good as that of Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin, and they are also relatively scattered, mainly responsible for local security, and they do not actually control a large area of territory.

Therefore, from the actual military level, in addition to Feng Delin's department, the defense of the entire western Liaoning needs to be undertaken by Zhao Dongyun's troops, and because the third town is not easy to act rashly, it can only rely on the Jinzhou patrol battalion, which is also a great challenge for the limited strength of the Jinzhou patrol battalion.

If you want to solve the defense problems of the counties in western Liaoning, you have to solve the problem fundamentally, so he turned his head and asked Lin Yongquan again: "How about the recruits prepared for the First Mixed Association?" When will it be trained? ”

Zhao Dongyun's mouth of the first mixed association is the Jinzhou patrol battalion, here I have to say, 'Jinzhou patrol battalion' is an independent troop number, and the Huai Army's Shengzi Battalion, Su Yi pro-army, Yuanzi battalion and now Beiyang Standing Army, Wuwei Right Army, Wuwei Right Army vanguard, self-improvement army is the same concept, because this title is registered in the imperial court military department and the training office, belongs to the imperial court officially recognized, so this name can not be changed randomly.

And Zhao Dongyun wanted to expand the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion into a mixed association, and at the same time he didn't want to directly change it to the 'Jinzhou Mixed Association', and it would be difficult to expand the army after the establishment was fixed, so he simply set up another 'first mixed association' under the Jinzhou patrol battalion, so Meng Enyuan's mixed association commander did not mean the commander of the Jinzhou Mixed Association, but the 'first mixed association commander of the Jinzhou patrol battalion'.

'Jinzhou Patrol Battalion' and 'Jinzhou Patrol Battalion First Mixed Association' are not the same concept, but the former has jurisdiction over the latter.

However, this is just a trick in the name, it was made by Zhao Dongyun in order to expand the army in the future, in fact, the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion has only one first mixed association, otherwise Zhao Dongyun would not have appointed Meng Enyuan as the general office of the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion.

The current system of the Jinzhou patrol battalion is: Zhao Dongyun serves as the supervisor, Meng Enyuan serves as the general office and concurrently serves as the commander of the first mixed association, and Lin Yongquan concurrently serves as the meeting office. The above-mentioned supervision, general office, and conference office can be generally regarded as the highest person in charge, the actual person in charge, and the person in charge of assistance.

Among the various types of institutions in the late Qing Dynasty, the superintendent was the largest, followed by the general office, and the general office was the second.

Lin Yongquan wears many positions in the Third Town system, he is not only the meeting office of the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion, but also the general office of the Education Department of the Third Town.

Faced with Zhao Dongyun's question, Lin Yongquan immediately said: "Last month, we recruited about 600 recruits in Zhili, and also set up a number of recruiting stations on the ground in western Liaoning, but the situation in western Liaoning is too chaotic, and it is a little difficult to find a good family, so we only recruit more than 500 people, plus the recruits we retained before, we are not short of recruits, but most of them are still undergoing basic training, and there are not many recruits trained in these times!" ”

Lin Yongquan continued: "Last month, we gave 400 recruits to the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion, and this month it is estimated that we can also give about 600 recruits, and next month, it is estimated that there will be about 1,000!" ”

Zhao Dongyun heard him say this, and showed a satisfied look, although this Lin Yongquan's ability in other aspects is average, at least his ability to use troops is at the bottom of the top of the third town system, and the third town is stronger than him when he pulls out a commander level officer casually, but this person plays recruitment, trains recruits, and is quite good in camp chores, and he has helped Zhao Dongyun recruit and train tens of thousands of recruits in the past few years.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun asked Meng Enyuan again: "Since there are a lot of recruits, how many battalions have you trained here?" ”