After Liu Zhijie and Zhu Xi returned to their hearts, the forty-five standards were completely in the hands of Xiao Zhenlei, and it was impossible for Cheng Dequan to interfere even if he wanted to, and then Xiao Zhenlei adopted various methods and means to bring the main officers such as the cavalry battalion, artillery battalion, engineer battalion and baggage battalion of the mixed association under his banner, so that they could completely stand with him.

The rest is that Jin Yunju is not his own person, he can't treat Jin Yunju like everyone else, Jin Yunju is Yuan Shikai's person, Xiao Zhenlei feels that he can't turn his face with Lao Yuan for the time being before the outbreak of Xinhai **, Lao Yuan's power is too great, even if Lao Yuan is idle now, it is not something that he can carry with a small coordinate, Lao Yuan directly controls the powerful forces of the six towns of Beiyang in his hands, and he also has more or less control over some mixed associations in other places, and the total strength adds up to more than 100,000 horses, And there are countless officials in the same line as Lao Yuan, Xiao Zhenlei thinks that he can't directly confront Lao Yuan after Xinhai, and he must let Sun Wen and others attract firepower in front.

Except for Jin Yunyu, all the other officers of the Mixed Association were subdued by Xiao Zhenlei, and now the 23rd Mixed Association is completely under the control of Xiao Zhenlei, among them, money plays a big role, mainly because the salaries of soldiers and officers are mostly paid in full, which makes the soldiers and officers have no dissent, plus some ideological education, Xiao Zhenlei has completely controlled the 23rd Mixed Association of more than 7,000 people in his hands.

On this day, Xiao Zhenlei was watching the training of the forty-five standard soldiers, and Ma Xiaoshuang came over and said: "Sir, Governor Cheng, please come over, saying that there is something to discuss!" ”

"Oh, got it!"

After lunch, Xiao Zhenlei came to the governor of the yamen general Cheng Dequan, in front of Cheng Dequan, Xiao Zhenlei has always maintained a soldier's posture, neither humble nor arrogant, neither in the eyes of Cheng Dequan, nor flattering, in short, he has always been a subordinate officer to see his superior, which makes Cheng Dequan love and hate him, hate him for mixing the twenty-three into a firm gripì in his hands, sometimes he still doesn't listen to greetings, and loves him with a military temperament.

"Sir, Xiao Zhenlei, the commander of the 23rd Mixed Association of the New Army, has come to report, please give instructions to the commander!"

Cheng Dequan waved his hand: "Forget it, don't be so strict, come and sit here, Ben Fu has something to discuss with you!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Xiao Zhenlei walked over and sat down straight.

Cheng Dequan took a piece of paper and handed it to Xiao Zhenlei and said: "Xiao Xietong, look at this, this is a telegram sent by Zhejiang Governor Zeng Yun to Benfu, saying that the Zhejiang New Army will be reorganized, and the number has been determined to be the 21st Town of the Army, but now the Zhejiang New Army is only the scale of a mixed association, and there are still many officers and soldiers to expand into a town, and the soldiers are easy to recruit, but the officers are not easy to find, so Zeng Yun asked Benfu, can you transfer a group of officers from your 23rd mixed association?" Of course, they will definitely not be treated badly in terms of treatment, and the worst officers drawn from the past will be guaranteed their original rank in the new position, and some may be promoted and reused, what do you think? ”

Xiao Zhenlei thought about it in his heart, this is an opportunity to reach into the Zhejiang New Army, just imagine, if an association is to be expanded into a town, how many troops and officers will be shortage? There were only about 4,000 men in a mixed association, and more than 12,000 in a town, and two-thirds of the soldiers and officers were missing.

Xiao Zhenlei knew that the 21st Town of the New Army was originally just a mixed association, and after being determined as the number of the 21st Town of the Army, the first commander (division commander) was Lu Benyuan, who was born in Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, participated in the suppression of the Taiping Army and the Twist Army uprising, and fought in the provinces of the Soviet Union, Yuan, Shandong, and Henan. With meritorious promotion, he was given the title of strong and brave Baturu, and then followed Li Hongzhang into Zhili. In the early years of Guangxu, he was awarded the general army of Chongqing Town, Sichuan, and still left the battalions of the Shengjun Horse Steps, and later participated in the Sino-Japanese War and fought against Japan, because of the meritorious service in suppressing the Boxers, he wore a yellow coat, and then transferred to Zhejiang, until now he was appointed as the commander of the 21st town of the new army, this person has not received a new military education, and Nie Shicheng and others are a generation, and they are a lot older.

The predecessor of the 21st town of the new army was the Zhejiang New Army Army Mixed Association, the predecessor of this mixed association was the Zhejiang Military Training Army, four years ago Zhejiang Governor Zhang Zengqi reorganized the armed training army into the first standard of the Zhejiang New Army, and appointed Li Yizi as the commander, under the jurisdiction of 2 battalions, stationed in Jianqiao, Hangzhou. Three years ago, the second standard of the Zhejiang New Army was formed, with Jiang Zunwei as the commander, and two battalions under its jurisdiction, stationed in Nanxingqiao, Hangzhou. Last year, the first and second standards of the Zhejiang New Army were combined into the Army Mixed Association, and Yang Shande served as the commander of the association. Now the first target has been replaced by Xiao Xingyuan, and the second target has been replaced by Liu Xun.

According to the plan, the 41st Association (reorganized from the original Mixed Association) and the 42nd Association will have two battalions each under its jurisdiction, including the Horse Brigade, the Artillery Team, the Engineering Team, and the Baggage Association, with a total of 10,436 officers and men. The 41st Association has 81 and 82 bids, while the 42nd Association has 83 and 84 bids.

Xiao Zhenlei thought about the benefits again, and said: "Report to the chief, I'm afraid that those people don't want to go, think about it, we have enough military pay here, complete weapons and equipment, and the twenty-first town is newly established, and there is a lack of everything, if they go and don't give them a promotion, who of them wants to go?" ”

Cheng Dequan thought about it, this Xiao Zhenlei has money, his officers and soldiers are well paid, well-armed and equipped, it is absolutely comfortable to work in such an army, and it is absolutely comfortable to transfer these officers to the twenty-first town to start again, even if they are transferred at the same level, I am afraid that those officers will not want to leave.

After thinking about it, Cheng Dequan said: "That's it, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, Zhejiang Governor Zengyun will go north to the capital to report on his work, just going through here, and settle down here to rest for two days, when the time comes, you will directly talk to Lord Zengyun, if you have any requirements to him, if he agrees, you will transfer some officers to him, if he does not agree, you should not have such a thing, the old man will not be able to wipe his face before he came to you to talk about this matter!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said, "Okay, in that case, let's wait for Zeng Yun to come!" ”

Two days later, Zeng Yun really came, Cheng Dequan wanted to welcome him directly into his governor's yamen to rest, but Zeng Yun was unwilling to take the lead, Cheng Dequan had to charter the best inn in Suzhou City for Zeng Yun to rest.

Zeng Yun was a native of Mongolia with a yellow flag and the last governor of Zhejiang in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Epiphytic background, when he served as the prefect of Xinmin Prefecture in the Northeast, he had the grace of knowing the future Northeast King Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zuolin was originally a bandit leader, and it was Zeng Yun who incorporated him into a regular army.

After the Jianhu heroine Qiu Jin was killed, her remains were buried on the bank of the Xiling Bridge in the West Lake. Soon a royal historian named Chang Hui came to Hangzhou to tour the West Lake and stumbled upon the tomb of Qiu Jin. Chang Hui thought to himself, how could the coffin of the "leader of the rebellious party" be buried in such a conspicuous place? The duty of the imperial history is to be appointed by the imperial court to find fault with the locality, Chang Hui grasped this handle and played a book when he returned to Beijing. The emperor's order received by Zengyun, the governor of Zhejiang, was: investigate and raze the tomb of Qiu Jin. Zeng Yun has merit in the process of protecting Qiu Jin's coffin, he secretly notified Qiu Jin's brother Qiu Yuzhang, so that he would dig up Qiu Jin's tomb on the same day, take out the coffin and transport it to Shaoxing overnight, and when Qiu Jin's coffin moved away, Zeng Yun immediately led his subordinate officials and messengers to the Xiling Bridge to level all Qiu Jin's tombs, and then reported to the court that the tomb had passed, which was considered to have completed the task assigned by the imperial court, and also kept Qiu Jin's coffin.

On the day Zeng Yun came, Xiao Zhenlei saw him, and Zeng Yun said with a smile: "Xiao Xietong, I heard that Lord Cheng said that none of your officers are willing to go to Benfu to serve there, is the twenty-first town of my new army very poor?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with a smile: "My lord, now the new army in various places is basically dissatisfied with the problem of military spending, and the salaries of soldiers and officers have not been paid in full, but it is different in my place, the 23rd Mixed Association of our New Army is not short of silver, and the military salary is paid in full to the hands of soldiers and officers every month, and the 23rd Mixed Association of our New Army is well-armed, and the rifles used by the soldiers are all German, and the bullets are open for shooting training. Who wants to be transferred to an army with insufficient salaries, backward weapons and equipment, and unsatisfactory soldiers? ”

Zeng Yun thinks about it, everyone has the psychology of wanting to go to a high place, and no one wants to go downhill.

At this time, Xiao Zhenlei said: "If the adults can promise that the officers who have been transferred can be promoted to the next level, I can come forward to persuade some officers to transfer over, if you can't give them a reassurance, they are afraid that they will not want to leave me!" In this way, you haven't seen the level of those officers under me, if you are not in a hurry to leave, I will arrange a military exercise this afternoon for you to see, I dare to pack a ticket, my battalion management can be qualified for the post of standard commander to any army, and the standard commander under my command can be qualified for the post of co-unification in any army, this is definitely not bragging, if you don't believe it, I will open your eyes this afternoon! ”

Zeng Yun heard Xiao Zhenlei's words, and suddenly became interested, "Okay, Ben Fu wants to see if the officers under you are all at the level of the company, but then again, didn't you just say that they didn't want to go?" Why are you working so hard now? ”

Xiao Zhenlei smiled: "My lord, these people have been following me for a long time, if they can have a good future, of course I am happy for them, some officers are not below me, stay with me but can't be promoted, don't I delay their future?" Now that I have such an opportunity, of course I have to fight for them, maybe in many years, each of them will achieve higher than me, and my face will be bright, right? Say it to everyone you meet, look at who it is, it was my officer back then! ”

Hearing this, Zeng Yun sighed: "Xiao Xietong is a good official!" Then please arrange it in the afternoon, and Benfu will take a look at the salary of your new army's twenty-three mixed associations! ”R1152