Seeing Zhao Dongyun's inadvertent toast, Feng Guozhang was slightly stunned at first, but soon his expression was as usual, and he also raised the wine glass in his hand and gave Zhao Dongyun a glass in return.

On this occasion today, Zhao Dongyun and Feng Guozhang's situation is somewhat similar, they are not people under Wang Yingkai's faction, and it is impossible for them to take refuge in Wang Yingkai, but in the face of Wang Yingkai's personal invitation, they can't refuse directly, so they can only come to the banquet with a hard head, which is also the reason why they drink flower wine by themselves when they come.

It's just that Zhao Dongyun and Feng Guozhang are drinking flower wine separately, but it doesn't mean that other people are the same as them.

When Zhao Dongyun and Feng Guozhang were talking and laughing with the beauties around them while drinking, the others were already full of national affairs, and they all began to point out the country.

Cao Kun drank two more glasses, put down the wine glass and slapped the table suddenly, his face flushed, he shouted loudly: "Those Russians are really too deceitful, obviously they have signed the Xinchou Agreement last year, but they still occupy the three eastern provinces and refuse to leave, vainly trying to occupy our territory and do things like Yellow Russia, it is really hateful!" ”

Bao Guiqing, who was behind, also drank too much, and after hearing Cao Kun's words, he also stood up: "If you want me to say, when we build up the standing army, we will immediately march to the northeast and drive those old Maozi back to the north!" ”

"Our standing army has not yet become an army, even if it is an army, it is scarce, to recapture the northeast, I am afraid that at least ten towns or more troops are needed, we should write more to build a new army, as long as I have ten towns of the new army in Beiyang, why worry about the three eastern provinces not return!" He Zonglian on the other end is also a big tongue and dares to say anything.

Ten new towns! This kind of thing even the current Yuan Shikai doesn't dare to think about.

Zhao Dongyun listened to the words of these people, and felt a feeling of crying and laughing in his heart, didn't they all say that the Beiyang warlords were all traitors, why did he see all the enthusiastic patriotic young people today, and he felt like a young Zhuang soldier.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but think of an old saying, people always change, who doesn't have a young age!

Just as he was lamenting these messy things, Cao Kun, who was sitting beside him, turned around and said to Zhao Dongyun: "Brother Ziyang, you have served in the Prussian Army, tell me, how many people does the Prussian Army need to be able to defeat the Russian army of 100,000?" ”

During his study in Germany, in addition to theoretical study at the Berlin Military Academy, Zhao Dongyun also entered the Prussian Army for an internship, which is funny to say, in 1900, when Germany and China were at war, and he Zhao Dongyun served in the Prussian Army at that time.

Zhao Dongyun paused slightly and said: "If it is a regular field army of Prussia, only three divisions are enough to defeat the Russian army in the northeast!" ”

At this time, Cao Kun said again: "My Beiyang New Army was built according to the Prussian Army, according to you, how much of the essence of the Prussian Army has been obtained by our army?" How many people are needed to crush the 100,000 Russian troops in the three eastern provinces! ”

As soon as this topic came out, everyone present instantly turned their attention to Zhao Dongyun, obviously they cared very much about the answer to this question!

Zhao Dongyun, who could clearly feel everyone's eyes, sighed in his heart, should I tell the truth or keep some confidence for them?

Seeing that Zhao Dongyun didn't answer for a long time, Wang Yingkai, who was at the top, also spoke: "Dongyun, do you think that my Beiyang New Army can get the Prussian Army's combat strength?" ”

Zhao Dongyun looked around at the people present at this time, and then said in a deep voice: "In my Beiyang Army, the vanguard is an old wine and a new bottle, although there is a name of a new army, but the bottom is still the old army, compared with the Prussian Army, I am afraid that there is no combat power!" ”

Zhao Dongyun's first sentence did not directly say that the Wuwei Right Army or the standing army, but said that the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, although this vanguard is not good, but it is also a descendant of Beiyang, and if you say that the Beiyang New Army naturally can't forget them.

However, on this occasion today, all the people present were the people of the Standing Army and the Wuwei Right Army, and none of them were the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, plus the Beiyang people have always despised the vanguard, so everyone did not feel disgusted by Zhao Dongyun's belittling of the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, but nodded one by one, Wang Yingkai also said: "The vanguard is indeed a little worse, and if you want to fight with the armies of the great powers, I am afraid that two percent of the combat power will not be able to play!" ”

At this time, Zhao Dongyun continued: "On the side of the self-strengthening army, the number of people is too small, not to mention, and the battalion system is similar to the vanguard, with a strong old army flavor, although the training and equipment are slightly better than the vanguard, but it is also very good, and if you fight, it can be regarded as two percent!" ”

Everyone nodded again, the self-improvement army was a new army trained by Zhang Zhidong before the Gengzi Incident, only a few thousand people, and Yuan Shikai used tricks to get the Beiyang system last year. Today's self-improvement army is in Beiyang, which naturally belongs to the side line of the Eight Classics, and in the hearts of the generals of Beiyang, its status is even worse than that of the vanguard.

"As for our Wuwei Right Army, because it is a pure Western French training, and the armament is all new-style ordnance, whether it is guns or artillery, it is not inferior to the armies of the great powers, if it is calculated according to the Wuwei Right Army that was fully staffed last year, it is worthy of fifty percent of the combat strength of the Prussian Army!" Zhao Dongyun's words have obvious boasting elements, fifty percent combat power? This is also too high to look at the right army of Wuwei.

However, everyone present also understood why Zhao Dongyun would raise the combat effectiveness of the Wuwei Right Army, because Zhao Dongyun was a member of the Wuwei Right Army, and it would be abnormal if he didn't brag about his own troops.

Therefore, when everyone heard Zhao Dongyun's words, they did not directly open their mouths to object, but when everyone listened, they all consciously lowered the number of what Zhao Dongyun said, and they felt that the Wuwei Right Army must not have fifty percent of the combat strength of the German army, but three or four percent of the combat strength should not be a big problem.

After finishing talking about the Wuwei Right Army, Zhao Dongyun said to the Standing Army: "If the newly built Beiyang Standing Army is built, the operation method and battalion system are more reasonable than the Wuwei Right Army, and it is worthy of the first modern army of our army. If we can get a sufficient supply of ordnance, ammunition, and food and salary in wartime, then our standing army is worthy of seventy percent of the Prussian army's combat strength. ”

As soon as these words came out, the officers of the standing army present all laughed, Zhao Dongyun said that the standing army has seventy percent of the combat strength of the German army, even if there is a discount on this number, but it also makes everyone very satisfied.

Of course, they all intentionally or unintentionally ignored one of the sentences in Zhao Dongyun's words: If you can get an adequate supply of ordnance, ammunition, and food in wartime!

Since ancient times, wars have been fought in logistics, and even more so in modern times, the supply of logistics directly affects the outcome of the war, and now the question is, can many new armies in Beiyang maintain logistics supply in the war?

Impossible!

Don't look at the Beiyang New Army with a total of only 50,000 or 60,000 people, but once the war starts, it consumes more ammunition than the other armies in the country combined, and Beiyang itself does not have a large arsenal, not only rifles and artillery need to be imported, but even rifle bullets and shells all need to be imported, and the only thing that can achieve self-sufficiency is food and salary.

If the Beiyang New Army and the troops of the great powers engaged in a high-intensity war, even if the personnel of the Beiyang New Army were comparable to the armies of the great powers.

But even so, at most a month, the ammunition stored in Beiyang will be exhausted, and how can you fight without ammunition?

If you want to change this situation, there can only be two ways, the first is to establish an arsenal, and the second is to increase imports and hoard a large number of weapons and ammunition, and the above two points are not realistic for Beiyang now, the reason is very simple: because Yuan Shikai has no money!

As mentioned above, Yuan Shikai in the 1902 era was very short of money, he not only cleaned up a lot of mess in the Gengzi Incident, but also carried out the reform of the education system, the development of industry and commerce, the construction of railways, etc., of course, and more importantly, the expansion of the Beiyang army, including the expansion of the Wuwei Right Army, the reorganization of the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, the construction of the Beiyang Standing Army and the reconstruction of the Beiyang Naval Division, which all cost a lot of money.

In fact, Yuan Shikai at the beginning of 1902 didn't look at him on the surface of the smugness, but in fact, he was quite hard, for money and the Qing court kept intriguing, but also had to wrestle with the southern governors, trying to squeeze oil and water from the southern provinces to train the new army.

Yuan Shikai, who had no money, had enough headaches in order to build a new army, and it was impossible to spend a few million yuan to set up an arsenal or hoard a large amount of ammunition in a short period of time.

And as long as there is not enough ammunition, then it is empty to talk about how much combat power the Beiyang has.

But tonight, everyone obviously forgot about this point selectively, when Zhao Dongyun said that the combat strength of the standing army can be seventy percent of the Prussian army, then Wang Zhanyuan even said: "As Brother Ziyang said, even if the combat strength of our army is not as good as the Prussian army, but even if my standing army has fifty percent of the Prussian army, then as long as my standing army of ten towns marches into the northeast, it will definitely be able to break the Russians!" ”

"Yes, although the Russians have a lot of troops in the Northeast, their Far East Railway has not yet been built, the logistics supply is extremely poor, and they will not be able to reinforce too many troops in a short time, as long as our army moves quickly to recover the Northeast, it will not be a problem!" Cao Kun also said.

Looking at everyone's passionate appearance, Zhao Dongyun had an indescribable feeling, did they really think that things were that simple?

In the next time, everyone was still passionate, and Zhao Dongyun also said more or less, but he drank more, and when he came out of Chongyu Tower, he walked a little shaky.

Stepping out of the gate of Chongyulou, with the cold wind blowing, it also made him slightly sober, and at this time Wang Yingkai didn't know when he came to his side.

"You don't think their words are realistic, do you?" Wang Yingkai suddenly said this.

Zhao Dongyun was slightly stunned, but he didn't answer directly, but asked, "Do you think that you can really build up the Ten Towns in a year?" ”

Wang Yingkai laughed when he heard this, and also did not answer Zhao Dongyun's words, but said: "People, you always need to look forward to it!" ”

For a while, Zhao Dongyun seemed to understand why Cao Kun at the wine table just now was up because Russia occupied the northeast and did not take the case, and also understood Wang Zhanyuan's spirit when he said that the army of the ten towns swept the northeast.

Are they really unaware of the current situation in the country?

They know that they just don't want to admit it!

The reality is cruel enough, and there is no need to let the dream also be stained with the ugliness of reality, so the Beiyang New Army they fantasize about is invincible, and the recovery of the Northeast is just around the corner!