Although the cost of a machine gun battalion is not as good as that of an artillery battalion, the cost of a machine gun battalion is not small, and the monthly cost of personnel salaries alone is several thousand taels, and the cost of purchasing machine guns, rifles, pistols, and other ordnance is also tens of thousands.

If three new machine-gun battalions were to be built, the cost of personnel, mules, horses, machine guns, and so on would not be able to start without 100,000 taels of silver.

However, since Yuan Shikai said this today, it means that he has already calculated the expenditure of this military expenditure, in other words, military expenditure is not a problem that Zhao Dongyun should consider, it is a problem that Yuan Shikai should consider.

Yuan Shikai called him today, obviously not to listen to how much he would spend, but to listen to others.

Immediately, Zhao Dongyun said: "Now that all the armies of the great powers are equipped with a large number of machine guns, it is naturally necessary for me to follow up in time in Beiyang!" After first saying this sentence as the keynote sentence, he continued: "According to the current system of our army, the standing army needs a battalion in the left town, and although the right town has not yet become an army, the time is not far away, so you can also train a battalion first, and when the cavalry and infantry team of the right town become an army, it will be directly integrated into an army. The vanguard, the self-improvement army, and the armed defense right army are strong and weak, and if they are unified with a battalion of machine gun teams, it will be a waste.

The vanguard is stationed in Shandong, the distance is relatively far, and the aid from Zhili is slower in wartime, and it can be equipped with a small battalion of machine gun teams, without the number of four teams, and it can be built into a small battalion with two or three teams.

Although the right army of Wuwei has the name of an army, but there are 3,000 troops stationed in Nanyuan to control and guard the two palaces, and then there is a battalion of troops to be transferred to Shunde to suppress the reverse fat, and now a battalion is to be transferred to the police stationed in Tianjin, the remaining troops are less than 10,000, and the establishment is different from the standing army, I am afraid that in the future it will be necessary to reorganize and transfer one by one, so there is no need to directly subordinate to the machine gun battalion, in case of war, another machine gun battalion can be transferred to cooperate with the operation.

The number of self-strengthening troops is only more than 3,000, and the military system is also different from our Beiyang, and it is okay to be urgent for a while, but it is inconvenient to maintain it for a long time, so there is no need to belong to the machine gun battalion! ”

Zhao Dongyun's words were also carefully considered, the standing army must have one town and one battalion, and as for the right army of Wuwei, it is not very needed.

If he still served in the Wuwei Right Army, then he would definitely have to win a battalion of machine gun teams for the Wuwei Right Army, but now he is no longer a member of the Wuwei Right Army, but the assistant of the Military and Political Department Coaching Office to supervise the machine gun matter, so it is necessary to look at the problem from the height of the entire Beiyang.

It is true that the Wuwei Right Army was in the limelight around the year of Gengzi, but today in 1902, in fact, the right army of Wuwei is no longer the right army of Wuwei in the year of Gengzi, and the right army of Wuwei has been dismantled and transferred many times in the past two years, first more than 3,000 people were transferred to Beijing to meet the two palaces to return to Luan, and these more than 3,000 people are gone forever, and they were directly left by Cixi to stay in the capital.

Then he was transferred to the second battalion under the control of Zhao Dongyun and went south to Shunde to suppress bandits, and now he is still in Shunde and has not been rebuilt. In addition, because the Eight-Nation Coalition said that the Chinese army could not be stationed in Tianjin, Yuan Shikai planned to reorganize a battalion of the Wuwei Right Army into a police officer and disguise himself as a police officer to be stationed in Tianjin.

As a result, in less than a year, the Wuwei Right Army was transferred more than 6,000 people into the establishment, and although it has not stopped recruiting and replenishing personnel for more than a year, it has not been able to restore its establishment.

Because from last year to now, the core of Beiyang's army expansion is the standing army, and the Wuwei Right Army is mainly reorganized or even transferred away, and there will be a big fanfare for the expansion of the Wuwei Right Army.

Moreover, in order to organize and train the standing army, Yuan Shikai transferred a large number of backbones from the Wuwei Right Army into the standing army, and also led the extreme shortage of officers in the Wuwei Right Army, and the number of officers in the Wuwei Right Army was also greatly reduced.

Such a Wuwei Right Army is no longer at the peak of last year's combat power, and it is foreseeable that Yuan Shikai will continue to dismantle and transfer the Wuwei Right Army to expand the standing army, that is to say, it will not be long before it is estimated that this Wuwei Right Army will become a historical term.

Naturally, there was no need for such an armed right army to be attached to an entire machine-gun battalion.

If you strengthen the army, the original strength is small, and the establishment is relatively backward, in addition, more importantly, it was originally Zhang Zhidong's troops, and now the entire Beiyang is thinking of dismembering and annexing this army, and it will be equipped with a machine gun unit!

After listening to Zhao Dongyun's words, Yuan Shikai frowned and said: "In this case, there are two large and one small, a total of three machine gun battalions?" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "There are three battalions directly assigned to each town, but there are still many other troops in Beiyang, and I need more or less machine gun support in wartime, and my Beiyang training is at the beginning, and there will definitely be more town associations in the future that need machine gun teams, so one more machine gun battalion can be trained, and it will be appropriately assigned to various armies in the future." ”

"Four battalions, in addition to the original one, there are still three battalions missing!" After Yuan Shikai finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Dongyun again: "If you are asked to practice, you may be able to practice?" ”

This question is a nonsense, could it be that Zhao Dongyun at this time still dares to say that he can't practice, Zhao Dongyun naturally has to say very sternly: "The ministry will definitely do its best to handle this machine gun matter, and it will definitely live up to the high expectations of the governor!" ”

Yuan Shikai had actually already made a decision about running a machine gun battalion, and he called Zhao Dongyun over today just to listen to his words.

After Yuan Shikai nodded, he immediately turned his head to Zhou Xuexi: "Xuexi, how much silver can you spare over there?" ”

Zhou Xuexi came to the Governor's Mansion today, he came to be the God of Wealth, after hearing Yuan Shikai ask, Zhou Xuexi didn't want to think about it, and immediately said: "Fang Cai Duxian said that this battalion needs 35,000 taels to start, but these three battalions are 105,000 taels, if you want to take them all out in a short time, I'm afraid I can't do it, so I can first allocate 40,000 taels for recruitment, ordnance deposits, and I will allocate 40,000 taels next month, and pay the remaining 25,000 taels in the third month." Do you think this is feasible? ”

Although Zhou Xuexi has a lot of money in his hands, but these money are all useful, the Beiyang family has a big business, but the expenses are also large, and it is impossible to give Zhao Dongyun all machine guns, which took out 105,000 taels in batches in three months, which is already considered Zhou Xuexi is very kind.

Zhao Dongyun listened from the sidelines, although he had a lot of ideas in his mouth, but he would never open his mouth, because today he only had to say how many machine gun teams we needed and how to train machine gun teams, but it was not his business to ask for money, it was Yuan Shikai's business.

Yuan Shikai nodded after hearing this, and only said one word: "But!" ”

Then, he waved his hand to let Zhao Dongyun and Zhou Xuexi go down, he still had to see the others, a group of people outside were waiting for Yuan Shikai to summon him, he was very busy, and he didn't have time to say more.

After Zhou Xuexi and Zhao Dongyun came out together, Zhao Dongyun arched his hand to Zhou Xuexi: "This machine gun matter, I have to be supported by General Manager Zhou!" ”

Zhou Xuexi smiled when he heard this: "What are you polite, although my side is a little tighter, but it is not bad for your money!" ”

Zhou Xuexi had already talked to Yuan Shikai about the cost of organizing a machine gun team before Zhao Dongyun entered, and in the face of Yuan Shikai's personal explanation, Zhou Xuexi did not dare to slack off, so even if Zhao Dongyun did not compliment him, he would give Zhao Dongyun the money, of course, all kinds of bad rules were indispensable.

Now seeing that Zhao Dongyun's attitude towards himself seems to be good, and remembering that Yuan Shikai attaches more importance to Zhao Dongyun, a young man, it is estimated that this person will be able to get up in a few years, so he also has a desire to make friends, and maybe this friendship will be used in the future.

Therefore, I also plan to give money more happily, not to push back as usual, and only give money when I get enough benefits.

After the two went out all the way, after saying a few more words, Zhao Dongyun remembered that his Fuyuan yarn factory had been short of money to expand, and there was a god of wealth who opened a bank and could issue currency?

Immediately, he said: "I heard that there is also a loan from the Tianjin Guanyin?" ”

Zhou Xuexi was slightly stunned when he heard this, he didn't expect a soldier like Zhao Dongyun to talk about borrowing, and immediately nodded subconsciously: "There is such a thing as a commercial loan!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "It's not a secret, there is a yarn factory at home, and the interest is OK, a few days ago, I heard the people below say that they want to borrow money to expand the scale, and today I met the adult, and I just remembered it!" ”

Zhou Xuexi was also slightly curious when he heard it, he didn't expect Zhao Dongyun to also run an industry, these years there are still relatively few Chinese people who play industry, most of them are still in the traditional industry, and those who dare to play the new industry of yarn mills need knowledge and courage.

Anyway, borrowing is not a big deal, as long as the yarn factory under Zhao Dongyun's name has good benefits and has the ability to repay the loan, he Zhou Xuexi is naturally under no pressure to take out a loan, and even if the benefit is not good, there is still a Zhao Dongyun on top, as the so-called monk can't run the temple.

On the surface, he is in charge of this Tianjin official silver number, but everyone knows that this is the money cabinet of Beiyang and the money bag of Beiyang's army expansion.

Whoever dares to borrow the money from the Tianjin Guanyin and does not pay it back, Yuan Shikai dares to raid someone's home, tens of thousands of Beiyang troops are not easy to mess with!

So Zhou Xuexi said very happily: "It's easy to say, I will say hello to the people below, and you can just let people go over to do it when the time comes!" ”

The two of them are also Beiyang military and political officials, so it is naturally impossible to talk about the details of the commercial loan in person.

After leaving the Governor's Palace, Zhao Dongyun sent Zhou Xuexi to leave in a sedan chair, and then he went directly to the Yamen of the Military and Political Department, and he had to go to his post to meet his boss, Feng Guozhang, the general office of the Coaching Office.

Although it is said that his deputy position is different from the ordinary deputy position, he is the assistant of the special driver and gun, and in a certain way, it has little to do with the training office of the Military and Political Department, and is more like a temporary post.

However, even if he is suspended, Feng Guozhang is still his boss, so the etiquette on the surface has to be fulfilled.

However, Feng Guozhang obviously also knew the inside story of the matter, and after meeting Zhao Dongyun, he didn't put on a boss stand, but said very kindly: "Dongyun, you're back, I've been thinking about having another drink with you for a long time, just today, I'll set a table in the evening, just to catch you up!" ”

In the face of such an enthusiastic Feng Guozhang, Zhao Dongyun is really hard to say anything else except for laughing and laughing, just looking at such an enthusiastic Feng Guozhang, Zhao Dongyun always feels that something is wrong!