"Now that the Fourth Association of our standing army has just set up a shelf, there are no soldiers yet, and there are troops there to send him!" In the Baoding Governor's Palace, Wang Yingkai frowned.

However, at this time, Duan Qirui said: "Although the Fourth Association is newly established, the general shelf has also been fought, and it can be sent to Liaodong first and then slowly enrich the training, so that with the original troops of the Third Association, the shelf of a right town will also rise!" ”

Hearing that Duan Qirui turned the topic to the two of youzhen, Wang Yingkai was even more opposed!

What are you kidding, if you let the right town be built, this Duan Qirui will definitely be the wing chief! And in order to prevent Duan Qirui from controlling the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, he Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and others have been working hard for more than half a year, how could they give up lightly today, and immediately said: "If the fourth coordination of the empty frame is now transferred to Liaodong, it will inevitably greatly delay the period of the formation of the Fourth Alliance, and the large-scale expansion of our Beiyang Army is imminent, and this Fourth Association is the top priority of our Beiyang expansion in the second half of this year, and such a rash move will inevitably greatly affect the expansion of our Beiyang Army!" ”

"Moreover, now that Zhao Dongyun led the Third Association is already a mixed association, it can fight independently outside the country, and it is the second combat force of our Beiyang today, if the third association is forcibly stripped apart in order to establish the right town, I am afraid that it will greatly affect the combat power of the third association. I'm afraid that when the right town is not completed, the third association will already be in chaos! ”

At this time, Feng Guozhang also nodded and said: "What Shao Chen said is extremely true, Zhao Dongyun's Third Association has more than 7,000 people, and it has already formed an army of its own, and the artillery team and cavalry under its jurisdiction have everything. ”

When Duan Qirui heard the words of these two people, he couldn't wait to scold in his heart! At the same time, there was also a vague feeling in his heart that he regretted supporting Zhao Dongyun at the beginning, when Duan Qirui supported Zhao Dongyun to become the commander of the Third Association, he did not expect that Zhao Dongyun would become an obstacle for him to reach the top of the right town wing.

Immediately, he snorted: "If you don't send the Fourth Association, do you want to transfer Zuo Zhen?" ”

"Zuo Zhen shoulders the heavy responsibility of defending Gyeonggi and pressing the ground of Zhili, how can he draw troops to the east!" Wang Yingkai refused without hesitation, what kind of joke, it was impossible to dig the corner of his left town.

Looking at the quarrel of his subordinates, Yuan Shikai also felt a little embarrassed, according to his initial idea, Zhao Dongyun's Third Association must be established with the future Fourth Association to establish Youzhen, in fact, he also followed this idea to add horse teams, artillery teams, engineering, baggage and other troops to the Third Association, in order to lay the foundation for Youzhen.

However, people are not as good as heaven, and the great changes in the situation in the northeast in April led to Yuan Shikai to send troops to Liaodong, and the selection and selection finally decided Zhao Dongyun's Third Association, and when Zhao Dongyun was selected as the Third Association, it was also because the Third Association had complete arms and independent combat capabilities.

However, he did not expect that the independent combat capability of the Third Association would become an obstacle to the establishment of the right town!

If the Third Association was just an ordinary Third Association, then it would be logical to organize it as a right town together with the Fourth Association, but the Third Association is now a mixed association with independent combat capabilities, with many units such as cavalry standards, artillery battalions, and machine gun battalions. In order to organize the Third Association and the Fourth Association together as a right town, it would be necessary to deprive the Third Association of many troops that it had under its original jurisdiction.

Is it cost-effective to replace a third alliance that already has independent combat capability with a planned right town that has not yet been trained?

What's more, Yuan Shikai didn't just expand one right town, he also planned to expand more towns, and he didn't have to make the third and fourth associations into right towns.

"Now there are not many new troops on the ground in Zhili, and there is nothing that can be done to increase troops in Jinzhou!" Yuan Shikai said as he spoke: "Ahead, I asked Zhao Dongyun to reorganize the Tangshan Defense Army and train a battalion, and this battalion will be drawn to the Third Association!" ”

Yuan Shikai's words actually meant that he did not send reinforcements to the Third Association, because the battalion reorganized by the Tangshan Defense Army was used to control and defend the Tangshan Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and it was impossible to transfer him out, that is to say, even if he belonged to the Third Association, Zhao Dongyun could not transfer him to Jinzhou.

However, Zhao Dongyun's request for reinforcements also made the competition for the right town continue to appear within Beiyang, Duan Qirui tried to send the Fourth Association to Liaodong, and then form the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, and then he himself served as the wing commander, and this matter was resolutely opposed by Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and others.

Even Zhao Dongyun had a headache when he heard the news.

Why, because in addition to Wang Yingkai in the Beiyang system, it belongs to him Zhao Dongyun does not want the establishment of Youzhen the most, because that means that his status as the Third Association will disappear, so it can be delayed for as long as it can.

For this reason, he launched a private telegram to Yuan Shikai, saying that the Fourth Association was the weight of the expansion of the Beiyang army and should not be lightly transferred. He also said that if the troops were really tight, the staff would tighten their belts and hold on, and it would be okay if reinforcements did not come.

In other words, Zhao Dongyun would rather not have reinforcements than the Fourth Association running over, and then Duan Qirui also ran over to seize most of his current power.

It can also be seen from this matter that Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui have begun to break practically, if Zhao Dongyun was still an important member of Duan Qirui's faction before, and the interests of the two were tied together, then now the interests of the two people have conflicted.

When there is a conflict of interest, the alliance between the two is actually in name only!

In the face of the old problem of Right Town, and now is a critical period for the expansion of the Beiyang army, Yuan Shikai does not intend to continue to delay and cause things to change too much.

On June 27, Yuan Shikai ordered that the left town of the Beiyang Standing Army be changed to the first town of the Beiyang Standing Army, Wang Yingkai was still in charge, and the rest of the officials were all retained.

The original Zhao Dongyun's Third Battalion was renamed the Third Mixed Association of the Beiyang Standing Army, the original right standard of the horse team was renamed the third standard of the horse team, the first battalion of the right standard of the artillery team was renamed the third battalion of the artillery team, and the original fifth and sixth standards were renamed the ninth and tenth standards.

Two infantry battalions were transferred from the first town of the Beiyang Standing Army as the backbone, plus newly recruited soldiers to form the new Third Association, and from the first town of the Beiyang Standing Army, the first battalion of the cavalry and the first battalion of the new cavalry were recruited, and then two battalions were recruited to form the second standard of the horse team, and then the first battalion of the artillery team and two battalions of the new artillery team were transferred from the first town to form the second standard of the artillery team, supplemented by the third association established in the vanguard to form the second town of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Although Duan Qirui fought hard for the position of his control, due to the strong resistance of Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and others, Duan Qirui was finally forced to give up the position of the second town control, but Duan Qirui was not worthy of the position of the second town control, and he didn't want Duan Qirui to let go of Feng Guozhang and others.

The above is the result of the internal struggle of the Beiyang faction after more than half a year, in the environment of the expansion of the Beiyang army, everyone is trying their best to compete for a more advantageous position, and in this competition, although Zhao Dongyun could not make his own voice in the early stage, but still rose to the top in the competition between Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai and others.

In one fell swoop, he sat on the position of the commander of the Third Association, and in the changes in the situation in the Northeast in May and June, Zhao Dongyun was sent to Jinzhou by Yuan Shikai, thus avoiding the fierce fighting between the internal factions in Beiyang in June.

At best, it's just a name for the Mixed Association, but this is not what he loses is his greatest benefit!

In addition, although the competition between the factions within Beiyang was fierce, it did not affect the expansion of Beiyang, on the contrary, it further stimulated the pace of expansion of Beiyang, which can be seen from Yuan Shikai's establishment of the first town, the second town, and the third mixed association of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Of course, this town is currently just an empty shelf, Wu Changchun's second town now only has a name, and then he has to recruit troops and buy ordnance, even if it is a qiēshun lì, it will take at least half a year to become an army.

In the great tide of the expansion of the Beiyang army, Zhao Dongyun also took the opportunity to send a telegram to Yuan Shikai, saying that since the new army was too strong to send Jinzhou to the east, it was possible to send a training army, and then he would follow the precedent of the Tangshan Defense Army for reorganization.

Zhao Dongyun's mention made Yuan Shikai very interested, first of all, Zhao Dongyun didn't ask him for reinforcements from the new army, which was very important, because Yuan Shikai couldn't give it to him if he asked for it. The second point is that Zhao Dongyun didn't ask him for money directly, because Yuan Shikai didn't give him money.

Zhao Dongyun asked Yuan Shikai to reorganize the old army, saying that the Zhili defense army was no longer useful, and it would cost money and food to stay for a long time, so it was better to let him reorganize it, and use the way of eliminating the old army and training the new army, so that he could get a few battalions of the new army.

If Zhao Dongyun is allowed to reorganize the old army and train the new army, then the military expenses required by the new army will come from the original funds of the old army, that is to say, Yuan Shikai does not need to come up with too much money.

In addition, Zhao Dongyun was the main personnel of the reorganization of the old army in Beiyang in recent years, and his Third Mixed Association basically obtained funds through the reorganization of the old army, so as to train the Third Mixed Association. Whether it is the Su Yi pro-army or the Yuanzi battalion, or the Baoyang horse team or the Tangshan training army, these old armies are all reorganized by Zhao Dongyun.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Zhao Dongyun is the first person to reorganize the old army in the Beiyang system, and it is reasonable to let Zhao Dongyun continue to reorganize the old army now.

Immediately, Yuan Shikai didn't have too many concerns, and directly dispatched the first training army to Jinzhou, and handed over Zhao Dongyun for reorganization, so it was barely considered to send reinforcements to Jinzhou, and gave an explanation to Zhao Dongyun and others who wanted to send reinforcements.

Of course, the past training of these factions is useless, if Zhao Dongyun wants to get reinforcements, he has to follow the lead of Su Yi's pro-army and the Yuanzi battalion infantry team, and first reorganize them in one go, so as to free up the funds of these old armies to train the new army, and how many new troops can be trained in the end depends on his Zhao Dongyun's ability.