Speaking of this, he glanced at Zhao Dongyun again, and then said to Yuan Shikai: "My lord, the reason why the machine gun team was able to shine in the winter exercise last year was inseparable from the tacit cooperation between the second battalion infantry team of Dongyun. Therefore, in the training of this machine gun team, it is also necessary to increase the cooperation between synchronous teams.

The effect of Dongyun's previous machine gun team is obvious to all, as the so-called one thing does not bother the two masters, I build yì Dongyun will also shoulder the heavy responsibility of this machine gun battalion again, so that the second battalion under Dongyun can also fully cooperate with the training work of the machine gun team! ”

Wang Yingkai's words made Duan Qirui's face change slightly, and at the same time, Zhao Dongyun's eyebrows wrinkled slightly!

On the surface, Wang Yingkai directly recommended Zhao Dongyun to serve as the commander of the second battalion and concurrently set up a machine gun team, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that Wang Yingkai's purpose is not Zhao Dongyun, his purpose is only one point, that is, not to let the machine gun team be set up under Duan Qirui's artillery, and in the Beiyang circle, everyone has basically defaulted to Zhao Dongyun as a member of Duan Qirui's faction, Wang Yingkai's hand is obviously to recommend Zhao Dongyun, but in fact, it is to weaken Duan Qirui's influence. This may also cause a gap between Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun.

Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui just said a few words, but everyone present could smell the strong smell of gunpowder inside, which made Zhao Dongyun, who was directly in the battle of the big guys for the first time, also feel a lot of pressure.

This is a battle between Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, not to mention that he Zhao Dongyun can't intervene, even Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen can only watch!

However, Yuan Shikai above didn't seem to see the hidden smell of gunpowder between these two people, but he looked at Zhao Dongyun again unhurriedly: "Oh, Dongyun, what do you think of yourself?" ”

Zhao Dongyun knew that he couldn't retreat at this time, no matter whether Duan Qirui or Wang Yingkai was involved, he couldn't retreat, because in front of him was Yuan Shikai, and in front of Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai were a fart.

"Lord Duxian, rest assured, Dongyun is confident that this machine gun team will be run well!" Without thinking too much, Zhao Dongyun immediately gave Yuan Shikai a letter of guarantee.

When Zhao Dongyun said this sentence without hesitation, the people who were actually present could already see that Zhao Dongyun could be said to have given up being sandwiched between Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, and he chose a more direct and efficient method, that is, he directly chose to throw himself into Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai nodded, in fact, before today's meeting began, he had already decided to let Zhao Dongyun be responsible for the training of the machine gun team, because there are only a handful of people in China who can understand machine gun tactics, and the person Yuan Shikai can use is actually only Zhao Dongyun. However, although he had already decided that Zhao Dongyun was in charge of the training of the machine gun team, now he felt good to see that Zhao Dongyun did not take care of Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui but directly took it down.

For the battle of his subordinates, Yuan Shikai is naturally well aware, and even a large part of Cheng dù is provoked by him, the reason for doing this can be roughly summarized as the technique of controlling the subordinates, if there is no factional struggle among his subordinates, then Yuan Shikai has to worry about whether his subordinates are planning to replace him. However, it doesn't matter if his subordinates have factions, the important thing is that his subordinates must always know that in the Beiyang system, he Yuan Shikai is the boss!

Zhao Dongyun made a promise to Yuan Shikai for the first time, and in Yuan Shikai's opinion, Zhao Dongyun did not put Duan Qirui or Wang Yingkai first, but put him Yuan Shikai first.

Yuan Shikai immediately nodded, showing a look of satisfaction and said, "In this case, you are still in charge of running the machine gun team!" ”

Yuan Shikai's fluttering words were to hand over the matter of preparing the machine gun team to Zhao Dongyun, and Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai and others on the side did not say anything against it, and their expressions were also expressions of appreciation and approval, as for what they were thinking in their hearts, it was not something that outsiders could know.

Next, this meeting is still based on Zhao Dongyun's explanation as the core, Zhao Dongyun talked about the use of machine guns and the formation of the machine gun team one by one and explained the reasons in detail, and a group of bigwigs sitting above him, including Yuan Shikai, listened quietly, and from time to time issued a sentence or two of doubts.

This kind of scene makes Zhao Dongyun feel quite good, after all, let Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, these Beiyang bigwigs listen to him like elementary school students, this kind of thing will not happen often!

In terms of battalion system, the armies of Anglia, Prussia and other countries have two per battalion, and an infantry division of more than 10,000 people is equipped with about 24 heavy machine guns. The number of our army in Beiyang Town is comparable to that of Taixi's 1st Division, and each town should be equipped with 24 machine guns. However, our army is newly built, and there are few machine guns or non-commissioned officers who operate guns, so the new machine gun battalion should not be dispersed, and the machine guns in each town can be concentrated into one battalion, which can be trained in peacetime, and then divided into one or two teams according to the situation in wartime and assigned to the infantry below to participate in the battle.

In this way, the newly built machine gun battalion can have jurisdiction over four machine gun teams, each team has three sentry posts, and each sentry has two heavy machine guns. Such a battalion had twenty-four machine guns and five hundred and fourteen sergeants. ”

Zhao Dongyun's mouth of this machine gun battalion is what he has begun to study a long time ago, not to mention how good, but at least in line with the current situation of Beiyang, from the perspective of later generations, this machine gun is the more the merrier, it is best for a division to get him hundreds or thousands, but considering that it is only 1902, not to mention whether there are enough well-trained soldiers to use so many machine guns, the expensive cost alone is enough to make Beiyang vomit blood.

In these years, the machine gun is still a new thing, although the price is much cheaper than the artillery, but it also costs thousands of taels of silver, not only the price of the machine gun itself is expensive, but also the bullet consumed by the machine gun is also a huge amount.

This kind of attrition is nothing for the great powers, but it is a big problem for China, which is industrially backward and even has to import machine gun bullets, which not only involves the high price of imported weapons, but also makes it easier to be controlled by others, and the arms embargo adopted by various countries against China is the most obvious example.

Taking advantage of today's opportunity, Zhao Dongyun simply said to Yuan Shikai: "My lord, if our army wants to equip machine guns on a large scale in the future, it will not only cost a lot to rely on imports, but also be very easy to be controlled by others in wartime, so the domestic manufacturing bureau can imitate machine guns on its own, so that it can be equipped with machine guns on a large scale in our Beiyang!" ”

Yuan Shikai nodded after hearing this: "I know about this!" ”

Yuan Shikai did not say that he would immediately imitate machine guns or the like, because it is too difficult to imitate them in a short period of time, although the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau in the early years made machine guns, but now the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau has declined, although there are Hubei Gun Factory, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and other provincial manufacturing bureaus, but the technology is still somewhat insufficient, and it is more difficult to keep up with the international advanced pace to imitate the heavy machine gun

Of course, this is to look at this problem from a national perspective, but these problems are not the most important for Yuan Shikai, and the most important thing is that whether it is the Hubei Gun Factory or the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau or the manufacturing bureaus of other southern provinces, they are not under the control of Yuan Shikai!

Yuan Shikai is the governor of Zhili and the minister of trade in Beiyang, and the power of the Beiyang system is basically in Zhili and Shandong, and Henan and Northeast can barely be counted, but it does not have much influence in the south.

In North China, which Yuan Shikai was able to control, there was originally a Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau, but this largest arsenal in North China was destroyed by the Eight-Nation Alliance during the Gengzi Incident, and Yuan Shikai did not control even one large arsenal at present.

That is to say, now you have to build your own heavy machine guns, either build a new arsenal, or invest money in the Hubei Gun Factory or the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to let them copy heavy machine guns. It is too difficult to build a new arsenal here, and it is impossible to get it without a few million taels of silver, and now Yuan Shikai can't even take out the money to build the Beiyang Standing Army, so there is spare money to build an arsenal.

As for taking the money out to let the manufacturing bureaus of the southern provinces make machine guns, it is better for Yuan Shikai to import them directly from abroad.

In this year's China, each province was an independent kingdom, and they had independent financial, military, and people's livelihood rights. When the Qing court needs money and mobilizes the army, you have to ask the governors below, otherwise those feudal officials really won't dump you, the southeast mutual protection in the Gengzi Incident is the most obvious example, the central government has declared war on the outside world, and the following provinces have even declared neutrality, this kind of thing is as nonsense as it is in a normal country.

So for Yuan Shikai, Beiyang is Beiyang, Nanyang is Nanyang, Nanyang provinces are actually not much different from other countries in Beiyang, take your own money to let other provinces develop military industry, and he won't do it if he is killed!

When Yuan Shikai pondered the issue of self-made machine guns, Wang Yingkai on the side also said: "Self-manufacture of ordnance is indeed a problem, and this is not only a problem of heavy machine guns, but also a problem of rifles, artillery, and even bullets and artillery. ”

Wang Yingkai continued: "Now we don't have a manufacturing bureau on hand, and the manufacturing bureau in the southern provinces will not supply us with ordnance, and everything we need needs needs to be imported, which will not only cost a lot in the long run, but also risk cutting off the supply of weapons in wartime!" ”

At present, a number of southern manufacturing bureaus, including the Hubei Gun Factory, have begun to mass-produce Type 1888 committee rifles, but the Hanyang made by them are all given to the new army and the old army in the south, and it is impossible to make even one Hanyang for the new army in Beiyang.

Duan Qirui, who was on the side, frowned and said: "Everyone knows that it is difficult, but now that our military spending is in short supply, and the time to become an army is urgent, although there are many disadvantages of importing ordnance, it is also a helpless move that has to be done!" ”