At the end of last year, Wu Fengling led his troops to enter Shanxi from Shijiazhuang through the Zhengtai Railway, and Enshou, the governor of Shanxi loyal to the Southern Federation, led the 43rd Mixed Association under his command and a large number of old troops to resist stubbornly, but although Enshou gathered a lot of Shanxi troops, there were not many new troops that could fight, and the full battle was only a target formed before Yuan Shikai's death.

As for the remaining standards of the 43rd Mixed Association, they are all adapted from the old army, and even the guns are all messy old guns, and there are not a few artillery, this 43rd Mixed Association is so unbearable, let alone the thousands of other old troops of all kinds under Enshou's hands.

Although Wu Fengling is not as famous as the Beiyang Four in the Beiyang system, he is also one of the seven towns of Beiyang before Yuan Shikai's death, and the second town under his command is the Beiyang lineage troops, and the combat effectiveness is even stronger than Duan Qirui's fourth division and Wang Shizhen's sixth division.

So after half a month of fighting, Wu Fengling stubbornly relied on superior forces to break through the heavy forces set up by Enshou to intercept, and then killed all the way to Taiyuan, and took Taiyuan in only two days.

However, after taking Taiyuan, Wu Fengling's life was not very easy, because he also fell into a situation of insufficient troops, and although he took Taiyuan at that time, most of Shanxi, especially the prefectures and counties in the southern and western regions, were still loyal to the Southern Federal Empire.

As a result, he was forced to divide his troops to fight one prefecture after another, and the terrain of Shanxi was not a large plain like Zhili, and the railway was only built to Taiyuan, and there was no other place in Shanxi, and the speed at which the Second Division advanced into the west and south of Shanxi was extremely slow.

It took only half a month for Wu Fengling to set off from Shijiazhuang to conquer too far, but in the following months, he failed to completely control the prefectures and counties in Shanxi, the reason for which was not only that the terrain was not conducive to the mobility of the army, but also that his troops were insufficient.

After all, when he was busy recovering various prefectures and counties in Shanxi, and wanted to bring the whole of Shanxi into the scope of control, Zhao Erxun, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, was not idle, he gathered troops from Shaanxi and other parts of Shanxi, and even troops from Gansu and other reinforcements, preparing to counterattack Shanxi.

In the face of Zhao Erxun's search for troops to resist and even counterattack in Shanxi, although Wu Fengling's troops continued to win battles, beating the new army and the old army of the Southern Federation like dogs, but it also inevitably caused a lot of losses, and Wu Fengling's troops also suffered more than 2,000 casualties in four months, and the ammunition was consumed.

In order to make up for the shortage of troops, Wu Fengling, like all contemporary warlords, also expanded his army on a large scale, and created two so-called Shanxi militia groups. This new unit also needs ordnance and ammunition, and the original second division consumes a lot of ordnance and ammunition, so it also needs to replenish a lot of ammunition.

As a result, Wu Fengling also faced the same problem as Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen, Zhang Huaizhi, Wang Ruxian and others, that is, they needed to buy firearms!

The easiest and most convenient way to buy firearms is naturally imported, as long as there are rich foreigners, they can even deliver them to their homes! After the outbreak of the civil war in China last year, the prices in the international arms market in the Far East reached a new high; taking the standard 75-mm artillery shells as an example, the price of the German origin has been as high as 45 taels of silver, and the price of the rest of the British and American arms dealers is also about 40 taels, and the Japanese 'this product is cheaper, but it also costs about 38 taels.

Even the 75 mm artillery shells produced by the domestic Fuyuan machine qì factory, which has the lowest quality and the lowest price, have been affected by the rise in the price of imported raw materials, and the price of public sales to the outside world is more than 35 taels of silver per shot, even if Zhao Dongyun buys from the Fuchang at the factory price, but the price also needs 32 taels of silver, as for Zhao Dongyun to sell it to Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen after a hand, the price is 35 taels or even 36 taels.

You must know that before the Russo-Japanese War, the price of 75 mm shells produced by Fuchang was only twenty-five taels!

Shells are like this, rifles are no exception, taking the current large-scale use of the Japanese 30-year rifle and the German 88-style rifle as an example, the Japanese 30-year rifle before the Russo-Japanese War, the Beiyang Army from the Japanese to buy a new 30-year rifle price will not exceed 28 taels of silver, but now, Wang Yingkai from the Japanese himself to buy a second-hand 30-year rifle for 20 taels of silver, you must know that in previous years, these second-hand guns did not even cost 15 taels of silver.

In the case of Type 88 rifles, the ex-factory price of Fuchang does not fluctuate much, and it has been maintained at about 30 taels in recent years, although the two arsenals in Hanyang and Jiangnan in the south do not have such a factory price, but their cost price has always been higher than that of Fuchang, and it is estimated that it will be about 323 taels. As for the second-hand Type 88 rifles promoted by the Germans in large quantities, in the past few years, they were all limited by the orders of the Qing court, and after ordering the local governors to give priority to the purchase of domestic Type 88 rifles, the second-hand Type 88 rifles of the Germans were generally not sold much, and the price was once as low as fifteen taels of silver.

However, after October last year, with the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, the demand for ordnance, especially the 7.92 mm caliber standard rifle, increased greatly, at that time, whether it was the two arsenals in the south or the Fu factory in the north, their output was far from meeting the huge domestic demand for firearms, so many people set their sights on second-hand goods.

Wang Yingkai, who has been using Japanese weapons, bought a second-hand 30-year-old rifle from Japan, while other warlords all chose the second-hand 88 type of the Germans, which led to the soaring price of the second-hand 88 type in the Far East, a second-hand 88 type 88 that is eighty percent new, rifled and properly maintained can be sold for twenty taels, and the sealed 88 rifle that the Germans have not used is even more expensive than the Fuzao rifle, reaching 35 taels of silver.

At this price, you may not be able to buy it, and you can't get the goods in a short time if you buy it, so the spot price often has to continue to rise on the basis of this price.

In the environment where there is such a shortage of ordnance in the Far East market, Zhao Dongyun, who holds the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, can be said to be lucky.

In addition to the long-barreled field guns, artillery sights, binoculars, artillery balloons, and other high-tech ordnance that need to be imported, other rifles, artillery shells, and even mountain artillery, light and heavy machine guns can basically be purchased from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, which is much cheaper than imports.

Moreover, due to the relatively large output of the Fuyuanji Factory, after the three divisions and five brigades under Zhao Dongyun were fully loaded, although there was still a plan for the patrol regiment to change its equipment and prepare for the expansion of a new infantry division, it was still impossible to consume the huge output of the Fuyuanji Factory, especially the rifles.

You must know that with the gradual expansion of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory in recent years, the production of rifles has increased, and the production of rifles has been increased by overtime during the war, and the daily production of rifles has been as high as more than 300 rifles.

This day is the output of more than 200 branches, a month is more than 6,000, such an output Zhao Dongyun naturally can not be consumed alone, after all, when the Fuyuan Machinery Factory was originally designed and planned, the task of this factory was to undertake the supply of ordnance to the entire North China, not just to supply the tens of thousands of troops under Zhao Dongyun's hands.

In addition to the rifles of this Fuchang for the newly expanded troops and the refitting of the patrol force, some of them are also in reserve, and the extra ones are conditionally supplied to several other Beiyang warlords.

Among the many warlords in Beiyang, except for Wang Yingkai's subordinates, all of them use Japanese weapons, the rest of them all use 7.92 caliber ordnance, if Zhao Dongyun is willing to sell, they are naturally willing to buy Fuchang's ordnance, which has nothing to do with preference, just because the price given by Zhao Dongyun is cheaper, and the transportation is also timely, and the goods can be obtained earlier.

"I gave Duan Qirui another thousand guns this month, right?" Zhao Dongyun didn't look at the report in his hand, but asked directly.

As the head of the ordnance department, Zhao Dongping, who manages the procurement of ordnance and also manages the private business of ordnance exports, said: "Yes, in addition to a thousand guns, there are four heavy machine guns, and another 300,000 rounds of ammunition!" ”

"Someone came to me yesterday and said that he wanted to place an order for 3,000 guns and 20 heavy machine guns and 2 million rounds. Mountain artillery, mortars! ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded after hearing this: "It seems that Duan Hefei has fished a lot in Jiangbei, and he also purchased at least 6,000 guns a few months ago, and now he wants 3,000, I'm afraid he will have to expand another brigade." ”

Zhao Dongyun did not immediately make a decision on whether to buy or not, but continued to ask: "What about Wang Shizhen and Wu Fengling, Zhang Huaizhi?" What's the list for this month? ”

Zhao Dongping said: "Wang Shizhen of Hubei purchased 1,500 guns this month, with 800,000 rounds of ammunition and eight machine guns!" ”

"Wu Fengling from Shanxi also sent someone to buy 3,000 rifles, 3 million rounds of ammunition, and 12 machine guns!"

"Henan Wang Ruxian didn't place a new order this month, they have purchased a total of 4,000 guns in the first half of the year, and now I'm afraid it's full."

"Zhang Huaizhi from Shandong didn't come to a new list this month, and he only purchased 500 guns last month, and the department heard that he hooked up with the Germans in Qingdao and bought a batch of second-hand 88 rifles from the Germans!"

"And these people more or less want to buy our artillery!"