For Zhao Dongyun in July 1903, the overall situation was calm, and after arriving in Jinzhou, he stared at the situation between Japan and Russia with his eyes wide open, and at the same time, he also stepped up training for the Third Mixed Association and built fortifications.

However, outside of Jinzhou, which is slightly calm, the situation in the entire Northeast and even the entire Far East is already becoming more and more tense, because the Qing Dynasty, Russia, Japan, Britain and the United States and other countries in the Northeast issue are frequently clashing, and the three countries at the core of the storm are naturally China, Japan, and Russia.

Since the summer of 1903, Russia has been increasing its troops in the northeast, and Japan has begun to carry out large-scale war preparations, and the Chinese side has been forced to take corresponding military movements to deal with it.

But it's China, but it's actually Beiyang, just like the First Sino-Japanese War back then, if a war breaks out with Japan and Russia in the northeast, it will also be a war of the Beiyang family, and it has nothing to do with most of China's southern provinces, and even has nothing to do with Cixi Guangxu, whether it is victory or defeat or even neutrality, it is all a matter of Beiyang.

This may seem like an exaggeration, but it's actually true!

Otherwise, among the hundreds of thousands of various armies in China, why was only one of the third mixed forces in Beiyang sent to the northeast? Why is everyone clamoring for the recovery of the Northeast, but no one is willing to pay even a tael of silver to prepare for the war and expand the army? To put it bluntly, they feel that it is none of their business, hang high, and brag about it in the back, and it is impossible for them to send troops or support military spending.

Zhang Zhidong, Cen Chunxuan and others all shouted to march into the Northeast, but one of them was in Hubei and the other was far away in Guangdong, not to mention sending their new troops to the Northeast (in fact, they didn't have many new troops in their hands), and they were not even willing to take out a tael of silver to support the Beiyang New Army garrison in Liaodong.

Zhao Dongyun's Third Mixed Association stationed in Jinzhou, the cost is actually not small, the opening fee, the construction of barracks, the construction of fortifications, the purchase of ordnance and hoarding for backup, before and after has spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, part of which was Yuan Shikai made means from the hands of the Qing court, and the remaining part was taken out by Beiyang himself, Zhang Zhidong and Cen Chunxuan would not kindly pull over hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for Zhao Dongyun.

Therefore, when the situation in the Northeast was tense in 1903, don't look at the turbulence of the whole China, but just like the angry youth and five cents in later generations, most of them are only talking but not doing goods, so that they can shout loudly, but if they really want to do something, most of them will shout: "If others don't do it, they want us to do it?" ”

Therefore, Hitler's sentence is still very true: those who dare to sacrifice for the country and the nation are always the few.

It was Beiyang that really reacted to the tense situation in the northeast, and sending Zhao Dongyun to Jinzhou was only one of them, and then Yuan Shikai continued to expand the army on a large scale because of the tense situation in the northeast to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

Well, that sounds too glorious, but that's! The reason why Yuan Shikai expanded the army, the fundamental purpose is to increase the military strength of his subordinates to control more power, as for dealing with the situation in the northeast, it is just an excuse, without the tension of the situation in the northeast, how could Yuan Shikai take out enough silver from the Qing court to expand the army, without this money, how could his Beiyang army be expanded to the six towns of Beiyang in later generations.

However, these really high-level things have nothing to do with Zhao Dongyun, although he is already one of the high-level leaders in Beiyang, but he has not reached the point where he can affect the domestic political situation and even the situation in the Far East.

In Zhao Dongyun's heart and even in the hearts of many officers of the Third Mixed Association, the best way to continue to grow is to turn the Third Mixed Association into the Third Town, but this is easy to say, but in fact it is very difficult to do.

The main thing is the question of money!

Yuan Shikai has limited money in his hand, and before the Qing court pulls down large-scale military spending, it is impossible for him to support the simultaneous expansion of the two towns, which is like in the first half of the year, Beiyang has long wanted to train the Fourth Association, but because at that time, the third Association of Zhao Dongyun was proudly compiled, and the training plan of the Fourth Association was delayed again and again.

It was not until in May that Zhao Dongyun's Third Association was initially formed into an army that the Fourth Association was formally launched, and later the Beiyang Standing Army established two towns and one association, and the main funds from top to bottom of Beiyang were also invested in the training of the second town, and the Third Mixed Association that had already been organized and trained into an army only maintained the investment in maintaining funds, and it was impossible to invest several million taels of silver in a short period of time to expand the Third Mixed Association into a town.

Therefore, it is not easy for the Third Mixed Association to become the Third Town!

However, this is considered from the perspective of the entire Beiyang New Army, and for Zhao Dongyun, if the higher authorities do not give him the funds for the official establishment and expansion of the army, then he will have to find his own way.

If you want to expand the army, you don't have to have a formal establishment and court funds, and you can also use other methods, such as reorganizing those old armies, collecting bandits, and so on.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun once again felt that it was beneficial for any warlord to recruit and train troops independently, and even solve the funds by themselves, because this meant that even if the superiors did not give them the establishment and funds, Zhao Dongyun could find a way to expand the army by himself.

"The more than 2,000 old troops in the Jinzhou patrol battalion have been reorganized, and about half of them have been eliminated, and the remaining 1,000 people are currently being trained by the Education Section!" Lin Yongquan stood in Zhao Dongyun's office and reported to Zhao Dongyun on the reorganization of the old army.

When Zhao Dongyun first arrived in Jinzhou in June, he complained to Yuan Shikai and asked for reinforcements, but Yuan Shikai had reinforcements sent to him, but he couldn't say that he didn't give any reinforcements, and finally had to scrape together more than 1,000 Zhili training troops from Yongping, Tongzhou and other places to send to Jinzhou.

At the same time, after learning that Zhao Dongyun led his troops into Jinzhou and intended to improve the combat effectiveness of the local defense troops when rectifying the old local army, General Zengqi of Sheng Jing combined with Yuan Shikai to combine more than 1,000 Jinzhou defense troops in Jinzhou and more than 1,000 Zhili training troops from Jinzhou into the Jinzhou patrol battalion, so as to cooperate with the Third Mixed Association to serve as the defense of Jinzhou.

and instructed Zhao Dongyun, the commander of the Third Mixed Association and the alternate prefect, to conduct the training.

Although this Jinzhou patrol battalion has more than 2,000 people, its actual combat effectiveness is not even as good as that of bandits, for example, the Mabu guerrillas of the Fengtian Provincial Patrol Battalion established immediately after the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion, well, it is the bandit of Zhang Zuolin who was incorporated by Zengqi, although there are only 500 people, but they are also strong and strong, although they are not as good as the regular army, but they are very handy in fighting other bandits.

However, Zhao Dongyun didn't expect this Jinzhou patrol battalion to have any combat effectiveness, what he wanted was just a name and an establishment, after all, with the establishment of the Jinzhou patrol battalion, the imperial court would pay military expenses.

Now is not the period of warlord melee, Zhao Dongyun has no way to directly collect taxes and raise the army locally, now whether it is to expand the army or raise the army, most of them need to be paid by the imperial court and Beiyang, and now, you have to add Fengtian.

The military expenses of Zhao Dongyun's army came from a variety of sources, half of which came from the Zhili Provincial Appropriation, some from the Qing Court's household department, and some from the Shengjing General's Mansion. Of course, this is only a general source, and there are many subdivisions under these three items, such as how much is intercepted from a certain customs every year, and the annual misappropriation of the funds of the former Suyi pro-army and the Yuanzi battalion.

Of course, Zhao Dongyun doesn't have to worry about these details, anyway, every month Yuan Shikai will raise all these bits and pieces of money to send him, and the part of Fengtian is because part of the defense expenses and the cost of the Jinzhou patrol battalion after the Third Mixed Association is stationed in Jinzhou are also borne by Jinzhou and Fengtian.

Regarding the funding of the Beiyang New Army, I can write a master's thesis in detail, and I will not mention it here.

Zhao Dongyun's Third Mixed Association has sufficient sources of funding, but if he wants to expand the army, he must find another source of funding, and now this Jinzhou patrol battalion has given him this name.

Since this Jinzhou patrol battalion was sent by Yuan Shikai and Zengqi to him as reinforcements, and also asked him to retrain the army, then he naturally unceremoniously aimed his butcher knife at this Jinzhou patrol battalion.

Since June, Chen Guangyuan, the number one general who has been reorganized under his command, has directly eliminated thousands of people in the name of reorganization, and the remaining young men who can barely get by are also stuffed into the new barracks of the education department.

And in this way, this Jinzhou patrol battalion stored in the regular army of the Qing court only exists on paper, and there is not a single soldier left!

"Now the Jinzhou patrol battalion can move about 15,000 silver per month, plus the 5,000 taels per month allocated by Fengtian's side to assist in defense, although it is less, but from other aspects, squeezing and moving, it can barely allow us to practice a standard." Lin Yongquan handed over a table, which said the various expenses required to train an infantry standard, and also marked the current sources of funds of the Third Mixed Association.

"We can afford the monthly cost of maintaining a target, but how to solve the costs of purchasing ordnance, building barracks, and settling-in expenses in this place where the army is built?" Zhao Dongyun looked at it and frowned and asked.

"There is no good way in this regard, we can only squeeze it first, and there is still a lot of money left in front of the opening fee, ammunition replenishment fee and barracks construction fee, and some of it is used to buy ordnance and settle in money!" Lin Yongquan said.

Zhao Dongyun shook his head after hearing this: "That money can't be moved, it's our third mixed association's family background, and we have to keep it for backup!" You'll have to find another way to buy ordnance and settling-in expenses! If it's really not good, you don't need to fill it all at once, you can practice with the old gun first! Slowly purchase every month in the future! ”