For those reports asking for money, he occasionally adds a few more words: transfer to the Ministry of Finance for processing, which means that I, Zhao Dongyun, approved in principle, and agreed to take money from the central treasury to support, so let you go to the Ministry of Finance to ask for money, but in fact, the Ministry of Finance is now in order to maintain the war and the operation of the government, there are many projects where spare money is given to various ministries and institutes.

As for those reports that can really get money, Zhao Dongyun will usually write a special article, so that the Ministry of Finance will give priority or discretion, if there is no such article, don't want to get a dime from the Ministry of Finance that leaks everywhere.

Later, in the report on the continuation of the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway forwarded by the Ministry of Communications, Zhao Dongyun was not very decided.

The construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway began in 1905, and the initial construction funds were drawn from the operating income of the Guanwai Railway, that is, the Beijing-Bong Railway, every year, but after Zhao Dongyun controlled the Beijing-Bong Railway in October last year, he naturally withheld the operating income of the Beijing-Bong Railway.

Now that Zhao Dongyun has moved into Beijing, those who are planning to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway naturally want to resume the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, and they did not say that they would let the central government pay for it, but hoped to restore the previous fund-raising model, that is, to use the operating profits of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway to continue to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

But Zhao Dongyun is a little embarrassed, because the operating profits of the Jingfeng Railway this year have actually been misappropriated to the Yingkou Railway and the Fushun Railway branch line, I am afraid it is difficult to squeeze out money to support the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is not repaired, even if the Cixi of the former Qing Dynasty commits two again, people also know that they want to build the railway to develop the economy and consolidate national defense, he Zhao Dongyun actually became this family, and the matter of building the railway naturally has to fall on his head.

And he not only plans to continue to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but also plans to build the historical Tianjin-Pudong Railway, but where will the money come from to build the railway? That's a big problem.

The secretariat's opinion on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is still the same, that is, it is not approved, but Zhao Dongyun rejected the secretariat's opinion and asked them to draft it again.

Although the central government has no money, if there is money, it will be used to expand the army and fight the war, anyway, don't expect the central government to come up with money directly for this kind of thing, and the operating profits of the Jingfeng Railway are gone, but the railway still has to be repaired, as for how to solve the funds, that is something that the people below need to consider, otherwise so many government officials are doing what to eat, and it is used to look good.

After the preliminary approval of these reports, Zhao Chenbin was also led in by Li San, and after sitting down one after another, Zhao Dongyun first spoke: "In the past two months, the Fuchang shape is still quite gratifying, and the production capacity has increased a lot compared with the past, but the ordnance required by our army for combat is also increasing day by day, especially the consumption of ammunition is increasing day by day, and more efforts are needed in this regard!" ”

With the gradual expansion of the Feng army, especially after the incorporation of many units of the direct army, the establishment of field troops in the Feng army today has reached six divisions and six mixed brigades, two cavalry brigades, and an independent heavy artillery battalion, three independent mortar battalions, the Eastern Railway, the Jingfeng Railway road escort team, the coastal defense troops of Yingkou and Huludao, and the weak navy. If we add the original and newly incorporated more than 30,000 patrol police units in the three eastern provinces, Zhili, Rehe, and other areas, as well as the Tianjin police force, then the total number of armed forces that Zhao Dongyun wants to raise has exceeded 200,000.

To support so many people, the financial pressure is not to mention, it is difficult to raise the required weapons and equipment alone, otherwise Zhao Dongyun would not let the first division and the first mixed brigade and the 11th division continue to use Japanese-style rifles, not because they don't want to change to a unified Fuzao 88 rifle, but they can't produce enough Fuzao 88 rifles to equip them in a short period of time.

In addition, the continuous operation on the front line is also a great challenge for the large consumption of ammunition!

In fact, ammunition is more expensive than artillery and rifles, and the ammunition money that the Feng army played out in the battle of entering the customs is enough for the Feng army to train several artillery regiments, and it is inappropriate to rely on imports to spend huge amounts of ammunition.

The price of ammunition in Fuchang is much cheaper than that of imports, so in addition to importing a batch of 79 bullets for emergency use, Zhao Dongyun is more willing to invest funds in Fuchang to allow them to expand production.

Zhao Chenbin said: "Now the Fu Factory is already at full capacity day and night production, and the Shenyang Arsenal has also started small batch production in advance, so it is very difficult to increase production capacity in a short time!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "I know all this, I didn't call you over today for this matter, I called you over today, I plan to raise funds to build another arsenal like the Shenyang Arsenal, I have already made the Ministry of Finance ready, and then the Ministry of Finance and Fuchang will jointly organize, and this new factory is ready to be built in Baoding!" ”

"Another factory?" Zhao Chenbin was puzzled as he spoke.

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "Well, the limitations of today's Fu Factory are still relatively large, and there are too many various projects, I built a business to separate the business, and in the future, Tangshan's Fu Factory will still focus on the research and development and production of technical weapons, and the consumable ammunition will be slowly transferred to the new factory in Baoding, all you have to do is to persuade the board of directors to support this plan!" ”

Although Zhao Chenbin had other ideas in his heart, Zhao Dongyun said so, so he naturally nodded yes: "Since the government and the military have this idea, then there should be no big problem on the Fuchang side!" ”

Although the Fuyuan Machinery Factory is said to be a factory, it has involved more and more projects over time, from bullets to naval large-caliber shells, from rifles to field guns, and even bullet bags to military knives.

Of course, Zhao Dongyun and the military don't care too much about these, what they care about is that now they put all the eggs in the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, in case this arsenal suffers any accidents, then it is not a heavy loss that can be described, but a catastrophe to be described.

Therefore, in line with the idea of sharing risks and expanding ordnance production at the same time, the military has always hoped to build more arsenals and reduce its dependence on the Fuyuan Machinery Factory.

However, in contemporary China, especially in northern China, if a brand new arsenal is to be set up, it is either necessary to start from scratch, and this is unrealistic for the Fengjun army who continues to expand the production of ordnance, so there is only one way left, that is, to continue the joint venture with the Fuyuan Machinery Factory and use the capital and technology of the Fuyuan Factory to expand production.

The preparation for the construction of the Baoding Arsenal is the product of a series of reasons, and the positioning of the factory is also relatively clear, that is, the ammunition factory, mainly smokeless medicine factory, picric acid medicine factory, 79 bullet production line and 75 mm artillery shell production line, and the production line of mortar shells and large-caliber shells will be added in the future.

However, the plant does not produce rifles, artillery and other weapons.

The funds are funded by the Ministry of Finance and Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and Fuyuan Machinery Factory provides technology and management.

If the factory can be put into production, it will greatly increase the domestic ammunition production, and at the same time, it will also allow the Fuyuan Machinery Factory to free up more energy to focus on the research and development and production of guns and artillery.

And when Zhao Dongyun was reorganizing the troops in the rear and developing the military industry, the battle on the front line also became fierce as the contact between the two sides increased.

In the direction of the Jinghan line, after the First Army went south to reinforce Shijiazhuang, Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen were successfully counterattacked by the main force of Meng Enyuan's First Army after they could not attack for a long time, although the losses of Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops were not large, but in order to avoid being surrounded and annihilated, they directly withdrew from Nanzhili along the way, shrunk on the line of Anyang, Henan, and used Wang Ruxian in this area to build a defensive line for more than half a year for defense.

After the end of the Shijiazhuang war, Wu Fengling hurriedly led the troops back to Shanxi, and the nineteenth town in Zhaoerxun, Shanxi Province has successively conquered a number of important towns in the southwest of Shanxi.

Before Wu Fengling returned to Shanxi, Zhao Dongyun generously fulfilled his promise, and he appointed Wu Fengling as the patrol envoy of Shaanxi, Gansu and Jin, with jurisdiction over Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu. Of course, except for most of these territories in Shanxi under the control of Wu Fengling, the rest are still in the hands of Zhao Erxun of the Southern Federation, and whether he can snatch it from Zhao Erxun is his Wu Fengling's business.

Of course, as Wu Fengling's return for taking refuge in Zhao Dongyun, the patrol of Shaanxi, Gansu and Jin provinces made this kind of false name not enough, people wanted real money and guns, so Zhao Dongyun directly took 3,000 Fuzao rifles and a batch of ammunition to him, and promised to sell him another 5,000 Fuzao rifles at a preferential price within half a year, and then there were extremely important artillery, Zhao Dongyun directly sold half and gave him a Japanese-style artillery battalion with a total of 16 artillery.

Of course, if Zhao Dongyun wants to regret not giving these weapons, it is okay, but Wu Fengling estimates that he will have to join forces with Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen to deal with Zhao Dongyun the next day.

In this situation, it is already a good choice to be able to win over Wu Fengling with a little interest in firearms, so to speak, it is good to win over an ally, if Wu Fengling is not won over, so many warlords in China will be all enemies of Zhao Dongyun.

When Wu Fengling returned to Shanxi to fight for his Shaanxi, Gansu and Jin provinces to patrol the territory, Meng Enyuan led the First Army to continue to move south rapidly, and after completely controlling Nanzhili, he entered the territory of Henan, and is currently on the front line of Anyang and Wang Ruxian's and Wang Shizhen's coalition forces, and after the replenishment of troops and ammunition, the First Army is estimated to launch a large-scale offensive, so on the whole, the operation of the First Army on the Jinghan Line is relatively smooth.

Compared with the first army's smooth operation, the second army's march into Shandong was much more arduous, because there was no railway, the second army's southward march was to advance on foot, and then the follow-up baggage could be transported by canal, but it was not as convenient as the railway, which led the second army to the southward speed was relatively slow.

When they were still on the road, Zhang Huaizhi's troops had successfully returned to Jinan, and the Second Army, which had not been able to grab Jinan, could not continue to move south regardless of Jinan, so it was ready to launch the Jinan Campaign, but to launch a large-scale offensive war, a large amount of ammunition and reserve troops needed to be prepared, and these were difficult to solve by relying on the Second Army itself, and had to rely on the headquarters to deal with them as a whole.

When the Second Army's tentative attack on Jinan failed, in the face of the Second Army's request for help, Zhao Dongyun ordered the First Mixed Brigade, which had been resting for a long time, to set off south to Jinan for reinforcements, and at the same time to increase the supply of ammunition to the Second Army.

Under these circumstances, the Battle of Jinan officially broke out!