Although Zengqi does not have much people and money on hand now, the main defense of Fengtian has already relied on the third town under Zhao Dongyun and the Jinzhou patrol battalion, but no matter what, Zengqi is the highest military and political leader in Fengtian, and his status is generally comparable to that of other provincial governors.

The feudal ministers of the Qing Dynasty can be roughly divided into several kinds, the first is the well-known governors, such as the governor of Zhili, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, the governor of Huguang, and the governors of Huguang. As for the other governors, there was not much difference.

The second type is the governor who everyone is also familiar with, but the governors of each province are very different, if there is no governor of a province under the governor's control, then the power is not small, almost a miniature version of the governor. But if there is a governor at the top, then the power is much smaller, and the governor of a province different from the governor is fine, at least the civil power can be guaranteed, but if there is a governor of the same province or even the same city, it is basically in name.

The above two are the so-called 'governors', which people often call the ministers of the frontier. However, there were several other feudal ministers in the Qing Dynasty, such as the governor of Jiangbei, General Shengjing, General Heilongjiang, General Jilin, etc., which seemed to be only in charge of military affairs, but in fact, the above positions could manage local civil affairs, and he was one of the feudal ministers of the Eight Classics.

Among them, the Jiangbei Admiral has been controlled by Beiyang in recent years, and the people who hold this post are all senior generals from the Hunan Army or Beiyang.

However, General Sheng Jing, General Heilongjiang, and General Jilin are not within the strength of the Beiyang faction for the time being, because these positions have always been dominated by Manchurians.

For a general like Zhao Dongyun, who has already climbed to the top of the Beiyang New Army, the next step is to serve as a squire and a scholar in the central government, or to serve as a feudal minister in various provinces.

Since Zhao Dongyun became the commander of the third town, he has been planning his next step of promotion, and what he expects the most this year is to be able to seek the position of 'Jiangbei Admiral' with the support of Yuan Shikai, because this position has always been held by the Beiyang faction, and outsiders can't interfere, so if there is only competition within the Beiyang system, it will be much less difficult for Zhao Dongyun.

In addition, the governor of Jiangbei is nominally the position of military commander, but in fact he can manage civil affairs, and he is one of the ministers of the feudal frontier, holding both military and civilian powers, which can be regarded as a miniature version of the governor.

At that time, it is estimated that it will be more difficult to take the entire third town to take office, but according to the tradition of the governor in the late Qing Dynasty, it should not be a problem to bring only part of the troops of the third town, such as a co-ordination, and then bring his own private Jinzhou patrol battalion over. At that time, after a few years of looting in the local area, he will be able to train the strength of two or three towns, and when the world is in turmoil in a few years, it will be enough to give himself the advantage of having a few towns.

If this road doesn't work, then Zhao Dongyun also considered learning Duan Qirui, waiting for the end of the Russo-Japanese War to return to Zhili with the third town, and then holding on to the third town and not letting go, and then concurrently serving as the principal of several military schools in Beiyang or something, and then strive to be the commander of one or two large-scale exercises, so that he can almost get a military department right squire to add the title, lucky to estimate that there will be a left squire to add the title, this way does not seek to promote much official, only to firmly hold the third town and in the Beiyang system to raise hope.

Just like Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai are doing now.

After five or six years of accumulation, he should be able to barely keep up with the pace of Feng Guozhang and other bigwigs in terms of prestige, and then wait for the Qing Dynasty to collapse and Lao Yuan ascend to the throne, relying on the power and prestige he has accumulated in the Beiyang system for so many years.

These two paths seem to be bland, and they can even be regarded as lacking in passion, but for Zhao Dongyun's ascension, these two paths are the easiest and most likely paths.

As for staying in the Northeast to develop, to be honest, although Zhao Dongyun has also thought about it, he doesn't have much expectation for it.

Why? Because the Northeast will be established as a province in the future, even if Zhao Dongyun holds the third town when the three eastern provinces are established, it will be difficult to become the governor of the three eastern provinces when the province is established, and the candidate for the new governor should be transferred from several other governors or simply send a certain Shangshu to serve, as for the Beiyang system, except for Yuan Shikai and Xu Shichang, the qualifications of others are still a little bit worse, Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai dare not expect the position of governor of the three eastern provinces, let alone Zhao Dongyun, who is a younger generation.

As for taking Duan Zhigui's path to become one of the governors of Heilongjiang, Jilin or Fengtian after the establishment of the province, to be honest, Zhao Dongyun is not very interested in this.

Because as I said earlier, it is actually very tragic for a governor to have a governor above, not to mention full control of the military, and even civil affairs, finances and other powers may be taken away by the governor above.

If he was only a Fengtian governor in Xinhai after a few years, and the third town and the Jinzhou patrol battalion in his hands were taken away, why did Zhao Dongyun fight with Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang?

It's not impossible to say that the governor is not impossible, for example, the governor of Shandong or the governor of Anhui are good positions, but unfortunately no one will let him take the third town to take office!

That is to say, in many previous plans and preparations, Zhao Dongyun actually did not consider staying in the Northeast for a long time to develop, which can be seen from his actions in Liaoxi, it has been almost two years since he arrived in Liaoxi, but he was stunned that he did not engage in industry and arsenal like other predecessors in the local area.

He even let the Jinzhou patrol battalion under his command make all kinds of money in western Liaoning, and he didn't have the slightest idea of establishing a base in western Liaoning, and even thought that once a conflict broke out with Japan and Russia, he could block it, and if he couldn't stop it, he would immediately flee back to Zhili with his troops, and whoever wanted it in the northeast would take it.

However, now that Zengqi has been recalled by the imperial court to report on his work, Zhao Dongyun has seen hope, a hope to gain a foothold in the Northeast and establish a foundation!

Zhao Dongyun was not an expert in modern history in his previous life, he knew that there was such a thing as a province in the Northeast, and he also knew that the future governor of the three eastern provinces was Yuan Shikai's staff Xu Shichang, but he had not studied the history of the late Qing Dynasty, so naturally he did not know some small nodes of history, such as the imperial court calling Zengqi back to Beijing to report on his work, and even heard that Zengqi might be deposed, so that Zhao Dongyun's historical understanding of the Northeast lacked for several years.

He thought that Zeng Qi should serve until the eve of the establishment of the Northeast Province, but he didn't expect that Zeng Qi would not even be able to survive this year.

Once the position of General Sheng Jing is vacated, then it is an opportunity for Zhao Dongyun, the governor of Fengtian after the establishment of the province in 1907 is naturally worthless, but General Sheng Jing in 1905 is very valuable, even if most of Fengtian is still in the hands of Japan and Russia, but it cannot be denied that General Sheng Jing is one of the more than a dozen feudal ministers of the Qing Dynasty.

And for Zhao Dongyun, there is another advantage, that is, now Japan and Russia are still fighting on the side, and now the focus of Fengtian and even the entire three eastern provinces is not to develop the economy or any political reform or other things, but there is only one center of gravity, that is, to avoid and block the Japanese and Russian armies from crossing the Liao River, so as to ensure the security of western Liaoning and even Gyeonggi.

And who is in charge of the defense of Mukden and even the entire three eastern provinces now?

Zhao Dongyun!

There are nearly 60,000 or 70,000 new and old troops in the three eastern provinces, not to mention those messy old armies, which can be directly ignored in general, and the combat effectiveness is actually the third town under Zhao Dongyun and the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and the Fengtian patrol battalion under Zengqi can barely fight bandits, but it is still far from the standard of the new army.

That is to say, now Fengtian's defense is controlled by Zhao Dongyun, and in the past, Zengqi, the Shengjing general, basically didn't care about anything, and only relieved refugees on weekdays, while military affairs, especially the defense of Liaoxi, were basically handed over to Zhao Dongyun.

However, now that Zengqi is gone, the imperial court will either transfer someone else to be a nominal Shengjing general, or simply appoint Zhao Dongyun as the Shengjing general, so that he can be in charge of Fengtian's defense in the name of righteousness.

And this is Zhao Dongyun's chance, and even Beiyang's opportunity!

For Zhao Dongyun, he can directly become one of the more than a dozen feudal ministers of the Qing court, and for Beiyang and Yuan Shikai, he can completely infiltrate the power into the Northeast, and then greatly expand the activity space of the Beiyang system.

Almost as soon as it was rumored that Zeng Qi was going to return to Beijing to report on his work, Yuan Shikai sent a private secret message to Zhao Dongyun, asking him to strictly control the situation in western Liaoning and at the same time send people to Beijing for activities or two.

What are the activities in Beijing?

To put it bluntly, it is to go to Jingshi to bribe Prince Qing and other powerful people in the court, which is related to important positions in the feudal territory, even if there is Yuan Shikai's recommendation and the support of the entire Beiyang, but the money that should be spent cannot be less, otherwise how can you let the magnates of Jingshi accumulate that rich and rival country's family business.

After receiving Yuan Shikai's secret telegram hinting at his bribery activities, Zhao Dongyun thought hard for a long time, not only did he have to think about how to open the gap to compete for the position of General Shengjing, which originally belonged to the Manchurians, but he also had to think about what impact would it have on the follow-up situation once he fought for it, and even became this Shengjing general?

There is no doubt that the Qing court will definitely be more jealous of the Beiyang faction, which may lead to the weakening of the imperial court's integrity of Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang faction, and at the same time, his own entry into Mukden will also have some unpredictable changes in the current Russo-Japanese War situation.

And more importantly, is it a good thing or a bad thing for me to become the master of Mukden?

The advantage is obvious, he can justifiably control Fengtian Province, and then expand the army, develop the local area and establish his own base camp.

The disadvantages are also obvious, and once he enters Fengtian, he is a kind of Cheng dù on the Beiyang system and stands on his own, although the three northeastern provinces still belong to the Beiyang lineage in the first few years after the establishment of history, but after a few years, the three eastern provinces have basically become independent, and after the Republic of China, it has developed into the Feng system, which basically has nothing to do with Yuan Shikai is the Beiyang lineage.

Without the big tree of Yuan Shikai to cover him, can he resist the pressure of the court and the local government?

And once the governor of the three eastern provinces is established in the future, if he can't grab the position of governor of the three eastern provinces, but Xu Shichang runs over to be his boss, where will he go then?

What's more important is that this matter will disrupt all Zhao Dongyun's previous arrangements, you must know that he is preparing for the post of Jiangbei Admiral as soon as the Russo-Japanese War ends, and once he obtains this position, he almost represents the sea and the sky.

However, now all the arrangements have been disrupted to seek the position of General Sheng Jing, and the gains and losses are already difficult for Zhao Dongyun to predict.