From the year of Gengzi to the year of Yisi, Zengqi has always been relatively unlucky, in the year of Gengzi, the Russian army marched all the way west, and tens of thousands of troops under Zengqi were beaten to a pulp, and then Zengqi went a lot of relationships before he was dismissed, and in the next few years, he has always wanted to make some achievements to save his political career.

For example, the pacification of bandits and the formation of a standing army were all efforts by Zengqi to regain control of the situation in Mukden, but with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, they all came to naught.

This is not counting, after Zhao Dongyun arrived in Jinzhou strongly, almost the entire western Liaoning was included in the defense area, and after 1905, he almost completely took over the defense of Fengtian, not only that, but even Feng Delin and other generals in the Fengtian Standing Army also had to look at Zhao Dongyun's face.

Zengqi, who did not have strong military power in his hands, became a vain general of Shengjing, and what he was able to do in the past year was to help refugees and the like.

After a long period of accumulation, the idle Zengqi naturally made the imperial court dissatisfied, and then recalled the capital to report on his work, but on the surface this seems to be just a report to Beijing, but the discerning people know that the imperial court is very dissatisfied with Zengqi's inaction, and this time Zengqi is estimated to have no hope of being transferred back to Shengjing after returning to Beijing.

Therefore, although there is no rumor that Zengqi will be dismissed, the people who have a peep at the position of General Shengjing have already taken action one after another, and the fastest action is naturally Zhao Dongyun who is close to Jinzhou.

"You should know what you're going to do when you go to Jingshi this time!" Zhao Dongyun asked Zhao Dongping to sit down and said: "I won't say much, but you have to remember that Jingshi is not Jinzhou or Baoding, and when you go to Jingshi, you will put away all your past factions, don't let people think that the people under me Zhao Dongyun are all domineering." ”

Zhao Dongping nodded and said: "Third brother, don't worry, this time I will go to Beijing to pretend to be my grandson and send money, even if someone slaps me, I will laugh!" ”

Zhao Dongyun snorted lowly when he heard this: "I'm letting you be low-key, not letting you lose my face!" ”

Zhao Dongyun continued: "You must always remember that you are going to Jingshi on behalf of me, what you can't do, what you must do must be carefully considered, and you don't have to worry too much, I have already sent a telegram to Uncle Chenbin, and he will go to Jingshi with you at that time, and learn how to treat people and things!" ”

Zhao Dongyun knows that his cousin relies on his power on weekdays, whether it is in Jinzhou or Baoding, he does not have much scruples, except for a few bigwigs in Beiyang who can make Zhao Dongping jealous, most of the time he does not take other people in his eyes, but this time he went to the capital, but he planned to bribe the powerful people in the DPRK, so he had to put away his arrogance in the past and keep a low profile, but at the same time, he could not be bullied, so he represented Zhao Dongyun's face.

If Yuan Shikai recommended him to serve as General Shengjing, those powerful people in the DPRK and China would say a few words like 'Zhao Dongyun is too young and not qualified', then it would not be good, so Zhao Dongyun fed them first.

At the beginning of April, after Zengqi received 20,000 taels of Chengyi from Zhao Dongyun, Zengqi recommended Zhao Dongyun to act as General Shengjing during his return to Beijing to report on his work, and the next day the imperial court replied to his performance.

As a result, Zhao Dongyun became the acting general Shengjing during Zengqi's return to Beijing to report on his work, and it is worth noting at this time that this 'acting' is temporary and short-term only valid during Zengqi's return to Beijing.

Historically, during Zengqi's return to Beijing, it was Fengtianfu Yin and Shengjing's household servant Lang Tingjie who acted as the general of Shengjing, and a month later was succeeded by Zhao Erxun, the head of the household department, and now Zhao Dongyun is actually squeezing Tingjie's position.

Similarly, the controversy over General Sheng Jing actually officially began at the moment when Zengqi left Mukden, and Zhao Dongyun's acting General Sheng Jing was just a prelude.

After Zeng Qi returned to Beijing, Zhao Dongyun's plan to send money was carried out as usual, but it had not yet opened the prelude to the competition for the position of General Shengjing, and they were all waiting for Zeng Qi to be officially removed from the position of General Shengjing by the imperial court. However, after waiting for more than half a month, he did not wait for Zengqi to be removed, but came the news that Zengqi was worried.

Well, although this news surprised everyone, whether it was Ding Wei or transferred, it was certain that Zengqi would leave.

For a time, there was a rumor in the court that Zhao Erxun should be recommended to take over as General Shengjing, but this trend of public opinion has not yet formed the mainstream, Yuan Shikai is on a piece of music to formally recommend Zhao Dongyun to take over the post of General Shengjing, he said: The victory or defeat of Japan and Russia in today's eastern province is not divided, and the slightest carelessness will be in danger of war.

On the surface, the previous words say that the candidate for General Sheng Jing is very important and needs to be carefully chosen, but sometimes the words of the political family cannot be seen on the surface, because the subtext of Yuan Shikai's words is: Liaoxi is guarded by the imperial court in my Beiyang, if this position is not given to my generals, Lao Tzu will withdraw his troops from Liaoxi, and don't blame me when the Japanese and Russian armies hit Beijing.

Then he directly recommended Zhao Dongyun without any scruples: At the time of the crisis in Eastern Province, people must be good at military affairs. Zhao Dongyun, a second-grade alternate Taoist, has trained 20,000 soldiers since he went to Jinjin, suppressed bandits, and defended the western part of Liaoning to control Gyeonggi.

Yuan Shikai's purpose in recommending Zhao Dongyun was very simple, just like Yuan Shikai in later generations vigorously promoted Xu Shichang to be the governor of the three eastern provinces, Yuan Shikai wanted to include Fengtian and the entire Northeast into the Beiyang system's sphere of influence.

Maybe for Zhao Dongyun to become the general of Shengjing, he can become one of the ministers of the feudal territory, and then get a territory that can do a big job, but for Yuan Shikai, Zhao Dongyun's territory is Beiyang's territory, and Zhao Dongyun's third town and Jinzhou patrol battalion are Beiyang's army, so supporting Zhao Dongyun as Shengjing's general is in the interests of Beiyang and in line with his Yuan Shikai's interests.

In the face of Yuan Shikai's strong recommendation, there was a lot of public opinion in the DPRK and China, but then after Prince Qing Yixuan, who laughed at Zhao Dongyun's 100,000 taels of silver, also seconded Yuan Shikai's recital, Zhao Dongyun's appointment as Shengjing's deadlock became a foregone conclusion.

The whole process is much simpler than Zhao Dongyun imagined, and it is not at all full of intrigue as written in those conspiracy novels.

In the process of competing for General Shengjing, in fact, it has little to do with Zhao Dongyun himself, and it is Yuan Shikai who plays the leading force, to be precise, Zhao Dongyun did not think about competing for the position of General Shengjing at the beginning, but Yuan Shikai saw the opportunity to incorporate Fengtian into the Beiyang system, and pushed Zhao Dongyun to the front to compete for the position of General Shengjing.

Even Zhao Dongyun sent someone to Beijing to bribe, but Yuan Shikai hinted at it!

When Zhao Dongyun threw hundreds of thousands of taels of silver into the capital and settled many court magnates who had not achieved enough things and had more than enough failures, Yuan Shikai's letter of recommendation was to give this matter a given, without giving Zhao Erxun and other so-called competitors the slightest chance.

It can also be seen from this that the Beiyang system in this era is very strong, it has not only controlled several provinces of northern China, but also influenced various important decisions of the central court.

Before the Russo-Japanese War, it was okay, although the Beiyang system was strong, but it was not enough to decide the Cheng dù of the feudal ministers of other provinces, but with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the strength of the Beiyang system was almost a step a day, which can be seen from the development of the military strength of the Beiyang system, before the Russo-Japanese War, Beiyang was only a new army of four towns, but now there are six towns standing army, in addition to the standing army of the Beijing banner, the Jinzhou patrol battalion and several other side military forces, Then at the beginning of 1905, Beiyang already had 100,000 fighters.

When anyone opposes Yuan Shikai, they must first consider the strong military power possessed by Beiyang.

On May 7, the imperial court officially approved Zengqi's Ding Wei, and on the same day, he added the title of Zhao Dongyun's right attendant of the military department, and appointed him as the general of the town guarding Shengjing and other places, and appointed him to concurrently serve as the commander of the third town of the Beiyang Standing Army and the supervisor of the Jinzhou patrol battalion, and at the same time succeeded Zengqi and the supervisor of the Fengtian patrol battalion and the supervision of the Fengtian Supervision and Training Office.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun's official position is more troublesome, he is 'the general of the town guard Shengjing and other places', the title is 'the right squire of the military department', and the grade is 'from the first product' according to the general Shengjing, and then he also has a new army rank 'the second level of the upper class, the rank is the same as the deputy commander' In addition, there are a lot of positions, such as the third town of the Beiyang Standing Army, the supervision of the Jinzhou patrol battalion, the supervision of the Fengtian patrol battalion, the supervision of the Fengtian Supervision and Training Office, the supervision of the third town with the camp school, and so on.

The officials at the end of the Qing Dynasty, especially those feudal ministers, generally held several or even a dozen positions, such as the Beiyang tycoon Yuan Shikai, and the current Zhao Dongyun.

And Liu Yongqing, who was released to serve as the minister of Xinjiang at the same time as Zhao Dongyun, was also the same with Liu Yongqing, who was not only in Fengtian Province in April and May, but also in Jiangsu, where there was a provincial incident, and at the beginning of the year, the imperial court set up Jianghuai Province in northern Jiangsu, but it was opposed by a large number of gentry, and finally it was forced to revoke in April, and then the post of Jiangbei Governor was established.

When Yuan Shikai pushed Zhao Dongyun to compete for the Shengjing general, he also pushed Liu Yongqing, a veteran in the Beiyang system, to the position of Jiangbei Admiral, and the time of the award of the official was on the same day as May 7.

That is to say, on the day of May 7, there were two more feudal ministers in the Beiyang system at once, which is enough to prove the strength of the Beiyang system during 1905.

In 1905, this was the era of Beiyang!

When the imperial court telegram was sent to Jinzhou, in the face of the congratulations of a large group of subordinates, Zhao Dongyun was already thinking about how to clean up the mess left by Zengqi.