Chapter 61: The Ambition of the Mixed Association

The situation of the Third Association that is different from the ordinary Infantry Association will naturally be seen by many people, but what can be seen, because there are two reasons for the situation of the Third Association:

The first is the competition for the position of the right town wing chief of the Beiyang Standing Army, for this position, in addition to Wang Yingkai, other people such as Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, Liu Yongqing, Wu Changchun and others have already personally gone into battle, trying to control the second standing army in the Beiyang New Army, and it is not easy for anyone to defeat everyone and ascend to the position of the right town wing commander.

The second is the problem of money, if Yuan Shikai is rich, he will not be as simple as just arranging a third association, people will directly train a whole right town, the third association and the fourth association are all on the horse together, but Yuan Shikai has only a little money now, but it is difficult to spend money everywhere, and it is difficult for Yuan Shikai to get another fourth association.

And the Fourth Association didn't come out, so how can we talk about establishing the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army!

Therefore, before the Fourth Association is not organized and trained, it is impossible for the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army to appear, and before the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army is formed, this third association will continue to maintain the current state, in addition to undertaking the training tasks of the Third Association itself, it also has to undertake many tasks of the headquarters of the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, including the jurisdiction of the second battalion of machine guns and the right standard of the horse team, and it is even estimated that it will not be long before artillery, engineering, baggage and other units will join the control of the Third Association.

For this situation, although Zhao Dongyun was tired to death, and the responsibility on his shoulders was almost out of breath, but he was extremely excited in his heart, and even hoped that the more troops under the jurisdiction of the Third Association, the better, and it would be better if he could be upgraded to the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army on the spot, and he would be the wing commander of this right town.

It's just that the possibility of the Third Association being directly upgraded to the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army is too small, and Zhao Dongyun has almost no expectations for this, but it is impossible to directly upgrade to the right town, but if it is to be mixed into an association, it is estimated that there is still a bit of a possibility!

If we compare the establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army with the modern military establishment of later generations, then it can be generally considered that the division is similar to the town, the brigade is equivalent to the association, and the regiment is equivalent to the standard, but the battalion does not need to change, the same is called 'battalion' and the company is a team in the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, the platoon is the same as the battalion, the name is the same, and the squad below is the shed.

This mixed association is what later generations called a mixed brigade.

Under the current system of Beiyang, although the possibility of establishing a mixed association is also very small, it is not impossible, because considering that the competition between the factions within Beiyang for the position of the right town wing chief is too fierce, and also considering that Yuan Shikai will not be able to take out more money to establish the fourth association and the right standard of the artillery team in a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, once there is a need for defense, it is possible to send the Third Coordination, which had been first organized and trained, to the front line, so that the Third Association can undertake the task of fighting independently, and in order for the Third Association to undertake the combat mission in one direction, then it must be equipped with various auxiliary units, including artillery, cavalry, machine guns, engineering, and baggage.

However, what is interesting is that now the Third Association already has cavalry and machine gun units, and even the Third Association already has an informal establishment, small-scale engineering and baggage troops, which means that Yuan Shikai only needs to give Zhao Dongyun another artillery battalion, so his Third Association is a real mixed association.

Of course, the above can only be regarded as Zhao Dongyun's own ambitions, which are purely wishful thinking, in fact, even if Beiyang is poor, this Beiyang Standing Army Right Town must be established, at most it will be postponed for a few months.

This can be seen from the establishment of Zhao Dongyun's Third Association, last winter Yuan Shikai was as poor as death, but left and right, tens of thousands of taels here, and tens of thousands of taels there were stunned so that he could make up the training funds of the Third Association.

So don't doubt the determination of a warlord to make money for the sake of expanding his army.

But then again, the current Beiyang Standing Army Right Town has not been established in the end, and Zhao Dongyun expects that it will take at least half a year before it can change.

And during this period of time, whether it is the right standard of the horse team or the second battalion of the machine gun team, it is under the management of the Third Association, if Yuan Shikai wants to train another artillery battalion in the past few months, it is estimated that it will also be directly assigned to Zhao Dongyun for temporary management, then the Third Association will become a de facto mixed association, as for how long this situation can last, it all depends on when Yuan Shikai's money bag can be relaxed.

"According to my opinion, it is estimated that the Fourth Association will be built by the end of this year!" As the No. 2 person under Zhao Dongyun, the staff officer of the Third Association and the general office of the recruit battalion, Lin Yongquan is also concerned about the future of the Third Association.

"But isn't it said that the situation in the three eastern provinces has begun to be tense again, and I heard that we are going to expand the size of our standing army! In this case, it is estimated that the Fourth Association will also be soon! Pei Lianying said: "Actually, even if the right town is established, our commander may not be able to compete for the position of the wing chief of the right town." ”

Hearing this Pei Lianying directly say that he also had the opportunity to compete for the position of the right town wing chief, Zhao Dongyun couldn't help but smile, could it be that in the hearts of these subordinates, he has become a big man who can compete with Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others?

His family knows his own affairs, although Zhao Dongyun is now one of the high-level officers in Beiyang, but he is only one of the high-level officers, not one of the few Beiyang bigwigs, his overall status is actually not much different from Chen Guangyuan, they all belong to the role of the second echelon of Beiyang, but he is more trusted and reused by Yuan Shikai than Chen Guangyuan, so he can be regarded as one of the top officers in the second echelon.

It is still far away from Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, Liu Yongqing, Wu Changchun and other Beiyang bigwigs in the first echelon!

Such a Zhao Dongyun would be better if he was the commander of the association, but if he didn't know the height of the sky and directly fought with Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others to compete for the position of the right town wing chief, it would be purely a long life.

From the end of last year to the present, the competition for the position of the right town wing chief of the Beiyang Standing Army is a war between Beiyang bigwigs, and Zhao Dongyun is just a forward general in this war, and Duan Qirui behind him is a strong contender for the right town wing commander of the Beiyang Standing Army.

It's a pity that Duan Qirui has not been able to take down the position of the right town wing chief since last year, this is not to say that he is not qualified enough or Yuan Shikai does not trust him, but Duan Qirui's status in the Beiyang system is originally the first person in the first echelon, if he is allowed to control a right town of the Beiyang Standing Army, then Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen and they will not have to look at Duan Qirui's face every day to live.

Therefore, in this war for the position of the right town commander of the Beiyang Standing Army, Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen all had a tacit understanding to unite against Duan Qirui.

This can be seen from their support for Chen Guangyuan to serve as the fifth standard commander, this Chen Guangyuan is not just a person who belongs to a certain faction, he can be regarded as a centrist, and the relationship with Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen and even Wu Changchun is not bad, he came to the third association to serve as the fifth standard commander, it is to fight with Zhao Dongyun under Duan Qirui's faction.

However, Chen Guangyuan is limited by the fact that the official is not as high as Zhao Dongyun, and his position is not as high as Zhao Dongyun, so he can't take much advantage of Zhao Dongyun in the ring of the Third Concord, and he can even be called suppressed.

However, he still blocked Zhao Dongyun's attempt to control the Third Association, among the two infantry standards of the Third Association, Zhao Dongyun also served as the sixth standard of the commander, needless to say, except for Sun Hanchen, the third battalion pipe band, who was Wang Yingkai's person, the other two pipe belts, three gang bands, and Zhao Dongyun's descendants of the large and small team officers, and Sun Hanchen could be regarded as completely hollowed out.

However, although the fifth standard was also brought in by Zhao Dongyun by various means, Zhao Dongyun was unable to completely control the fifth standard under Chen Guangyuan's strong counterattack, at best, Liu Fufu's first battalion belonged to Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun's faction, but the other two battalions were people from both factions, and Zhao Dongyun and Chen Guangyuan failed to completely control the second and third battalions of the fifth standard.

Zhao Dongyun and Chen Guangyuan were very happy to fight in the third team, what is it for, isn't it just to create a chance for those bigwigs behind them!

Therefore, even if Zhao Dongyun has been in the limelight in the past two years, he is not qualified to compete with Duan Qirui and others for the position of the right town wing chief, to put it mildly, he has not yet reached that level!

Zhao Dongyun has always thought that he is self-aware, just as he never expected that he would become a great man who saved the country and the people, let alone imagined that after he came to this era, he would casually use his lips to build China into a super power.

Everything he thinks and does is a rational goal he has set, and in the next few years or more than ten years, Zhao Dongyun's goal is one, that is, to climb higher and control more power and power in the Beiyang system.

Now it is also the case, it is a waste of brain cells to think about the position of wing commander, on the contrary, he prefers that the competition for the position of wing commander in the right town of the Beiyang Standing Army will continue to stalemate.

In this way, his third association can continue to maintain a transcendent independence, after all, no one wants someone to ride on the head and point fingers!

"There is no shadow on the Fourth Association, don't worry about those things, now our top priority is to train our own soldiers of the Third Association first, and when the time comes, whether it is the establishment of the Fourth Association or the right town, you here don't have to worry about being said!" As Zhao Dongyun spoke, he picked up the teacup, took a sip of hot tea, and continued:

"Now there are a lot of things to do with the reorganization of the Baoyang Horse Team and the Yuanzi Battalion of the Huai Army, and there are many people watching us outside, so I hope you don't slack off!"

"Now the right mark of the horse team that has been reorganized from the training army and the Huai army has almost set up a shelf, but I don't know why the commander has not been appointed above?" Hua Zhenji, who has been transferred to the first battalion of the horse team, was puzzled.

Zhao Dongyun listened, but said: "At this time, there is a decision of Lord Duxian, we don't have to worry about it!" ”

Although he said this, he also wondered in his heart, why has he not decided on the right leader of the horse team for so many days?