Since the South Courtyard of Jinzhou Li's Manor was regarded as the Third Mixed Association Headquarters, dozens of staff members of the Third Mixed Association Headquarters have been stationed here, mainly in various offices directly under the Third Mixed Association, such as the Ordnance Section, the Law Enforcement Section, the chief officers and clerks of these departments, and the other is Zhao Dongyun himself and his escort team, these people add up to more than 100 people, of which Zhao Dongyun's escort team accounts for more than 50 people.

As mentioned above, most of the institutions of the Beiyang Standing Army are concentrated at the military level, and there are no military quartermasters, ordnance and other institutions at the town and association levels, and there is not even a pro-soldier team or a pro-army guard and the like.

Among them, the town headquarters has two guards (that is, the main eyes of the guards), and the other eight Ma Ben (cavalry) and eighteen guards (infantry), adding up to only twenty-eight people. And there are even fewer infantry associations, only one guard, four horses, and nine guards, adding up to just fourteen guards.

The number of escorts in the infantry guild is actually the same as the number of escorts in the infantry standard, while the escort in the infantry battalion is four less cavalry.

If you look at it in this way, then it can be clearly seen that the two levels of the association and the town are too scarce, and they are simply unable to effectively carry out the important task of encircling the town headquarters or the association headquarters, and it is difficult to even meet the necessary vigilance.

The establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army during the period had many defects, and this defect became even more obvious after Zhao Dongyun led his troops into Jinzhou, and the staff of the organs directly under his Third Mixed Association were as high as sixty or seventy, not including the logistics personnel attached to them, and the personnel around the Third Mixed Formation Headquarters were as high as more than 100 people.

However, the original escort force of the Third Association was simply not enough for more than 10 people, so the establishment of the Third Mixed Association was taken as an opportunity to say that although the status of the Mixed Association was slightly inferior to that of a town, it could not be regarded as an ordinary infantry association, and the number of various institutions directly under the Third Mixed Association was large, and in order to assume the responsibility of guarding, a platoon of escorts should be set up for it.

Therefore, in the end, the escort team of the headquarters of the Third Mixed Association was more than the first and second towns of the Beiyang Standing Army, reaching 50 people, with one chief and one deputy platoon commander of the escort team, and two cavalry sheds and two infantry sheds under its jurisdiction.

In this way, it can be regarded as slightly meeting the vigilance requirements of the Third Mixed Association Command, and of course, on the other hand, it can also be said that Zhao Dongyun's personal security has also reached a higher level.

It's just that so many people squeeze into the headquarters in one go, naturally it is not good, although the south courtyard of the Li manor is large, but it is definitely not possible to live so many people, so this south courtyard is actually just an office space, most of the staff still live outside, and some of the guards also live outside the Li manor.

However, although there are not many people staying directly here, many office workers come in and out during the day, so the south courtyard is still very lively, many wings in the courtyard have been converted into offices, which are full of desks, and the copywriting of each number of books shuttles among them, and the personnel who pass the orders and documents run quickly, and some of them trot to the front yard after getting the documents, and then ride a fast horse and go straight away.

Relying on the dozens of office personnel of the headquarters, many affairs of the Third Mixed Association can be handled one by one, so that this war plane can maintain normal operation.

As the helmsman of this war plane, although Zhao Dongyun has given a large part of his power to various ministries and agencies, many subordinate agencies will at most deal with unimportant trivial matters for him, and most important matters still need to be handled and decided by him personally.

In order to prevent subordinate supervisors at all levels from deducting soldiers' salaries, Zhao Dongyun divided the military salaries into three parts according to the military system, one part was mailed to the families of the soldiers, and the other part was deducted for the cost of rations and uniforms, while the remaining part was distributed to the soldiers by the commanders at all levels according to the original custom, but Zhao Dongyun ordered that the quartermaster section of the headquarters of the association directly dispatch personnel to the soldiers of various units.

On the one hand, it is to avoid the drawbacks of the commanders at all levels deducting the soldiers' salaries and eating empty salaries, and on the other hand, it is also to further strengthen Zhao Dongyun's personal influence among the soldiers, and he has to let the soldiers know that it is I, Zhao Dongyun, who pays you, but not the commanders at all levels.

Even in order to strengthen this influence, Zhao Dongyun would pay the troops together with the people of the quartermaster department when he had time, although because of his limited time, this kind of thing could only go to one or two battalions a month, but it was better than nothing.

"The ninth standard will not go this month, go to the horse team to see, but I am short of time, your quartermaster department must hurry up, it is best to do it within two days!" Zhao Dongyun said.

Hong Putao, the chief of the quartermaster section below, said: "I understand, we will dispatch manpower to speed up the salary work on the side of the horse team, and we will never miss the schedule of adults!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded and said, "Well, that's good!" After saying that, he glanced at Hong Putao again, and then said meaningfully: "There are many things in the Quartermaster Section, you have to remember to be careful on weekdays, and don't let people outside find anything wrong." ”

Hong Putao listened and said: "Don't worry, my lord, I know that many people outside are gossiping, but I will never live up to your expectations, and I will definitely handle this matter properly in the Quartermaster Department!" ”

This Hong Putao used to be one of the copywriters of the new machine gun battalion, he was more than forty years old, and he was an old talent, but he failed to pass the exam for a long time, and his family was also a bitter cold family, and the whole family was waiting for him to make money to support his family.

Later, after the newly built machine gun battalion was disbanded and Zhao Dongyun was transferred to the commander of the Third Association, the personnel of the battalion headquarters of the new machine gun battalion were also transferred to the headquarters of the Third Association, and Hong Putao continued to serve as Zhao Dongyun's copywriter.

I have to say here that Hong Putao's copywriting is different from the soldiers, they are not paid a salary, but a salary, that is to say, they are not active soldiers, but hired employees, if according to the tradition of the Hunan army and the Huai army, they are Zhao Dongyun's personal staff, but they are just paid by the public.

As the scale of the Third Association became larger and larger, by the time the Third Association was formally established, there were as many as dozens of copywriters and writers from various organizations in the Third Mixed Association, and among them, the largest number of personnel in charge of the army's food and salary logistics were more than 20 people.

However, Zhao Dongyun chose the chief of the quartermaster section not only to see ability, but more importantly loyalty, after picking and choosing, he chose Hong Putao, Zhao Dongyun chose him because he had been following him since the first half of last year, but he was one of Zhao Dongyun's subordinate staff who had been following him for a long time, and he was usually more observant, and when he was in charge of the quartermaster affairs of the new machine gun battalion, he also handled things properly, although he couldn't find anything good, but he couldn't find anything wrong.

To tell the truth, Hong Putao's ability to do things is average at best in dozens of copywriters' books, but sometimes the ability to employ people is only secondary, and the quartermaster department, an important department that controls the food and salary logistics of the whole army, must be controlled by confidants, and it must be controlled by henchmen who are not so greedy.

Combining many factors, Zhao Dongyun chose the not-so-brilliant Hong Putao as the chief of the quartermaster section, and this naturally attracted the dissatisfaction of many people, who thought about picking out Hong Putao's mistakes every day and making small reports, which in turn could play a role in supervising and promoting Hong Putao, and the discord between Hong Putao and his subordinates and colleagues would also lead him to further strengthen his ties with Zhao Dongyun and rely more on Zhao Dongyun's support to sit in the position of chief of the quartermaster section.

This is another small means of Zhao Dongyun!

As Hong Putao went out, Zhao Dongyun dealt with many articles on the table again, but after a while, Li San walked in: "My lord, it's time to go to the artillery camp!" ”

Zhao Dongyun raised his head at this time: "Are you ready?" ”

"Several adults are waiting outside, and the escort team is ready!" Li San is also different from the past, and now he is wearing a low-level military attache officer in the Beiyang Standing Army.

He can be said to have followed Zhao Dongyun for the longest time, during the second battalion of the right wing of the Wuwei Right Army, he was one of Zhao Dongyun's guards, and then followed Zhao Dongyun to the new machine gun battalion, the third association, the third mixed association, and now it has been two years.

And this Li San was also promoted all the way, from an ordinary guard to a horse guard, to an eye guard, and then to today's deputy platoon commander of the escort team. The reason why he did not directly become the platoon commander of the escort team was because he followed Zhao Dongyun almost all day long, and acted as Zhao Dongyun's adjutant and secretary in a certain way.

It is impossible to have too much time to control the entire pro-guard team, so the captain of the pro-guard team is Wei Dazhi, another guard who has followed Zhao Dongyun for many years.

That Wei Dazhi, like Li San, is also an old guard who followed Zhao Dongyun during the period of the Wuwei Right Army, but he is literate with Li San, and he is more clever, this person is a big old and rough one, he was born in Ma Ben, he has superb riding skills, and he plays a very clean and neat saber in one hand, and his combat effectiveness is not inferior to the elite cavalry in the third standard of the horse team, in fact, this person is more suitable to be a cavalry to impact the enemy formation, rather than to be Zhao Dongyun's escort platoon leader.

But then again, such a fierce elite knight can let Zhao Dongyun hand over his safety to him, and if something happens on the battlefield in the future, Zhao Dongyun can count on him to take him to fight a bloody way.

Zhao Dongyun got up, and after leaving the office, there were already more than ten officers waiting in the courtyard outside, including Chen Guangyuan, the former commander of the fifth standard and the ninth commander of the current infantry team, Lin Yongquan, the staff officer of the Third Mixed Formation and concurrently the chief of the Education Section, Pei Lianying, the commander of the tenth standard gang, Liu Tinggui, the pipe leader of the third battalion of the Third Mixed Artillery Team, and many other infantry and cavalry leaders.