Zhao Dongyun looked at Yuan Shikai, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and others, and secretly thought to himself that as a member of the Beiyang system, he naturally understood the problems that Beiyang is facing today, and he also knows the many problems faced by Yuan Shikai and everyone here.

Today's Beiyang is no longer the glory of Li Hongzhang's era, after the two fiascos of Jiawu and Gengzi, not only let China be branded with humiliation, but also make the Beiyang system plummet, people say that Li Hongzhang recommended Yuan Shikai at the last moment, and handed over Beiyang's family to Yuan Shikai, but they rarely say that Li Hongzhang handed over to Yuan Shikai is a mess.

As the largest political group in China today, the de facto managers of North China today not only can't even come up with an arsenal in Beiyang, but Yuan Shikai can't even come up with a few million taels of silver for the formation and training of a standing army.

Zhao Dongyun knew these difficulties, but he still said: "Of course, the import of ordnance in a short period of time is still necessary, I just said that we must plan for the long term, we can't import weapons forever!" ”

After listening to Zhao Dongyun's words, Yuan Shikai spoke again: "The issue of ordnance does exist, whether it is the import of ordnance or the preparation for the establishment of a manufacturing bureau, we will discuss these later!" ”

Then he looked at Zhao Dongyun again: "You have been focusing on machine guns these days, and I hope that on the day when the standing army is formed, you can also see your machine gun battalion begin to take shape!" ”

Yuan Shikai's request is not simple, although the Qing court has just approved the official number of the Beiyang Standing Army, but in fact, its training work has begun last year when Yuan Shikai was just acting as the governor of Zhili, that is to say, they are talking now, the standing army Zuozhen has been organized and trained for half a year, just waiting for the number to officially become an army, and more importantly, the training of the standing army has a charter to follow, whether it is infantry, artillery or cavalry, it can be done according to the experience of the new army, but this machine gun battalion can be regarded as a new thing, Zhao Dongyun basically has to start from scratch.

However, Zhao Dongyun couldn't shirk anything from Yuan Shikai's words, and immediately said: "Don't worry, my lord, Dongyun will not let you down!" ”

Although there was a small episode of the arsenal in the middle of this meeting, the main body still revolved around the new machine gun battalion, and after the meeting, Zhao Dongyun was officially sent by the superintendent of the new machine gun battalion.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun's official title is "Zhizhou Liuzhi Appointment", the grade is the fourth grade, and the dispatch is the "Second Battalion of the Right Wing of the Wuwei Right Army" and "Supervision of the New Machine Gun Battalion", and this Zhizhou is his official rank, the fourth rank is his grade, and the commander and supervisor are just temporary dispatches, so strictly speaking, the current Zhao Dongyun has not been promoted compared with Zhao Dongyun last year, but the dispatch has changed.

Of course, in this day and age, grades are not valuable, but what is really valuable is dispatch.

Why are they all governors, but the governors of Zhili are worth more than the governors of other provinces, because the people who are the governors of Zhili have a lot of sends, such as Yuan Shikai as the governor of Zhili, and also concurrently serve as the minister of Beiyang, the minister of railways, the minister of electricity, the minister of conference and consultation, and so on.

The same is true for Zhao Dongyun, there is no difference between the grade of the third and fourth grades, and the official title is the prefect or the governor of the state There is not much difference for him, the important thing is the dispatch he has received, and today he was given the title of superintendent of the new machine gun battalion, which means that he can infiltrate his influence into the Beiyang system.

After coming out of the Governor's Palace, Zhao Dongyun originally went back to the mansion directly, but he hadn't taken two steps yet, and someone shouted behind him: "Dongyun!" ”

Looking back, I saw Wang Yingkai coming quickly, the new army uniform on his body was about to burst, and when he walked, the fat on his body shook and shook, making it hard to believe that the person in front of him was one of the core generals in the Beiyang New Army.

In today's people's impression, the Beiyang New Army of this era is undoubtedly the trendsetter of the times, especially the officers in it should be in good shape and decent appearance, and after wearing a new army uniform, most of the people want to shout 'fake foreign devils'.

However, although Wang Yingkai in front of him was wearing a military uniform, because he was obese and he still had braids, he didn't look like a new army at all, and Zhao Dongyun felt that he was better dressed in an old-style court dress or horse coat.

Wang Yingkai walked two steps, and the fat on his face trembled: "Dongyun, why are you in such a hurry!" ”

Although Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai do not have a relationship with each other, but the position is much higher than him, and the other party is one of the bigwigs of the Beiyang New Army, Zhao Dongyun naturally will not openly ridicule his obesity, and immediately said: "I want to go back to the house before going back to the camp!" ”

Wang Yingkai didn't care: "Don't be busy going back to the camp first, I also know that you are alone here in Baoding, I invited some people to Chongyulou to eat and drink tonight, you can come too!" ”

Although Wang Yingkai didn't look out of tune, and his tone of voice was also idle and quite kind, Zhao Dongyun scolded secretly in his heart after hearing it: You dead fat man, you will fight with Duan Qirui, what are you doing with me!

Now everyone in the Beiyang New Army knows that Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui are inextricably linked, and they are fighting each other almost everywhere, which has been fully demonstrated from the meeting just now. Now Wang Yingkai called Zhao Dongyun to the banquet, and it was clear that he wanted to dig up Duan Qirui's corner.

But looking at Wang Yingkai's harmless smile, Zhao Dongyun is not good at refusing directly, because if he refuses directly, then it will be tantamount to making it clear that he wants to stand on Duan Qirui's side, and in the future, Wang Yingkai will probably have to keep giving him small shoes to wear.

Immediately, he said: "Then Dongyun will nagged the adults to drink several times the wine!" ”

Wang Yingkai showed a satisfied look and said, "Okay, let's talk again in the evening!" ”

After that, he didn't wait for Zhao Dongyun, he went out directly, leaving Zhao Dongyun with a wry smile, since he has entered the Beiyang system, then factional strife is inevitable, if he is still an inconsequential instructor, then everyone will not pay attention to him, but since he served as the commander of the second battalion of the right wing, he has become a middle-level member of the Beiyang system, and he is inevitably affected by the competition of factions within Beiyang.

Looking up at the clear sky, and then turning to look at the gate of the Governor's Mansion behind him, Zhao Dongyun muttered in his mouth: Whoever you want to take refuge in, I will also take refuge in Yuan Shikai, why do you want to give up your roots and seek refuge in you Wang Yingkai!

Although he didn't care about Wang Yingkai's wooing in his heart, there was no need to offend people for no reason, Wang Yingkai wanted to invite him personally, which was enough to give face to Zhao Dongyun, if he Zhao Dongyun didn't agree to the banquet, it would be a naked slap in the face for Wang Yingkai.

Even though the good mood of the superintendent of the newly built machine gun battalion was destroyed a little by Wang Yingkai, today is still a good day for Zhao Dongyun, so he did not ride his horse and gallop directly along the way as usual, but walked slowly around the streets of Baoding with interest.

In this way, there was a rather strange scene on the streets of Baoding, a young soldier wearing a blue-gray officer's uniform was like a bun in the city for the first time, and he was curious about the street side, which made Lin Yongquan, who was leading the horse behind him, feel very strange.

Zhao Dongyun accepted the memory of the original body, but the memory in his mind is one thing, and seeing it with his own eyes is another.

The streets of Baoding now seem to be at a kind of intersection of the times, and the means of transportation alone are eye-opening for Zhao Dongyun: there are people riding donkeys and mules on the bluestone road, and there are also people sitting on mule carts, and there are also powerful families who ride in horse-drawn carriages. In addition, there were people pulling a Dongyang car that had just appeared in Baoding for less than two years, and Zhao Dongyun also saw a young man riding a bicycle and swaggering through the city.

If you add Zhao Dongyun and his party who are traveling on horseback, then the street in front of you has fully demonstrated the unique atmosphere of the late Qing Dynasty.

It's just that Zhao Dongyun regards these people in front of him as scenery, and in the eyes of others, Zhao Dongyun and others are not landscapes!

Zhao Dongyun could even hear the slightest whisper.

In a teahouse on the side of the street, a man with black eyes holding a cigarette stick and puffing out a big cigarette said: "Those are fake foreign devils, look, it looks so disgusting, that dress is the same as the foreign devil wears, you know it's a barbarian at a glance!" ”

A thin-faced man beside him, who was eight feet long but didn't have a few pounds of meat, also said: "Isn't it, look at them, they all walk like long cross-eyed, they don't know how to see the road, they are not afraid of falling to death, and the waist pole is so straight that they are not afraid of breaking bones!" ”

"Hehe, what you are saying is that these fake foreign devils have forgotten the rules of their ancestors one by one, you see that the one who leads has shaved off his braids, which is really embarrassing for our ancestors, and the clothes are disgusting to look at, tsk, there are our ancestors' horse coats and comfortable clothes!"

Zhao Dongyun heard these whispers, and then looked up at the two of them slightly, wanting to say something, but after half a day, he couldn't say anything, and finally took a deep breath to try to calm his mood, but at this time, even the air was full of the smell of ignorance and depravity.

Turning his head, he took the reins of the horse directly from Lin Yongquan's hand, and then turned over on the horse, and when the horse whip waved his legs and clamped it, he rode the horse away. Lin Yongquan, who was behind, didn't know what happened to his boss, so he could only hurriedly get on the horse, his body was not yet sitting, the whip in his hand was swinging wildly, and he was riding a war horse to chase Zhao Dongyun in an instant.

Zhao Dongyun and Lin Yongquan rode their horses and galloped, and the horseshoe iron hit the bluestone slab, making a burst of knocking sounds, as deafening as the thunder on a sunny day, and the man in the teahouse was startled by the sound of the horse's hooves, and his feet were soft and he couldn't stand.

Finally held on to the railing to make himself stand firm, and at this time, seeing that the original two fake foreign devils had galloped away, his legs were slightly apart, and then he took a deep breath and shouted: "You fake foreign devils, don't let the uncle look at you again, otherwise I will definitely want you to look at the third master!" ”

After that, he turned around triumphantly, and at this time, the tea guests inside also coaxed loudly: "The third master is bold enough!" ”

The third master smiled with satisfaction, and then put his arm on the cigarette gun and arched his hand to the tea guests inside, as if he had done something amazing.