Since the assassination of Yuan Shikai in 1906 triggered the rebellion of the four major warlords in Beiyang, Zhao Dongyun has actually embarked on a path of death or death.

It's like sailing against the current, but there are some differences that if you don't advance against the current, you will retreat, and if Zhao Dongyun doesn't continue to move forward, then there is no way back at all, and the only end is death.

Zhao Dongyun's strength is the most powerful among the many warlords in Beiyang, so Wang Yingkai, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui and others began to unite against Zhao Dongyun last year and formed a de facto anti-Zhao alliance.

Under such circumstances, Zhao Dongyun was forced to develop his forces and expand his army in a more anxious manner, and this move undoubtedly further stimulated Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and others, and also led them to adopt a series of-for-tat policies, and Wang Yingkai's new 11th and 12th divisions were the most obvious examples.

In order to be able to continue to compete for the position of the boss of Beiyang surrounded by strong enemies, and considering that the development potential of the three eastern provinces in recent years is really limited, after seeing Duan Qirui's rapid rise in the south, he did not hesitate to choose to strike first, and decisively waved his troops into the pass, which directly triggered the war between the Feng army and the anti-Zhao alliance.

In several battles after entering the customs, although the Feng army under Zhao Dongyun won victory one after another, the pressure of the Feng army did not decrease at all, and Duan Qirui's rapid development in the south was like a knife hanging over his head, which could fall at any time. At the same time, due to the continuous outbreak of the war, the Soviet finances were further crushed, and the war has lasted for four months from the entry into June to the current October, and there is no sign of the end of the war in a short period of time, which also leads the Soviet finances to fall into a more dangerous collapse.

In this case, it is no longer that Zhao Dongyun can stop if he wants to!

Either a decisive battle will be held to suppress Duan Qirui's development momentum, or it will be a shrinking turtle to sit back and watch Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and others develop slowly, and then the Northern Expedition will kill itself again.

And Zhao Dongyun chose to continue!

The Battle of Xuzhou is also a direct product of this domestic strategic situation!

But on the other hand, this Xuzhou campaign has greatly increased the pressure on the Feng army again, the shortage of troops, the shortage of ammunition, the difficulties of logistics, and the most critical military expenditure is insufficient.

In the face of the above difficulties, Zhao Dongyun once again came up with a posture of becoming a benevolent if he did not succeed, and now he can't care about the subsequent over-issuance of paper money to cause inflation, nor can he take care of the continuous large-scale war to the continuous damage to his ruling area, he wants victory, if the war fails, then all the qiē will fail.

And this is the deep-seated reason why Zhao Dongyun insists on continuing to expand the army in this difficult situation!

It's just that not everyone will consider the problem from the highest perspective, and not everyone can have the same determination as Zhao Dongyun to become a benevolent person if he does not succeed, and many people are skeptical about continuing to expand the army in today's difficult situation.

However, even if it is a person like Zhao Dongping, they can doubt it in their hearts, but they can't stop Zhao Dongyun's decision!

"In addition to supplementing the lack of troops in the follow-up Ministry of Education, the recruits of the follow-up Ministry of Education will be transferred out to prepare for the 14th and 15th Divisions!" Zhao Dongyun opened his mouth to the expansion plan of the two divisions.

This made the following high-level generals look surprised, not to mention Zhao Dongping, a person who manages money, even a pure military staff general like Fang Biyong is also cautious, the financial difficulties of the Soviet system have always been no secret, basically the civil and military officials of the Soviet system know about it, and in this case, if the expansion of one or two mixed brigades is barely acceptable, but the expansion of two integrated infantry divisions, will this step be too big?

It's just that when Zhao Dongyun makes these important decisions, he will listen to the opinions of his subordinates on the surface, but in fact, whether it is the appointment of senior generals, strategic deployment, or the expansion of the army, in fact, he has always acted arbitrarily. On the surface, today's occasion could have been discussed, but in fact, he had already given orders without discussion among his subordinates.

Zhao Dongyun didn't care too much about the various expressions of the many subordinates present, and only listened to him: "The Ministry of Education must complete the work of supplementing the soldiers of these two new divisions within two months. Some of the officers who are required may be transferred from within the divisions, brigades, and headquarters as appropriate without affecting the combat effectiveness of each unit. The vacancy for junior officers can be filled by the last two accelerated graduates of the Mukden Military Academy. ”

"The ordnance required by the troops, due to the limited output of the Fu factory, we also have limited funds if we purchase it, so this rifle is temporarily transferred from the Fuzao 88 rifles in the patrol police units, and the patrol police regiments will temporarily replace the old rifles with them!"

"In terms of machine guns and mortars, a small amount can be allocated for preliminary training within a month, and then it will be supplemented depending on the situation, artillery!"

Speaking of this, Zhao Dongyun also dragged a long tail note: "Like the machine gun, a small amount will be used for training first, and then it will be slowly replenished!" ”

Zhao Dongyun's plan to build two new divisions was naturally not a whim, but after many days of careful consideration, he also considered many problems, and found solutions or alternative plans one by one, and although he made the decision to expand the army, he didn't expect to fill the newly expanded troops all at once, and then pull out to fight a decisive battle with Duan Qirui, he just wanted to make a start, and it was a big deal that the equipment was not equipped with heavy weapons to be used as cannon fodder troops.

Now that he controls many northern provinces, Shandong, and has a population of more than 100 million, how can he pull out hundreds of thousands of cannon fodder soldiers among so many people!

In World War II, when the German army attacked the Soviet Union, and the Soviet army continued to rout in the first few months, Stalin was still short of guns and artillery, but how did people play?

Two soldiers use a rifle, the soldier with the gun in front of him is killed in battle, and then the second soldier picks up the gun and continues to fight, even if there is no bullet, he is not afraid, as long as he can consume the enemy's bullets and shells, then this soldier has already played the value of cannon fodder.

And the cost of using this kind of cannon fodder soldiers is very low, because their survival in the war rarely exceeds a month, well, even the military salary will be saved at that time, as for the pension, have you heard that the warlord gave the soldier's family a pension when the warlord was fighting? It doesn't matter if others send it or not, Zhao Dongyun doesn't send it anyway.

Although Zhao Dongyun has the intention to use the newly formed troops as cannon fodder, the most basic conditions are still required, and the process of building the army will not be much easier.

Before entering the customs, although Zhao Dongyun controlled the huge three eastern provinces, the area was large enough, but at that time, the population of the entire three eastern provinces was also tens of thousands, and it was actually not easy to recruit enough soldiers from them, so when the Feng army had just entered the customs and had not yet defeated the Beijing division, it had already begun to recruit troops in various parts of Zhili.

Subsequently, with the Feng army gradually moving south, the recruitment station of the Feng army also opened all the way to Zhili, Shandong, Henan Province, the recruitment work in the past few months can be described as quite gratifying, especially in the three major regions of South Zhili, Shandong, Henan, because of the large population base, even if there are one percent of people to be soldiers, then it can easily recruit hundreds of thousands of recruits, so although the actual recruitment ratio is far less than one percent, but the Feng army has recruited at least 100,000 recruits in the past few months.

A considerable part of these recruits were used to supplement the existing units, especially the few divisions that had surrendered and been re-assembled, such as the 1st, 8th, 11th, and 1st Mixed Brigades.

And you can see that although the various units of the Feng army say that the shortage of heavy weapons is very large, but the soldiers have always maintained a full number, it can be seen that for the Feng army, there is no big problem in the replenishment of new soldiers.

For the same personnel, it is much more difficult for officers to replenish than soldiers, especially middle and senior officers! Although the Feng army accepted many surrendered officers who were originally in the direct line, the Henan line, the Lu army, and even the Anhui army, the direct appointment of them was mainly senior generals and basic officers.

For generals above the major general, such as Bao Guiqing, the commander of the First Mixed Brigade, and Lu Yongxiang, the commander of the First Division, they are to lure more senior enemy generals to surrender out of their money, so Zhao Dongyun is to keep these two original positions, and still let them serve as the commander of the First Mixed Brigade and the commander of the First Division. Then many people who are nostalgic for power will no longer consider defecting to Zhao Dongyun.

In addition to senior generals, middle-level officers, that is, the school officer class, officers at this level can not be arranged indiscriminately, of course, it is impossible to stay in the original post, but basically retain the original military rank and then transfer to other units of the Fengjun, a small number will serve as battalion commanders and other chief officers, but most of them can only serve as deputy positions, such as deputy regiment commanders, brigade staff officers, staff officers at all levels in the military department, the general headquarters, and the like.

And the basic officers at the lieutenant level, there are not too many worries, because these lowest-level officers are actually not qualified to intervene in the internal factional disputes in Beiyang, they just follow the trend, but in principle, they can directly call these people, and then appoint them as platoon commanders and company commanders, but in fact, because the tactical system of the Fengjun army is quite different from other warlords in Beiyang, these officers are often sent to the Fengtian Military Academy for temporary retraining, and after a month of short-term training, they will be redistributed to various units.

It's just that although there are many surrender officers, it is still quite large to replenish the huge shortage of officers within the Feng army!

Although the Fengtian Military Academy once abolished the crash course and started the official class, in fact, the crash course of various names has always existed, in addition to the crash course for retraining officers who are specifically for defection, there is also a crash course for soldiers after they are promoted to officers, and there is also a March crash course for social recruitment.

In addition to the traditional crash courses such as footsteps, riding, artillery, engineering, and baggage, there are actually crash courses in various professional subjects, such as communication classes, surveying and mapping classes, balloon classes, and so on.

The crash courses range from January to March or six months, and although the majors of these crash courses are very limited, they are still an excellent supplement to the shortage of officers in the army, especially those at the grassroots level.

In addition, the official class of 1906 of the Fengtian Military Academy will also graduate early, so in the near future and in the next two months, the gap of grassroots officers in the Fengtian Army can barely be filled.