Chen Guangyuan looked at Zhao Dongyun, who didn't speak, and knew in his heart that his words about lifting yì to clean up Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin were a bit unreliable, but he didn't feel depressed, but quickly changed the topic: "Lu Chengtong and Shi Yang, how are they over there, they can more or less collect a batch of silver in the past few months!" ”

Meng Enyuan said: "This is also more difficult, they don't collect much money in Tai'an and Panshan, and it's not enough to maintain themselves, how much money can there be!" ”

Lu Shuanggun and Shi Yang's two cavalry teams were arranged to Tai'an and Panshan, Zhao Dongyun's idea of this was not to contain Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin, to be honest, Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin are not worth Zhao Dongyun to do anything, deliberately it is arranged, if it is not pleasing to the eye, it is not much of a problem to be directly exterminated.

When you only have a few hundred people under your hands, maybe you will play some small tricks, conspiracies and the like with Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin, but when you have more than 10,000 troops in your hands like Zhao Dongyun, who have already controlled the third town and a Jinzhou patrol battalion, and have more than 10,000 soldiers, what you have to do in the face of people like Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin is to push them over directly, and if you are obedient, you will be alive, and if you are disobedient, you will be destroyed immediately, and you will play a Mao conspiracy!

He placed the two cavalry corps of Lü Shuanggun and Shiyang in the area of Tai'an and Panshan, and his main task was to monitor the movements of the Japanese and Russian armies as the vanguard of the third town, so as to prevent the Japanese and Russian armies from knowing about it after they crossed the Liao River on a large scale.

After all, in this war, Zhao Dongyun needs to understand the movements of Japan and Russia east of the Liao River, especially in the area of the Liao River, and Zhao Dongyun's own third town has too much influence, if he directly sends troops to these two places to stay for a long time, it is estimated that the Russians will be very nervous.

But he couldn't let it go, so he put Lu Shuanggun and Shi Yang's hundreds of cavalry there, which could not only monitor the movements of the Japanese and Russian armies, but also prevent the Japanese and Russian sides from being stimulated by themselves.

However, since he occupied these two places, Zhao Dongyun was naturally not polite, and he also asked Lu Shuanggun and Shi Yang to follow Zhang Zuolin and Feng Delin and others to collect protection fees from the local area, which could also supplement part of the funds of the Jinzhou patrol battalion.

However, the income that these two territories can contribute is extremely limited, and it is difficult to maintain the Jinzhou patrol battalion itself, let alone use it to expand the army.

Since there is no money now, Zhao Dongyun can only say: "I have my own ideas about the Jinzhou patrol battalion, you don't care, train the third town first, now the situation is tense, you must always maintain a high degree of vigilance!" ”

He Zhao Dongyun came to Jinzhou to play armed neutrality, and his third town is the guarantee of China's armed neutrality, so there can be no relaxation, and he must maintain the best state for Japan and Russia to see, lest they ignore the existence of the Chinese side too much.

After sending Chen Guangyuan and Meng Enyuan away, Zhao Dongyun did not sit idle, but established Russia's diplomatic attaché Andrei.

Since Zhao Dongyun sold nearly 100 machine guns to the Russians in January, his relationship with the Russians has quickly become closer, and the Russians estimate that he has already regarded him as a traitor who betrayed the country for money, especially after Zhao Dongyun also helped buy a batch of bullets for heavy machine guns, the Russians seem to think that Zhao Dongyun is a traitor and traitor.

Not only did it give great convenience to Zhao Dongyun's previous anti-bandit operation, but later the Russians also acquiesced in Zhao Dongyun's dispatch of two cavalry teams from the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion to Panshan and Tai'an.

But the Russians want more! 、

Limited by the fact that the Far East Railway has not yet been completed, it is very difficult for Russia to reinforce troops and a large number of supplies from Europe and Central Asia to the Far East, and after the declaration of war between Japan and Russia on February 10, Russia began to mobilize, and the reinforcements from the west to the northeast are only 20,000 troops every month, which shows that the distance has also caused great trouble to the military deployment of the Russian army.

Although this personnel reinforcement is troublesome, it is barely acceptable, but the supply speed of materials is unsatisfactory, this situation After Japan and Russia declared war on each other, the local Russian army felt the lack of a large number of materials, and began to try their best to obtain materials from the northeast.

Those daily necessities are better to say, and food can barely be obtained from Jilin, Heilongjiang and Fengtian regions under the control of the Russian army, but weapons and ammunition can only rely on stocks and long-distance transportation from the mainland.

In this war in history, the Russian army was as bad as the logistics supply of the Japanese army fighting across the sea!

However, now there is a Zhao Dongyun out of thin air, although the output of the Fuyuan machine qì factory under Zhao Dongyun's control is not worth mentioning compared with the great powers, but no matter how it is said, it can also produce bullets and shells, those rifles and artillery are naturally not available, but the 7.92 mm Makqin machine gun bullets and artillery shells These consumable materials can be provided in large quantities.

At the same time, because of China's external neutrality, China could not ostensibly provide Russia with weapons and other war materials in large quantities, so the Russians had to secretly import smuggling war materials from Zhao Dongyun.

Zhao Dongyun first ordered a large amount of munitions in the name of the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion or the Third Town, especially machine gun bullets and artillery shells, two consumable materials, and then sold them to the Russians at a higher price, and from January to February alone, the trade volume of military supplies between Zhao Dongyun and Russia reached 50 taels of silver, half of which were heavy machine guns.

"General Zhao, Your Excellency Kulopatkin is very satisfied with our cooperation, and believes that this move will greatly enhance the friendly relations between you and us!" After a simple polite sentence, Andrei couldn't wait to explain the purpose of today's visit: "His Excellency Kulopatkin is very satisfied with the machine guns and machine gun bullets, but we hope to get more bullets and shells, especially shells!" ”

After the Russian army bought the batch of nearly 100 machine guns in January, it was desperate to get more combat materials through the channel of Zhao Dongyun!

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "I understand the urgent needs of your army, but you also know that the transaction between us is very risky for me!" ”

Andrei nodded and also expressed his opinion: Zhao Dongyun still dares to buy arms for the Russian army in this situation, once he is stabbed, it will not be good, but today is not the first time this kind of dialogue, Andrei thinks he knows very well what Zhao Dongyun wants.

"General Zhao, rest assured, the price will definitely not disappoint you!" André continued: "And just like the last few trades, this time it can also be traded directly in gold or silver!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded with satisfaction: "Well, a few days ago, I just got a batch of three-inch howitzer shells here, I think you should use them!" ”

When Andrei heard this, he immediately said: "Oh, I don't know how many? ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "The amount is not too much, only 5,000 rounds, but although the number is not much, I have spent a lot of effort to get this batch of shells, so this price!" ”

When Andrei heard that there were only 3,000 shells, his face showed obvious disappointment, these 3,000 shells can be trained for a long time if they are placed in peacetime, but in wartime, especially in modern warfare where the rate of fire of artillery has greatly increased, these 3,000 shells are a drop in the bucket.

However, Zhao Dongyun's next sentence made Andre excited, and he only heard Zhao Dongyun say: "Of course, if we cooperate happily this time, then there will be more shells that meet the caliber of your army's artillery to Jinzhou in the future!" ”

Andre hurriedly said: "I don't know how many more will there be in the future?" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "This depends on how much your army can pay, even if the amount is small, but I think three or five thousand rounds per month is not a problem, and even if the price is right, there can be more!" ”

Andre seemed to be considering Zhao Dongyun's words after hearing this, and after a long time, he said: "If my guess is correct, this batch of shells should be produced by General Zhao's Tangshan Machinery Factory!" ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't answer, but continued to smile and acquiesced in the matter!

Andrei did not guess wrong, most of the machine gun bullets and shells provided by Zhao Dongyun to the Russian army were produced by the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, among which the 7.92 mm bullets for German-style machine guns were needless to say, the Fuyuan Machinery Machinery Factory has been continuously purchasing machines to expand production in the past six months, and the output of bullets has greatly increased, and it is not a big problem to sell them to the Russians.

As for artillery shells, it is already a lot more troublesome, because the caliber of artillery in various countries is also different in these years, and the Chinese domestic army mostly uses 57 mm and 75 mm, while the Russian army has 76.2 mm, 87 mm, 107 mm and other calibers.

And the different caliber of artillery shells is also different, which is why it is difficult for the Russian army to buy a large number of shells from the international arms market in the Far East, because the arsenals of other countries are fine and will not produce shells of Russian caliber.

The reason why Zhao Dongyun was able to get this batch of Russian-caliber shells was to instruct the Fuyuanji Qì Factory to specially modify a production line, so that it could produce Russian-caliber shells, which were sold to the Russians from the beginning.

Andrei continued: "As long as General Zhao can provide the shells, then the price can be increased by 30% according to the price in the international arms market, but you must ensure that the shells do not have any quality problems!" ”

Andre has been dealing with Zhao Dongyun for half a year, but he knows that Zhao Dongyun's third town is equipped with a lot of inferior shells, such as those shells that use cast iron shells and contain black gunpowder, he doesn't want Zhao Dongyun to fool him with these garbage goods.

Zhao Dongyun smiled: "Of course, what the customer asks, we will naturally provide!" ”

At this time, he was already thinking about how much benefit the arms deal with the Russians could bring to the Fuyuan Machinery Factory and himself?