"In the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu this year, that is, in 1901 of the Western calendar, the Qing court had just signed the Xinchou Treaty with the foreign powers, and the compensation was 450 million taels of silver! Well, and Yuan Shikai just succeeded Li Hongzhang as the governor of Zhili! Zhao Dongyun took a pen, wrote and drew in a small notebook, and wrote down the names one by one.

"Now the Beiyang New Army is in its infancy, and I am teaching and training with the army, if I grasp it better, I should be able to seek a position in the army in the future expansion of the army, but I have no foundation in the right army of Wuwei, and it is not easy here!" Thinking of this, Zhao Dongyun felt bored.

He was originally just an ordinary person in the 21st century, but he was inexplicably attached to a new army officer in the late Qing Dynasty, at the beginning he was quite excited, thinking that he could finally save the country and the people and become a national hero, but with the passage of time, the mind in his heart is slowly changing.

The original idea of being purely for the country and the people has disappeared unconsciously, and the idea that has emerged in its place is that you want to live a better life and control more power.

The body he possessed is called Zhao Dongyun, the word Yang, born in an ordinary family in Tianjin, he graduated from the Tianjin Military Academy in 1898, and then was sent by the official to study at the Berlin Military Academy in Germany, and returned to China after two years of study to enter the Wuwei Right Army, and is currently serving as a teacher in the Wuwei Right Army Camp School.

Since the fiasco of the First Sino-Japanese War, the imperial court began to prepare for the new army, and last year's Gengzi incident once again deeply stimulated the Qing court, and began to completely abandon the old army to prepare for large-scale training of the new army, Yuan Shikai is now ready to play the Qing court, saying that he wants to follow the example of the right army of Wuwei to train the Beiyang Standing Army, but the formation and training of the Beiyang Standing Army requires many qualified new officers, especially those who study abroad and return to China.

In this case, Zhao Dongyun, who returned to China from studying in Germany, also has advantages that others do not have, but after having the advantages of this hardware, he must also have software advantages, such as network advantages!

Zhao Dongyun put down the pen, then crumpled the paper full of words on the table and stood up: "It seems that I have to take a look at Duan Qirui, a senior who studied in Germany!" ”

Duan Qirui also had the experience of studying military affairs in Germany, but many years earlier than Zhao Dongyun, and is currently the commander of the artillery team of the Wuwei Right Army, and concurrently serves as the general office of the various schools of the Wuwei Right.

Duan Qirui is not only Zhao Dongyun's predecessor in Germany, but also his top boss.

Zhao Dongyun knows that his advantage is that he has a foreign education, and his disadvantage is his connections, because of his average background, he can't rely on his father's relationship, and because he is relatively young, he doesn't have enough time to build his own connections.

In this case, even if Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun are not very familiar, Zhao Dongyun still plans to go to Duan Qirui's mansion, and he has to make use of every connection.

The next day, Zhao Dongyun rode out on horseback, and he was wearing a new military uniform of the Wuwei Right Army, the predecessor of the Wuwei Right Army was the new army, which was the first army in Chinese history to fully imitate the Western French training, from the soldiers' operation to the equipment and even the military uniform, they were all imitated by the German Army, so the military uniform of the new army also has a strong German style.

Dressed in a new military uniform, he was completely different from the people on the street, and his sleek head made him feel like a person from two worlds compared to the ordinary people around him who wore a horse coat and a padded jacket and dragged long braids.

Zhao Dongyun had already cut off his braids when he was studying in Germany, of course, this had nothing to do with revolution and political tendencies. There are several reasons, such as the soldier dragging a braid affects the battle, and the braid affects the battlefield ambulance, and the lack of hygiene, and the most important one is: Zhao Dongyun can't stand the kind of contemptuous gaze from foreigners.

It is said that the Chinese treat foreigners as barbarians, but in the eyes of foreigners in the late Qing Dynasty: Chinese with braids and skirts are barbarians!

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun, like most contemporary international students, clicked the braid on his head as soon as he gritted his teeth, and at the same time, for the convenience of battlefield ambulance, he simply learned from many foreign military officers to shave his head.

After returning to China, except for some formal occasions when he had to temporarily wear a fake braid, most of the time Zhao Dongyun was bald, for this situation Zhao Dongyun's colleagues and bosses mostly turned a blind eye, after all, although the imperial court repeatedly ordered the ban on braiding, but few people in the local area took the ban of the imperial court seriously, and it is estimated that the imperial court will have to order the new army to cut the braid in a few years.

Riding a horse and trotting for a while, Zhao Dongyun soon came to Duan Qirui's mansion, and after the concierge of the house was informed, Zhao Dongyun was led into a side hall to wait, and after drinking two sips of tea, he saw Duan Qirui walk in.

Zhao Dongyun hurriedly got up, and then said, "I've seen adults!" ”

Duan Qirui had a smile on his face, looked at Zhao Dongyun, and said in his mouth: "Dongyun is not welcome, sit!" ”

For this junior who stayed in Germany, Duan Qirui had also been in contact before, but he was not too familiar, at best, he had seen it a few times, and now he felt quite strange when he saw Zhao Dongyun suddenly come to the door, I don't know what he came to do with him?

Subsequently, the two began to chat, because they both graduated from Tianjin Wubei Academy, and also have the experience of studying military affairs in Germany, so when the two chatted, they were naturally inseparable from the old school life and German career, in this process, Zhao Dongyun intentionally or unintentionally raised the alumni relationship between himself and Duan Qirui several levels, and revealed some admiration for the language of his predecessors.

In this way, the conversation between the two quickly changed from the superiors and subordinates of the officialdom to the conversation between the seniors and the juniors, and the topic gradually changed from the past to the current situation, and the current situation was from last year's Gengzi Rebellion to the preparation of the Beiyang Standing Army.

"I heard that Lord Duxian is ready to go to the imperial court to prepare for the Beiyang Standing Army, but now there are not many officials in the government and the opposition who understand Western Law, and I am afraid that the officials of the Beiyang Standing Army should also be drawn from our Wuwei Right Army!" Zhao Dongyun seemed to mention this intentionally or unintentionally, but Duan Qirui had been in the military for many years, and as an important subordinate of Yuan Shikai, how could he not see through the meaning of Zhao Dongyun's words.

For Zhao Dongyun, Duan Qirui has been in contact with him before, but he has no deep friendship, knowing that after returning to China, because he is a rare talent to stay in Germany, his grade has been promoted relatively quickly, and less than a year after returning to China, he is 'still staying in the original province to make up for it', and adding four ranks, he was appointed to teach in the camp school of the right army of Wuwei.

However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the top was not valuable, and anyone who threw out a few thousand taels of silver could get an official uniform. Although Zhao Dongyun's grade is not low, his position is actually not high, he is just a teacher in the camp academy of the Wuwei Right Army, to put it bluntly, he is a military instructor.

Now that Zhao Dongyun has found himself, he should have taken a fancy to the Beiyang Standing Army and wanted to be a real official in the past, but the position of the Beiyang Standing Army is so little, and there are many people staring at those positions, not to mention that Duan Qirui will not recommend Zhao Dongyun lightly, even if he has the heart to help him, he is also powerless.

After all, Zhao Dongyun's grade is there, if he wants to take up a substantive position, he must have at least one battalion officer to be reasonable, but the position of the battalion officer is something that he Duan Qirui can decide, there are only a dozen battalion officers in the Wuwei Right Army, and there are only a dozen battalion officers in the Beiyang Standing Army in preparation, and the positions of these troops in charge of real power are basically decided by Yuan Shikai himself.

So in the face of Zhao Dongyun's intention to go to the Beiyang Standing Army, Duan Qirui did not directly agree, but he did not directly refuse Zhao Dongyun, after all, Zhao Dongyun's qualifications are there, and anyone knows that Yuan Shikai is going to expand the army on a large scale, Zhao Dongyun will rise sooner or later under this kind of big back, plus Zhao Dongyun is his junior in Germany, and it is not impossible to pull him in the future when the time is right.

Duan Qirui's thoughts in his heart naturally did not tell Zhao Dongyun, so Zhao Dongyun felt a little disappointed in the following conversation, and this Qirui has refused to give him a formal answer.

After saying goodbye to Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun felt a sense of loss in his heart when he walked on the street, and thought to himself, it seems that Duan Qirui, a senior who stayed in Germany, is unreliable, and he has to think of other ways, and he can't always stay in the camp school as a teacher.

Zhao Dongyun in his previous life was not a history expert, and he only knew a rough history of the late Qing Dynasty, for example, he knew that large-scale reforms were carried out in the late Qing Dynasty, but he didn't know much about the details of the reforms, and for example, he knew that the six towns of Beiyang were formed in the late Qing Dynasty, but if you really want him to say that the development of the six towns of Beiyang is not clear to him, after all, ordinary people in later generations will not study the details of the establishment of the six towns of Beiyang.

However, although he doesn't know much about the details, he also knows that the large-scale development of the Beiyang New Army began after the Gengzi Incident, which means that from now on it is the period of large-scale expansion of the Beiyang New Army.

If you delay it for a few years in the camp school, and then find a way after the six towns of Beiyang are formed, the cucumber vegetables will be cold!

In this case, in order to be able to get a real position in the Beiyang Standing Army, in order to be able to really take root in the Beiyang New Army, Zhao Dongyun can be said to have tried his best, in addition to meeting Duan Qirui, he also met with several other bosses and colleagues, and even walked the door of Feng Guozhang's side and met Feng Guozhang.

But the effect was not as good as Zhao Dongyun expected.

As time passed, the Beiyang Standing Army had gradually taken shape, and a large number of officers had been transferred from the Wuwei Right Army to serve in the past, all of them were happily promoted and made a fortune, but Zhao Dongyun was still staying in the Suiying School as a teacher, which made him gradually a little worried.

However, he didn't know that in the Baoding Governor's Mansion at this time, Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui and others were sitting together.

Yuan Shikai looked at the list in his hand and said: "The right army of Wuwei has drawn a lot of people to the Beiyang Standing Army, and now there are several positions where there is a shortage of people, you all tell me, who is suitable among these people!" ”

In this list in Yuan Shikai's hand, the three words Zhao Dongyun are sandwiched between many names!