Covering an area of dozens of acres, the Li manor is not wrapped into a whole by a long wall like the traditional manor, in fact, the entire Li manor uses the original river and the dug artificial river and lake, and there are water areas on the north, east and west sides, and only the south is connected with the land, thus forming an artificial peninsula-like terrain.

Because it is separated from the outside world by artificial rivers and lakes, the Li Manor does not have large walls in the traditional sense, and a number of relatively independent courtyards have been built throughout the manor, but these independent courtyards have long walls.

It is precisely because of the relative independence of the Li Manor that one of the compounds can be lent to Zhao Dongyun to stay, and it will not even affect the life of the Li Manor itself.

There are three large-scale courtyards in the Li manor, and there are many small courtyards in the three courtyards, thus forming a whole large-scale building complex.

Compared with the calm of previous years, since Zhao Dongyun stayed in the south courtyard of the Li Manor after July, it has also changed a lot of the entire Li Manor, first of all, a large number of soldiers have appeared on duty on the periphery, surrounding the artificial waters on the periphery, and a number of temporary corner tower buildings have been built, in which a whole team of troops is scattered to protect the safety of the Third Mixed Formation Headquarters, and of course, it also acts as a protective force for the Li clan people by the way.

However, in order to prevent the soldiers from harassing the Li clan, especially the large number of female dependents in the Li clan, in order to avoid all kinds of dirty incidents, Zhao Dongyun strictly forbade the soldiers from the periphery to enter the Li manor, and the personnel of the headquarters were limited to the southern courtyard, and they were not allowed to cross the southern courtyard to enter other areas of the Li manor without receiving an order.

This kind of order may not be of much use to the old army, because the military discipline of those old armies is equal to zero, and it is almost impossible not to burn and loot; It was also very difficult for the Beiyang Army after the Republic of China, because the Beiyang Army at that time had already begun to corrupt its military discipline.

However, the military discipline of the Beiyang New Army in the early days of the founding of the army was still very strict, which Zhao Dongyun himself had personally felt, not to mention that there was no disturbance of the people in the Baoding area where a large number of Beiyang New Army were stationed, that is, when he led his troops south to Guangzong to fight, not only did there not appear burning, killing and looting, but even deliberately avoided contact with ordinary people in order to avoid disturbing the people.

For example, in 1902, when fighting in Guangzong, the food supplies of more than 2,000 people under Zhao Dongyun were all transported from Baoding, and they were not requisitioned on the spot like the old army in the past.

Even Zhao Dongyun, in order to further ensure military discipline, tried his best to avoid contact between the troops and the people, and after coming to Jinzhou, he did not choose to go to the urban area, but set up tents in his daughter township on the outskirts of the city, and then set up temporary buildings as barracks. Except for a small number of soldiers who went out on duty, in fact, it was difficult for ordinary people to see a large number of soldiers.

Third, the strict military discipline of the Mixed Association avoided conflicts between the troops and the villagers near the daughter township, and also avoided conflicts with many family members of the Li manor.

At the beginning, when the Third Mixed Association Headquarters was stationed in the south courtyard of the Li manor, the Li family was still a little nervous, and the guards with sticks guarded outside the south courtyard every day, for fear that the soldiers inside would break into the south courtyard and enter the rest of the Li manor, but after a long time, they were relieved to see that nothing happened, which made the atmosphere of the Li family in the Li manor relax a lot.

However, in the past few days, the atmosphere in the Li family's manor has become a little tense again, but this is not because of worrying about the Beiyang Army soldiers in the southern courtyard, but because of Li Yijian.

In the past few days, the atmosphere of the Li family's manor was a little weird, and Li Erjian's roar could be heard from time to time, especially after he went to ask to see Zhao Dongyun and was refused, he came back with a black face and smashed the things in the hall, and those subordinates were even more cautious, for fear of annoying Li Yijian at this juncture and being punished.

In the north courtyard of the Li manor, after Li Ziquan bowed his head and entered a round arch, a maid greeted him: "Big young master!" ”

Li Ziquan didn't look at the maid either, but looked up inside and said, "My father is inside?" ”

"The master is inside, and the lady is too!" After the maid finished speaking, she reminded Li Ziquan again: "The old man just came back from the South Courtyard just now!" ”

Li Ziquan raised his steps and went in, and as soon as he entered, he saw some porcelain fragments on the ground, which were obviously just broken, and at this time Li Yijian was still roaring: "It's all your good daughter, in the early years, I said that I was bound to my feet, and you said that my heartache daughter was not allowed." I said that she should ask her to learn Nüshu in a private school, and she knows what it means to be three from four virtues, and you have to let her go to a girls' school to learn what bird language to learn. I just said a few words to her, and you said that I didn't feel sorry for her, and said that my daughter was a treasure to be pampered, and now it's okay, I'm afraid that the daughter of the old family doesn't have a temper with her! ”

Li Yijian is angry now, and continues to scold: "If you didn't protect her every day, how could she become like this, do you know what an important occasion yesterday was, I worked hard to make him ......"

Li Yijian has a hot temper, but Li Jiang's family doesn't seem to be a weak lady, in the face of her husband's loud scolding, although she didn't raise her head, but her voice was still high: "You yourself are angry outside, spread to others, you have the ability to go to the South Courtyard to find those big-headed soldiers, what kind of ability is it to lose your temper with our mother!" ”

"And that Zhao Dongyun, isn't he just a soldier leader, you are not a soldier and mixed under him, you can afford to hold his stinky feet!" Li Jiang said: "My Li family has a fortune of millions, and I don't have to beg him for food!" ”

"Fart!" Li Yijian became even more angry when he heard this: "I don't know if our family's foreign cloth business is almost over, the hundreds of thousands of businesses every year are gone, what do you want our Li family's hundreds of guys to eat?" Even if you don't rely on him for food, but should it be fun for you to offend a commander-in-chief? ”

Li Yijian doesn't just care about the foreign cloth business, in fact, it is good for the Li family to take a stake in the Fuyuan Weaving Factory, but if there is none, it will not hurt the bones, it is just a big deal for them to find other foreign cloth and homespun cloth supply sources. But what Li Yijian is worried about is that if he really offends Zhao Dongyun and uses Zhao Dongyun's power to do something casually, he will be doomed.

Even Zhao Dongyun's methods and reasons for rectifying his Li family, he Li Yijian can come up with dozens of them at any time, the best is to casually label himself as a bandit, a Russian collaborator, etc., and then wave his troops to raid his home or something, as for the evidence, even the family can be copied, are you afraid that there will be no evidence?

Others may just treat Zhao Dongyun as a martial artist, but if it is placed on other times or other people, it is estimated that a random seven-rank civil official can crush him to death.

But when is it now, it is the last years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it is not a time to say that there is a shortage of soldiers, but it is already an era with the size of a soldier's fist.

Before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, although the status of military generals was better than that of the former Ming Dynasty, it was also limited, but after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the status of military generals was greatly improved, and a large number of military generals in the Hunan army and Huai army were promoted rapidly after accumulating meritorious service, and finally served as a governor and governor, Yuan Shikai is the most obvious example.

In fact, at this time, as long as Yuan Shikai is willing and ruthless, he can 100% slaughter the Manchu elites in Beijing, and then sit on the throne of the president in advance.

It's just that Yuan Shikai, who is a very popular minister, is unwilling to do that, not because he is worried about the gains and losses of interests, but about some inexplicable things, Yuan Shikai in history is unwilling to force the palace to let Xuantong abdicate, but let the revolutionaries and other subordinates force them to be persecuted, in order to be unwilling to bear the reputation of betraying and abandoning the master, bullying orphans and widows, and becoming the second Cao Cao.

Zhao Dongyun may be young, and ordinary Chinese people may not even know who he is, but as long as they have an understanding of the power system within Beiyang, then they will find that the foundation of the Beiyang system comes from the Beiyang New Army, and the Beiyang New Army focuses on the two towns and one association of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Among the two towns and one association, the second town is now just an empty shell, that is, only the first town and the third mixed association have combat capability.

The Third Mixed Association is the second largest combat force in the Beiyang system, and as the founder and commander of this force, Zhao Dongyun's status is already one of the veritable high-level troops in the Beiyang system.

Although his overall fame and power are not as good as those of Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, and Wu Changchun, his actual power is not weaker than Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen, who rose in the later period.

Reason?

The reason is that he is the commander of the Third Mixed Association, and the only people who have the same real power positions in the Beiyang New Army are Wang Yingkai, the commander of the first town, and Wu Changchun, the commander of the second town.

As for Duan Qirui's power, it is because of his own influence, and there are many protégés, not to mention others, even if Zhao Dongyun sees him, he has to respectfully call his seniors, and regard himself as a junior, and even in the eyes of many people, Zhao Dongyun is a person who belongs to Duan Qirui's faction, and this third mixed association can also be regarded as a force controlled by Duan Qirui.

As for Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen and a few others, they are far less influential than Duan Qirui, and they are all in vain positions now. In this era when no soldiers in hand means no power, it is normal that there is little influence.

In a certain way, in the internal power ranking of Beiyang, Zhao Dongyun is no longer weaker than Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen in terms of real power, but his influence is far less than theirs.

The reason why Feng Guozhang was able to accumulate influence was because he had served as the general office and superintendent of various schools of the Beiyang Army for a long time, resulting in a lot of his protégés, but these influences could not push him to sit in the position of commander of the army in a short period of time.

There is also no fixed way of internal power order in the Beiyang system, and it is difficult to unify it, and it is better to distinguish between its headquarters and local troops. Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, they represent the headquarters faction, they are all in Baoding for a long time to hold important positions, such as the Department of Military Affairs, the general office of each school, etc., the most important thing is not his actual power, but their own huge influence.