Just like the heavy machine guns and grenades that began to be installed last year, the emergence of mortars has also brought about changes in the establishment of troops and tactical applications, and even triggered a struggle between artillery and infantry for the ownership of mortars.

No matter how light the mortar is and the firing range is increasing, it is a member of the artillery family, which is also the reason why the artillery unit took over and carried out actual combat tests when the mortar was tested.

The officers of the infantry didn't care much about this, but in the anti-bandit operation, they found that mortars could not be powerful and rapid-fire, and they found that mortars could be carried by soldiers to move quickly, and they were not calm when they arrived directly at the front line to fight, and they unanimously agreed that this kind of short-range, high-mobility infantry support weapons must be divided into infantry units, and the infantry officers should directly command them to cooperate with the infantry in combat.

From this arose a dispute between artillery and infantry!

In addition to the struggle for the ownership of mortars, there are also many problems such as the establishment of mortar equipment and tactical application.

After Kong Guanbei and Wei Anpo finished speaking, the cavalry side also came to mix, and Hua Zhenji, the leader of the first battalion of the third standard of the cavalry, received the eyes from his boss Meng Enyuan, and immediately stood up and said: "You all know that mortars are easy to maneuver, and they are transported by horses on weekdays, and they are assembled quickly, because my colleagues in the first-class cavalry believe that it is necessary to follow the lead of the cavalry machine gun team and set up a cavalry mortar team to strengthen the independent combat capability of our cavalry!" ”

As soon as these words fell, Kong Weibei immediately retorted: "Hmph, you and the other cavalry are responsible for the task of reconnaissance and harassment attacks, and they are equipped with machine guns to protect themselves when the situation is not right, but what are they doing with mortars, is it possible that you and other cavalry team still plan to conquer the enemy's fortress position?" ”

Mortars are different from heavy machine guns, heavy machine guns are typical defensive weapons, while mortars are obvious offensive weapons, cavalry to be equipped with machine guns others have no way to object, but to be equipped with mortars, infantry and artillery people can have a big opinion.

Wei Anpo also said: "The artillery support during the offensive battle is responsible for our own artillery team, and the cavalry team can also use mortars!" ”

Although Meng Enyuan and Hua Zhenji expected that it would not be so easy for their cavalry to be equipped with mortars, they did not expect that as soon as they started to talk, they were opposed by both the infantry and the artillery team.

This feeling seems to have made him return to the time when he just returned to China, he was a graduate of the first phase of Lu Shi Cavalry, and after returning to China, he was not hired by Zhejiang Province to train the new army like other classmates, and he had to stay in the capital to find a way to find a job, he vaguely remembered that countless people gave him a look at that time, and gave him embarrassment.

Later, he met Zhao Dongyun, he did not care that he was from other provinces, but boldly appointed himself, but in a year he became the first battalion of the cavalry management belt, and he also served in the third town of the Beiyang lineage.

With such an experience, he naturally regards Zhao Dongyun as his benefactor, and he has always regarded himself as Zhao Dongyun's descendant on weekdays!

As Zhao Dongyun's descendant, he Hua Zhenji is not bad in the third town, even Meng Enyuan has to buy him a few faces, it has been a long time since he has been lost face like today.

Hua Zhenji, who blushed, glanced at Kong Guanbei and Wei Anpo fiercely, but the two of them did not have the slightest fear of their eyes, and Kong Guanbei showed a hint of provocation in his eyes.

Speaking of lineage, he Hua Zhenji regards himself as Zhao Dongyun's lineage, and he Kong Guanbei is not a lineage, although Wei Anpo's status is slightly inferior, but he can be personally selected by Zhao Dongyun as an officer of the mortar team, and he is the only mortar officer present today, so he is naturally a bold character.

Hua Zhenji snorted coldly in his heart and withdrew his gaze from them, and then turned to Zhao Dongyun and said: "Lord Commander, the development trend of the world's cavalry has been very obvious now, with the further enhancement of firepower, if our cavalry encounters large-scale battles, it is difficult to rely solely on the impact of horses to launch a charge as before, and the defense of heavy machine guns when dismounting and foot combat is acceptable, but the offensive ability is extremely thin."

In addition, the drum cavalry usually fought far away from the headquarters, and it was impossible to get support from the rear artillery, so in order to increase the offensive ability of our cavalry, it was necessary to equip ourselves with light and easy-to-carry artillery.

At the same time, since the Napoleonic War, the cavalry of all countries have been equipped with light cavalry guns to increase the independent offensive ability of the cavalry. ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't speak for the first time after hearing this, in this moment of fierce debate among the various arms, he couldn't say it no matter what thoughts he had in his heart, even if he had already decided how to equip the mortar, but he still had to put this matter on the table for you to discuss together, the best result was to get a result you wanted under your own control, rather than directly refute your subordinates and make your own plan.

As the leader of the Third Town, he could not express his preference for any one faction in such a public setting.

In fact, there are also some small factions in the third town, as long as there are people, then there will definitely be factions, and what you have to do as a superior is to balance this faction and not let the factional disputes affect the development of the entire system.

For example, Yuan Shikai is a master of playing factional balance, and the factional disputes in Beiyang can be described as very strict, but under Yuan Shikai's control, these factional disputes did not produce any negative factors, but further promoted the development of the Beiyang system, as evidenced by the fact that the Beiyang Standing Army was able to develop from a single town in 1901 to the current four towns of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and others fought back and forth, and in the end, Yuan Shikai smiled and looked at the situation and climbed to the top of the country step by step.

Today's third town naturally also has the so-called factional disputes, such as Chen Guangyuan is the leader, mainly some officers from the previous ninth standard, most of this part belonged to Wang Yingkai, Feng Guozhang and others in the past, and now after Zhao Dongyun's strong rise, they naturally quickly abandoned Wang Yingkai and Feng Guozhang and others in order to be promoted in the third town, and turned to Zhao Dongyunmen. And they have something wrong with Zhao Dongyun's original descendants, such as Kong Guanbei, Pei Lianying, Lin Yongquan and others, so it is natural to unite around Chen Guangyuan to compete for interests.

For example, some of the officers from the newly built machine gun battalion and some of the officers of the association headquarters and the town headquarters, most of these people were Zhao Dongyun's early subordinates, but there were many people here, and they could only be regarded as a loose group, but they could not be regarded as an interest group.

There is also an infantry officer with real power formed by Kong Guanbei and Pei Lianying.

In addition, there are some people who defected to Zhao Dongyun during the Third Association period, including Hua Zhenji, Liu Tinggui and others, but Hua Zhenji is now relatively close to Meng Enyuan and joined the cavalry faction led by Meng Enyuan, and Liu Tinggui also called himself a system in the artillery unit.

Since the Third Town has not been established for a long time, this faction is not obvious, it is just a subordinated behavior of the officers, and the current conflict of interests is still dominated by the struggle between the arms.

Zhao Dongyun naturally knew about some of the factions of his subordinates, and his handling methods were also modeled after Yuan Shikai, that is, to sit firmly in Diaoyutai and implement a balanced strategy. At the same time, he secretly guided the outcome of the argument in the direction he wanted, and he himself would not lightly get involved in factional disputes.

Seeing that Zhao Dongyun didn't speak, he had an attitude that I won't make a decision first, and you will argue first. At this time, Chen Guangyuan, Meng Enyuan and Liu Tinggui below naturally no longer had any scruples, first their subordinates spoke and spoke, and then Liu Tinggui couldn't help but refute Pei Lianying's words, so it led to Chen Guangyuan's rebuttal, and Meng Enyuan also interjected a few words from time to time.

For a while, saliva was flying in the conference room, and all parties cited scriptures and classics, waving a lot of documents in their hands to try to prove their views, so that Zhao Dongyun could make a decision in favor of his side.

This frightened Wang Zhanyuan, who had never participated in this kind of scene!

The military meetings he participated in in the past, that one was not peaceful, and the chief officer had already made a decision without even saying a few words, how could this kind of saliva fly, you argue about me, at this time, he saw Meng Enyuan just finished talking, and Liu Tinggui over there just took a sip of tea and spoke: "I also agree with Brother Meng's words, the cavalry is indeed insufficient offensive firepower, and it is understandable to want to imitate many additional cavalry artillery teams in the West, but our army is just starting, and there is a shortage of military funds, and this mortar is not funded, We have to rely on our third town to raise their own funds, although the bandits made more than 100,000 silver last month, but they can't be used for mortars. If Brother Meng's cavalry wants to form a cavalry mortar team, I have no opinion in principle, but I must not embezzle the original mortar funds! ”

When Meng Enyuan heard this, his heart was full of anger, if it wasn't for Zhao Dongyun sitting above, he would have taken the case a long time ago.