Duan Qirui said: "In view of the confusion of the names of various armies in the country, we should first change the towns into divisions, that is, the towns, associations, standards, battalions, and teams of the former Qing Dynasty should be changed into divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, and companies. The basic units of the army are divisions, one division and two brigades, one regiment of cavalry and one artillery regiment, and one battalion of engineers and baggage, with about 10,000 soldiers. The 1st Infantry Brigade has jurisdiction over two regiments, the 1st Regiment has jurisdiction over 3 battalions, and the 1st Battalion has jurisdiction over 4 companies. After the town is changed to a division, all units in the country must be organized according to this order.

"The second is to compile the number of the national army. During the pre-Qing Dynasty, the whole country organized and trained the new army, except for the four towns of, the three towns of Sichuan, and the two towns of Zhili, Jiangsu, Hubei, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Gansu, and the rest of the provinces were all one town". Duan felt that with China's current national strength, it was best to garrison no more than two divisions in each province. If some provinces are under great pressure for national defense, garrisons need more than two divisions, and the finances are difficult to support, the central government may wish to send troops to coordinate the defense. To unify the whole country, it is advisable to have no more than 80 divisions and no more than 900,000 soldiers.

As for how to disband the redundant troops in the future, Duan believes that from the perspective of national interests, we should try to reduce the troops that have not been trained and have no combat effectiveness, and strive to maintain the combat strength of the army; Instead of for the sake of the selfish interests of certain parties and ignoring the differences in the quality of the armed forces themselves, they will make a big effort to balance factions in the process of dismantling!

Duan Mou has never been a light person in his life, but he admires Chief Baixi so much that he is devoted to serving the country and the people. Sichuan is known as the country of abundance, and its wealth ranks in the forefront of the provinces, and the former Qing Dynasty planned to train the new army of the three towns here. However, after the commander of Baixi raised troops into Sichuan, on the one hand, he was exempted from taxes and rested with the people; On the one hand, the army is eliminated. It was only composed of forty-six and forty-nine mixed associations. There is a world of difference from other provinces to exploit the people and expand their armaments! All of us should learn from Chief Baixi and put the country first. ”

Duan Qirui's words. It is clear that Sun Yuanqi will become the target of public criticism.

As for the military strength of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, Sun Yuanqi was very clear: Although there are only six associations in name, in fact, each association is very overstaffed, and it is estimated that there is no problem at all if it is casually organized into two standard mixed associations. What's more, most of the army's weapons and equipment are grown by Sun Yuanqi's own small vegetable fields, not only do they not need money. Moreover, the quality and quantity are guaranteed, and there are planes to help when the war is fought.

The armies of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces may not be as good as Yuan Shikai's Beiyang elite soldiers in terms of physical literacy and training. But if you really fight for your life, you may not lose to any army of the same number! It is precisely because of these 100,000 elite soldiers that Sun Yuanqi has gained a huge territory in the west, so that Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai and other bigwigs treat each other as equals.

A compliment to Duan Qirui. Sun Yuanqi just replied coldly: "Chief Duan praised him this time. Sun really deserves it! Now that the sea is crossing, those who have a little ambition and a little strength are called governors according to the province, and those who occupy the mountains are kings, who wants to be lonely? In fact, Sun also wanted to recruit troops and support the soldiers for self-respect, but Sichuan was the place where the revolution began, and the national economy was seriously damaged, so he couldn't afford to raise soldiers even if he wanted to, and finally had to be exempted from taxes and rest with the people.

And Sun has always had no ambitions. I don't know anything about marching and fighting, governing the country and securing the people, and I think about it. is still engaged in education, and it is better to be a child king. So he responded to the call of President Yuan Da and Premier Tang and went to Beijing to become the chief of the Qingshui Yamen of the Ministry of Education. Mr. Duan's so-called 'country-oriented' is too vain and beautiful, which makes Sun feel embarrassed! ”

Song Jiaoren didn't care about the harmony between Duan Qirui and Sun Yuanqi, he only cared about Duan Qirui's disarmament remarks just now: "When General Chief Duan talked about how to disband the redundant troops, he held that certain parties were pursuing factional balance in the process of dismantling the army for their own selfish interests, regardless of the difference in the quality of the army itself, which was contrary to the interests of the state. In fact, it is attacking our alliance for forgetting righteousness and forgetting selfishness for selfishness. Song really disagrees with this point of view!

"At this time last year, the Manchu Tartars were in full swing, and our revolutionary party organized the army to raise the banner of righteousness despite the bloodshed and sacrifice, and finally was able to recover China and establish the Republic of China. May I ask General Duan, are these armies for the private interests of one party or for the public of one country? At this time, the Beiyang Army went south to fight a bloody battle with our revolutionary army, and the other stood by and watched the Praetorian Guards besiege Jingshi University. Are they doing this for the selfish interests of one party or for the public of one country?

"If the combat strength of the revolutionary army is inferior to that of the Beiyang Army, it is also a matter of truth! The predecessor of the revolutionary army was similar to that of the Beiyang Army, and most of it was a new army organized and trained by the former Qing Dynasty, but it was only because of the sequence of the formation and the length of training time, and the fact that the War Department favored one over the other, resulting in uneven ordnance and equipment, and this was the difference in combat effectiveness. Even so, our revolutionary party and the Beiyang Army fought fiercely in Hubei for several months, but were they completely defeated and crushed for thousands of miles?

Song believed that as long as the War Department was selfless and treated the northern and southern armies equally, given time, the revolutionary army and the Beiyang army could be seen equally. Now that the Republic of China has been established, General Duan is ready to save the Beiyang Army and eliminate the revolutionary army, regardless of the hard work and achievements of the southern revolutionary army. Are you doing this for the selfish interests of one party or for the public of one country? ”

The Beiyang army did not contribute much in the process of establishing the Republic of China, and Song Jiaoren's remarks undoubtedly directly hit Duan Qirui's weakness, making him speechless and speechless for a long time.

Seeing this, Liu Guanxiong, the chief of the navy, who also belonged to the same camp, interjected: "Since General Song also said that most of the predecessors of the revolutionary army were new troops organized and trained by the former Qing Dynasty, it is better to refer to the military establishment of the former Qing Dynasty and establish the number of garrisons in each province now!" The State Council and the Grand Presidential Office will not interfere with whether to preserve combat strength or to reduce it proportionately. What does Chief Song think? ”

Song Jiaoren did not appreciate it: "Chief Liu, do you know why our revolutionary party went forward and participated in the uprising without hesitation? Do you know why most of the members of our revolutionary party are southerners? The reason is very simple, that is, the Manchu government's cruel exploitation and suppression of the south made us hate the Manchu Tatars to the core, so we are willing to throw our heads and blood to participate in the revolution and overthrow the Manchu rule over China, especially the southern provinces!

"Now that the revolution has succeeded, but General Liu wants to uphold the military establishment of the former Qing Dynasty and maintain the exploitation and suppression of the south by the Manchu Tatars, what is the significance of us southern revolutionaries participating in the revolution to overthrow the Manchus? If everything is now according to the rules of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, why should we establish a republic? It's better to directly change the country name to 'Houqing'! ”

I have to say that Song Jiaoren, who entered the cabinet in the first year, does have a few brushes, at least the sharp tongue and sharp kung fu make Sun Yuanqi out of reach, and he has the demeanor of Zhuge Liang's tongue and Confucianism.

After some verbal arguments, the two sides finally reached a disarmament agreement at the meeting, that is, the Beiyang system will disarm 150,000 troops, preserve 450,000 troops, and organize them into 40 divisions; The League will disarm 100,000 troops, retain 250,000 troops, and organize them into 22 divisions; The New China Party was not disarmed, but it was limited to no more than 100,000 troops and was organized into 8 divisions; The rest of the troops were reduced by 50,000 troops, and 100,000 troops were retained and organized into 10 divisions.

Although Zhao Bingjun did not attend the meeting, Tang Shaoyi has always been haunted, but he is still overjoyed about the final disarmament agreement: "Thanks to the ministers of general for attending this state meeting, actively discussing on clarifying military issues, and making frank suggestions and concerted efforts in the heart of loyalty to the country, the draft disarmament agreement was finally reached, which has made important contributions to avoiding financial shortages and reducing the burden on the people." If the Commander-in-Chief has no other objections, the draft disarmament agreement will be submitted to the President for signature after being sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs for review. ”

At this time, Xiong Xiling, the chief financial officer who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, suddenly said: "Premier Shaochuan, the general ministers, Xiong has no objection to the draft disarmament agreement, but there is a question below, I don't know whether to talk about it or not?" ”

Xiong Xiling, whose name is Bingsan, is a native of Phoenix, Hunan, is the predecessor of Shen Congwen and Huang Yongyu, and is also the most famous officialdom figure in Phoenix. After he became famous, he was usually revered as "Bear Phoenix" (like a curse). Xiong Xiling was born intelligent and was known as the "Hunan prodigy", a talent at the age of fifteen, a man at the age of twenty-two, and a jinshi at the age of twenty-five. Moreover, he was quite talented, and was known as a "financial expert" in the late Qing Dynasty, so he was appointed as the chief financial officer of Tang Shaoyi's cabinet. If it weren't for Sun Yuanqi's butterfly, he would still be the prime minister of the cabinet in the future.

Tang Shaoyi hurriedly said: "Now is the State Council, and you should know everything and say everything. Chief Bingsan, please speak! ”

Xiong Xiling said: "I heard about the draft disarmament agreement just now, and we are going to disarm 300,000 people in the next few months, which will indeed greatly reduce the financial pressure." However, the cost of dismissing these 300,000 people is not a small amount! Even if each person is given 5 silver dollars, it will be 1.5 million yuan. Now that the treasury has long been empty, and it is difficult to survive by borrowing from foreign banks in various countries every month, where can this huge amount of money come from? ”

The issue of severance pay is not difficult to understand. For example, if a company lays off employees, according to the provisions of the labor law, the laid-off employees can get a severance pay, and the usual economic compensation is calculated according to the number of years the employee has worked in the company, and the standard is one month's salary for each full year. The general situation of the army is not much different, only a little more tricky.

First of all, the skills that soldiers learn in the army, such as shooting, firing, fighting bayonets, etc., are almost useless in society after being laid off, and they are unemployed when they are discharged. Unlike layoffs or closures, similar companies can be found to work.

Secondly, soldiers are paid as soldiers, and they do dangerous work with their heads tied to their belts, and the severance pay given cannot be too small, at least they must be worthy of the job.

Third, a soldier has a gun in his hand, and if he can't survive, many people will not survive. What's more, 300,000 people will be disarmed at one time?

With the above three reasons, it is impossible not to pay the 300,000 severance pay. Not only to give, but not in too little. The 1.5 million yuan Xiong Xiling said is just the starting price!

Tang Shaoyi's face was ugly, and he still felt a little unwilling: "Chief Bingsan, does the treasury really have a penny?" ”

Xiong Xiling replied with certainty: "No! Not a penny! ”

Tang Shaoyi slowly set her eyes on Sun Yuanqi. (To be continued.) )