Chapter 80 Artillery Exercise

When the officers saw Zhao Dongyun coming out, they all stopped talking, and then looked at Zhao Dongyun together!

Zhao Dongyun first said, "Let the gentlemen wait for a long time!"

Chen Guangyuan, the highest-ranking and highest-ranking group of officers below, naturally said on behalf of the generals: "Your Excellency, take care of thousands of machines every day, and I should wait for nature!"

Zhao Dongyun glanced at Chen Guangyuan and felt that this person had become more and more interesting recently. Looking at Chen Guangyuan now, who would have thought that this person was still his sworn match against him a few months ago. Now he is completely a respectful and humble appearance of his subordinates. Alas, this person has changed. It's so fast.

But then again, in the face of the attraction of power, who can really maintain himself?

Thinking that Zhao Dongyun pulled down his face to beg for Duan Qirui in order to obtain the actual position of the Beiyang Standing Army Zuo Town. At the beginning, Zhao Dongyun not only found Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun also visited Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen and many others. I don't know if he still remembers the respectful appearance when Zhao Dongyun faced them?

But now, it has become deliberately complimented by others. It's ridiculous that the world has changed.

When Zhao Dongyun and Chen Guangyuan talked, it was naturally difficult for others to speak randomly, and even Lin Yongquan could not speak at will. The superiority and inferiority in the army are too strict. Although Lin Yongquan has been trusted and reused by Zhao Dongyun, and his actual power to control the recruitment and training of new recruits is not small, he is still much inferior to Chen Guangyuan, a decent standard. He said that it is okay in private, but in the presence of many generals today If you interrupt presumptuously, that is, there is no respect for him, and even Zhao Dongyun can't defend him.

In the final analysis, there are only three people who can be called senior officers in the Third Mixed Association. One is Zhao Dongyun, the other is Chen Guangyuan, and the other is Meng Enyuan, who went to Jinzhou City today. No matter how much real power Lin Yongquan controls, they are at most middle-level officers.

Zhao Dongyun did not waste time chatting with everyone in the courtyard, but said directly, "I think everyone is here!" After saying that, he focused his eyes on Liu Tinggui, the third battalion of the artillery team: "Is the gunnery ready?"

Liu Tinggui is different from many old Beiyang direct lines present. He was not from a small station training, but from the old Huai army. In the year of Gengzi, he served as the artillery battalion of the former military guard. After Gengzi's year, the front army of the military guard was almost completely destroyed. He also became a defeated general, but he had good interpersonal relations and an artillery officer.

After the year of Gengzi, the Beiyang New Army was greatly expanded, and the demand for technical officers increased. In particular, the Huai Army officers in terms of artillery and cavalry were not trained enough. In order to meet the use of the expansion of the army, he was also recruited from the old army on a large scale. Therefore, Liu Tinggui had the opportunity to enter the Beiyang New Army. At first, he served in Zuozhen of the Beiyang Standing Army. .

After the establishment of the Third Association under Zhao Dongyun, Yuan Shikai asked Zhao Dongyun to train a artillery battalion at the beginning of 1903. At that time, most of the backbone of this artillery battalion were transferred from Zuozhen of the Wuwei Right Army and the Standing Army. Liu Tinggui was transferred to serve as the artillery battalion.

This person is not from the direct line of Beiyang. He belongs to a faction-free and unbased grassroots officer in the Beiyang New Army. However, such a person is easier to use for Zhao Dongyun. This person's artillery skills are also good. More importantly, he has no background and no back stage. Zhao Dongyun is simple and convenient to win over.

In the face of Zhao Dongyun's solicitation, Liu Tinggui naturally would not be ignorant of good or bad, and quickly expressed his loyalty to his thigh. In this way, Liu Tinggui also became one of the generals under Zhao Dongyun.

In the face of Zhao Dongyun's question, Liu Tinggui said respectfully, "The brothers of my artillery team are ready and are waiting for your inspection at any time!"

After listening to this, Zhao Dongyun looked at Chen Guangyuan again: "Are you ready to cooperate with the exercise?"

Chen Guangyuan said, "The two teams that cooperate with the exercise are also ready!"

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "Since you are ready, don't let the brothers in front wait. Let's go now!"

After saying that, this group of officers walked out of the small courtyard door one after another, and then bypassed the office of many departments and entered the front yard of the south courtyard, where Hong Putao had already waited with a group of escort soldiers.

Immediately, Zhao Dongyun took over the reins handed over by Li San and turned over the horse. Many officers and escorts also turned over the horse together, and then dozens of them trotted out of Li's manor.

Zhao Dongyun didn't know that when he took people out of the south courtyard to inspect the artillery battalion station, Li Wan also happened to take her little maid to the south courtyard. She happened to see Zhao Dongyun turn over and leave, making Li Wan, who wanted to find Zhao Dongyun's theory, stamp her feet angrily, but the little girl was tender and did not dare to shout in public. He shouted, so he could only watch Zhao Dongyun leave.

"Miss, shall we go there now?" The little maid knew that her lady came to Zhao Dongyun, but the man had left. They couldn't stay in the southern courtyard all the time!

"You can still go there, go back!" Li Wan muttered angrily!

Zhao Dongyun naturally didn't know Li Wan's movements. He took people all the way on horseback and trot, and then went to the temporary station of the third battalion of the Third Mixed Artillery.

The third battalion of the artillery team was originally deployed to Daling Mountain in the south of Jinzhou City. The Daling Mountain is located between Songshan Town and Daughter Township. To the north, it can provide artillery cover for the defenders of the Xiaoling River and the Daughter River Basin, and to the southeast can provide artillery cover for the front line of Songshan Town. Therefore, although this mountain is not high, it is good. At least it is a small highland, which is more suitable for deploying artillery.

However, this hill is also a mountain. In addition, the urban area of Jinzhou has not extended far from here these days, so although it is a suburb of the city, it is actually a barren mountain. It is not easy to build a perfect artillery station above.

In addition, there are few artillery of the Third Mixed Association, and it is impossible to deploy them all in one place, and other places also have to be used. In case other directions, especially in the north, are in urgent need of artillery support, it will not be easy to do.

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun dispersed the artillery. In addition to deploying an artillery team on Daling Mountain, the remaining two teams were also deployed in Daughter River Township, together with the main force of the base camp of the Third Mixed Association.

Overall, the deployment of the Third Mixed Association in Jinzhou is actually extremely conservative. Although the overall deployment width has reached 15 kilometers, in fact, the troops are not dispersed, mainly concentrated in Songshan Town and Daughter Township. In other places, such as Jinzhou City and the northern part of Daughter Township, there are actually not many troops, only There are only a small number of vigilance troops, and the more peripheral areas mainly rely on cavalry patrols to maintain vigilance.

This is also related to the scarcity of the number of troops of the Third Mixed Association. This force is already small, and it is naturally impossible to continue to disperse the troops. Only by concentrating and using it can you avoid falling into a doomed land. The kind of general who defends when they see good terrain and are unwilling to give up anywhere Not a good general.

That's why Zhao Dongyun directly gave up all areas east of the Xiaoling River, and even the strategic location of Zijing Mountain. In the deployment of the defense line west of the Xiaoling River, he did not say that the long defense line was deployed, but chose several tactical points to deploy the defense line to obtain local military advantages and make use of heavy The machine gun killed and injured the enemy.

Zhao Dongyun arrived in Jinzhou to let the troops dig fortifications and fortifications, while the other side continued to speed up the training progress of the troops!

Although it has been some days, it takes time for the Third Mixed Association Army to recruit and train new recruits. In fact, before the Third Mixed Association came to Jinzhou from Baoding, the whole army has not been fully staffed, especially the newly established heavy, engineering, artillery and other troops, not to mention the lack of soldiers, and Qingyi They are all new recruits who have not received much training.

To put it bluntly, the current Third Mixed Association is a force composed of a group of recruits. The reason why it can still be deployed decently in Jinzhou without any chaos is completely dependent on the support of a large number of old Beiyang direct officers in the army.

That is to say, the quality of the officers in the Third Mixed Association is qualified, and there are also technical backbones, but ordinary soldiers are all new recruits*, and there is not enough time to train them to shoot.

Based on this situation, since the Third Mixed Association arrived in Jinzhou, digging fortifications and deployment is one aspect, but Zhao Dongyun pays more attention to the regular training of the troops, and the regular training will also be interspersed with some cooperative training between arms.

Today's inspection is like this. The artillery force and the infantry force carry out collaborative training together. Usually, Zhao Dongyun will not come to see this kind of collaborative training, but the third battalion of the artillery team is full for less than two months, and it is the artillery he received before coming to Jinzhou. Zhao Dongyun is also a little burdened in his heart. The training state of the artillery team is in mind, so I came to inspect the drill of the cooperative operation of the foot artillery today.

Hearing that Zhao Dongyun was coming to inspect, the large and small officers below naturally did not dare to neglect. Not to mention Liu Tingui personally went to prepare for the battle, even Chen Guangyuan paid close attention to it and transferred two infantry teams from the best trained second battalion in the ninth standard to participate in the coordinated exercise.

The troops participating in the drill have left the base camp in advance to prepare for the drill ground, and Zhao Dongyun and others also went straight to the drill ground. When the horses began to gasp, the crowd also arrived at the drill ground.

After Zhao Dongyun nodded to Chen Guangyuan and began the drill, the troops who had been preparing for a long time also conducted drills.

Today's drill is not too strict, let alone a live exercise. The preparation is relatively simple, and there is not too much nonsense.

With an order, the twelve 75mm wild guns have been fired together. Although the training bullets were fired, they still made the whole artillery position thick. According to the shooting speed of the training bullet, the frequency can easily know how the normal training level of this artillery force is.

Zhao Dongyun listened to the sound of shelling while looking at his pocket watch, and then frowned. In this case, the shooting speed of each gun, not to mention three rounds per minute that meets the design standard, is now less than two rounds.