Chapter 31 Supervising Machine Gun Affairs

In mid-May, Yuan Shikai officially reported the 'Beiyang Training Camp' to the Qing court, which stipulates that the new army is divided into three types: a standing army, a continuing army and a reserve army. The latter two are the name of the reserve, not to mention, while the standing army is divided into two towns, each town has two infantry associations, each with two bids and three battalions, each The battalion has four teams, each with three platoons, each with three sheds and 14 soldiers in each shed. Each town is accompanied by one artillery team, three battalions and one horse team, four battalions, one engineering and one battalion each. There are 21 battalions in each town. Including combatants and chiefs, the total number of people in each town is more than 13,000.

The establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army can be said to be another leap in the development history of the Chinese army. If the new army is the pioneer of China's modern army, then the Beiyang Standing Army is on the basis of the new army and has completely laid the establishment of China's modern army.

The four-sided division of the Beiyang standing army made by Yuan Shikai not only became the establishment of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, but also the standard organization in the decades of the Republic of China. It was not until the late Anti-Japanese War that it was replaced by the American formation and the Soviet-style formation.

While officially reporting the establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army, Yuan Shikai also requested the establishment of a military and political department in Zhili, which is the origin of the Beiyang Military and Political Department.

As soon as the Beiyang Military and Political Department was established, Yuan Shikai transferred many of his core subordinates, including Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and Liu Yongqing.

However, in addition to these bigwigs, some middle-level officers were also transferred to the Beiyang Military and Political Department, and Zhao Dongyun was one of them.

A few days ago, he learned through various channels that Yuan Shikai was going to appoint himself as the coach of the Military Department. To be honest, Zhao Dongyun was quite disgusted with this position, because this is a deputy without real power.

However, when he saw the appointment in his hand, he couldn't help sighing that things were once again beyond his expectation!

Yuan Shikai is going to appoint him as the coach's assistant, but the appointment letter hasn't been finished yet, and a few words 'supervising machine gun affairs' have been added to the back, not to mention that. There is also a "new machine gun battalion belt" behind.

That is to say, his assistant is not a powerless deputy as he imagined, but can supervise all the positions related to machine guns, not to mention that Yuan Shikai has retained his new machine gun camp.

If Zhao Dongyun is shameless, he can completely call himself the commander-in-chief of the machine gun of the Beiyang Army, just like Duan Qirui, who has no name but also self-respected as the commander of the artillery of the Beiyang Army.

Of course, now the whole Beiyang Army has only 20 machine gun battalions. The gold content of the title of machine gun commander is too low, not to mention it.

With his appointment as the assistant of the coaching office, he was also removed from the second battalion of the right wing of the Wuwei Army and handed over this leadership position directly to Li Zejun, the assistant of the second battalion. Although he was only acting, this is also very unusual.

It is natural for him to be dismissed. After all, it is impossible for Yuan Shikai to let him lead the troops while supervising machine gun affairs. However, he was very curious that Li Zejun could also ascend to the sky and directly become the acting leader. This promotion is faster than himself, and he doesn't know who is supporting him behind him!

Looking at the appointment in his hand, Zhao Dongyun couldn't help thinking again. If the whole battalion was brought to the coach's office without real power, it would naturally be a big loss, but if this helper could have real power, for example, now it can 'supervise machine gun affairs' At the same time, if you can also serve as the headquarters of the new machine gun battalion, you will make a lot of money.

He can also more or less guess the reason why Yuan Shikai appointed him as the assistant of the coaching department, that is, Yuan Shikai is already preparing to train machine gun troops on a large scale in the whole Beiyang system, not limited to the previous small fights. According to the thinking habit of specializing in technology, Yuan Shikai naturally thought of machine guns. Zhao Dongyun came up.

This gives Zhao Dongyun a coaching position just to make it easier for Zhao Dongyun to train machine gun troops.

That is to say, the important thing in this appointment letter is not to help, but to supervise machine gun affairs.

In addition, there is actually another very important message in this appointment, that is, Zhao Dongyun's 'supervision of machine gun affairs' involves the entire Beiyang system, including the Wuwei Right Army, the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, the Self-improvement Army, and the Beiyang Standing Army, that is to say, this 'supervision of machine gun affairs' suddenly let Zhao Dongyun's height reached the high level from the grassroots level, and it can even be said that Zhao Dongyun put a few toes into the threshold of the high-rise buildings in Beiyang.

Although this meaning does not have much practical significance, it is impossible for Zhao Dongyun to say that he suddenly jumped to the status of Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai because of a machine gun, but this is at least a good start, indicating that he has been accepted by Yuan Shikai and gradually introduced into the Beiyang core system.

And the matter of getting promoted and getting rich is easy to do with the beginning. According to the current situation of Beiyang's military expansion, his future promotion speed should not be slow. Who dares to say that he can't climb to the height of Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai?

After receiving the appointment letter, Zhao Dongyun and Li Zejun soon completed the handover, but they had not left Guangzong, and Yuan Shikai sent him another award.

At the end of April, Zhao Dongyun wiped out the Guangzong's rebellion and captured Jing Tingbin alive, which was a solid achievement. Therefore, Yuan Shikai personally asked for credit for him, Duan Qirui and others: leave it directly to make up for Duan Qirui. This time, he sent the right army of the Wuwei and so on to Guangzong to suppress the rebels against the bandits. A lot, but it's all about Duan Qirui, who said that how he bravely destroyed the Shunde government's civil war has little to do with Zhao Dongyun.

You officials are going to ask. Although Duan Qirui led the army south this time, the battle was fought by Zhao Dongyun. Why has Yuan Shikai kept talking about Duan Qirui without mentioning Zhao Dongyun?

Because the person in charge of suppressing bandits this time is Duan Qirui. Strictly speaking, Duan Qirui ordered Zhao Dongyun to go to Guangzong to suppress bandits, so Zhao Dongyun's contribution to suppress Guangzong's mutiny is also his credit. To put it bluntly, Zhao Dongyun's credit is his credit.

Of course, the Beiyang system in recent years has not been enough to erase the military achievements of lower-level officers, so after talking about Duan Qirui, Yuan Shikai said, "He also left Zhao Dongyun, Zhizhou, led the troops deep into Guangzong, defeated tens of thousands of rebels with thousands of soldiers, and captured Jing Tingbin alive. He also made great achievements." Although it is only a short sentence, it also gives Zhao Dongyun enough face.

More than half of the front talked about the hard work and credit of your subordinates. After the memorial, Yuan Shikai opened his mouth to be an official for his subordinates: "He has no admiring and earnestly, he left the second grade title to make up for Duan Qirui, appreciating Hualing and adding the brave number; the fourth grade title is left to Zhizhou Zhao Dongyun, and rewarded with the third grade rank. The magistrate left it directly to make up for it..." Later, there were also a bunch of other people's rewards, but it had little to do with Zhao Dongyun, so it was omitted here.

In the face of Yuan Shikai's personal writing, the Qing court's efficiency is still very high, and it doesn't take a few days to be accurate.

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun was promoted the day after he received the appointment of the coach's office to help supervise the machine gun. The position of the former head of the machine gun can only be regarded as a change, not a promotion. And this time it was a formal promotion, from the fourth grade to the third grade.

Now, his official title has become: the rank magistrate left Zhili to make up for the third grade, and the official name of the dispatch is a little longer. It is: the assistant of the Beiyang Military and Political Department Coach Office to supervise machine gun affairs and the new machine gun battalion.

After saying goodbye to Zhao E, Li Zejun and a group of officers in the second battalion, Zhao Dongyun left Guangzong with the machine gun battalion and prepared to go north to Baoding. Originally, Duan Qirui and others wanted Zhao Dongyun to leave two teams of machine guns, saying that Shunde's gangsters were still serious and needed machine gun firepower as support, but they were rejected by Zhao Dongyun. Absolutely.

You should know that this machine gun camp is an important bargaining chip for Zhao Dongyun's promotion and fortune, which will be easily given to others. He even insisted on bringing back all four teams of the machine gun battalion regardless of Duan Qirui's face. The reason used is that the training of the machine gun camp is short days, and the new machine gun battalion is the fundamental need to train the troops. Machine gun officers and soldiers have heavy tasks and cannot be short of people.

And although there are still many Boxer and Union Houses in Shunde Prefecture, there are no large-scale rebels, and a small number of rebels can't turn back under the suppression of the Qing army.

At Zhao Dongyun's insistence, Duan Qirui could only give up the practice of leaving two team of machine gun troops, but the machine gun sentry that went to Shunde Mansion with Duan Qirui refused to return Zhao Dongyun. Although Zhao Dongyun was dissatisfied with this, he didn't care much. The two machine guns were given to Duan Qirui alone. Love.

In addition to the machine gun camp and Zhao Dongping, there is also a nun Fang Ruolian!

After staying in Guangzong for so long, Zhao Dongyun left Fang Ruolian in his residence with many excuses at the beginning, and since he caught Jing Tingbin, Zhao Dongyun, who was a little idle, spent a lot of time on her. Women, even nuns can't stand coaxing.

Before leaving, Zhao Dongyun once again shamelessly launched a big trick, saying that there was no cathedral or something in the small place of Guangzong Shunde. He could escort her to Baoding, where there was a large-scale Catholic church. In fact, this is very unconvincing, but the content of this sentence is not important. The important thing is that Zhao Dongyun took her little hand and said it.

At that time, Fang Ruolian didn't know what she was thinking. Maybe it was because of Zhao Dongyun's earnest expression and maybe her little hand was caught. If she didn't agree to Zhao Dongyun, she would not let go, or because she stayed together for a long time and got used to Zhao Dongyun's existence.

No matter what the reason is, Fang Ruolian did not refuse Zhao Dongyun's proposal. Of course, Fang Ruolian can still proudly say to God that she has not fallen into Zhao Dongyun's warm offensive, because she has never promised to go to Baoding with him. She just didn't object. Already!

There is a big difference between agreeing and disagreeing!

It took Zhao Dongyun to lead the machine gun camp only a few days to arrive in Shijiazhuang from Guangzong, and then took Shijiazhuang to take a train to go straight to Baoding.

In Baoding, there is a coach waiting for him to help supervise machine gun affairs!