Chapter 66 Who can't brag

Under the opposition of China and the world, Russia still refused to implement the Treaty on the Handover of the Three Eastern Provinces to carry out the second phase of its withdrawal. On April 8, after the expiration of the second phase of the withdrawal period, instead of withdrawing troops, it added more than 800 troops to Liaodong and reoccupied the camp and other areas.

As soon as this incident occurred, there was a huge earthquake in the Far East, and China's Qing government had not said anything. The next day, it couldn't wait to jump out, an anti-Russian march broke out, issued diplomatic warnings to Russia, etc., and then further strengthened the pace of military preparations.

It can be said that since this day, Japan has officially determined its strategy of expelling Russia from northeast China by force.

If Japan in 1902 only made a certain arms expansion posture to defend against changes in the situation in the northeast, then by the summer of 1903, Japan had actually carried out an arms expansion.

And the United Kingdom and the United States also shouted about Russia's threat to the situation in the Far East and began to provide diplomatic and financial support to Japan and promote Japan to send troops to the northeast.

For a while, the situation in the Far East dropped to the freezing point in an instant, and the war was imminent!

However, this is only from the perspective of Japan. There are only a handful of people in China who know that the war is about to break out. Most civilians don't even care about the Northeast, let alone let them care about the war between Japan and Russia.

When the atmosphere between Japan and Russia was tense from 1903 to 1904, China was still flat, and there was no news about the situation in the northeast in the newspapers of the southern provinces.

The only one who cares about this and feels a sense of urgency and crisis is Beiyang!

In the face of the tension in the northeast, Yuan Shikai, on the one hand, maintained close attention, and on the other hand, he once again increased the pace of his army expansion!

He connected to the Qing court and wrote many medals, saying that the situation in the northeast was tense, but the number of new troops he could use was less than 30,000. In case the situation in the northeast changed, he did not have enough troops to protect the northeast, and he did not even have enough troops to guard Gyeonggi.

And in order to further intimidate and stimulate the princes of the imperial court, he even said that in case Russia occupied the northeast and did not leave, it would be possible for Russia to wave its troops to the west, occupy Shanhaiguan and even threaten the capital.

At this time, few people in China actually think that Japan will go to war with Russia for the Northeast, so they are not worried about the outbreak of war between Japan and Russia, but about the outbreak of war between themselves and Russia.

has been intimidated many times, and whether the princes in the court are willing or not, they have approved many medals for Yuan Shikai to squeeze funds.

However, those who were threatened also asked Yuan Shikai to send troops to the west of the Liaohe River to guard the mountain customs to prevent Russian troops from advancing east!

"Now the northeast is indeed a little troublesome. Now the Russians have occupied Yingkou and Fengtian. If we don't respond, I'm afraid they can cross the Liaohe River on a large scale and enter Jinzhou in the west!" Duan Qirui said so.

However, Wang Yingkai, who was beside him, said, "But if we want to manage it, we only have such a little strength now. Not to mention the division of troops in Tokyo, it is not enough to add them all together. There are soldiers that can be divided!"

"If today's court has promised to make another payment, this one should be enough for us to build the Fourth Association!" Feng Guozhang said so.

However, Duan Qirui did not hesitate to refute: "In this situation, spending money everywhere, the original ordnance money has not fallen early. The money pulled out is enough to buy ordnance, and I'm afraid it is not enough to expand the army!"

In 1903, Beiyang spent a lot of money on the purchase of ordnance. Beiyang ordered three batches of ordnance from Japan, namely, 16 guns needed for the Beijing Flag Standing Army, the Beiyang Standing Army Zuozhen and a gun battalion of the Third Association. In addition, a batch of ordnance was also purchased from the British Foreign Bank and the German Foreign Bank, which was mainly used to supplement the Right Army and the Pioneers.

All these ordnances add up, but millions of taels of silver, it is also very difficult for Beiyang, a big business!

And in addition to the cost of importing ordnance, there is also the cost of purchasing ordnance in China. Fortunately, other factories and bureaus are officially run and do not need to spend money to sell, but many weapons and ammunition in Fuyuan Machinery Factory have to be purchased by Beiyang with real money.

In April 1903, the Fuyuan Machinery Factory has already had the initial production capacity after nearly a year of construction. Although the output is far from reaching the design level, it has also become the main arms supplier in Beiyang.

Now it mainly supplies rifles, 70 mm round warhead bullets, a variety of old bullets, small and medium-sized new and old shells for the Beiyang New Army and the old army in northern provinces.

The main product is naturally the rifle. On the basis of the original Type 88 rifle, the Fuyuan Machine Factory has modified some details and imitated the Type 88 rifle. The most important thing is to cancel the sleeve and replace it with handguard. In addition, there are some minor changes.

This improved Type 88 rifle is still generally called 'Model 88 rifle', but the inscription on the gun body contains the words 'Made by Fuyuan Machine Factory', so it is also called 'Fuyuan Rifle' or 'Fuyuan Rifle'.

Fuyuan Machinery Factory supplies so many arms to Beiyang, which is naturally not free of charge. It requires Beiyang to take out money to purchase. If there is no money, Fuyuan Machinery Factory can't make money out of thin air to purchase raw materials for production.

The total amount of Lin Lin led to a lot of expenditure on ordnance expenses of the Beiyang New Army in 1903.

With the shortage of military expenses, how can the Fourth Association be built? Then the right town was established.

Looking at many people quarreling, Zhao Dongyun closed his mouth as usual, because among the people present, he was the youngest, the youngest, and the lowest official position. When there was no need, he would still not argue with these bigwigs.

As a young generation of officers in Beiyang, Zhao Dongyun can be said to be the first and only person who can attend Beiyang high-level meetings. In the past, he was not qualified to come to such meetings.

However, when his Third Association began to train artillery battalions, engineering teams and heavy brigades, people found that Zhao Dongyun's Third Association had unconsciously changed from more than 4,000 people at the beginning to nearly 7,000 people. Speaking of military strength, it was second only to Zuozhen of the Beiyang Standing Army.

Since last month, he was called to attend several high-level meetings of the Beiyang New Army by Yuan Shikai. Although Zhao Dongyun never spoke when he went there, he only listened to it and did not say anything, which inevitably left a bad impression of young and publicity.

But to some extent, this also means that Zhao Dongyun has stepped into the high-level circle of Beiyang.

It's just that he doesn't speak today, but others think of him. Can't you think of this? No matter how shallow Zhao Dongyun's seniority is, his Third Association is also one of the solid Beiyang's main combat troops, and it's second only to Zuozhen's army. Today, he said that he would send troops to the northeast, and it's right to ask him what he meant. Often.

"Dongyun, tell me, how many troops do you need to defend the west of the Liaohe River?" Wang Yingkai was not polite when he spoke to Zhao Dongyun. It was completely the tone of the elders talking to the younger generation.

After thinking carefully, Zhao Dongyun said, "If you want to defend the west of the Liaohe River, you are afraid that if the Russian army attacks with all your strength, you will need at least five towns, but we have few troops. It is naturally inappropriate to go to Fengtian, Yingkou and the Russian army to fight. If you want to defend, you can deploy defense west of Jinzhou and use the complex local terrain to build a fix it. The defense line of fortifications consumes the morale of the enemy with elite troops and fortifications. Such three towns are enough to be the current Russian front!"

What Zhao Dongyun said was quite conservative. He didn't say that he could defeat the Russian army or anything. He only said that three towns could be defended under the premise of a large number of fixed fortifications.

Whether it is three towns or the construction of a large number of fixed fortifications, these are castles in the air, which are impossible to achieve in a short period of time.

Yuan Shikai looked at Zhao Dongyun at this time and said, "Dongyun, if you let your third association come to defend, how long can you stay?"

Zhao Dongyun suddenly heard Yuan Shikai's words. He was stunned and he didn't think about this problem, because in reality, without considering the outbreak of war between Japan and Russia, it is impossible to resist the Russian army going south only by relying on the Manchu Qing Dynasty itself or relying on the North Sea, let alone a mixed association to resist the Russian army going south. .

However, Yuan Shikai is not just a general. He is a politician. He has to consider the worst situation. The worst situation Yuan Shikai considers is that Japan did not dare to fight with Russia, and then the Russian army will go south.

In this way, his Beiyang New Army will have to take on the heavy responsibility of blocking the Russian army from going south. At the same time, it needs to mobilize, urgently expand the army, etc. In this way, the troops in Liaodong need to delay as much as possible and win time for the rear.

Considering that the Beiyang New Army has so many people now, and Yuan Shikai can't send everyone to the northeast, he has to leave at least one or 20,000 people to guard Tianjin and Beijing, and also needs to use these troops as seeds for military expansion and serve as the cradle for rapid military expansion.

Therefore, the current strength of the North Western New Army that can be transferred to the northeast is actually very limited, up to 10,000 people at most.

In fact, in other words, either Wang Yingkai's Zuozhen or Zhao Dongyun's third association can be sent. In addition to these two troops, other troops can be sent.

And Wang Yingkai's Zuozhen, as the core force of the Beiyang New Army, cannot be easily dispatched, so all Yuan Shikai can think of is Zhao Dongyun's Third Association.

Facing Yuan Shikai's question, Zhao Dongyun said seriously: "If there is only one of my third association, it depends on the strength of the Russian army in the south. If there are less than 10,000 people, the headquarters is confident that it can be defended. If there are 30,000 enemies, our department can defend it for three months. If there are more than 50,000 enemies, we can keep it for half a month at most!"

This sounds like Zhao Dongyun is exaggerated. If the words of the 50,000 Russian army, Zhao Dongyun's third association will not be able to stay for half a month!

But in the face of the boss's inquiry and knowing that this will not happen, it is natural to put gold on his face. Anyway, no one can prove that he is lying!

Although most of them don't believe Zhao Dongyun's words in their hearts, the people present were more or less proud. In their hearts, they gave 25% off the data said by Zhao Dongyun, and then they thought they had come to the correct conclusion: Zhao Dongyun's Third Association could resist 50,000 Russian troops for ten days.

But Zhao Dongyun's next sentence scared them again!

Zhao Dongyun stood up after defending 50,000 enemy troops for half a month, then straightened his waist and shouted, "If you can transfer all three machine gun battalions to me, even if 50,000 enemy troops come to attack, I can defend for more than three months!"

When they heard this, they all smiled, including Yuan Shikai, and they all thought: Who can't brag?