Chapter 105 Public Pressure

After talking about the mortar equipment plan, Lin Yongquan said: "Considering that the mortars are about to be equipped with battalion-level troops on a large scale, and at the same time, battalion-level and standard-level troops will also improve the logistics supply capacity on a large scale, many colleagues in the Education Department feel that heavy machine guns, which are also infantry support weapons, can also be appropriately decentralized to battalion levels. Troops!"

"At the beginning of Xin Chou's large-scale equipment of heavy machine guns, in Beiyang, in order to quickly train corresponding technical officers to ensure the formation of the combat effectiveness of machine guns as soon as possible, a centralized system was adopted. However, several years later, the heavy machine gun equipment in our army has matured, and at this time, we can already consider emulating many Western ministries Team, lower the machine gun to the battalion level!"

"According to this plan, my colleagues in the Education Office have formulated a new equipment plan for heavy machine guns. It is originally scheduled to equip two heavy machine guns in each infantry battalion, and six heavy machine guns in addition to the infantry standard."

"The decentralized equipment of mortars and heavy machine guns aims to strengthen the independent combat capabilities of our barracks and standard troops, so that they have independent offensive and defensive capabilities!"

As soon as Lin Yongquan's words fell, Chen Guangyuan immediately said, "This is a good thing. Our army's heavy machine gun application should have kept up with the pace of the Thai armies!"

Chen Guangyuan didn't say another sentence, that the number of heavy machine guns should have increased long ago. Since 1901, the Beiyang New Army has been limited by funding restrictions and formulated an equipment plan for a town equipped with 24 heavy machine guns in a machine gun battalion, and with the increasing role of heavy machine guns in the Beiyang New Army system. The bigger it is, especially the promotion of a group of young officers such as Zhao Dongyun, which makes the tactical application of heavy machine guns more and more clear, and the call for more equipment of heavy machine guns is also increasing.

A few months ago, the third standard of Meng Enyuan's cavalry team was equipped with a machine gun team, which led to an increase in the number of heavy machine guns of the Third Mixed Association at that time from 24 to 30.

The same situation still appears in other units of the Beiyang New Army. Yuan Shikai has been buying heavy machine guns in recent years, and has purchased more than 100 heavy machine guns. He is not only equipped with the Beiyang Standing Army, but also equipped with the Wuwei Right Army, the Wuwei Right Army vanguard and the self-improvement Army.

Even the large-scale equipment of the Beiyang New Army has affected the new army in other provinces. Why? Because after the establishment of the Military Training Office, it is required that the standing army in all provinces of the country must follow the formation of the Beiyang Standing Army, but now there is a machine gun battalion in the official establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army.

The behavior of the large-scale equipment heavy machine guns of the Beiyang Standing Army has also affected the production of domestic arsenals. Hubei Gun Factory is said to have begun to try to imitate Mark Qin machine guns. As the main competitor of Hubei Gun Factory, the method of Fuyuan Machine Factory is more straightforward and fast, and does not immerse itself in imitating, but International standard commercial practices have been adopted, introducing technology directly from the German Arms Company and purchasing relevant patents from Maxim, and then purchasing machines for patent-authorized production.

It has to be said that Fuyuan Machinery Factory is a purely commercial enterprise, which has a very close cooperation with several international arsenals, and the management is composed of foreigners, and a lot of raw materials need to be imported. At the same time, it also needs to introduce foreign advanced technology from time to time, so for patent technology These techniques are still relatively **. Generally, when you want to imitate a weapon, you will not directly make it yourself, but will choose to buy patented technology and then authorize production.

It is worth noting that the mortar-related design of Fuyuan Machine Factory has also been patented in many foreign countries.

Of course, the heavy machine gun is to be processed and assembled, but the difficulty is still not as simple as making rifles, not to mention that Fuyuan Machine Factory is aiming at the most advanced MG01 Maxim machine gun in today's international weapons market.

Although it is much better than Hubei Gun Factory's own work in the imitation process, it will not be made for a while.

The domestic arsenal began to imitate production, and at the same time, the domestic new army also began to pay attention to and equip machine guns, which can also prove from the side that China's heavy machine gun application has reached a relatively normal level.

Under such a big back scene, Zhao Dongyun also began to try to decentralize heavy machine guns to battalion-level troops to further strengthen the tactical role of heavy machine guns in the army. Dabeijing

If the plan mentioned by Lin Yongquan is successfully implemented, it means that the number of machine gun equipment in the third town will be further increased to 46.

The continuous increase of mortar equipment and heavy machine guns shows Zhao Dongyun's urgent need to increase the combat effectiveness of the third town!

Because there is not much time left for him, the situation in the northeast can be said to be imminent, and war may break out at any time.

As the place of force representing China in the Northeast, Zhao Dongyun also feels very stressed. Recently, many domestic newspapers have frequently mentioned his name, which is clear that he is Yuan Shikai's direct representative in the Northeast. His every move is also related to the progress of the situation in Northeast.

He even received a petition from hundreds of Chinese students studying in Japan, asking him to send troops east of the Liaohe River to recover the three eastern provinces.

There are even many radical people who publicly accuse Zhao Dongyun of doing nothing for half a year and watch the situation in Northeast continue to deteriorate, and almost directly scold him as a traitor.

Ordinary people will know that Zhao Dongyun's mission to Jinzhou is not to recover the northeast. His main task is to ensure the security of the Liaoxi corridor. If war breaks out between China and Russia, he will have to defend the Liaoxi corridor to make time for the general mobilization in Beiyang. This is the fundamental reason why he came to Jinzhou, and it is also Yuan Shikai's continuation. The reason why he expanded his army.

As for recovering Fengtian and marching east of the Liaohe River, it is not his main task, at least from the perspective of the interests of the Beiyang system, that is not his task.

Although Zhao Dongyun does not think he will participate in the future Russo-Japanese War, who can make it clear? After all, the current situation and history in Northeast China are very different. There has been no change between Japan and Russia, but China or Beiyang has changed a lot.

The current Beiyang strength is much stronger than in history. The four towns of the Beiyang Standing Army, the Wuwei Right Army, the Vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, the Self-improvement Army and other direct forces under Yuan Shikai add up. The strength of the new army has exceeded 50,000, and it is still expanding rapidly. It is expected that in less than three months, the Beiyang New Army will be able to have super Over 70,000 people.

And the expansion momentum of Beiyang will not stop like this. At least Zhao Dongyun knew that after preparing for the construction of the four towns of the Beiyang Standing Army, Yuan Shikai had already asked Zhao Dongyun about the reorganization of the Wuwei Right Army, the Vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army and the Self-improvement Army. Zhao Dongyun replied and agreed with Yuan Shikai's opinion in a secret telegram, saying that The formation and combat strength of the upper three armies are far lower than that of the standing army, and appropriate reorganization should be carried out.

According to Zhao Dongyun's understanding of Yuan Shikai, the reorganization of the above three Beiyang New Army should be carried out in the first half of next year, and at least two more towns will be able to be compiled.

The six towns of Beiyang in history will take shape several years earlier than in history!

Zhao Dongyun came to this world. Although he did not lead Beiyang to fight a large-scale war. On the surface, he did not even change Beiyang and changed many things in China, in fact, the changes he brought to Beiyang were great.

Without Zhao Dongyun, Beiyang would not have been equipped with machine guns so many years in advance!

Without Zhao Dongyun, there would not have been a third mixed association in Beiyang, and it would not have led to the historical three standing armies of Beiyang to become the four standing armies of Beiyang.

And because Zhao Dongyun accelerated the pace of the expansion of the Beiyang army, and also led to the preparation of the whole Chinese new army much earlier. The early establishment of the training office is the most obvious sign.

In turn, the early establishment of the Training Office has further promoted the expansion of the Beiyang New Army, thus forming a cycle!

And Zhao Dongyun is the starting point of this series of cycles!

Zhao Dongyun brought this series of changes to Beiyang by China. In addition to the change in strength, there is also a Jinzhou garrison. Historically, although Beiyang sent troops eastward, it was only in 1904 that it sent troops to Shanhaiguan, but it did not leave Shanhaiguan to continue eastward. The main reason is that Beiyang in history There were not so many troops. At the beginning of 1904, it was just a standing army of more than one town. The second and third towns had just been trained, and there were no troops to guard the Liaoxi Corridor.

Now, after the strengthening of Beiyang forces, Yuan Shikai can free up more troops to affect the situation in Northeast China, and it is logical to send Zhao Dongyun to Jinzhou.

However, Zhao Dongyun's entry into Jinzhou also affected further changes in the situation in Northeast China, causing unpredictable changes in the situation in Japan and Russia!

Anyway, Zhao Dongyun is not sure that the Russians will not attack Jinzhou or even Beijing.

Another change is to push himself into the mouth of domestic public opinion. The Chinese people accused him of inaction also made him feel huge political pressure.

This pressure became more and more as time went by. The months at the end of 1903 were better, but by 1904, Zhao Dongyun began to frequently receive telegrams from important ministers of the imperial court and feudal officials.

Zhang Zhidong sent him a telegram on January 7th. After saying a big truth, he hoped that Zhao Dongyun would take the national and national interests and carry the anti-Russian flag to settle in Fengtian, forcing Russia to implement the 'Treaty of the Three Eastern Provinces', and also said that all the Chinese people are his strong backing of Zhao Dongyun.

Seeing this telegram, Zhao Dongyun snorted coldly and said, "He is standing and talking without back pain!"

"Nowadays, only a few people in Beiyang can see the situation clearly. Others are full of empty words and lie with their eyes open!" Chen Guangyuan is now also a high-ranking officer in Beiyang. Naturally, he pretends to be a North Westerner. He is full of disdain for other feudal officials in China, and the court ministers: "It's a backing, why don't you see him send the rifles produced by Hubei Gun Factory to Fengtian, and that Cen Chunxuan also said it well. Why doesn't he draw a lot of taxes in Guangxi? Mobilization of millions of taels of silver to support our Beiyang military expansion!"