Chapter 113 It's not easy to be a warlord

With the outbreak of the war between Japan and Russia in 1904, Zhao Dongyun's name is often hung when discussing the current situation in China. In addition, in order to relieve the pressure of domestic public opinion, Beiyang led by Yuan Shikai is also doing some propaganda work. For example, the small exercise held in the third town in mid-February is one of it. .

At the same time, in order to show the powerful combat effectiveness and new appearance of the Beiyang New Army, Beiyang officials released relevant photos to the outside world on a large scale for the first time, not only photos of exercises, marches, but also a large number of photos posing. For example, in order to show Beiyang equipped many of the world's latest weapons, posing heavy machines Gun groups, German gun sets and shooting balloons, etc.

In addition, the military photos of many high-level generals in Beiyang have also been released on a large scale. Among these people, Zhao Dongyun is the most concerned. In addition to being the highest military leader of the Beiyang New Army in Northeast China, it is also related to his age.

To some extent, Yuan Shikai pushed Zhao Dongyun out to show that Yuan Shikai's use of talents is not a problem. As long as you have the ability, you can quickly become a pivotal person like Zhao Dongyun. On the one hand, it is to improve the overall Beiyang New Army. Image is also an attempt to attract more talents.

There is naturally a reason why the Beiyang system in the late Qing Dynasty could attract countless young people to work, leading to the growth of Beiyang under the leadership of Yuan Shikai into the largest political group in China.

In the late Qing Dynasty, it is natural to think of Sun Wen when it comes to revolution, but when it comes to reform, most people will think of Yuan Shikai.

The New Deal reform led by Yuan Shikai in the late Qing Dynasty included not only military aspects, but also education, transportation, industry and commerce, politics, etc.

In terms of education, we advocate abolishing imperial examinations, establishing a modern education system from primary school to middle school to university, encouraging scholars to study abroad and awarding international students with meritorious service.

Industrial and commercial aspects include promoting the establishment of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, promulgating a company law, and establishing a new industrial and commercial environment for China, which has greatly accelerated the development of China's modern national capital economy.

In terms of transportation and communication, including the establishment of a postal system, supporting the establishment of the Jinghan Railway and Jinpu Railway. In addition, the recovery of railways inside and outside the customs is also very related to him.

Politically, he promoted the constitutional monarchy and forced the Qing court to start * constitution.

Although he had such a bad move as emperor in later generations, which led to him being nailed to the pillar of humiliation of history, Yuan Shikai was a reformer who had high expectations by countless Chinese people during the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty after the year of Gengzi. In just ten years of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, it was the golden period in Yuan Shikai's political career.

During this period, his prestige and influence can be said to be better day by day. Even if China was forced to declare neutrality at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, many people in China have a critical voice about the primitive, but this voice is not the mainstream.

Especially in mid-February, in order to further save public opinion and expand Beiyang's national influence, Yuan Shikai announced the deployment of the second town of Beiyang Standing Army to Shanhaiguan.

In the eyes of ordinary Chinese, this move is a gesture of Yuan Shikai's tough attitude towards Japan and Russia. Although the Beiyang New Army does not have enough strength to enter the northeast and Japan and Russia, it is still doing its best to ensure the implementation of armed neutrality and avoid the war from spreading to Liaoxi, especially the Guannei region. .

This series of political means may not seem to be too smart, but the power of Yuan Shikai is here. He doesn't need more complicated means, skills and so on. He just shows his attitude and determination to the Chinese people, and that's enough. Enough to give him greater prestige.

Relatively speaking, in the war of the Russo-Japanese War, the performance of other domestic political dignitaries such as Zhang Zhidong and Cen Chunxuan was much worse.

Of course, these public opinion competition and political influence have nothing to do with Zhao Dongyun for the time being. He has not reached that level yet. Those are all the games of Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong and Cen Chunxuan.

Now Zhao Dongyun only made a small rise in the public opinion competition in Beiyang, which made his name appear in many newspapers and let the majority of Chinese people know that there is Zhao Dongyun in the Beiyang New Army.

For the time being, Zhao Dongyun's reputation nationwide can be directly ignored, but on the other hand, his reputation is very prominent among the senior military and government in China. The domestic military generally regards him as one of the bosses of the Beiyang New Army. At the same time, because he is stationed in Jinzhou, a strategic place in Northeast China, he relies on Recently, the location of Russia's war zone, so his name is also frequently mentioned by the country's military and politics.

In short, as long as we talk about the Russo-Japanese War, armed neutrality, controlling the expansion of the situation, and ensuring security in customs, then we can never bypass Zhao Dongyun and his third town. Who made him firmly nailed in Jinzhou now?

However, there are many discussions about him in China. Zhao Dongyun can't pay attention to him. He is very busy in this short time!

On the one hand, it is necessary to secretly do an arms business with the Russians and transport the previously agreed artillery shells and a batch of new machine gun bullets to the Russians. The Russians' own transportation capacity is tight and due to China's neutrality, it is naturally inconvenient for the Russians to send a large number of people to receive this batch of ammunition and its He had combat materials, so Zhao Dongyun had to send someone to escort this batch of ordnance to the camp, and then be accepted by the local Russian army.

Of course, the above are all secret operations. It is impossible for the Chinese people and Japan to find out. Otherwise, they will not talk about the neutrality, and it is easy to attract domestic scolding. At this time, Lv Shuanggun and Shi Yang, the two bandit cavalry recovered by Zhao Dongyun, played a huge role.

Lv Shuanggun and Shiyang are not professional officers from the science class trained by any country. They don't have any national or national things in their hearts. They rely on Zhao Dongyun, not Beiyang or the imperial court.

In other words, they are not loyal to Yuan Shikai or Cixi Guangxu. They are only loyal to Zhao Dongyun, and there is a big difference here.

This relationship also reassures Zhao Dongyun to use them to smuggle ordnance and transport ordnance, at least he doesn't have to worry about meeting people who call the country and nation.

In order to ensure the material transportation channel to Russia, Lv Shuanggun and Shi Yang also jointly launched a large-scale clean-up operation in the area of the Liaohe River, cleaning up the bandits running around this place. Feng Delin and Zhang Zuolin were still extremely nervous for fear that they would turn against each other.

It's just that Feng Delin and Zhang Zuolin are also the people who have been appeased, and their departments have also become part of the Fengtian patrol camp. Naturally, Zhao Dongyun will not find something to clean up the two bandits at this juncture.

However, these two giant bandits are fine, but other estimated bandits are much more tragic, either driven to the east of the Liaohe River or destroyed.

After Zhao Dongyun arrived in Jinzhou, he has launched three large-scale anti-bandit operations. At the end of last year, the actions in the west and north of Jinzhou, and the actions to eliminate Du Lisan in January this year and the current anti-bandit operation east of the Liaohe River can be said to be a great blow to the west of the Liaohe River. The bandit activities, especially the bandits within a hundred miles of Jinzhou, are almost invisible.

Although the main reason for launching these anti-bandit campaigns is to obtain money, it also indirectly brings great convenience to the local people. At least those ladies who go to burn incense and worship Buddha don't have to worry about running out a few bandits by the roadside to kidnap themselves. Those businessmen don't have to worry about the ground in Jinzhou. Every day, I worry that my goods will be robbed.

If Zhao Dongyun's Fuyuan Machine Factory is the first commendable thing from the perspective of benefiting the country and the people alone, then the suppression of bandits in Jinzhou is the second commendable thing.

Although the original intention of the above two things has little to do with national and ethnic groups!

In addition to being busy smuggling arms and other combat materials with the Russians, on the other hand, he has also continued to strengthen his combat readiness. Since Russia officially declared war on the first day of February, the third town in Jinzhou has also entered a state of combat readiness at the same time. Many fixed fortifications in the Jinzhou defense line that began to be built last year have also officially stationed many soldiers. .

If Zhao Dongyun was forced to shrink his troops to the west of the Xiaoling River due to insufficient troops last summer and autumn, then after the Third Mixed Association was expanded into a third town, and the Jinzhou patrol camp he supervised was also initially formed into an army, Zhao Dongyun's troops almost doubled, reaching about 15,000.

With sufficient troops, his Jinzhou defense line can also operate more fully. On the one hand, it continues to strengthen the left and right flank defense lines of Songshan and Cuiyan. At the same time, Zhao Dongyun also moved the central defense line forward. In addition to directly deploying troops in Jinzhou City, he also took the large and small Bauhinia Mountain in the east of Jinzhou City as the main The location of defense.

The reason why Jinzhou City and large and small Bauhinia Mountain were abandoned in last year's defense line deployment is due to the serious shortage of troops. However, after the relaxation of troops, Zhao Dongyun also tried to expand the defense line, trying to use large and small Bauhinia Mountain and Jinzhou City as a fixed main defense line * battalion to better exert machine gun firepower.

However, although the central defense line has moved forward, Zhao Dongyun still has no idea of dying in his heart. In his plan, he can still resist and wait for the second town of Shanhaiguan and other troops to help. If he can't stand it, he will continue to retreat towards the Liaoxi Corridor as before.

The layout of the defense line is on the one hand, and on the other hand, the training of Zhao Dongyun's opponent's subordinate team has also been further strengthened. He even spent a lot of money to purchase a large number of training bullets and shells from Fuzhou Machinery Factory to improve the ability of artillery troops and the shooting level of rifles.

is also preparing for several more confrontation exercises within the third town in a short period of time to improve the command level of its officers.

Whether it is building a defense line, strengthening training or conducting confrontation exercises, these are very expensive things. Although Yuan Shikai temporarily allocated an additional 50,000 taels of silver to Zhao Dongyun because of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War to buy bullets and shells to prepare for the war, he wants more It's impossible, because although Yuan Shikai received a large amount of military training funds from the court this year, Yuan Shikai needs to spend more money to manage the whole Beiyang New Army. Not only the newly trained fourth town also requires a lot of capital investment. At the same time, Yuan Shikai is preparing to reorganize the right military guard army and the vanguard of the right military guard army. The self-strengthening army plan also requires millions of funds.

In 1904, the expansion of the Beiyang New Army's demand for funds was calculated in tens of millions of dollars, so even if he got a lot of funds from the court, Yuan Shikai could still save money. For the troops that had been formed, he greatly reduced the investment of funds and only gave the necessary maintenance funds. That is, to devote yourself to the training of new troops.

But for more than 15,000 people under Zhao Dongyun, these tens of thousands of taels of silver are far from enough, and the insufficient part can only rely on the small treasury of the third town.

Yuan Shikai tried his best to raise money for the funds of the Beiyang New Army. Zhao Dongyun also raised money everywhere for the funds of the third town and Jinzhou patrol camp. These days, it is not easy to be a big warlord or a small warlord!