Chapter 146 Beiyang Six Towns

After listening to Liu Tinggui's words, Wang Zhanyuan put down the telescope beside him: "This is estimated to be more difficult. Today's exercise simulates field encounters. The heavy machine guns of Team B are directly set up on the mountain, and there are no basic fortifications, so it is so easy to be hit by the mortars of Team A, but this If a machine gun is arranged in the fortifications, I'm afraid that the 60mm mortar can't open the gun fortress!"

Liu Tinggui didn't care: "It's good that this 60mm cannon can hit the machine gun fire point in the field fortifications. As for those fortifications, naturally there are brothers with our gun logo!"

What he said made Wang Zhanyuan only respond in vain. It's good to hit the field fortifications with the 75mm wild cannons under you. If you encounter a fortress like the Lushun Fortress, it can't be destroyed.

However, this will naturally not be said. Wang Zhanyuan finally gained a foothold in the third town and called him a brother with a group of Zhao Dongyun's direct officers, but he would not break the current harmonious relationship and lead to his rejection by everyone.

At this time, Wang Zhanyuan turned around and continued to watch the follow-up exercises, but the more he looked at it, the more he thought. It has been a year since he came to Jinzhou. He was not the kind of person who knew nothing about the third town at the beginning. He knew very well that although the current four Beiyang towns are full of personnel, but in terms of training water At the level of peace and equipment, the third town under Zhao Dongyun is definitely among the best.

In terms of equipment, rifles are not the same, but there is a big difference in artillery. The artillery standards in the third town have all been replaced with German-style barrel retreat guns, which is no different from the second town and the fourth town. However, the third town has mortars that other Beiyang troops do not have, although so far There is no actual combat to prove the combat effectiveness of the mortars, but we can't ignore more than 100 mortars in the third town.

There are also the largest machine guns in the four towns of Beiyang. The number of 56 heavy machine guns in the third town far exceeds the number of equipment of 24 and 30 in other towns. Moreover, Wang Zhanyuan heard that Zhao Dongyun was far dissatisfied with this and wanted to continue to increase the number of equipment of heavy machine guns and take the number of machine guns in the camp from two. It doesn't matter if it is raised to four, and I heard that a light machine gun will be purchased from Europe to continue to expand the equipment scale of machine guns.

At the same time, due to the large number of equipment of mortars and heavy machine guns, not only the operators of the above weapons have increased, but also the personnel of the logistics force, resulting in more personnel in the third town, especially the logistics personnel, than the standard establishment of the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty, which naturally led to the total strength of the third town exceeding its His Beiyang army has reached more than 14,000.

If the strength of the third town is based on the annual investment of millions of military expenses by the court and Beiyang, then the first mixed association of Jinzhou patrol camp made by Zhao Dongyun's own efforts exceeded Wang Zhanyuan's expectations.

The whole army of this mixed association is nearly 6,000, but only took 10,000 silver a month from Fengtian and Zhili, and the rest is Zhao Dongyun's self-funded funds. In terms of collecting money to train the army, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen and Wang Yingkai are not as good as Zhao Dongyun.

It's okay to make money to build a mixed association, but the battle of this mixed association doesn't seem to be much weaker than that of the third town. How can you make other provincial governors who have not been able to practice a new army in a town for several years?

At present, the third town of the first mixed association and the third town, the total number of combat troops plus auxiliary and other fragmented personnel is close to 20,000. Zhao Dongyun's control is no less than Yuan Shikai in Gengzi.

After these thoughts flashed in his mind, and then look at Zhao Dongyun, who was talking to Meng Enyuan in front of him, Wang Zhanyuan's feeling was a little strange. In the past few years, Zhao Dongyun's status was similar to his own. Even after Zhao Dongyun served as the leader of the Third Mixed Association, he could only be regarded as the second echelon like Wang Zhanyuan. However, since Zhao Dongyun became the control of the third town, the political status gap between the two has been quickly widened.

In the past, although Zhao Dongyun, Wang Zhanyuan, Cao Kun and Xu Bangjie were from different factions, they were still brothers. However, today, only Zhao Dongyun told them that Brother Wang and Brother Cao, and Wang Zhanyuan could not respond with a sentence of Brother Zhao. They had to use the sentence 'Lord Zhao' and 'Zhao' .

In addition to having a good personal friendship, it is usually the one with a high status and a low status, especially in officialdom, you can't call someone a brother, especially your boss, otherwise others will think you are belittling him.

Looking at Zhao Dongyun, who has become one of the Beiyang bosses, Wang Zhanyuan is envious, but he has no jealousy. He and others know that Zhao Dongyun relies not on luck, but on his strength today.

If you look at the third town and the first mixed association practiced by Zhao Dongyun, you will know why Yuan Shikai called him the hero of the North Sea. If you look at the many military theory books that have emerged in Beiyang in recent years, most of them are followed by a 'written by Zhao Dongyun' or 'edited by the Third Town Supervision Office', you will know why Yuan Shikai specially sent Zhao Dongyun to ask for his opinions on many matters of editing and training the Beiyang New Army.

In history, in the process of training the Beiyang New Army and even the New Army in the late Qing Dynasty, many matters were shared by Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang, but now the role of the above three people in this time and space is very weak, and a considerable part of the limelight has been robbed by Zhao Dongyun.

Wang Zhanyuan was thinking nonsense in the back, and Zhao Dongyun in front of him also continued to talk to Meng Enyuan. At this time, the exercise had come to an end. Zhao Dongyun said, "This also looks decent. Later, rotate these battalions with the troops of Xinmin, Liaozhong and Panshan to add some experience in marching and garrison. , go to suppress the bandits and see the blood, and then you can almost pull them out!"

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's comment, Meng Enyuan showed great joy: "It all depends on your usual guidance, otherwise there will definitely be no day to become an army today!"

After the words fell, Meng Enyuan was slightly puzzled, and then said, "I heard that the court is going to train the new army and unify the new army numbers of each province as soon as possible. Now that our first mixed association has begun, will the court include us into the new army in Fengtian Province and then give us the number?"

When Zhao Dongyun heard Meng Enyuan's question, he naturally understood what Meng Enyuan was worried about. What he was worried about was not the court giving the number, but the court turning them into a local army in Fengtian Province. He immediately said, "Don't worry, although there is a court that wants to compile the unified number of the new army, the situation in Jinzhou is special, less than 10,000 I won't act rashly as a last resort!"

After saying that, Zhao Dongyun felt it was necessary to give Meng Enyuan and other middle and senior officers of the First Mixed Association a reassurance: "No matter how the number changes in the future, in the eyes of Zhao Dongyun and Lord Du Xian, this first mixed association has always been our Beiyang army, so You can let the people below feel relieved and don't follow others!"

Meng Enyuan was greatly relieved after hearing this. The reason why he asked Zhao Dongyun today was that he had heard that the imperial court had recently ordered the general training of the new army with a unified number. The reason why the imperial court did this is quite clear, that is, to put the new army of the provinces, especially the Beiyang standing army, under the jurisdiction of the imperial court training office, that is, to turn the provincial private army into the central army of the imperial court, which is an important measure to centralize military power in the Qing court.

But Yuan Shikai and a group of Beiyang people naturally have a problem with this. For example, after the unified number is granted, who do the four Beiyang towns listen to, Yuan Shikai or the Ministry of War?

The Beiyang New Army in this era is stronger than in history, so it also stiffened his waist to bargain with the Qing court. Yuan Shikai took this opportunity to ask the court to provide funds for the fifth and sixth towns, while the court wanted to weave the four Beiyang towns from Zhili local forces into the central army of the imperial court.

Of course, these disputes are all the disputes of the bosses in the dynasty. Naturally, Yuan Shikai, a Beiyang boss, should worry about it. As for Zhao Dongyun and others, they can only wait for the follow-up results.

Originally, the unified number was originally only a matter of Beiyang and the imperial court, and had nothing to do with other provinces, because the new army trained by other provinces, that is, the regular army of the provinces, can basically be ignored. However, this time Fengtian's Zengqi reported that once the new army is generally trained, Fengtian should have at least two towns. The force is not enough to deal with the danger of Fengtian, and then it is proposed that the Fengtian patrol battalion can be adapted into a town, and then the Jinzhou patrol battalion can also be adapted into a town, so that Fengtian can have two towns.

This is what Meng Enyuan said about. Meng Enyuan naturally hopes that he can become the control of a certain town, but he is even more unwilling to break away from the Beiyang system.

These days, Meng Enyuan wears a layer of Beiyang's direct skin as a mixed-counification leader in the Beiyang system, but it is much better than being a town in a local province.

Although Beiyang and the court were procrastinating, they still reached a compromise unknown to outsiders over time. In late October, the Beiyang system announced the transfer of the Wuwei Right Army, the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army, the Self-Strong Army and many troops in the first and fourth towns, and officially organized them into the fifth and sixth towns, including Wu The fifth town with the vanguard of the Wei Right Army as the main force is still struggling in Shandong, while the sixth town with the Wuwei Right Army as the main body is stationed in Zhili.

As a result, there are already six standing army towns in the Beiyang system. It is worth noting that this Beiyang six towns are different from the historical Beiyang six towns, because the current Beiyang six towns do not include the Beijing flag standing army. If you add the Beijing flag standing army controlled by the Beiyang system, then the number of new army in the Beiyang system should be seven. If Zhao Dongyun's Jinzhou patrol camp is added, it should be said that it is seven and a half.

If the new army in these seven and a half towns is full of personnel, the total strength will exceed 100,000.

However, it is still far from being filled. The newly established fifth and sixth towns still need additional soldiers. At the same time, more importantly, they have to change into new rifles and weapons. Manlixia in the hands of the sixth town and the single Maose in the hands of the fifth town are outdated. It's time, and the sixth town of artillery is better, but the fifth town also needs to be reassembed. Yuan Shikai has to take out at least 3 million taels of silver just to dress up for them.

Therefore, it will take at least a year for the two towns to be full of personnel to form combat effectiveness.

At the same time, the Training Office has also promulgated a new charter of the new army, requiring each province's new army to train in accordance with the new regulations. The establishment here is different from the previous Beiyang standing army. For example, the four battalions under the jurisdiction of the cavalry have been changed to three battalions, and the artillery has also been changed from a team of four artillery pieces, each battalion with 16 guns. Forty-eight gates of the 3rd battalion were changed to a team of 6 gates, and the 18 gates of the 3rd battalion were changed to 54 gates of each battalion.

is different from history. This time, the formation of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty also officially included machine guns in the compilation table, stipulating that each town must have a machine gun battalion and 24 heavy machine guns. Of course, if the local governor equips more heavy machine guns in a town, the training office will have no objection.

Because the general training of the new army of the Qing court needs the governors to solve their own military expenses, the Qing court does nothing except bear the expenses of the Beiyang standing army and the Beijing flag standing army, so if the governors are rich and ambitious, they will practice a few more battalions. If they don't have money or ambition, there is nothing they can do without training.

The new army's training regulations have been issued, but it's also your own business to abide by them or not. At most, the training office will not give you an official number.

At least Zhao Dongyun's third town and Jinzhou patrol battalion did not intend to follow the new establishment of the training office. Although Zhao Dongyun's troops were serious Beiyang direct troops, even Yuan Shikai knew that the third town was different from other Beiyang troops because it was equipped with more machine guns and mortars. .

This is also what Yuan Shikai acquiesces and supports, because Yuan Shikai also wants to see what Zhao Dongyun's so-called new tactical concepts can do in the end.

In addition, the cavalry is also a troublesome matter. Neither the Beiyang Standing Army nor the cavalry of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty are in line with Zhao Dongyun's idea. Zhao Dongyun prefers the Dalian small battalion cavalry unit in Jinzhou patrol battalion, rather than the traditional small battalion system in Beiyang.

He is even going to change the cavalry standard of the third town to the same as the cavalry battalion in the first mixed association, and make three large cavalry battalions, but the number will be much larger, which will probably need to increase from 1,200 to 1,800, if the cavalry battalion in the Jinzhou patrol battalion is added.

With four large cavalry battalions, Zhao Dongyun's men were able to pull out a cavalry brigade.

In October and November, Zhao Dongyun paid less attention to the Russo-Japanese War due to the frequent actions such as the new military regulations and unified number. It was not until December that he looked back at the current situation between Japan and Russia and found that the situation was different from what he expected.