readx; After the Beiyang Army took Anhui, it had gathered many troops along the Yangtze River, including Jin Yunpeng's Fifth Division, Wang Ruxian's Seventh Division, Yu Youfu's Second Mixed Brigade under Feng Guozhang's Second Army in southern Jiangsu, and a brigade of Zhang Xun's Eighth Division stationed in Qingjiangpu. The 3rd Division of Cao Kun and the 17th Brigade of the 9th Division in Anhui were www.biquge.info in Anhui Province, as well as many units of the Anhui Army were incorporated and reorganized into three divisions, which were the 1st Division of the Anhui Army, the 2nd Division of the Anhui Army, and the 3rd Division of the Anhui Army; In Hubei, where Duan Zhigui is located, there are also a lot of troops, there is a sixth division, and after taking over the Hubei army from Li Yuanhong, Duan Zhigui did not take two months to completely reorganize these Hubei troops and change them into the first division of the Hubei Army, the second division of the Hubei Army, and the third division of the Hubei Army. Hubei, like Anhui, is going by the provincial army division.

Not only Anhui and Hubei, but also in other provinces ruled by the Beiyang Army, those local troops also followed this model, especially after Yuan Shikai got the big loan for the aftermath, in addition to vigorously expanding the Central Army, he also ordered the local troops in each province to be reorganized, and the original troops in each province, such as the First Division of Henan and the Second Division of Henan, were all abolished and unified into the divisions of the army of a certain province, or the brigades of the army of a certain province.

In addition to streamlining the local troops in various provinces and improving their combat effectiveness, this move also wants to limit the number of local troops, after all, like the previous Henan side, in addition to the Ninth Division of the Central Army, there are many local troops, and the number is also messy, Yuan Shikai wants to gather all his strength to fight to the death with Chen Jingyun and sweep away the major warlords in the south, and he also knows that he wants to straighten out the interior. Therefore, the provinces under the rule of Beiyang began to be restructured at the beginning of the year, and each province organized two or three divisions to garrison the localities. This is the case in Henan, Shandong, and other provinces, and even Shanxi, which is under the control of Yan Xishan, had to obey Yuan Shikai's order and reduce Shanxi's four divisions to two divisions and two mixed brigades, but this brigade in him is much more regular than the mixed brigades of other provincial armies, and it is not much weaker than the mixed brigades of the Central Army. Although Yuan Shikai wanted to rectify the local army, based on the special surname of the Beiyang system, those local armies even prepared their own salaries and guns, and it was impossible to dismantle the troops or increase the number of troops because of Yuan Shikai's words, so the provinces were just named, and some of the direct troops were finished as soon as they were changed, and they were not moved at all.

So now, although it seems that in addition to the divisions and brigades of the Central Army under the Beiyang system, there are also provincial armies in the northern provinces, which seems to be clear at a glance, but in fact there is not much change, the troops are still those troops, what Yuan Shikai can control is the descendants of the Central Army, and whether the local troops of those provincial armies can listen to him Yuan Shikai is another matter, and the combat effectiveness of these provincial armies is also very different, such as the two divisions and two brigades under Yan Xishan, However, he used the financial resources of the entire Shanxi to raise it, and since Shanxi has not received too much war damage in the past two years, this armament is still good. The three mixed brigades in Henan were much worse, and they could not even match their guns. The provincial armies of the two provinces of Hubei and Anhui on the front line were all adapted from the original Hubei army and the Anhui army, and their original combat effectiveness was not very good, and it is still doubtful how much combat effectiveness can be left after this reorganization, but the provincial armies of these two provinces are well equipped, and the original Li Yuanhong, Bai Wenwei and others are not dry food, and they still have a lot of weapons, so there is no shortage of weapons for the local troops in these two provinces, at least in terms of light weapons, there is no difference in the regular army of Beiyang, and there are even a lot of heavy machine guns and artillery in heavy weapons.

After such a rough calculation, the Beiyang Army has prepared four full-fledged Central Army divisions, the Sixth Division, the Third Division, the Fifth Division, and the Seventh Division, and then the Second Mixed Brigade, the 17th Brigade of the Ninth Division, and the 15th Brigade of the Eighth Division, and the strength of this main force is nearly 80,000 people. In addition, there are about 50,000 provincial troops in the three divisions of the Anhui Army and about 50,000 troops in the three provinces of the Hubei Army, and the total strength has reached as much as 130,000.

And this can only be a front-line force, in the Jinpu line, along the Jinghan line, Henan, Zhili, Shandongbeiyang Army still has a large number of reserve troops, such as the Gyeonggi area and Zhili Shandong and other railway lines, stationed the first division, the sixteenth division, the first mixed brigade, the ninth division, the tenth division, the eleventh division, and the third mixed brigade. There are still two divisions in the northeast, there are still three provincial military brigades on the Henan side, Yan Xishan's troops are still obeying Yuan Shikai's orders, and then there are Yi troops on the Shaanxi side and so on.

Speaking of this total strength, the Beiyang Army is much larger than the nascent warlord forces such as the Nationalist Army and the Dian Army, and there is no problem with easily exceeding 300,000.

The strength of the Beiyang Army is so huge, so you can imagine how much pressure the National Army has, and you can understand why Chen Jingyun wants to win over Tang Jiyao now.

"The previous batch wasn't enough?" Chen Jingyun frowned,

Yuan Fangdao, who was beside him: "The people on the side of the Dian army said that now they have built two new divisions, so the guns are still not enough." ”

"Two divisions again? This Tang Jiyao's handwriting is really not small! Chen Jingyun sneered slightly, the speed of Tang Jiyao's army expansion is not slow, and if you look at the financial situation of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, then Tang Jiyao's current expansion of the army of this scale is completely crazy, he used to have five divisions and ten brigades, and now he has expanded two divisions, so the total strength will be close to the national army. In order to support so many troops, the military expenditure of the national army in a year does not include war expenses, and the maintenance and training expenses in peacetime alone have exceeded 50 million. Tang Jiyao, who has no money, can naturally only reduce expenses in order to expand the army, and the weapons and equipment of the troops cannot be the same as those of the National Army or the Beiyang Army, and then the salaries of the troops are also in arrears.

"Since he still wants to buy it, then give him another batch! Anyway, there are still a lot of rifles and other rifles in the warehouse! Chen Jingyun was not worried that Tang Jiyao's continued expansion would threaten him, and Tang Jiyao's further expansion would be limited. Besides, it's useless to keep those miscellaneous guns yourself, so it's better to sell them to Tang Jiyao to increase some income.

At this time, Yuan Fang said: "Lu Rongting's people came to me again yesterday!" ”

Chen Jingyun listened and said: "It's still the same old? ”

Yuan Fangdao: "That's right, don't say anything else, just want to buy arms from us!" ”

Chen Jingyun said: "Don't worry about them, if you want guns, you have to show sincerity, not just buy them!" ”

Now among the three major warlords in the south, Tang Jiyao has become very close to Chen Jingyun, and has publicly issued telegrams to support Chen Jingyun, and the two are natural allies based on geopolitics, so the relationship is better. And the rest of Lu Rongting was sandwiched between the two, he didn't dare to confront the Nationalist Army, but he didn't want to be annexed with the Nationalist Army, so he wanted to maintain the status quo, which made Chen Jingyun quite dissatisfied. Although the arms dealers have all of them, the price of importing arms from foreigners in China is very different from the price of buying second-hand guns from the Nationalist Army, and the Gui Army simply does not have so much financial resources to expand the size of the army by importing, which can be regarded as a small means of Chen Jingyun.

Yuan Fang said: "Subordinates understand! ”

After Yuan Fang went out, before Chen Jingyun had time to catch his breath, Yu Shifeng from the secretariat walked in: "Commander, Mr. Jia Leheng has come over!" ”

When Chen Jingyun heard that it was the U.S. Minister to China, Jia Leheng, who was coming, he immediately said, "Oh, please come in!" ”

Soon, Jia Leheng came in wearing the standard tuxedo of diplomats, holding a bowler black hat in his hand, and carrying a walking stick.

"Mr. Minister! Come on in, please be seated! Chen Jingyun took two steps forward to greet him, and said with a smile.

Jia Leheng's expression was also good, and he only listened to him: "Your Excellency, the scale of your place is getting bigger and bigger day by day, I remember the last time I went to Fuzhou to see you, there were not so many people!" ”

"Haha, the Nationalist Army has the current weather, thanks to the assistance of American friends!" Chen Jingyun casually sent a high hat to him.

Jia Leheng also had a smile on his face after hearing this: "For the sake of your country's sovereignty and freedom, it is only natural for our country to contribute the necessary meager strength!" ”

Chen Jingyun said: "Jingyun 'represents' the 400 million people of China and thanks the American people for their help!" Speaking of this, Chen Jingyun paused slightly, and then said: "The last naval cooperation plan and the army assistance plan benefited my national army a lot, so the process of democracy and freedom in our country has also greatly accelerated a big step forward, and now we have reached the last moment, I don't know how our second aid plan is discussed in your country?" ”

With the Sino-US naval cooperation plan and the army aid plan, the ties between the United States and Chen Jingyun have deepened, and with the expansion of the Nationalist Army, the United States has also gained great benefits in China; not to mention the arms trade, the US capital has already made large-scale investments in the three economic development zones of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Fuzhou, and the total investment has exceeded $50 million, and this is just over a year, and the amount of investment is still expanding rapidly day by day, and the United States is even negotiating with the Nationalist Army, ready to borrow from the United States and use American technology to build a railway, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, Hangzhou line, can connect the Shanghai-Hangzhou line to connect to the Shanghai-Nanjing line, after crossing the river to connect to the Jinpu line. And it has been planned to continue to build westward in the future, running through Changsha, Hunan, Guiyang, Guizhou, and Kunming, Yunnan, trying to build a railway artery through the east and west of China in the south, and this southern railway will become China's two east-west arteries together with the Longhai railway in the north. Whether it is the market for railways or other industrial products, the United States cannot ignore and abandon the Chinese market, and it is impossible to give up supporting Chen Jingyun.

The Nationalist Army has grown larger and larger, and has begun to compete with the Beiyang Army Group represented by Yuan Shikai for central power, Jia Leheng believes that the United States' Far East policy has achieved great results, and has reached the last moment, if Chen Jingyun, supported by the United States, can rule China, then the benefits brought to the United States are unimaginable! The sentence that one person buys one dollar, then it is 400 million US dollars, made those American consortiums excited, which is the same as China's reform and opening up in later generations, n more foreign-funded enterprises poured in, some made a fortune, and some returned home. Opportunities and risks will always coexist, China's potential market is indeed large, but it still needs to be developed, and the current political environment is also unstable, if Chen Jingyun falls, then the Americans' money will have to go down the drain.

In any case, the U.S. side has launched a second round of aid programs, which, like the previous one, are divided into two parts: the army and the navy.