On this day, 120 years ago, on May 14, 1905 (April 11, 1905 in the lunar calendar), Yuan Shikai became the New Army of the Northern Army. The Hubei New Army was founded in 1896. By this year, it had trained 17,000 people in various arms such as infantry, horse, artillery, engineering, and baggage. In May 1905, all the new armies in the six towns of Beiyang were completed, with a total number of nearly 70,000 soldiers. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 in 1895, the Qing government sent Hu Jufen, the salt transport envoy of Changlu, to train the new army at the Tianjin Station. It hired Germans as instructors, including a infantry team of 3000 people, a artillery team of 1000 people, a cavalry team of 250 people, and an engineering team of 500 people. On December 8, Rong Lu decided to reassign Yuan Shikai to the small station to supervise the training of the new army. After Yuan Shikai took over, he expanded the "Dingwu Army" and recruited 2000 infantry and 250 cavalry troops, making a total of 7000 people; and successively hired more than 10 German translators. This new army is trained in full accordance with the German battalion system and code of conduct, equipped with new weapons and equipment, and has infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, baggage and other arms. Most of the officers at all levels are filled by graduates of the Military Equipment School; The recruitment of new recruits is in accordance with the requirements for enlistment in Western countries, with regulations such as age, physique and literacy level. When the Boxer Rebellion was suppressed, the new army expanded to 17,000 people. In 1903, Yuan Shikai was appointed Minister of the Military Training Office, and the new army was greatly expanded. After the outbreak of the Japan-Russian War, Yuan Shikai proposed establishing 36 towns of the New Army across the country. He first recruited enough soldiers in the two "left" and "right" towns of the Beiyang Army, formally established the first and second towns of the Beiyang Army, and sent Wang Yingkai and Wu Changchun to control them. Later, he expanded the patrol battalion into the third town and sent Duan Qirui to control them. The original Wu Wei Right Army and Nanyang Self-reliant Army were also organized into the Fourth Town and Fifth Town of Beiyang, and Wang Shizhen and Wu Changchun were assigned to govern them. On May 14, the "Beijing Banner Standing Army" was also expanded into towns, with Fengshan as the control. At this point, the six towns of the Beiyang New Army were completed.