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Beiyang Army
The Beiyang Army (Chinese: 北洋軍; pinyin: Běi Yáng Jūn; lit. 'Northern Ocean Army'), named after the Beiyang region, was an army established by Yuan Shikai in 1895. It was the centerpiece of a general overhaul of the Qing military system in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion and the First Sino-Japanese War, becoming the dynasty's first regular army in terms of its training, equipment, and structure. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It played an instrumental role in the 1911 Revolution against the Qing dynasty, and, by dividing into warlord factions known as the Beiyang clique (Chinese: 北洋軍閥; pinyin: Běiyáng Jūnfá), ushered in a period of regional division.
The Beiyang Army had its origins in the Newly Created Army established in late 1895 under Yuan Shikai's command, after China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War. Unlike its predecessors, it had a formal structure with infantry, cavalry, artillery, and logistical branches, and maintained strict training and discipline. The brigade-sized force was expanded over the years with new recruits and by incorporating other units, before serving as the core of a larger army after Yuan was appointed the Viceroy of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang in 1901. The tensions in Manchuria leading up to the Russo-Japanese War caused Empress Dowager Cixi to accept Yuan's request to raise more divisions, and he also used his influential position in the Army Reorganization Bureau to prioritize its funding. By 1907 the Beiyang Army had 60,000 men organized in six divisions, some of whom served in the Inner City of Beijing as the emperor's palace guard, and on the eve of the 1911 Revolution it was the strongest military force of the Qing dynasty.
Yuan Shikai used his position as the commander of the Beiyang Army as leverage to negotiate the abdication of the Qing emperor during the Revolution in exchange for himself to be the first president of the Republic of China. He used the army to maintain his control, but his decision to stop rotating officers during that time led to them turning their divisions into their own power base. This made them influential leaders in their own right after Yuan's death in 1916. A series of political crises ended with the general Duan Qirui taking control of the Beiyang clique until disputes over strategy and a power struggle split the army between his Anhui clique and the Zhili clique of Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun. Military commanders had expanded their armies in response to the Second Revolution, the National Protection War, and the Constitutional Protection Movement, so as the Warlord Era began there were an estimated 536,000 soldiers in northern China as of 1919.
Duan Qirui was able to maintain control over the government in Beijing through figureheads from 1917 to 1920, but that year saw the outbreak of the Zhili–Anhui War, causing the split of the Beiyang Army between several factions. The next four years resulted in several wars between the Anhui, Zhili, and Fengtian cliques, the latter representing the holdings of Zhang Zuolin in Manchuria. The warlord conflicts of the early 1920s led to Zhang Zuolin emerging as the strongest of the northern warlords by 1926, when the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army began its Northern Expedition to reunite China. Zhang put together the National Pacification Army from his and other Beiyang warlord forces, which had a total strength of around 700,000. After they were defeated in 1928, the Kuomintang capture of northern China marked the formal end of the Warlord Era and the Beiyang government, though some parts of China continued to be led by warlords until the Communist takeover in 1949.
The traditional military forces of the Qing dynasty were the Manchu Banners and the Green Standard Army. The Bannermen were hereditary soldiers and in addition to pay also received other privileges from the government. They were stationed in garrisons in Beijing and other major cities. The Green Standard Army, despite its name, was primarily a police force rather than an army, and had garrisons in each province. The military skills of both the Bannermen and the Green Standard troops gradually declined over the next two centuries, in large part because their officers did not consider training to be important, and by the middle of the 19th century they could only put up a minimal defense. As late as the 1890s much of the Chinese army was still equipped with long bows, swords, and spears, and many of their firearms were antiquated matchlocks. Starting around that time two other forces emerged in China after the traditional army failed to stop the Nian and Taiping Rebellions: mercenaries hired by provincial governors known as "braves," and modernized units consisting of braves who were trained with European military drill. The most prominent of the latter were Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army. The braves, relatively well armed and paid, were estimated to make up ten percent of the Qing dynasty's armed forces and were private armies raised and funded by provincial officials. The ethnic Manchu dynasty was reluctant to provide funding for armies led by Han Chinese. The Green Standard Army was relegated to local security duty while the braves were the rapid response force that could be deployed to any part of the Qing Empire. Li Hongzhang, who founded the Huai Army in 1862 and later became the Viceroy (or governor-general) of Zhili and Commissioner of the Northern Seas (Beiyang), used it as his personal power base and provided for its equipment and funding.
By the time of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–95, the Huai Army was considered to be the best force the Qing dynasty could field. Its arsenal included Mauser breechloader rifles, Krupp artillery, and a large quantity of ammunition. The quality of this equipment was comparable to that of the Imperial Japanese Army at the time, and its field commanders were experienced veterans who distinguished themselves during the Nian Rebellion. However, the Huai Army was still not considered a fully modernized force. The training of its soldiers used elements of old Chinese drill, sometimes with spears and other medieval weapons instead of firearms, and lacked proper marksmanship practice and the coordination of small units. There were reports during the war that some soldiers did not know how to use their firearms or artillery. Discipline was not strongly maintained, and the Chinese were more likely to abandon their positions during battle. The Huai Army also did not have organized supply, medical, transport, or engineering services, so the soldiers on campaign had to live off the land or take goods from the local population, as they did in Korea during the war. Chinese forces in Korea suffered a series of defeats, and in September 1894 the Japanese victory at the Battle of Pyongyang largely destroyed the Huai Army.
The defeat of China's best forces by Japan caused the Qing court to authorize the creation of units based entirely on the Western model. Before the end of 1895 two organizations were established for this purpose: the Newly Created Army organized by Yuan Shikai in the province of Zhili, and the Self-Strengthening Army organized by Zhang Zhidong in Nanjing. In contrast to the simple organization of the braves, these two armies both had dedicated infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, and other technical branches, and specific attention was given to the recruitment, training, discipline, and pay of the soldiers. German officers assisted with the creation of these forces, and the German Army was specifically used as the example to follow. Unlike earlier forces, the Newly Created Army received its funding from the central government's Ministry of Finance. It was initially the size of a brigade and its foreign staff included Constantin von Hanneken and Johan Wilhelm Normann Munthe. The idea for it originated with Hanneken during the war, who wanted to create a foreign-trained corps to become the basis of a new imperial (instead of provincial) army, and Prince Gong submitted his plan in a memorial to the throne. On 8 December 1895, Yuan Shikai was appointed commander of the Newly Created Army, with the backing of the Prince Qing, Minister of War Ronglu, and Li Hongzhang.
The officer corps of this brigade-sized force in the late 1890s included five future presidents of the Republic of China, one prime minister, and multiple provincial governors; a testament to how influential the Beiyang Army would become. But during the first several years of their existence, the Newly Created and Self-Strengthening Armies were considered experimental units. During the coup that ended the Hundred Days' Reform of the Guangxu Emperor, the reformers attempted to gain the support of Yuan Shikai and his troops, which were considered the best in north China, to counter the military forces of the conservative Ronglu. Yuan refused to participate in the plot, instead giving it away, and Empress Dowager Cixi regained full control over the Qing government after the emperor was detained. Following the coup, the Qing court wanted to strengthen the defenses of the capital. On the recommendation of Ronglu in December 1898, several existing units in north China were placed under his direct command as the Wuwei Corps (Wuweijun), which is also translated as the Guards Army. Yuan Shikai's Newly Created Army was made part of the Wuwei Corps as its Right Division and was considered to be the best of the corps' five divisions. When the Boxer Rebellion started in late 1899 Yuan was appointed as provincial governor of Shandong to maintain order there, and he took the Right Division with him. The four other divisions of the Guards Army were either destroyed or took heavy casualties in combat against the foreign relief forces that arrived in Zhili in the summer of 1900.
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Beiyang Army
The Beiyang Army (Chinese: 北洋軍; pinyin: Běi Yáng Jūn; lit. 'Northern Ocean Army'), named after the Beiyang region, was an army established by Yuan Shikai in 1895. It was the centerpiece of a general overhaul of the Qing military system in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion and the First Sino-Japanese War, becoming the dynasty's first regular army in terms of its training, equipment, and structure. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It played an instrumental role in the 1911 Revolution against the Qing dynasty, and, by dividing into warlord factions known as the Beiyang clique (Chinese: 北洋軍閥; pinyin: Běiyáng Jūnfá), ushered in a period of regional division.
The Beiyang Army had its origins in the Newly Created Army established in late 1895 under Yuan Shikai's command, after China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War. Unlike its predecessors, it had a formal structure with infantry, cavalry, artillery, and logistical branches, and maintained strict training and discipline. The brigade-sized force was expanded over the years with new recruits and by incorporating other units, before serving as the core of a larger army after Yuan was appointed the Viceroy of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang in 1901. The tensions in Manchuria leading up to the Russo-Japanese War caused Empress Dowager Cixi to accept Yuan's request to raise more divisions, and he also used his influential position in the Army Reorganization Bureau to prioritize its funding. By 1907 the Beiyang Army had 60,000 men organized in six divisions, some of whom served in the Inner City of Beijing as the emperor's palace guard, and on the eve of the 1911 Revolution it was the strongest military force of the Qing dynasty.
Yuan Shikai used his position as the commander of the Beiyang Army as leverage to negotiate the abdication of the Qing emperor during the Revolution in exchange for himself to be the first president of the Republic of China. He used the army to maintain his control, but his decision to stop rotating officers during that time led to them turning their divisions into their own power base. This made them influential leaders in their own right after Yuan's death in 1916. A series of political crises ended with the general Duan Qirui taking control of the Beiyang clique until disputes over strategy and a power struggle split the army between his Anhui clique and the Zhili clique of Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun. Military commanders had expanded their armies in response to the Second Revolution, the National Protection War, and the Constitutional Protection Movement, so as the Warlord Era began there were an estimated 536,000 soldiers in northern China as of 1919.
Duan Qirui was able to maintain control over the government in Beijing through figureheads from 1917 to 1920, but that year saw the outbreak of the Zhili–Anhui War, causing the split of the Beiyang Army between several factions. The next four years resulted in several wars between the Anhui, Zhili, and Fengtian cliques, the latter representing the holdings of Zhang Zuolin in Manchuria. The warlord conflicts of the early 1920s led to Zhang Zuolin emerging as the strongest of the northern warlords by 1926, when the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army began its Northern Expedition to reunite China. Zhang put together the National Pacification Army from his and other Beiyang warlord forces, which had a total strength of around 700,000. After they were defeated in 1928, the Kuomintang capture of northern China marked the formal end of the Warlord Era and the Beiyang government, though some parts of China continued to be led by warlords until the Communist takeover in 1949.
The traditional military forces of the Qing dynasty were the Manchu Banners and the Green Standard Army. The Bannermen were hereditary soldiers and in addition to pay also received other privileges from the government. They were stationed in garrisons in Beijing and other major cities. The Green Standard Army, despite its name, was primarily a police force rather than an army, and had garrisons in each province. The military skills of both the Bannermen and the Green Standard troops gradually declined over the next two centuries, in large part because their officers did not consider training to be important, and by the middle of the 19th century they could only put up a minimal defense. As late as the 1890s much of the Chinese army was still equipped with long bows, swords, and spears, and many of their firearms were antiquated matchlocks. Starting around that time two other forces emerged in China after the traditional army failed to stop the Nian and Taiping Rebellions: mercenaries hired by provincial governors known as "braves," and modernized units consisting of braves who were trained with European military drill. The most prominent of the latter were Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army. The braves, relatively well armed and paid, were estimated to make up ten percent of the Qing dynasty's armed forces and were private armies raised and funded by provincial officials. The ethnic Manchu dynasty was reluctant to provide funding for armies led by Han Chinese. The Green Standard Army was relegated to local security duty while the braves were the rapid response force that could be deployed to any part of the Qing Empire. Li Hongzhang, who founded the Huai Army in 1862 and later became the Viceroy (or governor-general) of Zhili and Commissioner of the Northern Seas (Beiyang), used it as his personal power base and provided for its equipment and funding.
By the time of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–95, the Huai Army was considered to be the best force the Qing dynasty could field. Its arsenal included Mauser breechloader rifles, Krupp artillery, and a large quantity of ammunition. The quality of this equipment was comparable to that of the Imperial Japanese Army at the time, and its field commanders were experienced veterans who distinguished themselves during the Nian Rebellion. However, the Huai Army was still not considered a fully modernized force. The training of its soldiers used elements of old Chinese drill, sometimes with spears and other medieval weapons instead of firearms, and lacked proper marksmanship practice and the coordination of small units. There were reports during the war that some soldiers did not know how to use their firearms or artillery. Discipline was not strongly maintained, and the Chinese were more likely to abandon their positions during battle. The Huai Army also did not have organized supply, medical, transport, or engineering services, so the soldiers on campaign had to live off the land or take goods from the local population, as they did in Korea during the war. Chinese forces in Korea suffered a series of defeats, and in September 1894 the Japanese victory at the Battle of Pyongyang largely destroyed the Huai Army.
The defeat of China's best forces by Japan caused the Qing court to authorize the creation of units based entirely on the Western model. Before the end of 1895 two organizations were established for this purpose: the Newly Created Army organized by Yuan Shikai in the province of Zhili, and the Self-Strengthening Army organized by Zhang Zhidong in Nanjing. In contrast to the simple organization of the braves, these two armies both had dedicated infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, and other technical branches, and specific attention was given to the recruitment, training, discipline, and pay of the soldiers. German officers assisted with the creation of these forces, and the German Army was specifically used as the example to follow. Unlike earlier forces, the Newly Created Army received its funding from the central government's Ministry of Finance. It was initially the size of a brigade and its foreign staff included Constantin von Hanneken and Johan Wilhelm Normann Munthe. The idea for it originated with Hanneken during the war, who wanted to create a foreign-trained corps to become the basis of a new imperial (instead of provincial) army, and Prince Gong submitted his plan in a memorial to the throne. On 8 December 1895, Yuan Shikai was appointed commander of the Newly Created Army, with the backing of the Prince Qing, Minister of War Ronglu, and Li Hongzhang.
The officer corps of this brigade-sized force in the late 1890s included five future presidents of the Republic of China, one prime minister, and multiple provincial governors; a testament to how influential the Beiyang Army would become. But during the first several years of their existence, the Newly Created and Self-Strengthening Armies were considered experimental units. During the coup that ended the Hundred Days' Reform of the Guangxu Emperor, the reformers attempted to gain the support of Yuan Shikai and his troops, which were considered the best in north China, to counter the military forces of the conservative Ronglu. Yuan refused to participate in the plot, instead giving it away, and Empress Dowager Cixi regained full control over the Qing government after the emperor was detained. Following the coup, the Qing court wanted to strengthen the defenses of the capital. On the recommendation of Ronglu in December 1898, several existing units in north China were placed under his direct command as the Wuwei Corps (Wuweijun), which is also translated as the Guards Army. Yuan Shikai's Newly Created Army was made part of the Wuwei Corps as its Right Division and was considered to be the best of the corps' five divisions. When the Boxer Rebellion started in late 1899 Yuan was appointed as provincial governor of Shandong to maintain order there, and he took the Right Division with him. The four other divisions of the Guards Army were either destroyed or took heavy casualties in combat against the foreign relief forces that arrived in Zhili in the summer of 1900.
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