Why was Zeng Guofan's Xiang army invincible? Only because of these 4 characteristics other armies do not
The Xiang Army was a powerful military force in the late Qing Dynasty, the generals of this unit were mainly Xiangxiang people, and the soldiers were all peasants in the Xiangxiang area. They have achieved good results in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Northwest Rebellion, and even in the campaign against foreign insults, such as the campaign to retake Xinjiang, and behind these glories are, in the final analysis, the 4 characteristics of the Composition of the Xiang Army, and they are not available to other armies.
First, soldiers will have. The Green Battalion soldiers of the Qing court were hereditary soldiers, and the soldiers were nationalized. The generals were stationed in their own capitals in peacetime, and in case of trouble, the Qing court gave them a military charm and led the troops to fight, and afterwards the soldiers would return to their places, and there was no selfless friendship between the soldiers and generals, and it was difficult to form a situation of forming a party and private affairs. Now, Zeng Guofan took advantage of the opportunity of the chaotic generals to be exempt from the orders of foreign kings, and changed the military system to a conscription system, stipulating that soldiers should be owned by generals. Zeng Guofan lived in the marshal himself, stipulating that the commander was selected by the commander, the battalion officer was selected by the commander, the sentry was selected by the battalion officer, the shi commander was selected by the sentry abandonment, and the soldiers were selected by the shi commander, recruited layer by layer, each sect, and the upper and lower levels were all in one breath. In this way, the military power was no longer owned by the state, but fell into the hands of the general's personal.
The second is the supremacy of personal friendship. Since the Xiang Army was recruited on its own, it would survive and scatter the dead, and the interests between its superiors and subordinates were closely aligned, and its combat effectiveness was therefore extremely strong. In the process of recruiting soldiers, generals attach importance to the use of hometown or family relations, and the relationship between generals is often the same township, the same year, or teachers and students. The entire Xiang Army was maintained by this personal relationship, which encouraged the factional concept of the Xiang Army. Zeng Guofan himself attached great importance to this point, whether it was to dispatch troops in wartime or to recommend officials to the imperial court in peacetime, he emphasized that from the perspective of personal relations, he recommended and reused people he knew and trusted.
Third, the military pays themselves. Since the Green Battalion soldiers were the economic divisions of the Qing court, all of their soldiers were provided by the Qing government. When the Xiang Army was first established, the division was still provided by the government, and later Zeng Guofan found that the central government's finances were exhausted, and there was no hope of obtaining it, and if he wanted to expand the ranks, he had to raise his own funds. Therefore, while recruiting and training the Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan set up his own gold bureau card in the local area and raised food on the spot. The salaries of the Xiang Army are generally self-raised by the commander-in-chief on the spot, and then distributed from top to bottom, and then reported to the Household Department afterwards. Self-financing not only improved the unity within the Xiang Army, but also greatly increased the independence of the Xiang Army.
The fourth is to respect each other's strengths. Because of the above reasons, there is a tendency in the Xiang Army, unless it is a top boss who has recruited and selected himself, others, regardless of the size of their official positions and their status, do not only have people outside the Xiang Army not be able to command at all, but even within the Xiang Army, they must also be restrained and ordered layer by layer, and it is difficult for anyone to command subordinate units that do not belong to themselves.
Combining the above four points, this is the reason why the Xiang Army is strong, and the history of the Xiang Army is also very long, Chiang Kai-shek once transformed them into a semi-centralized regular army, until 1949 was completely eliminated by the People's Liberation Army, marking the end of the history of the Xiang Army.