During the first year of Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty to the third year of Tongzhi (1851-1864), a leading group composed of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, etc., took the lead in launching a peasant uprising war against the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty and foreign capitalist aggression from Jintian Village in Guangxi Province.
In 1864, with the fall of Tianjing (Nanjing), the capital of the Taiping Dynasty, it also marked the defeat of this movement.
In that year, after the Taiping Army took control of Songjiang, it pushed straight into Shanghai, causing panic in the city. However, this made everyone realize that relying on the Qing army alone could not reverse the situation, so they pinned their hopes on foreigners. However, British and French diplomats in China are not willing to directly participate in this matter, and if they can find someone who does not have a Western government background, it is really the most appropriate.
However, things often just happen by coincidence. Not long ago, an American came to Shanghai, who had worked as a pirate and was a famous adventurer. His original purpose in coming to China was to join the Taiping Army. However, after coming to Shanghai and hearing the bad evaluation of foreigners around him, he changed his mind and wanted to join the Qing Army. Because of this, he is well known to Chinese.
And he was the founder of the suppression of the Taiping Army's "foreign gun brigade", Wahl.
After joining the Qing Army, his first job was to serve on the Usser Kong Fuzi as a first officer. During this time, he already had a vision to form a foreign gun brigade to suppress the Taiping Army. The force was "employed", with each British soldier paid $100 a month and officers up to $500 or more. In addition, he was promised that if he could retake Matsue, he could get $133,000.
However, the level of this team is really uneven, and many people are extremely squandered after getting money.
What's more, if you can't get your salary in time, you will leave immediately. In late June 1860, they fought the Taiping Army for the first time in Songjiang, hoping to retake Songjiang Castle. In this battle, the other side also had a Western officer, under his command, not only defeated this foreign gun team, but also Wahl was seriously wounded. And Huaer, who felt faceless, has not had any news since then, which makes people speculate.
However, in April of the following year, he returned to Matsue again and reorganized the Yankees. This time, the members are all white Europeans and Americans, including: British, American, Danish and so on. Due to the large number of British recruited, it caused great dissatisfaction among British institutions in China. Moreover, many British people engaged in administration, commerce, and even the navy came to "defect" to him. So, the British decided to hunt him.
However, the officials on the Side of the Qing Dynasty certainly did not want to see Wahl captured. However, in the end, Wahl was captured by the captain of the British ship "Emergency" Hale. At the time of the trial, Wahl suddenly declared that he was already a "Chinese", not an "American", which made everyone "confused". Since he was a "Chinese", the foreign consular authorities had no right to try, after which he was acquitted.
It turned out that on the day of Wahl's arrest, he submitted an application to the Qing government to become a Chinese citizen.
However, it will take more than half a year to officially become a Chinese. At that time, the British side declared that Huaer had no "nationality" and was handed over to the Qing government. On February 24, 1862, he officially became the "Chinese", and soon, when the Taiping Army marched into Shanghai, the foreign gun brigade cooperated with the British and French regular troops in Shanghai and the Qing army to resist.
After the Chinese and foreign counterrevolutionary armies held Shanghai, they began to attack the Taiping Army in Jiading, Qingpu, Nanqiao and other places. Because of the unusually brave performance of the foreign robbery team, he was given the name "ChangshengJun" by the emperor, and Hua Er also became a "sipin" military attaché of the Qing court. In September of the same year, Hua'er led the "Changsheng Army" and the British and French invading forces to attack Zhejiang.
It can be said that in the eyes of Qing court officials, HuaEr should be a foreigner who "only officials are the plan", so he also ushered in the most "proud moment" of his life. Yang Fang, who had been one of the patrons of mercenary military expenses, also became his father-in-law. However, the good times did not last long. On September 22 of the same year, he was killed in the battle of Cixi, Zhejiang Province, and his story was widely publicized by the Qing government.
It is recorded that after Zaihua's death, the American, British, and French invaders competed with each other for the leadership of the "victorious army", and under the activities of the American Minister Pu Anchen, the American Bai Qiwen served as the commander. In early 1863, under the activities of the British, Li Hongzhang removed Bai Qiwen and sent the British officer Ogalen to temporarily replace him, and in late March, the British Gordon took over. Gordon led the army to cooperate closely with Li Hongzhang's Huai army and frantically slaughtered the Taiping Army.
Although Wahl's deeds are not much mentioned by later generations, some of his practices at that time still have reference significance, and even, to some extent, have a great "encouraging" effect. At first, he and his foreign gun team were defeated by the Taiping Army and injured himself, which also led to the international media's tone being "mocking". However, he never gave up, but made major adjustments from a strategic level.
From that time on, Wahl began to recruit Chinese, equipped with foreign guns and cannons, and trained these Chinese "fighters" with Westerners as officers. From clothing to armament, they all follow the example of Western armies. It may be said that in a sense, this is China's first modern army. After that, These actions of Huaer were even more noticed by Li Hongzhang and others, and since then, he has begun to attach importance to Western weapons.
However, it is interesting that although he later "naturalized", he still donated 10,000 taels of silver to the US federal government. In fact, there is another story behind this. At that time, the United States was in the period of the Civil War, and Britain was on the side of the Southern Federation, which led to very tense relations between Britain and the United States. If war breaks out between the two countries, his foreign gun team will be the only military force of the United States in the Far East.
Moreover, he and the U.S. government had reached a tacit agreement: if war broke out, he would use the Yankees as the main force and concentrate on the Americans in the Far East to launch an attack on the British Far East Fleet. This explains why the British were so jealous of him, and then, with the help of his "Chinese friends", things took a different direction.
If Wahl's personal story is put back into the historical environment of that time, perhaps more profound meanings can be interpreted. However, for himself, he just wants to make a profit by "taking risks", and he is very conscientious about his "profession". Although Wahl is a contradictory and controversial figure, for posterity, such a figure may not be without reference.
Resources:
[Military History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", "Modern and Contemporary Chinese History", "Biography of Li Hongzhang"]