If we want to talk about the elite army in China's modern history, we have to mention Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army, although the Qing court had a nominal million army in the whole country, but more than 100,000 Beiyang troops were the absolute main force, and even forced the Qing Emperor to step down. Although the number of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army was only a few hundred thousand, its elite level was remarkable in the world at that time, and the most critical problem was that the equipment and training of the Beiyang Army were much more than those of the ordinary Qing army at that time.
At that time, China's military industry was very backward, in order to be able to manufacture weapons, Li Hongzhang Zhang Zhidong and others had successively opened military industries such as the Hanyang Arsenal of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, but because the foundation was too poor, it was still a big gap with foreigners, so how did Yuan Shikai's arms come from - imports.
At that time, Yuan Shikai's first import country was Germany, because Germany performed well in the Franco-Prussian War, so Yuan Shikai decided to arm the Beiyang Army with German arms as the mainstay, of which the large-caliber mountain guns and land guns of the Krupp factory were the weapons at the bottom of the Beiyang Army's pressure box, the infantry used the Manlixia rifle produced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the cavalry used the Manlisha horse gun and the battle knife, and the officer standard weapons of the Beiyang Army were revolvers and standard knives. These weapons were absolutely second to none in the world at the time, and they were the most advanced and powerful weapons.
At that time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be called a European arsenal, the military industry in its Czechoslovakia region until the Second World War is very advanced, one of the important reasons for Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia was to seize its military production, in Chinese history there is a famous Czech light machine gun is one of the weapons exported by Czechoslovakia, and the smokeless gunpowder small-caliber rifle used by the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, its operation is simple, the shell is rapid, and the rate of fire per minute is about 22 rounds. The mountain guns, field guns and revolvers used by officers in the artillery were also the most advanced at the time. This point was even acknowledged by foreigners at that time, such as Xu Jingcheng, who had served as the minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany, commented in his "Chronicle of the German Army": Even the German Army was not necessarily superior to the new army (Beiyang Army), when the Manlisha rifle was just shipped in 1895, and even the Austro-Hungarian Empire's own army did not have time to equip it, and the Beiyang Army was equipped first. It can be said that the Beiyang Army is a rich and powerful army all over the world.
Yuan Shikai not only moved closer to the German Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of armament, but also looked at Japan in the east in terms of training and equipment, when the Japanese Army was undoubtedly the strongest in Asia, after defeating the Russians, the strength of the Japanese Army also impressed the world, Yuan Shikai not only looked at the Japanese in military training, but also implemented the military system of the Japanese Army, such as Qiu Cao, etc., especially Yuan Shikai also invited Japanese instructors to guide the Beiyang Army, and the Beiyang Army at that time was the same as the Japanese Army in both marching and fighting. So many people can't even tell whether this is the Beiyang Army or the Japanese Army. Yuan Shikai not only trained to be on par with Japan in other ways. For example, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army purchased a large number of arms from Japan, Yuan Shikai spent 1.2 million taels of silver alone, purchased more than 7.2 million rounds of ammunition from the Japanese Mitsui and Okura Liangyang, 14,650 horses, rifles, pistols, 64 cannons, and more than 25,000 shells. Even the beiyang army's daily armaments, such as "rucksacks, coats, work equipment, belts, harnesses, etc., were purchased by Japan." Beiyang officers have also been sent to Japan to study, eager to get the entire Japanese army to the Beiyang Army, it can be said that Yuan Shikai is a real Japanese fan.
This series of adjustments made the Beiyang Army the most effective unit in the Qing court, even Nie Shicheng's Wu Wei Army could not be compared, especially the elite first and second associations in Beiyang were even more powerful, and the Wuchang Uprising was devastating to the Hubei New Army, and it was precisely because of the elite and powerful beiyang Army that Yuan Shikai had the courage to force the Qing Emperor to step down, but the Beiyang Army belonged to a typical private army, only for the interests of the warlords, when they encountered a more religious revolutionary army. Naturally, it seems less powerful.
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