#Historical Cold Stories##Late Qing Dynasty#
About the rifle caliber of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China: starting from the World Weapons Exposition
As we all know, the rifle is the basic weapon of a country, especially for a big country like China, the rifle machine gun required is massive, and the accompanying ammunition is also an astronomical number. Therefore, the standardization of the caliber of this weapon is, of course, a lot of benefits.
In fact, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, some people of insight at the upper levels were already aware of this problem. They made an attempt to standardize the caliber of the rifle, trying to find a standard caliber that was most suitable for themselves in China, which was the "Hundred Ghosts and Nights" of the World Weapons Exposition. In the middle of this, it has gone through a circuitous and tortuous process of seven nine to six five, then to the standard caliber six eight, and then back to seven nine.
1. The Qing Army at the Universal Arms Exposition
In fact, this Qing army was equipped with foreign guns and cannons very early, especially after suffering the great losses of Britain and France in the Opium War, people of insight began to buy Western weapons in large quantities. By the time of the Taiping Rebellion, the elite units of the Taiping Army and the Qing Army were heavily equipped with foreign guns, and even Western mercenaries like the "Huaer Foreign Gun Brigade".
Taking Li Hongzhang's Huai Army as an example, when they attacked the Taiping Army in Changzhou, Suzhou in June 1864, only the more than 10,000 people of Guo Songlin, Yang Dingxun, Liu Shiqi, and Wang Yongsheng had more than 10,000 foreign guns, more than 7,000 liu ming's troops, and 4,000 foreign guns. By the end of the next year, when fighting against the Twist army, "more than 50,000 people in the province and the army left behind, about 30,000 or 40,000 foreign guns." In terms of the proportion of rifle equipment, the Huai Army is already very high.
At that time, the types of foreign guns of the Qing Army were very complex, and it could be said that they were disorderly, and they bought whatever they wanted. At that time, the brand-name products of the great powers, such as Britain's Martini, Schnaide, France's Harkach Kaiser, Germany's old Mauser, the United States' LinMingdun and Li Yi and other gun types, can be found in the Qing army. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the "All Nations Arms Exposition" of the Republic of China, this time has begun to appear. The elite troops in the Qing army also used these foreign guns and artillery to achieve some victories on the battlefield.
For example, in Zuo Zongtang's Western Expedition in 1876, according to Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of Xinjiang, there were more than 20,000 foreign guns of various types in the expeditionary army at that time: "Former Governor Zuo Zongtang and Fuchen Liu Jintang came out of the customs and carried more than 20,000 rifles with breech rifles, Haqi Kaisi, Horseshoe Mud, Standard Needle Fast, Li Mingdeng, Seven, Eight, and Thirteen Guns." "
In the famous "Zhennanguan Victory" in the Sino-French War, Feng Zicai's troops mainly used Li's 1879/1882 rifle. It was also in 1884 that the Qing court purchased 9,000 M1882 rifles from Lee's Company through the German Latham & Co. and Company, and the receiver was engraved with Chinese the words "Linmington Factory Manufacturing Ryison & Co. In addition, 3900-4000 ready-made M1979 old guns were purchased and handed over to the Remington factory for reloading to use the same ammunition.
The batch of 13,000 rifles arrived just in time for the Sino-French War. From March 25 to 28, 1885, the elite Qing army led by the veteran general Feng Zicai fought with the French Foreign Legion for three days at the Daqingshan and Fengweishan Passes near Zhennanguan. The French suffered 463 casualties, accounting for 1/5 of the invading force. In the end, the French army suffered too many losses and retreated, and the Qing army chased all the way to Langshan, which was known as the great victory of Zhennanguan. The French military post-report pointed out that one of the important reasons for the failure was that the loading speed of its rifle was not as fast as that of the Qing army's rifle, so it suffered a big loss in firepower!
These foreign guns and cannons with excellent performance gave a lot of help to the Qing army in the war of that year. Therefore, some people of insight in the Qing court at that time, such as Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and other important ministers, all purchased Western-style weapons in large quantities.
Second, before the Sino-Japanese War, a large number of foreign guns and cannons were used
Under the purchase and accumulation of many years, by the time of the Sino-Japanese War, the foreign guns and cannons in the Qing army had accumulated to a very alarming number. In July 1894, the editor Zeng Guangjun had statistics on this. According to his submission:
"There are so many breech guns in China. The manufacturing and purchasing offices of the bureaus shall not be exhausted". According to his personal opinion, the rifles at that time were divided into A, B, C and 3rd grades. There are five kinds of grades such as Kuaili made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Mauser (1871/84) in Germany, Martini, Monophonic Haqikais, and Li Yi (which can be continuously handed over by five sons), and said that Mauser and Martini "Jiangnan Military Uniform Bureau has a lot of storage and a lot of marbles." There are those who have been dispatched by the Eighth Battalion of the Songhu Army and surrendered, and there are those who have not yet opened the box." The B-class guns are British Martini and Thirteen-Tone Cloud Shide, and "these two kinds of Chinese purchases are also not many."
In addition, there are also some that Zeng Guangjun can't even look at. For example, he is listed in the C class of the United States Linmington:
"It is the very old style of the United States, which was built in the twelfth year (1873) of the Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau, and by the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), more than one million poles were built, and in addition to the battalions that had been issued, more than 600,000 poles were actually preserved, and the marbles were enough." Although the Lin Mingdun gun "has a misfire in the breech, is easy to explode, and is not very accurate", "the Chinese armor gun is already quite a lot, enough for the army", and "the purchased bullets are still mountainous".
Of course, although there are many foreign guns in this Qing army, he said that millions of American "Linmingdun guns" are also exaggerated. According to the production records in the "Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau" by the editor Chen Tianjing, the Remington side needle gun made about 25,000 of its own in that year, and at least 14,400 were purchased. In addition, among Li Hongzhang's more than 30,000 Huai army, it was also equipped with about 20,000 Mauser 1871/84 rifles and at least 5,000 Hatchkais rifles (the purchase record is incomplete).
In addition, this old Li is quite able to save money, he according to the price of four or two silver, thousands of old-fashioned front-loading Snyder 1853 rifles, to the rear of the Snyder 1866 - from this point of view, although this old Li has money, but is not a master who does not know how to spend money indiscriminately, or quite careful.
In the equipment of the Huai Army, in addition to the conventional rifles of Mauser, Hatchkais, Snyder, and Martini, there are also some special burst guns. Thirteen winchester streaks were the most intense, followed by nine Spencer rifles. These two kinds of company guns are mainly equipped with the cavalry of the Huai Army, such as the famous Shengjun Flying Cloud Horse Team, all equipped with Winchester Thirteen Pai guns, and the melee firepower is very fierce!
However, this variety of rifles of different calibers, coupled with the fact that the Qing army did not have a systematic logistics support organization, caused great confusion in logistics supply. During the war, Song Qing's Yi army once reported that the bullet size of the Martini gun used was as large as four or five, which caused great confusion to the actual use of soldiers.
3. Rifles purchased urgently during the Sino-Japanese War
After the Sino-Japanese war, due to the lack of weapons, the major governors rushed to purchase weapons, which greatly aggravated the logistical chaos. The one who bought the most was Li Hongzhang.
By September 1894, he had entrusted the ministers stationed in various countries to purchase weapons, including 7,000 Haqikais fast guns purchased by Gong Zhaoyao, minister in Britain, 12,000 Mauser guns, 8 Lianzhu fast guns, and 10,000 small-caliber Mauser five-tone fast guns in four batches, with 10 million bullets. In December 1894, he commissioned Xu Jingcheng to purchase 10,000 Mauser guns, 4.12 million bullets, 300 large and small caliber fast guns, and 100,000 bullets; Entrusted Yang Ru in the United States to purchase 3,000 six-shot guns and 2 million bullets; Entrusted Gong Zhaoyao to purchase 10,000 Martini guns and several small fast guns.
According to the estimate, Li Hongzhang alone bought 32,000 Mauser rifles of various types (including 10,000 7.92 mm 1888 committee rifles, 22,000 11 mm Mauser 1871/84 rifles), 10,000 Martini guns, and 10,000 Hatch kais guns, totaling at least 52,000. In addition, there are many other overseers who make large purchases:
According to the report of Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, in 1894, Xu Jingcheng, the minister in Germany, was entrusted to purchase 3,000 German new small-caliber five-bead fast guns and 3 million bullets; Purchased 1,250 mauser guns and 1.5 million bullets from Xinyi Foreign Company; 5,000 flat-ranging Mauser guns, 2.5 million bullets; By September 1894, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, had purchased 14,000 Martini guns, 1,000 Mauser guns, and 2.8 million bullets. In October, it was ready to buy another 10,000 Belgian fast guns, each with 500 ammunition. Wu Dayi first purchased "ten war cannons and hundreds of fine guns", and then bought 8,000 Austrian small-caliber guns with 1 million bullets. Fujian Province purchased 5,000 German Mauser guns with 5 million bullets. Some generals tried to buy themselves to improve their equipment, such as Wu Hongluo, that is, Shang Zhi's foreign firm, "to buy a fast cannon, a hundred carbines, and tens of thousands of bullets to make up for the shortage."
Estimated, these overseers purchased 15,250 Mauser guns of various types (3,000 1888 council rifles, 1,250 Mauser 1884 rifles, 5,000 Mauser 1,871 single-shot rifles, 1,000 Mauser muskets, and 5,000 unknown varieties), 14,000 Martini guns, 10,000 Belgian fast guns, and 8,000 Austrian small-caliber guns, with a total of more than 50,000.
If you add at least 52,000 rifles purchased by Li Hongzhang, thousands of scattered purchases from various places, and various rifles urgently purchased by the Qing court during the Sino-Japanese War, at least more than 110,000. The most numerous of these were the Mauser 1871/84 smoked rifle, and the new 1888 Commission smokeless rifle. A total of nearly 50,000. If you add nearly 20,000 Mauser 1871/84 rifles originally in the Huai Army, the total number of Mauser guns should be more than 70,000, which is truly the first major gun.
This was followed by various British Martini rifles, with a total of nearly 30,000. In addition, various varieties of Remington guns, Lee's rifles, Hatch open guns, Belgian fast guns, and Austrian small-caliber guns also have tens of thousands of guns.
Fourth, the chaos caused by the huge and complex caliber
However, although this total is quite a lot, the models are too large. At that time, the types of weapons of the Qing army were already a real eight-nation alliance, and all kinds of guns came from Germany, Britain, France, the United States, Britain, Belgium, Austria and other countries, and the models of imported guns and guns could reach thirty or forty kinds. The small number of domestically produced weapons are also far apart because the major governors are in charge of each other. At that time, the most advanced Hubei Hanyang Arsenal had begun to prepare for the construction of the latest 7.92 mm 1888 committee rifle, and the famous Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau along the coast also abandoned the outdated Remington and began to try to produce the fast rifle. The Sichuan Machinery Bureau in the interior, on the other hand, is still producing outdated Martini rifles, and most arsenals are even producing lifting guns.
According to incomplete statistics, the smoke rifles imitated by the Qing arsenals at that time included at least six different calibers, including the 13 mm Remington side needle gun, the 11.43 mm Martini gun, the 8.89 mm Remington needle gun, the 11.46 mm Schneider gun, the 11.2 mm Li Yi gun, and the 11.39 mm Mauser 1871/1884 gun.
The different calibers of these various firearms became a stubborn disease that plagued the Qing army at that time. People at that time were not unaware of this situation. Anhui Jisheng Zhu Zhaoyi, a scholar, can conclude:
"The cannons are Green, Armstrong, Krupp, Tianji cannon, flower cannon and other kinds, and the guns are new and old Mauser, Linmingdun and Chinese self-made fast guns. Guns and cannons have one kind of ammunition, that is, one kind of ammunition has one kind of casting method. Ammunition or mistakes, if they are incompatible with the gun, large or small, long or short, loose or tight, and are not suitable for use, then there are ware and no ware, etc." "The shell of this cannon, or mistakenly enters another cannon, shall not be opened."
In addition, the lower quality of the Qing army also further caused logistical chaos. If at the beginning, the 20,000 or 30,000 veterans in the Huai Army were still familiar with firearms, then the newly arrested Zhuang Ding who was temporarily arrested later was completely ignorant of all kinds of firearms, and the vast majority of them were illiterate people with poor learning ability:
"There are often guns and bullets that do not fit in when they are in battle. Cover by the regular soldiers of the mostly shino rough halogen husband, can not be identified one by one; There are one or two veteran soldiers, although they are recognized, but when they are in a hurry, they may mistakenly carry them, which is very harmful. In the case of a wide variety of people, that is, there are still camp officers and sentries who cannot fully understand?"
Therefore, the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War is indeed no accident, and the Qing court was indeed defeated in all aspects. However, this Qingguo has an advantage, that is, it is still remembered, and after each beating, it will wake up from sleep and work hard. Then after a few years of hard work, I felt relieved and fell asleep again.
From the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 to the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance in 1900, the Qing Dynasty did make an effort. The result was not only the construction of a new army of nearly 100,000 men, but also the effort to unify the standard rifles throughout the country.