In the early 20s of the 20th century, a number of large-scale wars broke out between the direct warlords of the Beiyang warlords and the warlords of the Feng family who occupied northern China. So where did the so-called direct warlords and Feng warlords come from? Let's talk about this topic, first turn the perspective to the Sino-Japanese War that broke out in 1894, why? Because the old foundation of the warlord army in the Republic of China era is actually the new army organized and trained during the New Deal period of the Qing Dynasty, and why the Qing Dynasty organized and trained the new army, naturally we have to start with the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War that began in 1894, and in the First Sino-Japanese War, the best performance of the Chinese army was the Beiyang Fleet formed during the Westernization Movement.
A Chinese-made rifle from the early 20th century in the collection of the Military Museum
On July 25, 1894, Japanese warships attacked the Qing army's troop transport ship and escort fleet on the surface of Toshima, and the Cao Jiang and all the personnel on board the Qing fleet were captured; After being hit, the Gwang-Yi fled to the west coast of North Korea and self-destructed; The Jiyuan resisted and then withdrew to Weihaiwei; The Japanese army asked more than 1,000 Qing troops on the ship to surrender, the Qing sergeants sternly refused, and fired back, the Japanese sunk the Gaosheng, more than 1,000 Qing infantry on the ship were rescued, and the remaining more than 800 officers and soldiers were killed, and the Battle of Toshima ended in the Qing Dynasty with a heavy defeat. After the Battle of Toshima, the Sino-Japanese War broke out.
Qing army during the First Sino-Japanese War.
By the end of the Sino-Japanese War in April 1895, the war ended in a crushing defeat for China. When we mention the First Sino-Japanese War today, we must always mention the Battle of Dadonggou of the Beiyang Fleet. But in fact, the performance of the Beiyang Fleet in the Qing army participating in the First Sino-Japanese War was definitely quite good, the number of casualties of the Japanese army in the naval battle reached 298, including 121 killed, and at the same time heavily damaged many Japanese warships, and the Qing Dynasty Army (Hunan Army and Huai Army) participating in the war except for a few troops, most of the army compared to the Beiyang Naval Division The performance is much worse, you must know that until the fall of Taiwan, the number of Japanese casualties in the land battle was only more than 1,100, and the number of people who died of disease exceeded 10,000.
Qing troops captured by the Japanese army.
Therefore, the First Sino-Japanese War fully exposed the true level of the so-called rising stars of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army, which had been transformed from regimental training since the Taiping War. First of all, let's briefly analyze why the Hunan army and the Huai army are so vulnerable. Let's first take a look at the list of weapons captured by the Qing army in the First Sino-Japanese War, this list of weapons is relatively long, let's talk about a few key points: the Japanese army captured 7193 light firearms including arquebuses and guns, which accounted for a very high proportion of the guns captured by the Japanese army, and at the same time more than 10,000 (rods) such as waist knives, long knives, red tassel spears and other cold weapons were captured, after the Japanese army captured Pyongyang, the captured weapons and equipment included 35 guns of various sizes and calibers, 792 shells, There were 550 repeating guns, 610 single-shot guns of various kinds, and 560,000 rounds of ammunition, and the more advanced rifles captured by the Japanese army came from the United States, France, Austria, and the Netherlands. It is not an easy task to restock these different models of rifles.
Arquebuses in the collection of the Chinese Military Museum.
As far as the Japanese army is concerned, the Japanese infantry is carrying a Murata rifle, and the cavalry is carrying a Murata cavalry rifle, although most of the rifles carried by the Japanese army are still single-shot rifles, which are far inferior to the repeating rifles equipped by the Qing army, but the ammunition of the Japanese army is unified, and only a few reserve cavalry units carry American-made Spencer rifles.
Arquebuses from the collection of the Military Museum
On this one hand, we can see the gap between the two parties at that time, and it can even be said that we can see the background color of the Qing court's Westernization movement, which lasted for 30 years, and the firearms equipped by the Qing army were still "Wanguo brand", I think whether it is the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau or the Tianjin Machinery Bureau to produce guns, it will not be to imitate the guns of so many countries, right? Obviously, most of these advanced guns are still imported from abroad, so the Western-style military factory has been running it for more than 30 years. Not to mention that there were still many soldiers who used the same level of firearms as in the Ming and Qing wars to fight against the Japanese army, which shows the chaos of various departments within the Qing Dynasty authorities. It can be said that from the founding of the Anqing Ordnance Institute by Zeng Guofan in 1862 to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, it can even be said that after the First Sino-Japanese War, these so-called Westernists in the Qing Dynasty still established military factories with "middle school as the body, Western learning as the use".
Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration
Since the beginning of Zeng Guofan, there have been more than one military industrial enterprises, but the entire industrial system has not been established from beginning to end, and the Qing army, although numerous, lacks all kinds of supplies and transportation facilities necessary for modern warfare. Therefore, we say that the Qing Dynasty did not have the ability to win such a war, and it was difficult for it to gain a superior position over the Japanese army by force on the battlefield, and the decay of the Qing army made "difficult to win" into "impossible to win". It is true that we must not deny that there were many loyal and brave men in the Qing Dynasty army, such as Nie Shicheng, such as the Hunan army soldiers who participated in the Niuzhuang and Tiantaizhuang battles, and the Qing army who participated in the Dapingshan Campaign. However, on the whole, whether it is from the results of killing and wounding the enemy army or from the overall situation of the war, it is difficult to say anything good about the land warfare of the majority of the Qing army. The Qing army's four counteroffensive battles of Haicheng ended in failure, the first Qing army suffered 160 casualties, and the Japanese army suffered 45 casualties; In the second time, the Qing army suffered 630 casualties, and the Japanese suffered only 9 casualties; The third Qing army suffered 230 casualties, and the Japanese suffered only 14 casualties; In the fourth time, the Qing army suffered 220 casualties, and the Japanese army suffered only 4 casualties.
Qing Army.
This was the Liaodong Battlefield, and the Qing Dynasty Army's combat performance in the Shandong Battlefield was even more unbearable: the Japanese invading army began to attack the Shandong Peninsula from late 1894 to early 1895, with the main purpose of capturing Weihaiwei and destroying the remnants of the Beiyang Fleet. After its landing, it is necessary to capture Rongcheng County, the regimental Yong guarding the county town opened the city gate and fled for their lives when the Japanese army was still in the city, there was a battalion of Qing troops stationed outside the south gate of the county, the Japanese army arrived at the city and had a shootout with it, the Qing army was quickly defeated, in this short shootout, the Qing army killed five or six people, twelve people were captured, 40 rifles were discarded, more than 7,250 rounds of ammunition, and the Japanese army was not damaged. In the process of the Japanese attack on Shandong, the Qing army still made effective resistance to the Beiyang Fleet and the defenders of Weihaiwei, who were heavily damaged in the Battle of Dadonggou.
A collection of German-made rifles from the collection of the Military Museum
Poor Beiyang Fleet, with such a good ironclad ship, and many of the officers are professionals taught by the Harbour Master School, and many of them have studied abroad. It is really sad that such a fleet, which had a fairly high gold content at that time, was annihilated in such an extremely aggrieved way.
Sailors of the Beiyang Naval Division.
The First Sino-Japanese War marked the final collapse of the Westernization faction's ideal of "enriching the country and strengthening the army" under the influence of the Westernization movement within the Qing court, and the two regimental training armies of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army, which had emerged during the Taiping War, had actually stepped down from the stage of history. For the Qing court, it was urgent to train a new army.