There is a saying, "Civil war insider, foreign war layman", used to describe the modern Huai Army is the best. In 1862, Li Hongzhang led 6,000 Huai army on the Eastern Expedition, defeating Li Xiucheng's hundreds of thousands of troops left in southern Jiangsu, invincible, and became the main military pillar of the late Qing Dynasty. Even Zeng Guofan could not handle the "Twist Army" group, which Li Hongzhang had also managed, and the huai army's fame was even more prominent. Unfortunately, when fighting against the great powers, the Huai army performed very badly. In 1895, the Battle of Pyongyang broke out, and Ye Zhichao, the former enemy commander of the Huai Army, fled without seeing the Japanese army, running for more than 500 miles, and the Japanese army reached the Yalu River and invaded Liaodong.
On the whole, the Huai army was "internal in the civil war, and outside the war", and other Qing troops were similar. However, in the late Qing Dynasty, there was such a fierce general who fought against the Taiping Army, he was repeatedly defeated by the British king Chen Yucheng, and then led a temporarily recruited soldier to defeat the French army, which was known as the second strongest in the world, and won the great victory of Zhennanguan. This person is the famous national hero Feng Zicai.
Feng Zicai, a native of Qinzhou, Guangxi, was a famous general and national hero of the late Qing Dynasty. In the early years, Feng Zicai's family was poor, and in order to seek a way to make a living, Feng Zicai gathered a crowd to participate in the Heaven and Earth Society led by Liu Ba to carry out the anti-Qing struggle, and because of his outstanding performance, he enjoyed a very high status in the Heaven and Earth Society. However, the heavens and the earth would fight in exile, and there was no fixed base area, which was quickly suppressed by the Qing Dynasty. In this way, Feng Zicai decided to submit to the imperial court and change his way of life. Returning to the imperial court, Feng Zicai was subordinate to Xiang Rongbu and followed Zhang Guoliang, and his future was bright.
In 1851, the Jintian Uprising broke out, and the regular army of the Eight Banners and the Green Camp was corrupt and incompetent, and it was impossible to stop the Taiping Army. The Only Qing army on the Guangxi front who dared to fight hard against the Taiping Army was Zhang Guoliang's "Jie Yong", of which Feng Zicai was particularly brave and fierce, and he made many military achievements. Zhang Guoliang commented: "Sons are good at war, and I am ashamed of myself." Zhang Guoliang, who is it? Xianfeng praised it as the "Great Wall of Jiangnan", and if he did not die in battle, it would not be Zeng Guofan's turn to fight Nanjing.
For Feng Zicai, Zhang Guoliang was very appreciative and regarded him as a hardcore crony. After Zhang Guoliang served as the deputy commander of the "Jiangnan Battalion", he directly promoted him to the position of chief soldier, Zheng Erpin military attaché, equivalent to the commander of the military sub-district, with a prominent position.
Following the viceroy Zhang Guoliang, Feng Zicai became one of the top pillars of the "Jiangnan Camp", and naturally had to face many bloody battles. The "Jiangnan Camp" is dominated by the Eight Banners and the Green Camp, which is where the Hope of the Qing Dynasty to seize Nanjing lies, and the Xiang Army can only be cannon fodder, and it is not zeng Guofan's turn to sing the protagonist. The "Jiangnan Battalion" threatened the safety of Tianjing, and the Taiping Army regarded it as its main enemy, and they were constantly engaged in battle with each other. Unfortunately, Feng Zicai led his troops to fight three times, all of which were defeated by Chen Yucheng's army, and once almost completely destroyed.
In 1856, Yang Xiuqing mobilized soldiers and horses to destroy the "Jiangnan Camp", and Chen Yucheng followed Qin Rigang to defeat Feng Zicai outside the Purple Mountain and tear through the Qing army's blockade line. In 1858, Zhang Guoliang asked Feng Zicai to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses to cross the Yangtze River and reinforce Dexing'a, the commander of the "Jiangbei Camp". The result? At the Battle of Xiaodian, Feng Zicai was once again defeated by Chen Yucheng, and his troops lost all their lives, and only fled back to Jiangnan with more than 300 people. In 1860, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng joined forces to destroy the "Jiangnan Camp" for the second time, and Feng Zicai failed to resist and fled with Zhang Guoliang to Danyang, Zhenjiang. Li Xiucheng took advantage of the victory to pursue, Zhang Guoliang was killed in battle, and his troops were commanded by Feng Zicai.
Zhang Guoliang was killed in battle, and Feng Zicai had no backing. During Zeng Guofan's control of military affairs in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Anhui provinces, Feng Zicai was left out in the cold and not reused. In July 1864, after the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Feng Zicai returned to Guangxi as a viceroy and destroyed the Heaven and Earth Association of the province. However, Feng Zicai's relationship with the Xiangjun clique was not good, and Liu Changyou, Liu Kun, and other elders of the Xiang Army had a lot of exclusion from him, and Feng Zicai had no choice but to resign and go home.
In 1884, the main force of the Qing army was defeated in northern Vietnam, and the French army pursued and killed all the way, burning the fortress of Zhennanguan, and the government and the opposition were shaken. At this time, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, recommended Feng Zicai to the imperial court, asking him to gather his old troops and go out to meet the French army and defend his family and country. Feng Zicai was 67 years old, had been away from the battlefield for many years, and when he heard that the imperial court was in need, he agreed to go out of the mountain to fight against France.
In 1885, the Qing army engaged the French army at Zhennanguan, and the pass was breached, and the French army swarmed in. At the critical moment, Feng Zicai jumped out of the trench, stepped on the war horse, held a machete, and took the lead in rushing into the enemy position. The commander took the lead in charging into the battle, the morale of the Qing army was high, and they defeated the French army one after another, and took advantage of the victory to pursue and retake Wenyuan and Langshan, which was a great victory in Zhennanguan.
In 1885, the great victory of Zhennanguan was the first victory of the Qing Dynasty since the war with the Western powers, and it dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of French aggression. You know, France claims to be the second most powerful country in the world, and the army is also very well-equipped, far from being comparable to the two Opium Wars. The result? The 67-year-old veteran general Feng Zicai was able to defeat the French Army, not only defending Zhennanguan, but also taking advantage of the victory to pursue, recapture Wenyuan and Lang Shan, and turn the tide of the Vietnam War.
In terms of weapons and equipment, the Taiping Army was far inferior to the French army. Feng Zicai could not defeat the Taiping Army, and was repeatedly beaten by Chen Yucheng and fled, so why could he defeat the French Army, which claimed to be the second strongest in the world? Quite simply, Chen Yucheng was a rare famous general, leading the army to fight alone, and few people could defeat him. Doron A and Bao Chao can, because there is Hu Linyi behind the planning, overall planning, rather than going it alone.
Feng Zicai was able to defeat the French army for three main reasons. First, Feng Zicai has entered Vietnam many times to fight, is very familiar with the frontier environment, and can make full use of the terrain advantage to block the opponent step by step. Second, Zhang Zhidong strongly supported the front line, and The strategic materials needed by Feng Zicai could be fully met by Zhang Zhidong. In the end, Feng Zicai dared to fight and kill, rushing to the front line and playing an exemplary role.
Zhennanguan was victorious, and Feng Zicai's fame soared, and he wanted to continue to fight deep into Vietnam and expand his achievements. Unfortunately, Li Hongzhang pursued a policy of "external demand and military cooperation", advocating that victory be taken advantage of, so as not to suffer retaliation from France. Soon, the Qing Dynasty signed a peace treaty with France to end the war, "China is undefeated and defeated, France is victorious and victorious", unfortunately.
In 1903, Feng Zicai died of illness at the age of 85, and the Qing Dynasty built the "Feng Yongyi Gongzhuan Ancestral Hall" in Qinzhou to commemorate it, called "Gongbao Ancestral Hall", which was remembered by the world.
Bibliography: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty