28 KOREA Japanese cruiser Naviwa.Two days later,the imprisoned king was THREE forced to declare war against his suzerain.On July 31,the tenno declared war against China;the Chinese emperor responded with a declaration the next day. The Army,1895-1899 China and Japan fought from July 1894 to March 1895,first in Korea and then in Manchuria and on the Yellow Sea.China was soundly defeated in all three major campaigns.Sir Robert Hart commented,"China has given no offense-has done no wrong does not wish to fight,and is willing to make sacrifices:She is a big'sick man,'convalescing very slowly from the sickening effects of peaceful centuries,and is being jumped on when down by this THE WAR and peace of 1895 ended China's suzerainty over Korea, agile,healthy,well-armed Jap-will no one pull him off?" as well as her sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu (the Pesca- Early in July 1894,after the failuire of the four-power mediation, dores).In addition,China was to pay Japan an indemnity of 200 Yuan had asked the Tsungli Yamen to recall him,since his pres- million taels of silver in eight installments,a debt that virtually ence in Seoul was no longer necessary.His request denied,the reduced her maritime customs service to a collection agency.for once powerful resident became a pathetic figure.No one called Japan.She was forced to allow Japan to build factories on her on hi,and all his servants deserted him.He soon fell ill,and soil;and by the application of the most-favored-nation clause, T'ang sil ao-i carried on the routine work of his office.Finally, many other countries gained this right as well.A period of intense through Li Hung-chang's efforts,the Tsungli Yamen summoned competition was thus inaugurated-in Lord Salisbury's words,the Yuan to report on the situation in Korea.He was to go directly to "battle of concessions."One of the war's most profound effects was Peking without stopping to see Li in Tientsin,a reversal of nor- the sense of panic that now seized the Chinese mind.The defeat mal procedure that signified Li's declining power.Yuan began had revealed serious defects in the policy of self-strengthening this melancholy journey on July 19 and arrived a week later.On that China had pursued since the 1860's. August 4,Li sent Yuan to Pyongyang as quartermaster of the Chi- Under the self-strengthening policy,new armies had been nese army.47 Before reaching the city,Yuan received news of its trained,a navy established,and arsenals and factories built.With fall.He stayed in Manchuria with Chou Fu and Hu Yi-fen,two. these as security,China had enjoyed peace and order for nearly Chinese officers,supplying provisions and equipment to the forces go years.But the peace was a precarious one.The dynasty's safety fighting there.This gave him another opportunity to witness the depended largely on the strength of the Hwai Army and the North- corruption and utter inefficiency of the Hwai Army-and its shat- ern Fleet.It was because Li Hung-chang knew the real limitations tering defeat.A provocative experience,it may have helped him of those forces that he had accepted the Japanese challenge so re- decide to resume his career as a military instructor.Indeed,even luctantly.Others with less precise knowledge blamed Li for follow- as the Chinese were retreating from Manchuria,Hu Yu-fen sug ing a weak,irresolute policy and urged him to be firmer. gested to Yuan that he organize an army of his own. After his ruin,Li was sent on a long tour.Wang Wen-shao The signing of the Shimonoseki Treaty on April 17,1895, assumed the positions of viceroy of Chihli and commissioner for marked the end of the war and the beginning of a new epoch in trade;but the real power fell into the hands of Jung-lu.Jung-lu's China,indeed in the Far East as a whole.In many ways,it was to immediate task was to secure the imperial capital,not so much be the worst period China had seen since being opened to the West. against a foreign invasion as against a possible internal uprising of those disaffected by the government's policy.Stunned by the defeat of 1895,most government officials-including Chang Chih-
THE ARMY 30 THE ARMY 31 tung,the powerful viceroy of Hupei and Hunan-saw no other reorganized and expanded maritime customs service,which pro- answer to China's problems than to intensify the efforts at self- vided more than one-third of the government's annual revenues. strengthening.They continued to regard China's traditional social Now these revenues were pledged against foreign loans raised to and political systems as nearly perfect but admitted her military pay the war indemnity.Without them,the new fighting force and technological weakness.All that she needed,they felt,was a could not be larger than the old one.Further,modernization had modern,efficient army and a developed industrial economy to to be confined to the army.China could not afford to revive her support it.Eventually,their policy led to the establishiment of the dream of becoming a maritime power,which France and Japan Newly Created Army(Hsin-chien Lu-chun). had shattered in the wars of 1884 and 1895.In fact,she could not Outside government circles,however,the self-strengthening pol- really afford to maintain her existing ground forces-the surviving icy now became an object of ridicule.There were many critics- units of the Hwai Army,plus a traditional army of some 800,000 and they did not mince words.Li had become "a laughingstock archers and lancers equipped with a few outmoded Mausers- among all barbarian peoples,"wrote one.Another was less harsh, while training new troops.But the situation at the time demanded just that. but still outspoken: The remnants of the Hwai Army included General Nieh Shih- Have we not seen Li Hung-chang's navy,foreign-style army,and military ch'eng's Tenacious Army and General Sung Ch'ing's Resolute _and medical schools?Have we not seen Chang Chih-tung's colleges,found- Army.Along with General Tung Fu-hsiang's Kansu Army,which ries,and Self-Strengthening Army?Those were the results of Li's efforts was little more than a band of brigands,these forces were respon- for 30 years and Chang's for 15.If we allow other Li's and Chang's to pur- sue the same policy for another 5o years,to proceed at the same snail's sible for the defense of the imperial capital and northern China. pace,...in the end,we shall have another crop of schools and foreign- Although the soldiers showed a certain bloodthirsty bravery,they style troops,who in another emergency will turn and run for their lives numbered only 7o,000,lacked training and discipline,and were as their predecessors did in 1895.2 ill-equipped with guns of various makes and calibers.The des- Far more radical than the official leaders,the partisans of this perate need for a new army was obvious. school of thought advocated the adoption of a constitution and a Late in 1894,at a crucial stage of the war,the German adviser thorough reform of the government.They refused to trust the cor- von Hanneken had submitted a modernization plan to both the rupt,archaic administrative machine with any modernization pro- Grand Council and the Tsungli Yamen.He proposed training gram.To them,the survival of the country was far more impor- 100,000 troops,with Sir Robert Hart in control of the funds.Weng tant than the preservation of Confucian values and imperial pre. T'ung-ho,the grand secretary and imperial tutor,favored the idea, rogatives.Their efforts culminated in the reform of 18g8. considering it "China's only way to survive."Weng's initiative .Yuan Shih-k'ai had a role in both the army modernization and here,as later in the reform movement,was a move to fill the power the reform movement,and he soon realized their incompatibility. vacuum created by Li Hung-chang's downfall.The British Min- As an important military instructor,Yuan's principal duty was to ister O'Conor put forward a similar suggestion on army train- defend the dynasty;as a sympathizer of reform,his principal duty ing;moreover,he thought that Hart was the person best suited was to protect the interests of the nation.From 1895 on,especially to take full control.Under Weng's instructions,with the Grand after 1goo,the interests of the dynasty and those of the nation Council's and Jung-lu's approval,Hu Yu-fen worked out a de- grew further and further apart.Yuan's personal fortune was caught tailed program for army modernization.His plan emphasized uni- up in this larger historical process,and he had to make choices at form equipment,established ranks,and training by foreign in- several critical points in a turbulent era.Let us look at the army structors.Northern China was to be responsible for training 50,000 first. soldiers,southern China for go,o00,and Hupei and Hunan for 20,000-at an estimated total cost of 14 million taels of silver. In the 1860's,self-strengthening had been financed by the newly
THE ARMY 32 THE ARMY 33 Other important officials memorialized the throne on this sub- ods should be adapted,after careful deliberation,to create a new system. ject,including Chang Chih-tung and Wang Wen-shao.Sheng ..At the same time,military academies to train selected cadets must be set up and staffed with foreign experts;later these cadets should be sent Hsuan-huai,Li Hung-chang's lieutenant in commercial and in- abroad for further study.On their return,they should be given a military dustrial affairs,presented a plan for training a new army.He put command according to their abilities.s the number of new troops required at goo,000,insisting that the As a result of this letter,Yuan was called to the capital in June traditional forces(the Bannermen and the Green Standard)be de- mobilized.A soldier would serve for 14 years-three in the stand- for consultation.He and Hu Yui-fen,and indeed a host of others, ing army with full pay,three in the reserves,three as a retained fully realized the meaning of the assignment,both for the nation soldier,and five in a militia unit.After the first three years,a and for the man selected.Rivalry between the two was inevitable. soldier could return to civilian life,though he would be expected In July,Hu wrote to Li Hung-tsao describing Yuan as arrogant. to take part in maneuvers;throughout the 14 years,he was to be Chang P'ei-lun,another highly placed lieutenant of Li Hung- exempted from other forms of state labor. chang,also wrote to Li Hung-tsao to criticize Yuan: The Grand Council's less ambitious program fixed the quota for I have had several talks with him and found him boastful and utterly the first four months at 4,oo0 to 5,o00 men.Hsiaochan,located unreliable.His past history shows that he is conceited,extravagant,lech- between Peking and Tientsin,was selected as headquarters for the erous,ruthless,and treacherous.Sir,you are right to treat him as the son of a friend,but gravely wrong to esteem him as a man of rare qualities new force.It was here that Li Hung-chang had maintained the I.am compelled to speak up about him;for having misled Li Hung- barracks of his Hwai Army for over 20 years.Hu Yu-fen,not Yuan chang,he may now attempt to mislead you and indeed our country. Shih-K'ai,was appointed supervisor,and von Hanneken was named the chief instructor.Hu,a competent and enlightened In spite of these personal attacks,Li Hung-tsao had formed a dis- official;could not get long with the German,because,as he said, tinctly good impression of.Yuan;so had Jung-lu and Weng Tung- Hanneken was greedy and arrogant.Before long he gave up army ho.&But one fact weighed heavily against him:Yuan had joined administration in favor of building railways,and Yuan Shih-k'ai Liang Ch'i-ch'ao's Strengthening Study Society,a reformist orga- nization. was then brought in to succeed him. Yuan's knowledge and experience made him the best qualified After Hu's resignation,Jung-lu asked Yuan to make a report on candidate of all his contemporaries.Further,he had a spotless army training.Yuan did so at great length,advocating the use of reputation and had shown considerable interest in the work.In German methods.Seconded by Jung-lu,Li Hung-tsao recom- May 1895,shortly after the end of the war,he wrote to Li Hung- mended Yuan for the position.Yuan had strong support in other tsao,a member of the Grand Council: quarters as well:both the notorious,powerful Prince Ch'ing and 1 the grand eunuch,Li Lien-ying,favored his appointment.On De- The weakness of our troops does not lie so much in quantity as in quality, cember 8,1895,the Crand Councilpresented a memorial to the not so much in their physical strength as in their lack of training.Worst of all,they lack uniform organization,a unified command,and stern dis. throne recommending that Yuan be made commander of the cipline.They are impossible to control and do not have enough spirit to Newly Created Army and supervisor of its training.Yuan was then face an enemy.... thirty-six years old. Under these circumstances,we should do our best to rectity the mis- The army at Hsiaochan was made up of ten corps and num- takes of the past-by eliminating superfuous units,cutting excessive ex- bered 3,o0o infantrymen,1,ooo artillerymen,250 cavalrymen,and penses,dismissing incompetent officers,and tightening up discipline.In addition,we should select a few highly respected generals and give them 500 engineers.The infantry was divided into two regiments,con- the freedom and the financial support necessary to reorganize our exist- ing troops into several big units;these should be stationed at strategic .The assignment was especially important in light of Chiang Kai-shek's ap- points.We ought to.employ foreign instructors to assist in the work of pointment as the director of the Whampoa Academy and Lin Piao's as the reorgai'zation.Both our own traditional methods and European meth- director of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College
34 THE ARMY THE ARMY sisting of units armed with rapid-fire guns,units with heavy artil- 35 lery,and reserve units.The engineers were divided into bridge- cated man."15 Imitating the West,as Yuan had suggested to Li building,fortification,ordnance,repair,surveying,mine-laying, Hung-tsao,meant simplifying the army's organization,concentrat- and telegraph detachments.There were also four administrative ing power in a few hands,and making discipline more stringent- bureaus:supply,ordnance,transport,and foreign affairs(intelli. all tasks he undertook at Hsiaochan. gence).According to Yuan's report to the Grand Council,foreign- He organized the new army differently from both the traditional style training should be continued,and the.number of drill in- forces and Li Hung-chang's Hwai Army.His system was soon structors increased from two (a'German and a Norwegian)to five. adopted by the other army units reorganized under Jung-lu.16 In He also proposed to expand the army from 5,o00 to 7,o0o men. firm personal control of the operations at Hsiaochan,Yuan con- According to a wage scale Yuan devised,the total monthly payroll centrated on developing professionalism and discipline among the would amount to 7o,o0o taels of silver.This and other expenses. troops.7 Just as he had established rigorous standards for his re- were to come from the Board of Revenue.10 cruits,Yuan imposed stern regulations on their conduct;theft, Yuan's chief-of-staff was his old friend Hsui Shih-ch'ang,who rape,rioting,and desertion all carried the death penalty.He also knew nothing of military affairs.*T'ang Shao-i,Yuan's assistant took special steps to discourage opium smoking.Finally,to pre- in Korea,continued on as his secretary.The German-trained Man- vent embezzlement,the soldiers were paid individually under chu General Yin-ch'ang,who was the head of the military academy Yuan's supervision,as opposed to the customary practice of issuing at Tientsin,recommended four of his best students to Yuan:Feng the money to the commanding officers.(Even so,in April 1897,a Kuo-chang,Tuan Ch'i-jui(also German-trained),Wang Shih-chen, censor wrote a memorial to the emperor charging Yuan with bru- and Liang Hua-tien.Liang later drowned during a night maneu- tality and corruption.In response to this,Jung-lu went to Hsiao- ver,but the other three assumed important positions in the army. chan to investigate in person.On his return,he paid an unquali- Feng became Yuan's aide-de-camp and headed the infantry school; fied tribute to Yuan's accomplishments.Two years later,when Tuan commanded and instructed the artillery corps;and Wang Yuan and the censor met again in Shantung,all was forgiven and held a similar post with the engineering corps. forgotten;in fact Yuan took the man into his secretariat.19) As Yuan understood it,the army's duties were "to defend the Yuan's army was equipped primarily with foreign goods-in- honor of the country and to suppress violence.on behalf of the cluding arms,tools,tunics,boots,canvas tents,raincoats,blankets, people."u By "country"(kuo),he did not mean the Chinese na- field glasses,drums,telephones,and medicine.2 The infantry was tion but the throne,the realm,the dynasty.In classical parallel armed with standardized Mauser rifles,the cavalry with both Mau- sentences,his recruitment notices stressed over and over again the sers and lances,and the artillery with Maxim machine guns and graciousness of the throne and the corresponding debt of gratitude six-gun batteries of one-to six-pounders. owed by the people.Indeed,an important goal of the soldiers' The officers came from two major sources:they were either grad- training was to "consolidate their loyalty"to the throne.1s If the uates of the Peiyang Military Academy in Tientsin or veterans army was to perform its imperial duties,Yuan felt it must emulate without much formal education.The former prided themselves on Western models.14 Like most of the Chinese who were not xeno- their scholarly knowledge,the latter on their battle experience.21 phobes,Yuan tended to idealize the West.He once remarked,for Yuan's way of reducing tension between the two groups was to example,"In the West there is not a single civilian who does not emphasize their common duty to the throne,as well as his own understand military affairs.Conversely,every soldier is an edu- expectations of them.22 Hsii hadhad a checkered career since he and Yuan had parted as young A great moment in Yuan's career came when the British rear- men.Although he held a chin-shih,the highest degree,he was not an out- standing scholar and had not-won a promising appointment.(He was also .They should be twenty to twenty-five years of age,at least 4 feet,8 inches hindered by the death of his mother,which interrupted his career.)At Hsiao- in height,able to lift 1oo pounds,and able to walk 61 miles an hour.They chan,he was actually working under a man with no degree. should not be physically deformed or addicted to opium,and should have no criminal record.Yuan Shih-k'ai,ed.,Hsin-chien lu-chin,pp.85-87
36 THE ARMY THE ARMY 37 admiral Lord Charles Beresford visited Hsiaochan in October had convinced him that a rigid adherence to tradition was re- 1896.The admiral was deeply impressed by the sturdy Shantung sponsible for the decline of China and Korea.He believed that men under Yuan's command."By Western standards,"he com- the need for reform extended beyond the military.In fact,the mented,"Yuan Shih-k'ai's troops wcre the only completely demand for thoroughgoing reforms had been growing since 1895. equipped force in the empire." In that year,K'ang Yu-wei,a commoner and a candidate in the On December 10,1896,a year after his appointment,Yuan re- metropolitan examination,had joined more than a thousand oth- ported to the throne the formation of a full-scale division,con- ers in petitioning the throne for immediate reform.K'ang and his sisting of eight infantry battalions (8,000 men),two artillery bat- comrades,including Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and T'an Ssu-t'ung,also or- talions (2,o00 men),two cavalry battalions (1,o00 men),and one ganized societies all over the country to promote their cause.To engineering battalion (1,o0o men).The force was further divided show his support,Yuan joined one of them. into two wings,or brigades.For his achievements,Yuan was pro- By June 1898,K'ang and the other reformers had presented seven moted to the rank of provincial judge of Chihli in July 1897. "letters"to Emperor Kuang-hsu,as well as essays on Peter the Great, His reputation was growing.Wu Ju-lun,a great scholar,had writ- the Meiji Restoration,and the tragedies of Poland and Turkey. ten him in January 1896:"I have heard that your troops have When this material was delivered to the Southern Study of the adopted Western military techniques.This is undoubtedly the palace,Weng T'ung-ho read it with interest and admiration. most urgent task of our time."Above all,both Jung-lu and Shortly after the 1895 treaty,the aging tutor discussed reform with Weng T'ung-ho continued to admire and trust Yuan.Their favor the young monarch.News of this leaked out to the dowager em- was especially important:Jung-lu was a firm supporter of the Dow- press,who subsequently denied Weng access to the Southern Study. ager Empress Tz'u-hsi,and Weng was the emperor's tutor. This reproof cut short the first attempt at reform;but it was pri- The Newly.Created Army continued to grow.Meanwhile, marily through Weng's advocacy that the emperor eventually de- Chang Chih-tung's Self-Strengthening Army was taking shape in cided to adopt the drastic measures K'ang proposed. Hankow and Wuchang,and General Nieh Shih-ch'eng was reor- Meanwhile,the battle of concessions was being raged ruthlessly. ganizing his Tenacious Army.Although Nieh's troops numbered In 18g8,Germany acquired a lease on the land around Kiaochow nearly 10,000,only slightly fewer than Yuan's,they were inferior Bay.As compensation,Russia seized Port Arthur and Dairen, in training and equipment.From these separate efforts,the de. which were subsequently leased to her.Similarly,Britain and fense of the empire was gradually consolidated.At the beginning France encroached on China's sovereignty in the southwest.A fear of 1898;there were five armies stationed around the capital:Gen- of dismemberment,of being"cut up like a melon or handed out eral Nieh at the entrance to Tientsin,General Sung Ch'ing at the like beans,"suddenly seized the country,giving impetus to the northeast pass to Peking,Jung-lu on the outskirts of Peking,Gen- reform movement.K'ang Yu-wei hurried to Peking to make an- eral Tung Fu-hsiang near Chichow,and Yuan himself at Hsiao- other urgent plea for reform.Weng T'ung-ho,calling K'ang a chan.Although untested in battle,the Hsiaochan troops were re- hundred times more competent than himself,suggested to the puted to be the strongest.Being a shrewd man,Yuan was fully emperor that the reformer be placed in charge of China's affairs. aware of their importance to the dynasty and to his own personal The ultimate aims of the reformers-national power and wealth career.The Newly Created Army was Yuan's power base,just as -did not differ radically from those of the self-strengtheners;nor the Hwai Army had been Li Hung-chang's.And as everyone did the economic programs of the two schools differ greatly.In one clearly understood,it was no coincidence that the loss of the major respect,however,the reformers disagreed with their prede- Hwai Army led to Li's eclipse. cessors.They believed that the West's success in the worldwide Yuan was not exclusively concerned with military matters dur- competition among nations for wealth and power was due to ing this period.His experiences in Korea,especially the 1895 war, her superior institutions and administrative methods.China must