At that time, the King of Korea asked the Qing Dynasty to train for him, and Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang asked Wu Changqing to plan this matter. Wu Pai Yuan is in charge of training in North Korea. With the assistance of North Korea, Yuan selected 1000 able-bodied men to imitate the Huai army system, and then trained about two battalions for North Korea and another 500 people, named "battalion". Although the scale of this training is not large, it has accumulated experience for future small station training.
In the 10th year of Guangxu, Wu Changqing led the 3rd Battalion of the Qing Army to return to China, leaving the 3rd Battalion in Seoul, under the unified command of Wu Zhaoyou, the registered prefect, and Yuan Shikai, the prime minister. 1On February 4th, pro-Japanese factions in South Korea staged a coup, held the king hostage, killed pro-China factions, reorganized the government, and the Japanese army also participated in the war. Wu conspired with Yuan and "North Korean General Affairs Commissioner" Chen Shutang to suppress, and defeated the Japanese army and put down the coup in just seven days. The following year, Li Hongzhang ordered Chen Shutang to resign. 128, he asked Yuan Shikai to "negotiate trade matters with the DPRK Prime Minister" and assigned it to the magistrate, who first filled the vacancy, then promoted to Taoist priest, and added three titles.
After Yuan Shikai came to power, he expanded the organization of the Office and took many measures to strengthen the suzerainty of China, which aroused Japanese dissatisfaction. The king also expressed dissatisfaction with Yuan's actions of undermining North Korea's sovereignty, and Japan took the opportunity to encourage North Korea to stand on its own feet. In order to compete with Japan for the control of North Korea, Yuan Shikai politically supported the pro-China faction in North Korea and cracked down on pro-Japanese forces. His action was supported by Li Hongzhang. Li's evaluation of Yuan is "blood loyalty, talent, sensitivity, overall situation, and independence". Under the protection of Li, Yuan made his debut in Zhejiang in the 19th year of Guangxu (1893). 1In May, 894, the East Korean Learning Party revolted, and the king asked the Qing army to go to the DPRK to quell the chaos. Japan, which has been planning for a long time, also took the opportunity to send troops to North Korea. Yuan returned to China due to illness on July 18, and soon, a full-scale war broke out between China and Japan at sea and on land.
After Yuan Shikai came back from North Korea, the court wanted to send him to the front to lead the troops to fight. In order to preserve talents, Li Hongzhang sent Yuan to Phoenix, Liaoning Province to deal with the former enemy camp of the Qing army and prepare for transshipment. He not only completed the task, but also learned about the command and logistics support of large troops on the spot, and reported the front-line military situation to Li Hongzhang in time, leaving an impression of "knowing soldiers" for Li, paving the way for future training. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Huai army was completely defeated, and the disadvantages of the old army were exposed. The emperor and later princes and ministers realized that they could no longer rely on the Xiang-Huai army and had to form a new army to defend national security. At the end of 1894, the Qing court accepted the suggestion of Von Hanneken, the military adviser of Li Hongzhang, and decided to train a new army. The provincial judges in Guangxi were ordered to recruit soldiers and set up small stations. Hu recruited more than 4,700 soldiers and named them "Dingwu Army".
During the period of 1895, Yuan Shikai was the Commissioner of Military Affairs in Beijing. He widely adopted the military systems of various countries, summed up the previous training experience, and submitted a detailed "battalion salary chapter", "training principles" and "contract for hiring foreign personnel" for the new army. In October, Prince Gong Yi? Li Hongzao, the minister of military affairs, and Rong Lu, the minister of the Ministry of War, and others called for "flexible military system" and "sending Yuan Shikai to supervise and train the new army, with vain powers and responsibilities". Yuan immediately went to the station to take over the "Dingwu Army", recruited more than 2,000 people, imitated the German military system, and hired German officers for training, which was called the "new army".
Different from the old Huai Army, the new army recruits soldiers according to the new standards, trains soldiers according to the new regulations, conducts shooting training with the most advanced guns, conducts multi-arms cooperative combat training according to the new battalion system, configures logistics support systems according to actual combat requirements, establishes camps for training officers, and does a good job in the spiritual education of officers and men. It is groundbreaking in many ways. This is an experimental training, teaching and combat integrated force.
The command organization of the new army consists of two departments and four bureaus: the training department, in which Yuan Shikai personally serves as the training officer and the president of the army (including 297 officers including the military affairs battalion, the law enforcement battalion and the supervision battalion). ); In the teaching department, there are 65,438 foreigners and 65,438 translators. Audience rating bureau, office member 1 person, 44 copywriters and staff; Ordnance Bureau, with one office member and 28 employees; Military medical bureau, with chief medical officer 1 name, deputy medical officer and staff officer 15; When marching, another transportation bureau (i.e. the trench camp) will be set up. There are 4 10 personnel in the command organization. (Liu Xinjun, 1967, p54)
The combat troops of the new army belong to four arms: infantry, artillery, cavalry and engineers. The business system originally proposed is:
The First Infantry Brigade (equivalent to a brigade) is divided into two wings (regiments), each wing has a commander who is responsible for two or three battalions, each battalion is responsible for four teams (companies), each team has three sentries (platoons) in the left, middle and right, each sentry is responsible for six sheds (squadrons), and each shed has two captains (squad leaders) and 60 soldiers. Soldiers in each battalion 1.008, including 46 officers and commanders, and 500 copywriters, committee members, doctors, calligraphers, trumpeters, nurses, cooks and husbands, totaling 1.554.
The 1st 1 Battalion of the Artillery Corps is a left-wing heavy artillery corps, which has three posts and 27 sheds, and each post has six heavy guns, totaling 18, with 378 soldiers. The right-wing fast artillery team has jurisdiction over 3 posts and 24 sheds, with 8 fast artillery guns per post, totaling 24 guns and 336 soldiers; Respond to the horse artillery team, administer 3 posts, shed 18, each post responds to 6 horse artillery, totaling 18, with 252 soldiers; There are 966 soldiers in each battalion, including 46 officers and commanders, and 48 copywriters and committee members1person, totaling 1493.
The 1st battalion of cavalry is in charge of 4 teams. The first team has jurisdiction over three posts, 12 shed, each shed has two officers and vice captains, eight cavalry, 480 soldiers in each battalion, 26 officers in charge, and 303 copywriters and committee members in charge, with a total of 809 horses and 556 horses.
Project No.1 battalion has six teams, namely Bridge (11), Horst (193), Thunderbolt (60), Machine Repair (66), Surveying and Mapping (43) and Telegraph (20), with 28 people in the whole battalion.
The treatment of the new army was the most generous among the Qing army at that time. It institutionalizes the reimbursement of officers, soldiers, clerks and commanders, accurate to every post, and everyone's miscellaneous expenses, such as cleaning cloth for artillery and feeding Ma Yin, are fixed. The monthly salary of infantry soldiers is 4.5 A Liang, 5 Liang for vice captain and 5.5 Liang for captain; Sentinel (deputy platoon leader) 15 beam, sentinel (platoon leader) 20 beam, public funds 10 beam; Chief officer (company commander) 50 Liang, public funds 100 Liang; Gang Tong Leader (Deputy Battalion Commander) 100 Liang, Gang Tong Leader (Battalion Commander) 100 Liang, with public funds of 300 Liang.
Because artillery is a technical unit, the salary of officers and men is superior to that of infantry regiment. The monthly salaries of commanders, deputy commanders and soldiers are 6.5 Liang, 6 Liang and 4.8 Liang respectively. The monthly salary of an officer at the company battalion level is 50 taels more than that of an officer at the same infantry level. Cavalry and engineering teams are also slightly better than infantry.
According to the price at that time, an army soldier shaved off one or two meals, leaving 3.5 taels of silver enough to support his family, while the battalion commander's salary and public funds reached 4800 taels (artillery battalion commander's 5400 taels), which was far behind the state and county officials and fourth-level Beijing officials in general provinces. The method of paying wages has also been improved. Every month, the Rating Bureau will send staff and officers to the playground to openly call the roll and pay salaries, so as to put an end to the bad habit of eating empty salaries and withholding salaries at different levels. However, the wage gap in different positions has greatly stimulated the desire of officers and men to make contributions. (For the salary chapter of battalion system, see Yuan Shikai, A Brief Record of Newly-built Army Soldiers, Volume I of Beiyang Warlords, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1988, pp2 1-3 1).
The weapons of the new army are all purchased from foreign countries, and they are all newly manufactured products. Infantry use Manrichia rifles made in Austria, cavalry use Manrichia carbines and combat knives, artillery is equipped with 57cm mountain guns and seven semi-earth guns made in Krupp factory in Germany, and all officers wear six revolvers and sabers. These guns were first-class equipment in the Qing army at that time.
1 1 On June 6th, Yuan Shikai announced the formation of a new army. The infantry is divided into two wings, the second battalion on the left, the third battalion on the right, the first battalion of artillery, the first battalion of cavalry and the first battalion of engineers, totaling 1 130 1. If the command organization and civilian personnel of each battalion are subtracted, the combat force is 7458. The camp system of the new army is not complete and reasonable, but it has the embryonic form of the camp system of six towns in Beiyang. At that time, it was a pioneering work. It took the first step of military reform in the late Qing dynasty, narrowed the gap with foreign troops and accelerated the modernization of the Qing army. During his training in a small station, Yuan Shikai paid attention to military education and the training of officers, and attracted a large number of outstanding civil and military talents because of fate.
Yuan Shikai founded a camp-attached school in infantry, artillery and cavalry, and also opened a German school, collectively known as the "camp-attached combat school". At the beginning of 1896, Yuan Shikai recruited 234 literati, 80 infantry, 80 artillery, 24 cavalry and 50 German soldiers from the regular army. All schools employ German officers as head teachers for two years. After graduation, German learners were sent to Germany to study, and other students were assigned to various battalions as junior officers. Yuan Shikai gave out one-third (200 taels) of his salary every month to reward students, and also sent outstanding students to the Japanese military academy to study, which trained many middle and senior officers for the later Beiyang New Army.
Yuan Shikai attaches great importance to expanding his cadre team. As long as he meets talents, he tries his best to recruit them. Some of the ranks of the new army are his cronies, such as Xu Shichang, who manages the staff camp, who is his childhood friend; Liu Yongqing, general manager of Grain Bureau (and Transportation Bureau), is his cousin and serves as his secretary in North Korea. Wu Changchun, the second infantry right-wing battalion, was his old subordinate in North Korea and later served as the fifth town of Beiyang. Later, the officer of the first battalion of cavalry was the son of Yuan's servant. He was his guardian in Korea and later took control of Beiyang, the fourth town. Some of them are teachers and students of Beiyang armament school founded by Li Hongzhang, such as Duan, who is in charge of artillery battalion and artillery school. Li Hongzhang sent him to Germany to study artillery for one year. Feng, the commander and supervisor of the school, is a scholar. After graduating from ordnance school, he stayed on as a teacher. He was the chief of staff of Nie Shicheng, the general of Huai Army, and participated in the Sino-Japanese War. /kloc-in the summer of 0/895, Nie recommended him as the attache of Japanese minister Yu Geng, met Japanese Aoki Xuanchun, inspected Japan's military system, compiled a book and established a new army training code. He is a famous military educator of Beiyang Department. Wang Shizhen, the deputy director of the operation and the general instructor of Jiangwutang, has been supervising the artillery school for a long time after graduating from the school, and led the students to participate in the Pingyang Campaign introduced to Yuan by the general manager of the school. Cao Kun, Zhang, Duan, Wang Yingkai, Lu, Li Chun, Wang Zhanyuan and Liu Chengen, who graduated from the armament school, all served as middle and senior officers in the new army. Some are old generals of Huai Army, or talents introduced by Li Hongzhang and Huai Army generals, such as Jiang Guiti, the left-wing commander of the first battalion, Zhang Xun, the general manager of the training department, and Ruan Zhongshu, who later became an important think tank of Yuan. (Li See Zong Yi: Biography of Yuan Shikai, Zhonghua Book Company, 1980, pp. 53-57) These talents later became important cadres when Yuan Shikai was governor of Zhili and senior general of Beiyang New Army.
Yuan Shikai was the first official in the Qing Dynasty to seriously study the organizational methods, strategies and tactics of foreign troops. In July of the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), Yuan Shikai was promoted as a provincial judge in Zhili because of his meritorious military training. In just three years, he rose from grade four to grade three. In December of the following year, Rong Lu established the "Wu Weijun" and raised 10,000 people to practice in Nanyuan, known as Wuwei Zhong Jun in history; Fifteen thousand Wu Yijun, the governor of Zhili, Nie Shicheng, is the former army of Wu Wei and stationed in Lutai; Gansu satrap Dong Fuxiang twelve thousand people, stationed in Jizhou; Twelve thousand Yi troops, Sichuan Song Qing prefect, are Zuo Jun, military guards, stationed inside and outside Shanhaiguan; Yuan Shikai's newly-built army of 10,000 people is the Wuwei right army, stationed in small stations.
In May of the 25th year of Guangxu (1899), the Germans harassed coastal areas such as Rizhao, Shandong. The Qing court allowed Rong Lu to play, and ordered Yuan Shikai to lead the right army of Wuwei to enter Dezhou, Shandong Province in the name of practicing marching array. In June, Yuan Shikai was awarded the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry. At that time, the Boxer Rebellion had spread in Shandong, and the governor Yuxian sheltered and condoned xenophobia. The Qing court ordered Yuan Shikai to move to Yizhou. 1February 6th, Yuan was appointed as acting governor of Shandong (awarded on March 26th14th), and on 26th, Yuan led the army to Jinan to take over.
It took only five years from the failure of North Korea to his appointment as a government official. Yuan Shikai's achievements in training the new army and his political acumen are the main reasons. The former made him stand out among a group of mediocre and useless courtiers, while the latter earned him the absolute trust of Rong Lu, Prince Qing and Empress Dowager Cixi. Even if he participated in the performance many times, he was promoted by officials. However, it is not a blessing that Yuan Shikai became the governor of Shandong at this time. He faced quite arduous tasks: first, to prevent the Germans from entering the mainland in the name of protecting the Ji Jiao Railway; Second, we must quickly eliminate the Boxer Rebellion, protect foreigners and churches, stabilize social order, and give no excuse for foreign interference; Third, act as a barrier between the two rivers and Huguang to prevent the Boxer Rebellion from fleeing south; Failure to complete any of them will ruin his political future.
However, Yuan Shikai not only accomplished the above tasks, but also used the opportunity of eliminating the Boxer Rebellion to expand his army. Almost all the middle, front, rear and left fourth armies of Wu Wei's army were scattered, only the Wu Wei's right army under his command was completely preserved and expanded to more than 19600 people, which was equivalent to the strength of two mixed associations (brigades) and became the most powerful army at that time. Historians spoke highly of Yuan Shikai's achievements in the Gengzi period: "With the contribution of the soldiers in the small station, we have made great contributions to the country, and we will not prevent the boxers from going south." . The remaining Zhili Mountain is barren and the traffic is inconvenient. If the scourge of boxing bandits spread to the Yangtze River valley, the loss of China will be several times that of boxer indemnity. The success of the Yangtze River Mutual Protection Treaty is also attributed to Yuan's contribution to Shandong. "("Jiang Fangzhen: History of China's Military Transformation in the Past 50 Years ",Beiyang Warlords, Volume I, 1047- 1048) In the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu (190 1), Li Hongzhang died on September 27th, and Yuan Shikai died because of his achievements and great strength in the boxer period. 1February 10, Yuan Shikai was ordered to participate in the administrative office and became the core of government leadership in implementing the New Deal. The governor of Zhili was higher than the governors of Liangjiang and Huguang, becoming the first minister to surpass Liu and Zhang. After Empress Dowager Cixi returned from xi 'an, Yuan Shikai selected 1000 elites from the army to serve as guards of the Forbidden City. He also sent troops to take over the defense of Beijing, Tianjin and North China, and the right army of Wuwei became the only powerful force that the court could rely on, which made his political status improve rapidly.
After the signing of the "Xin Chou Treaty", the Russian troops occupying the three northeastern provinces refused to withdraw their troops, and the British and Japanese interference was fruitless. The contradiction with Russia is becoming more and more serious, and the situation in Northeast China is critical. The imperial court wants to transfer troops to strengthen the northeast border defense, and the area of the right army of Wu, Wei and Right is enlarged, and the strength is insufficient, so it is necessary to expand the new army. This task fell to Yuan Shikai again. Yuan Shikai takes precautions. In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), on the 13th day of the first month, he called for "drafting the articles of association for recruiting and training the new army", and sent Wang Shizhen to select and recruit 6,000 able-bodied men in Zhengding and other places and bring them to Baoding for training, which was called "the new army". On February 1 1, he selected 55 outstanding students from Wuwei Right Army School and sent them to Japanese Army School to train the new army and instructors in the future.
Only 1 1 day, the court announced that Yuan Shikai had actually awarded the Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang (on May 4th), and even attached the following articles on May16th: "Discount on the salary system of Beiyang Standing Barracks", "Discount on the establishment of a military and political department in Zhili" and "Trial on the construction of Beiyang Camp". These three memorials are pioneering works in the history of China's military system, and also important documents in the history of reform in the late Qing Dynasty, which can be compared with Liu and Zhang's Three Folds of Soviet-Hubei Reform.
The standing army system designed by Yuan Shikai is a pioneering work, "planning training, joining the army as a policeman", and the salary is paid as usual. After three years in the camp, retired soldiers will continue to be reserve soldiers, and after three years, they will be retired as reserve soldiers, and their monthly salary will be halved. They usually go to their jobs for internships in January in winter (Volume I of Beiyang Warlords, P757), which solves the problem of training troops in peacetime and expanding troops in wartime. The Zhili Military and Political Department, founded by him, is the management, training and education institution of the standing army, which provides a sample for the provinces to train new troops in organizational structure and battalion system. He planned a complete military education system, and successively set up an army primary school, an advanced military academy and specialized schools of different arms. Taking this as a starting point, Yuan Shikai began a new round of training until he became the six towns in Beiyang. Thomas F. Milad, an American journalist, praised Yuan Shikai: "Among all officials in the Qing Dynasty, he was the first person to seriously study the organizational methods, strategies and tactics of foreign troops, and also the first person to strongly advocate that the army must be modernized." (The Memory of the Empire: An Observation of the new york Times in the Late Qing Dynasty, translated by Zheng Xiyuan et al., Joint Publishing Company, 200 1, p 136).