In 1895 the court raised a new army. Sixteen years on, it closed the court's accounts.
《神州大地》第 9 集 · English · 23:45
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In 1895, Beijing was arguing over one question:

why had this war been lost.

The answer came down onto one particular

place. That year, the court began to

drill a new army.

Not in Beijing — in a garrison town

called Xiaozhan, some forty kilometres south of

Tianjin. This story begins with a date

on a memorial to the throne.

On 6 December 1895, the court sent Hu Yufen

to supervise the Tianjin–Lugouqiao railway.

Two days later, on 8 December, the Bureau

of Military Affairs submitted a memorial:

send Yuan Shikai to train the new

army at Tianjin. It was approved the

same day. One man's posting changed.

So did who an army belonged to.

This is the day that army got

its own name.

Yuan Shikai was born in 1859, in Xiangcheng

a county in Henan, out on the

North China Plain. He failed the provincial

examinations twice, in 1876 and 1879, and joined the Huai

Army under Wu Changqing.

In 1882, a mutiny broke out in Korea.

Qing troops entered Seoul, and he distinguished

himself in that operation.

In 1884, Korean reformists, backed by Japan,

staged the Gapsin Coup and seized the

royal palace. He led the troops that

put it down. In 1885, on Li Hongzhang's

recommendation, Yuan Shikai — twenty-six years old

became the Qing resident commissioner in Korea.

He spent some twelve years in Korea

altogether. In 1894, trouble broke out in Korea

and Japanese forces pressed in.

On 19 July he left Korea in disguise.

On 22 July he reached Tianjin.

Twelve years ended there.

He was thirty-five that year.

After he came home, he was not

idle. On 6 August 1894 he was ordered to

the Liaodong front, to help Zhou Fu

run the field logistics office: moving grain

and equipment, collecting stragglers.

Supply work. It was a cold posting.

The men at the front never remember

the name of a supply officer.

But what he saw there was this:

what an army looks like at the

moment it comes apart.

In May 1895 he took leave and went

home. In June, on the joint recommendation

of Liu Kunyi, Li Hongzhang and Wang

Wenshao, the court ordered him to Beijing.

On 2 August, the Guangxu Emperor gave him

an audience. On 22 August he submitted a

memorial — more than thirteen thousand characters long.

What was in it is described differently

in different accounts. This film says only

one thing: he submitted it, and the

date was 22 August 1895. Three months later,

he was sent to Xiaozhan.

Xiaozhan was not empty ground.

The camp there had belonged to the

Sheng Army of the Huai forces.

Its commander was Zhou Shengchuan; after he

died, Zhou Shengbo took it over.

In 1894 the Sheng Army was defeated at

Pyongyang. Its commander Wei Rugui fled in

the face of battle and was later

executed; the Sheng Army was destroyed and

its designation withdrawn. The camp stood empty.

In December 1894, Hu Yufen — then surveillance commissioner

of Guangxi — was ordered to drill a

new army. He began with three battalions

at Machang in Qing county, later expanding

to ten. He engaged a German,

Constantin von Hanneken, as drill instructor.

In 1895 the barracks at Machang ran out

of room, and the force moved to

Xiaozhan — into the camp the Sheng Army

had left behind. That force was called

the Dingwu Army. It numbered 4,750 men:

six infantry battalions of 3,000; two artillery

battalions of 1,000; half a cavalry battalion

of 250; and one engineer battalion of

500. A camp someone else had abandoned,

and a newly raised army moving into

it.

Now put two dates side by side.

6 December 1895: the court sends Hu Yufen to

supervise the Tianjin–Lugouqiao railway.

8 December 1895: the Bureau of Military Affairs asks

that Yuan Shikai be sent to train

the Newly Created Army.

Approved the same day.

Two dates, two days apart.

The imperial edict read: " Since Yuan Shikai,

intendant of the Wen-Chu circuit, has been

recommended by the princes and ministers,

let him be ordered to take charge

of establishing it; let all pay regulations

be disbursed as proposed. "

The first half is personnel.

The second half is money.

A railway man was moved out.

A drill man was sent in.

Whether these were one decision, this film

does not say. The two dates are

real. And the gate Yuan walked through

on the day he reported was the

Sheng Army's gate.

The first thing recorded after he reached

Xiaozhan was not drill.

It was pay. In the old armies,

pay travelled down a chain: the court

to the commander, the commander to the

battalion officer, the battalion officer to the

company officer. At every hand it passed

through, a little could come off.

Hu Yufen had once described the old

army in a memorial, in eight characters:

"supplies as before, ranks daily emptier;

padded above, deducted below; every abuse flourishes. "

A roster might carry a thousand names

where seven hundred men stood.

The pay of the other three hundred

went into a pocket.

What Yuan changed was this: every month,

the pay office sent its own clerks,

together with the officers, out onto the

parade ground, called the names against the

roster, and put the silver into the

soldier's hand. The hands in the middle

were taken out. It sounds like a

technical fix. What it changed was something

more basic: the soldier knew who was

paying him. A private's monthly pay under

the regulations of the time was around

four taels five mace — a tael being

roughly thirty-seven grams of silver — and after

mess deductions about three taels five remained.

This film offers that figure only as

corroboration, not as a conclusion.

But one thing is clear: from then

on, the money did not pass through

the battalion officer's hand.

The second thing was men.

He did not keep the old battalion

officers the Sheng Army had left behind.

He went looking for young men who

had been through the new schools.

There was one such school, in Tianjin:

the Tianjin Military Academy, founded by Li

Hongzhang in 1885 — one of the earlier modern

officer schools in China.

The men he picked from that school

and from elsewhere all had names later.

Duan Qirui — artillery class at the academy,

brought to Xiaozhan in early 1896,

commanding the artillery. Feng Guozhang — an academy

graduate who stayed on as an instructor;

recommended to Xiaozhan by Nie Shicheng in 1896,

and placed in charge of the drill

office. Wang Shizhen — first graduating class of

the Beiyang Military Academy in 1888; joined Yuan

in early 1896 as deputy in the

drill office, later commanding the engineers.

Cao Kun — entered the academy in 1885,

graduated in 1890, transferred to Xiaozhan in 1895 as

deputy commander of the first battalion,

right-wing infantry. And one man unlike the

rest: Xu Shichang. He was a jinshi,

a scholar of the Hanlin Academy

not an academy cadet.

In December 1897 Yuan had him brought in

to run the staff office, a civilian's

chair. How he handled men: a few

things were written down.

One is that he remembered them.

According to Phoenix Net's account of Yuan

Shikai and the Xiaozhan training, he went

down among the battalions constantly; he could

put a name to almost every officer

and staff member, and even to squad

leaders, and he knew their temperaments,

their strengths and their weaknesses.

Once, at an inspection, the rain came

down and someone offered him an umbrella;

he refused it, saying: the soldiers are

all in the rain, so why should

I not be. The other is how

he used them. According to the Baidu

Baike entry on the Xiaozhan training,

he told Zhang Zhidong his secret for

training troops: in one hand, rank and

money; in the other, a blade.

Obey, and there is rank and money;

disobey, and you get the blade.

And one story that circulates: on an

inspection he came upon an officer smoking

opium in a field, and cut him

down on the spot with his own

sword. That story is carried in the

encyclopaedia entry, where it is marked as

a legend. This film has not been

able to trace it to a primary

source. Later writers gathered these men under

headings like "the three heroes of Beiyang".

This film will not rank them.

It says only one thing: these men

were picked by one man, between 1895 and 1897.

The third thing was regulations.

The Xiaozhan drill regulations followed Western practice

throughout, modelled on the German army's organisation

and drill book. The force was divided

into five branches: infantry, cavalry, artillery,

engineers and transport. It was split into

two wings. The left wing held two

infantry battalions and one artillery battalion;

the right wing three infantry battalions and

one cavalry battalion; the engineers stood separately.

Below that came four levels: battalion,

company, platoon, squad. A battalion held four

companies, a company three large platoons,

a large platoon two small platoons,

a small platoon three squads.

What did this structure do?

It turned a soldier into something you

could count, inspect, and pay by the

month. And there was a song.

Xiaozhan had a song, the Song to

Encourage Soldiers. The tune came from a

German army song; the words were written

by Yuan himself; it was made the

army's song, and sung every day.

This film will not quote the lyrics

the versions that survive differ, and no

authoritative text has been found.

But one thing can be said:

at that time, making men who could

not read sing the same song every

day was a very new thing to

do.

In early 1896, Xiaozhan did something new

for its time: it held an examination.

Two hundred and thirty-four men who could

read were picked out of the ranks.

Then they were sorted by branch:

eighty to study infantry, eighty artillery,

twenty-four cavalry — and fifty to study German.

The course ran two years.

The instructors were German officers.

The school was called the Field Military

Academy, and it travelled with the army.

Two hundred and thirty-four men is nothing

today. But this was 1896.

Most men in the ranks could not

read. Here, literacy became something you could

be selected for — and trained in.

And one step further: when they finished,

where did they go?

Back into the ranks — as platoon officers,

company officers, instructors. The new officer corps

grew out of this.

Where that group ended up, this film

will come back to in one line.

In 1898, this army was given a new

designation. That autumn, something large happened at

court. That event itself is not this

film's subject — it belongs to another episode.

This film follows only what changed on

the army's side. After the coup,

Cixi ordered the grand councillor Ronglu to

take command and to organise the northern

armies into a single formation, called the

Guards Army. It had five divisions.

The front division was Nie Shicheng's Wuyi

Army, at Lutai. The rear division was

Dong Fuxiang's Gansu Army, at Jizhou.

The left division was Song Qing's Yi

Army, inside and outside Shanhaiguan.

The centre division was commanded by Ronglu

himself, at Nanyuan. The fifth was Yuan

Shikai's, renamed the Right Division of the

Guards Army. It stayed at Xiaozhan.

Yuan's civil post at the time was

surveillance commissioner of Zhili.

What part he played in that coup,

this film does not say.

It records one thing: in 1898 his army

changed its designation, and passed under one

man's command.

In 1899, something else broke out in the

north: the Boxers. That same year,

Yuan rose. In December 1899 he became governor

of Shandong. At forty, a provincial ruler

for the first time.

When he went to Shandong, he took

the Right Division with him.

The division marched from Xiaozhan to Shandong

by way of Dezhou, Qingzhou and Weixian.

Once there, he weeded the weak out

of thirty-four old local battalions and kept

the strong, forming twenty battalions called the

Right Division Vanguard. One consequence appeared on

the map: this army had left the

capital region. Nobody knew then how much

that mattered. A year later, they did.

In 1900 — the Boxer year — the Eight-Nation Alliance

fought its way from Tianjin toward Beijing.

The five divisions formed a year earlier

each met a different end.

The front division: Nie Shicheng stood in

the way at Tianjin.

In July, at Balitai, he was struck

by several bullets and killed.

The front division came apart, and its

designation was withdrawn. The rear division:

Dong Fuxiang's Gansu Army later escorted Cixi

and Guangxu on their flight west.

Afterwards the foreign powers named Dong for

punishment; Cixi dismissed him and sent him

back to Gansu. The rear division was

broken up where it stood.

The centre division, Ronglu's own: discipline collapsed,

it scattered during the fighting, and its

designation was cancelled. The left division,

Song Qing's Yi Army: hard fighting at

Tianjin and Beicang, heavy losses, but the

formation survived. And the fifth — the Right

Division — was in Shandong.

It never fought the Eight-Nation Alliance.

It never went through the fighting of

1900. Its strength was preserved, and later

it was expanded. An army, in a

decisive year, happened not to be present.

It did not choose that, and the

court did not arrange it.

It was simply stationed in Shandong that

year.

One thing should be said plainly.

The Right Division survived not because it

fought best. For fighting, the division that

stood in the way at Tianjin was

Nie Shicheng's. For seniority, Dong Fuxiang's Gansu

Army had entered Beijing earlier.

The reason it survived is simple:

in 1900 it was not in Beijing,

and not in Tianjin.

It was in Shandong.

Of all the explanations available for an

army's fate, this is the least dramatic

one. And yet over the next ten

years and more, it was this division

starting from seven thousand men — that kept

expanding. While the other four names were

rarely mentioned again.

In November 1901, Li Hongzhang died.

Yuan Shikai then became acting governor-general of

Zhili and minister for northern affairs;

the following year the appointment was confirmed.

It was the seat Li Hongzhang had

held for much of his later career.

Once he sat in it, what he

held changed. In 1895 he had held one

army of seven thousand men.

By 1901 he held three things.

First, soldiers. The training of the northern

armies came under him.

Second, money. Zhili was one of the

richest provinces of the empire, and the

northern forces were the court's largest military

spending. Third, men. Where officers came from

had to pass through his hands.

Governors before him had the first two

as well. The third was the one

that mattered. Because when one man gives

you your rank, you remember him.

In 1902 he also took the post of

commissioner for army training.

He sent Wang Shizhen and Wang Yingkai

to recruit six thousand more men,

bought horses and artillery abroad, and expanded

the cavalry and the artillery.

In September 1902 the Left Division of the

Beiyang Standing Army was formed.

In 1904, the Right Division and the Third

Division. In early 1905, the Fifth and

Sixth Divisions were added.

In 1905 the court unified the divisional numbers.

The Metropolitan Banner Standing Army became the

First Division, commanded by the Manchu official

Tieliang; the former Beiyang First became the

Second, the Second became the Fourth,

the Fourth became the Sixth; the Third

and the Fifth kept their numbers.

One detail inside that list: of the

six divisions, all but the First

the one under a Manchu commander

were his own. How large is a

division? By establishment: two infantry brigades,

each of two regiments, each of three

battalions; one artillery regiment of three battalions;

one cavalry regiment of four battalions;

and one engineer and one transport battalion.

Officers, soldiers and labourers together: about 12,512

men. How many in six divisions?

The sources disagree; this film gives no

total. But the 1895 figure can stand

beside it: that year, Xiaozhan held 4,750.

In November 1908, the Guangxu Emperor and Cixi

died within days of each other.

The next year, in January 1909, Yuan Shikai

was dismissed and sent home.

He went back to Henan.

One thing is worth holding on to:

when he went back to Henan,

he took only himself.

The army stayed in its barracks.

Those battalions were still at Xiaozhan,

in Shandong, in Zhili.

Those battalion officers were still the men

he had picked. In October 1911, trouble broke

out at Wuchang. The court needed troops.

It opened the rolls and found that

troops it could move, that could fight,

and that would obey were few

and in the units that were left,

the officers' names pointed to the same

man. So the court asked him to

come back. What he did after he

came back belongs to the next episode.

This film stops here, and leaves one

thing: an army, beginning in 1895, took sixteen

years to become one man's.

More than a hundred years on:

where are these things today?

South of Tianjin, in Xiaozhan town,

Jinnan district. Most of the old camp

sites are gone. The town has a

Xiaozhan Military Training Park, rebuilt in 2008 from the historical sources

walls, a lecture hall, a military museum,

a training headquarters. All of it reconstructed;

none of it original.

The site of the Tianjin Military Academy

is today in Hedong district, and it

is a shopping complex.

In 1900 the academy was destroyed by the

alliance's artillery; today not one original building

of it remains. In Xiangcheng, Henan

Yuanzhai village, Wangmingkou town.

The Yuan family's old house, the Yuanzhai

dwelling, still stands. It was listed in

March 2013 in the seventh batch of national

heritage sites, and it is open free.

Yuan was born in Xiangcheng, but spent

little of his adult life there;

this house belonged to his family.

What this army left behind is not,

for the most part, in buildings.

Of the literate men examined in 1896,

some went on to Baoding, some to

the new armies of other provinces,

some into the republic that followed.

Their records carry the same starting point.

Xiaozhan is the name of that starting

point.

This is Shenzhou. We put the facts,

and where they come from, in front

of you together.

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