一九零五年，北京的議論點在於：為什麼這場戰爭輸了。答案集中在一個部分：
《神州大地》系列 總第 18 集：「How China's Washington Was Destroyed? | Shenzhou Dadi Episode 18」是本集影片的完整圖文轉錄，可逐字閱讀，也可前往影片頁觀看對應畫面。
1895 年，北京正爭論著一個問題：
為何這場戰爭輸了。
答案最終降臨在一個特定的地方。 那年，宮廷開始訓練一支新的軍隊。
不在北京 — 在一座駐軍小鎮
叫做小站，離天津約四十公里南方。這個故事從一塊記念碑上的日期開始。
1895年12月6日，朝廷派胡雨芬
到天津—吳橋鐵路進行監督。
兩天之後，十二月八日，軍務局提交了一份奏摺：派遣袁世凱到天津訓練新軍。奏摺獲得同日通過。一個人的職務改變了。還有誰屬於一個軍隊。這就是那支軍隊得名的日子。
袁世凱生於1859年，出生於河南省祥符縣
一地，處於中原大平原的北部。1876年及1879年，他
兩次參加省考皆不及格，後來加入了由吳長慶領導的淮軍。
1882年，朝鮮爆發了兵變。清軍入侵平壤，他在此次行動中表現突出。
1884年，朝鮮改革派，在日本的支持下，發動了甲申政變，並佔領了皇宮。
他領導了鎮壓它的部隊。1885年，倪鴻章的建議下，袁世凱——二十六歲，成為清朝駐朝鮮領事。
他在朝鮮度過了十二年。
1894年，朝鮮出現問題
日本軍隊進入。
7月19日，他以假名離開朝鮮。
7月22日，他抵達天津。
那裡結束了十二年的歲月。
他那年三十五歲。
他回家後並不閒著。 1894年8月6日，他被調往遼東前線，幫助周福
管理前線物資補給處：運送糧食和器材，收集散兵。
補給工作。這是一個令人寒心的任命。
前線的士兵永遠也不會記住一名補給官的名字。
但他在那裡所看到的是這樣的景象：
一支軍隊在分崩離析的那一刻的模樣。
1895年5月他辭職回家。在6月，劉坤一、李鴻章和王文韶聯名推薦後，清廷命令他到北京。
8月2日，光緒帝召見他。8月22日，他提交了一份長達十三萬餘字的奏折。
它的內容被描述得不一樣
在不同的版本中都有所不同。這部電影只說了一件事：他提交了它，日期是1895年8月22日。三個月之後
他被派往小站
小站並不是空蕩蕩的土地
那裡的營地曾經是淮軍的勝軍營
營長是周勝川； 他去世後，周生博接管了這個部隊。
1894年，盛軍在平壤戰役中被打敗。
其指揮官魏汝棟在戰鬥面前逃跑，後來被處決；盛軍被摧毀，其軍號被撤回。
營地空無一人。
1894年12月，湖南巡視使胡玉芬
被命令成立新军。 他先是在廣西的馬場
成立了三个营，后来扩大到十个营。 他聘请了德国人
康斯坦丁·馮·漢內肯（Constantin von Hanneken）担任训练教官。
1895年馬場營房已經擠滿了人
那時候的軍隊就搬到了小站
那裡的營房是盛軍留下的
這個軍隊叫做定武軍
總共有四千七百五十人
分別有六個步兵營，三千人
兩個炮兵營，千人
一個騎兵營二百五十人
一個工兵營五百人
一個有人棄棄的營地，
和一個新成立的軍隊進入它。
現在把兩個日期放在一起。
1895年12月6日：大清廷派胡裕芬到天津–露光橋鐵路
進行監管。
1895年12月8日：軍機處要求派遣袁世凱到新建陸軍進行訓練。
同日批准。
兩個日期, 兩天之隔。
皇帝敕令上寫著:「自從袁世凱,
文川道的道尹, 被諸王大臣推薦後,
應該下令他負責成立; 並應該按原來規定發放一切徵稅.
」
第一部分是人事。
第二部分是財政。
一名鐵路工人被調走了。
一名鉆工被派往那裡。
這些是否是一個決定，這部電影並沒有說明。這兩個日期是真的。袁老當天到崗時通過的那個大門，就是勝軍軍營的大門。
袁老抵達小站後記錄的第一件事不是鉆工訓練。
而是領薪水。
在舊軍中，
薪水沿著鏈條流動：朝廷到將軍，將軍到營長，營長到連長，連長到排長。每層都會少一些。
胡雨鳳曾經在一篇奏摺中描述舊軍，用八個字：
"供應如舊，日日愈虛。
上方補數、下方抵減；惡行猶繁。 "
一名單位可能掛上一千多名員額
其中七百人實際上在服役。
另外三百人的酬勞則進了口袋。
袁所改變的就是這一點：每個月，
發薪處派出自己的文員，
和軍官一同出到操場，
在名冊上叫出名字，
將銀子交到士兵的手上。中間的手就被拿出來了。聽起來像是一個技術性的修正。 它改變了什麼?
更基礎的是：士兵知道誰在付錢給他。按照當時的規定，一個私人兵的月薪大約是四兩五分 —— 一兩大約是三十七公克的銀子 —— 且扣除伙食費後約剩下三兩五分。
這部電影只是作為佐證，
而非結論。
但有一點是明顯的：從那時候起
金錢不再經過連隊長的手。
第二件事是人手。
他沒有保留下前任的連隊長
留下的新軍將領。
他去找那些
剛畢業於新式學校的年輕人。
天津有間這樣的學校：天津武備學堂，於1885年由李鴻章創辦 —— 中國早期現代軍官學校之一。
他從那裡挑選的那些人
以及其他地方的人，後來都有了名字。
段祺瑞 — 學校砲兵班,
1896年初被調往小站,
擔任砲兵指揮官。馮國璋 — 學校畢業後留校任教;
1896年被聶士成推薦到小站,
負責操演處。王士珍 — 北洋軍校第一屆畢業生,
1888年畢業。 加入了袁世凱
在 1896 年初擔任操練處副官，後來指揮工兵。
曹錕 —— 1885 年進入軍校，1890 年畢業，1895 年轉入小站擔任第一營右翼步兵連副連長，
與眾不同的人是徐世昌。
他是一名進士，
翰林院的學者，而不是學政院的學生。
1897年12月，袁世凱把他調任到人事處，做了文職的主任。
他處理人的方法，幾件事情是寫在紙上的。
其中一件是他能記住人。
據鳳凰網的袁帥的描述，袁帥與小戰演習時
常與各個連隊下放，能夠把大多數
軍官和幕僚的名字都記住，甚至
連班長的名字也都能夠記住，而且
還知道他們的性格、優點和缺點。
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.
▶ 觀看本集影片（含畫面與地圖）：How China's Washington Was Destroyed? | Shenzhou Dadi Episode 18