After the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, in accordance with the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by both parties, the Qing government ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan to Japan, while North Korea became a protectorate of Japan. This move aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Russians who were coveting the three northeastern provinces and North Korea.
Under the leadership of Russia, Russia, France, and Germany threatened to send troops to force the Japanese to agree to return the Liaodong Peninsula, but the Qing court had to compensate Japan for 30 million taels of silver for its military expenses.
Later, Russia returned meritorious service to the Liao Dynasty by interfering, inducing Li Hongzhang to sign the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and obtaining the right to build railways in Manchuria. In 1898, it forced the Qing government to sign the "Lvda Land Lease Treaty" with it, and transferred the Port of Lushun on the Liaodong Peninsula to
It was turned into a military base. Later, Russia took advantage of the Gengzi Rebellion and sent troops to the Northeast, taking control of the entire Manchuria and beginning to get involved in Korean affairs.
This directly triggered strong dissatisfaction among the Japanese who had always had ambitions in Manchuria. With the support of Britain, the United States and other countries, the Japanese government began to actively rectify its armaments in order to seize the rights and interests of Manchuria from the Russians.
In August 1903, Russia brazenly established the Far Eastern Governor-General with Lushun as the center, appointed Alexeyev as the governor-general, and actually regarded our Northeast as Russian territory, and then re-sent troops to occupy Fengtian. In this way, the Russians had
They show a posture of monopolizing the Northeast of our country and not willing to fight for it.
War is inevitable.
The Japanese ruling group saw that the longer it took to prepare for war, the more unfavorable it would be for Japan, a weak country, so they decided to take advantage of Russia's lack of preparation for war to provoke the war first.
Due to the Gengzi Revolution, the Qing government understood that the old brave camp was no longer useful, and was ready to follow the example of the West to retrain and form a new army. In March 1903, Yuan Shikai presented a copy of the "Simplified Regulations for Army Training" to the court, which elaborated on
Regarding the method of supervising and training the new armies across the country, she requested the imperial court to set up a training office as the army's staff headquarters to conduct unified inspections of the training of the new armies across the country. After some efforts, the Empress Dowager Cixi finally agreed to Yuan Shikai's suggestion of setting up a training office so that there could be
Unified training and command of the country's military. The Military Training Office was established in Xila Hutong, Beijing. In name, Yi Kuang was the prime minister's military training minister, and Yuan Shikai was the general minister. However, Yi Kuang did not know anything about military affairs. He only knew that he was greedy for money and sold his official position. The power of the new army
In fact, it completely fell into the hands of Yuan Shikai.
On the day after the imperial court issued an order to establish a military training office, Japanese Minister Yasuya Yasuya paid a visit to the Prime Minister's Minister of International Affairs Yi Kuang and informed him that the negotiations between Japan and Russia on North Korea and the three northeastern provinces were almost broken down. In order to curb the Russians'
The expansion is also for the sake of China's security. It is ready to go to war with Russia and hopes that China will remain neutral.
Then Yang Shu, the minister in Japan, also sent a telegram, saying that the Japanese foreign minister had made an appointment with Yang Shu, and what he discussed was the same as what Tian Kang said. The Japanese wanted to fight the Russians! Yikuang was surprised, but hesitant, so he
I can quickly rush to the palace to ask the Queen Mother to make a decision.
Cixi listened to Yi Kuang saying that Japan and Russia were going to fight again. She was silent for a long time. After a while, she said sadly: "On my fiftieth birthday, the French went to war, and when I was sixty, the Japanese came again. This
Seeing that I am about to celebrate my seventieth birthday and something like this happens again, can't I celebrate my birthday properly in this life?" Tears flowed out after saying this.
Yikuang quickly tried to persuade him: "Maybe this is God's arrangement. When you live to your eight hundred thousandth birthday, I will save a lot of money for you to have fun."
Cixi was distressed: "It's still eighty, I don't know if I can wait until that day!" Then he got angry and pointed at Yikuang and cursed: "I blame you slaves for being incompetent and can only watch the foreign devils on the territory of our ancestors.
Rampant!"
Yikuang was startled and quickly fell to his knees: "Yes, yes, this slave deserves to die!"
Cixi glared at Prince Qing who was kneeling in front of her, but she had no choice but to say: "Why don't you quickly spread the word that Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong are coming to Beijing to see what good ideas they can come up with!"
When Yuan Shikai returned to Tianjin from Beijing and the Beiyang Minister was visiting, Yang Shiqi also happened to return from Shanghai.
He told Yang Shiqi the news about the upcoming war between Japan and Russia outside the customs to see what good ideas this confidant had.
After hearing this, Yang Shiqi put his hands on his hands and smiled and said: "Wonderful, your lord is worrying about how to expand the size of the new army. Now is a perfect opportunity!"
After the Gengzi Year, the imperial court repeatedly ordered the provinces to reorganize the old armies, eliminate the weak and retain the strong, and train new armies adapted to modern warfare. This policy issued by the imperial court gave Yuan Shikai the opportunity to expand his army, and he served as a direct commander
After becoming the governor, he immediately sent people to various places to recruit brave men to supplement the right army of the armed guards under his command.
On the basis of the original Wuwei Right Army, Yuan Shikai organized the Beiyang Standing Army Zuozhen. Later, he cooperated with Tie Liang to select banner soldiers and train them according to Western methods, and organized them into the Beijing Banner Standing Army One Town. The peacetime organization of the standing army was based on the town (
The town is equivalent to a Japanese division) as the highest establishment unit, with a total of 12,512 officers and soldiers in the town. Every two units is an association (there are 4,038 officers and soldiers in an association), each unit has three battalions, and each battalion has four teams. Each town also has an artillery team.
One standard (1,756 officers and soldiers), one cavalry standard (1,117 officers and soldiers), 1 transport battalion (754 officers and soldiers), 1 engineering battalion (667 officers and soldiers). Each team of infantry, artillery, and engineers has three platoons.
A row of three sheds; a cavalry team of two rows, with two sheds in each row; a baggage train of three rows, with three sheds in each row. The standing army's so-called towns, associations, bids, battalions, teams, platoons, and sheds are equivalent to divisions, brigades, regiments, and battalions in later generations.
Company, platoon, and squad. Its organization is completely different from the traditional Chinese battalion. It has become a modern combat unit that adapts to the needs of modern warfare with infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, and supplies.
The Beiyang Standing Army can be regarded as the beginning of China's modern army. Yuan Shikai planned to organize the two military systems of the Beiyang Standing New Army Zuozhen and the Standing New Army Youzhen. In 1902, the Beiyang Standing Army Zuozhen was first formed, and Yuan Shikai became more and more powerful!
After the establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army, Wang Shizhen served as the commander-in-chief of the First Association, and later established the Second Association. At that time, Yuan Shikai had a new rule, which was "employing people only based on their talents." Therefore, all senior generals of the New Army must pass an examination and the ones with the best scores
After the establishment of the Second Association, an examination was held. The person with the highest score was Feng Guozhang, so Feng was appointed as the president of the Second Association.
When Yuan Shikai was training troops at the small station, his three important generals were: Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, and Feng Guozhang, known as the Three Heroes of Beiyang. Yuan treated these three people equally without distinction. This was also the art of command.
Only by checking each other can the three commanders of the Standing Army be well controlled. When the co-commanders of the Standing Army were selected by examination, both Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang successfully became co-commanders. However, Duan Qirui, a Hefei man, seemed to be very bad at examinations. When the third officer of the Beiyang Standing Army was selected,
When the Xie (First Association of Youzhen) was established, Yuan was afraid that Duan Qirui, who had poor test scores, would still fail the exam, so he secretly told Duan the test questions before the exam, and Duan became the Xie Tu.
This incident has always haunted Duan, and he often told his close friends that the personal favor he received from Yuan Gongbao was too heavy to repay, and it made him basically determined to serve Yuan throughout his life.
At this time, Yuan Shikai's standing army already had one town and three associations, with more than 20,000 people. Any further expansion would definitely arouse the suspicion of the Manchu nobles. This is the perfect opportunity that Yang Shi pointed out. Now the two tigers of Japan and Russia are fighting.
, the imperial court's defenses are empty. If someone changes the front of the army, they will definitely march straight in. The city of Beijing will not be taken over again.
If it is proposed to expand Beiyang's armaments now, no one will say no.
Yuan Shikai understood, but his face was still full of sorrow, "Now the treasury is very poor. It costs a lot to organize and train the new army. Where can we find so much money?"
Yang Shiqi said: "National affairs are of paramount importance. Now the military situation outside the customs is urgent. Your Excellency, you can ask the Empress Dowager Ming to share the funds of all provinces in Beiyang." After a pause, he then said: "Do you still remember Lin Anhua, who supervised the Hanyang Iron Works?"
Yuan Shikai nodded and looked at Yang Shiqi with some confusion.
"This man had predicted that there would be a war between Japan and Russia when we were chatting with me in Shanghai a few months ago. Looking at it now, it turned out to be true. He is a business genius. It is said that he has an annual income of millions of gold. Some time ago, he was working in Xinjiang in Shanghai.
The scale of the shipyard is very large, with an investment of no less than 10 million, and now even foreigners are giving him three cents." Yang Shiqi rolled his eyes, "Now there is a way to get this person in your pocket."
"What can I do?"
"Lin Chaodong has retired and returned to his hometown. Lin Anhua took over the position of commander of Dongjun from him. Now he is just struggling to maintain it. It's not that he lacks financial resources, but that Lu Junji wants to lay him off. Now five
Regarding the establishment of the battalions, the Jiangsu government only provided two battalions with less than 100,000 yuan, and the rest were all
Lin Anhua will raise the supplement himself. Your Excellency can take advantage of the opportunity to consolidate the border defense and mobilize his troops to garrison northward. Once Lin Anhua's worries are resolved, he can be included in Beiyang." Yang Shiqi had another sly smile on his face, "If your Excellency wants to
Lin Anhua also has a wonderful method for tying porcelain."
Yuan Shikai looked at Yang Shiqi and said, "Xingcheng, if you have anything to say, please speak directly."
"This Lin Anhua is still unmarried. The four daughters born to the third wife are now aged 30. I heard that they are well-educated and sensible, and they are naturally talented. They meet Lin Anhua's conditions for choosing a wife." Yang Shiqi chuckled twice.
"Well, who can I talk to about this?" Could it be that Yuan Shikai didn't understand the connection, thought for a moment, and then agreed.
"It's inappropriate to ask someone else. Your Excellency must raise this matter in person, so Lin Anhua has no choice but to refuse," Yang Shiqi said.
"Do you think Lin Anhua will not accept my kindness?" Yuan Shikai asked.
"It's not certain. What if they really refuse with an excuse? Nowadays, wealthy businessmen are all connected with foreigners, their eyes are as wide as the sky, and sometimes they really don't take the officials of the imperial court seriously." Yang Shiqi said.
Yuan Shikai thought for a while and made up his mind: "Okay, I'll do as you say. If you don't believe he dares to refute my face in person."