First, the rise of Li Hongzhang and Huai Army.
Li Hongzhang,1February, 823, was born in Hefei, Anhui. In the 27th year of Daoguang (1847), he entered imperial academy and started his official career.
185 1, 1 year, Hong Xiuquan launched the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant uprising in Jintian, Guangxi, and quickly advanced to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River with a blustery trend. 1March 853, Jinling was conquered and renamed Tianjing, with its capital here. The Qing court was frightened and ordered the ministers of the surrounding provinces to defend Yingyong and cooperate with the green camp Army (the regular army of the Qing Central Committee) to fight against the Taiping Army. Li Hongzhang, editor of the Hanlin Academy, was ordered to accompany Lu, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry, back to Anhui for training. At this time, Zeng Guofan (18111872, a native of Xiangxiang, Hunan), who had been guarding the province in Changsha, seized the tense situation at that time and trained the Xiang army to fight the Taiping Army. The Xiang army gained power step by step in the military, with more and more people, and gradually became the most powerful of the main armed forces in various places. In Wanxiang, Li Hongzhang was rewarded by the court for his outstanding achievements in fighting against the Taiping Army, and was therefore taboo by everyone. "There is nothing to do but give up on yourself". He joined the shogunate of Zeng Guofan in 1858 and became a member of the Xiang Army. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), in March, the Jiangnan camp, which the Qing government relied on to resist the Taiping Army and the barrier of the Suzhou-Shanghai line, was breached, the soft affairs department Shangshu and Chun were defeated and died, and the main force of the green camp Army collapsed. As a result, the full-fledged Xiang army became the only main force that the Qing government could rely on to suppress the Taiping Army. Zeng Guofan was made governor of Liangjiang and an imperial envoy, in charge of military power, and the Xiang army grew rapidly.
At that time, the Taiping Army attacked Jiangsu and Zhejiang cities, went straight to Hangzhou, bullied Shanghai, and the Qing army was alone in Zhenjiang. The situation is critical. The Qing government ordered Zeng Guofan to send troops to Zhenjiang, and the frightened Shanghai officials sent representatives to Anqing to ask Zeng Guofan for help. Although the Xiang army is very strong, it still feels powerless to cope with the war situation in the four provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. However, sending troops to the east to aid Su Hu can not only make the East and West roads of Xiang Army cooperate with each other and join hands, but also force the Taiping Army into the dilemma of fighting on both sides. You can also directly control the source of Su Hu's salary, and ensure that you can get100000 silver every month, so as to help the Xiang army make up for the shortage of salary. This is indeed an excellent opportunity for the expansion of the Xiang army. After careful consideration, Zeng Guofan agreed to send troops to rescue. However, on the issue of choosing a teacher to help Shanghai, after careful consideration, Li Hongzhang finally decided to take this responsibility and go back to his hometown to recruit new courage. Li Hongzhang won Zeng Guofan's trust and became a candidate for Xiang Army's camp expansion because of his extraordinary relationship with Zeng Guofan. Wen An, the father of Li Hongzhang, and Zeng Guofan were both scholars on the same list in the 18th year of Daoguang (1838), and both were Beijing officials, making them family friends. Li Hongzhang entered Zeng Guofan's door immediately after his promotion in 1844 and has been studying for Zeng Guofan. Second, after Li Hongzhang entered the Zeng shogunate, he was deeply appreciated by Zeng Guofan and became Zeng Guofan's right-hand man because of his background as an academician, his experience and achievements in training troops in Anhui Province and fighting with the Taiping Army. Zeng Guofan thought he was "talented and useful", and Baozuo stayed behind the scenes to assist military affairs.
Li Hongzhang, who was defeated like a mountain and was in danger, took the opportunity of setting up his own brave rescue camp in Suzhou and Shanghai to advance in order to realize his political ambitions. He returned to Luzhou, his hometown, and made every effort to quickly set up a landlord's armed forces-6,500 people in the 13th battalion of * * *. Among them are Ding Ziying of Pan Dingxin, Shu Ziying of Zhang Shushan Brothers in Zhang Shusheng, Ziming Camp of Liu Mingchuan, Qing Zi Camp of Wu Changqing and JunkoS Camp of Zhang Yuchun. Because this team was mainly recruited from the Huaihe River valley, it was called "Huai Yong" ("Yong" to distinguish it from the regular army of the Qing Dynasty), and it was called the Huai Army in history.
1862 from April to June, Shanghai officially hired British merchant ships to transport all Huai troops to Shanghai in batches, and Huai troops began to suppress the Taiping Revolution. Since then, Huai Army and its founder Li Hongzhang began to rise on the historical stage of the late Qing Dynasty.
Second, suppress the Taiping Revolution and the Nian Army Uprising.
After the Huai army arrived in Shanghai, everything was carried out according to Li Hongzhang's deployment. At this time, Li Hongzhang has been appointed as the governor of Jiangsu, and his position is increasingly consolidated.
The Huai army is also actively expanding its troops, because the troops of the 13th Battalion can hardly support the war situation at that time. Li Hongzhang actively expanded his battalion commander and added more than 30 battalion commanders by returning to Anhui to recruit soldiers, reorganizing the defense forces led by Xue Huan, the former governor of Jiangsu Province, recruiting troops from Huai River and Huai River, and reducing Taiping Army to the masses. At the same time, Li Hongzhang also stepped up "training and practicing weapons" to comprehensively improve the combat capability of the Huai Army. When Huaijun first arrived in Shanghai, foreigners saw Huaijun in rags and called him a beggar. Li Hongzhang said, "The soldiers are expensive and can fight, not just for decoration." ? If I try to laugh, it's not too late. "("Biography of Li Hongzhang and Clear Draft "Volume 410)1In mid-June, 862, the Huai Army won successively in Hongqiao and Xujiahui in Shanghai, annihilating more than 3,000 Taiping troops. Therefore, foreigners greatly admire Li Hongzhang, and they all "show their thumbs up".
Li Hongzhang also colluded with the British and French intervention troops led by the American wall and Chang (that is, the foreign gun team) to join hands with the Huai army to deal with the Taiping Army. He witnessed the magic of foreign guns and guns with his own eyes, bought foreign guns and guns to arm the Huai army, and hired foreign officers to coach the Huai army. The Huai army was equipped quickly and well, and its combat effectiveness was greatly improved.
In the process of suppressing the revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Hongzhang adopted the strategy of "pacifying Wu with Shanghai". He first strengthened the defense against Shanghai, making it difficult for the Taiping Army to advance into the two major battles in Shanghai, and then attacked its periphery to cooperate with the Hunan Army. From March 1862 to July 1864, Huai army recovered more than 20 counties occupied by Taiping Army, such as Nanhui, Jiangyin, Wuxi, Suzhou, Yixing, Liyang, Jiaxing, Changzhou, Pinghu, Haiyan, Changxing, Huzhou and Guangde, killing and luring a large number of Taiping Army soldiers, greatly weakening the effective strength of Taiping Army.
Huai Army entered Shanghai with 13 battalions, and by the time Tianjing fell, the whole army had developed into a powerful armed force with nearly 120 battalions and 670,000 people. Later, the Huai army became the main force of the Qing government's "suppression of twisting".
Nian Army is a peasant armed force active in northern Anhui and southwestern Shandong. It wasn't very large at first. 1855, after the various Nian armies joined forces, their forces gradually became stronger. After the failure of the Taiping Revolution, the Nian Army became the most active and powerful anti-Qing armed force. 1in may 865, lai commanded the nian army to annihilate the main force of the Qing army in Shandong, and the head coach and minister of soft work, sengqin, died in battle. The Qing court was shocked and ordered Zeng Guofan to "suppress and twist" Du Fu's poems in Shandong, and served as Minister of Soft Affairs. At this time, most of Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army had been abolished after suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, so the main force of "suppression of twisting" was the Huai Army. Of Zeng Guofan's 80,000 "anti-twisting troops", 60,000 are well-equipped Huai troops, equipped with foreign guns and guns.
Because the Huai army has always been obedient to Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan did not dare to dispatch troops easily. /kloc-in the late autumn of 0/866, the Nian army broke through Zeng Guofan's defense line, and the Xiang Huai army was wiped out. Later, the Nian Army was divided into two factions: one led by Lai Wenguang and Ren Huabang, and moved to eastern Shandong and the Central Plains, becoming the East Nian Army; A branch led by Zhang Zongyu, United with the Hui army, became a horn in the Shaanxi-Gansu area, known as the West Twisted Country. At the end of the same year, the Qing court changed Li Hongzhang to minister of soft work, specializing in "suppression of twisting". Li Hongzhang personally commanded, calling the shots, and was handy. He properly solved the problem of grain and grass supply for Huai Army, and learned from Zeng Guofan's experience of "suppressing twisting", and in this way implemented the operational policy of "paddling the river to encircle the land" and "static braking", from 1866, 65438+February to 1868, 1 June.
When the Nian army was wiped out, the Huai army met with stubborn resistance, and the strategic differences between Li Hongzhang and Zuo temporarily prevented the attack. However, God did Huai Army a big favor. After mid-May, the Yellow River soared, forming a natural defense line. The Nian army was fatally threatened, and the Huai army gained the initiative in the battlefield. In August, the Nian army was completely annihilated and drowned. Li Hongzhang's Huai army "suppressed twisting" was a great success. At this time, the Huai army reached its peak, with more than 70 thousand troops.
Third, from military armed forces to political groups.
According to the system and practice of the Qing Dynasty, no matter what kind of military action, once the war task is completed, the Eight Banners must be transferred back to the defensive areas, green camp must be transferred back to the flood-stricken areas, Tuan Yong must be dissolved and returned to agriculture, and the generals should be organized separately. However, since the death of Sengqin, the Qing court has been unable to send leading generals, and the national regular army is not enough to rely on. Therefore, although the Huai army was abolished after the "suppression and twisting", it is still an important force to defend the country. 1870 After Li Hongzhang became governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, the Huai Army, as the gateway to defend northern Xinjiang for a long time, shouldered the heavy responsibility of national defense. Let's take a general look at the protection and combat situation of the Huai army:
From the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870) to the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), the Huai army defended Zhili, Baoding, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Wusong Haikou, Hubei, Shanxi and Shaanxi, with about 40,000 people. 1884 during the sino-French war, there were 132 battalions of Huai army deployed in Beiyang and expanded in various places; During the Sino-Japanese War 1894, the Huai Army was expanded to 146 Battalion. After the war, there were still 63 battalions of Huai troops guarding the north and south oceans, although they were greatly reduced. During the training of 1898, the new army was cut into 20 battalions, and the Huai army of these 20 battalions was still the first to bear the brunt of the battle with Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. The role of Huai army in consolidating national defense can be seen from this. After that, the important task of defending the country was taken over by Yuan Shikai's new army, and the historical mission of Huai Army came to an end.
The Qing government relied on the armed forces of Huai Army to nip in the bud and consolidate the foundation. Li Hongzhang, the founder and commander-in-chief of Huai Army, became an important figure in China's modern history with his mastery of military power. Li Hongzhang once summed up his life like this: "Young imperial examinations, joining the army in the prime of life, frontier defense in the middle age, westernization in his later years, all the way." His military service, frontier defense and westernization are all directly and closely related to the Huai Army he founded. From 65438 to 0870, he became the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, and also held the power of heavy troops in his hands. As the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, the candidate must meet two conditions: first, he has the power and talent to unify the army and ensure the security of the capital; Second, there is experience and ability in handling diplomacy. After Li Hongzhang came to power, his power expanded extremely. "Sitting in Beiyang, far view of state affairs. In all internal affairs and diplomacy, the general's office always relies on each other, which is the most powerful among the Han ministers "(Volume II of Liu Tizhi's Different Ci Record, quoted from Yuan's Biography of Li Hongzhang, page 160, People's Publishing House 199 1 June). With the increasingly prominent power of Li Hongzhang, the Huai Army has evolved from a military force to a powerful political group.
Li Hongzhang (please denounce Li Hongzhang's film), who was "heavily besieged and seized power by the Huai army", actively supported his own political forces and consolidated the political status of the Huai system. He "cronyism", reused relatives and promoted his subordinates to the village. "The Huai army will distribute the school, and those who have the ability will not have to." His younger brother, Li, is the governor of Huguang, actively assisting him in preparing for coastal defense; Subordinate Zhang Shusheng, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Hongzhang was appointed governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang during Ding You's period. Liu Mingchuan was the first governor of Taiwan Province Province; Liu Guan to the governor of Sichuan; Pan is the governor of Yunnan and Guangxi. All belong to the Huai nationality. For example, the Beiyang Navy, which Li Hongzhang particularly valued, also used fellow villagers as commanders. Originally, the navy prefect should have many years of experience in leading troops and be proficient in western naval battles, but Dante was at a loss about warships and naval battles. This is one of the reasons why beiyang fleet lost in the Sino-Japanese War. Li Hongzhang was well aware of the importance of unity and stability within the political group, and used clan, in-laws, the same year, teachers and students to strengthen the ties between Huai generals, generals and aides. For example, Zhang Shusheng and Shushan and Shuping are brothers, and Zhang Yuchun and Zizhibang and my nephew Zhiao are father and son. Li Hongzhang also imitated his teacher Zeng Guofan to set up a military curtain, making it a way for many people to gain political status and climb to a high position. Among the ministers of the shogunate, Wang Kaitai, Guo Songtao, Qian Dingming, Ni, Liu Ruifen, Liu Yonggao and Li are all governors, while Guo Baiyin and Zhou Fu are governors.
Li Hongzhang also tried his best to win over influential celebrities in politics and society at that time and expand the political influence of the Huai system. Li Hongzao was the master of Emperor Tongzhi and later the minister of military affairs. Empress Dowager Cixi used him to join hands with Luan to contain Yi and Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzao and his fellow villagers, Zhang Peilun and Zhang Zhidong, were famous "Qing school" leaders at that time. They discuss current politics and influence public opinion. When Zhang Peilun was dismissed from his post and sent to the garrison for three years after Ma Jiang's defeat, Li Hongzhang betrothed his daughter Chrysanthemum to him as his wife. When the couple were in their twenties, he was in his forties and had been married three times. Li Hongzhang chose him as his son-in-law, ostensibly with his talents, but actually wanted to borrow him to dredge Li Hongzao.
The influence of Huai system also penetrated into many aspects such as diplomacy, culture and education, industrial economy and so on in the late Qing Dynasty. "In terms of Li Hongzhang's life and career, the Huai Army is important; As far as the country is concerned, diplomacy is the most important, followed by coastal defense facilities and industrial construction "(Wang Huai Jun Zhi, Zhonghua Book Company, August edition, 1987, p. 384). In terms of culture and education, the Huai Department headed by Li Hongzhang founded new schools and sent personnel to study abroad to learn advanced scientific and cultural knowledge from the West, based on the idea of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application". In terms of industrial economy, Huai Westernization School not only developed military industry, but also actively set up civilian enterprises. For example, Shanghai Woven Layout is the first cotton textile mill established by Li Hongzhang; The earliest telegrams and railways in China were also initiated by Huai. In terms of diplomacy, "Li Hongzhang's presiding over diplomatic coastal defense is related to national security and is responsible for the great harm to the country, that is, the fate of the Qing regime" (ibid.). Li Hongzhang began to contact foreigners as early as when Huai Army arrived in Shanghai. In his later military and political diplomatic career, he had more opportunities to get in touch with foreigners and get to know them. At that time, he was recognized as the best person who could deal with foreigners and had the most diplomatic ability, and was even called "Oriental Bismarck". He has been sent to Russia, Britain, Germany, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium and other European and American countries, and has presided over negotiations with foreign aggressors on behalf of the Qing government for many times. 1900 In July, Li Hongzhang, who was nearly eighty years old, held peace talks with Eight-Nation Alliance on behalf of the Qing government as a plenipotentiary. Whether he was good at diplomacy or humiliating his country, Li Hongzhang was undoubtedly the man of the hour in international diplomacy at that time.
Of course, the significance of the Huai system lies not only in the Huai system itself, but also in greatly improving the political status of the Han people in the imperial court through the influence of the Huai system. Within the Qing government, there was a deep-rooted view of Manchu-Han territory. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty used Han Chinese officials in culture and may respect them in politics, but they never gave them the power to control the current politics, let alone let the Han Chinese master military power. Until the Taiping Revolution, the main force of green camp Army, which was used to suppress Taiping rebels, collapsed, and the Qing court had to use the powerful Xiang army at that time to suppress Taiping rebels, so Zeng Guofan, commander-in-chief of Xiang army, became the first Han Chinese to master important military power. After that, the Qing government's "suppression" general was killed, which made the Huai army a force that the Qing government could rely on, and Li Hongzhang could become another Han Chinese who mastered the power of heavy weapons. The prosperity of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang in the political arena in the late Qing Dynasty marked the weakening of the contradiction between Manchu and Han, and marked the shift of the power center of the Qing Dynasty from the imperial court to officials and ministers, especially Han officials. However, Zeng Guofan left the political stage prematurely because of illness, and Li Hongzhang "sat in Guinness" for twenty or thirty years, and his influence naturally exceeded Zeng. "All mentioned, enough to drink foundation. ..... In Guinness, imperial affairs, think twice before you act. Beiyang Zhangzou, please don't give anything. ..... Ann is prosperous outside the country and enjoys a high reputation "(Volume II of Liu Tizhi's Different Ci Records, see Wang's Records of Huai Jun, Zhonghua Book Company, August edition, 1987, p. 393). In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), the Qing court canonized its Three Eyes Hualing, which was the highest honor enjoyed by the Han people, although only three or four Manchu officials were canonized at that time.
Li Hongzhang and his Huai Army rose and were active in the historical period of class contradiction, national contradiction, Manchu-Han contradiction and even the contradiction between monarch and minister in the late Qing Dynasty. From military to politics, diplomacy, culture and economy, the fate of the Qing government was maintained. The Biography of Li Hongzhang in the Draft of the History of the Qing Dynasty has the following comments on Li Hongzhang: "A famous minister of Zhongxing started at the end of military affairs, and his feats were often covered up by martial arts. Hong Zhang has been in charge of the country for decades, and domestic and foreign affairs have always been the first to bear the brunt. Relying on light, China is famous all over the world. Shocked at home and abroad, it has never happened in recent times. " The Huai system represented by Li Hongzhang fundamentally shook the concept of Manchu-Han border, truly established the political status of the Han people, and laid a political foundation for Kang Liang's "Reform Movement of 1898". Yuan Shikai, a latecomer of Huai system, inherited Li Hongzhang's mantle, suppressed the bourgeois revolution with the Beiyang army in his hands and safeguarded the reactionary rule of Beiyang government. In a sense, "Wu Garrison Reform" and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government rule are the continuation of the influence of Li Hongzhang and Huai Army.