Zeng Guofan Founded Hunan Army from existence to none, and spent ten years to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising. He was an important initiator of Westernization Movement and one of the founders of China's modern army; Zuo Zongtang is only 1 year younger than Zeng Guofan, and is a core figure in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and a local representative of the Westernization Movement. He has important information in pacifying the rebellion of Shaanxi, Gansu, recapturing Xinjiang, and building northwest China. Historical influence is one of the founders of the spirit of the modern Chinese army;
and Li Hongzhang founded Huai Army , suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led the entire Westernization Movement, founded the modern Chinese navy, established Beiyang Navy, but in the end he was defeated in Sino-Japanese War of 1895 . Let me ask, who is more important in China's modernization journey?
The modern Chinese army started
Since Opium War , the Chinese army has initially contacted the modern Western army. In 861, Prince Gong and the central central minister Wenxiang began to hire foreign officers to train new recruits. National affairs and the head office of China's Taxation Department are directly in the hands of the British Hear . Many people wonder why they are clearly the Chinese Customs Taxation Department's office, so that all the power is controlled by a British?
Of course, there are special reasons for doing this, because Qing Dynasty Since the middle and late Qianlong period, the country's strength has been declining, and all classes have no rules for the court. The emperor cannot restrain the officials below. The corruption among officials has become a hidden rule in the workplace. Almost no official does not embezzle. At this time, when the Qing Dynasty used some foreigners, it found that foreigners were actually quite honest. For example, Li Hongzhang stored part of the Huai Army's military salary in the hands of the British in the Shanghai Concession, and it was completely unscathed after the war.
These strange stories have opened the eyes of the Qing Dynasty officials and the ruling people. They believe that the integrity of foreign officials is far greater than that of the Qing Dynasty's own officials, so they are safe to hand some things over to foreigners. Hurd also started to manage China's customs taxation since then. He continued to make profits when he started operating and actively paid millions of taels of silver to the Qing government every year. These made the real power figures of the Qing government happy. The income from using these customs taxation has become an important source of military expenditure for the modern Chinese army.
The pioneers of China's modern army should be the "Xiang Army" founded by Zeng Guofan, a Hunanese, and the "Huai Army" founded by Li Hongzhang. In terms of the order of historical time, the history of the Hunan Army was far earlier than that of the Huai Army. The Hunan Army founded by Zeng Guofan himself is both the commander of the army and the spiritual mentor of all the soldiers. The Hunan Army is actually an army with spiritual beliefs. They have an important position in modern Chinese history. The Hunan talents promoted by Zeng Guofan in the later period all have political beliefs. There were also a lot of talents from the Hunan Army in the late Qing Dynasty.
Zeng Guofan's friend Zuo Zongtang is the best inherited commander of the Hunan Army. His management method for the Hunan Army is to use traditional ethics as the spiritual belief of the entire army, and then use clan concepts and rural concepts to strengthen the unity of the army. Therefore, we find that the composition of the Hunan Army's army is almost the same as his name, that is, they are all from Hunan. Most of these soldiers come from the same village. They rely on each other for life and death when fighting, and spend money when rewarding. When they succeeded and retired and returned to their hometown, they supported each other again. Therefore, as a representative of China's modern army, the Hunan Army had a particularly strong spirit of unity and mutual assistance.
Zuo Zongtang himself also attached great importance to the development of firearm , and the treatment of the army was very high. At that time, the monthly salary paid to the Hunan Army was four taels and two cents of silver, and the navy was three taels and six cents of silver. These were as much as twice the salary of the Green Camp Soldier of the Qing Dynasty at that time.The places where the Hunan Army fought were mainly along the Yangtze River , so navy must be absolutely indispensable. When later recovered Xinjiang, the status of the army among the Hunan Army naturally rose. Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others founded the Hunan Army and became the representative of China's modern army. At the same time, a contradiction broke out in the late Qing Dynasty, which was the stretched financial system, that is, is the army more important or the navy more important?
The start of the modern Chinese navy
Ancient Chinese history to the Qing Dynasty in the Opium War era actually had no such term as a navy. The ancient Chinese army was divided into army and naval division according to its water and land attributes. Although it means that the Chinese navy was strong enough to recover Taiwan and Penghu Islands in the late dynasty, the Ming Dynasty navy was led by Zheng Chenggong . It was basically the same as the West in terms of military weapons and was not much behind. However, in the Opium War era two hundred years later, compared with the Western Navy, the Chinese navy was not only backward in terms of military concepts, but also overall backward in institutional weapons.
After the failure of the Second Opium War , it began to realize that it was necessary to build a navy that belonged to the Chinese, but in the end, people at that time had no idea about how to build a navy, because China had never had a precedent for the navy. The first navy in modern Chinese history is the "Beiyang Navy". , and Li Hongzhang was the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang in the late Qing Dynasty. Li Hongzhang participated in the process of the Westernization Movement and the construction of this navy. So how did Li Hongzhang build China's first navy?
Li Hongzhang himself was a scholar before. As Zeng Guofan suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising, he learned a lot of military knowledge and founded the Huai Army among the strong army. After that, it took decades to establish the Beiyang Navy, and most of the talents in the Beiyang Navy were actually from the Huai Army. Li Hongzhang first used young elites from the Huai Army to study abroad and learn military knowledge of the Western Navy. These people, such as Deng Shichang, Liu Buchan, , Ding Ruchang, , etc., all became the warship leaders and commander-in-chief in the Beiyang Navy. We all know whether it is possible to convert from the army to the navy today, but people at that time didn't know.
888 was officially established. Few people know the hardships behind this. The navy needs a lot of financial support, special naval talents, special naval schools, special naval warships, and Chinese domestic cannons and other ammunitions on various naval warships. So later, the Huai Army went abroad to study and further study. After some of them came back, they directly served as elite naval forces, and some of them served as instructors of the Chinese Navy to cultivate talents for the next generation. Chinese machine craftsmen also learned various naval warship repairs through imitation. Later, some warships can even be independently manufactured as comprehensive as foreign warships.
Li Hongzhang was a figure in the late Qing Dynasty. He basically mastered how China's national defense should be built. Although he personally came from the Huai Army, which was a faction among the army, he attached the most importance to the navy. In Li Hongzhang's personal words, the biggest enemy of the Chinese Navy at that time was actually the Japanese navy, the Asian neighbor of Japan. If the Chinese Navy can defeat Japanese Navy , then no matter how powerful the Japanese Army is, it cannot cross the infinite ocean to come to China, right? As long as the Japanese cannot cross the battle between Tsubasa and North Korea, it will not endanger mainland China.Let me ask, is Li Hongzhang’s view correct?
From a certain extent, it can be seen that Li Hongzhang's remarks represent a mainstream view of the real power ministers of the Qing Dynasty at that time. Most people were frightened by the British and French armies crossing the oceans during the Opium War. Therefore, it is understandable that the navy was developed in a crazy manner when developing military modernization. Li Hongzhang said that as long as the Japanese navy was intercepted on the ocean, the Japanese army would not be able to land in China for combat, and would not cause harm to the people in mainland China. This statement actually makes sense. Can Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Navy actually intercept the Japanese Navy?
Which is more important to the army or the navy
In the history of modernization, which is more important to the army or the navy? What is actually involved is the question of who is more important to the "coastal defense and barrier defense" in China's modernization. This issue was OK in the early stage, and there was not much dispute, because most of the threats faced by China came from the sea, but when the threat of northern wolves appeared, the Northeast betrayed and ceded millions of kilometers of land. Xinjiang in the northwest is also facing the danger of . When the Russians are invading, which is more important, and who is the focus of national defense? This issue will be brought to the table for discussion.
870s was the most intense discussion on coastal defense and barrier defense issues. At that time, what was more important to insist on coastal defense was Li Hongzhang, the Minister of the Beiyang Navy and the Governor of Zhili, Wenhua Palace Grand Secretary. Zuo Zongtang is generally considered to be more important to stick to the defense of the barrier. However, in fact, Zuo Zongtang has never said that defense of the barrier is more important than coastal defense. Zuo Zongtang insisted on the concept of "both guard and coastal defense are equally important". He believed that according to the situation of the court, only by paying equal importance and going wherever the fire is burned can we protect China's complete territory.
Someone may ask questions at this time, could the Qing Dynasty have a territory of tens of thousands of miles and a large country with a population of 400 million to pay equal importance to barrier defense and coastal defense? In fact, it really cannot be, because the Qing Dynasty's fiscal revenue was only a little money per year, and it was destined to be able to support one party's development. If the finances are sufficient and officials from all over the country are determined to save money and seek national development like the Japanese, then China will not have to argue about which is more important to the defense of the barrier or the defense of the coast. Whether to build a navy first or the army first is the first. It is precisely because there were too few people doing practical things in China at that time and there were too many people trying to pick fruits and seek personal gains, so the Qing Dynasty's finances were so stretched.
When Li Hongzhang was facing the threat from the northwest, he once said that he would let the Qing government give up the northwest land and not let the finances be biased towards the development of the Northwest Army. Li Hongzhang believed that once he lost the financial support of the court, the development of the Beiyang Navy would stagnate. Without the threat of warships and advanced guns and cannons, the Japan in the east would not have fear of China. The Japanese fleet could come at any time, and then the heavy land of the capital might face threats. It would be a matter of the Japanese landing in North Korea in an instant, and the history of entering the pass from Shanhaiguan may also repeat itself.
Such remarks undoubtedly scared many people, including Cixi Cixi's real-powered Manchu royal faction, so Cixi basically stood on Li Hongzhang's side. Is this idea actually correct? What we said also makes sense. As long as the Japanese defeated the Japanese completely on the ocean, unless the Japanese have wings, the Japanese will definitely not be able to fly into China. However, Li Hongzhang's personal opinion is that the method is too absolute and the actual operation is too in line with the theoretical level, which eventually led to a disastrous defeat in the Sino-Japanese Navy in the Sino-Japanese War.
When Zuo Zongtang was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Zuo Zongtang had been dead for many years.In fact, at this time, we have seen the importance of the Chinese Army . Li Hongzhang discussed that the navy is more important than the army in the barrier defense. In fact, it can also be used to discuss that the army is more important than the navy. After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese Navy was only the dominant leader at sea. If the Chinese army could defeat the Japanese army on land, what could the Japanese do to me? Therefore, it is actually incorrect to emphasize the Navy and the Army. The Army and the Navy are actually . After all, it is necessary to emphasize the Army and the Navy at the end of the day.
Conclusion
Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang were in that era, and they received old education. They were born in the old society. No one went abroad to study. Even Li Hongzhang visited abroad later after the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. It is actually quite a great thing for them to resolutely promote China's modernization cause.
