MILITARY EDUCATION IN CHINA, 1842-1895
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Western-style weapons, since they lived in designated garrisons that were "comparatively easy to guard." This early attempt to confine knowledge of foreign weapons to Banner forces, although ultimately unsuccessful, is nonetheless suggestive. As alien conquerors, the Manchus remained somewhat paranoid.28
Another serious problem with foreign-training programs in the 1860's and 70's was that they were not designed specifically as officer-training schools. Although the Tientsin program did train officers for the Peking Field Force and some Green Standard units as well, it trained the rank and file at the same time, in the same basic way. The emphasis was on military drill rather than on modern officer-education, and immediate military needs were always paramount. As long as rebellion raged, there were compelling reasons to continue producing Western-armed, Western-trained Chinese officers and men, despite the many difficulties involved in employing foreigners. But as the internal threat in a given area subsided, so did enthusiasm for reform; and as it did, the foreign-training programs quickly withered away.29 What remained was a certain number of Western-drilled troops and some low-ranking instructors, but very few officers with a real grasp of Western military knowledge. Again, there was little premium on acquiring it.
By the mid-1870's, the major rebellions in China had been suppressed, lulling the dynasty into a false sense of security. But it was far less Western-style military education and tactics than a new-found acquaintance with Western-style weapons that brought victory to the Ch'ing forces.30 With superior arms, traditional Chinese strategy and tactics usually sufficed against internal rebels, but such techniques were much less effective against rapidly modernizing external enemies.31 After 1875, the rise of foreign aggression on China's land and maritime frontiers complicated the dynasty's military choices, and made recourse to foreign military assistance all the more difficult.32 Yet in the absence of sufficient numbers of qualified Chinese military personnel for Western-style training, reform-minded Chinese officials continued to look to the West for aid.
Perhaps the most prominent and powerful of these officials was Li Hung-chang, who, with substantial foreign assistance dating from the early 1860's, had by the 1870's built his Anhwei Army into the finest military force in the empire. An examination of