Studies On Yangtze River Army In The Late Qing Dynasty

When the Xiangjun River Army was fighting with the Taiping Army, Zeng Guofan made the idea to change the Xiangjun River Army into the Yangtze River Army. After Conquering Nanjing, the Xiangjun River Army started restructuring. All the rules and regulations were improved gradually in five years. The Yangtze Xunyue Shi and the Yangtze River Army Tidu were the major generals of the Yangtze River Army. The offices of the senior generals were controlled by the Xianghuai Group.The military disciplines of the Yangtze River Army were gradually undermined when they were restructured. When Peng Yulin took charge of the army, he carried out same reforms to it, and patrolled the Yangtze River back and forth. Towards the end, Duan Fang reformed the Yangtze River Army once again, and established the patrolling and arresting troops because the patties behaved frequently along the Yangtze River. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the military force of the Yangtze River Army was always dropping behind. The Qing government required to reform and disband the Yangtze River Army, but was obstructed by the Xianghuai Group. This slowed the modernization process of the Yangtze River Army.Because the Yangtze River Army was controlled by the Xianghuai Group, the Qing government was strongly tabooed to it. At the beginning of the reform, the Qing government took sorts of restrictions, and after the restructuring, the relationships between the central and local authorities were not good and had much contradictions. The central government wanted to abolish the Yangtze River Army, while the Xianghuai Group tied their best to protect the army. Although the Yangtze River Army was not transformed into the modernized forces, he still played an important role in Chinese modern history.