Research On The Military Modernization Of The New Policy In Henan Province During The Late Qing Dynasty

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Qing government, which was trapped in the internally and externally difficult situation, carried out new policies that involved politics, economy, military affairs, education and so on to save its great dangers. In this top-down reform, the training and expenditure of the army was directly related to the development of the military force, as well as the strengthening of the internal ruling authority and the obtaining of the external discourse right. Therefore, the Qing government put the military reform in a very important position and invested a lot of human, material and financial resources. As a result, it promoted the process of the military modernization effectively.But the fundamental purpose of the reform measures in the New Policy was to maintain the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty. Whether it is the leaders of the central government or the governors of the provinces, their plans and practices couldn't completely get rid of the influence of the old regimes and ideas. Therefore, the military reform also had obvious shortcomings, which restricted the speed and level of the military modernization to a certain extent.After the initiation of the New Policy during the late Qing Dynasty, the court promulgated many imperial edicts on military reform. Then, Henan Province constructed and trained the new army on the basis of accepting the emperor's orders. At the same time, it reduced and transformed the old army. Under the supervision of the Qing government and the implementing of the Henan Province's governors, the new army in Henan reached a certain scale of one Huncheng-Xie during a short period. Meanwhile,the weaponry, military education and combat effectiveness of the new army had been developed significantly. In addition, the soldiers of the Henan green-flag army were all cut except a small amount of military officers and their guards. The fine soldiers of the Eight Banners were selected to accept new training, and the young people in the Eight Banners received more opportunities for education. Except the reducing and reorganizing on royal army, the defense troops were merged into the patrol group. Then the residual green-flag army and local troops were transformed into the police system. In this way, it made progress jointly on the new army that served as the national defense forces and the old army that served as the local security forces, which not only embodied the military situation in the period of the social transformation but also promoted the development of the military modernization.However, the military establishment of the new army in Henan was mixed with the old rules. And the expansion of the new army tended to be basically stagnant after the year of 1906, which finally led to the failure in achieving the goal of one Zhen. In addition, as it was constructed and trained, the new army was controlled tightly by the Beiyang military system. As a result, Yuan Shikai used the new army to suppress the Revolution of 1911. When it comes to the old army, we can see that they used to accumulate a lot of abuses. At the same time, the new training and military education toward the Eight Banners, patrol group, and police system were also very limited in breadth and depth. Meanwhile, it was hard to avoid the deficiencies on the effects without corresponding regimes and financial resources.In short, the military modernization of the New Policy in Henan Province was an important part of the process of the military modernization in the whole country during the late Qing Dynasty. It could also be regarded as a microcosm that the country sought self-improvement by the military reform in the last 10 years of the late Qing Dynasty. Its complex road and situation left rich experience and lessons for today's military reform.