A Study On The Construction Of Border Defense In Longzhou,Guangxi After The Sino-French War(1885-1911)

After the Sino-French War,the situation of Guangxi’s border defence was unprecedentedly severe,and the Qing government strengthened the importance of Guangxi’s border defence,taking Longzhou as the centre to strengthen Guangxi’s border defence construction.This paper focuses on the changes that occurred in Longzhou’s border defence after the Sino-French War and the specific measures taken in its construction,exploring the role of Longzhou’s border construction in the consolidation of Guangxi’s border defence,and in turn hoping to provide historical lessons for today’s defence construction.The paper is structured into four main sections:First,introduction to the border defence of Longzhou before the Sino-French War.Longzhou is located at the upper reaches of the Zuojiang River on the southwestern border of Guangxi,and is an area of great beauty along the border of Guangxi.In terms of topography,Longzhou’s low centre and high surrounding terrain gave it the military advantage of being easy to defend and difficult to attack;in terms of transport conditions,Longzhou had one of the more accessible water and land transport conditions of any border town in Guangxi,and was the transport hub of the Sino-Vietnamese border;in terms of its military role,Longzhou’s central geographical position and convenient transport conditions made it the key to maintain the Zhennan Pass,the Pingjiang Pass and the Shuikou Pass.In the first and middle periods of the Qing dynasty,the measures taken by the Qing dynasty to reform the land in Longzhou,to set up a school and to set up a green battalion garrison were of positive significance to the consolidation of national defence,but the overall situation was one of lax border defence by the suzerain state against the vassal state under the suzerain relationship.Second,the transformation of Guangxi’s border policy after the Sino-French War.During the Sino-French War,Longzhou played an important role in the victory of the war as a base for the army’s forward movement and the main base for the rear dispatch,as well as an important channel for transporting military supplies and transmitting military information.After the Sino-French War,the situation of Guangxi’s border defence was unprecedentedly severe,and the Qing court’s border defence policy towards Guangxi underwent a transformation from "external clan as a screen" to strengthening the construction of border defence.Longzhou,with its superior military geographical conditions and the important role it played in the Sino-French War,became the central link in the construction of Guangxi’s border defence.Third,specific measures for the construction of border defence in Longzhou.The double stationing of Tidu and Daoist officers at the festival to create a command centre for border defence;the construction of border fortifications such as the Longzhou city wall,the fortress and the Xiaoliancheng,and the founding of the Longzhou Manufacturing Bureau to strengthen the defence capability of Longzhou;the construction of a transport and communication network centred on Longzhou to strengthen the strategic mobility of border defence;the development of the Longzhou economy and education to strengthen the overall border defence force;and the establishment of a Sino-Vietnamese flood control to further consolidate border defence while purging the border of law and order.Fourth,the final results of border construction in Longzhou.In terms of characteristics,the construction of border defence in Longzhou as a whole is characterised by the co-existence of ’new’ and ’old’ methods,with new factors at play but ’old’ methods still dominating.The results show that it was necessary and positive to start the construction of Guangxi’s border defence with Longzhou as the centre,which had a positive effect on optimising the structure of Guangxi’s border defence,enhancing the strength of Guangxi’s border defence to a greater extent and promoting Longzhou’s social development,but due to the traditional military thinking,Longzhou was ultimately unable to build a border defence that met the requirements of modern national defence.