THE ARMY 32 THE ARMY 33 Other important officials memorialized the throne on this sub- ods should be adapted,after careful deliberation,to create a new system. ject,including Chang Chih-tung and Wang Wen-shao.Sheng ..At the same time,military academies to train selected cadets must be set up and staffed with foreign experts;later these cadets should be sent Hsuan-huai,Li Hung-chang's lieutenant in commercial and in- abroad for further study.On their return,they should be given a military dustrial affairs,presented a plan for training a new army.He put command according to their abilities.s the number of new troops required at goo,000,insisting that the As a result of this letter,Yuan was called to the capital in June traditional forces(the Bannermen and the Green Standard)be de- mobilized.A soldier would serve for 14 years-three in the stand- for consultation.He and Hu Yui-fen,and indeed a host of others, ing army with full pay,three in the reserves,three as a retained fully realized the meaning of the assignment,both for the nation soldier,and five in a militia unit.After the first three years,a and for the man selected.Rivalry between the two was inevitable. soldier could return to civilian life,though he would be expected In July,Hu wrote to Li Hung-tsao describing Yuan as arrogant. to take part in maneuvers;throughout the 14 years,he was to be Chang P'ei-lun,another highly placed lieutenant of Li Hung- exempted from other forms of state labor. chang,also wrote to Li Hung-tsao to criticize Yuan: The Grand Council's less ambitious program fixed the quota for I have had several talks with him and found him boastful and utterly the first four months at 4,oo0 to 5,o00 men.Hsiaochan,located unreliable.His past history shows that he is conceited,extravagant,lech- between Peking and Tientsin,was selected as headquarters for the erous,ruthless,and treacherous.Sir,you are right to treat him as the son of a friend,but gravely wrong to esteem him as a man of rare qualities new force.It was here that Li Hung-chang had maintained the I.am compelled to speak up about him;for having misled Li Hung- barracks of his Hwai Army for over 20 years.Hu Yu-fen,not Yuan chang,he may now attempt to mislead you and indeed our country. Shih-K'ai,was appointed supervisor,and von Hanneken was named the chief instructor.Hu,a competent and enlightened In spite of these personal attacks,Li Hung-tsao had formed a dis- official;could not get long with the German,because,as he said, tinctly good impression of.Yuan;so had Jung-lu and Weng Tung- Hanneken was greedy and arrogant.Before long he gave up army ho.&But one fact weighed heavily against him:Yuan had joined administration in favor of building railways,and Yuan Shih-k'ai Liang Ch'i-ch'ao's Strengthening Study Society,a reformist orga- nization. was then brought in to succeed him. Yuan's knowledge and experience made him the best qualified After Hu's resignation,Jung-lu asked Yuan to make a report on candidate of all his contemporaries.Further,he had a spotless army training.Yuan did so at great length,advocating the use of reputation and had shown considerable interest in the work.In German methods.Seconded by Jung-lu,Li Hung-tsao recom- May 1895,shortly after the end of the war,he wrote to Li Hung- mended Yuan for the position.Yuan had strong support in other tsao,a member of the Grand Council: quarters as well:both the notorious,powerful Prince Ch'ing and 1 the grand eunuch,Li Lien-ying,favored his appointment.On De- The weakness of our troops does not lie so much in quantity as in quality, cember 8,1895,the Crand Councilpresented a memorial to the not so much in their physical strength as in their lack of training.Worst of all,they lack uniform organization,a unified command,and stern dis. throne recommending that Yuan be made commander of the cipline.They are impossible to control and do not have enough spirit to Newly Created Army and supervisor of its training.Yuan was then face an enemy.... thirty-six years old. Under these circumstances,we should do our best to rectity the mis- The army at Hsiaochan was made up of ten corps and num- takes of the past-by eliminating superfuous units,cutting excessive ex- bered 3,o0o infantrymen,1,ooo artillerymen,250 cavalrymen,and penses,dismissing incompetent officers,and tightening up discipline.In addition,we should select a few highly respected generals and give them 500 engineers.The infantry was divided into two regiments,con- the freedom and the financial support necessary to reorganize our exist- ing troops into several big units;these should be stationed at strategic .The assignment was especially important in light of Chiang Kai-shek's ap- points.We ought to.employ foreign instructors to assist in the work of pointment as the director of the Whampoa Academy and Lin Piao's as the reorgai'zation.Both our own traditional methods and European meth- director of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College