Chinese army

“ The movement of a Chinese army must prove a terrible imposition on the people of the district through which it moves, for it lives entirely on the country, and it is doubtful if military mandarins are more honest in their dealings with inferiors than other officials ”

“ The Chinese army has been properly drilled and equipped with modern rifles, accoutrements, artillery, and ammunition, their navy rehabilitated with modern battle-ships and gun-boats, their seaports protected by fortifications. ”

“ Indeed the whole of the Chinese military tactics are as absurd as they are ridiculous. When an army is drawn out, it must represent the heavens, or the earth, or the moon, or the five planets, or the five-clawed dragon, or mystical tortoise. Père Amiot, a French missionary, has been at the trouble of collecting or composing the military tactics of China, which fill a large quarto volume. ”

“ The average military observer would probably have declared the Imperial Army to be a peculiar military force. Into the daily routine the extravagant Chinese etiquette was worked in conjunction with a discipline quite strange to Chinese, and on the face of things it would not seem, viewed from camp life, that China's army was in any way a modern army. But that this Model Army of China is as much of a myth as some would have us believe, I, now in it all, could not for a moment endorse. The foreigner has always looked upon the Chinese as a man who would not fight him with the weapons of war ”

“ Upon the bodies of many of the slain, pieces of Sycee silver were found, as had been the case at Ningpo, a few days before.
The strength of the Chinese army was estimated at from seven to eight thousand men, part of which appeared to be a picked body, said to belong to the Emperor's guard; they were fine, athletic, powerful men. ”

“ China's next great purpose is to develop an efficient army. "Might is right" is the English proverb that I have found more often on the tongues of the new school of Chinese than any other; and we must confess that other nations seem to have tried hard enough to make her accept the principle. In the old days there was a saying, "Better have no son than one who is a soldier." To-day its new foreign-drilled army of 150,000 to 200,000 men is the boast of the Middle Kingdom, and the army is said to be the most honestly administered department of the government. ”

“ Millions of men were trained, small arms factories established, a thin trickle of supplies were obtained from Russia, the United States, and Great Britain. But the Chinese armies are still too weak in artillery, planes, and tanks to take the offensive. ”

“ In fact it was the surrender of Admiral Ting at Weihaiwei, following on the fall of Port Arthur, that convinced the Chinese of the futility of further resistance. In this short war the one redeeming feature in the sorry exhibition of Chinese impotence was the heroic, if hopeless, defence of Liu-kung-tao and the harbour by the naval forces of China. The garrisons of various forts on the mainland in most instances deserted en masse. Had the army offered anything like the resistance shown by the sister service, a very different complexion might have been put upon the war. ”

“ Now it is a trite observation that the Chinese make capital soldiers if they are well commanded, and what is the head of a large business establishment but the commander-in-chief of a small army? The efficiency of his force depends far more upon the moral agencies brought to bear than upon any system of rewards and punishments human ingenuity can devise; for Chinamen, like other mortals, love to have their prejudices respected, and fear of shame and dread of ridicule are as deeply ingrained in their natures as in those of any nation under the sun. ”

“ THE Chinese army today has well over 300 divisions in the field, totaling about 5,000,000 men. There are about 15,000,000 men in reserve units or in training camps. Also some 800,000 guerrillas and 600,000 regular troops are operating in areas behind Japanese lines. An official publication of the Chinese Government reports that in addition to these soldiers, China has 50,000,000 able-bodied men of military age available for service. ”

“ The futility of Chinese troops against a disciplined army has been abundantly exemplified on this frontier. Notwithstanding warnings and alarms in the Press of the presence of formidable arrays trained by German or Japanese instructors, and armed with rifles of the very newest pattern, we have never encountered from Yunnan a Chinese levy capable of standing up to our military police, far less to a British force of all arms. ”

“ But both armies, with an earnestness and energy that one was not accustomed to see in Chinese, kept up smart riflery for two hours, with hardly a moment's lull, showing that the Chinese Model Army, if boasting little else, can boast of men who face battle without flinching. ”

“ Although the Chinese Reds were represented by a peasant army, it was also a first-rate army when judged by its own tactical and strategic standards. Military poverty might be blamed for some of its deficiencies in arms and equipment, but its semiguerrilla tactics were based on a mobility which could not be burdened with heavy weapons and transport. The Chinese coolie in the padded cotton uniform could do one thing better than any other soldier on earth; he could infiltrate around an enemy position in the darkness with unbelievable stealth. ”

“ It is well known that the artillery department of the British army, on the way to Peking in i860, was rendered perfectly helpless near Ho-hsi-wu by the desertion of the native carters, for not a man in the British forces was able to persuade the Chinese animals to take a single step! ”

“ It is not only that they have failed to learn the modern art of war, but that they have forgotten the old methods. It was thought that Chinese troops, though deficient in enterprise, might at least make a respectable defense. They were advised never to risk a pitched battle, but to retreat slowly, giving trouble to the enemy by night attacks on his baggage, and compelling him to use up an army corps to keep open his line of communication. They failed in every point, and allowed themselves to be chased and caught like sheep, losing stores, guns, and munitions. ”

“ Nor is there a fortified town in China that could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European army. They have firearms, it is true, but they are awkward and uncertain in their going off; and their powder has but little strength. Their armies are badly disciplined, and want skill to attack, or temper to retreat; and therefore, I must confess, it seemed strange to me, when I came home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power, glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese ”

“ The ports are false; as few ships of the Chinese navy are, at present,
supplied with artillery.
A SOLDIER IN HIS COMMON DRESS.
The army of China cannot be considered formidable, their troops being naturally effeminate, and without the courage of European soldiers: one reason assio-ned for this is a mode of education which is not calculated to inspire a nation with courage, and it may partly be accounted for, from their having enjoyed uninterrupted peace since their subjugation by the Tartars. ”

“ Finally, the Chinese infantryman of to-day only wants good leading to become a formidable foe. With a little more training in addition, there is every reason to believe that they would [278] become a fighting force worthy to rank with our excellent Indian troops.
A different state of affairs is disclosed on coming to discuss the artillery. Here is a thoroughly well-trained and efficient branch of the army, of whom many of the Allied officers spoke with considerable respect, and who, having excellent weapons, used them with effect in nearly every engagement. ”

“ The Chinese were driven from the Arsenal by the Japanese, before whom they also fell back from Pei-tsang, and the first serious battle was fought at Yang-tsun, on the 6th. Having rested at Yang-tsun and cared for its sick and wounded, on the 7th, the army moved forward on the 8th, encountered slight resistance at Shang-shia-wan on the 11th, found Tong-chow abandoned, on the 12th, and reached Pekin on the 14th, having suffered more from heat, fatigue, and the want of potable water on the march, than from "Boxers" or imperial troops. ”

“ Now that Chinese Communist troops had been encountered both on the X Corps and Eighth Army fronts, it was all the more important that battlewise NKPA elements should be prevented from joining their new allies if Red China intervened. ”

“ We believe that the heart is. So a Chinese always offers his hand and his liver to the young lady of his choice. Neither do they ever kiss each other in China. Confucius stopped it because the lips are the most susceptible portion of the human body to infection. When two Chinese meet, they rub their knees with their hands, and say “Ah” with a deep breath. A dear friend of mine went to the Viceroy of Nankin to enquire how his newly-raised Army was getting on with the huge consignment of magnificent rifles sent out from England for its use. ”

“ The landing of any considerable body of troops is always an exciting scene; but, now, for the first time in the history of China, if we except the trifling affair at the barrier at Macao, European troops were about to meet in battle the sons of the "flowery nation," upon the very soil of the "Celestial Empire." Nor did the Chinese shrink from the contest in the first instance, for they had yet to learn the irresistible power of European warfare, and the destructive efficacy of European weapons. ”

“ The tests of bow and arrow and muscular power must become things of the past, and be replaced by tests of engineering knowledge, of the art of disciplining troops and marshalling them for the field of battle, and, indeed, of whatever we understand in Europe as the modern science of war. At present, in addition to exercise in the use of the old weapons, military candidates are required to write out a short treatise on Chinese military tactics.
Nos. 43 and 44 are fair types of the Manchu soldiers of the north of China. ”

“ But the armies now came to provide a refuge for the unemployed and dispossessed. A second factor, the mechanical mobilization of military forces through the railways, made warfare more expensive and ruinous than it would have been with the slow-moving infantry of the past. Thirdly, the war lords gave physical embodiment to the ideological and social disunity of China, inviting the constant intervention of the Western powers and of Japan in Chinese affairs.
Individually the war lords warrant no special attention. ”

“ It takes a nation of 426,000,000 phlegmatic people longer to get under way than a nation of 43,000,000 nervous people, but when they do get started, their momentum is proportionately greater. China has plenty of men who can fight, and when they are well commanded, they make as good soldiers as there are in the world, as ``Chinese Gordon'' showed. ”

“ Concerning the arsenals established under the auspices of the various governors-general from Canton even to Kirin in Manchuria, and under the technical management of foreigners, the most remarkable point to be noted—and it applies generally to the employment of foreigners in China—is the faithful service the Chinese have been able to command in circumstances where it was hardly to be expected. ”

“ As for other improvements of the armies, only three factors need be mentioned. The armies were consolidated generally, and with their better status—in literacy, pay, means of subsistence, and regularity of control—there came a realization that the military force was the creature of the national state. The Chinese nation was taking form as an ideological and social entity of sufficient strength to command the direct allegiance of fighting men. A new respect arose for the officers and men of the armies. Under Yüan Shih-k'ai the armies had been able to evolve a respectability of their own making ”

“ The man, the only man available, who possessed the requisite qualities, personal and professional, including a competent knowledge of Chinese, happened to be a soldier, but he at least made the fleet fight, not as a trained admiral would have done with a trained fleet, but in a manner to inspire the Chinese with some confidence in themselves, in which till then they were greatly lacking. ”

“ The barracks are a few native straw-thatched wooden huts. Perhaps a score or two of men form the garrison of each fort; they are badly armed, if armed at all. There are no guns and no store supplies. Water is trained into the stockades down open conduits of split bamboo. To anyone who has seen the Chinese soldiers at home in Western China, it is diverting to observe the credence which is given to Chinese statements of the armed strength of Western China. How much longer are we to persist in regarding the Chinese, as they now are, as a warlike power? ”

“ Having now shown how well prepared the Chinese were at every point, how well armed, and how well fed was the tactical unit, and how Russia, although far from indifferent as to the results, was really abetting the side of China, we may pass on to those more active movements which proved that the Chinese generals possessed the ability and military knowledge necessary to make full use of the very powerful weapon which they had created, and which was capable of accomplishing the most arduous of enterprises. ”

“ The position of the Chinese Regiment was not analogous to that of the native troops in India and in our other large imperial possessions. Its very existence was anomalous. The great majority of its men were recruited not in British but in Chinese territory, [56] and as their employment against a European enemy of Great Britain was scarcely conceivable, their only function could have been to fight against their own countrymen or other Orientals. ”