Chapter 71 To recruit soldiers, you need to recruit a scholar

In the military reform of the New Deal of the Qing Dynasty, there was a plan to organize and train new troops in thirty-six towns.The military reform carried out this time is the same as Zeng Guofan's training of the Hunan Army. It is a new start. The system, organizational system, and personnel are all re-started, and have nothing to do with the original army.When Zeng Guofan was training the Hunan Army, he refused to use the green battalion as a base. What he worried about was that the old army's accumulated habits were too heavy, so that seeking new ideas would not be successful, but would become a burden.Similarly, the formation and training of the new army in the New Deal is also worried that the new army will be contaminated with the habits of the old army, so it is necessary to re-beat the drums and open a new one.

In fact, before the new troops were organized and trained in the provinces, they already had the ready-made experience of the Beiyang Army.Yuan Shikai's new army, like the Xianghuai army, recruited simple peasant children to serve as soldiers, but it also learned the experience and lessons of the Huai army's practice of foreign exercises. It no longer trains soldiers or officers, but officers and soldiers , the training of officers took the lead, and a series of Beiyang military officer schools were opened to train officers.The southern provinces organized and trained the new army, which seemed to be a step ahead of the Beiyang army, recruiting soldiers, and scholars were given priority.

The salary of the new army is high, and the treatment is generous. A regular soldier earns four taels of silver a month, which is equivalent to about eight yuan in foreign money, not counting his own food and clothing.This money is enough to support a family of five or six.At the time when the new army was established, the imperial examination was also abolished.If scholars in rural areas want to be successful, their first choice is to go to school, but going to school can not make money, but also costs money, and the family can't support it.For other things, the industry was not prosperous at that time, the degree of urbanization was not high, and there were not many opportunities to choose from. The new army was closely related to modernization and had the legitimacy to match the progress of the times.Being a new army, in people's eyes, is no longer the bread of the past, good people are not good soldiers, so they are very popular.In Zhang Zhidong, he even made up his mind to turn the new army into another kind of imperial examination.Therefore, a large number of rural scholars have poured into the new army.Some new southern troops even refused to recruit those who could not read or write.A soldier of the Hubei New Army named Hu Zushun said that when he joined the army, the test question was "have the courage to know the way".The examination questions did not come from the Four Books and Five Classics, but it was also a statement that advocated the spirit of martial arts at that time.He has been working as a part-time reporter for the newspaper, and he passed the test after writing 300 words on the spot.The uneducated soldiers in the new army are all veterans who were recruited earlier, and the newly recruited soldiers are all scholars.

The new army loves to recruit scholars, and poor scholars also regard joining the new army as a way out, at least it is a better way out than teaching in the countryside.Therefore, anyone with a brighter mind joined the new army one after another.Chen Xiaofen, another soldier of the Hubei New Army, recalled that when he enlisted in Huangpi in 1905, among the ninety-six people who went with him, there were twelve grannies and twenty-four scholars.Others, because they have to take the composition test, must also be proficient in literary and ink.He Sui, who was a junior officer in the Ninth Town of Nanjing, recalled that his company consisted of 126 people, including one Juren, six scholars, and twenty-seven students from the school.In other words, some scholars who have already entered the school, for various reasons, have no way out, and also voted for the new army.When Zhang Zhidong started the new army in Hubei, he also set up a camp school in the army, encouraging soldiers to go to school while training.Some soldiers, after enlisting in the army, even apply for examinations for out-of-school students in schools outside the camp.Generally speaking, in the new army, the atmosphere of reading and reading newspapers is quite strong, and there is a reading room in the barracks.Not only that, but in the barracks, any soldier who can read well will be looked at highly by the officers.The aforementioned Hu Zushun, when he was the corps leader, drank too much wine once, and when he went to the barber shop, he cut off his braids when his head got hot.At that time, it was a prohibited behavior. Although the rules had been loosened in the late Qing Dynasty, they still had to be punished according to the rules.When he sobered up, as a remedy, he quickly wrote an article, talking about the benefits of cutting braids from the perspective of hygiene and hindering military operations, and then submitted it to the officer and the newspaper for publication.After seeing the newspaper, he was safe and sound, and no one troubled him.After all, at that time, the concept of hygiene was an absolutely progressive principle.A few days later, another uneducated soldier also had his braids cut off. The officer was furious and ordered the braid cutters to stand in line, and severely punished them.Those who cut the braids refused to accept it, saying how could the corporal cut it?The officer yelled: "There are reasons and meanings for people to cut and distinguish. The newspapers even praised it. What's the reason for you to cut it?"So he pulled down and beat some army sticks.In fact, uneducated soldiers cut their braids in the same way as educated soldiers.

The movement of the new army is the idea of ​​some knowledgeable revolutionaries.Among them, those who are qualified to be officers will go in and become officers, and those who are not qualified to be officers will become soldiers.In the Hubei New Army, there were not many revolutionaries as officers after Lan Tianwei left, but there were especially many soldiers.This is related to the fact that the Hubei New Army was founded by Zhang Zhidong, who especially emphasized the cultural quality of the New Army.The army pays attention to reading, and the atmosphere of reading is naturally strong. Many people form various reading and research groups, which can be found everywhere.Several well-known groups of the Revolutionary Party, the Literary Society, the Rizhi Society, and the Science Tutoring School all have such names.The officer saw it and said nothing.The revolutionaries incited in the middle, read some banned books, "Jiading Three Massacres", "Yangzhou Ten Days", "Menghuihui", "Revolutionary Army", and even "Minbao" which came in through special channels.In fact, they also read the writings of the constitutionalists and Liang Qichao.Scholars who live in groups, even though they are in the military camp, are actually very similar to students in nature.Therefore, what is popular in schools is also popular in military camps.Everyone likes to taste the forbidden fruit and dare to take risks.If the performance of the imperial court is acceptable, there will be no major incidents, but once the performance is not good and they are unanimously criticized by the newspapers, then the soldiers are prone to revolution, and in extraordinary times, they tend to act.However, it needs to be explained that not all the study groups in the New Army at that time advocated revolution. In fact, more of them were not revolutionary. However, it seems that he was imagined as a scourge by the Daoist.According to reports, on the eve of the Wuchang Uprising, Zhang Biao, the commander of the Eighth Town, even wanted to expel all soldiers in the army who liked to read new books and newspapers.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the hereditary military system was implemented. Regardless of the Green Camp Eight Banners or the later Yongying Camp, they were all hereditary soldiers, and the soldiers formed their own small societies.Such a system isolates soldiers from society and is looked down upon by normal society. In turn, soldiers are hostile to society and even give up on themselves.This kind of social atmosphere where good people don't serve as soldiers is obviously unable to learn from the West, promote the spirit of martial arts, establish a Western-style sense of honor for soldiers, and improve the social status of soldiers.Therefore, it is necessary to introduce scholars into the new army and change the pattern and atmosphere of the traditional army.At the same time, to realize the modernization of the army and establish the sense of honor of the soldiers, it is also necessary to introduce scholars.In a word, it is to make the new-style soldiers become people with status in society.However, the result of doing so will inevitably lead to the loyalty problem of the new army. The more scholars there are and the more they love reading, the more serious the loyalty problem will be.In fact, the seriousness of the so-called loyalty problem is closely related to the actions of the Qing government.No one is born to like rebellion, and the occurrence of rebellion is related to the injustice in the world.In fact, the Qing government did not do well enough for the loyalty issue to become an issue.After the Republic of China, the army recruited more and more soldiers, and the status of soldiers declined again. The previous attempt to raise the status of soldiers and use scholars as soldiers was abolished.China's military modernization has entered a fork in the road again.