In the late Qing Dynasty and the early days of the Republic of China, the mention of the two words Beiyang can be described as thunderous and influential. The reason for this is mainly the existence of the Beiyang Marine Division, the Beiyang New Army, and the Beiyang Warlords.
We all know that the Beiyang Naval Division was established by Li Hongzhang, which was also the strongest navy in the Qing Dynasty at that time, but it was completely destroyed in the Battle of Jiawu. As for Yuan Shikai, after returning from Korea, he began to train the new army, which is the famous small station training. However, why is it called the Beiyang New Army that he has trained?
In fact, the word "Beiyang" itself is only a geographical concept, referring to the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula. Even in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, it refers to the boundary of Wusongkou in Shanghai and Beiyang north of the Yangtze River, which is a regional concept that includes Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhili and other ports.
However, after the Second Opium War, the word Beiyang gave the title of official position. In fact, after the opium war began, trade with foreign countries inevitably occurred. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty once set up a five-family minister of trade and commerce, which for a long time was not an official title, but was supervised by other officials. In the 10th year of Xianfeng, he was renamed the Minister of Trade and Commerce of Nanyang. In the same year, the Qing Dynasty set up a three-port minister of trade and commerce to manage the trade affairs of Niuzhuang, Tianjin, and Dengzhou.
After Li Hongzhang became the viceroy directly subordinate to him, the three ministers of trade and commerce were directly subordinate to the viceroy and also under the authority, and in order to correspond to the title of minister of Nanyang, the minister of trade and commerce of the three ports was renamed the minister of trade and commerce of Beiyang.
In 1867, Ding Richang asked for the establishment of the Sanyo Navy, which was said to be beiyang, nanyang and zhongyang. Later, Li Hongzhang also suggested that the focus of the Qing Dynasty should be coastal defense. Therefore, Guangxu specially ordered Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang to create the Beiyang Water Division, which is also the origin of the Beiyang Water Division.
After the Sino-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai began to train troops at Xiaozhan Station, but at this time it was not called the Beiyang Army, but a new army. After Li Hongzhang's death in 1901, Yuan Shikai succeeded him as viceroy and minister of Beiyang and began to work on the construction of the Beiyang Standing Army.
Yuan Shikai was born in North Korea, and after returning to China, he became a fragrant feast, and under the joint recommendation of various forces, he rushed to Tianjin To take over the task of training the new army. It includes Li Hongzhang, but it does not mean that Yuan Shikai continued Li Hongzhang's Beiyang because of this.
Objectively speaking, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang and Li Hongzhang's are not the same thing. When he was training troops at a small station, he was not directly subordinate to the governor or the minister of Beiyang at all, and had nothing to do with the word Beiyang. It was only later that Yuan Shikai also held the position of Li Hongzhang, so it began to be used by Yuan Shikai.
However, after that, the new army was uniformly called the army by the Qing government, but it was customary to call the army trained by Yuan Shikai as the Beiyang New Army or the Beiyang Army.
It has to be said that Yuan Shikai formed a military and political clique far more powerful than Li Hongzhang's forces during this period, although his political influence was not as good as Li Hongzhang's, but his military influence was very strong.