History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
After experiencing these chaos in the Boxers, the Qing Dynasty finally realized that the Eight Banner Army they had been relying on had rotted home, continued to rely on these armies, and had no way to protect their country, and the previous foreign affairs movement did not completely change the decline of the country, but only slightly eased the contradictions, and the change to the army was not very large.
In the midst of internal and external troubles, the Qing Dynasty had to delegate power to Yuan Shikai and let him go to Xiaozhan to train the new army, and it was this decision that directly changed the history of China. These armies trained by Yuan Shikai were also one of the most capable armies in China at that time, and the army was integrated into some Western institutional ideas, and they were collectively called the Beiyang Army by later generations.
It was by relying on the Beiyang Army in his hand that Yuan Shikai took the lead in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty rule, he did not expect that he would not live long, and after his death, the Beiyang Army completely collapsed and divided into different factions. People like Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui all formed gangs for their own interests, which formed different factional warlords of the Beiyang Army, and under their influence, some self-reliant warlords began to appear in many parts of China, these warlords did not completely abandon the ideas of the old era, they also accepted some new ideas, and they began to dominate China's political arena. China has also entered a long-term warlord melee, so many warlords want to compete for some important positions in the government in order to expand their territory.
However, among the positions that these warlords are vying for, the division commander is the most popular, whether it is a newly rising warlord or a warlord who has become famous, they all cling to the position of division commander, why is this?
The division commander is not the highest military leader, there are many high-ranking officials on it, but in the Beiyang Army, the division commander is the highest rank, and if he can get the position of division commander, he can already become a warlord. People like Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu first firmly grasped the position of division commander and built their own core units, and then gradually expanded their own forces.
The Beiyang Army and the modern army still have some particularities, after Yuan Shikai's death, the Beiyang Army has been privatized, these division commanders at the bottom have actual power, they are subject to very small restrictions, the army is equal to their private workers. These division commanders were also very promising to become warlord leaders, in the system at that time, the division commander's Feng Lu was also the highest, the number of soldiers in a division was very large, and the salaries that could be obtained were also very high, in the chaotic world, there were guns and money that was the boss, and everyone knew in their hearts that people like Duan Qirui were not able to do it in the later stages?
This has a lot to do with their separation from the army, these people know very well that the army is the foundation, only by firmly grasping the army in their hands, they can find a way to continue to maintain their rule, so these people will also serve as the division commander of a backbone division when they serve as various overseers, and the division commander is the official position that directly controls the army. When Wu Peifu rose, he was only a small division commander, but his influence had made many big people in his immediate family pay attention to him, but once their core army was wiped out or they gradually alienated the troops in order to enter the political arena, then they had no real power.
Many warlords have lost power in their later years, and people like Zhang Zuolin, who can control the power of the army until death, are a minority. He is very successful in the protection and construction of his backbone divisions, in the final analysis, these warlords are still relatively backward in the system, when they first developed, they borrowed from the Western military system, but After all, China's traditional concept is still somewhat different, many soldiers, they do not know how to reform the system, make their power more stable, they just blindly compete for power, when they get some virtual positions, they also lose the foundation of their own starting.
Of course, these warlords are not very strong in their control over the bottom, the faction of the Beiyang warlords is too complicated, the internal struggle is very fierce, do not know when a new figure will appear, just look at these warlords holding the position of division commander, you can see that they do not have much confidence in their own control, it is this backward system, coupled with the ignorant thinking of these warlords, so that they eventually become history, these people are doomed to have no way to gain the world, until death can only be a warlord.
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