改造八旗与强边未竟:晚清东三省练兵(1885-1895)

Reform of Eight Banners and Incompleteness of Strengthening Frontier Defense:Training Soldiers of the Three Northeastern Provinces(1885-1895) in Late Qing Dynasty

1885-1895年,清廷在东三省挑选八旗制兵和西丹,给以厚饷,装备西式武器,教练西式操法,并先后任命穆图善和定安为钦差大臣开展练兵。甲午战争中,东三省练兵被调往前线御敌,惨败不堪,因之被裁撤。东三省练兵一度成为19世纪60-90年代全国最大规模的练兵活动,其实质是以湘淮勇营制改造八旗的一次尝试。其在军事组织层级、撤补训练、士兵服役期限、军队指挥等军制方面比当时其他省练军有明显进步。东三省练兵对晚清朝廷重塑东北边防体系和平衡内外政治起到了积极作用,大大促进了晚清东三省陆军的近代化。其失败主要是由于官兵腐败、素质低下和军制的因素,这也是其历史局限性之所在。

During the period of 1885-1895, the Qing court nominated successively Mu Tushan and Ding An as imperial envoy to train banner soldiers, who were provided with rich salary, equipped with new weapons and trained in western ways in the three northeastern provinces. In Sino Japanese War of 1894,these training solders went to fight and suffered a crushing defeat, after that they were disbanded by the court. Training soldiers of the three northeastern provinces had been the largest scale of training army in the whole country at that time, and the essence of the military activity was an attempt that reconstructed the Eight Banners army with the system of Yong Ying. The military system of training soldiers of the three northeastern provinces, in organizational levels, replacing training, military command, and so on, was more advanced than training soldiers of other provinces. Training soldiers of these three provinces played a positive role in rebuilding the border defense system of northeast China and balancing the strength between the court and the local governors, and contributed to improving the modernization of the army largely. The failure of this military activity was mainly resulted from the corruption, poor quality of this troop, and problems of military legal system, which were also historical limitations of it.