Tuanlian History
Tuanlian (團練) is the Chinese term for localised militia which begun in the Zhou Dynasty, offered self-defense for the civilians. In May 1645, Ming rebel leader Li Zicheng (Chinese:李自成) was killed by tuanlian of local land owners in Hubei province.
In Qing Jiaqing Emperor reign, the corrupted Eight Banners and Green Standard Army were incapable of curbing the White Lotus Rebellion, Qing court began to order the local gentry and land owners of all the ten provinces to organize Tuanlian for self-defense, both the funding and control were in the hands of local gentry and land owners.
Read more about this topic: Yong Ying
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)