Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/89

free recourse to the teaching of German tacticians and strategists. Moreover, the reconquest of Yunnan province from Suliman the Panthay in 1871, and that of Turkestan from Yakub Beg in 1874, followed by a creditable stand against the French in Tonquin, were object lessons from which the world drew large deductions. Further, immediately after the conclusion of peace with France a Naval Board was established (1886) in Peking and a fleet was purchased from Europe. The nucleus of the latter was a flotilla of gunboats, broad-beamed, flat-bottomed, and each carrying one heavy gun; an unwieldy style of craft, intended solely for river service and called the "Alphabetical" because they were named after the letters of the Greek alphabet, not, it need scarcely be premised, by the Chinese themselves, but by the builders of the boats. These were quickly supplemented by two line-of-battle ships and by a number of cruisers and smaller craft, all of the best modern types, manned by trained crews and officered by men who had received due naval education and were credited with a full knowledge of their duties. This powerful fleet, known as the "Peiyang Squadron," had the advantage of learning naval manœuvres from a competent British officer, and in 1894 it was pronounced by a British admiral to be an efficient fighting force. Another fleet had been organised in the south—the Nanyang (south-sea squadron)—having its basis at Foochow.