Wuwei Troop Wuwei Troop ( ) or " The Guards Army " was the first modern army of the Qing Dynasty consisted of infantry , cavalry and artillery , formed on May or June 1899 and trained by western military advisers , responsible for security of Peking City and the Forbidden City , with Ronglu as the supreme commander . This military unit is the first attempt by the Imperial Court to create a formidable western style army , equipped with modern weaponry instead of swords and arrows , after China ' s defeat in the First Sino - Japanese War . The Wuwei Troop was dismantled after two years . Since Empress Dowager had retained power at the Imperial Court with Guangxu Emperor under house arrest , with Ronglu being in charge of the Grand Council and the Board of War ( ) , a 90 , 000 man army was formed , consisted of various armies under Nie Shicheng , Song Qing , Dong Fuxiang and Yuan Shikai . Five Divisions of the Wuwei . The " Wuwei " Troop ( aka The Guards Army ) consisted of five " divisions " ( in some treatises given as " regiments " ) , Left , Right , Front , Rear , and Center Of these , " by far the strongest " was Yuan Shikai ' s Right Division , which was merely a rebranding of his Newly Created Army ( " Xinjian Lujun " ) of 1895 , while Nie Shicheng ' s Front Division , trained by German military advisers , ranked as second best . These two divisions enjoyed the advantage of a modernized infantry military system and training , while the other three divisions still employed the old traditional Manchu Banners Army system . And the training emerged as differences in the prowess of the divisions , even though the entire Guards Army was equipped with modern weaponry . Nie Shicheng ' s troops that became the Front Division was until then known as the " Tenacious Army " ( " Wuyi jun " ) , and Song Qing ' s troops that formed the Left Division also bore the similar name of the " Resolute Army " ( 毅軍 " Yi jun " ) . These armies were similarly armed with Mauser rifle s and Maxim machine gun s . Dong Fuxiang ( ) led an army of Muslim warriors , dubbed " the 10 , 000 Islamic rabble " by the West at the time . In China Dong ' s troops were familiarly known as the " Gan army " ( 甘軍 ) which represented the monogram of Gansu Province which many of these soldiers called homeland . " Gan army " is the literal translation , but English sources usually prefer to call them by the more poetical paraphrased name " Kansu Braves " . Ronglu ( ) was by edict given nominal command of the entire " Wuwei jun " ( Guards Army ) , and was initially appointed to incorporate the four sets of troops within the fold of the new " Wuwei " army corps . Ronglu later added the Centre Division for himself to command , and this was composed mostly of Manchu bannermen . Boxer Uprising . During the war at Eight Nation Alliance , the Front Division , Rear Division and the Center Division suffered heavy casualties and was disbanded after the signing of the Boxer Protocol . The Right Division and the Left Division were stationed in Shangdong to suppress Boxers ( the " Yihetuan " rebels ) , they remained intact as there was no engagements with the foreign powers troops . In the conflict , from March 1899 onwards , ( ) and ( ) were named co - commanders alongside Song Qing at the head of the Left Division .