Why were the Beiyang Army and Fleet such miserable failures?

>>2914326
They belonged to a meme nation. Why would any one of their soldiers feel compelled to fight and die for some jumped up warlord in a fancy costume?

>>2914349
I was referring more to under the Qing than the "Republic" of China.

>>2914326
If your training and leadership are deficient, and your government corrupt and incompetent, then you are going to lose against practically any opponent with some level of organization. The Beiyang Fleet, while impressive on paper, was out-of-date by the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, short of ammunition for training, and simply lacked any effective administrative structure to ensure that it was kept in good order.

File: Officers of the Beiyang.jpg (137KB, 700x349px) Image search: [Google]

137KB, 700x349px

>>2914326
Declining Qing corruption and shit administration leaving them in a lurch and short on damn near everything: discipline, training, and ammo.

Also to be fair, I don't think the army is bad. The navy sure is but the Army barely got their shit together to put a cap on the rebellion's ass. Unfortunately for the Qing, the Beiyang knew that as the largest competent armed force in China, they knew they were the real power brokers. Hence its defection to the republic in 1911-12

>>2915062
Half of the big ships didn't even have guns because the guns were all sold off to pay for bribes and opium.

>having several seperate and mutually competing armies to """"defend"""" your country

what the fuck was Qing's problem?