Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/21

Rh they became the nucleus of the army of occupation, being particularly necessary to guard the palace, the city of Peking, Chihli, and the northern and northwestern frontiers. Their numbers gradually swelled to more than two hundred thousand, an overwhelming proportion of which were in Manchuria, Turkestan, and Chihli. They inherited their rights to enrollment.

The primary aim of holding firmly the imperial domain of Manchuria and the metropolitan province against attacks from Mongolia and Turkestan was apparent. The Chihli garrisons were so distributed as to form a cordon about the capital, while the large garrisons in the northwestern provinces of Shensi, Kansu, and Shansi were vital outposts. In the other parts of China garrisons were generally placed in the provinces where a viceroy lived, except in the distant Yuunan-Kweichow. Kwangsi, Hunan, Kiangsi, and Anhui, having governors only, were