The Times of Monday contains a long and careful account,
of the present state of the Chinese Army. The Black Flag army of Li Hung Chang, the force which the great Chinaman has been working at for the last twenty-five years, and which contains veterans both from Gordon's Army and the Army it conquered, numbers about fifty thousand men. The cavalry is armed with Winchesters, the infantry with Remingtons,. and the artillery consists of Krupp field-pieces. Besides these, there are thirty thousand well-disciplined troops in the New Dominion,—i.e., in Central Asia. Next comes the old Tartar army, divided into the Banner Army and the Army of Man- churia. Both have some military training. The Banner Army numbers some three hundred thousand men, of whom. one hundred thousand are in Pekin, and the rest scattered throughout China,—one hundred and eighty thousand being in Manchuria. Out of the Pekin contingent of the Banner Army a field force of twenty thousand men has been formed on.Li Hung Chang's new model. The numbers of the Army of Manchuria, the second Tartar Army, seem doubtful, but it is believed to be a competent force, and since a division of it is stationed near the Corean frontier it may prove of importance. The net result is that China has about two hundred thousand. men armed with rifles, "all of whom are placed in such a way. as to render it easy to employ them in Corea." Given more arms, says the writer in the Times, China could double this force.
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