The Boxer Rebellion Project, Part 18: Kansu Braves from Crusader Miniatures

Kansu Braves from Crusader Miniatures

Huzzah! My third infantry unit is complete for my Imperial Chinese Field Force for The Men Who Would be Kings. I had earlier completed the Command pack for this unit and now I have finished it with two packs of BKB001 - Kansu Braves with Rifles.

The Gansu Braves or Gansu Army was a combined army division of 10,000 Chinese Muslim troops from the northwestern province of Kansu (Gansu) in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Loyal to the Qing, the Braves were recruited in 1895 to suppress a Muslim revolt in Gansu. Under the command of General Dong Fuxiang (1839–1908), they were transferred to the Beijing metropolitan area in 1898, where they officially became the Rear Division of the Wuwei Corps, a modern army that protected the imperial capital. The Gansu Army included Hui Muslims, Salar Muslims and  Dongxiang Muslims, and Bonan Muslims.

General Dong Fuxiang.

The Braves, who wore traditional uniforms but were armed with modern rifles and artillery, played an important role in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. After helping to repel the Seymour Expedition, a multinational foreign force sent from Tianjin to relieve the Beijing Legation Quarter in early June, the Muslim troops were the fiercest attackers during the siege of the legations from 20 June to 14 August. In addition they played a key role with the Tenacious Army against General Gaselee's Relief Force. They were fierce, if undisciplined and suffered heavy casualties especially at the Battle of Peking. After the Eight-Nation Alliance relieved the siege, the  Kansu Braves guarded the Imperial Court on their journey to Xi'an.

Anonymous Chinese woodblock. Bodies thrown into the sky as Dong Fuxiang's Kansu Braves attack Western and Japanese forces at Tianjin.

For the Eight-Nation Alliance, Tientsin was the bloodiest battle of the Boxer Rebellion. Two hundred and fifty soldiers of the allied armies were killed and about 500 wounded. The Japanese lost 320 killed and wounded; the Russians and Germans 140 killed and wounded; the Americans 25 killed, and 98 wounded; the British, 17 killed and 87 wounded; and the French 13 killed and 50 wounded. Casualties for the Chinese Army and the Boxers are unknown.