Early during the Taiping Rebellion, Qing forces suffered a series of disastrous defeats culminating in the loss of the regional capital city of Nanjing in 1853. Shortly thereafter, a Taiping expeditionary force penetrated as far north as the suburbs of Tianjin, the imperial heartlands. In desperation the Qing court ordered a Chinese official, Zeng Guofan, to organize regional and village militias into an emergency army called tuanlian. Zeng Guofan's strategy was to rely on local gentry to raise a new type of military organization from those provinces that the Taiping rebels directly threatened. This new force became known as the <answer>Xiang Army</answer>, named after the Hunan region where it was raised. The <answer>Xiang Army</answer> was a hybrid of local militia and a standing army. It was given professional training, but was paid for out of regional coffers and funds its commanders — mostly members of the Chinese gentry — could muster. The <answer>Xiang Army</answer> and its successor, the Huai Army, created by Zeng Guofan's colleague and mentee Li Hongzhang, were collectively called the "Yong Ying" (Brave Camp).
What was Zeng Guofan?
Xiang Army