ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts an overview of the logistic machines of the Qing armies and their changes from the 1850s to the 1870s. The war fought by the Qing government to survive the flood of rebellions can be well described as a total war. The supply system of the Chinese armies was almost entirely the business of civil officials, although the civil-military distinction of the Qing bureaucracy was often blurred during the era of rebellion, since many of the most famous military leaders originated from the civil bureaucracy or made a civil career. The Jiangnan liangtai supplied the Jiangnan Army Group that had laid siege on Nanjing, which had been occupied by the Taiping since 1853. The Jiangnan liangtai was directly subordinate to the Jiangsu provincial authorities. Moreover, while in Jiangsu a relatively wealthy and loyal population was attacked by external enemy forces of the Taiping, the Gansu rebellion was a civil war between the local Han and Muslim population.
