Tie Liang

Also known as Zi Baochen

Tieliang, of the Murca clan, courtesy name Baochen, belonged to the Manchu Bordered White Banner and rose under Ronglu's patronage. When the Army Training Bureau was founded in 1903 he became one of its directors, observed army manoeuvres in Japan, and on his return was made minister of revenue; he then toured the lower Yangzi provinces, drawing their military and financial resources under central control. He joined the Grand Council in 1905, and in the reorganisation of ministries the next year he became the first minister of the new Army Ministry, which for a time took direct command of the Beiyang divisions. In 1910 he was posted to Nanjing as Manchu general, and when the 1911 revolution came he held the city with Zhang Xun until it fell. Before the abdication he and Liangbi organised a society to preserve the monarchy, known as the Imperial Clan Party; he later lived in Tianjin and died in 1938.