Zeng Guofan (
曾国藩) built the army in 1853 out of Hunan's local militias (
团练), because the regular Qing troops kept losing to the Taiping. Officers recruited their own men, often from the same villages, so soldiers were loyal to their commanders rather than to the court. It took the Taiping capital Nanjing in 1864, and Li Hongzhang's
淮军 (Huai Army) was modelled on it.