 The Braves were sometimes described as mercenaries, with their volunteers receiving as much military training as their commanders saw fit.With no fixed unit organization, it is impossible to know how many battle-ready Braves there actually were in 1894.There were also other, smaller number of military formations, one of which was the Huai Army, which was under the personal authority of the politician, general and diplomat Li Hongzhang and was created originally to suppress the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864).