The Mutual Protection of Southeast China

The Mutual Protection of Southeast China (Chinese: 東南互保) was an agreement made by the governors of the provinces in southern, eastern and central China during the Eight Power Expedition in 1900. The governors, including Li Hongzhang (governor-general of Guangdong, Guangxi), Xu Yingkui (governor-general of Fujian, Zhejiang), Liu Kunyi (governor-general of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi), Zhang Zhidong (governor-general of Hubei, Hunan) and Yuan Shikai (provincial governor of Shandong), refused to carry out the imperial decree promulgated by the Qing government to declare war on 11 foreign nations, with the aim of preserving peace in their own provinces.

Some other Han provincial authorities, such as the governor-general of Sichuan and the provincial governor of Shaanxi, did not formally join the mutual protection agreement, but similarly disobeyed the imperial edict. Thus, for the first time, the vast majority of Han regional authorities refused to aid the Qing court. For much of the conflict, the main forces fighting for the Qing court (alongside the Boxers) were the Manchu Hushenying, the Manchu Peking Field Force, and three out of five divisions of the Qing court's most modernized Wuwei Corps (including its Manchu division and Muslim Gansu division), whereas Yuan Shikai commanded the other two divisions into Shandong and used them to actively suppress the Boxers in open defiance of the Qing court. In Manchuria, large groups of Chinese bandits named Honghuzi also actively fought alongside with Manchu banners, mostly as a response to the separate Russian invasion which committed widespread atrocities.

...
Wikipedia