After the downfall of the invincible Eight Banners, did the Manchu government ever think about revival?

Of course, I thought about it and tried it more than once, but they all failed completely. There is a misunderstanding that the Eight Banners Army is not a simple cavalry, but a comprehensive force with a large number of firearms and chariots. The so-called riding and shooting is just another name for military training. Since the Qianlong period, the Qing dynasty has been trying to save the fighting capacity of the Eight Banners army, but the results have been minimal. Generally speaking, the Qing dynasty never grasped the reason why the Eight Banners fell, or knew the reason but could not do it.

The root of the problem-the contradiction between theoretical model and practical development

Accurately speaking, the Eight Banners are not only Nuzhen, but also a large number of Mongolians and Hans. It's a military and political system, not an ethnic group at all. After the Qing dynasty seized the country, it took the Eight Banners as the most important basis to seize the world and fixed this system. But they soon ran into problems. In the past, the income of the Eight Banners Army was a distribution system, and the source was mainly war plunder. Now the world belongs to you. You can't rob it yourself, can you?

So the upper level of the empire came up with a model, in which the state gave money as expenses and the state exchanged land for grain to relieve these people's worries. Banners are prohibited from leaving the city. They just need to train well and go out to kill the enemy when there is a war. The idea is good, but it's funny to implement. In addition to the conflict between the army and the people aroused by horse racing, you also prohibit them from going out of the city to give the land an egg? They can't grow it themselves, so they can only rent it. What is even more exasperating is that they are not allowed to engage in other occupations, either as soldiers, officials or farmers. These are the three paths.

We all know the truth of killing people in war and having children all our lives. The more people who have been under the banner for a long time on weekdays, there will be no large-scale war in the whole country after Junggar is destroyed. With so many troops, it is impossible to expand indefinitely, and these people are not allowed to do anything else. These former professional soldiers began to degenerate rapidly, walking around drinking tea every day, carrying cages and birds.

After a long time, the country can't stand it. How can this money be more than during the war? If this continues, the finances will be unbearable! To tell the truth, the flag bearer was not satisfied at first, because there were lessons in the flag book. Except for the imperial clan and the upper class, most flag books are not enough to maintain a good life. The Qing government is not a fool. It is divided into two parts to send silver to the national flag. For example, silver is often given, but it is rare. A decent income or a bonus for fighting as a soldier. They can't grow hard-core crops themselves, so they have to rent them out to collect some food. When the People's Republic of China was founded, these people were used to living a good life, but they couldn't stand the hard life, so they were not allowed to go to the business country.

Livelihood problem-a thorny problem that troubled the whole dynasty

In fact, since the Yongzheng period, a funny annoyance has been placed in front of the Qing emperor-the Eight Banners livelihood. It stands to reason that a group of people raised by the state can't have a livelihood problem, and there were hardcore crops during Shunzhi period. How can they not starve to death?

But it really happened. In the late Yongzheng period, some flag bearers really couldn't live any longer, and began to pretend to be Han Chinese and sell themselves as slaves. There is a simple reason. The more children there are, the more money the lower-class flag-bearers can't afford. Some people can't catch anything when the hardcore crops go home. The state has not allowed these people to engage in other jobs, and no one dares to use them to do odd jobs in teahouses. Isn't that waiting to starve to death? The funny degree of this incident is roughly equal to that of some royal families in the Ming Dynasty who deliberately committed crimes in order not to starve to death, so as to make a living in Fengyang's royal prison.

In order to solve this problem, the emperors since Yongzheng wanted to break their heads and used various methods, including:

Immigrant: There are too many people. Get out and go back to the northeast! Give you money, seeds and land. However, few people signed up and became accustomed to the prosperity of Beijing. Who wants to return to the wasteland? At first glance, the emperor can't just encourage, but force! Anyway, like Luo Cha's old habit, send the Eight Banners to fill the border! In this way, tens of thousands of eight banners troops were diverted to the northeast, leaving only 65,438+ten thousand banners soldiers in the northeast, which has greatly improved the situation. But for the population growth like the explosion of the Eight Banners, this is a drop in the bucket.

Be an official: run all kinds of official studies, religious studies and Luo studies, and strengthen the education of the Eight Banners, so that you can be an official. In addition to the imperial examination, the standard-bearer can also be an official through special channels such as pen paste, translation Jinshi and escort. Generally speaking, it is a way to use standard bearers to speak Manchu, to be a translator, or to be a good bodyguard. In this way, by the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the standard-bearer had a better educational level, was of little use and had a limited number of officials.

National Flag: As a last resort, reduce the number of flag bearers! Raise some people's flags and let them die. The state no longer restricts their occupation. I didn't mean to provoke ethnic conflicts. Most of them left the flag. During the Yongzheng period, the Han nationality occupied almost seven floors above the flag surface, and fell to more than four floors during the Jiaqing period. This figure also clarifies a problem. In fact, the so-called Eight Banners are mainly Han Chinese, and even the period with the lowest proportion accounts for almost half.

The other three floors are the original Jurchen, the two floors are Mongols, and there are some other ethnic minorities. The Eight Banners of Qing Dynasty is not a national concept. But this trick is still useless, and the low-level flag bearer still has difficulties in making a living. However, those who were laid off really made their own living. When these guys became angry, they joined Tianjin and became anti-thieves. During Jiaqing years, they bombed the Forbidden City several times.

At this point, we can understand the root cause of the decline of the flag bearer's combat effectiveness. The top standard-bearers will never worry about their livelihood, and finally they will never be able to leave training, and finally they will have no training equipment. If you don't change this structure, it's futile for you to divert the standard bearers. The poor still can't afford to practice, the rich still don't want to practice, and the fighting capacity can only get worse and worse.

Frankly speaking, the flag system is not useless, at least it solves one problem, desertion. Few foreign musketeers escaped from the charge of Sanglinqin cavalry, for no other reason. The household registration and the whole family are in the city. Why don't you try one? After spending so much government money, you still want to be a deserter and fight? Isn't it a contract?

The last struggle-the first town of the army

Later, foreigners came in and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to make trouble. The Eight Banners' fucking fighting power is really impossible to face an empire that is on fire from all sides. Xiang Army, Huai Army and other local armed forces began to rise, but a few elite Eight Banners still maintained a sufficient level and remained an important force to defend the capital.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the travel-stained Qing Dynasty carried out military reform and began to train new troops. Referring to the models of Germany and Japan, we reorganized and integrated four arms: infantry, artillery, horses and engineers.

1902 65438+February 6: 3,000 people from the Eight Banners of Jingying Club turned to Yuan Shikai for training, hoping to become a new type of army.

1903 65438+1October 22nd: Tie Liang, the leader of Xiangbaiqi Training Wing, went to Baoding for training.

1904 February 12: once again transferred from the Eight Banners, and the camp was expanded into a cooperative.

65438+May 3 1 0905: The Eight Banners' team was expanded again, and was finally organized as a town (about 1 division).

1906 65438+1October 9: After training, it was called the first town of the army and was stationed in Yangshanwa, Beijing.

1912165438+10 month: It was renamed the First Military Division because of the founding of the Republic of China.

June 1922: Entered Jiangxi and was stationed in Nanchang and Jiujiang.

1April, 925: It was renamed the Third Division of Jiangxi Army. At this time, there were almost no soldiers in the original Eight Banners.

1926: the national revolutionary army attacked Jiangxi, and the whole army of the headquarters was scattered, and the final efforts of the Eight Banners were completely attributed to history.

1928: The Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army was successful, and the Eight Banners Yamen was officially cancelled by the National Government.

1838: Xibo people moved to Xinjiang, and the last eight banners system disappeared, completely ending the 300-year system.