What do the "Bing, Yong, Ding, and Pawn" behind the Qing army mean, and what are the differences?

Among the costume dramas, Qing palace dramas are the most popular. In order to create the atmosphere of the TV series, directors usually try to restore the historical background of the Qing Dynasty. I believe everyone has seen such an interesting phenomenon in TV dramas, that is, soldiers wear different clothes. Logically speaking, they are all pawns and belong to the same organization. To facilitate management, it is best to use uniform clothing. However, in Qing palace operas, everyone discovered that the backs of small soldiers are divided into four characters: Bing, Ding, Yong, and Pawn. What do they mean, and what are the differences?

First of all, soldiers and bravery are roughly the same. They can also be regarded as regular troops for fighting. To put it simply, the "soldiers" are equivalent to the regular army. The regular army has an establishment, a service contract, regular training, and special military camps. As for "Yong", it is equivalent to the current temporary workers, that is, if the troops are not enough, they can be recruited randomly among the people and let these people come and join in. Anyone who knows the history of the Qing Dynasty knows that the most powerful people in the early Qing Dynasty were the Eight Banners disciples. However, since they took over the country, the Eight Banners disciples lost their former wildness and lived a luxurious life. In the late Qing Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom both caused difficulties for the Qing army, so the main army of the Qing Dynasty at that time was still the Han army.

Most of the organized troops in the Qing Dynasty were disciples of the Eight Banners. In order to show their identity as regular soldiers, they would put the word "bing" on the back of their uniforms, while the Han people were all temporary workers recruited here. , the trust level is not enough, in order to better distinguish them, so they put the word "brave" on their backs. The treatment of these Han troops is extremely poor. When the country needs you, you come here. When it is not needed, you just go back wherever you came from. The work is also dirty and tiring.

As for the third type, Ding, they are not considered military personnel, but can only be considered logistics personnel. In ancient times, "Ding" was equivalent to a kind of fat job, because they relied on them to control logistics and supply, and they had a lot of money. ?Ding?'s work is relatively diverse. They are responsible for distributing things, delivering messages, managing warehouses, and transporting grain and grass. This kind of soldier is not dangerous, and the treatment is relatively good, so it is also very popular in the Qing Dynasty.

The last one is "pawn". According to everyone's custom, they like to call the soldiers who guard the prison as "pawn". In fact, this was the case in the Qing Dynasty. Those who guarded the prison would wear military uniforms with the word "pawn" on them. This kind of soldier has no technical skills and just manages ordinary people every day. The living conditions were relatively gloomy, but there was plenty of money and money. If the family members of the ancient prisoners on death row wanted to come to visit the prison, they had to give these "soldiers" some greeting gifts, so among the four major arms of the Qing Dynasty, they were the most comfortable. We can often see in movies and TV dramas that jailors like to drink and take naps in prison. There is no other way, life is too boring.

The above are the differences between the four types of soldiers in the Qing army: Bing, Yong, Ding, and Pawn. Generally speaking, Ding and Pawn are the most comfortable. Due to the decline in the later period, the regular army, that is, the disciples of the Eight Banners, were all waiting to die, which led to a great decline in the military strength of the Qing Dynasty. Even in the late Beiyang Fleet, there were soldiers drying their clothes on the ship's cannon. Can An have the gift of being invincible?