I believe that when you watch some Qing Palace dramas, you are not unfamiliar with the word "Eight Flags". The "Eight Banners" was really established in 1615, when the Manchu Nurhaci in order to meet the needs of the war, so that the troops become more formal, they divided their troops into yellow, red, blue, white four flags, and later due to the continuous expansion of strength, on the basis of the original four flags, four more flags were added, namely yellow, blue, red and white, and then there were eight flags behind.
They all have their own military flags, all of which are dominated by solid colors. And one word will be extended to it called the Eight Flags. During the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners made a lot of merit for it, so it had privileges and received many rich rewards, so it did not have to worry about the next life, and also let future generations enjoy the glory and wealth, and the days were very happy. But because it had been soaked in the "honeypot" for too long, it gradually became decayed, which was a word that people later often used to describe the disciples of the Eight Banners----------------------------------------
The children of the Eight Flags relied on the merits of their ancestors to live a prosperous and rich life, in fact, they did not make any contributions to the country, only knew how to enjoy, and did not create value. This "stupidity" became a permanent label on them.
There were twelve emperors in the Qing Dynasty, and their lives varied, some enjoying glory and wealth, and some living in great poverty. In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, a large part of the expenditure was used to "support" these Eight Flags disciples, so how much money did it cost to raise an Eight Flags disciple? This is not unknown, a calculation of a shock, let people sigh, the Qing Dynasty can support for so long, has been a miracle.
First of all, we calculate from nurhaci's descendants, as long as the child is born, he will have twenty-four silver, and every month thereafter he will receive five or two silver living expenses, and after marriage, he can also get twenty-two subsidies, and even after his death, he can get a pension of thirty-two, adding these up, they don't have to worry about the second half of their lives, they can eat and drink every day without working, so they can spend their days idle, and they can be happy as they want.
With the growth of the years, the group of eight flags has become more and more large, the number of people has increased sharply, almost 300,000 people, if calculated according to the above amount, then the Qing Dynasty needs to spend nearly one billion taels of silver to support these people. The key is that they will only take money and live happily, and they will not pay any attention to the rise and fall of the country, and the reparations behind the Qing Dynasty will still be looted from the hands of the people.
Later, the Qing Dynasty needed to pay reparations many times, the national treasury had long been in deficit, but it still had to raise these Eight Banners disciples, and they did not know how to control it, still profligate, so they would have such a feeling, the Qing Dynasty could persist for so long, it was also a miracle, and its demise was also deserved, raising a group of parasites, sooner or later it would be empty.