Throughout thousands of years of feudal history, almost all the Central Plains ethnic groups dominate, whether in the ancient society or the feudal era, although ethnic minorities have not been absent, but always just a hurried visitor, there is a history of the great unification of ethnic minority dynasties only the Yuan Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty and other minorities, the same nomadic people into the Central Plains, Manchu Qing and Mongolian Yuan have been compared, why the Qing Dynasty ruled for a longer time, and even created the last prosperous situation, what is the reason?
Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the ethnic issues of the Qing Dynasty were more peaceful, and the reign time of nearly three hundred years since entering the Guanguan was even longer than that of some Han dynasties, as the Manchus must have differences in the culture of the Central Plains, how did the Manchus govern?
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, it fell into a miserable situation of internal and external troubles, the external Manchu Qing was looking at the tiger, and could break through the barrier of Shanhaiguan at any time into the hinterland of the Central Plains, the internal class contradictions were sharp, the successive years of war made the people bitter and unwilling, and many people rose up one after another, at this time many people pinned their expectations for changing reality on the Manchu Qing outside the Guan.
When the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the Eight Banners army was only 200,000, although the Ming Dynasty was defeated, but the strength of the army was still stable, is it difficult to rely on more than 200,000 to suppress thousands of Central Plains people? Moreover, under the premise that Daming's troops had at least a million elite soldiers at that time, how did they achieve the victory of less? However, the fact is that after the Manchu Qing entered the customs, there was almost no decent resistance, and soon established a stable regime, and promulgated a series of policies conducive to maintaining unity, ordering peaceful coexistence with the Han and Mongols.
These things are not uncommon, so historians have been looking for the real reason, what made the Qing army quickly establish a political power. And those generals of the Ming Dynasty, some of whom led 800,000 troops to directly surrender to the Qing, why did the Manchu Qing have such a strong deterrent?
Historians have not been conclusive on this issue, in the view of Chinese scholars, in fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty has been slowly assimilated by the Han people, so the Manchu Qing Dynasty has long been aware of the living habits of the Han people, and the reason why it was able to rule the Central Plains for hundreds of years is because the Manchu Qing learned to rule in the way of the Han people, and from the perspective of the political system, it basically continued the governance means implemented by the Ming Dynasty for a long time.
Of course, some scholars believe that although the Qing Dynasty followed the rule of the previous dynasties, it also highlighted the national characteristics, such as the Manchu Qing's original eight flags system, the eight flags system is the basis for the survival of the Qing Dynasty, is the Manchu Qing from a nomadic people to establish a dynasty of political guarantees, for the eight flags system, the Manchu rulers of all dynasties have regarded it as the fundamental, is a powerful weapon to maintain political rule.
The Eight Flags system accompanied the rise and fall of the Manchu Qing for hundreds of years, this kind of bottom line made the Manchu Qing always maintain an attitude, did not let the Manchu Qing completely Sinicize into the Han nationality, but the development of the eight flags in the later period became a stumbling block restricting the development of the country, and eventually dragged down the country, many people think that this important political system should be vigorously developed, but there is no large number of pages in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
In the forty-fourth year of the Wanli Calendar, the Jin Kingdom outside Guanwai quietly rose, and by the time the Ming Dynasty woke up, the Jin Kingdom had developed into a powerful force, and in 1644 Dolgun led the Eight Banners Army into Beijing, during which less than thirty years had passed, that is, in these thirty years, the Manchus had leapt from a hunter-gatherer nomad to a large population and rich property of the imperial rulers, which was a pioneering achievement that the rest of the ethnic minorities had not been able to complete for hundreds of years. The Manchu Qing can be called a model of nomadic people.
For the history of the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty, many people attribute this success to the brave and good cavalry, it is true that the Manchu cavalry troops are very strong, but there is another question, so many nomadic people outside the Guanwai, many have strong cavalry troops, why only the Manchu Qing can complete such a feat?
There is no shortage of talented leaders, in addition to the characteristics of the Manchu Qing people, the ancestors of the Manchu Qing can be traced back to the Jurchen people of the Jin Dynasty, since then there has been a "Meng'an Mouke" decision-making, and the development of the late period is to create the eight flags system.
Another outstanding feature is that the Eight Banners Army has always been self-prepared weapons, solved the battle mobilization time, accelerated the speed of marching, after the Emperor Taiji took over the political power, and then on the basis of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Han and Mongols were incorporated into the Eight Banners, and the Han Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners were established, giving full play to the combat characteristics of each nation and ensuring the victory of the war.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the eight banners were full of devastation, but the Eight Banners soldiers were all alive and well, and they almost did not encounter decent resistance before breaking into Beijing, and looking at the entire Central Plains, the Eight Banners Army was undoubtedly the most powerful group in combat effectiveness.
As a foreign nation, what the Manchus wanted to take over at this time was a chaotic situation, after all, the people here were still mainly Han Chinese, and in order to adapt to the development of the new environment, the Manchus began to reform the Eight Banners Detachment.
At first, in order to meet the needs of the war, the soldiers needed to cultivate in their leisure time to meet the needs of the troops, but there were not many land resources, not to mention that the soldiers had to deal with the war at any time, and there was no extra time to cultivate, but at this time it was different, the general trend of the world had been determined, and the Manchu Qing upper level stipulated that all the soldiers of the Eight Banner Army would be converted into professional soldiers, and the imperial court would issue grain and pay, and there was no need to cultivate anymore.
Since then, the guard unit has been created according to the needs, and the frontier fortresses are guarded by eight flag soldiers, while the army that maintains the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is the "green camp", and the way the eight banners govern the green camp and the green camp governs the people, step by step, has achieved remarkable results.
The soldiers in charge of the garrison generally do not participate in civilian activities, if they encounter an emergency, they are also sent out by the Green Battalion, and the garrison soldiers will only appear in the face of large-scale wars, and one of the biggest advantages of this is to avoid direct contact with the Han people, eliminate potential contradictions, and hide elite troops.
Since the establishment of the Eight Flags system, accompanied by the Qing Dynasty through the ups and downs, is the most important military and political pillar of the Qing Dynasty, at some specific moments, the Manchu Qing Eight Flags Army effectively maintained the unity of the country, ensured the stability of the frontier, made outstanding contributions, but in the later stages of development, the eight flags system limitations are getting bigger and bigger, seriously restricting the development of the army, becoming a playground for the children of the nobility, the combat effectiveness has greatly declined, even less than some scattered soldiers, the deterioration of the Eight Flags system has also indirectly verified the decline of the Qing Dynasty.