In many film and television dramas, the title of marshal often appears. Especially after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, during the more than 10 years of warlord chaos, warlords everywhere were called marshals. Then, in the period of warlord melee, what level of warlord can be called a marshal, and how many troops can a marshal mobilize? Today, we will talk about the origin of the marshal and the management of the army. Seriously speaking, it is not easy to become a marshal, and the army of each marshal ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
First of all, we need to talk about the high-ranking local officials of the Qing Dynasty, because many official positions in the old era gradually evolved from the official positions of the Qing Dynasty. Among the local high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty, there were governors, inspectors, envoys, envoys, admirals, and xuezheng. Among them, the governor was responsible for managing the military affairs, rivers, grain and many other work in two or three provinces, and generally held the title of Shangshu of the Military Department, so he was called the Lord of the Stage or the Lord of the Ministry, and the grade was Congyipin. Inspector Fu is the head of a province, responsible for all aspects of the work of the province, generally concurrently serving as the title of Rebbe Shilang or Du Chayuan Right Capital Imperial History, so he is called The Lord of Zhongcheng or Lord Futai, and the rank is Zheng Erpin or Conger Erpin. The envoy is the second in command of the province, responsible for economic construction, tax collection, civil affairs, personnel appointment and removal, etc., and the grade is congert. Because he managed the province's clan treasury, he was also known as the Lord of the Clan.
Responsible for the judicial, public security, and prison work of the province, as well as the work of the Public Prosecutor's Office, he belonged to the Zhengsanpin official and was known as the Lord of The Taitai. As for xuezheng, it manages the education and examination work of the whole province, please note that xuezheng belongs to the independent office, the governor and the inspector have no right to manage, and xuezheng is called xuetai. The Admiral was the only military attaché among the senior officials.
Lord Admiral belonged to the military attaché of Congyipin, responsible for the military affairs of the province, and the rank was higher than that of Inspector General. However, during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the viceroy had to accept the restraint of the governor and the governor. In the stable situation of the government, the civilian officials were responsible for managing the military attachés. But once the dynasty had problems on all sides, the military attaché was likely to counter the civilian officials. At the end of the Qing dynasty' rule, signs of the dictatorship of military attachés in various places had begun to appear. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, those official positions of the Qing Dynasty were abolished, but the new official positions in various places were basically inherited from the official positions of the Qing Dynasty. After the Beiyang warlord regime came to power, each province set up a governor, such as the governor of Jiangsu, the governor of Shanxi, and so on.
The governor is responsible for managing the military and political affairs of the province and belongs to the well-deserved number one. However, the problem of excessive authority of local governors has emerged, and armed division is prone to occur. Thus, in 1914, the official position of Governor was abolished and split into Governor and Overseer. Among them, the governor is responsible for the administrative affairs of the province, and the overseer is responsible for managing the army of the province. However, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the situation of warlord division became a fact. Warlords in the regions wielded real power, and in many provinces there were instances where overseers were concurrently governors. As for the title of grand marshal, it gradually appeared in the stage of warlord melee.
Note that the grand marshal is not a military rank, but a respectful title, generally referring to the leader of the entire warlord group as the grand marshal. Wanting to become a big handsome is actually not an easy task. The first must have its own independent warlord clique, and itself is the leader of the entire clique. If the second and third leaders are also called big marshals, the first hand must be very unhappy, and even stage the same room exercise. Second, warlords must have sufficient strength and family. If the small warlords who only control a few counties claim to be the grand marshals, then they will definitely be wiped out by the big warlords around them, because this is self-defeating.
Therefore, if you want to become a marshal, you must have your own armed group, and the strength cannot be too bad, and you have the strength to confront the surrounding warlords. During the reign of the Beiyang warlord regime, the great warlords in almost all places were called marshals, such as Wu Dashuai, Zhang Dashuai, Sun Dashuai, and so on. As for the number of troops per marshal, this is completely different. Because the area of the territory controlled by each marshal is different, the economic base situation is also different. If you control a large territory and a strong economy, you will naturally be able to feed more troops. Don't ignore this, warlords can't afford to raise an army abound. The warlords who dominated Henan Province once had more than 100,000 troops.
Because Henan Province was plagued by banditry and flooding, the economic foundation was very weak, and the warlords did not have enough financial resources to feed the army. In the end, only more than 30,000 troops could be cut to alleviate their own financial pressure. Let's look at the military strength of several warlord groups, in the 1920s, the Fengzhi warlord group was strong, and in its heyday, the Fengzhi warlords had nearly 400,000 troops. However, there were several senior marshals among the warlords of the Feng clan, such as old marshals, young marshals, auxiliary marshals, and so on. The warlords of the direct lineage who occupied the Central Plains, with about 300,000 troops, controlled Henan, Hubei, Hunan and other regions.
The rest of the warlords also have at least 100,000 troops, and these warlords can be called marshals, after all, they are equivalent to the princes who occupy one side. If in ancient history, basically all belonged to the degree of moderation to make a level of officials. In addition to the overseers of the provinces, there was a higher-ranking official position, that is, the inspector. According to the regulations, the Overseer can only manage the affairs of 1 province, and the patrol envoy can manage several provinces, such as the patrol envoy of the three eastern provinces, the patrol envoy of the two lakes, the patrol envoy of the two guangzhou provinces, and so on, all of which belong to the powerful super warlords. However, the title of grand marshal belongs to the warlord melee for more than 10 years.
In 1928, the Northern Expedition ended and the rule of the Beiyang warlords collapsed. After this, the title of grand marshal began to gradually withdraw from the stage of history. At the same time, new titles such as appeasement director, provincial chairman, and theater commander began to appear. In the more than 10 years of the rule of the Beiyang warlords, due to the continuous warlord melee, the people suffered unspeakable and the economy was seriously damaged. Although the Northern Expedition eliminated the Beiyang warlord regime, warlords still existed in various regions, such as the southwest and northwest. It was not until the end of the 1940s, after the liberation of the whole country, that the problem of warlords was completely resolved.