The army is the military foundation of the country, but also a manifestation of a country's national strength, so all countries in the world spare no effort to train the army, even after World War II, although Japan was forced not to allow the formation of the army, but Japan still took advantage of the loopholes in the treaty to form a self-defense force based on national defense.
Most of the self-defense forces established in 1954 are pieced together by former veterans, although they are patchwork, they still have strong combat effectiveness, and Japan's hundreds of thousands of troops can be reorganized, so where have millions of Qing troops gone?
The Qing army was the Eight Banners of Manchuria gradually established by Nurhaci from 1601 (the 29th year of the Ming Dynasty), and the first four banners were the Positive Yellow Banner, the Positive Blue Banner, the Positive White Flag, and the Positive Red Flag, and in 1615 another four banners were added: the Yellow Flag, the Blue Flag, the Red Flag and the White Flag.
In 1618, Nurhaci with the "seven great hatreds" to swing the division to seek the Ming, in the Battle of Salhu, 30,000 eight banners defeated the 14 Ming army, the power of the eight banners of the grassland, but also gradually started, after the death of Nurhaci, the emperor Taiji continued to conquer the Ming, in order to restrain the power of the full eight banners, the emperor Taiji launched the Han Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners.
The three Eight Banners Army, which was also the main reliance of the Qing Dynasty, due to the hereditary system in Manchuria, the heirs of the Eight Banner Army were knighted, and they could not leave the fiefdom, plus the Qing government had monthly subsidies for the children of the Eight Banners, and these Descendants of the Eight Banners began to become idle, eating, drinking and having fun every day.
Until the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing army was defeated again and again, local officials finally realized the importance of military training, so they rose up regimental training, in 1852 Zeng Guofan served as the regimental training minister in Hunan, he created an unstoppable Xiang army, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also swept away by the Xiang Army, there was a saying at that time: The Great Qing can not be without Xiang for a day.
However, with the invasion of Western powers, the Qing court could not rely on a Xiang army, under the rise of the foreign affairs movement, in order to revitalize the Eight Banners, the Qing court improved the Shenji battalion equipped with Western weapons, this Shenji battalion under many modifications and training, reached 400,000 people, plus the expansion of the navy and army, the strength of up to millions.
However, these 1 million troops, on the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, only 600,000 combatants, 175,000 troops barely counted as a regular army, the Qing court's reform did not have a great expected effect, the main reason is still financial difficulties, coupled with the conservatives do not support the reform, want to build a pure modern army is difficult to add.
These 1 million people are also different in equipment and quality, the Beiyang Army directly under the command is loyal to the emperor, while the new army in the south is relatively inclined to revolution, but the troops restored by Zhang Xun in 1917 are also the new army, which can also show that the Eight Banner Army is not unified, and the warlords are in power.
Millions of Eight Banner Army were also divided into major warlords in the reforms, but there was a special Qing army that remained until 1993, which was the Qing army stationed in the Kowloon City Walled City, which used to be the office of Qing officials, equivalent to the current consulate.
Although due to some problems of the less equal treaty, the walled city retained the most primitive robustness, and the walled city due to various problems, the colonial government did not have the right to enter, at that time the walled city became a "three disregard" land, until 1993, the wall was demolished, the Qing Dynasty army stationed here, finally disbanded.