Since ancient times, the army has been the foundation of the country's existence, and the military system is the decisive factor affecting the strength of the army. In "Lü's Spring and Autumn Festival", "establish it with a military system, and then it can be", reflecting the importance of the military system. However, the military system of China's dynasties has been very different, each dynasty has its own characteristics, and there are advantages and disadvantages between different dynasties.
The most primitive military system in China was the system of combining soldiers and farmers, that is, the combination of soldiers and farmers, which was born before the Western Zhou Dynasty and continued in the Spring and Autumn Period thereafter. The unity of soldiers and farmers in the Spring and Autumn Period was different from the militia of later dynasties, they were real "peasant soldiers", even the weapons were used in agricultural weapons, and the real weapons were hidden in the public house, and they were awarded to the formal army when they were in war. It is recorded in the "Liutao Longtao Agricultural Instruments": "Those who are reels, their horses and tribuluses; those who are oxcarts, their camps are also covered; the tools of the hoe, their spears are also; the ones who are stalks, the armor and shields; the hammers, the hammers, the axes, saws, pestles, mortars, and their siege instruments are also... Therefore, the use of military equipment lies in personnel affairs. Those who are good for the country are taken from personnel. ”
By the Warring States period, with the expansion of the scale of war, some princely states had a military system for all. During the Spring and Autumn Period, most of the princely states used only tens of thousands of troops, and the number of troops invested in a campaign usually did not exceed 100,000, but after the Warring States, in order to annex other countries, all countries used their armies to expand their armies, Qin and Chu all brought millions of troops, and other princely states also had hundreds of thousands of troops. However, this kind of military system of all soldiers was born in a special period, it is extremely heavy on the country and the people, can only continue to fight with war, once defeated in large-scale battles, the country will often collapse. In the Battle of Changping, Zhao Guo was killed by more than 400,000 soldiers, and his vitality was seriously injured, and he was no longer able to compete with the Qin State for hegemony, which was the drawback of the all-people military system.
Both the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty mainly adopted the conscription system, that is, conscription of conscripts. The Han Dynasty basically established a compulsory soldier system, but the demobilization system was very incomplete, many veterans were already white-haired but difficult to demobilize, and there was a phenomenon of "fifteen conscription from the army, eighty return" as stated in the Han LeFu. The conscription system can be said to be the most important military system in ancient China, especially in the event of large-scale wars, the country usually adopts the conscription system and conscripts a large number of soldiers. The mobilization ability of this kind of military system is very strong, but the drawbacks are also obvious, once the ruler is exhausted, it is easy to cause the phenomenon of all the people being soldiers, which greatly increases the burden on the people. Especially in the chaotic world, warlords will frantically grab strong men to replenish their troops in order to expand their armaments, sometimes even teenagers and old men.
The mainstream of the Han Dynasty was the conscription system, but under the conscription system, the specific military system adopted by each emperor was different. For example, during the period of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty repeatedly used troops abroad, in order to reduce the burden of the people and alleviate social contradictions, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty adopted a conscription system and a who hair system. The so-called conscription system is the mercenary system, which was carried forward in the Song Dynasty, and the who hair system refers to the use of sinners as soldiers. In fact, Emperor Wu of Han was not the first to adopt the who hair system, as early as the last year of the Qin Dynasty, the general Zhang Handan adopted the who hair system, using Lishan prisoners as an army to suppress the rebel army.
After the Han Dynasty, due to the establishment of a large number of political power by ethnic minorities, the estrangement between ethnic groups made the rulers dare not arbitrarily use non-ethnic people as troops, thus giving birth to the military household system. The so-called military household system means that the military registration is separated from the civilian registration, and the families included in the military household registration must be sent to serve as soldiers for generations, while the civilian households only pay rent and taxation, do not have to perform military service, and cannot join the army. The advantage of this system is that it can produce in peacetime and fight wars in wartime, which not only reduces the burden on the peasants and avoids hindering agricultural production, but also saves the state's military expenditure. However, the military household system also has two obvious shortcomings, one is that armaments are easy to be abolished, and once the country has no war for a long time, the army will lose its combat effectiveness; second, under the military household system, the army has been controlled by the military household for a long time, and the nobles in the military household can control the army, which is easy to cause the division of the clan. The Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty and the long-term chaos of division after it were the embodiment of the shortcomings of the military household system.
By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, the rulers adopted a conscription system to prevent the situation of feudal towns from being divided again. The recruitment system of the Song Dynasty played an important role in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on the one hand, it provided a better source of soldiers for the Northern Song Dynasty, on the other hand, it limited the military power of the generals and prevented the situation of the division of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms from happening again. However, after Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the shortcomings of the song dynasty's conscription system were prominently highlighted. During the disaster year, the Northern Song government, in order to prevent the people from rebelling, expanded its armaments and recruited a large number of victims as soldiers. However, the soldiers recruited by the Northern Song government were either old, weak, sick and disabled, or rogues, who were lax in training, unorganized and undisciplined, had poor combat effectiveness, and had a very heavy financial burden on the Northern Song Dynasty. This led the Northern Song Dynasty to spend a lot of financial expenditure to support the army, but this army was extremely ineffective in combat effectiveness, and it lost more than it won in the face of Liao, Jin, and Yuan, and eventually perished. On the whole, the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty was the most failed.
As for the military system of the Yuan Dynasty, the military household system was the mainstay. Armies from the Mongol tribes are called mongol armies, and from other tribes are called the Tanma Red Army. The Army of the Yuan Dynasty was basically aimed at suppressing the Han and Nan, who were stationed in prosperous cities, and their salaries were completely dependent on the cruel exploitation of the people, which led to the corruption of the Yuan Army very quickly, especially the upper officers, who completely lost their combat effectiveness. The Ming Dynasty adopted the Weishou system, which was roughly the same as the military household system, and the military household was still hereditary.
In the first and middle periods of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banner Army and the Green Battalion were the main soldiers. Generally speaking, when there was a war in the first and middle period of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banner Army was mainly used for external expeditions, and the Green Battalion was used to suppress internal unrest. At the time of the San Francisco Rebellion, the Eight Banner Army's combat strength had declined, and during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Green Camp Army was also useless, and the Qing government could only rely on the troops formed by local regiments, such as the Xiang Army and the Huai Army.
For the Army of the Qing Dynasty, many people did not have a good feeling, especially in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the Qing Army was unsightly, resulting in China being invaded by great powers and losing power and humiliating the country. However, objectively speaking, from the overall history of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty's conscription system was the most successful. The qing dynasty's conscription system made ordinary people basically no burden of military service, ensuring agricultural production and promoting economic development.
Of course, the shortcomings of the conscription system itself were still not eliminated in the Qing Dynasty, and the phenomenon of poor combat effectiveness of the army, rampant soldiers, and soldiers eating empty salaries appeared one after another, which eventually led to the poor combat effectiveness of the army.
Resources:
"Lü's Spring and Autumn Festival Funeral"
"Liutao Longtao Agricultural Tools"