History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
Xiaobian originally wanted to talk to you about the trivialities of the life of ancient soldiers. Helplessly, I have a history of more than 5,000 years, the ancient word, the scope is too large, so the small editor will focus on the Qing Dynasty. It is hoped that through this one point, some special talents of ancient soldiers will be discovered.
There are many classifications of soldiers in the Qing Dynasty, the most basic, what are the full eight flags, han eight flags, and Mongolian eight flags, it is really silly and unclear. Let's start with the eight flags. In 1644, Dorgon led 120,000 Eight Banner disciples into the customs, announcing the arrival of the Manchu Qing Era. According to historical records, Wu Sangui had a bodyguard named Li Yongjian, who surrendered to Dolgun with Wu Sangui and became the chief soldier in the Shunzhi Dynasty.
He wrote an article (yes, you read that right, sometimes soldiers are brilliant!). Details of Dorgon's entry into the customs. According to him, of the 120,000 people, less than 70,000 are full of eight flags. Before entering Shanhaiguan, these people were said to have been tossing and turning on horseback for nearly a month. Therefore, although they all look like they are flaunting, in fact, it is difficult to hide their tiredness between their eyebrows. And among these people, they all stayed at Shanhaiguan that night.
According to him, Wu Sangui prepared a large amount of food and wine for these soldiers. The men reveled all night. However, due to Dorgon's death orders, there were no women in the barracks, and soldiers were not allowed to leave the barracks casually. So this night, it was just a carnival of men. But according to historical records, the children of the Eight Banners will also think of their wives (everyone will think), at this time, they will often take out letters, or jade pendants and other things, while stroking, while beginning to reminisce.
Yes, this is one of the ways that the Manchu soldiers solved the problem of wanting to think of their wives, called seeing things and thinking about people. So why is the emphasis on the Full Eight Flags here? Because there is no record in the Book of The Eight Banners of Mongolia, we are not convenient to talk about it, but the soldiers of the Eight Banners of Han have other methods. According to historical records, they would occasionally sing a song, and some even wrote poems and articles. Yes, the early Manchu Soldiers, especially the Han Eight Banners, their cultural level is still not low. This is related to the fact that our Han people have always attached great importance to education. Therefore, Han Baqi's method of missing his wife is also more elegant and romantic.
In addition, we often see in some history books that there are military prostitutes, or that sometimes the generals will bring concubines to the barracks. Folks, this is actually not a very common situation. Yes, like during the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once implemented the system of military prostitutes in military camps. The Qing Dynasty also often had a punishment of selling the daughters of people who had made mistakes to Phi Jia as slaves. Yes, there are all of these, but they are not many, and they are often privately resisted by the generals below.
There are two reasons, first of all, soldiers going out is a big deal, the victory or defeat of the war may be related to the survival of the country, if these soldiers are often mixed among officials and prostitutes, how to fight? Secondly, there were many people in the barracks, and the matter was heavy. As soon as there are many officials, prostitutes, and family members, it is inevitable that the enemy spies will be given an opportunity to take advantage of. Therefore, many times, although there are official prostitutes in the barracks, the soldiers do not like it, and the generals will deliberately reduce their number, and even forbid the existence of official prostitutes.