The army is the necessary guarantee for the stable rule of the ruling class of the country, and only with a strong army and national defense force can the people be given a full sense of security and effectively safeguard the dignity and sovereignty of the country. The reason why the United States can dominate the world, in addition to its strong scientific and technological strength, the main reason is also due to its powerful military system.
Looking at all countries in the world, all countries that have some status and reputation in the eyes of the people have good intentions in national defense and military. A strong and warlike army can not only defend the country at a critical moment, but also play a certain deterrent effect on countries that deliberately seek fault, so that even if they are very unaccustomed to each other, they do not dare to act rashly.
Affected by the decadent and backward concept of the feudal dynasty, Chinese society is moving toward poverty and weakness, and its military strength is becoming weaker and weaker, and when the armies of Western countries are increasingly using modern weapons, the iron horse of the Qing government was once useless.
Late Fresh Army
However, in the late Qing Dynasty, there was also a modernized army with strict selection and training and strong troops.
With the Western long guns and short guns approaching day by day, in order to save the dynastic status of the western mountains, the Qing government finally made up its mind to rectify the army, learn from the Western military system, use Western military training technology, and build a regular army with strong combat effectiveness. Thus the powerful Late Fresh Army was born.
The organization of the late Qing Army was the result of the disastrous defeat of the Qing government in the Sino-Japanese War.
In 1894, Japanese imperialism launched a war of aggression against China and Korea, and due to the large disparity in military strength between China and Japan, the Qing Dynasty army failed miserably without suspense in the case of a hasty battle, the Beiyang Navy was completely destroyed, and China and Japan were forced to sign the "Maguan Treaty" that humiliated the country.
Considering that its army had serious deficiencies and collapsed in one hit, the Qing government began to purchase foreign guns and artillery, and carried out a series of military training and reforms following the Western military system. Because the army adopts new training equipment and methods, it is also called the new army.
The late Qingxin Army had strict regulations on both the establishment of the army and the selection of officers and men, and the town was the basic organizational unit of the team, with a total of 12,512 officers and men in each town, including infantry, horsemen, artillery, engineers, heavy soldiers, and other branches of the army.
Initially, the new army was organized by Li Hongzhang, who ordered Yan Yun to make Hu Yantang responsible for training, and later the leadership was in the hands of Yuan Shikai, who used this force to successfully become the leader of the Beiyang warlords and became an indispensable condition for him to seize power and become emperor.
In addition to the Beiyang New Army led by Yuan Shikai, represented by the north, the most famous is the Hubei New Army formed by Zhang Zhidong in the south. In the later period, the Hubei New Army was mainly controlled by Zhang Zhidong's confidants Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong.
Most of the officers of the New Army are international students studying in the military and graduates of various armed training schools, and there are martial arts halls in the army where officers are trained in rotation, and soldiers can learn German in the army, study in Germany after graduation, and of course, they can choose to stay in school to teach.
"The image of the soldier is water, the shape of water, avoiding heights and falling; the shape of the soldier, avoiding reality and attacking the void; water is controlled by the ground, and the soldier is victorious by the enemy." Therefore, the soldier is impermanent, the water is impermanent, and the one who can win due to the change of the enemy is called a god. ”
This is an overview of the combat strategy for using troops in sun tzu's Art of War, which means that the water flows to a low place, and the operation should also avoid the real and the virtual, and adjust the combat plan according to the changes of the enemy. And there is no fixed method for combat, and if it can be won according to the enemy's virtual and real changes, it is called using soldiers like gods.
Through this passage, we can see that the use of soldiers to fight wars requires judging the hour and sizing up the situation and adapting to changes, and the ability to calmly dispatch the army is not only the leader, but also related to the learning and quality of the soldiers themselves.
In this regard, when the Qing government selected and recruited soldiers throughout the country, it paid special attention to their own physical and cultural qualities.
Recruitment requirements
As the first army to adopt modernization measures, due to the lack of certain reference standards, the Late Qing Army can be described as extremely strict in recruiting soldiers.
First of all, in terms of height and age, taking into account the difference between the north and the south, the height of the northerners is required to be no less than 1.6m, the height of the southerners is not less than 1.53m, the northern troops of Yuan Shikai are required to be between 20-25 years old, and the southern troops of Zhang Zhidong are required to be between 16 and 20 years old.
Secondly, because the Forces nouvelles have training sites and institutions throughout the country, when recruiting soldiers, the province must recruit young people with lofty ideals in the province and must not recruit across provinces.
Finally, the most stringent thing is that the enthusiastic young people who aspire to join the army need to lift more than 100 pounds of weight in the weight-bearing conditions, and the so-called flat lifting of 100 pounds is different from today's weightlifting, which is said to be the weight that can be carried by the forward extension of the hands.
If you take the way of grasping, lifting, and carrying, it may be easy for many people to weigh 100 pounds, but the unique flat lift test is believed to be difficult for many people.
In addition, there is a restriction on vision in the recruitment rules, that is, the recruiter needs to see the recruiter's five-finger gesture at a distance of 200 steps, otherwise he will not be admitted.
In addition to these necessary internal conditions, it is also necessary to examine the external conditions such as the applicant's family situation and whether there is a bad record of personal behavior, and it is necessary to jointly sign a guarantee statement by the patriarch, the village chief and the local government before it can be given a qualified acceptance.
Moreover, in Zhangzhidong's Hubei New Army, there are also regulations on the level of education, requiring that "people who can really read and write, and those who are illiterate cannot be indiscriminately counted."
Although these conditions were based on the social reality at that time to formulate rules that were in line with the overall quality of people at that time, some of them were still difficult for the recruits of that year, and even if they were placed in today's conscription physical examination, it is estimated that very few can be done.
Contrast this evening
Nowadays, more and more patriotic young people with military dreams want to enlist in the army and go through some training, on the one hand, they can increase the mobility of the troops, thereby enhancing the military strength of our country, improving the feelings and awareness of the whole nation to defend the country, on the other hand, they can fully train themselves and enhance the quality of personal willpower.
Indeed, it is a rare and good thing for contemporary youth to realize their own value by joining the military. But whether you can successfully admit it depends on personal creation and luck.
As the times continue to move forward, so do the requirements for conscription. For example, the recruitment of young men has been raised from the original Chinese to the high Chinese, and there are specific and strict regulations on height, age, weight, vision, political background and so on.
As the originator of China's modern army construction, although there are many deficiencies and defects in the implementation of planning, if the standard is placed now, many young people may not meet the requirements, but the meticulous recruitment standard has made great contributions to the development of Chinese society.
The late Qing government formed this army to expand military supplies and consolidate its rule. Unexpectedly, after the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary struggles such as the Wuchang Shouyi and the Xinhai Revolution, it became the main force to overthrow the Qing government.
Looking at the course of China's military growth, whether it is the ancient feudal period or the modern socialist period, it is necessary to strive for excellence and strive for excellence. Only through meticulous craftsmanship and thousands of hammers and hammers can we achieve an indestructible and strong army.