The Eight Flags system was the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, and the Eight Flags Group consisted of emperors, clan magnates, Manchu and Han Eight Banner Ministers, and officers and soldiers of each banner. The Eight Banners formed a large group of state magnates and became a privileged class that lay down and had food to eat. The Eight Banners became the collective name of the Manchurian nobility, how did these people live? When did you start to fall? It has to start at the beginning.
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How many people are there in the Eight Flags?
How many powerful people did the Qing court provide for "hardcore crops" that did not grow grain? According to the statistics of the number of flag people hidden in the Qing Palace, even at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 5 million flag people. However, historians have calculated by comparing the Qing court's annual grain supply and silver expenditure accounts, and in fact the number of Manchurian magnates was as high as more than 10 million, accounting for 2% of the total population of the country at that time. The ancestors of the Eight Banners laid the foundation for the country, and these people had a "hardcore crop", and it was really not easy to feed these people.
Solving the problem of eating for aristocratic groups is a problem that the rulers of successive dynasties have attached great importance to, from the feudal system that began in the Western Zhou Dynasty to the System of Mengke Mou'an implemented by the Jin Dynasty, from the four-class system of the Yuan Dynasty to the Fanzhen system of the Ming Dynasty, which to a certain extent solved the problem of eating for the noble groups. However, the system of the Jin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty seriously led to the intensification of ethnic and social contradictions, and eventually buried the dynasty.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????? Eight flags
Before the Qing army entered the customs, it seemed that this problem had been thought of. From the time of Nurhaci, a system different from that of gold and yuan was implemented- the system of grace. In Nurhaci's time, the system of favors was mainly plundered through war, and these fertile fields were eventually distributed to the flag bearers in the form of rewards by the emperor, and prisoners of war were assigned to the flag bearers as slaves, which were called "wrapping clothes". Qi Ding thus became a large landlord and slave owner, and the Qing emperor became the largest slave owner.
After the Qing army entered the customs, it laid down the territory of the whole country by force and controlled the economic lifeline of the country, and the Eight Banners Banner Ding and his descendants who had made meritorious contributions to the battle with the emperor at that time gained a special class of various privileges for generations.
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Before 1853, the Qing court had to transport 4 million stones of grain to Beijing every year for the Qi people to eat. In addition, a large number of silks, porcelain, tea and fruits produced in the Jiangnan area were also transported into Beijing in large quantities every year, and most of these goods were looted from the heads of the people of Jiangnan. Because the Qing court firmly controlled the economic lifeline of the country, it did not seem to have a hard time supporting the aristocratic group and its Eight Banners.
In addition to domestic taxes and grain, the Qing court's foreign trade before the Opium War was also developed, earning a large amount of silver every year. According to relevant information, after 1757, the Qing court relied on the "Thirteen Lines of Guangzhou" to export silk, tea, porcelain, etc. to the outside world to earn 2 million taels of silver per year, the revenue of the national treasury was 40 million taels of silver per year, and the highest year was 80 million taels. The huge income from foreign trade supported a huge aristocratic group.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? Qing Dynasty Caoyun
In foreign trade, which occupies a favorable position, a large number of imported goods from overseas enter China. For example, foreign clothing, foreign clocks, foreign rice, foreign toys, etc. are used to eat and wear. During this period, due to smooth trade and China's foreign trade in a dominant position, many regional commercial groups were also born, such as the Jinshang Group and the Huishang Group, which had to pay all kinds of "filial piety" to the flag people stationed in the local area, so the life of the flag people was very rich. It is precisely under this kind of rich life that the flag people began to pursue an exquisite life, the pursuit of eating, drinking, playing well, and everything began to pay attention to, and the flag people gradually became corrupt and degenerate.
After the Opium War in 1840, China's foreign trade gradually became in a passive position, and the outflow of a large amount of silver led to low money and expensive money, in order to feed the Qiren clique, the Qing government had to bear the burden of the peasants at home, and the contradiction between the ruling clique and the people gradually increased. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement began in 1851, the bitter days of the Eight Flags Group came. Under the blows of the Taiping Army, the life of the Flag People gradually fell, and the Taiping Army finally cut off the lifeblood of the Eight Banners.
???????????????????????????????????????????? Opium war
After the Taiping Army captured Nanjing, it continued to expand its forces and conquered a large number of rich lands in jiangnan. Jiangnan is the center of the national economy and the economic lifeblood on which the Eight Banners depend, and conquering Jiangnan is equivalent to cutting off the lifeblood of the Eight Banners. The Taiping Army was extremely hostile to the Eight Banners and formulated and promulgated the policy of slaughtering the Manchus. In every battle in which the Taiping Army invaded Jiangnan, it captured Manchu Qing officials and killed all the Eight Banners. When the Taiping Army besieged Mancheng, men, women and children from 14 to 70 years old were slaughtered, leaving no mouth.
The Taiping Army controlled the supply of rice in the Beijing Division, and the rice in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas was more than 2 million stones, and the grains of rice were not allowed to go north. In the years of war, a large number of people died, a large number of villages were deserted, a large number of fields were uncultivated, and agricultural production was seriously damaged. The originally developed Handicraft Industry in Jiangnan was also doomed, and skilled workers were killed or forced into exile in the war. At that time, the situation that every family in Suzhou and Hangzhou heard the sound of the machine and the households were busy weaving cloth disappeared.
?????????????????????????????????????????? The rich house of the flag people
In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after Li Xiucheng conquered Shanghai, Suzhou and other places, he increased the intensity of foreign trade. Li Xiucheng used Shanghai as a commodity distribution center to collect tea, raw silk and porcelain from 18 provinces in Jiangnan for overseas trade. After the Qing army captured Shanghai, it also used Shanghai as the main trade distribution center for export, and Shanghai gradually became the center of the national economy. In 1865, Shanghai's foreign trade accounted for more than 50% of the country's goods. It was at that time that Shanghai gradually became the richest city in China.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom controlled Jiangnan and slaughtered the Bannermen of Jiangnan, and during the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army, it killed many Bannermen and soldiers. However, what really caused the life of the flag people to fall was the Taiping Army's control of the economic lifeline of Jiangnan and the serious damage caused to the economic system of Jiangnan. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the capital of Tianjing, the Qing court's water transport was cut off for more than 10 years, a large number of qi people's grain was cut off, and the river channel was silted up and dried up. Water transport was blocked, and the Qing government had to spend a lot of effort to dredge the river. However, it took a lot of manpower and material resources, and the results were very small. The most important thing is that the world has changed, and the shipping has fallen behind.
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At this time, China has been caught up in the tide of international trade, and China has passively entered modernization. The competition between Caoyun and shipping became increasingly fierce, and eventually Caoyun lost. Shanghai has become China's largest distribution center for commodities and trade, the goods of various provinces are first to Shanghai and then transshipment to various places, the goods exported from all over the world are also first transferred from Shanghai to overseas, the lifeblood of the national economy has tended to free trade, and the power of private capital is becoming more and more powerful. In 1909, the Qing government had to abolish the Caoyun system, and the Caoyun that maintained the lifeline of the Eight Flags was completely blocked, and without the continuous blood transfusion of the Eight Flags to feed the Eight Flags, the decline of the Eight Flags was inevitable.
Under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the gifts of the Manchu Qing Interior Ministry became less and less, and the life of the Banner people became more and more difficult. These aristocratic children, who are accustomed to a carefree life of food and clothing, do not have any livelihood skills, and in order to survive, they have to do something despicable. According to the Qing dynasty Xu Ke's "Qing Barnyard Bills", it is recorded: "The Tao, xian, and the customs of the Beijing master are stolen day by day, and the sons of the clan are often unscrupulous, and when they are exhausted, they go to the wilderness and return home from the peasant family." The next day, therefore posted the solicitation, the excuse on the way to pick up the person. When the farmer comes to redeem, he extorts the honorarium from many parties, and he will take the profit and then stop. ”
The flag man who smokes opium
During the Second Opium War, when the British and French allies entered the Yuanmingyuan, the coalition army saw the treasures in the Yuanmingyuan and at first prevented the displaced people from sneaking in to prevent robbery. However, the Flag men stationed in the Haidian area took the lead in the robbery, and the coalition forces looted the Yuanmingyuan under the influence of this, and finally set fire to the garden to destroy the evidence. In the process of burning down the Yuanmingyuan, the flag people in Haidian District became the main force, providing a large amount of ignition materials for the coalition forces and helping the coalition forces to ignite the fire.
From the day of the Taiping Rebellion, the depressed life of the flag people began, the downhill Daqing was unable to guarantee the flag people's brocade and jade food, the flag people became more and more disgusted with the incompetence of the Great Qing, and with the acceleration of some flag people, the Qing Dynasty gradually went to its demise. However, most of the flag people have been unable to get out of the good days, and they have become a fig leaf for the flag people to maintain their face and blood honor, and the rich people are really exquisite, and the people who have no money are poor.
A group of muddled "Belle Grandpa" are still addicted to the beautiful memories of the Qing Dynasty, unwilling to accept that reality has changed. Some people sit on the mountain and eat the sky, their families are destroyed, and their wives and daughters fall into fireworks alleys; some people rely on themselves and live a normal life again.
Wuchang Uprising
How many things have risen and fallen through the ages, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied the south for 14 years, cut off the life roots of the eight flags, and dug up the iron crops of the eight flags. This inadvertent act exacerbated the decline of the Qing Dynasty's rule, and finally in the cannon of the Xinhai Revolution, the decaying and backward Qing Dynasty collapsed and became a piece of yellow soil. 【Barnyard history/text, only do fine products】
bibliography:
1. "Barnyard Banknotes"
2. "Cantonese Bandit Chronicle"
3. The Impact of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the Economy of Jiangnan