From ancient times to the present, a country must build a strong army to ensure national security and maintain social stability. The combat effectiveness of an army is closely related to the physical fitness of soldiers. In ancient times, if a male adult wanted to become a qualified soldier, he needed to meet the requirements of conscription at that time in order to wear a sharp and meritorious career.
The early armies of ancient China adopted the form of soldiers and peasants. The army consisted of civilians and slaves, with copper agricultural tools as weapons, and the real weapons were managed by the state and distributed to soldiers in wartime, called "granting soldiers" or "granting armor". In the Book of Xia, the Gan Oath records a fierce battle between King Qi of Xia and the field of Gandhi of the Yu clan. At that time, the combat was a combination of infantry warfare and vehicle warfare, with infantry as the mainstay and chariots as the supplement. In the Shang Dynasty, the "integration of soldiers and farmers" was implemented. Adult men farm in peacetime and serve as soldiers in wartime. Chariots were commonly used in warfare, with two or four horses in one car, 3 men in the car and 15 infantrymen in the vehicle, for a total of 18 men, as a basic combat unit.
Western Zhou Army_Figure
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, according to the Zhou Li, "Five people are in the army, five are two, five are pawns, five pawns are brigades, five brigades are divisions, and five divisions are armies." Since then, the army has been called a "team" and "enlistment" has become synonymous with joining the army. At that time a chariot was usually equipped with four horses. Each vehicle is equipped with 3 armored soldiers, arranged on the left, middle and right, respectively, responsible for archery, driving, and stabbing, at the same time, there are also 7 under the armor, 15 infantry, a total of 25 people, for one infantry two (vehicles).
The Western Zhou Dynasty implemented the "township system". Within 100 miles of the capital, there were chinese and villagers holding "urban hukou", 100 miles away similar to today's rural areas, and the fiefdoms of high-ranking cadres. Nationals and villagers can perform military service, but because of their different origins, the types of services they engage in and the treatment they receive are not the same. The "Knights" preferred the sons of nobles, who could ride in chariots and charge into battle. The "infantry" was played by civilians.
With the passage of time, the wildlings of the Spring and Autumn Period also had to serve in the military. According to the famous Sima Fa, "There were three soldiers in a cart, seventy-two pawns, ten cooks, five people who kept their clothes, five people who raised [stables], and five people who were drawn from trees." Seventy-five people in light vehicles and twenty-five people in heavy vehicles. "At that time, a chariot was equipped with as many as seventy-five members, involving different positions such as armor, infantry, brother-in-law, clothing, breeding, firewood, and water extraction. The countrymen and the townspeople are responsible for completing the front-line combat tasks, and the wildlings belong to the logistics staff. Different household registrations are different, and the positions are different.
Warring States Soldier_Figure
During the Warring States period, various countries implemented a conscription system for counties and counties. Conscription targets are mainly young and middle-aged, supplemented by women, old and weak. There is no longer a hukou restriction on the criteria for conscription, and men are required to perform military service as long as they are at least 17 years old or five feet tall, and either of them meets the requirements. For example, the State of Qin stipulates: "If the people have two or more men who do not distinguish between them, they will be given more than one." "Nominally, a soldier's term of service is three years, and when he has completed his service, he can return home. However, as the scale of the war in the late Warring States period continued to expand, countries often passed various laws to arbitrarily extend the length of service. Local sheriffs and county ordinances can recruit men of appropriate age in their respective areas and become commanders of this army. At that time, there were two types of people who could be exempted from military service, one was the Prison Gate Rebellion Brigade (generally referring to merchants, controversial), and the other was the posthumous father (referring to the son-in-law). In the event of a war, women, old and weak, also participate in military service, especially in defensive and defensive warfare. They were responsible for the logistics of feeding the soldiers and repairing the city walls.
The Qin Dynasty followed the conscription system of the Warring States period. Judging from the information recorded in the "Bamboo Jane of the Tomb of the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin", the man was 17 years old and "Fu Yuan" (registered), and could not be exempted from military service until the age of 60. At that time, criminals and slaves were often used as soldiers, called "who". The Qin Dynasty attached great importance to the combat skills of soldiers. Not only were the soldiers with the worst assessments punished, but the officials in charge of the relevant training were also punished.
Han Dynasty army pottery figurines _ figure
The Han Dynasty's military system was that all the people were soldiers, at least a thousand years before the West. All men over the age of 23 in the country begin military service. There are three kinds of military service: one is the central army, called "guard", the second is the border guard army, called "shu", and the third is the militia, called "service". At the age of 20, "service" began, and the three services served in turn. The "guards" change every year. Its treatment was quite generous, and the round-trip travel expenses and daily food and clothing were reimbursed by the state, and the emperor also set up banquets for hospitality. The "Shu" soldiers and the "guards" are just the opposite, and all expenses are at their own expense. It should be pointed out that the frontier referred to here is the frontier of the feudal state, not the frontier of the country. Therefore, the deadline for the soldiers was only three days, plus two days of travel, but only five days.
During the Three Kingdoms period, wars were frequent, and the recruitment methods were mainly based on the secular army system, conscription system and conscription system. Before and after the founding of the Cao Wei Dynasty, the main military service system was the secular military system. This system centralizes the management of soldiers' families, facilitates control, and forms military households. The military household is actually a professional military system, and old age and weakness cannot be exempted from military service. There are records that Emperor Wen of Wei once "wanted to migrate 100,000 households from Jizhou to Henan". Until the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the main recruitment system was still based on the production of world soldiers.
Tang Dynasty cavalry_figure
In the Western Wei Dynasty, Yuwen Tai founded the "Fu Bing System", which influenced later generations for about 200 years. This system broke the ethnic contradictions between the Xianbei and Han people, and integrated the soldiers and powerful armed forces of the six towns into the six armies, with the Eight Pillars state as the military commander. The Sui Dynasty further improved the prefectural military system, "the soldiers belong to the prefectures and counties, and the reclamation of land is the same as the people." "In this way, agricultural development has been promoted and ethnic integration has been promoted. The Hussars were recruited and trained by the Hussars, and the Hussar General served as the military commander. The soldiers of the house prepared their own weapons and horses for combat.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the military system of the prefecture was followed. Implement the policy of "soldiers scattered in the province will be returned to the DPRK." Tang Dynasty military service "three years and one jane", that is, every three years to conscription. The prefectural soldiers were subordinate to the Province of Folding Chong and were required to bring their own food, clothing, horses, and weapons for service. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, land annexation was serious, and the status of the prefectural soldiers declined, destroying the foundation of the "prefectural military system". In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the conscription system flourished. The state paid for the recruitment of soldiers, not only to provide food and clothing, but also to exempt the whole family from enlistment. All able-bodied men with a height of more than 1 meter 5 can volunteer to join the army. These "salaried" professional soldiers have strong combat effectiveness and rich experience, but their political stance is often inconsistent with the state, and they are prone to form a dependency relationship with the generals of the unified army, thus creating a "strong" that endangers the stability of the country, which is also one of the reasons for the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
Song Dynasty army_figure
Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, came from a professional military family, and he had his own ideas about the army. The Song Dynasty still practiced conscription. In the year of famine, hungry people are recruited as a source of soldiers, and at the same time, fathers and sons are encouraged to fill the army of criminals. Before enlisting in the army, "first talent, second reading and leaping, second looking at the horizon." "It is equivalent to screening the candidates for physique, skills and vision." Once enlisted, the face or arm will be tattooed, so in the "Water Margin", some people call the soldiers "thieves with the army", which shows the low status of the soldiers at that time. The Song Dynasty army was divided into two parts: the Forbidden Army and the Van Army. Strong men over 1 meter 6 tall joined the forbidden army and became the main force, while the eliminated soldiers could only join the van army, and engaged in miscellaneous service in the army.
The Yuan Dynasty was the most martial arts dynasty in Chinese history, which was inseparable from its military service system for all the people. The Yuan army consisted of Mongols, Han Chinese, and Semu people. The Mongols served from the age of 15 to the age of 70, a period of up to 55 years. In the Han areas, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty classified some peasant households as military households, forming a military system. When the Mongol army went out on a campaign, it could bring its family with it. The military commander set up the "Oulu Palace" to manage the families of the army and prepare weapons and food.
Ming Dynasty army_figure
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty and built the Ming Army with the distinctive "Weishou System". Zhu Yuanzhang set up a number of health centers throughout the country, each with 5600 soldiers under its jurisdiction. They have been passed down from generation to generation, and tun tian provides supplies. No wonder Zhu Yuanzhang said proudly: "I raise millions of soldiers, and I don't cost the people a grain of rice." In fact, this system is an effective combination of the world military system and the prefectural military system. In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu (1393), the Ming Dynasty had more than 2.7 million soldiers. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Tuntian was invaded by the powerful and bureaucratic, and the conscription system once again became the mainstream of the military service system, such as "Qi JiaJun" and "Yu Jia Jun", which were composed of recruits.
The military service system of the Qing Dynasty was very special. In the early Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion became the main force of the army. The Eight Banners were composed of Manchus and adopted the method of "unity of soldiers and people", grasping the military and economy at the same time. In contrast, the Green Camp was an army composed of Han Chinese, reorganized according to the Ming Dynasty weishou system. The Green Battalion's "cavalry is drawn to the infantry, the infantry is drawn from the defenders, the defenders are drawn from the Yuding, and the remaining Dings are recruited by the people." It can be seen that the Green Camp is also an elite that has been selected layer by layer.
The Eight Flags and the Green Camp adopt a secular system, which has been increasingly corrupt for a long time. During the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan founded Xiangyong, representing the establishment of the modern Yongying system. In modern times, the Yong Battalion recruits soldiers under the conscription system, and the officers are not only commanders, but also the management power and financial power in one, so the modern Yong Battalion is a regular field unit with combat effectiveness. The Qing government placed high hopes on the modern Yongying camp and put it into the formal establishment, and part of the Yongying battalion was converted into the newly built Beiyang Navy, which became an important armed force of the Qing Dynasty.
Beiyang Army_Figure
In the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army, built by Western standards, easily defeated the Qing army. This fact forced the Qing government to carry out military reforms and build a new type of army. The Qing government was modeled on the German and Japanese military systems and set up four types of troops, including infantry, artillery, cavalry and engineers. The source of soldiers is selected through layers and the overall quality is relatively high. This new type of military system is the product of the combination of compulsory military and conscription. The new army took the town as the basic unit, and the number of officers and soldiers in each town was 12,512, and until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 13 towns were trained.
This new army has a resounding name - "Beiyang New Army", and since then, a new page in Chinese history has been turned.