Why was the Qing Dynasty's powerful Eight Banner Army also eliminated by history? What the Emperor did
The Eight Banner Soldiers of the Qing Dynasty, when they were first established, had outstanding achievements, whether it was the government army of the Ming Dynasty or the peasant army of Li Zicheng, they were not the opponents of the Eight Banner Soldiers, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty also unified the whole country by virtue of the bravery and good fighting of the Eight Banner Soldiers, fighting from the northeast to the southwest, and establishing the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history.
With the passage of the Kangqian dynasty, the Qing Dynasty began to decline, and it was obvious that the Eight Banner Soldiers on which they depended for their survival began to become extremely corrupt, their combat effectiveness plummeted, and even it was difficult to suppress a small-scale armed rebellion like the White Lotus Sect, let alone face a powerful opponent like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Why, then, in just a few decades, the Eight Banners' disciples have changed from an omnipotent, invincible, and invincible army to a lamb to be slaughtered? There are several main reasons.
The first reason is the problem of the system, the foundation of the Eight Flags Army is the Eight Flags system, and this system has a fundamental problem, that is, the hereditary system. You know, anything hereditary is very effective in the beginning, but once it is implemented for a long time, it becomes the root of degeneration and corruption, because it is born of sorrow and dies of happiness. Many of the ancestors of the Eight Banners disciples started with military merit, and they were quite heroic on the battlefield, but later, the descendants of these Eight Banners disciples and soldiers will fall, lose the sharp progress of the ancestors, and then concentrate on pleasure, and lose the glorious traditions of the ancestors, which is the most terrible. People who are poor are not terrible, they are afraid of having no ambition, and the Eight Banners disciples in the late Qing Dynasty are a group of unambitious breeds.
The second reason is that the Qing government's treatment of the Eight Banners disciples was so good that most people could live the rest of their lives peacefully and steadily by eating and waiting for death. After the Qing army entered the customs, in order to reward their own sons and soldiers, they snatched the land of the original Han people, fully divided it, and adopted the method of horse racing and enclosure, so that all the Eight Banners disciples have lived a "good life" since then. In addition, in order to put an end to the corruption of military discipline among the soldiers of the previous dynasties, the Qing government adopted the strategy of raising soldiers with high salaries, thinking that with money, it could buy people's hearts and minds, and let its army follow the central government with all its heart. Unfortunately, things tend to end this ridiculous move in unexpected ways.
The third reason is that the Manchu rulers implemented a strict marriage policy and did not allow only intermarriage, which led to the poor physical fitness of the descendants of the entire Eight Banners, just like the Manchu Qing royal family, the last few emperors, married so many wives, even a son could not be born, this is genetically determined. The evil consequences of the system of consanguineous marriage were the greatest punishment for the Manchu rulers!
The above reasons are the "powerful" measures taken by the Qing emperors to guard against the power of the Han people after entering the customs, but in the end they became the reasons for the rapid corruption and degeneration of the Qing Dynasty. Why was the Qing Dynasty's powerful Eight Banner Army also eliminated by history? Do you think that's the case? Welcome to discuss!