Entering 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian war has undoubtedly cast a shadow on world peace again, and ukraine has not only recruited all the reservists in the country, but even some female soldiers have been sent to the front line in order to cope with a powerful Russia. The phrase "war makes women go away" became a tragic joke in Ukraine.
But then again, female soldiers on the battlefield is not a precedent in Ukraine, throughout the history of world development, women directly involved in the war is not uncommon, the mainland is no exception.
The first female soldier in the history of the mainland to participate in the battle on the battlefield was the wife of the Shang king Wuding, and there were records of women participating in the battle in the history books of successive dynasties since then.
In modern times, the largest peasant uprising in Chinese history broke out, the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement". Unlike the previous peasant uprisings, this Taiping Rebellion actually gathered 100,000 female soldiers.
So why did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gather such a large number of female soldiers? Did this group of female soldiers, who were scolded by Zeng Guofan as "bigfoot barbarians", really never go to the battlefield? Where did they end up? Let's walk into today's story with these questions.
The 100,000 female soldiers are the product of the slogan "equality between men and women"
The peasant uprisings in China's history are characterized by the corresponding slogans that are aimed at the psychological needs of the people. Whether it is Chen Sheng Wu Guang's "Prince General Xiang, Ning has a kind of Hu? "Or Li Zicheng's" The king came and did not pay for grain. "Without exception, they all expressed the expectations of the people at the bottom of the era.
As we all know, Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was originally a teacher at a private school. It should be said that he is very aware of the needs of the masses at the bottom.
In the mid-to-late 19th century, the decadent dream of heaven in the Manchu Qing Dynasty was already destroyed by the guns of the Western powers. The masses at the bottom, who were deeply oppressed by the feudal monarchy and colonialism, were living in dire straits and suffering unspeakably.
In order to launch a people's uprising, Hong Xiuquan made full preparations. Five years before his uprising, he wrote in the "Original Road Warning Training", "There are many men in the world, all brothers, many women in the world, and all sisters." ”
What do you mean? That is to say, Lao Hong explicitly put forward the concept of equality between men and women, and everyone thinks that in that era when feudal etiquette was deeply rooted, Hong Xiuquan's concept was very inflammatory.
Sure enough, as soon as the slogan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was proposed, it was supported by many toiling masses, and those low-level women who were deeply discriminated against were even more enthusiastic, and the scale of the rebel army continued to grow. The number of female soldiers who joined was as high as more than 100,000.
According to statistics, the female soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were divided into 40 armies, and the number of one army was as high as more than 2500. Hong Xiuquan even selected one of the excellent female soldiers, entered his own Heavenly King's Palace, and became his own internal guard.
In 1951, Hong Xiuquan promulgated a new military regulation, which set up a "women's battalion", which was also the first official female soldier unit in the history of the mainland to have a structure and a name.
Do these female soldiers really not have to go to war?
In the era of cold weapons, it is indeed very rare for women to go to the battlefield. But that doesn't mean women are useless in war. At the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion, many wild histories record that the female soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gone to the battlefield and killed the enemy head-on. There are also many legendary female generals such as "Hong Xuanjiao" and "Su Sanniang".
Therefore, here we may as well boldly speculate that at the beginning of the founding of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was possible for female soldiers to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy head-on. So why, in the middle and late taiping heavenly kingdom, these brave and warlike female soldiers seemed to disappear out of thin air and never appeared on the battlefield again?
In fact, they did not disappear, but began to engage in a lot of logistics work.
First of all, they were responsible for many tasks in the rebel army, such as building trenches, transporting food and grass, and ensuring food. Even the bloody horrors of cleaning up the battlefield and burying corpses after the war have been handed over to female soldiers, who can be said to have worked very hard.
In addition, they are responsible for the handling and rescue of the wounded on the battlefield, the working women of the lower classes who have been mainly engaged in farming for generations. In the baptism of fire, it has gradually grown into a group of experienced and courageous field medical personnel.
Of course, in addition to the above two aspects of work, female soldiers also shoulder a very important task, that is, intelligence work.
Don't think that spy fighters are special kinds of work that only exist in modern times, in fact, in ancient times on the mainland, there were personnel who specialized in intelligence work, and the names of "embroidered messengers", "bad people", and "Jinyi guards" that we are familiar with or are not familiar with are actually the titles of the ancients for intelligence personnel.
Working as a woman in intelligence work may be safer and less noticeable than men. Therefore, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, many outstanding female soldiers who were selected were trained as intelligence officers and participated in the war in another form.
"Equality between men and women" is finally a phantom, and the female soldiers of heaven are desolate
Most peasant uprisings have not succeeded, but in fact they have their own common problems. Hong Xiuquan was no exception, and although he was a cultural man in that era, his vision was still too short-sighted.
Just as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was attacking one city after another of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Hong Xiuquan and other rebel leaders, who were overwhelmed by the victory, gradually became arrogant and lascivious. These 100,000 female soldiers gradually became the playthings in the hands of these rebel leaders.
Hong Xiuquan, who had proposed equality for all people and equality between men and women, was the first to forget his oath. He gradually became superior to his subordinates, and he even required his subordinates to live in separate camps, even husband and wife, mother and child should live separately, and they were not allowed to meet without consent.
And he himself, not only gave priority to selecting 88 beautiful women to enrich the harem, but also let the female officials replace the eunuch positions in the feudal palace, it can be said that Hong Xiuquan's harem, except for himself, can hardly find an adult male, and the lustful nature is at a glance.
Most of the other chiefs, under his words and deeds, also became greedy for pleasure, and the women in the army gradually became the playthings in the hands of the chiefs.
In 1855, the junior generals and non-commissioned officers in the army were very dissatisfied with this unruly rule and protested. Hong Xiuquan, who smelled the smell, was forced to order the dissolution of the women's pavilion (the women's camp was later renamed) and allowed men and women to marry.
Although in the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan was aware of the crisis and also carried out drastic reforms, and even issued a revolutionary system such as the "Tianchao Tianmu System". It's just that everything has come too late, and the internally decaying and divided Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has accumulated a lot of weight and is difficult to return.
In 1863, the Qing army besieged Tianjing, and Hong Xiuquan died of illness the following year in shock and remorse. In 1964, the Qing army attacked Tianjing and began to slaughter the city in a frenzy. The vast majority of these female soldiers were reduced to the ghosts of the Qing army knife in the slaughtering city, and the other part was captured, and their tragic fate can be imagined.
There are also some female soldiers, like male soldiers, who cling to their beliefs, refuse to give in, and eventually set themselves on fire and die. And the peaceful and prosperous world of "equality for all people, equality between men and women" that they longed for at that time has finally become a distant dream!