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In the long river of history, 1912 marked the end of the Qing Dynasty, a moment that was accompanied by the birth of a new dynasty, however, a puzzling puzzle also came to an end. The Qing Dynasty claimed to have a million heroes, but after its demise, this huge army seemed to have completely disappeared from people's view. Is this an inaccuracy of the historical record, or did these soldiers disappear inexplicably due to some mysterious event?
To understand the demise of the Qing Dynasty, we have to mention a woman, Cixi. She ruled for 48 years, during which time the emperors became almost puppets, and the actual power was completely in the hands of Cixi. However, over time, Cixi's corruption and extravagance intensified, and her personal expenses alone amounted to 40,000 taels of silver per day, not to mention the wealth squandered on her birthday. This huge expenditure gradually made the Qing army gradually lose its combat effectiveness. Coupled with the invasion of external imperialism, especially the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, only 50,000 Qing troops were defeated, and one of the important reasons was that the Qing army's weapons were outdated and inadequately equipped. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, some of the army served various warlords, and the other part disappeared in the sea of people, and these millions of soldiers disappeared as if they had evaporated from the world, a mysterious phenomenon that makes people doubt the authenticity of history.
After the Opium Wars, Hong Kong became a British colony. However, before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a large Qing army was stationed in the Kowloon area of Hong Kong, and facilities such as barracks and artillery batteries were also established. However, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, this million-strong army seemed to disappear without a trace overnight, as if it had never existed.
The Qing Dynasty's army can be divided into three categories: Eight Banner Soldiers, Green Camp Soldiers, and New Soldiers. As the core force of the Qing Army, the Eight Flags Soldiers were formed in the early days of the Qing Dynasty and were mainly composed of the Eight Banners aristocracy. When the Qing army unified the Central Plains, the Eight Flags Army reached a maximum of 200,000 people, and they fought bravely and well, and their contributions were indispensable. However, over time, the Eight Banners gradually lost their combat effectiveness and became a shelter for the children of the nobility, and the imperial court could not easily dissolve them, so it continued to provide for these "wastes" until the rise of the new army.
The Green Camp soldiers were the main army of the Qing Dynasty, numbering in large numbers, reaching 600,000 during the Xianfeng Emperor's reign. They were formed in battalions and were the most commonly used troops during the Qing Dynasty. However, the Green Battalion soldiers degenerated and corrupted in the later period, and their equipment was backward, and until the end of the Qing Dynasty, they no longer had combat value and were replaced by recruits.
The recruits were a new type of army formed in the late Qing Dynasty, equipped with advanced weapons from the West. Before the Xinhai Revolution, the number of the new army was as high as 200,000, and its combat effectiveness far exceeded that of the Eight Banner Soldiers and the Green Battalion Soldiers. However, after the fall of the Qing dynasty, these recruits became soldiers of the new government or local warlords. The demise of the Qing dynasty marked the dissolution of this new army, which disappeared into the dust of history.
Under British colonial rule in Hong Kong, the Qing Dynasty took some measures to station a large number of Qing troops in the Kowloon area, and built walls and forts, which is the Kowloon Walled City. However, despite frequent friction with the British army and even fierce conflicts, the Qing army was not as strong as the British army and did not dare to act rashly. As a result, the Kowloon Walled City gradually became a three-way zone, and security deteriorated, eventually becoming a trading center for various underworld and underground organizations.
However, after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1987, the two sides decided to demolish the Kowloon Walled City. In this process, people unexpectedly discovered the traces of the Qing army. It turned out that after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, some of these soldiers chose civilian life, while the other part held on to the Kowloon Walled City to defend their territory. The last army of the Qing dynasty held out in the Kowloon walled city for decades, and although the kingdom was long gone, their belief in holding on to the homeland is admirable. They seemed to be a small country, isolated from the outside world, self-sufficient in life, abiding by the Qing dynasty's institutions and etiquette, forming a unique social system. However, with the demolition of the Kowloon Walled City, the last team of the Qing army also drifted away in the long river of history.
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