On the map of Asia in the 17th century, an army composed of the elite of the Manchu, Han and Mongol tribes rose rapidly. This is the ace army of the Qing Empire - the Eight Banners of the Jingshi. With its outstanding military quality and strong combat effectiveness, the Eight Banners of the Jingshi assisted the Manchu Dynasty in unifying China and conquering East Asia, and once dominated the East, and was known as the "strongest army in Asia". But at the same time that they reached their peak, the seeds of decay had been planted. What is the reason why this once terrifying "strategic mobile corps" was finally reduced to an ornament? What historical enlightenment does their glory and decline contain?
The most elite powerhouse, the Eight Flags of the Beijing Division, dominates Asia
As everyone knows, the Qing Dynasty's national strength covers the whole of East Asia, and the main reason for its indomitable and invincible battle is that it relies on this elite division, the Beijing Division Eight Banner Army. The Eight Banners of the Beijing Division were composed of elite soldiers from the Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han armies, and the soldiers were strictly selected from the strong men with strong arms and strong skills, and received systematic and arduous military training, with strict military discipline and a fierce work style. Not only are they unrivaled in cavalry and archery, but they are also good at advanced arms such as artillery shooting.
During the Tongzhi period, the importance of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division in the Qing Dynasty and the opposition can be seen. At that time, although the Eight Banners were divided into three roads: Guanwai, Garrison and Jingshi, the Eight Banners of the Jingshi were the elite of the elite, with a total strength of 7 or 80,000 people, accounting for more than half of the total number of personnel in the Eight Banners. Moreover, the best armed equipment was given, and the military salary was more than three times higher than that of ordinary green battalion soldiers.
The elite of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division live in the capital, directly obey the emperor's orders, and are the "ace special forces" of the Qing Empire. In the early days of the Qing Dynasty, it was with the courage and courage of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was able to conquer the vast territory of the Central Plains and pacify the peasant rebel armies and bandit groups in various places.
It is worth mentioning that the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division also organized a "sharp knife" unit -- the Xishan Jianrui Battalion, and all the personnel were selected from the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners to be responsible for the royal garrison and emergency assaults, and the combat effectiveness was incomparable. During the Yongzheng period of Kangxi, the Xishan Jianrui Battalion repeatedly performed miraculous feats, and when the wolf smoke was everywhere, they were the vanguard force, fighting for their lives on the battlefield, and made great achievements.
In general, as the most elite "strategic reserve" of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners of the Jingshi played a pivotal role in the early Manchu Dynasty, suppressing internal and external troubles by force, assisting the Manchu Dynasty to unify China and stabilize the dynasty's rule. At that time, as long as the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division were mentioned, Asian countries were frightened, and the domineering side of the Qing Empire was undoubtedly leaking.
After the reform of the new army, it will be fully revitalized
Emperor Qianlong, the lord of Zhongxing in the Qing Dynasty, attached great importance to military affairs, and he was well aware that the foundation of maintaining dynastic rule lay in having an elite and powerful army. At the beginning of his accession to the throne, Emperor Qianlong set out to reform the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division and make every effort to improve its combat effectiveness.
Emperor Qianlong's reforms focused first on staffing. At that time, the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division gradually neglected to practice, and their combat effectiveness was worrying. In order to inject new blood, Emperor Qianlong transferred a large number of brave and warlike divisions from the Eight Banners outside the Guanwai to re-enrich the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division.
At the same time, Emperor Qianlong expanded a new "Iron and Steel Pioneer" unit within the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division, the Xishan Jianrui Battalion. The officers and men of the Xishan Jianrui Battalion were all carefully selected from among the best of the Eight Banners, and they were well equipped with advanced equipment, rigorous training, and excellent combat quality. In some subsequent foreign wars, the Xishan Jianrui Battalion repeatedly performed miraculous feats and became the mainstay of the Eight Banners Army.
In addition to the establishment of soldiers, Emperor Qianlong also reshaped the Eight Banners Army from the institutional level. He reinstated strict military law, and refused to lenient those soldiers who deserted or retreated from battle during the war, and some were even beheaded for public display. At the same time, Emperor Qianlong also gave heavy rewards to those soldiers who had made meritorious contributions, and some of the little soldiers were promoted several levels in one fell swoop, and their status skyrocketed. Under the spur of this kind of "severe punishment and heavy reward", the military discipline and morale of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division have been greatly improved.
Under the personal supervision of Emperor Qianlong, the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division showed unprecedented combat effectiveness. In a series of foreign wars, such as the pacification of Dzungaria and the pacification of the Huibu uprising, the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division made great contributions and laid the foundation for the military force of the Qing Dynasty. In the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), Qianlong personally led the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division to cross the Heilongjiang River, defeated the Tsarist army, and expanded the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
However, the revival of the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division also paid a heavy price. In the battle against Dzungaria, a large number of Eight Banners elites were killed. Among them, in the Battle of Hetongbo in 1729, more than 10,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division sacrificed their lives for the country, and the whole army was annihilated, and the damage was unprecedented. The elite of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division was almost lost overnight, and the history records that "every family in Beijing wears filial piety, and every household wears linen". The tragic situation of this steel hero can be seen.
Although the price was heavy, Emperor Qianlong's determination to revitalize the fighting spirit of the Eight Banners Army remained undiminished. He spared no effort to transfer troops from all over the country and re-inject vitality, and finally restored the Eight Banners Army to its former strong appearance, and once again became the "Imperial Forbidden Army" and "Strategic Mobile Corps" of the Qing Empire.
The soldiers of the Eight Banners could not bear the temptation of wine
Although Emperor Qianlong made every effort to revitalize the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division and regain its combat effectiveness, as time passed, this once brave and warlike ace army gradually became infected with the habit of idleness and indulgence.
As the Praetorian Guard of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division has been stationed in the capital for a long time, with a good living environment and a generous military salary, which is far from being comparable to ordinary soldiers. However, it was this comfort of material life that made many Eight Banners soldiers begin to indulge in wine and wealth.
Back then, there was a soldier of the Eight Banners, who broke more than a dozen green buildings in a gathering of friends, spent a lot of money, and finally broke his family. Another captain of the Eight Banners, even for a beautiful Qinglou woman, was extremely poor and luxurious, and finally gambled all his family property and was expelled from the army. These scandals of dereliction of duty and absurdity are well known in Beijing, and it can be seen that there is no return in the Eight Banners Army.
Not only that, but some Eight Banners soldiers were also deeply obsessed with gambling. They often spent money in the camp, throwing a lot of money, and some even lost all their military uniforms and weapons. At that time, there was a casino in Beijing that was dedicated to gambling for the Eight Banners Army, and they sang songs almost every day and night, and drank and indulged in horses all day long, which was not lively.
In the face of the extravagance of his soldiers, although Emperor Qianlong repeatedly reprimanded, he had little effect after all. People of insight even laughed at the behavior of the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division, calling them "caged birds" and vulnerable. At that time, the invincible majesty of the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division was gone.
In addition to wine and wealth, some Eight Banner soldiers are even more indulged in elegant pleasures, just like the children of rich and noble families. They pay attention to dress, love lyrics, songs and songs, and even the swords, guns, swords and halberds are delicately carved by them. Some people even study the white body exhaustively and blindly pursue swordsmanship cultivation, which is far away from the duty of a soldier.
Under this trend of corruption, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners Army naturally plummeted. In Qianlong's later years, there was a rebellion, when the troops that suppressed the rebel army were all Eight Banners, and as a result, the war has been indecisive, and the emperor had to take command in person to barely calm down. This incident shows how far the soldiers of the Eight Banners have reached with idleness and indulgence.
It continued to weaken from the early to the late Qing Dynasty
The corruption of the Eight Banners Army was not achieved overnight, but was a gradual process. Since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs and unification of the Central Plains, the status and strength of the Eight Banners Army began to be slowly disintegrated and weakened.
The initial decisive factor was because of the decline of imperial power. Compared with the three generations of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, in the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, the imperial power has gradually declined. Many emperors no longer attached as much importance to military construction as their predecessors, and gradually neglected to hold accountable the training and establishment of the Eight Banners Army. At the same time, the core power of centralized power is gradually declining.
This situation accelerated the transformation of the Eighth Banner Army from a unit directly under the central government to a local armed force. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the establishment and training of the Eight Banners Army had gradually been delegated to the governors of the provinces, and the central government was only responsible for the distribution of the money. Under such a situation of lax supervision, the soldiers of the Eight Banners naturally gradually became corrupt and degenerate.
At the same time, the armed forces of the Han landlord class gradually rose to the top. During the Daoguang period, the number of Green Battalion soldiers far exceeded that of the Eight Banners Army and became the main force of the Qing Dynasty. Most of these Han troops were hired and trained by local gentry, and the militia was sometimes even stronger than the official army. In the face of the rise of this Han force, the status and role of the Eight Banners Army were naturally greatly weakened.
In the late Qing Dynasty, it was an indisputable fact that the Eight Banners Army was gradually declining. At that time, the weapons and equipment of the Eighth Banner Army were seriously backward, and its training was even more sluggish. During the Taiping Rebellion, the performance of the Eight Banners Army can be described as full of embarrassment. The most powerful description is: "incompetent in attack, incapable in defending, and full of defeats". Even in the Pingjin War, the Eight Banners Army was still defeated and retreated, and was soon captured by the British and French forces in Beijing.
All this exposes that even the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division, which was once the "strongest army in Asia", had completely lost its combat effectiveness in the late Qing Dynasty and became a "paper tiger"-like existence. In the face of the increasingly rampant invasion of foreign powers, the Eight Banners Army completely lost the ability to resist. They can no longer shoulder the burden of defending the dynasty.
At that time, many officials and advisers had already realized the danger of the complete corruption of the Eight Banners Army, and they wrote to the imperial court one after another, urging the importance of expanding the new army and abolishing the Eight Banners. But the process has been faltering. Under the obstruction of some diehards, although the Eighth Banner Army existed in name only, it was not dismantled for a long time. This has also become a portrayal of the late Qing court's slow and urgent and rotten wood is difficult to carve.
The Eight Banners of the Jingshi eventually disintegrated completely
After entering the 19th century, the decay of the Eight Banners Army had reached the point of hopelessness. After the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion, the imperial court had to make up its mind to completely dismantle this former "ace special force".
In 1856, while in exile, Emperor Xianfeng sent an appointment to train all divisions and troops to prepare for the invasion of Western powers. However, this measure was difficult to implement, because many members of the Eight Banners stubbornly resisted, believing that the training of the new army meant weakening their own power.
In the Tongzhi period, the imperial court finally made up its mind and began to completely abolish the Eight Banners. In 1862, Emperor Tongzhi issued an edict ordering all localities to organize all Eight Banners into green battalions, and the Eight Banners Army was officially abolished. In August of that year, the Beijing Eight Banners disintegrated first. According to the regulations, some were assigned to the new green camp, while others were repatriated to their ancestral hometowns for local resettlement.
Although the Eight Banners of the Jingshi were dissolved, some of the privileges they enjoyed were still retained. For example, they also enjoy the money issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs every year to support their lives. And those who have made meritorious contributions in the battle can also receive a one-time "Suiren Silver" as a reward. These measures were also seen as a kind of softness and appeasement of the emperor towards the Eight Banners.
In the following years, the people of the Eight Banners in various provinces were also dismissed one after another, and the entire work of dismantling was basically completed. At the same time, the imperial court also promulgated a series of regulations for the formation and training of new types of troops. For example, the "Hunan Army Regulations" was promulgated, and Zeng Guofan fully presided over the training of the new army; It also promulgated the "Army Regulations," which made specific provisions on the establishment and training of the army.
However, even in these new armies, most of their officers and soldiers came from the old Eight Banners system, but the Manchu, Han, and Mongolian elements were fused together. Therefore, to a certain extent, the new-style army still inherits the style and tradition of the Eighth Banner Army.
Today, although the Eight Banners Army has been completely disintegrated, the name of the iconic unit of the Beijing Division has been inherited to this day. The modern Chinese People's Liberation Army still retains this name of "Beijing Division", such as today's Beijing Garrison is another name for the "38th Group Army", which means inheriting the spirit of the Beijing Division and the Eight Banner Army.
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It can be seen from the clouds that although the Eight Banners Army of the Beijing Division eventually disintegrated, its glorious historical status as the ace army of the Qing Dynasty is indelible. It once led the way and dominated East Asia, and deservedly became a symbol of the Qing Dynasty's military might.