Most netizens actually overestimated the influence of corruption on combat effectiveness, believing that as long as the Manchus were not corrupt, the Manchus could defeat the Western powers; Or they think that the politics of the Western powers are as clean as water and as cheap as a mirror, and that the Western aristocracy is noble and martial, and will not engage in relations. This is not right, the level of corruption of the Manchu officials and the Prussian bureaucracy is that crows don't laugh at starlings, don't say anything about anyone. Prussia only had more than 3,000 troops when the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, but by 1918, Prussia's total strength had exceeded 3.6 million, throwing "my Great Qing" out of a few streets.
It is a fact that few people pay attention to is that the Junker aristocracy of Prussia had more land and wealth than the magnates of the Eight Banners, played with privilege and corruption, and neither the Manchu bureaucracy nor the aristocracy could match their Prussian counterparts. The entire Junker aristocracy (and this is only the Junker aristocracy of Prussia, excluding the nobility of other regions, the total amount of land owned by all German aristocracy is 40 million hectares) owned nearly 20 million hectares of land in the second half of the 19th century, and the Junker aristocracy owned 3 million hectares of arable land (according to the statistics of the Duchy of Weimar after World War I), and the area of forest land owned by them was 13.9 million hectares. The total amount of land owned by the Manchu Qing after entering the customs was 19,833,727 mu, of which 14 million mu was allocated to the Eight Banners Army, 5,830,000 mu belonged to the Manchu imperial clans, and the total amount of arable land owned by the Eight Banners nobles and soldiers was 1,320,000 hectares, which was not as much as the arable land of the Junker nobles in East Prussia (1,800,000 hectares).
The Junkers' top aristocracy also owned tens of thousands of hectares of land at every turn, but in terms of real estate figures, they have surpassed Hezhongtang. The Junker aristocracy also had hereditary courts for a long time, with administrative supervision and market supervision, and was on a par with the Eight Banners in terms of privilege. Even the means of corruption, the Junker aristocracy is half a pound and eight taels with the Eight Banners magnates. The Junker aristocracy often made Prussian soldiers work on their estates, and embezzled money for the soldiers' clothing, so much so that during the Napoleonic Wars, the Prussian soldiers on the Allied side were poorly dressed.
The Prussian aristocracy was very privileged and corrupt, but they were also very capable of growing the army and the military industry. In 1641 and 1642, when the Manchu Qing had more than 100,000 men, the whole of Prussia was occupied by Sweden (occupied Berlin and other places) and Netherlands (occupied the Klevaud region of Prussia), and the army was only 3,000 people. By the end of the 30-year war, Prussia had only 8,000 troops, making it a typical weak country compared to Sweden. Prussia was still trembling at Poland for fear that Poland would swallow it in one gulp. In order to protect the estates in East Prussia and Silesia (more than 30% of the land in these regions belonged to the Junker nobility), Prussia had good reasons to expand its army, so the Prussian nobility gave up some of the rights in the estates and let the War Quartermaster Department collect supplies from their estates.
After decades of hard work, by the 90s of the 17th century, the Prussian army finally exceeded the 30,000 mark. At that time, the army under Louis XIV had exceeded 300,000 people, and it was easy to kill Prussia in seconds, and the Prussian soldiers defeated France, I am afraid that the Prussian nobles at that time could not have dreamed of it. Prussia was able to surpass the Manchus not because its aristocracy and elite were incorruptible, but because it had mobilization and industrial strength far beyond its peers.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia imitated France and developed a system of national mobilization. The Prussian Military Council had every adult Prussian man trained in military and returned home after several months of military training. Between 1806 and 1813, 36,000 Prussians received military training. Prussia also created 3 reserve forces on the basis of the Rapid Army. They are the reserve force composed of professional officers and non-commissioned officers and retired soldiers, the reserve army led by professional officers and non-commissioned officers, the reserve army composed of reservists who have served two years of reserve service, and the civilian army composed of retired reserve personnel. In the 1813 National Liberation War, Prussia, with a population of just over 9 million, conscripted 500,000 armed forces. The Junker aristocracy in Prussia was also bankrupt by Napoleon (Napoleon swept East Prussia and Silesia, where the Junkers were predominant, and planned to return East Prussia to Poland), had to withdraw from the generals' posts, and by 1814, only two of the 142 Prussian generals were Junker nobles.
Another strength of the Prussian Junkers was their willingness to invest in industry and to recruit the top industrial capitalists. The largest individual shareholder of Krupp AG, the largest military factory in Germany, was not the Krupp family, but Wilhelm II. The Junker aristocracy was much more active in investing in industry and commerce than the Manchu aristocracy, the Duke of Allenberg was the Prussian coal king, the Count of Ballestrem was also a mining tycoon, and the Marquis of Donnasmarck's coal mine production exceeded Italy......
The Junker aristocracy was a relatively progressive group that liked to invest in heavy industries such as steel and coal (more than 30% of the land in Silesia, as well as coal mines), energy, and married entrepreneurs in these fields and served as managers of state industries. The Junker aristocracy also recruited Krupp and Siemens, and the descendants of the Junker aristocracy became Germany business executives with a very high percentage. The Junker aristocracy had privileges and had more real estate than the Manchu nobility, but they turned a large part of these industries into industrial and commercial investment, especially heavy industry, which objectively gave Germany a huge heavy industry and military industrial base, which was conducive to the expansion of the German army.
The children of the Junker aristocracy also had to be assessed to enter the German military academy, so although the Junker nobles were also corrupt and had huge privileges, they were generally progressive, better than the Manchu nobles who only carried out the corruption of the cage bird. The Prussian aristocracy was a corrupt and progressive group, and the Manchu Eight Banners elite was just synonymous with decay and decline, but the Eight Banners magnates also seemed to pass on these problems to some Western countries......