The army of the Qing Dynasty was divided into two systems, one for the Eight Banners and the other for the Green Battalion. Everyone is familiar with the Green Camp, but many readers are not necessarily clear about the establishment of the Green Camp and the specific division of labor. In order to give you a better understanding of the Green Camp in the Qing Dynasty, this article makes a detailed introduction to this.
Establishment of the Green Battalion
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, in view of the basic national conditions of the Central Plains at that time that had not yet been unified and the Eight Banners were insufficient, the regent Dolgun began to absorb the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, reorganize and reorganize, and successively put them into use on the battlefield, becoming an important supplement to the military strength of the Qing Dynasty. Because the flag used is green, it has the name of green camp.
The soldiers of the Green Battalion were basically composed of Han Chinese. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the military was mainly based on the Eight Banners, and after the middle period, because the number of green battalion soldiers increased, and greatly exceeded the Eight Banners, it gradually replaced the Eight Banners and became the main force of the Qing Army.
The highest organization of the Green Camp is "Standard", and below it are "Association", "Camp" and "Flood". The standard is also divided into supervision standard, fu standard, raising standard, town standard, military standard, river standard, cao biao and so on.
In fact, the independent organizations of the green camps in each province are bidding and town standards. The commander was the viceroy, who was ranked from Yipin to the highest local military official, one level higher than the civilian inspector, the same rank as the governor with the title of Jiashang, the highest commander of the green camp of the provinces, and managed the military and political affairs of a province, also known as the feudal governor, but the viceroy was still subject to the inspector.
The general soldier is Zheng Erpin, who has jurisdiction over this standard and the subordinate associations and battalions, and the town guards the area belonging to the town, and is subject to the control of the governor and admiral of the province. The general army is also divided into two types: land and water divisions, and the general troops of each town are subordinate to the deputy generals, staff generals, guerrilla generals, capital divisions, garrisons, thousand generals, general generals, and foreign commissioners.
The vice-admiral will be under the jurisdiction of the governor, the viceroy, and the general soldier, and the governor and the admiral shall be called the governor and the lieutenant respectively. For the governor of the river to audit the flood, called the river biao zhongjun. The one who escorted the boat for the governor of Caoyun was called the Caobiao Zhongjun. Those who are in charge of the governor, the inspector, and the admiral are called co-bidders.
The staff will be under the jurisdiction of the governor, the governor, and the general soldier, and some will guard the same city alone, and some will guard the same city as the superior military attaché. There are a total of 177 green battalion staff members in the country (5 people in the Beijing Division Patrol Camp), of which 22 are water division staff generals, and the others are land generals.
Under the staff general is guerrilla, for the military post from the three products. The number of guerrillas is relatively large, with a total of 370 people in the country, of which 49 are guerrillas of the marine division and the rest are guerrillas by land.
Under the guerrilla is the Capital Division, which is the military post zheng sipin, and there are 494 people in the country, of which 82 are the Water Division Capital Division, and the rest are the Land Division. The functions of the generals, guerrillas, and capital divisions are basically the same.
The garrison is the military post zheng wupin, whose duty is to manage camp affairs and grain, under the jurisdiction of the provincial governors and general soldiers, there are 887 people in the country, of which 121 are sailors, and the rest are land garrisons. In addition, 40 guards are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Caoyun.
The General Manager, the General Staff, and the Foreign Commissar are the most grass-roots officers in the Green Battalion establishment, and there are also a large number of them, but they basically do not act alone, and most of them do things such as running errands and doing miscellaneous things.
The main responsibilities of the Green Camp
The Green Battalion not only had to go out to fight, but also undertook the protection of normal social order, such as arresting fugitives, seizing criminals, patrolling cities and pools, pressing the ground, quelling local armed struggles, banning gambling, night dramas, and folk alliances and visits.
At the same time, the officers and men of the Green Battalion were also responsible for various errands of the government, such as the transfer of grain and wages, the money and grain sent by prefectures and counties to the capital, the transportation of grain to the north, the northern liberation of Beijing copper, and so on. Escorting criminals is also the responsibility of the Green Camp, whether it is a prisoner to be tried or a prisoner who has been tried and is about to be assigned, during the process of deportation, the Green Camp is responsible for escorting. In addition, the Green Battalion also undertakes the task of guarding important targets, such as guarding the warehouse prison, passing on official documents, and guarding the official government gate.
Therefore, in terms of professional characteristics, the Green Camp has different names such as drilling soldiers, messenger soldiers, and river soldiers, and at the same time, the Qing government entrusted almost all the public power of the society at that time to the Green Camp, in fact, the Green Camp played different roles such as the army, the police, the messenger, and the river man.
The political status of the Green Camp
As far as the qing Dynasty's green camp official system is concerned, their rank is still relatively high, and the grade of the viceroy can be compared with the governor of the military and government of the province, and even the lowest-level general is the same as that of zhixian of Zhengqipin.
However, the grade of the Qing Dynasty does not explain any problems, mainly because the actual power of civilian officials and military attaches is very different. Out of the political need to prevent military generals from supporting the army and respecting themselves, from the song dynasty onwards, the system of civilians controlling the army was implemented, using literature to control the military and emphasizing the text over the military. The Qing Dynasty was naturally no exception.
Inspectors were the feudal governors of Zheng'erpin, and all the military attaches of the province, including the viceroy from Yipin, had the governorship moderation. Therefore, at that time, some people commented that although the admiral was a pint, his power was not as good as that of the prefectures and counties.
Not only that, the political future of military officials was also manipulated in the hands of civilian officials, although the general soldiers were called senior officers, and their external release needed the emperor's special jane, but the power of assessment was in the hands of the provincial governors. Therefore, military attaches are short of breath in front of civilian offices, follow the rules, and are as humble as officials. Civilian officials are arrogant and regard them as slaves, and their official image and professional characteristics are misaligned.