History can't bear to look at the complete collection

Chapter 80 Military Diplomacy 6
The chief culprit in the defeat of the Qing army

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the national strength declined severely, especially the military strength, which became even more vulnerable.Thinking back to the day when Kuangxi led the royal army to quell the San Francisco rebellion, the Junggar rebellion, and recover Taiwan. At that time, the Qing Dynasty had the most powerful armed force in the world.However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, this armed force was extremely fragile. To explore the reasons, we had to start from the beginning.

The military system of the Qing Dynasty was basically divided into "Eight Banners and Green Battalion".This is the army of the Manchus themselves. The so-called eight banners are the four banners of yellow, white, red and blue and the four banners of yellow, white, red and blue. The "Eight Banners" existed before the Qing soldiers entered the pass. Later, with the expansion of the military war, the Mongols were reorganized into the Mongolian Eight Banners, and the Ming Dynasty troops that surrendered before entering the pass were reorganized into the Han Eight Banners.This is a total of 24 flags.

These armies have always been the main armed forces of the Qing Dynasty, and raising troops requires strong national power to support them. However, during the Daoguang period, the national power declined and could no longer support this huge army.In the 20th year of Daoguang, the total number of troops in the Qing Dynasty was 80, more than three times that of the early Qing Dynasty.

But the Qing army at that time was powerless to resist in the face of internal and external troubles, domestic riots, and foreign invasion.Some people say that such a huge army cannot have excellent combat capabilities because the Qing government did not have enough economic support, so the Qing army could not deal with the guns of strongmen.

However, according to relevant historical records, during the Daoguang period, China's total GDP accounted for 32.9% of the world's total GDP, that is to say, the Qing government was not short of money.However, the Qing government has a fatal flaw, that is, the system is extremely corrupt and the army is lax.The Eight Banners soldiers were the main force of the Qing government, and most of them were elite troops.But after the Qing Dynasty pacified the world, the Eight Banners children were greedy for pleasure one after another, and stopped training hard.Horseback riding and archery, which the Eight Banners children should learn the most, they have all forgotten. Instead, it is those romantic and happy things that make them never tire of it.

This situation intensified with the development of the Qing Dynasty. During the Daoguang period, many military officials no longer rode horses, but sat in sedan chairs instead.Their own inertia made the Eight Banners soldiers gradually become a vulnerable army.Corruption is also the main reason for the decline in the combat effectiveness of the Qing army. In the descendants of the Qing Dynasty, corruption has become a major trend in officialdom. Everyone, regardless of whether they are big or small, is focused on making wealth expensive, and no one cares about the military anymore.

Soldiers are focused on having fun, so naturally they don't train seriously, and training has become a perfunctory thing.Many skills that must be mastered on the battlefield are treated as games by soldiers during training to save trouble, and they don't pay attention at all.There is also the riding and archery skills that are the most important. During the Daoguang period, the soldiers were even more deserted. Many people did not know how to ride a horse. At that time, there was even an absurd phenomenon of "ten people got on the horse and half of them fell, and their teeth were grinning and their legs were broken." .

In addition, in the late Qing Dynasty, a large amount of opium flowed into China. Not only ordinary people smoked opium, but even Qing soldiers smoked opium one after another. Although there was a ban on smoking, the symptoms were not cured. Unable to go into battle to kill the enemy, Lin Zexu had a certain reason for saying that "there are few soldiers in the Central Plains that can defend against the enemy".

You can't be prepared for danger in times of peace. The army of the Qing Dynasty is like a pan of loose sand. In the end, under the attack of foreign enemies' cannons, the ashes flew away, drawing the curtain for that era and playing the elegy in advance.

(End of this chapter)