All kinds of administrative systems in ancient China have a certain degree of historical inheritance tradition, just like the Manchu Qing court to a large extent inherited many of the political and military systems of the previous Ming Dynasty, which is often heard in film and television dramas "Qing Chengming system". Speaking of the historical source of the general soldiers of the Qing Dynasty, it is necessary to trace back to the relevant military system of the previous Ming Dynasty. Famous generals of the Ming Dynasty in Chinese history, such as Yu Dayu, Qi Jiguang, Li Jinglong, Li Chengliang, and Mao Wenlong, who was beheaded by the famous overseer Yuan Chonghuan, were all Ming generals.
At the beginning, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established a unique system of military guardhouses after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the army management system he designed was from the central to the local jurisdiction order, which was the central five military governor's office, the provincial capital division, and the local guardhouse. He set up military defenses throughout the country as guardhouses.
Since most of these military guard stations set up by the Ming Dynasty were scattered throughout the country, in order to facilitate the management of them, the Ming Emperor set up 21 capital divisions as authority jurisdiction institutions in each place, and the responsibility was that each local capital division was responsible for managing a certain number of guard stations, for example, the capital division in Shaanxi was in charge of the 33 guard stations in Shaanxi, and the capital in Zhejiang was in charge of 20 guard stations in Zhejiang, and so on.
However, in the frontier areas of the imperial court, especially in the north, there were often wars with the remnants of the Northern Yuan court, and the Ming emperor, in order to prepare for the border war that could break out at any time, specially assigned a prestigious general in the army to serve as the chief and deputy commander of the heavy troops at the border pass.
The 21 capital divisions set up by the Ming Dynasty government can now be understood as the 21 military-level formation units stationed in various places by the Ming Dynasty, and each of its subordinate guard posts is equivalent to the army establishment of a division or brigade or regiment now, and each thousand households under the guard station is equivalent to the strength of a composite battalion after the current military reform. Do you understand that there are also military establishments such as hundred household offices, general flags, and small flags under the thousand household offices, which are equivalent to the same establishments as companies, platoons, and squads under the composite battalion.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the system of local capital divisions and guards was only a temporary emergency measure, and the post of chief soldier did not have a grade. If a war breaks out, the general soldier applies for the emperor's letter to lead the troops to the war, and after the war is over, he can return the seal to the emperor. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the post of chief soldier gradually became a permanent military attaché stationed in the imperial court on the border, and even in many areas of the stable interior, there was a post of chief soldier, and slowly the post of chief soldier became a regular establishment in the military system of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the power of the Ming Dynasty's general army was very large, and the senior generals of the Ming Dynasty's army, even if the whole country added up to only about twenty people, in today's terms, the position of the Ming Dynasty's general soldier was equivalent to the current commander and political commissar of the Xinjiang Military Region. Among these general soldiers, the more famous such as Qi Jiguang, who repeatedly accomplished great feats in the War of Resistance Against the Wu Dynasty, later the imperial court asked him to guard Jizhou, Yongping, Shanhai and other places, and wrote a military book entitled "Records of Military Training", and was a famous military expert of the Ming Dynasty era.
The military strength of the early Qing Dynasty was the Manchu Eight Banner Army and the Han Green Camp Army. The position of general soldier inherited from the Ming Dynasty was that of the military commander of the Han Green Camp Army. The officers of the Green Battalion Army held positions from highest to lowest: Admiral, Commander-in-Chief, Deputy General, Staff General, Guerrilla, Metropolitan Division, Garrison, Thousand Commanders, and General Commanders. The chief soldier inside was the imperial court Zheng Erpin, who was under the jurisdiction of the superior governor. This is because the official position of admiral and chief soldier was the highest military position that a Han military attaché could hold in the Qing Dynasty.
The general soldiers of the Qing Dynasty and the general soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have similar responsibilities in leading troops to fight against the enemy in wartime and defend the tranquility and stability of the frontiers of the imperial court. In peacetime, it is necessary to lead troops to practice and garrison border defense. As far as I know, during the Qing Dynasty, the emperor set up 83 positions in the whole country, including 13 general soldiers in the water army and 70 in the army. The number of soldiers under each commander-in-chief is also determined by the number of people in the area where they are stationed. The general infantry commander has about 7,000 people in a town, which is almost equivalent to today's brigade commanders and division commanders, of course, some general soldiers only have 3,000 soldiers and horses, and some only have 2,000 people. It is said that when Zeng Guofan, the commander of the Xiang Army, suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, some of the people in the military tent who guarded zeng guofan's door were hung up with the position of chief soldier.
Most of the soldiers stationed at the border are young and strong men in the garrison areas, because the population of each area of the frontier and the interior is densely packed, and the number of soldiers under each general soldier also varies greatly. The 83 general soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were to manage 614 military camps across the country, totaling about 640,000 troops. Anyone who can become a general soldier can be said to be not an idle person, after all, this Erpin official position in the Qing Dynasty, the country's more than 200 million people are only 83 people.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Yuan Shikai was engaged in the New Deal, the new army in 36 towns was trained throughout the country, and the highest commander of the new army in one town was the command system, and the rank of the general was compared with the rank of chief soldier. Later, the Xinhai Movement and the Republic of China were established, but the military system of the late Qing Dynasty continued, and the Kuomintang renamed the military unit town to the division, which is the historical source of the division commander in today's army structure.
To sum up, the general soldier of the Qing Dynasty is a military attaché position, and the real general soldier without title is Zheng Erpin, which is equivalent to the current deputy military rank, the rank of major general, and if the general soldier with the rank of vice governor is congyipin, it is the rank of lieutenant general who is at the level of the main army or the deputy major military region, and properly holds the rank of lieutenant general with real power.