When the Manchu Qing entered the customs, there were only more than 100,000 Eight Banners in Manchuria, of which the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners accounted for half, that is to say, when the Manchu Qing entered the Central Plains, the real Manchurian Eight Banners were only 50,000 or 60,000 people.
The Eight Banners of Manchuria were naturally the most powerful and trustworthy armed force of the Qing Dynasty, that is to say, the Manchu Qing relied on these 50,000 or 60,000 Manchurian Eight Banners Army to achieve the conquest of the Ming Empire with a population of more than 100 million.
How did the Qing emperors do this? How did they rely on these soldiers and horses to maintain their rule for more than two hundred years?
Since Nurhaci led the Jianzhou Jurchen army to oppose the Ming Dynasty, to Dolgun led the Eight Banner Army into the Guanguan to unify the world, more than thirty years ago, the number of Manchurian Eight Banners has not changed much in these thirty years, and has been maintained at the level of 50,000 or 60,000 people.
It was by relying on these people that the Qing Dynasty won the Battle of Salhu, the Battle of Songjin, the Battle of Shanhaiguan, and a series of wars of unification after entering the customs.
Not only that, but it was by relying on these 50,000 or 60,000 Manchurian Eight Banner Army that the Qing Dynasty achieved more than 200 years of rule.
The reason why the Manchu Emperor was able to use 50,000 or 60,000 troops to do this was mainly because the Qing Dynasty was extremely high in tactics and politics.
From a tactical point of view, several generations of monarchs before and after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs and understood a basic military common sense, that is, the principle of "concentrating superior forces".
Looking at nurhaci, huang taiji, and dorgon's use of troops, they have always followed the principle of concentrating troops to fight, fighting more with less, and fighting slowly with fast.
The Battle of Salhu was a break from one to another, and Emperor Taiji repeatedly entered the customs and personally led the main force of the Eight Banners to remove the various strongholds of the Ming Dynasty one by one.
After Dorgon entered the pass, he concentrated the elite of the Eight Banners near Beijing, and in case of war, he met with the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and if he encountered a fierce enemy, he went to the battlefield with the Eight Banners of Manchuria. Dorgon scattered the surrendered former Ming army everywhere, and when they encountered an enemy they could not solve, the Eight Banners of Manchuria would concentrate on killing them.
In the war of unification, the concentrated Eight Banner Army was like a sword in the hands of the Qing court, repeatedly destroying strong enemies.
After the unification of the world, the Qing court dispersed the Eight Banner Army, leaving the most elite Manchurian Eight Banner Army in Beijing, called the "Eight Banners Stationed in Beijing", and dispersing the other Eight Banners Army in important cities and Guanjin Passes throughout the country, where they built "Mancheng" and were specially used for garrison troops.
In the face of rebellion and foreign enemies, first garrison the Eight Banners to meet the battle, and if it is unfavorable, then send the main force of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Camp to go forward.
Because the number of manchurian Eight Banners Army is too small, there are tens of thousands of people left in Beijing alone, so the Eight Banner Army assigned to guard various towns is even more pitiful, and in some places there are only one hundred and ten Eight Banner Soldiers, but they rule a large area and population.
Politically, the Manchu Qing gathered the powerful landlords of the Han People, which provided them with the most powerful help to unify the world.
Already corrupt in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng rebelled and destroyed the Ming Empire, but refused feudalization and carried out a thorough suppression of the landlord bureaucracy. As a result, the Han bureaucratic landlords of the late Ming Dynasty urgently needed a force that could safeguard their interests against the peasant rebel army.
The Manchurian military aristocracy was undoubtedly their ideal "savior", as Wu Sangui led the Eight Banner Army into the pass, the peasant rebel army was defeated, and the Han bureaucratic landlords and former Ming warlords defected to the Manchu Qing.
We can see that in the war of reunification after the entry of the Qing Dynasty into the Customs, the Han traitor armed forces made great contributions and were the main force that the Manchu Qing was able to smoothly unify China.
That is to say, the Manchu Qing ostensibly conquered the world with less than 100,000 Eight Banner Army, but in fact it was the result of an alliance between the Manchurian military aristocracy and the Han bureaucratic landlords.
It is precisely for this reason that the most resolute anti-Qing forces in the late Ming Dynasty were precisely the generals from the peasant army, such as Li Dingguo and the Thirteen Families of The Eastern Ming Dynasty, while a large number of former Ming warlords shaved their hair and changed their clothes and became qing court eagle dogs, typical such as Kong Youde, Wu Sangui and others.