Friends who have watched Qing operas, I don't know if you have ever observed those little soldiers, some of their clothes are engraved with the word "Ding", some are written with the word "pawn", and in addition to "Yong" and "Bing".
On the surface, although there is only a word difference, they seem to be soldiers, but the difference is worlds apart.
So what is the essential difference between these four types of soldiers? What do they do?
Cannon fodder bravery
Of these four types of soldiers, three of them are organized, so let's talk about the ones that are not organized, that is, "brave".
For soldiers with the word "Yong" engraved on their clothes, many people should be familiar with them, especially in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, which can be said to be very common.
One of the representative examples is Zeng Guofan's Hunan army, in fact, many people are curious, why are they engraved with the word "brave" on their clothes?
This is mainly because they did not belong to the regular army of the Qing Dynasty, but were recruited temporarily.
To say that in the early and middle Qing Dynasty, the word "brave" soldiers were still very rare. After all, the country was strong at that time, and where there was a war, it was enough to directly dispatch the regular army.
However, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, diplomatic difficulties, the resistance of the rebel army, and the beating of foreign enemies, so the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty alone could not cope with it, so there were Hunan troops, Huai troops, etc.
These are all temporary recruits from the generals themselves, or they can be said to be their own private arms.
The soldiers with the word "Yong" are generally composed of Han Chinese, don't ask why, ask because of low status.
Generally speaking, as long as the dynasty was established by the nomadic people, the Han Chinese were discriminated against.
After these "brave" soldiers were recruited, they also had to undergo rigorous training. Of course, this has something to do with the highest prefect.
In this way, the temporarily recruited soldiers took on the heavy burden, like the Hunan army, which focused on solving the Taiping Rebellion Army.
At that time, the Taiping army was much more powerful than the regular army of the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, the Hunan army suffered a lot of casualties at that time, but no one cared about their life or death at all. To put it mildly, they are temporary soldiers, but in fact, they are recruited to be cannon fodder.
That being the case, why are so many people still vying to sign up for the military?
Although the status is very low, at least there is still Yulu, and he can eat every day.
In that poor era, many people did not have enough to eat, so in order to survive, even if they knew that the risk was very high, they were still fearless.
For those who have families, at least they can get a little money to support their families.
In fact, to put it bluntly, everyone is a soldier with the word "brave" for the sake of life, so it is really difficult to calm down.
Two sons of the emperor
In stark contrast to the soldier with the word "brave", it is the word "soldier" written on the clothes. For the Qing Dynasty, this was the regular army soldier who was fighting a war.
Friends who know the military history of the Qing Dynasty know that there were two kinds of regular army soldiers in the Qing Dynasty at that time, one was called Eight Banners, which was well known to most people.
And the other class is the Green Battalion.
Although they are both regular armies, there is also a gap between the two arms. Among them, the Eight Banners have the best treatment in all aspects, which is like the emperor's own sons.
The Eight Banners were mainly led directly by the royal family, and most of the soldiers were mainly Manchurian.
Of course, there are also Mongolian and Han Chinese, but certainly not as many as Manchus.
So from this point of view, the Manchu soldiers in the Eight Banners are treated very well, and their equipment is also the most advanced in the Qing Dynasty, after all, they are the emperor's own sons, so they have to be comprehensive.
As for the Green Battalion soldiers, it is said that they were directly led by the Ministry of War, after all, the royal family and nobles disdained to bring Han soldiers.
The Green Battalion is mainly composed of Han Chinese, and their treatment and equipment are worse than those of the Eight Banners, but not too much. After all, they are all regular soldiers, and the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, but to put it mildly, one is a son, and the other is a righteous son.
In any case, after all, everyone is a staff member in the system, and there has never been a shortage of food and money, and when it comes to training, everyone receives formal training.
But even so, in general, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners was a little better, especially in the early Qing Dynasty.
But by the late Qing Dynasty, whether it was the Eight Banners or the Green Battalion, they were already rotten and could not be saved.
Since the Qianlong Emperor pushed the Kangqian Dynasty to the highest peak, the income of the whole country has increased unprecedentedly, although this has no positive impact on the common people, but it is a great thing for the staff in the system, because it means that wages can be raised.
The income increased, and after that, there was no need to fight much, so even the regular army became more and more slack. When the foreign enemy came, the regular soldiers couldn't even pull their bows and arrows, which was ridiculous.
Therefore, the consciousness of being prepared for danger in times of peace must always be there, and it must not be lost.
"The best pawn"
If you think that the regular army is the best paid, you are very wrong. Those whose clothes are engraved with the word "pawn" are the best treated among the four types of soldiers.
First of all, this pawn is also established by the Qing Dynasty, but it is not in the army.
If we were to do it today, they would be almost like police uncles patrolling the roadside.
The pawns just wander the streets every day, and if they are lucky, they can catch a prisoner, so some of them are inside the prison, and some are working outside.
Some are leisurely drinking tea in the house, and some are very tormented by the wind and sun outside the house.
On the whole, everyone's treatment is about the same, and since the people from the country are all very different, why do they say that they are the best?
First of all, the pawns don't have to fight, which means that the probability of survival is greatly increased. It's definitely better to be alive than dead, after all, you can continue to make money.
Although there is a certain gap between the conditions and treatment of the pawns and the regular army, the pawns usually make a lot of oil and water.
For example, if a family member wants to visit a relative, then you must not say something nice about the prison guard, otherwise it will be a matter if you can't get in.
In the era of feudal society, especially in the face of the staff in the system, even if they were looking for relatives and friends to do things, they had to give others some hard-earned money, not to mention those who were not relatives.
At that time, the thinking of the staff in the system was, I don't know you, why should I serve you for free?
This is a microcosm of the limitations of feudal society, which is really far from our modern times.
In addition, like the people who collect taxes from the common people, it is also this group of people, and if the pawns want to make some oil and water, they can just collect more money.
For example, normally it is enough to collect five taels of silver, but they all doubled the collection, which means that they finally received ten taels.
When it's time to make the difference, hand over the money they normally collect, and the amount that is doubled is not their own. This group of people is so unlimited, they are greedy for even the money of the people at the bottom.
And the regular army soldiers, they can't make money like this.
The work is stable, safe and at the same time, there is a lot of oil and water, so the pawn is the best treatment.
Decent soldiers
In the end, it's a decent "Ding" soldier, which is actually pretty good, and it's much stronger than the "brave" soldier.
The words of this "D" soldier are also within the system, and like the regular army above, they work in the army. However, they don't have to go to the battlefield to fight hard.
They have other jobs, and one of the most important jobs is logistics, so now I know why they don't have to go to war.
The ancients once said that the soldiers fighting the war have not yet been dispatched, and the "Ding" soldiers transporting grain and grass have been dispatched, which is "the soldiers and horses have not moved, and the grain and grass go first".
The regular army fought in front, and the "D" soldiers were in the rear watching the supplies.
Although it is said that there is no need to go to the battlefield to fight, the supplies in the rear of an army are often an important strike point for the enemy. If this is the case, the "Ding" soldiers can only be forced to pick up guns and fight.
Because you don't have to go to the battlefield to fight hard, so in terms of treatment, the "D" soldier is not as good as the regular army, but if you can survive, isn't it a huge wealth?
In addition to guarding supplies, the "D" soldiers sometimes do some other dirty work, but on the whole, it is not too much.
Therefore, the "D" soldiers have more free time than the troops in other systems, especially when they are not fighting, and their work content is less. Going out to fight is like going on a business trip for them today.
If you don't fight, you will have less dirty work and more free time, so what will you do? Some hard-working "D" soldiers, they will do some other work in their spare time, which is our part-time job today.
Although part-time jobs are certainly not as good as those in the system, who would think that they have more money?
And we, it's better to work than to be idle within a normal time frame. If a person is often idle, he will have no fighting spirit after a long time, and the whole person will have no energy and will be lazy and lazy.
Even the most diligent person is, as long as he is comfortable and accustomed to it, he may fall into a very terrible abyss.
Although the money earned from part-time work is not much, for some families, it is enough to support their families. In this way, the surplus Yulu of the "Ding" character soldiers can be saved, isn't it beautiful?
The above are the four kinds of soldiers in the Qing Dynasty, the worst of which is the "Yong" soldier, followed by the regular army, then the "Ding" soldier, and finally the pawn.
Although the regular army is very well paid, it can die at any time without the eyes of the guns, which is typical of high risk and high income.
Looking at it this way, although there is only one word difference between the four types of soldiers, the conditions in all aspects are really worlds apart!