On May 19, 1865, the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), the monk Greenqin who fled to the wheat field to avoid the pursuit of the enemy was killed by the Twist Army soldier Zhang Pifang, who caught up with a knife, if there is a return to the light before death, the famous "monk king" will try his best to recall the previous galloping battlefield, and everything after the "Battle of Bali Bridge", even at the last moment of life, Monk Greenqin probably does not want to think about it again.
Monk Grinqin. And the glorious era of the once invincible Eight Banners Army, with the death of Monk Lingqin, has come to an end in a practical sense.
In 1854, Monk Greenqin led his troops to defeat the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and captured the Taiping generals Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, although the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was at a disadvantage in numbers, but compared with the Eight Banners and the Green Camp Army that were beaten by the Taiping Army in the south, the performance of the monk king was undoubtedly outstanding.
In a sense, the Mongolian Eight Banners under the command of Seng Lingqin have become the only Eight Banners Army that still resembles the Eight Banners in the late Qing Dynasty.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty was able to seize the national political power to a large extent because the Eight Banner Army, which had exploded in combat effectiveness, was almost invincible in the field war, except for several defeats in the southwest region and the famous general Li Dingguo.
However, no matter how capable the army is, once there is no good system incentive, its combat effectiveness will also be eroded by the years, and those children of the Eight Banners who can live a nourishing life by relying on the monthly "printing money", who is still willing to train and fight and fight for their lives? Under this system, the Monk Grinqin, who still retains a certain amount of combat effectiveness, seems to be an anomaly.
On September 21, 1860, 8,000 British and French troops and more than 30,000 Qing troops fought a decisive battle at Bali Bridge, the battle process was miserable, and the Qing army took nearly 10,000 people in exchange for only killing 12 people on the other side (this result is the statement of the French Parliament, it should be accurate, the British and French troops are not only 5 people killed).
We must admit that there is an absolute crushing of equipment in this battle, however, the Qing army is not completely without opportunities. The Anglo-French forces were mainly armed with breech-loading flintlock pistols and smoothbore guns in this campaign, with only a few equipped with rifled guns and rifles. The cavalry maintained the advantages of fast mobility and strong impact ability in the era when Makqin did not have large-scale equipment troops.
In the battle of Bali Bridge, the horse team of the Mongolian Eight Banners also once broke through the defense line of the British and French forces, generally speaking, the cavalry broke through the defense line of the infantry, and the rear was unilateral **, but in this battle, this ** did not appear at all, these cavalry who broke through the defense line were killed by the rapidly changing British and French troops in the way of left and right rows, or were picked off by the rifle infantry with bayonets, or were broken and scattered by the British and French cavalry who came to support (of course, the cavalry of the British and French forces was equipped with pistols, However, there was still a direct fight between the two sides using cold weapons), and the Eight Banners cavalry did not show the huge advantage they imagined in the close-quarters combat (or even no advantage at all), thus missing the only chance to turn the tide of the battle.
Later Anglo-French forces recalled the battleMany people lamented the bravery of the cavalry under the command of Seng Greenqin, but almost no one thought that these Eight Banners cavalry was very capable of fighting, as Count Delison described Monk Grinchen and his Mongol Eight Banners cavalry:
He waved the yellow flag in challenge, and although the rumbling cannon overshadowed everything, he still shouted loudly. Around this valiant officer, marble blocks of the bridge railings were scattered in all directions, and our shells caused a lot of casualties. The Grim Reaper didn't stop for a moment, but it didn't frighten themInflexible, but brave fighters, they do not retreat an inch. "After the defeat of the Bali Bridge, the British and French forces smashed the Beijing Division, sacked the Old Summer Palace and burned it down. This royal private garden, home to countless treasures, was destroyed in a fire.
The burned garden can be rebuilt, and it is difficult to regain the combat effectiveness of a unit composed of "young masters" who are accustomed to a pampered life.
In the middle of the 19th century, due to the drought in northern China, countless desperate displaced people have "entered the twist", the initial twist army is mostly composed of loose small troops, these people are soldiers in wartime, and the people in peacetime, at the beginning, these small forces only carry out some offensive skirmishes, although there is some cooperation between each other, but they are still independent of each other in organization.
Natural disasters and man-made disasters continue, the people's lives are suffering day by day, and the number of people who are twisted is increasing. By 1855, a total of nearly 100,000 people were elected as the leader of Zhang Lexing, the Five Banners military system was established, and the joint struggle against the Qing Dynasty began.
The Later Twist Army and the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cooperated with each other and caused a lot of losses to the Qing army, but the Twist Army never overcame the problem of fighting separately and lacking a strong unified leadership, but even so, the Qing court had to reactivate the monk Lingqin, who had been demoted due to his defeat in the Battle of Bali Bridge. The monk army fought many times with the Twist army, and due to the loose organization of the Twist army, the battle situation once seemed to be more and more favorable to the direction of the monk army.
In 1864, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Tianjing (now Nanjing) fell, and the scattered units of the Twist Army and the rest of the Taiping Army met on the border of Hubei and Henan, and were reorganized to form the New Twist Army, which gradually formed a force composed of tens of thousands of cavalry. This new twist army once again encountered its old rival Monk Greenqin, and the two sides fought before Xiangyang, and the monk army was defeated, but did not lose its combat effectiveness.
On December 12, 1864, the Twist Army dug trenches and built fortifications on Tangpo in the southwest of Dengzhou, and the monk army launched an attack on the left, center, and right. The Twist Army first defeated the enemy's right infantry, and then copied the enemy's center and left flanks from the flank and rear, defeating the monk army.
About 2 months later, the monk army pursued the Twist Army to Lushan, the Twist Army first lured the Monk Army to cross the water (now Shahe), and then returned to the army to attack, the monk army was in chaos, and the battalion commander Fu Ke Jing'a, Jingse Buku and other troops fled first. Wing Commander Heng Ling, Battalion Commander Bao Qing, Deputy Commander Shu Lunbao, and Battalion Commander Chang Shun were all killed in the battleMonk Greenqin himself was rescued by the chief soldier Chen Guorui before he barely broke through the siege and was spared death.
After this defeat, Monk Grinqin was so angry that he executed the defeated Fukejing and Jingse Buku, and then ordered to pursue the Twist army with all his might.
The next wartime was a cat-and-mouse game, with the Twist army moving through Henan and Shandong provinces, while the monk army was completely led by the nose by the Twist army, and was tired of chasing the enemy all the way, and was miserable.
As a pursuer, the monk army should play the role of a cat in this cat-and-mouse game, but its actual performance is like a mouse scurrying around blindly, while the twist army is more like an old cat who responds calmly.
In May, the twist army transferred to the northwest of Heze high-rise village area, and the strong soldiers and horses to wait for the monk army, on May 17, Zhang Zongyu sent a small number of troops to meet the monk army, inducing it to go deep into the northwest of Heze high-rise village area, the monk army really hit the plan, the twist army ambushed around the rapid attack, the monk Greenqin ordered the troops to meet the enemy in three ways, all three roads were defeated, the monk army was surrounded by regiments. Three days later, Monk Greenqin led his troops to break through the siege at the risk of death, and was finally killed by the Twist Army soldier Zhang Pifang, who had been fighting all his life, and Monk Greenqin, who had been fighting all his life, ended his life in this way.
If the troops of Seng Lingqin had at least some strategy and courage in the fight against the Anglo-French forces at the Bali Bridge, then their performance against the Twist Army could only be described as bad. The same tactical method of luring the enemy deep into the army was successful twice, and they were completely led by the nose when pursuing the enemy, and the troops of Seng Lingqin were still like this, and the combat strength of the other Eight Banners soldiers can be imagined.
However, the country always has to have someone to fight, and if it is not possible to "kiss the son", it can only rely on the "godson" (in fact, the role of the godson should be the green battalion army, but the combat effectiveness of the green battalion army in the later period also declined significantly). As a result, even the local regimental training that is not even a godson gradually became bigger, and when the Taiping army was conquered, Zeng Guofan's Hunan army shined, and the twist army that killed Monk Lingqin was finally wiped out by Li Hongzhang's Huai army, and later the combat mission of recovering Xinjiang was also held by Zuo Zongtang's Chu army. These important ministers with heavy armies are all Han Chinese.
Zuo Zhongtang. Here I have to admire the ruling methods of the Qing court, which was able to maintain the power for nearly half a century when the "knife handle" fell into the hands of the Han peopleMoreover, during the last half century of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's reign, above the court, between the monarchs and ministers, they could still cooperate tacitly most of the time, which cannot but be said to be a miracle, a somewhat embarrassing miracle.
Of course, there are reasons for the contradictions between the Han and important ministers that the Qing court can maintain its rule, and it seems that the Qing court can continue to rule as long as it maintains the factional balance among the Han important ministers, but is this really the case? The Han important ministers were willing to cooperate with the Qing court, but because their interests could still be protected, but once the Qing court touched their interests, the situation may be reversed immediately, and after understanding the embarrassing situation of the Qing court after losing the only real pro-army of the Eight Banners, we can understand why the governors of the southern provinces were so unanimous and openly resisted when the Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the whole world, and dared to blatantly create a "southeast mutual guarantee". The army that was lost lost lost its bargaining chips, and it was cleared in the Eight Banners and died in the Eight Banners.
On the evening of October 10, 1911, 5 battalions of soldiers and horses of the Wuchang New Army participated in the uprising, and the rebel army stormed the Wuchang Governor's Office, at this time, the Qing army defenders had 17 battalions, 3 times that of the rebel army, Huguang Governor Ruicheng hoped to get on the boat on the Yangtze River to flexibly command the entire defense line, but Ruicheng got on the boat with the front foot, and the defenders decided that Ruicheng ran away, and all the defenders were scattered, and in a few months, the Qing Dynasty collapsed in 267 years.