How powerful were the elite soldiers in ancient China?

How powerful were the elite soldiers in ancient China? There is a standard that even the us military can hardly meet.

"I have tens of thousands of elite soldiers, enough to destroy the world." In ancient times, basically every wise monarch had a good soldier. Today, in many history books, the word "elite soldiers" is often used to describe the strength of one side. Literally, these elite soldiers' personal abilities and weapons and equipment are definitely much higher than ordinary soldiers. As for the elite, where is the "essence"?

Let's take a look at the famous Wei Wuzu in the Warring States Period. Although the number is small, the peak period is only 50 thousand. But their selection criteria are very harsh. According to historical records, Wei Wuzu had the following standards: "Clothing is the first of the three genera, holding a crossbow of twelve stones, taking fifty negative arrows, standing on it, winning three diets and being in the middle of a hundred miles. "

That is to say, these soldiers have to hold long bows, wear three layers of armor, carry fifty long arrows and a hard bow with iron tires, and at the same time carry three days' rations, with a total weight of about 50 kilograms. They can March 100 miles in a row in half a day and immediately enter a fierce battle. Wei Wuzu set an unbeaten record of "70 World Wars, 64 wins, and the rest are solved" in history, which is the first of its kind.

This so-called world's strongest American army simply can't meet Wei Wuzu's standards. Although the selection of American special forces needs to travel 64 kilometers with a load of 100 kg, the elimination rate is as high as 90%. Obviously, in terms of the physical fitness selection index of ancient "elite" soldiers alone, Wei Wuzu is much higher than the US special forces! At this point, we have to mention the ancient conscription system in China. The really best conscription system is the national conscription system.

First of all, it needs the strong organizational ability of the central government. Secondly, the army under this conscription system is very large and needs very strong national strength to ensure everyone's logistics. This system reached its peak in Qin and Han Dynasties. After the reunification of Qin, the population of the whole country was about 20 million, and 2 million to 3 million people were often conquered for military service and labor. Han inherited the Qin system, stipulating that men need to participate in military training every quarter when they reach a certain age. In addition to the annual off-season training, everyone has to perform military service twice in his life, each time for one year.

When there is a war, a large number of well-trained people can be mobilized to participate in the war at any time. It can be said that all people are soldiers. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, many able-bodied men became landlords, the national conscription system was seriously damaged, and the warlord regime was serious. So the world war system began to be implemented, and the army soldiers with good combat effectiveness were soldiers for generations. This way can get a good soldier in the early stage and ensure the stability of military resources, but the fighting capacity behind it is not good.

Laozi died on his son, and his son died on his grandson. Unless all the men in the family are dead, they will participate in the war endlessly, especially in the late dynasty, when wars are frequent and the fate of military households is tragic and there is no way out, so many deserters are the bottom of the social pyramid and are looked down upon by most people. Most of them didn't escape, so they were willing to make a living.

The combat effectiveness of such an army is very problematic. In addition, the financial difficulties in the late dynasty made it difficult to provide support for the army and lacked equipment supplies. The war in this period was worse than anyone else. We have done similar things here. Before the Anti-Japanese War, because China didn't implement modern military service system, even counting the low-level training of able-bodied men, the total strength it could have was far behind that of Japan, and the comparison between the two armies was only about "2.72 million: 448,438+00,000".

In desperation, the national government also engaged in national conscription, but the organizational support ability of the Kuomintang army was not good. It arbitrarily takes young men as cannon fodder, and the mortality rate of young men is very high, not to mention the phrase "one inch of mountains and rivers and one inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops". Our army has been carrying out voluntary military service from the day of its establishment to the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China 1955. Compulsory military service was implemented from 1955.

It is obvious that it is impossible to build an elite army by arresting able-bodied men. In the early days of the People's Army, the principle of voluntariness was adopted. If you are willing to go and pay for the trip, you are welcome to come back. Advocate democracy within the army, advocate equality between officers and men, establish party branches above the company level, establish soldiers' committees, and establish class party groups. Officers and men have ideals and beliefs, as well as flexible strategic and tactical qualities. A few years later, on the Korean battlefield, the United Nations army was at a loss.