Some soldiers in the Qing Dynasty embroidered the word "Bing" on their chests, while others embroidered the word "Yong". What is the difference?

The difference between the two armies is that the soldiers recorded in history are the standing armies of the Qing Dynasty, including the Eight Banners Army and the green camp Army. Soldiers with the word "brave" written on their chests are temporary troops, not the main military force of the country. The Eight Banners Army was the Manchu army, and the green camp Army was a Han soldier composed of Han people to make up for the deficiency of the Manchu army. Green camp is marked by the green flag, and the number of people is based on the battalion, so it is called green camp.

Although the Eight Banners Army and the green camp Army are both national armies, their status is different, and the court's dependence on them is also different. According to the custom, most of the Eight Banners are made up of royalty and relatives, mainly staying in Beijing as a policeman, while green camp is made up of people, with hundreds of thousands of people. What we often see on TV is the green camp Army.

"Courage" recorded in history is also a kind of soldier. After the Yongzheng and Qianlong Dynasties, if there was a war, the soldiers of the Eight Banners and green camp were insufficient, and the troops temporarily recruited in the local area were immediately dissolved after the war. Not the official army of the country, even if it is active in wartime, it will not be used for a long time.

Until the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan started with Yong ying, changed the informal rural courage to Yong Lian (that is, Xiang Army), formulated the military system, and paid salaries, which was called Yong ying. Since then, "Yong" has basically replaced "Bing" as the main force of the national regular army. Yongying is characterized by the private placement of state wages. The so-called "soldiers will have it", soldiers and officers are only loyal to their own officers, not directly loyal to the emperor. This is the development process of the ancient national army.