When was the conscription system established?
According to historical records, the conscription system was one of the ancient military systems in China, and its founder was Wuqi in the Spring and Autumn Period. What exactly is conscription?
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the national conscription was only aimed at male members of aristocratic families. But with the development of the war, it can no longer meet the needs of the national war. So they began to recruit young men from the general public, but these young men recruited from the general public had no salary, and even the problems of food and weapons needed to be solved by themselves.
At the same time, if these able-bodied men who came out of the common people still live in this world after the war, they will not continue to accept the next military exercise, but go home and continue to farm. In other words, the soldiers who came out of the common people have not received special military training, and their combat capability is very low compared with that of the regular army.
What is the conscription system? It is a selection system re-established in order to conform to the historical trend when the conscription system is no longer applicable to the society at that time.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the conscription system was adopted to recruit and manage the army. However, in the late Tang Dynasty, the number of wars increased and the time spent in military service increased, so many people were reluctant to join the army. In the eighth year of Tianbao, the Tang government began to implement the recruitment system to alleviate the shortage of soldiers in the country. After the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the Tang Dynasty, the conscription system replaced the military service system. Especially in the Song Dynasty, the soldiers of the imperial court, the garrison troops of Fan Bing and even the Southern Song Dynasty were basically recruited.
It has increased the source of troops in the country and prepared soldiers with high combat effectiveness for the country. But at the same time, the recruitment system will also cause the problem that soldiers only know the generals but don't know the court, which will easily form local separatist forces and bring adverse effects to the central government. So, what is the significance of the conscription system? What are the characteristics of the conscription system?
Characteristics of conscription system
The most typical feature of the recruitment system is the strictness in the selection of soldiers. In fact, the selection criteria of soldiers in this conscription system are quite high. Its clothing requirements for soldiers are three layers of armor, namely "upper body armor", "thigh armor" and "calf armor". Because there were no trousers in the society at that time, people wore skirts, which were similar to the "breastplate" of skirts compared with soldiers at that time.
It may be wearing a skirt with bare thighs, and about half of the calf is as long as the pants under the knee. This shin guard covers the calves, and the shin guards on these calves are called "shin guards" of leather.
The requirements for recruitment are to wear this kind of upper body armor, thigh armor and calf armor, wear a heavy bronze helmet on your head, hold those bows and arrows in your hand, and wear bows and arrows. You should bring your own dry food for three days and carry out a certain amount of load-bearing running. The time is from morning to sunset, and the length of running is one hundred miles. Only those who can accomplish it are qualified, that is, they are called up as soldiers.
In addition to strict selection criteria, the recruitment system also has a very important feature, which is training and technology.