Elite status did not guarantee battlefield usefulness: many Eight Banners troops were tied to garrison roles, while the much larger Green Standard Army functioned more like a gendarmerie and often lacked peacetime combat training. Locally raised Braves had no fixed organization because their preparation depended on individual commanders. Li Hongzhang's roughly 45,000-strong, Western-influenced Huai Army was comparatively capable. Yet much of the wider force still lacked modern firearms, so China's enormous paper strength could not be treated as a uniform field army.
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The fragmented Qing army system
China fielded nominally vast forces, but the Eight Banners, Green Standard Army, Braves, and Huai Army had incompatible roles and readiness.