Revolt of the Three Feudatories
At the outset of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories (1673–81), four hundred thousand Green Standard Army soldiers were deployed by the Manchus/Qing against the Three Feudatories, in addition to 200,000 Bannermen. However, during 1673 and 1674, the Qing forces were soundly defeated by the forces of the rebel Wu Sangui. The Qing had the support of the majority of Han Chinese soldiers and the Han elite against the Three Feudatories and they refused to join Wu Sangui in the revolt, but the Eight Banners and Manchu officers fared poorly against Wu's forces, so the Qing responded with a massive army of more than 900,000 non-Banner Han Chinese, instead of the Eight Banners, to subdue the rebels. Wu Sangui's forces were crushed by the Green Standard Army, which was made up of defected Ming soldiers.