no army. When occasion arose, all the farmers exchanged their
ploughshares for swords and bows and arrows, and went forth to
fight. In the intervals between the harvests, when the fields were
clear, they held manoeuvres and practised the arts of warfare. The
king, who had his Six Armies, under the Six High Nobles, forming
the royal military force, led the troops in person, accompanied by
the spirit-tablets of his ancestors and of the gods of the land and
grain. Chariots, drawn by four horses and containing soldiers armed
with spears and javelins and archers, were much in use. A thousand
chariots was the regular force. Warriors wore buskins on their legs,
and were sometimes gagged in order to prevent the alarm being given to
the enemy. In action the chariots occupied the centre, the bowmen the
left, the spearmen the right flank. Elephants were sometimes used in
attack. Spy-kites, signal-flags, hook-ladders, horns, cymbals, drums,
and beacon-fires were in use. The ears of the vanquished were taken
to the king, quarter being rarely if ever given.

After the establishment of absolute monarchical government standing
armies became the rule. Military science was taught, and soldiers
sometimes trained for seven years. Chariots with upper storeys or
spy-towers were used for fighting in narrow defiles, and hollow squares
were formed of mixed chariots, infantry, and dragoons. The weakness of
disunion of forces was well understood. In the sixth century A.D. the
massed troops numbered about a million and a quarter. In A.D. 627
there was an efficient standing army of 900,000 men, the term of
service being from the ages of twenty to sixty. During the Mongol
dynasty (1280-1368) there was a navy of 5000 ships manned by 70,000
trained fighters. The Mongols completely revolutionized tactics and
improved on all the military knowledge of the time. In 1614 the Manchu
'Eight Banners,' composed of Manchus, Mongolians, and Chinese, were