This book has been sent to the Cabinet Council. The rebels increase more and more; our troops the more they fight the more they fear. The rebels generally are powerful and fierce; and they cannot by any means be likened to a disorderly crowd [literally, a flock of crows]; their regulation and laws being rigorous and clear. Our troops have not a tincture of discipline; retreating is easy to them, advancing difficult; and, though again and again exhorted, they always remain as weak and timorous as before.[1]
The Sze-ma system of the Chow Dynasty, set up by order of Wu Wang after the kingdom had been pacified, established armies of 12,500 men under command of the ch'ing, or great ministers of state. The suzerain had six armies, while his feudatory states were allowed to maintain three, two, or one according to their size. The army unit was subdivided into five legions or shih of 2,500 men, each under a great minister of the second grade, each legion being further divided into five battalions of five hundred men each, commanded by a great minister of lower rank. Battalions were divided into five centuries, under an officer of first rank, and each century into four companies of twenty-five men each, led by an officer of medium rank. The smallest unit was the file of five men, having its chief.[2]
The Taiping army was described in 1853 as follows :
A cinquevir commands a quaternion of soldiers, or four men. A vexillary commands five cinquevirs, having under him twenty-five men, and is distinguished by a flag two feet and a half long and as many broad.
A centurion commands four vexillaries, having under him 104 men, and is distinguished by a flag three feet long and as many broad. A tribune commands five centurions, having under him