On the Rules for Training Troops因備忘記論鍊兵節目。啓

Your Majesty said in the royal memorandum:

"Looking of late, the Ministry of War is diligent in training, and I feel deeply that in fulfilling its duty for the state it is beyond what others could reach. Yet though it is diligent in training the troops, the choosing of troops ought to be exact. Now the useless and the motley are not sifted out with exactness but are let fill the ranks (行伍) carelessly, and they are only made to sit at ease and practice firing the gun and using the sword; I fear this is not what is called the way of training troops.

The men of old, in training troops, strove only for exactness and not for numbers. That the army of Yue Fei (岳飛) could strike a great host with few men came only of their being exactly sifted and further trained. Its method was that the bow must be shot from the left and from the right, and that heavy armor be worn and a moat leaped over in daily practice; this none but the swift and strong can do. The men of old, in teaching soldiers, also put sand into a sack and had them add to it little by little. Qi Jiguang (戚繼光) said, 'A soldier must by all means learn the cannon,' and the Jixiao xinshu (紀效新書) has methods for training the hands, training the feet, and training the body; so there are many ways of teaching soldiers as well.

Now the teaching of the troops seems not to have fulfilled my intent; make a great sifting, cast out those whose bodies are injured, whose strength is weak, whose movements are dull, whose feet are heavy, and who are advanced in years, and take only the exact and the sturdy. Have them also practice running and marching without fail. Further, as for the methods of poison fire (毒火) and the poison arrow (毒矢) that were taught in the past, if they are called useless there is an end of it; but if not, they cannot but be handed on and practiced, and since then nothing seems to have been heard of them. Convey this intent to the Military Training Directorate."

Such was Your Majesty's command.

The particulars of training troops are very many, but if we reckon the matter broadly by its sense, training troops is like tempering iron. Iron cannot be used unless it is tempered a hundred times; and soldiers likewise, only after their exactness has been carried to the utmost, can be thrown into a place where arrows and stones fly and men contend to the death without falling into disorder.

Gongs and drums and banners (旗幟) temper their ears and eyes; the crossbow and the gun, the sword and the spear temper their hands and feet; commands and compacts temper their hearts and their nerve; advancing and withdrawing temper their actual fighting. Besides these, the camp and its ramparts (營壘), weapons and gear, keeping watch, and scouting must every one be tempered until all is familiar, like grasping with the hand or walking with the foot; only then do they become soldiers fit for use. Thus at the beginning each man exhausts his own exactness, and at the end ten thousand men can be made into a single mind; and this is why troops under discipline (節制) have no match under heaven.

In general, the more exact they are, the more they become one. This is like what the Confucians call "divide it, and its exactness is carried to the utmost without disorder; join it, and its greatness is fulfilled with nothing left over"; for the principle of all under heaven is not two. Therefore the Jixiao xinshu also says, "If a great host is gathered and drilled, the business is over in a moment and the eye cannot reach them all; it is not so good as drilling a few and doing it closely." Suppose there are only five men: then drill with five; if there are ten, drill with ten. Carry it forward from this, and though it reach a hundred or a thousand or any number, the method is one.

Now in the troops under training the company (哨) leads the squads (隊), and the squad leads the files (伍). One file leader (伍長) leads only four men; one squad leads only six files; one company leads only three squads. If the company officer (哨官) is made answerable for the squad leaders (隊長) and the squad leader for the file leaders, the drilling is already simple while its reach widens of itself. This is the great net-cord of military administration (軍政).

It is just for this reason that the Jixiao xinshu also sets out the law of joint liability (連坐). If within one file the soldiers are not exact, the weapons blunt and worn, and commands not carried out, both the private and the file leader are punished; and if it is so within one company, both the company officer and the squad leaders are punished. The way of it is as the meshes of a net hang upon its cord, or as branch and leaf cleave to the trunk. If the company officers, squad leaders, and file leaders each give their whole heart to drilling the men under them, keeping the intent in mind day and night, casting out the worthless and bringing the unpracticed to practice as though afraid of falling short, then within a single month there is nothing that will not be made exact. The regulations (事目) of the Military Training Directorate were from the first framed after this intent, so that reward and punishment should follow upon seeing how many or how few of each company's soldiers had mastered a skill; but of late there has been much practicing of formations, and there has been little leisure for such things. Hereafter, that it be enjoined the more firmly and carried out rests only on the Ministry of War and the officers (將官) performing it with their whole heart.

Our country has from of old known nothing at all of the scale on which troops are trained; but now we have happily obtained the methods left by the Chinese, and the Ministry of War has set its mind upon it to the utmost and is bringing it to pass by degrees, so that there is much worth seeing. If, after waiting for one skill to be mastered, another skill is taught, and the widening and the sifting do not cease, then the skills of the men of old — shooting from the left and from the right, leaping a moat in heavy armor, running down a slope, and the like — may be learned in turn. Only, a far and lasting plan ought to be laid, and we must not do it for a moment and stop the next, or plough in the morning and look to gather in the evening.

Your Majesty's sagely instruction (聖敎), "Make a great sifting and take only the exact and the sturdy," has truly grasped the intent of striving for exactness and not for numbers, and is altogether proper. Only, the men of old said, "Even the masters of war (兵家) do not cast a man away for being weak." The most exact of the soldiers, that is, the picked vanguard (選鋒), are used to break the strong and to sink a battle line, and none but these will do. As for the motley sort, such as the banner and drum men (旗皷手) and the soldiers who cook the food (火長), they may be taken from among the weaker men; in short, it is enough that each should get the duty that fits him.

But this is only to speak of the main outline of training troops. Beyond it, the tempering of commanders is weightier still than the training of troops. Likened to a game of chess, the training of troops is the pieces set out on the board, and the tempering of commanders is the man who plays. Thus only when there was Yue Wumu (岳武穆, that is, Yue Fei) was the army of the Yue (岳) made; and only when there was Qi Jiguang was the army of the Qi (戚) made. Now though the soldiers are indeed much trained, if there is no man to use them, it is as when the pieces are set out on the board in the most perfect order and yet, an unskilled hand playing them, one loses as before.

Now we ought to seek out, among the military men of the capital and of the provinces, those fit hereafter to lead troops, and give them charge of the training units (部曲) so that they may learn and practice the art of formations; and only when all of them, from the commanding general down to the company officers, the banner chiefs, and the squad chiefs, temper their own soldiers in ordinary times and use their own soldiers when battle comes, can we hope that what is reared is the very thing that is used and what is used is the very thing that is reared. This is why the Jixiao xinshu, having already spoken of training troops, must needs end with the tempering of commanders.

The method of poison fire has already been handed down from the Chinese and practiced, and the rest of the materials have been gathered. Only, the Directorate has no croton seed (巴豆), and so of late one nyang of the croton seed remaining in the Royal Pharmacy has been sent, that it may be compounded according to the method. After waiting for it all to be made, let it be tried on animals to see whether it is fit for use or not, and then put in use in the several camps; it will not be without effect.