Military Records Treatise, Volume 23

Examination of Military Strategy

Eastern Han, Part 1

Wang Mang sent his Minister of Works, Wang Xun, and his Minister of Instruction, Wang Yi, to lead troops to pacify the Shandong region. He summoned soldiers from sixty-three schools of military strategy to prepare his military officers. He used the giant Jumu Ba as a wall-commander A commander responsible for defensive fortifications and also drove various fierce beasts, such as tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, and elephants, to assist in his martial display. Their combined forces reached 420,000 men, though they claimed one million. Their flags and supply wagons stretched for a thousand miles without interruption. In the fifth month, they set out from Yingchuan and joined forces with Yan You. When the various generals saw the size of the army, they all fled back toward Kunyang in terror.