Treatise on Military Preparation, Volume 105

City Defense

The Tiger Bell Classic Tiger Bell Classic (Huling Jing): A comprehensive military manual from the Northern Song Dynasty (1004 AD) covering strategy, divination, and equipment. states:

On the city walls, there should be one armored soldier for every pace one version says "league" A "pace" (bu) is approximately five feet. The gloss suggesting a "league" (li) is likely a transcription error, as one soldier per league would leave the wall undefended.. For every ten paces, add five additional men to be prepared for miscellaneous support duties. Every five paces, there is a Squad Leader Squad Leader (Wuzhang): the head of a five-man unit; every ten paces, there is a Decurion Decurion (Shizhang): an officer in charge of ten men. At intervals of fifty and one hundred paces, there are Commanding Officers Commanding Officers (Jiangzhang): higher-ranking supervisors of the wall sections.

The leadership should consist of both civil and military officials, with responsibilities assigned according to their specific talents. They shall lead the elite and courageous troops, organized into ten, twenty, or thirty squads. One Chief General and one Vice General one version says "Leader" shall be assigned to each. These squads patrol the city walls to issue proclamations, provide instructions, and encourage the laborers and soldiers in their duties.

Between the squads on the wall, four signal markers signal markers (biao): physical poles or flags used to communicate the enemy's distance and intent to the rest of the garrison are established the following sixty characters to serve as observations of the siege's progress.

1. If the enemy intends to attack a location and is sixteen paces from the wall, raise one marker.
2. If battering rams or ladders battering rams/ladders (zhuangti): heavy siege equipment used to breach or scale walls approach the wall, raise two markers.
3. If the enemy begins to climb the ladders, raise three markers.
4. If they attempt to scale the parapet parapet (nüqiang): literally "woman's wall," the low, crenelated wall atop the main city wall for protection, raise four markers.

At night, fire signals are raised following the same system as the markers.

Between the four squads on the wall, eight flags are placed one version says "acts as". These are used to request supplies from within the city:

• If wooden posts or planks are required, raise the Azure Flag original: cangqi. The color azure (blue-green) corresponds to the element of Wood in traditional Chinese cosmology..
• If lime, charcoal, copper, or iron are required, raise...