Military Supplies and Water Crossings: Preventing Fording

To cross the water, take four small cloth bags, place four pig bladders original: 猪胞 (zhubao); used here as primitive inflatable flotation bladders inside them, and tie them around your waist.

Preventing Fording

The Records of the Northern Expedition from Cuiwei original: 翠微北征録 (Cuiwei Beizheng Lu); a 13th-century military treatise by the Song Dynasty scholar Hua Yue states: The methods for preventing the fording of rivers and lakes are numerous and varied. When there is a fear that the water is shallow enough for infantry or cavalry to cross, we use bent iron to form hooks and pull them with ropes; these are called Gathering Hooks jugou original: 聚鉤. Anything they catch will inevitably be killed or wounded.

Straight iron is used to make spikes which are driven through wood; these are called Fording Spikes shezhen original: 涉針. Anything passing over them is destroyed.

Bamboo is woven into ropes with caltrop-like spikes twisted in; these are called Water Hedgehogs shuimaowei original: 水毛蝟. These are used to tear the skin and flesh of those attempting to ford.

Logs are cut into axles with iron spikes nailed into them; these are called Water Caltrops shuijili original: 水蒺梨. These are designed to pierce the shins and thighs of soldiers in the water.

Tempered bamboo is used to make spikes and planted in the mud; these are called Kicking Traps tiquan original: 踢筌. These are for wounding the tops of the feet.

Wild mulberry wood is shaped into spurs and placed in shallow sands, called... The text ends mid-sentence; based on similar manuals, this likely refers to "Water Spurs" (shuiju)