Defensive Armor of the Han Period 227 



grave difficulties; to break the former deep-rooted habit of irregular 

 fighting on the part of these wild hordes, and to train them to the word 

 of one chief commander, required a master's mind and an iron will- 

 power. Men always wont to unrestricted freedom in the discharge of 

 their weapons, and almost unconstrained as to their movements and 

 operations on the battle-field, were now forced to absolute subjection 

 under the command of the chief, and compelled to fire volleys strictly at 

 his signal, — a genuine cavalry feat. 



Speaking cum grano salis, Moduk did the same as Cyrus in Xeno- 

 phon's Cyropoedia, or Maurice of Nassau when in the war of inde- 

 pendence of the Netherlands (1568-1609) he drilled his German mer- 

 cenaries, who were more lightly armed and mounted than their Spanish 

 opponents, to form in two or three lines, to move rapidly, and to make 

 direct charges while firing their pistols at the enemy. Moduk's method 

 of drilling naturally presupposes an orderly array of his troops in rigor- 

 ous alignments. The revolutionary character of his innovation, which 

 was a source of amazement to his countrymen, is indicated by the grad- 

 ual exercises and tests, and the severe punishments meted out to the 

 negligent ones. His military genius is illustrated by the fact that he 

 conceived the bold plan of introducing a radically new mode of tactics, 

 that of organized and compact cavalry, in order to overthrow his father's 

 irregular horsemen. He opposed the art and strategy of war to natural 

 belligerents, the principles of cavalry attacks to unprincipled savage 

 warfare. Was Moduk himself the inventor of this new science of 

 tactics? This can hardly be presumed. We remember that he lived 

 as a hostage among the Yue-chi. This, of course, was at a time when 

 the Yue-chi still occupied their seats in the northern part of Kan-su; 

 their westerly migration took place in b.c. 165. Maybe he learned 

 military lessons from the Yue-chi. The facts, at all events, prove that 

 he had the spirit and nerve of Cyrus in him. The Iranian standard is 

 clearly demonstrated in his doings. In the same manner as Iranian 

 cavalry practice was adopted by the Romans, it deeply influenced 

 the Turkish tribes; and Moduk was the prominent leader and organizer 

 of this reform. 



In reading carefully the battles fought by the Huns against the 

 Chinese, we recognize, despite their meagre and incomplete descriptions, 

 that the Huns were most expert cavalry tacticians, who fully practised 

 the rules laid down by Frederick the Great after the lesson which he 

 received from the Austrians at the battle of Mollwitz, — "Every officer 

 of cavalry must ever bear in mind that there are but two things required 

 to beat the enemy : first, to charge him with the greatest possible speed 

 and force; and second, to outflank him." Hunnic skill in manoeuvres 



