CAMPAIGNING. 131 



for the hardships and privations of warfare. Their 

 discipline is so bad that they are incapable of keeping 

 on the alert even for a few days, and they would fall 

 an easy prey to an active energetic enemy. They 

 post no picquets ; they make no reconnaissances. 

 Any information of the enemy's movements is re- 

 ported by spies ; so unfitted are they for physical 

 exertion that nothing but the threat of instant execu- 

 tion will compel them to leave the shelter of their 

 house or tent in bad weather, or at night. On the 

 march the infantry either ride or travel in carts ; 

 nothing will induce them to go on foot, even for a few 

 marches. Finding their arms inconvenient to carry, 

 they frequently lay them on the cart or camel in 

 order to feel quite at their ease, as if they were on a 

 pleasure excursion. 



On arriving at the night halting place they loot 

 and rob the inhabitants of everything they possess. 

 One carries off a hen, another a sucking-pig, a third 

 a bag of flour, a fourth forage for his horse ; in fact, 

 their system of foraging reminds one of an enemy's 

 town given up to pillage. Officers take an active 

 part, only that, instead of robbing on their own 

 account, they take the plunder from the men ; no com- 

 plaints are heard or even made, and the inhabitants 

 are only too glad if they can keep a whole skin. So 

 customary is this style of thing that the Mongols, 

 directly they hear of the approach of the Chinese 

 troops, remove their encampments to great distances 

 from the road, or hide in the mountain defiles with 



K. 2 



