Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple C
No? I had a distinct impression that one of the most important military innovations at early Han dynasty (during Wu-Di's reign) was the adaptation of horse archer tactics and train the Chinese troops as such.
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The western Han had two types of armies: the standing army and the frontier army. The standing army consists of an elite cadre of professionals and conscripts that are there for a total of 2 years (1 year training, 1 year in their units). The frontier armies, on the other hand, are fully professional due to their expeditionary nature. Reinforcements from allied nomadic tribes serve to bolster their numbers (similar to Ceasar's campaign in Gaul). The other difference is that the frontier armies tend to consists entirely of cavalry, due to the large distance they cover. These frontier troops closely resemble the horse archer nomads they were fighting.
At the beginning of the Eastern Han, around 24 AD, conscription was entirely abolished. Conscription, itself, was a throwback to the warring states period where large standing armies were required. With the threat coming entirely from the nomads, there was no need to have a system requiring large standing armies. In addition, the Han court were very suspicious of the militarily trained peasantry that can become potential rebels, as clearly proven by Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han throne.
The Eastern Han reached its zenith around the late 1st century AD. It had a professional military unit that are backed by barbarian auxiliary units (in similar fashion to what Rome was doing). These were the military units that were sent west towards Bactria, Sogdiana, and Parthia.