Controlling Soldiers:
I read and took these from Law and Military in Early China: Robin D.S Yates :
“First he organized the entire population under Qin control into household groups of five, and possibly ten and then on up into larger units, each level legally responsible for the behavior of its members under the “mutual responsibility” lianzuo system. In the Qin army, squads of five men and platoons of then were drawn from these household units so that one man from each of the group of five households served in the five man unit in the army. This ensured that men who served in the army would know each other intimately, would probably also be related to each other by blood and/or marriage, and would therefore be prepared to fight to the death to save the other members of their unit. The hierarchical organization of the civilian population as a whole mirrored that of the army. At each level of both institutions, officers or officials were given the authority by the state to manage their unit and were held legally responsible for their underlings’ performance. Thus, through the establishment of this order the state was able to control and manipulate all the members of the society, penetrating right to the heart of the family and rupturing its internal solidarity. The loyalty and solidarity of every member of society were turned toward the Qin state” Pg 31.
This is difficult and not practical nowadays. Anyway by implementing strategy to build up the sense of belongingness between buddies, this again can be manipulated by State. The strategist must know how to execute program to build this up.( feeling and responsibility, the band of brothers)
“Second, under the system of mutual responsibility, in civil life members of the five man households, led by a group head, were responsible for each other’s behavior and were obliged to denounce a fellow member’s crime: otherwise they would be held equally responsible for the crime. In military, the squad members were responsible for each other’s safety. If one were killed, all the other members would be killed by the commanding officer unless they manage to kill an enemy and present his head to recompense the loss of one of their own.”Pg 31
Tags: army, military strategy