Military
Main article: Military history of GoguryeoThe unified military of Goguryeo was actually a conglomerate of combined local garrisons and private militia. Military positions were hereditary, and there is no evidence of uniform structure or chain of command. A centralized military command structure was not instituted until the Goryeo Dynasty. Most likely in times of war manpower was hastily conscripted from local populace, and a standing army of Goguryeo of about 50,000 remained extant at any time.
A Tang treatise of 668 records a total of 675,000 displaced personnel and 176 military garrisons after the surrender of King Bojang.
Every man in Goguryeo was required to serve in the military, or could avoid conscription by paying extra grain tax.
Archeological finds over Gukne(국내성) and in the tombs of neighboring kingdoms found spiked iron bronze sandals about 11 cm long. They were probably used for military applications. Similar copies were also found in Japanese imperial tombs of the Kofun era.
Read more about this topic: Goguryeo People
Famous quotes containing the word military:
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“The military mind is indeed a menace. Old-fashioned futurity that sees only men fighting and dying in smoke and fire; hears nothing more civilized than a cannonade; scents nothing but the stink of battle-wounds and blood.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valour, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)