USMC General Robert H. Barrow said:Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.
Some of it is probably historical embellishment but you have to remember Chinas worst enemy is China. Had they not spent almost all of their known history fighting themselves or being destroyed by the Mongols they probably could have taken over the planet.It feels as if whatever BC China had lots of population.
This reminds me of why mongol had a very hard time conquering china. China's population was so massive that even if mongols kill 100.000 soldier, next week 200.000 would replace those dead soldiers.Some of it is probably historical embellishment but you have to remember Chinas worst enemy is China. Had they not spent almost all of their known history fighting themselves or being destroyed by the Mongols they probably could have taken over the planet.
That would be because it did, but it's also because the Qin way of warfare (which was just a perfected way of everyone else's way of warfare developed during the 400s and 300s BC) managed to extract an uncommon percentage of the population for war. Unfortunately we don't have the census numbers, and Chinese censi mostly didn't care about absolute population numbers, only households and adult men liable for conscription/taxation. The usual estimates is that post-unification Qin had something to the effect of 30 million people living in it.It feels as if whatever BC China had lots of population.