Editing Jing Li (section)

== Buqu ==

One thing to really keep in mind though is that 'going back to farming' is a huge loss of status. Professional soldiers of the time are interesting. They are called Buqu which essentially means 'military households'. They are similar to the Roman Equites in that they form a distinct military caste lower than the true nobility but above the merchants and peasants. They are in fact paid in land but unlike peasants they administer it themselves as military fiefdoms. In game terms that means you need to assign them a vassal domain to keep their loyalty.

You are free to establish Buqu families in this way. Well free in that no one is likely to stop you because it is technically legal since you are 'disbanding' them by setting them to the land. However you lose that portion of the land to them and you need to appoint a leader. Rank in the house is hereditary down to the rank and file. When even a common soldier dies or retires his position is filled by a family member. This makes keeping the unit intact is simple but if it is destroyed it is hard to integrate with other companies due to differing traditions and rank structures.

So the thing to work on is that you have some soldiers who are directly employed by the prefecture. These men can be easily disbanded but they become bandits like other soldiers who are then a nuisance. Then you have the Buqu who need to give land to or they will do one of two things: find another patron or become bandits. The key difference is that all of them become bandits this way rather than just half. 

The High Pass Band (under Zhao Wei) is a good candidate for becoming Buqu as is the core of the Swift Battalion (under Xie Zhao).