— Opium smoking is forbidden and the men are young and in good health. Among the ludziun troops there are only young men, apparently often scarcely grown up or at any rate physically poorly developed. They are of medium height or slightly above it. There are no opium smokers, nor are men with physical defects accepted. — The 6 in quartered at Si-an-fu were formed 3 (?) years ago of i 2 in of former troops. The officers are to a large extent from the Pei yan and Nan yan armies.
The armament consists of Mannlicher rifles (Mauser?) of' 5 cartridges of Chinese manufacture with short, dagger-shaped bayonets. The officers carry slender, narrow swords in metal scabbards. No cartridge belts or any other equipment are worn on regimental manoeuvres even for guard duty. — Their dress consists of a close-fitting short black coat, like a shirt, fastened in front with black laces. It is worn inside their trousers. On their shoulders they wear red (in the artillery yellow?) tabs with the name of the regiment and in, and one or more red bands round the bottom of their sleeves to indicate their rank. Their trousers are black, neither very wide, nor close-fitting, and stuffed into the legs of black Chinese cloth boots. On their heads they wear straw hats of the so-called sailor shape. Their belts are of cloth, a hand's-breadth in width, fastened at the side with 3 narrow straps and buckles. They are grouped as follows: 3 infantry in W of the western suburb and 2 infantry in S of the south-western corner of the fortress. The officers' uniforms are similar, but light-blue, and they wear their coats outside their trousers. They fasten their swords to a leather belt worn under their coats. Their boots are often European and on their heads they wear caps like those worn by yachtsmen, with a coloured plaited band at the top, and a knob indicating their rank by means of a coloured stone in the front set in a yellow metal plate of rather large size just above the peak. — The artillery has the same equipment and uniform.
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