Note 29 — Relation of the Insurrection of the Chinese
Reading edition
“Every day those people knew what their losses were, through the regular plan that they followed. This was as follows: every ten men formed a mess; of these, two went out to procure food, six to fight, and two to guard and attend to their lodging. Every ten troops of these were under a captain; and a field officer commanded ten captains, with a thousand men each. Each soldier had a chapa (a bronze coin that is current among them), and at night each one handed this to his captain; then all these were counted, and the soldiers knew, by the number of coins that were lacking, how many men they lost each day.” (Diaz, p. 423.)