Malcolm Bosse

"I said to Missionar same way. I said heads in basket. I said Soldat, bandit same way. I told Missionar."

"[A young mission worker in Shanghai told him that] China's nothing but a loosely allied group of principalities that establish whatever law there is through force of arms."

"In his country and mine, a bridge builder never sells guns. [...] In China would a scholar sell guns?"

"Soldiers get paid sometimes. Bandits have to fend for themselves. But when the warlords don't have the money, their soldier become bandits. [...] Peking's supposed to pay the warlords. I mean, they're official generals, servants of the government , right? Most of them are bandits is what I say."

"In China a general's power goes as far as his troops can march in a few days. But from what I know of General Tang, he won't let this insult pass."

"At the end of the day you want something. Even if you don't know what it is."

"Peasants can fool you They give in like sheep. They run away and hide. They offer their daughters if you'll let them alone. But suddenly one of them does a thing like this [and tries to kill you]."

"Tang is the best soldier in China"

"[H]is brain, shaped by milleniums of acceptance of authority, has formed the idea that by obeying an order, any order given by someone in authority, he can save his own life, or, perhaps more importantly, somehow protect his ancestors' land."

"An acrobat is lucky to die with the price of a coffin in his pocket."

"You Big Swords think you're good riders, good cavalrymen, but you have a long way to go, and you'll never be Mongols."

"Look, children, it's very simple. What's going to happen is this. If you people go forward, we eat bread. If you people retreat, we eat sticks. That is all there is to war. Let no one tell you different."

"His batteries north of the swamp open fire on the nearest hill, which will later be assaulted. Batteries eastward, in front of the lake and the knoll where he stands, are rolled forward almost to the transverse road, between willow trees.."