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[Intranetusa]

The Eastern Han Dynasty had a professional standing army supplemented by a volunteer militia. I've
read that the size of this professional army, the Beijun army, was around 5000-10,000?

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the source said it was for peacetime. Was the size of Beijun army increased during
times of war, or was the increase only in the volunteer militia?

[f0ma]

I'm no expert on Han history, but I believe the permanent guard of Luoyang - the Beijun army - was 4,000 strong, with one unit of Wuhuan and Xiongnu horse archers and four units of Chinese soldiers. That's according to Peers anyway. De Crespigny also writes: 'Under Later Han the Northern Army comprised five regiments (ying): the Archers Who Shoot at a Sound (shesheng), the Footsoldiers (bubing), the Elite Cavalry (yueji), the Garrison Cavalry (tunji) and the Chang River Regiment (Changshui).' This ties in more with what Peers has written, with the five regiments. He also puts the total size at roughly 4,000. He goes on further to write that there were at least three other units stationed in the capital (All Purposes, Left and Right Corps) which numbered roughly 4,500 men all told. Graff, on the other hand, gives the size of Eastern Han's professional army as 40,000 strong. It's interesting to see that Graff (who's usually a very trustworthy source) gives an estimate ten times higher than Peers and De Crespigny. It could of course be an obvious typo, or it could be taken to mean the entire size of the Later Han military, outside of the capital too. From what I can infer, any troops mobilized would be conscripted peasants separate from this army, or privately owned troops from various warlords, such as was the case with the Army of the Western Gardens. Again, this period isn't my forte, but that's the information I have, I hope it helps!