Replies

RE: Well, if I were a Chinese soldier, I would likely decline to wear that helmet.

You’d be court martialed in a jiffy and face a firing squad before the day is over.

[RE: Well, if I were a Chinese soldier, I would likely decline to wear that helmet.

You’d be court martialed in a jiffy and face a firing squad before the day is over.]

Telling it to their superiors’ faces isn’t what they do. This kind of thing - the response of an illiterate peasant/militia leader to a death sentence from having been ordered to accomplish the impossible - is what they do, presumably sans the magical elements:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Gaozu_of_Han
[Liu Bang had been tasked with escorting a group of convicts to Mount Li where they would be put to penal labor to help build the First Emperor’s mausoleum. A few prisoners managed to escape during the journey. Liu Bang began to fear for his life as having convicts escape under one’s care was, under the laws of the ruling Qin dynasty, a capital offence. Realizing that to keep his life he’d have to flee, Liu Bang decided to release the remaining prisoners in his care. A few of these convicts were so grateful to be set free that they decided to join Liu Bang of their own accord.

According to legend they encountered a gigantic white serpent which killed members of Liu Bang’s group with its poisonous breath. It is said that while drunk, Liu Bang slew the serpent that night and later encountered an old woman weeping by the side of the road the next morning. When the men following Liu asked her why she was crying, she replied, “My child, the White Emperor’s son, has been slain by the son of the Red Emperor.” She then mysteriously disappeared. After hearing the old woman’s strange words, Liu Bang’s followers believed that he was destined to become a ruler in the future and became even more impressed with him. This event is known as the “Uprising of the Slaying of the White Serpent” (Chinese: 斬白蛇起義).

Liu Bang and his followers took refuge on Mount Mangdang and lived as outlaws in an abandoned stronghold. Liu had maintained secret contact with some of his old friends such as Xiao He and Cao Shen who still lived in Pei County. In 209 BCE, two men named Chen Sheng and Wu Guang began the Dazexiang Uprising to overthrow the Qin dynasty. The magistrate of Pei County considered joining the rebellion as well and acting on the advice of both Xiao He and Cao Shen, he sent Fan Kuai (a relative of Liu Bang) to invite Liu and his followers back to Pei County to support him. However, he later decided against it and ended up denying Liu Bang entry into his lands. He also worried that Liu’s friends Xiao He and Cao Shen might decide to open the gates for Liu now that he had been denied entry, so he set a plan in motion to kill them but Xiao and Cao managed to escape before it was put into action and eventually joined up with Liu and his entourage. While in Liu’s company, Xiao came up with a plan to gain entry into the county and managed to convince Liu to take his advice. Liu Bang ordered his men to write letters, wrap them around their arrows and fire the arrows over the border and into the neighboring county from which they had been barred. In the letters they urged the local townsfolk to help him. The peasants responded to this call for aid by killing the magistrate and welcoming Liu back into Pei County. Liu Bang decided to style himself the “Duke of Pei” (沛公) after this and became known to others by this title. ]

“You’d be court martialed in a jiffy and face a firing squad before the day is over.”

If the number refusing is greater than the firing squad, the firing squad gets killed first.

If you don’t understand military numbers, look up squad vs platoon.