The Brahmins were the most considerable of all these pacific nations; their caste, which is so ancient, which is still existing, and compared with which all other institutions are quite recent, is a prodigy3 which cannot be sufficiently4 admired. Their religion and their policy always concurred5 in abstaining6 from the shedding of blood, even of that of the meanest animal. Where such is the régime, subjugation7 is easy; they have been subjugated8, but have not changed.
The Pennsylvanians never had an army; they always held war in abhorrence10.
Several of the American tribes did not know what an army was until the Spaniards came to exterminate11 them all. The people on the borders of the Icy Sea are ignorant alike of armies, of the god of armies, of battalions12, and of squadrons.
Besides these populations, the priests and monks14 do not bear arms in any country — at least when they observe the laws of their institution.
It is only among Christians15 that there have been religious societies established for the purpose of fighting — as the Knights16 Templars, the Knights of St. John, the Knights of the Teutonic Order, the Knights Swordbearers. These religious orders were instituted in imitation of the Levites, who fought like the rest of the Jewish tribes.
Neither armies nor arms were the same in antiquity17 as at present. The Egyptians hardly ever had cavalry18. It would have been of little use in a country intersected by canals, inundated19 during five months of the year, and miry during five more. The inhabitants of a great part of Asia used chariots of war.
They are mentioned in the annals of China. Confucius says that in his time each governor of a province furnished to the emperor a thousand war chariots, each drawn20 by four horses. The Greeks and Trojans fought in chariots drawn by two horses.
Cavalry and chariots were unknown to the Jews in a mountainous tract21, where their first king, when he was elected, had nothing but she-asses. Thirty sons of Jair, princes of thirty cities, according to the text (Judges, x, 4), rode each upon an ass22. Saul, afterwards king of Judah, had only she-asses; and the sons of David all fled upon mules24 when Absalom had slain25 his brother Amnon. Absalom was mounted on a mule23 in the battle which he fought against his father’s troops; which proves, according to the Jewish historians, either that mares were beginning to be used in Palestine, or that they were already rich enough there to buy mules from the neighboring country.
The Greeks made but little use of cavalry. It was chiefly with the Macedonian phalanx that Alexander gained the battles which laid Persia at his feet. It was the Roman infantry26 that subjugated the greater part of the world. At the battle of Pharsalia, C?sar had but one thousand horsemen.
It is not known at what time the Indians and the Africans first began to march elephants at the head of their armies. We cannot read without surprise of Hannibal’s elephants crossing the Alps, which were much harder to pass then than they are now.
There have long been disputes about the disposition27 of the Greek and Roman armies, their arms, and their evolutions. Each one has given his plan of the battles of Zama and Pharsalia.
The commentator28 Calmet, a Benedictine, has printed three great volumes of his “Dictionary of the Bible,” in which, the better to explain God’s commandments, are inserted a hundred engravings, where you see plans of battles and sieges in copperplate. The God of the Jews was the God of armies, but Calmet was not His secretary; he cannot have known, but by revelation, how the armies of the Amalekites, the Moabites, the Syrians, and the Philistines29 were arranged on the days of general murder. These plates of carnage, designed at a venture, made his book five or six louis dearer, but made it no better.
It is a great question whether the Franks, whom the Jesuit Daniel calls French by anticipation30, used bows and arrows in their armies, and whether they had helmets and cuirasses.
Supposing that they went to combat almost naked, and armed, as they are said to have been, with only a small carpenter’s ax, a sword, and a knife, we must infer that the Romans, masters of Gaul, so easily conquered by Clovis, had lost all their ancient valor31, and that the Gauls were as willing to be subject to a small number of Franks as to a small number of Romans. Warlike accoutrements have since changed, as everything else changes.
In the days of knights, squires32, and varlets, the armed forces of Germany, France, Italy, England, and Spain consisted almost entirely33 of horsemen, who, as well as their horses, were covered with steel. The infantry performed the functions rather of pioneers than of soldiers. But the English always had good archers34 among their foot, which contributed, in a great measure, to their gaining almost every battle.
Who would believe that armies nowadays do but make experiments in natural philosophy? A soldier would be much astonished if some learned man were to say to him:
“My friend, you are a better machinist than Archimedes. Five parts of saltpetre, one of sulphur, and one of carbo ligneus have been separately prepared. Your saltpetre dissolved, well filtered, well evaporated, well crystallized, well turned, well dried, has been incorporated with the yellow purified sulphur. These two ingredients, mixed with powdered charcoal35, have, by means of a little vinegar, or solution of sal-ammoniac, or urine, formed large balls, which balls have been reduced in pulverem pyrium by a mill. The effect of this mixture is a dilatation, which is nearly as four thousand to unity36; and the lead in your barrel exhibits another effect, which is the product of its bulk multiplied by its velocity37.
“The first who discovered a part of this mathematical secret was a Benedictine named Roger Bacon. The invention was perfected, in Germany, in the fourteenth century, by another Benedictine named Schwartz. So that you owe to two monks the art of being an excellent murderer, when you aim well, and your powder is good.
“Du Cange has in vain pretended that, in 1338, the registers of the Chambre des Comptes, at Paris, mention a bill paid for gunpowder38. Do not believe it. It was artillery39 which is there spoken of — a name attached to ancient as well as to modern warlike machines.
“Gunpowder entirely superseded40 the Greek fire, of which the Moors41 still made use. In fine, you are the depositary of an art, which not only imitates the thunder, but is also much more terrible.”
There is, however, nothing but truth in this speech. Two monks have, in reality, changed the face of the earth.
Before cannon42 were known, the northern nations had subjugated nearly the whole hemisphere, and could come again, like famishing wolves, to seize upon the lands as their ancestors had done.
In all armies, the victory, and consequently the fate of kingdoms, was decided43 by bodily strength and agility44 — a sort of sanguinary fury — a desperate struggle, man to man. Intrepid45 men took towns by scaling their walls. During the decline of the Roman Empire there was hardly more discipline in the armies of the North than among carnivorous beasts rushing on their prey46.
Now a single frontier fortress47 would suffice to stop the armies of Genghis or Attila. It is not long since a victorious48 army of Russians were unavailably consumed before Cüstrin, which is nothing more than a little fortress in a marsh49.
In battle, the weakest in body may, with well-directed artillery, prevail against the stoutest50. At the battle of Fontenoy a few cannon were sufficient to compel the retreat of the whole English column, though it had been master of the field.
The combatants no longer close. The soldier has no longer that ardor51, that impetuosity, which is redoubled in the heat of action, when the fight is hand to hand. Strength, skill, and even the temper of the weapons, are useless. Rarely is a charge with the bayonet made in the course of a war, though the bayonet is the most terrible of weapons.
In a plain, frequently surrounded by redoubts furnished with heavy artillery, two armies advance in silence, each division taking with it flying artillery. The first lines fire at one another and after one another: they are victims presented in turn to the bullets. Squadrons at the wings are often exposed to a cannonading while waiting for the general’s orders. They who first tire of this man?uvre, which gives no scope for the display of impetuous bravery, disperse52 and quit the field; and are rallied, if possible, a few miles off. The victorious enemies besiege53 a town, which sometimes costs them more men, money, and time than they would have lost by several battles. The progress made is rarely rapid; and at the end of five or six years, both sides, being equally exhausted54, are compelled to make peace.
Thus, at all events, the invention of artillery and the new mode of warfare55 have established among the respective powers an equality which secures mankind from devastations like those of former times, and thereby56 renders war less fatal in its consequences, though it is still prodigiously57 so.
The Greeks in all ages, the Romans in the time of Sulla, and the other nations of the west and south, had no standing58 army; every citizen was a soldier, and enrolled59 himself in time of war. It is, at this day, precisely60 the same in Switzerland. Go through the whole country, and you will not find a battalion13, except at the time of the reviews. If it goes to war, you all at once see eighty thousand men in arms.
Those who usurped61 the supreme62 power after Sulla always had a permanent force, paid with the money of the citizens, to keep the citizens in subjection, much more than to subjugate9 other nations. The bishop63 of Rome himself keeps a small army in his pay. Who, in the time of the apostles, would have said that the servant of the servants of God should have regiments64, and have them in Rome?
Nothing is so much feared in England as a great standing army. The janissaries have raised the sultans to greatness, but they have also strangled them. The sultans would have avoided the rope, if instead of these large bodies of troops, they had established small ones.

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1
worthy
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adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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2
primitives
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原始人(primitive的复数形式) | |
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3
prodigy
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n.惊人的事物,奇迹,神童,天才,预兆 | |
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4
sufficiently
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adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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5
concurred
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同意(concur的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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6
abstaining
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戒(尤指酒),戒除( abstain的现在分词 ); 弃权(不投票) | |
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7
subjugation
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n.镇压,平息,征服 | |
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8
subjugated
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v.征服,降伏( subjugate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
subjugate
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v.征服;抑制 | |
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10
abhorrence
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n.憎恶;可憎恶的事 | |
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11
exterminate
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v.扑灭,消灭,根绝 | |
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12
battalions
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n.(陆军的)一营(大约有一千兵士)( battalion的名词复数 );协同作战的部队;军队;(组织在一起工作的)队伍 | |
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13
battalion
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n.营;部队;大队(的人) | |
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14
monks
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n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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15
Christians
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n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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16
knights
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骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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17
antiquity
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n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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18
cavalry
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n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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19
inundated
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v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 );(洪水般地)涌来;充满;给予或交予(太多事物)使难以应付 | |
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20
drawn
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v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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21
tract
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n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
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22
ass
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n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人 | |
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23
mule
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n.骡子,杂种,执拗的人 | |
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24
mules
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骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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25
slain
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杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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26
infantry
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n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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27
disposition
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n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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28
commentator
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n.注释者,解说者;实况广播评论员 | |
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29
philistines
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n.市侩,庸人( philistine的名词复数 );庸夫俗子 | |
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30
anticipation
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n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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31
valor
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n.勇气,英勇 | |
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32
squires
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n.地主,乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
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33
entirely
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ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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34
archers
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n.弓箭手,射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 ) | |
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35
charcoal
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n.炭,木炭,生物炭 | |
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36
unity
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n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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37
velocity
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n.速度,速率 | |
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38
gunpowder
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n.火药 | |
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39
artillery
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n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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40
superseded
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[医]被代替的,废弃的 | |
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41
moors
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v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42
cannon
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n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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43
decided
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adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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44
agility
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n.敏捷,活泼 | |
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45
intrepid
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adj.无畏的,刚毅的 | |
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46
prey
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n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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47
fortress
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n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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48
victorious
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adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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49
marsh
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n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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50
stoutest
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粗壮的( stout的最高级 ); 结实的; 坚固的; 坚定的 | |
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51
ardor
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n.热情,狂热 | |
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52
disperse
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vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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53
besiege
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vt.包围,围攻,拥在...周围 | |
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54
exhausted
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adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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55
warfare
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n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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56
thereby
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adv.因此,从而 | |
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57
prodigiously
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adv.异常地,惊人地,巨大地 | |
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58
standing
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n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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59
enrolled
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adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 );登记,招收,使入伍(或入会、入学等),参加,成为成员;记入名册;卷起,包起 | |
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60
precisely
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adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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61
usurped
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篡夺,霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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62
supreme
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adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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63
bishop
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n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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64
regiments
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(军队的)团( regiment的名词复数 ); 大量的人或物 | |
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