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Watchtowers and barracks
The Great Wall also has watch towers at regular intervals, which were used to store weapons, house troops, and send smoke signals. Barracks and administrative centers are located at larger intervals.
Watchtower is the key part of the military construction. Very close to each other, brick towers in square are built atop the Wall. The watchtower could be 2-storyed or 3-storyed. On the top of the tower, there is a small room, which is in the shape of a ship. Known as Loulu in Chinese, the room is surrounded by batlements. The watchtower can be used to station soldiers or store food and weapons.
Qi Jiguang, a famous general in Ming Dynasty, had ever mentioned the specifications and layout of the watchtower in his On-the-Spot Record of Military Training. It describes the watchtower as the following: the watchtowers are about 10 to 12 meters high, 36 meters wide. They are built at a distance of every 10 or 100 footsteps at the key parts, and every 52, 140 or 200 footsteps at some other parts. Neighboring towers can support and reinforce each other during the war. The key parts refer to those parts of gentle slope and most likely to be attacked, thus more watchtowers are needed. Fewer watchtowers are needed on the parts of steep slope and less likely to be attacked. Even joint watchtowers are built at the strategic part of the Great Wall. One of the main passes of the Mutianyu section has 3 watchtowers jointly constructed with each other.
The watchtower can shelter soldiers from wind and rain, store weapons and prevent enemy from invading. Early walls were short and no shelter at all. So the soldiers were exposed in the air. There was even no storage room for weapons. Besides, if the invading troops were more than the commanding peaks and shoot at the wall, which would constitute the subsequent threat on defenders. Should one part of the wall be captured, other defending soldiers would be greatly discouraged and forced to withdraw. The construction of the watchtower perfectly solves the problem.
Communication between the army units along the length of the Great Wall, including the ability to call reinforcements and warn garrisons of enemy movements, was of high importance. Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.
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