The great khan has a council of war, composed of twelve barons, as formerly mentioned, who direct all martial affairs, and have the power of promoting or disgracing officers and soldiers as they think proper.  Their office is called Thai, or the high court or tribunal, as no person in the empire is superior to them except the great khan.  Other twelve barons are appointed as counsellors for the thirty-four provinces, into which the vast empire of the khan is divided; these have a splendid palace in Cambalu as their office, in which there is a judge for each province, and many notaries.  This tribunal chooses proper persons to be appointed governors of the provinces, and presents their names to the khan for confirmation.  They likewise have the charge of the collection and expenditure of the public treasure.  The name of their office is Singh, or the second court, which is subordinate only to the khan, yet is considered as less noble than the Thai or military tribunal.

Many public roads lead from Cambalu to all the neighbouring provinces; and on every one of these there are inns or lodgings, called lambs, built at the distance of every twenty-five or thirty miles, which serve as post-houses, having large fair courts, and many chambers, furnished with beds and provisions, every way fit to lodge and entertain great men, and even kings.  The provisions are furnished from the circumjacent country, out of the tributes.  At every one of these, there are four hundred horses, two hundred of which are kept ready for use in the stables, and the other two hundred at grass, each division for a month alternately.  These horses are destined for the use of ambassadors and messengers, who leave their tired horses, and get fresh ones at every stage.  In mountainous places, where there were no villages, the khan has established colonies of about ten thousand people in each, in the neighbourhood of these post-houses, that they may cultivate the ground, and supply provisions.  These excellent regulations extend to the utmost limits of the empire, in all directions, so that there are about ten thousand imperial inns or lambs in the whole empire; and the number of horses appointed in these, for the service of messengers, exceeds two hundred thousand[2]; by which means, intelligence is forwarded to the court without delay, from all parts of the empire.  If any person should wonder how so many beasts and men can be procured and provided for, let him consider that the Mahometans and pagans have many women, and great numbers, of children, some having even so many as thirty sons, all able to follow them armed into the field.  As for victuals, they sow rice, panik, and millet, which yield an hundred after one, and they allow no land that is fit to carry crops to remain uncultivated.  As wheat does not thrive in this country it is little sown, and they use no bread, but feed upon the formerly mentioned grains, boiled in milk, or made into broth along with flesh.