Six years into the campaign, however, Mehmed Ali received a report which was most alarming regarding deserters. It said that as many as 60,000 men had gone missing from the army in addition to 20,000 from the navy! Bearing in mind that the army could not have been larger than 130,000, this means that for every two conscripts, one soldier managed to desert.

Builds on: "Conscripts universally resisted through desertion and self-inflicted wounds."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1306