.Chinese archeologist Shen Maosheng headed the third excavation of the Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang between 2009 and 2019. On January 2020, Xinhuanet announced Shen's team uncovered 200 more clay soldiers. Shen said most of the sculptures are either "holding pole weapons, bending their right arms with half clenched fists" or "carrying bows, with their right arms hanging naturally," indicating each soldier's own task within the army.

The excavation is about 750 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 16 feet deep, and in total there are more than 6,000 clay soldiers and horses. The carved armor on each of the newly discovered soldiers seems to indicate their rank, and Shen says, "the excavation expanded the study on the military service system and military equipment of the Qin Dynasty, which also provided new ideas for the research on the artistic style, characteristics and manufacturing techniques of figurines in the period." 

During his reign, Emperor Qin not only defeated armies in six states of China, he massacred them. As a result, he feared the military from these states would pursue him into the afterlife, so he built his Terracotta Army. One of the reasons the Terracotta Army looks east is because it faces the direction an enemy would likely come from to attack the underground mausoleum.

After he took the Qin State throne in 246 BCE, Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the Terracotta Army to be built. Over 700,000 laborers spent 40 years working day and night to finish the soldiers and the tomb. The workers molded the legs, arms, torsos, and heads, which were then assembled together. Many laborers and artisans died during construction, some possibly executed to keep the location of the tomb and treasures a secret.

When the work was finally completed in 206 BC, Qin had already been dead for four years. ~ Ref: ranker.com