Continuity mistake: When the matchmaker grabs Mulan's hand her palm is shown to be covered in ink. She then unwittingly paints herself a goatee. However, immediately after this she grabs the teapot's handle but no ink rubs off onto it. The ink miraculously disappears from her palm as well.
Other mistake: When Crickie is typing the letter for Mushu he has ink on his feet yet when he jumps on the table to wipe off his feet there aren't any ink footprints where his foot was.
Continuity mistake: The wagon, which is full of explosives, is on fire, so Mulan cuts Kahn (the horse) free with her sword and jumps onto Khan. She starts to ride away, while she holds the reins in her left hand and the sword with her right hand, up in the air. The wagon explodes and in the next shot, she still holds the reins in her left hand, though the sword, still in midair in her right hand, is now actually in its sheath, which is always attached to the left side of her belt. Some arrows are missing on the ground as well. Then her sheathed sword lands on the ground beside her. (00:53:45)
Continuity mistake: After finding out that Mulan left, the father picks up the comb and it is facing in a different direction from before.
Continuity mistake: In the avalanche scene the guys use a bow and arrow to save Mulan, the rope changes lengths from when they throw it to when they are pulling them up.
Other mistake: In the scene where Mulan ties up her hair after she has already cut it, she just wraps the ribbon around her hair and pulls. The way she did it would make her hair fall out.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie when Fa Zhou gets the conscription notice, look how big it is. Over the course of the film, it changes size several times.
Continuity mistake: When Chien-Po causes everyone to fall down, rice flies out of the bowls of the people who were waiting in line for food, though their bowls were empty.
Deliberate mistake: During the movie, when Mulan is just a girl, you can see that her eyelashes extend beyond her eyes. When she is pretending to be a boy, her eyelashes are short (this makes perfect sense). But when she is in the medical tent her eyelashes are long even though she had no time to put on makeup. This is deliberate though, because without it she would have still looked like a boy, and just pulling her hair down wouldn't make her look any different (since that's how she looked in the pond). So they had to change her eyelashes to make her look more girlish.
Continuity mistake: In the final battle scene, Mulan has her ribbon around the wire to begin sliding down, but then decides against it. The next shot of her running toward a fallen knight, there is no ribbon visible. Also, the giant sword mark that was left after she cut down the wire has vanished.
Continuity mistake: When Mushu is holding the Great Stone Dragon's stone head it looks different than when the statue was whole.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mulan takes off her makeup, she brings her arm up and wipes it off but she doesn't really ever touch her ears yet they suddenly don't have any makeup on them.
Continuity mistake: When Yao slides down the post, he scrapes off some of the wood with his teeth. In all the following shots, the post is intact again.
Continuity mistake: When the girls are dressing Mulan they tie a cloth around her waist, and when they pull the knot it's first in front then when it is fully pulled it's in the back.
Continuity mistake: When all the ladies are helping to prepare Mulan for the matchmaker, one of them pushes Mulan into the bath. She drops water on top of Mulan's head and magically has shampoo in her hands before she applies it.
Continuity mistake: When Mulan returns home after embarrassing herself and the MatchMaker, Mulan wipes the makeup from her face but none is seen on her sleeve.
Continuity mistake: After Mulan is done singing "Reflection" she sits down on a bench and suddenly her lips are darker than in the shot when she takes off the lipstick.
Continuity mistake: When Mulan embraces her father at the end, the flower petals on the ground have changed position from before.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mulan is fighting over the cup of tea with the matchmaker, she falls backward and her scarf falls off, yet when the table breaks it's nowhere to be seen.
Factual error: During the morning training session, Shang shot an arrow to the top of the pole so his soldiers can get it, but the arrow is stuck in a horizontal position. A difficult position to achieve, for someone shooting an arrow from below. Even if the arrow hit the pole at such a point in its arc, its kinetic energy would be at its weakest, preventing it from boring into the pole.
Answer: For the reasons stated. He believes him to be a highly competent soldier and trainer. While this opinion is probably influenced by Li Shang being his son, it does prove to be correct, as Li Shang's training is what allows the small group to succeed in battling the Huns.