1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war,

where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots,

as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand

mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them

a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front,

including entertainment of guests, small items such as

glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor,

will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day.

Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory

is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and

their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town,

you will exhaust your strength.

3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources

of the State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped,

your strength exhausted and your treasure spent,

other chieftains will spring up to take advantage

of your extremity. Then no man, however wise,

will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,

cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited

from prolonged warfare.

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted

with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand

the profitable way of carrying it on.

8. The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy,

neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.

9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage

on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough

for its needs.

10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army

to be maintained by contributions from a distance.

Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes

the people to be impoverished.

11. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes

prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's

substance to be drained away.

12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry

will be afflicted by heavy exactions.

13,14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion

of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare,

and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated;

while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses,

breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields,

protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons,

will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue.

15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging

on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions

is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise

a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty

from one's own store.

16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must

be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from

defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.

17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots

have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first.

Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,

and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours.

The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.

18. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment

one's own strength.

19. In war, then, let your great object be victory,

not lengthy campaigns.

20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies

is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it

depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.

III. Attack by Stratagem

1. Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best

thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact;

to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is

better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it,

to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire

than to destroy them.

2. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles

is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists

in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to

balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent

the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in

order is to attack the enemy's army in the field;

and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

4. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it

can possibly be avoided. The preparation of mantlets,

movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take

up three whole months; and the piling up of mounds over

against the walls will take three months more.

5. The general, unable to control his irritation,

will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants,

with the result that one-third of his men are slain,

while the town still remains untaken. Such are the disastrous