Combat A general rule for military operations calls for a thousand chariots, a thousand leather-covered wagons, a hundred thousand armored troops, and provisions for several hundred miles. Thus internal and external expenses, including the needs of ambassadors and advisors, materials such as glue and lacquer, and maintenance of vehicles and armor, costs a thousand pieces of gold a day; only thus can you mobilize a force of a hundred thousand troops. In actual combat, what is important is to win; go on too long, and you blunt your troops and snap your edge. Besiege a citadel, and your strength is depleted; keep an army in the field too long, and the resources of the nation will be insufficient. When you blunt your troops, snap your edge, deplete your strength, and exhaust your resources, rivals will arise to take advantage of your predicament. Then it will be impossible to effect a good ending, even with knowledge. Therefore in military affairs we may hear of being clumsy but swift, while we never see the skillful prolonging an action. This is because a nation never benefits from prolonging a military action. So those who are not completely aware of drawbacks of military action cannot be completely aware of advantages in military action. Those who use militias skillfully do not draft conscripts twice or ship provisions over and over; taking necessities from the nation and feeding off opponents, the army can thus be sufficiently fed. The reason that nations are impoverished by their armies is that those who send their armies far away ship goods far away, and when goods are shipped far away, the farmers grow poor. Those who are near the army sell dear, and because of high prices money runs out. When the money runs out, there is increased pressure to appropriate things for military use. Exhausting the heartland, draining the households, this takes up seventy percent of the peasants’ expenses. As for the expenses of the government, the ruined chariots, the horses rendered useless, the armor and weaponry, the oxen and transport vehicles take up sixty percent. This is why a wise leader strives to feed off the enemy. The amount of the enemy’s food you eat is equivalent to twenty times that amount of your own food; the amount of the enemy’s fodder you use is equivalent to twenty times that amount of your own fodder. So what gets opponents killed is anger, what gets you the advantage over opponents is the spoils. Thus, in a chariot battle, when your side has captured at least ten chariots, award them to the first to make a capture; change the flags and use the chariots together with yours, treating the soldiers well and providing for them. This is called overcoming an opponent and growing even stronger. So in a military operation what is important is to prevail; it is not good to prolong it. Thus a leader who commands a militia knowledgeably has the fate of the people in his hands; the safety or danger of the nation is up to him. ( THE SILVER SPARROW ART OF WAR aka The Lost Art of War by Sun Tzu II )
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 01:38:23 +0000
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