作战篇

Sun Tzu said: In general, the method of employing the military is this: with a thousand swift chariots, a thousand heavy wagons, and a hundred thousand mailed soldiers, with provisions transported a thousand li, the expenditures at home and in the field, entertainment of guests, glue and lacquer for repairs, chariot and armor maintenance — a thousand pieces of gold per day before an army of one hundred thousand can be raised.

When the army is employed in war, victory should be achieved quickly. A protracted campaign will blunt weapons and dampen ardor. When attacking a city, one's strength will be exhausted. When the army is kept in the field for a long time, the nation's resources will be insufficient. When weapons are blunted, ardor dampened, strength exhausted, and resources depleted, the feudal lords will take advantage of your weakness and rise up. Even if wise counselors are present, they cannot devise a good outcome for the aftermath. Thus, I have heard of military operations that were clumsily swift but never of ones that were skillfully protracted. There has never been a case where a prolonged military campaign benefited the state.

One who does not fully know the disadvantages of employing the military cannot fully know the advantages of employing the military. Those skilled in warfare do not conscript soldiers a second time, nor do they transport provisions three times. Equipment is obtained from the homeland, but provisions are foraged from the enemy. Thus the army's food supply will be sufficient.

The reason a state is impoverished by military operations is the cost of transporting supplies over great distances. Distant transportation makes the people poor. Those near the army raise prices; high prices drain the people's wealth; drained of wealth, they are pressed by heavy levies. When strength is exhausted and wealth depleted, the interior of the homeland is left destitute. The people's expenses are reduced by seven-tenths. The government's expenses — broken-down chariots, worn-out horses, armor, helmets, arrows, crossbows, halberds, shields, draft oxen, and heavy wagons — are reduced by six-tenths.

Thus, the wise general strives to feed off the enemy. One zhong of food obtained from the enemy is equivalent to twenty zhong shipped from home. One shi of fodder from the enemy is equivalent to twenty shi from home.

Therefore, what motivates soldiers to kill the enemy is anger; what induces them to seize the enemy's goods is reward. In chariot combat, when ten or more enemy chariots are captured, reward the first to capture them, replace the enemy flags with your own, mix the captured chariots with yours, and treat the captured soldiers well. This is called defeating the enemy while growing stronger.

Thus, in war, what is valued is swift victory, not prolonged operations. The general who understands the military is the arbiter of the people's fate and the master of the nation's security.