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VOLUME TWO
Fighting for Military Advantage
Top. Part 42. Part 43. Part 44. Part 45. Part 46. Part 47. Part 48. Part 49
Part 42
Sun Tzu said: In military operations the general
receives his commands from the sovereign, then he
assembles soldiers to form units, and mobilizes them to
confront the enemy. During the whole process nothing is
more difficult than to fight for a favourable position with
the enemy.
The reason why it is most difficult is that the general
must make a circuitous route direct and turn disadvantage
into advantage. He can deceive the enemy by taking a devious route and tempt the enemy with a bait, so that his
own troops arrive at the battle ground earlier, though they
set out later than the enemy. Only doing this can he know
the artifice of "making a circuitous route direct."
Part 43
There is not only advantage but also danger in fighting for a favourable position. If you strive for a favourable
position in battle, bringing along the whole impedimenta,
naturally, you will be slowed down. If you leave the impedimenta behind, naturally, it will be lost.
So if your army buckles on armour and hastily makes
for a favourable position in battle, stopping neither day
nor night and marching at double speed, as a result, after
running a hundred li, the main generals of the army will
be captured; those who are strong and vigorous will get
there first, those who are feeble and tired will straggle behind. In this way, only one-tenth of the army will arrive on
time. If they run fifty li to pursue a favourable position,
the general of the vanguards will suffer setbacks, and only
half of the army will arrive there on time. If they run thirty
li to fight for a good position, only two-thirds will arrive.
Everyone knows that the army will be defeated by the
enemy if it has no impedimenta, food and military provisions.
Part 44
The offensive one takes can be so strong that the enemy cannot defend just because one strikes at the enemy's
weak point. One can withdraw without being overtaken by
the enemy just because one moves so swiftly that the enemy cannot pursue. If we intend to fight, the enemy,
though holding fast to his position with ramparts high and
ditches deep, is compelled to fight with us because we attack where he must succour. If we do not intend to fight
with him, even though we set up little defence, the enemy
will not intrude upon us because we divert him from going
where he wishes.
Part 37
A commander who does not understand the plots and
schemes of the princes cannot enter into alliances with
them. He who is not familiar with different topographical
features of mountains and forests, hazardous defiles,
marshes and swamps cannot conduct the march of an
army. He who does not hire local guides cannot gain a
favourable position for battle.
Part 44/a>
A commander who does not understand the plots and
schemes of the princes cannot enter into alliances with
them. He who is not familiar with different topographical
features of mountains and forests, hazardous defiles,
marshes and swamps cannot conduct the march of an
army. He who does not hire local guides cannot gain a
favourable position for battle.
Part 45
In military operations, you may gain victory with military stratagem, you should take action when conditions are
favourable, and you may divide or concentrate the army
according to circumstances. So you should be as swift as
strong wind while taking action; you should be as stable as
silent forests which the wind cannot shake while you move
slowly; you should be as fierce and violent as raging flames
while raiding the enemy's state; you should be as firm as
high mountains while being stationed there; you should be
as inscrutable as something behind the clouds, and you
should strike as suddenly as thunderclap. You must divide
your forces and plunder the enemy's countryside, and separate them for the defence of the newly captured territory.
You must weigh the pros and cons before you move. He
who masters the tactic of deviation first will win victory.
This is how to fight for military advantage.
Part 46
The book Military Management says, 'Gongs and
drums are used in battle because voices are not heard;
banners and flags are used because soldiers cannot see
one another clearly.'
Accordingly, they usually use gongs, drums, flags and
banners as instruments to unify the army.
When the soldiers have been unified, the courageous
cannot advance alone, and the cowardly cannot retreat by
himself. This is the rule for directing a large army.
So fires and drums are usually used as signals in night
battles, while banners and flags are employed in day
battles. What it does is just to adapt to the soldiers' ability
to hear and to see.
Part 47
You should deflate the enemy's fighting spirit and
shake the general's morale. Normally, at the beginning of
war the spirit of the enemy is keen and irresistible. A certain period later, it will decline and slacken. In the final
stages of war it will become feeble, and the soldiers are in
no mood to fight.
Part 48
The skilful commander always avoids the enemy
when his morale is high and irresistible, and attacks him
when he is slack, tired and reluctant to fight. If he does so
he can master the soldiers' morale. He keeps a highly
disciplined army to fight the confused enemy army, and
confronts the clamorous enemy troops with his own troops
in serenity. If he does so, he can have a good grasp of the
soldiers' morale. He takes his troops close to the battlefield to wait for the enemy still coming from afar, leads his
troops that has had a full rest against the exhausted enemy, and brings his well-fed troops upon the enemy
soldiers that are hungry. If he does this, he has good control of military strength.
The skilful commander never meets a head-on enemy
that lines up in good order with banners high, nor attacks
an enemy with battle formation strong and impressive.
This shows that he has a clear understanding of the flexible use of tactics.
Part 49
Here are some principles of military operations.
Never launch an upward attack on the enemy who
occupies high ground; nor meet the enemy head-on when
there are hills backing him; nor follow on his heels in hot
pursuit when he pretends to flee; nor attack troops that
are fresh and strong. Never swallow a bait offered by the
enemy, nor thwart the enemy that withdraws from the
front. To a surrounded enemy you should leave a way for
his escape, and do not press too hard the enemy that is in
a desperate corner. Such are the ways of military
operations.
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