Waging War 194
Sun Tzǔ 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, 195 with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li , 196 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. 197 Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men. 198
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. 199 If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. 200
Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. 201
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. 202
Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays. 203
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. 204
It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on. 205
The skilful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice. 206
Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough for its needs. 207
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. 208
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. 209
When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions. 210
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; 211 while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses, breastplates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields, protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons, will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue. 212
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. 213
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. 214
Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first. 215 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.
This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. 216
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. 217