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.