Sun Tzu said:
Waging war requires
A thousand attack vehicles,
A thousand support vehicles,
A hundred thousand armor-clad troops,
And provisions to carry them a thousand miles.
The expenses at home and abroad,
The stipends for advisers and envoys,
Materials such as glue and paint,
The maintenance of vehicles and armor
Will amount to a thousand pieces of metal a day.
Such is the cost of raising a hundred thousand troops.
In battle the goal is victory.
If victory is slow in coming
Weapons grow dull
And zeal flags.
If you attack a city
Your strength will decline.
If hostilities drag on
The country's resources will not suffice.
When your weapons have dulled,
When your zeal has flagged,
When your strength has declined,
And your wealth has diminished,
Your foes will move in
And take advantage of your adversity.
Then even the wisest will not be able to avert the damage.
One hears of foolish haste in war,
But no one has yet seen a clever delay.
Those not fully knowing the harm the use of arms brings
Cannot know how to turn the use of arms to good account.
Those who are good at using the military
Do not conscript soldiers more than once
And do not transport provisions repeatedly.
They bring military equipment from home,
And get provisions from the enemy.
Thus they are able to feed the army.
A state is impoverished by the army
If supplies are transported far away.
Transporting supplies far away
Renders the people poor.
When the army is near
Things sell dearly.
When things sell dearly
People spend all they have.
When they have spent all they have
They find war levies harder to bear.
Thus the people's strength is depleted,
Their wealth drained away,
Their homes stripped bare
And seventy percent of their resources is gone.
And due to broken vehicles and worn-out horses,
Armor and helmets,
Crossbows and arrows,
Spears and shields,
Draft animals and heavy wagons,
Sixty percent of the government resources is gone.
Therefore
A wise general feeds his army off the enemy.
One measure of the enemy's food
Is worth twenty of your own.
One portion of the enemy's feed
Is worth twenty of your own.
Soldiers kill the enemy because the are enraged.
They seize the enemy's goods because they crave rewards.
So,
In chariot fighting,
When enemy chariots have been taken,
Reward the first soldier to capture the enemy vehicle.
Replace the enemy's flags with your own.
Mingle the captured vehicles with yours
And use them together.
Treat the captured soldiers well
And care for them
So that you can use them.
This is called:
"Defeating the enemy and becoming stronger."
In war
The goal is victory,
Not prolonged warfare.
The general who understands warfare
Is the arbiter of the people's fate,
And the protector of the state's security.
