style="font-size:15px;"> 1. Sun Tzŭ said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign[9].
2. After creating an army and concentrating his forces, he must blend and harmonise the different elements of it before setting up his camp.
3. After that, comes tactical maneuvering. This is the most difficult thing. The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the indirect into the direct, and misfortune into fortune.
4. Thus, taking a long and roundabout route and making the enemy go out of the way shows knowledge of the art of deviation. This knowledge helps to reach the goal before your enemy even if you started after him.
5. Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude[10], most dangerous.
6. If you send a fully equipped army to march[11] in order to snatch an advantage, you probably will be too late. On the other hand, you have to sacrifice your baggage and stores to detach a flying column[12] so it can move quickly.
7. Thus, if you order your men to roll up their buff-coats[13], and make forced marches without resting day or night, covering double the usual distance at a stretch, doing a hundred li in order to gain an advantage, the leaders of all your three divisions will fall into the hands of the enemy.
8. The stronger men will be in front, the exhausted ones will fall behind, and on this plan only one-tenth of your army will reach its destination.
9. If you march fifty li in order to overtake the enemy, you will lose the leader of your first division, and only half your force will reach the goal.
10. If you march thirty li with the same object, two-thirds of your army will arrive.
11. We may take it then that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.
12. We cannot enter into alliances until we learn the plans of our neighbours.
13. We can’t lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country-its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps.
14. We won’t be able to benefit from natural advantages unless we use of local guides.
15. In war, practise pretense, and you will succeed. Move only if there is a real advantage to be gained.
16. Concentrate or divide your troops depending on circumstances.
17. Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your compactness that of the forest.
18. In raiding and destroying be like fire, in immovability like a mountain.
19. Let your plans be dark and dense as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
20. When you rob a countryside, let the plunder be divided among your men; when you capture new territory, cut it up into parts for the benefit[14] of the soldiery.
21. Weigh and think before you make a move.
22. He will win who has learnt the art of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.
23. The Book of Army Management says: On the field of battle, the spoken word are too quiet: hence the need of gongs and drums. Nor are ordinary objects seen clearly enough: hence the need of banners and flags.
24. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point.
25. The host must form a single united body so it is impossible for the brave to advance alone, or for the cowardly to retreat alone. This is the art of handling large masses of men.
26. Use signal-fires and drums in night-fighting, and flags and banners in day-fighting. Thus you will influence the ears and eyes of your army.
27. A whole army may be robbed of its spirit; a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind
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