Armed Contest

The Art Of War Teaches-

Master Sun said:
The Art of using troops is this:
In the process of the commander's receiving his orders from the ruler, assembling his armies, mobilizing the population for war, and setting up his camp facing the enemy, there is nothing of comparable difficulty to the armed contest itself. What is difficult in the armed contest is to turn the long and torturous route into direct, and to turn adversity into advantage. Thus, making the enemy's road long and torturous, lure him along it by baiting him with easy gains. Set out after he does, yet arrive before him. This is to understand the tactic of converting the tortuous and the direct.
Armed contest can be both a source of advantage and of danger. If you mobilize your entire force to contend for some advantage, you arrive too late; if you abandon your base camp to contend for your advantage, your equipment and stores will be lost. For this reason, if an army were to stow its armor and set off in haste, and stopping neither day or night, force-march at double time for a hundred miles to contend for some advantage, its commanders would all be taken, its strongest men would be out in front, the exhausted ones would lag behind, and as a rule only one tenth of its strength would reach the target.
Were it to travel 50 miles at such pace to contend for some advantage, the commander of the advance force would be lost, and as a rule only half of its strength would reach the target. Were it to travel 30 miles at such a pace to contend for some advantage, only 2/3rd of its strength would reach the target. For this reason, if an army is without its equipment and stores, it will perish; if it is without its material support, it will perish.







Therefore, in warfare rely on deceptive maneuvers to establish your ground, calculate advantages in deciding your movements, and divide up and consolidate your forces to make your strategic changes.
Thus, advancing at a pace, such an army is like the wind; slow and majestic, like the forest; invading and plundering, it is like a fire; sedentary, it is like a mountain; unpredictable, it is like a shadow; moving, it is like lightning and thunder.





HE WHO FIRST UNDERSTANDS THE TACTIC OF CONVERTING THE TORTUOUS AND THE DIRECT WILL TAKE THE VICTORY. THIS IS THE ART OF ARMED CONTEST.

Pretext

Remember remember the 4Th of September,
For the havoc it would wreak,
Forever and ever a man will wonder,
Would this grief never cease,
No longer will slumber,
The rage from treason,
And the judgement it would confer,
And do shall he against his wishes,
That this anguish no longer make him weak,
If penance is all that the man can conjure,
Then that is what he shall seek......