2 Waging War 作战
Resources and Subsistence
Main ideas:
- Subsistence on the enemy’s resources 智将务食于敌
- Swift and decisive victory as objective in war 兵贵胜，不贵久
The second chapter in The Art of War reminds readers that war is a major undertaking with irreversible implications. It should be embarked upon only with a good understanding of its requirements and consequences.
War consumes significant resources. These include initial investments in weaponry and drafts to form an army, and continuous investments to maintain the standing army. The costs incurred are wide ranging, from diplomacy 宾客之用 to equipment maintenance 胶漆之材 and do not lend themselves to accurate prediction. At the same time, these cannot be fully avoided as they influence the outcome of war, and of people’s life and death.
The Art of War hence cautions against unnecessary, protracted conflict that drains material resources and wears down resolve of its people. A state at war weakens over time as it consumes resources which could be invested in otherwise productive undertakings. Furthermore, the state’s vulnerability disrupts the balance of power and opens it to the schemes of other parties plotting against it.
These realities demand a subsistence strategy that minimises one’s investments and uses instead her opponent’s resources. One therefore takes the fight into her opponent’s territory to capitalise on seized resources as her forces advance. This, and the economic and social disruption on the occupied territory exerts twice the toll on the opponent, weakening her as the conflict wages on. The relative total value of the enemy’s resources, including the opportunity costs, is worth many times more than one’s own.
An army hence must conquer and occupy enemy territory. This strategy is effected through a regimented system of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to maintain the one’s fighting spirit while undermining the opponent’s will.
The leader provides a narrative, or raison d’être (道), to drum up morale and anger in her soldiers and direct its violent release on the enemy. Spoils of war are presented as rewards to soldiers and enemy soldiers are subjected to negative propaganda and encouraged to switch loyalties.
The primary objective of war, if absolutely necessary, is hence to strive for a quick and decisive victory, minimising attrition and suffering of one’s forces.
孙子曰：
凡用兵之法，驰车千驷，革车千乘，带甲十万，千里馈粮。
则内外之费，宾客之用，胶漆之材，车甲之奉，日费千金，
然后十万之师举矣。
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.其用战也贵胜，久则钝兵挫锐，
攻城则力屈，久暴师则国用不足。
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. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.夫钝兵挫锐，屈力殚货，则诸侯乘其弊而起，虽有智者不能善其后矣。
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.故兵闻拙速，未睹巧之久也。夫兵久而国利者，未之有也。
Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.故不尽知用兵之害者，则不能尽知用兵之利也。
It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.善用兵者，
役不再籍，粮不三载，
取用于国，因粮于敌，
故军食可足也。
The skillful soldier
does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.
Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.
Thus the army will have food enough for its needs.国之贫于师者远输，远输则百姓贫；
近师者贵卖，贵卖则百姓财竭，
财竭则急于丘役。
Poverty of the State exchequer (is) causes(d) (by) an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.
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.
When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions.力屈、财殚，中原、内虚于家，
百姓之费，十去其七；公家之费，破军罢马，
甲胄矢弓，戟盾矛橹，丘牛大车，十去其六。
When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions.
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.故智将务食于敌，
食敌一钟，当吾二十钟；
萁秆一石，当吾二十石。
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.故杀敌者，怒也；
取敌之利者，货也。
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.故车战得车十乘以上，赏其先得者而更其旌旗。
车杂而乘之，
卒善而养之，
是谓胜敌而益强。
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.
This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength.故兵贵胜，不贵久。
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.故知兵之将，民之司命。国家安危之主也。
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.Translation by Lionel Giles
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