Sun Tzu's Art of War for Women. Catherine Huang

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      Attack that which he values most. Maintain a flexible timetable for battles; assess and react to the enemy so as to plan your strategy.

      At first, exhibit the coyness of a shy maiden, until the enemy provides an opening; then run as swiftly as a hare. The enemy will not be able to understand you or oppose you.

      

12: Attack by Fire

       Sun Tzu wrote:

      There are five ways to attack with fire. The first is to burn soldiers in their camp; the second is to burn the enemy’s provisions; the third is to burn their supply trains; the fourth is to burn their armories; and the fifth is to burn their transportation facilities.

      Carrying out an incendiary attack necessitates the proper means and conditions. Incendiary materials should be prepared and kept in readiness.

      Certain seasons are more opportune to initiate attack by fire, and certain days are ideal to ignite them. These are when the weather is driest, and the best days are when the moon is in the constellations of the Sieve (chi), Wall (pi), Wing (i) or Cross-bar (chen), for these four are the days of rising wind.

      In attacking with fire, you must be prepared for five possible developments:

      1. When a fire starts inside to enemy’s camp, respond at once with an attack from outside.

      2. If a fire starts but the enemy’s soldiers remain quiet, wait without attacking.

      3. When the flames have reached their highest point, attack if possible; otherwise remain where you are.

      4. If it an assault with fire can be made from outside, do not wait for it to happen on the inside, but deliver your attack at the most favorable moment.

      5. Start the fire from the upwind side; do not attack from downwind.

      A wind that rises in the daytime will last, but a night breeze will soon fail.

      An army should be aware of the five possible developments of fire so they can defend against them during the appropriate seasons and days. The ability to use fire as an aid to the attack is enlightened, and using water as an aid to the attack adds strength. Water can be used to isolate the enemy, but not to capture their supplies.

      Winning battles and attacking successfully without exploiting gains is wasteful and stagnating. Thus it is said that the enlightened general lays his plans well ahead, and the good general cultivates his success.

      Move only if you perceive an advantage; do not use your troops unless there is something to be gained; do not fight unless the position is critical. A ruler should not send forth his troops merely out of personal anger; and a general should not engage in battle out of frustration. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.

      Anger can give way to joy, annoyance to contentment. But a kingdom once destroyed cannot be restored; nor can the dead be brought back to life.

      Hence the enlightened ruler is cautious, and the good general respectful. This is the way to keep the state at peace and the army intact.

13: Using Spies

       Sun Tzu wrote:

      Raising an army of a hundred thousand men and sending them a thousand li will wreak a heavy toll upon the people and drain the resources of the State. The daily expense will run a thousand pieces of gold. Seven hundred thousand families will be interrupted from their farm work on both sides of the border, and men will fall exhausted along the road.

      Hostile armies will confront one another for years, striving for a victory to be decided in a single day. If a general begrudges the expense of a hundred pieces of gold and thus remains in ignorance of the enemy’s condition, he is devoid of humanity. Such a man is not a general for the people, no help to his ruler, nor a master of victory.

      Wise rulers and competent generals are able to strike, conquer, and achieve results beyond the ordinary due to advance knowledge. This cannot be gained from the supernatural, inferred from experience, nor deduced by calculation. Information on the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from men who have this knowledge.

      Five different types of spies may be employed, including native, internal, converted, expendable, and surviving:

      1. Native: people from among the enemy;

      2. Internal: enemy officials;

      3. Converted: double-agents converted from the enemy’s agents;

      4. Expendable: one’s own agents who are fed false information to pass on to the enemy;

      5. Surviving: those who return with their information.

       Spying

      When these spies are put to work at the same time, this “spiritual manipulation” is the ruler’s most precious resource. Thus it is that of all military affairs, no relationship is more intimate than that with spies; none more liberally rewarded, and no arrangements more secret.

      Spies cannot be usefully employed without the wisdom of a sage, and cannot be managed without generosity benevolence and humanity. Without subtlety and perception, the validity of their reports cannot be properly evaluated and put to use.

      This is subtle, subtle work; for spies are used in every kind of situation. If a secret piece of news becomes exposed before its time, the spy and all whom he informed must be put to death.

      Whether your objective is to attack an army, storm a city, or assassinate individual people, you must first learn the names of the commander, his assistants, staff, bodyguards and sentries. You need to send your spies to obtain this information.

       Enemy Spies

      Seek out the opposition’s spies; tempt them with bribes, and then provide instruction and retraining. This is how double agents are obtained and employed. Through their information we can then recruit and employ both local and internal spies. And through the information they provide, our expendable spies can misinform the enemy with false details; and our surviving spies can also be employed as needed.

      The purpose of spying in its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy, which can only be derived from converted spies. For this reason, these double agents must be treated with the greatest generosity.

      In former times, the rise of the Yin dynasty was enabled by I Chih, who had served under the Hsia. Likewise, the rise of the Chou dynasty was due to Lu Ya, who served under the Yin.

      Thus it is that the enlightened ruler and the wise general who employ highly intelligent spies are able to achieve great results. Spies are a vital element in warfare, because the military depends on them to make their moves.

      Footnotes

¹ Approximately 500 kilometers, or 310 miles today (a bit less in ancient times)

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