Art of War Collection

Chapter 16: Real and imaginary articles

Views:

〔Cao Cao said: You can imaginary and real yourself. 〕

Sun Tzu said: Those who are on the battlefield first and wait for the battle are lost,

〔Cao Cao said: There is more than enough power. 〕

Those who fought back on the battlefield worked hard.

Therefore, those who are good at war are good to people but not to people.

Those who can make the enemy come by themselves are also profitable;

[Cao Cao said: It is also to lure them to profit. 〕

Whatever can make the enemy out of reach will also harm it.

[Cao Cao said: Go beyond what you want, and you will save you when you attack. 〕

So the lost enemy can do it,

[Cao Cao said: trouble with things. 〕

Those who are full of hunger,

〔Cao Cao said: His food is absolutely perfect. 〕

(An Nengdongzhi)

[Cao Cao said: Attack his love, go beyond the trend, so that the enemy has no choice but to save him. ] Because of its inevitable trend; travel thousands of miles without fear, travel in no one's land.

〔Cao Cao said: Go out of the air and hit the void, avoid where it is guarded, and hit it unexpectedly. 〕If you attack, you must take, and you will not defend what you want; if you defend, you must be solid, and you must attack what you want. Therefore, those who are good at attacking, the enemy does not know what to defend; those who are good at defending, the enemy does not know what to attack.

〔Cao Cao said: Love is not let down. 〕

It is very small, so it can be hidden from the normal form; it is supernatural, so it can be the enemy's life.

Those who cannot be greeted in advance will rush to the emptiness; those who cannot be stopped are far away and beyond reach.

〔Cao Cao said: The soldiers are slack in attacking them, and they are also sick and retreated. 〕

Therefore, I want to fight. Although the enemy has a high base and a deep ditch, I have to fight against those who fight with me. He must save him. [Cao Cao said: Never have his way of food, defend his way back, and attack his monarch. 〕I don’t want to fight, I paint the ground and guard it, [Cao Cao said: The army does not want to be annoying. 〕

Those who can't fight with us will do what they want.

〔Cao Cao said: Be good and be rude. Defeating the way, showing interest and making the enemy suspicious. ] Therefore, those who are good at generals are invisible and invisible, so we are dedicated and the enemy is divided. I am dedicated to one, and the enemy is divided into ten. It is a ten strike.

I am few and the enemy is many: if I can fight with the few, the place I fight is unknown, and the enemy has many preparations; when there are many preparations, the fight is few.

Those who are prepared for the former are widows, those who are prepared for the latter are widows; those who are prepared for the left are those who are right, and those who are prepared for the right are left and widows. The widowed, the one who prepares others; the multitude, the one who prepares others for themselves.

[Cao Cao said: If you hide the enemy's suspicion in the form, then separate the others to prepare for me. ] The day of knowledge war, the land of knowledge war, fight for thousands of miles; [Cao Cao said: to measure the day of war knowing emptiness. 〕

If you don’t know the day of the battle or the place of the battle, the front cannot save the rear, the rear cannot save the front, the left cannot save the right, and the right cannot save the left; the distance is dozens of miles away, and the near ones can be mile away? With my help, though there are many more soldiers, it is also a taunt to win!

[Cao Cao said: The more people get together, they are ignorant. Or: Wu Yue, Yu Guoye. ] Therefore, it is said: Victory can be good; if the enemy is many, there is no fight. So accumulate to know the truth of movement, form to know the place of death and life, plan to know the gains and losses, and to know the deficiencies.

[Cao Cao said: The angle, the amount. 〕

The extreme form of a soldier is as invisible; then the deep world can see it, and the wise can do it.

It is better than others because of the shape, and the public can’t know,

[Cao Cao said: Victory because of the enemy's form. 〕

Everyone knows the shape of my victory, but no one knows the shape of my victory.

〔Cao Cao said: Don’t win over ten thousand forms with one form. Or: I don’t know. The winner, everyone knows that I win, and never knows that I win because of the enemy. ] Therefore, it is no longer defeated, but should be infinite.

〔Cao Cao said: Don’t repeat the action, but should do it. 〕

The image of the husband and the soldier is water: the water runs, avoiding heights and stepping down; the soldiers win, avoiding the reality and attacking the void. Therefore, the water is governed by the ground, and the soldiers are defeated by the enemy.

Soldiers have no power, no permanent form, and can be transformed into enemies. They are called gods.

[Cao Cao said: The prosperity must decline, and the appearance must be defeated. Therefore, because of the change of the enemy, victory is like a god. 〕The five elements have no constant victory, and the four seasons are impermanent; the day has short and long, and the month has death and life.

[Cao Cao said: Soldiers are often weak, and they shrink with the enemy. 〕

[Translation]

Sun Tzu said: The army that first occupy the battlefield should be calm and active in the battle; the army that arrives at the battlefield later will be fatigued and passive in the battle. Therefore, those who are good at commanding battles are always the first to suppress the enemy instead of being suppressed by the enemy.

Being able to make the enemy take the initiative to take the bait will have a combat advantage; when the enemy deviates from our expectations, it will lose the advantage. Therefore, mastering these can make the enemy unable to rest and march overnight; if the enemy is well-trained, try to make it hungry; if the enemy does not move, try to mobilize them.

To fight the enemy in unexpected places. The reason for marching thousands of miles without being trapped is because there are no enemies around. Every attack inevitably wins victory, because the attack is where the enemy has no defense. The defense is consolidated because the enemy dare not attack. Therefore, a general who is good at offensive and defensive, his enemies do not know where to attack.

This is really subtle! It's so subtle that it can hardly be seen with the naked eye; it's amazing! So that I didn't realize the slightest change. In this way, the fate of the enemy can be fully controlled. When attacking, the enemy was unable to resist because it happened to hit the enemy's weak defense; when retreating, the enemy was unable to pursue it because the marching speed was too fast for the enemy to catch up. Therefore, if I want to fight, no matter how high the enemy's city is, I still have to fight with me, because what I am fighting is exactly his key point. If I don't want to fight, even if the enemy is blindly arrogant, the war will not go on. This is because I managed to change the enemy's whereabouts and make them unable to attack. Use surprising methods to suppress the enemy and induce the enemy to expose his intentions without revealing himself, making the enemy invisible. At this time, gather all of your own forces to disperse the enemy's forces; as long as your own forces are concentrated in one place, you can go all out to attack the opponent.

Using all the strength to deal with the scattered enemy forces has created a favorable situation for our enemies, and the strength used to fight the enemy will be reduced accordingly. Try to make the enemy unknown where the battle will be. In this way, he will defend everywhere. The more places he defends, the more the troops will be dispersed; then, we will concentrate on attacking the enemy. We will surely be able to win by defeating the widow. Therefore, pay attention to guard against the front, the forces behind will become weak; pay attention to guard against the back, the forces in front will also become weak; pay attention to guard against the left wing, the right wing forces will also be weak; pay attention to guard against the right wing, the corresponding left wing forces will also be Weak; Everywhere is prepared, and the force is weakened everywhere. The reason why the strength of the troops is reduced is due to the reasons of defense everywhere; the reason why the strength of the troops is increased is due to the continuous defense of the enemy. Foresee the location of the battle with the enemy, foresee the time of the battle with the enemy, even if it is thousands of miles away, the battle can be met as scheduled. If you don’t know the location of the battle and the time of the battle at all, then the left army cannot go to the right, and the right army cannot save the left. The front cannot save the rear, and the rear cannot save the front. Not to mention the distance from the enemy to dozens of miles or close to many miles. !

In my opinion, although the strength of the Yue State is strong, it is meaningless for deciding victory or defeat. Therefore, victory can be won; although the enemy’s strength is strong, we can make it ineffective. Through careful analysis, we can find out the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy's combat plan; to provoke the enemy and understand the dynamics and control the chaotic situation; to observe the situation to find out the enemy’s terrain to our advantage; to conduct reconnaissance to find out the enemy’s strength The reality. Therefore, if the art of war is used to its limit, the enemy will have no insight into all our military actions. In this way, even if we hide our spies deeply, we can't find out what we are. No matter how clever people are, they can't cope with our offense.

Because our situation is more flexible than the enemy, we put the law of victory in front of everyone in time, and they can't perceive the reason. People all know the basic tactics for our victory, but they don’t know how we flexibly used the tactics to achieve victory based on the enemy’s situation. Therefore, a strategy or overall plan can only be used once, and must not repeat the old one, but must adapt to changes in the enemy situation at any time. The law of using soldiers is actually like water. Water flows down from a high place. The law of using soldiers is to avoid the strong side of the enemy and attack its weak places. Due to the height of the terrain, water restricts the direction of its flow; the use of troops must be based on the enemy's specific conditions and formulate a strategy for victory. Therefore, there is no fixed way to fight with soldiers. It has no fixed shape like flowing water. Being able to change the policy according to the enemy's situation is already regarded as using soldiers as a god.

Since ancient times, there has been no general who has always won, and the law of using troops is the same. The five elements generate and restrain each other, the four seasons change alternately, the day is short and long, the moon is bright and dark, and everything changes forever.