Искусство войны. Уровень 2 / The Art of War

В Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be angered; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.

17.В Those who took first chariot in fighting must be rewarded when ten or more chariots are taken. Our own flags should be replaced for those of the enemy, and the chariots used with ours. The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.

18. This is called, using the enemy to raise one’s own strength.

19.В In war, then, let your great goal be victory, not long campaigns.

20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the master of the people’s fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in fear.

III.В Attack by stratagem

1. Sun Tzŭ said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and undamaged; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is always better to capture an army and leaders entire than to destroy it.

2. To fight and win in all your battles is not the highest excellence; the highest excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to ruin the enemy’s plans; the next best is to prevent the reunion of the enemy’s forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to lay siege to walled cities.

4.В The rule is, not to lay siege to walled cities if you can possibly avoid it.

5.В The general will become frustrated and unable to control himself. He will send his men to the assault and one-third of his men will be killed, while the town will still remain untaken. Such are the disastrous effects of a siege.

6. Therefore the skillful leader master the enemy’s army without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without long operations in the field.

7.В With his forces untouched he will take down the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by strategy.

8. It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy’s one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.

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