The Art of War by Sun Tzu; Lionel Giles

Author:Sun Tzu; Lionel Giles
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Technology & Engineering, Military Art and Science, Eastern, Philosophy, Military Science, Strategy, Military, General, History
ISBN: 9780976072690
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 1944-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

13

Employing Spies 216

Sun-tzu said:

“When you send forth an army of a hundred thousand on a campaign, marching them out a thousand li, the expenditures of the common people and the contributions of the feudal house will be one thousand pieces of gold per day.217 Those inconvenienced and troubled both within and without the border, who are exhausted on the road or unable to pursue their agricultural work, will be seven hundred thousand families.

“Armies remain locked in a standoff for years to fight for victory on a single day, yet [generals] begrudge bestowing ranks and emoluments of one hundred pieces of gold and therefore do not know the enemy’s situation.218 This is the ultimate inhumanity. Such a person is not a general for the people, an assistant for a ruler, or the arbiter of victory.

• • •

“The means by which enlightened rulers and sagacious generals moved and conquered others, that their achievements surpassed the masses, was advance knowledge.

“Advance knowledge cannot be gained from ghosts and spirits, inferred from phenomena, or projected from the measures of Heaven, but must be gained from men for it is the knowledge of the enemy’s true situation.

• • •

“Thus there are five types of spies to be employed: local spy, internal spy, turned spy [double agent], dead [expendable] spy, and the living spy. When all five are employed together and no one knows their Tao, this is termed “spiritual methodology.” They are a ruler’s treasures.

“Local spies—employ people from the local district.

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