with provisions enough to carry them a thousand LI,
[2.78 modern LI go to a mile. The length may have varied
slightly since Sun Tzu's time.]
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.
2. 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.
3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of
the State will not be equal to the strain.
4. 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.
5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,
cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
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