VI.8. Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

VI.9. O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

VI.10. You may advance and be absolutely irresistible, if you make for the enemy's weak points; you may retire and be safe from pursuit if your movements are more rapid than those of the enemy.

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VI.11. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need to do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve. ...

VI.11. ... If the enemy is on the offensive, target his line of communication and invest the route of his return. If we launch the invasion, our objective must be the adversary sovereign himself.

VI.12. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to through something odd and unaccountable in his way.

VI.13. By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated while the enemy's must be divided.

VI.14. We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a while pitted against separate parts of a while, which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few.

VI.15. An if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straights.

VI.16. The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points...

VI.16. ... and his forces being distributed in many directions, the numbers we shall have to face at any given point will be proportionately few.

VI.17. For, Should the enemy strengthen his van, he will weaken his rear; Should he strengthen his rear, he will weaken his van; Should he strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; Should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left. ...

VI.17. ... If he (the enemy) sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.

VI.18. Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us. ...

VI.18 ... The most brilliant general first forces the enemy to disperse his fighting echelons and then tackles them piecemeal with concentrated thrusts.

VI.19. Knowing the place and time of the coming battle, we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight.

VI.20. But if neither time nor place be known, then the left wing will be impotent to succor the right, the right equally impotent to succor the left, the van unable to relieve the rear, or the rear to support the van. ...

VI.20. ... How much more so if the furthest portions of the army are anything under a hundred "li" apart, and even the nearest are separated by several "li".

VI.21. Through according to my estimate the soldiers of Yueh exceed our own in number, that shall advantage them nothing in the matter of victory. I say then that victory can be achieved.