Stratagems for the Attacking Battle攻戰計

敵力不露，陰謀深沉，未可輕進，應遍揮其鋒。兵書云：「軍旁有險阻、潢井、葭葦、山林、翳薈者，必謹復索之，此伏奸所藏也。」

When the enemy's strength is not shown and his hidden plan lies deep, you must not advance lightly. You should look all around for his point. The book of war says, "When there are steep places, pools, reed beds, hills and woods, or thick cover beside the army, you must search them with care and search them again. These are where men in ambush and spies hide."

換代之際，紛立亡國之後者，固借尸還魂之意也。凡一切寄兵權於人，而代其攻守者，皆此用也。

At the turn from one dynasty to another, men press forward to set up the heirs of a fallen house, and this is truly the sense of borrowing a corpse to bring back a soul. Every case of putting military power in another man's hands and having him attack and defend in your place is this same use.

兵書曰：「下政攻城」。若攻堅，則自取敗亡矣。敵既得地利，則不可爭其地。且敵有主而勢大：有主，則非利不來趨；勢大，則非天人合用，不能勝。漢末，羌率眾數千，遮虞詡於隊倉崤谷。詡即停軍不進，而宣言上書請兵，須到乃發。羌聞之，乃分抄旁縣。翔因其兵散，日夜進道，兼行百餘里，令軍士各作兩灶，日倍增之，羌不敢逼，遂大破之。兵到乃發者，利誘之也；日夜兼進者，用天時以困之也；倍增其灶者，惑之以人事也。

The book of war says, "The lowest policy is to attack a walled city." If you attack what is solid, you bring your own defeat and ruin upon yourself. When the enemy has already taken the advantage of the ground (地利), you must not contend for that ground. And when the enemy has a master and his force is great — where there is a master he will not come out but for gain, and where the force is great you cannot win unless heaven and man are used together. At the end of the Han, several thousand Qiang blocked Yu Xu at Xiaogu near Chencang. Yu Xu halted his troops and did not advance, and gave out that he had sent up a letter asking for troops and would set out when they came. The Qiang heard it and split up to plunder the neighboring counties. While their troops were scattered, Yu Xu went day and night at double marches for more than a hundred li, and had each soldier build two cooking pits and doubled them day by day, so that the Qiang dared not come near, and at last he broke them utterly. To say he would set out only when the troops came was to lure them with gain. To go at double marches day and night was to wear them down by the season of heaven. To double the cooking pits was to bewilder them by the work of men.

所謂縱著，非放之也，隨之，而稍鬆之耳。「窮寇勿追」，亦即此意。蓋不追者，非不隨也，不迫之而已。武侯之七縱七擒，即縱而隨之，故躡輾轉推進，至於不毛之地。武侯之七縱，其意在拓地，在借孟獲以服諸蠻，非兵法也。故論戰，則擒者不可復縱。

What is called letting him go is not setting him free. It is following him while slackening a little. "Do not pursue a cornered foe" is this same sense. Not to pursue is not to fail to follow; it is only not to press him. The seven captures and seven releases by Zhuge, the Marquis Wu, were letting go and following after, so that he pressed on the enemy's heels and rolled forward step by step as far as the barren land. The Marquis Wu's seven releases were meant to widen his territory and to use Meng Huo to bring the many Man (蠻) tribes to submission. They were not the art of war. So if the matter is judged as war, a man once taken must not be let go again.

誘敵之法甚多，最妙之法，不在疑似之間，而在類同，以固其惑。以旌旗金鼓誘敵者，疑似也；以老弱糧草誘敵者，則類同也。如：楚伐絞，軍其南門，屈瑕曰：「絞小而輕，輕則寡謀，請勿捍採樵者以誘之。」從之，絞人獲利。明日絞人爭出，驅楚役徙於山中。楚人坐守其北門，而伏諸山下，大敗之，為城下之盟而還。又如孫臏減灶而誘殺龐涓。

There are very many ways to lure an enemy, but the finest way does not lie in what is half like and half not. It lies in what is of the same kind, for this hardens his delusion. To lure the enemy with banners and gongs and drums is what is half like. To lure him with old and weak soldiers, with grain and fodder, is what is of the same kind. So it was when Chu attacked Jiao (絞) and camped before its south gate. Qu Xia said, "Jiao is small and light of judgment, and where judgment is light, schemes are few. Send out the woodcutters without a guard and lure them." This was done, and the men of Jiao took their gain. The next day the men of Jiao vied to come out and drove the Chu laborers into the hills. The Chu men sat holding the north gate and laid men in wait at the foot of the hills, and they broke them utterly and went home with a covenant made beneath the city wall. So too Sun Bin lessened his cooking pits and lured Pang Juan to his death.

攻勝則利不勝取。取小遺大，卒之利、將之累、帥之害、攻之虧也。舍勝而不摧堅擒王，是縱虎歸山也。擒王之法，不可圖辨旌旗，而當察其陣中之首動。昔張巡與尹子奇戰，直衝敵營，至子奇麾下，營中大亂，斬賊將五十餘人，殺士卒五千餘人。迎欲射子奇而不識，剡蒿為矢。中者喜謂巡矢盡，走白子奇，乃得其狀，使霽雲射之，中其左目，幾獲之，子奇乃收軍退還。

When an attack wins, the gain is more than can be taken up. To take the small and let the great slip is in the end a gain for the soldier, a burden for the general, a harm to the commander in chief (元帥), and a loss to the attack. To win and yet not break what is solid and take the king is to let the tiger go back to its mountain. In taking the king you must not go by picking out banners. You must watch where the chief moves within the enemy's ranks. Long ago, when Zhang Xun fought Yin Ziqi, he drove straight into the enemy camp and came up to the standard of Yin Ziqi, and the camp fell into great disorder. He cut down more than fifty of the enemy's officers and killed more than five thousand soldiers. Zhang Xun wished to shoot Yin Ziqi but could not tell which man he was, so he shaved mugwort stalks into arrows. The man who was hit rejoiced, saying that Zhang Xun's arrows were spent, and ran to tell Yin Ziqi. So Zhang Xun learned his face, and he had Nan Jiyun shoot him. The arrow struck Yin Ziqi's left eye, and he was all but taken. Yin Ziqi then gathered his troops and withdrew.