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Description
Generally, the requirements of warfare are this way: One thousand four-horse chariots, one thousand leather chariots, one hundred thousand belted armor, transporting provisions one thousand kilometers, the distribution of internal and on-the-field spending, the efforts of having guests, materials such as glue and lacquer, tributes in chariots and armor, will amount to expenses of a thousand gold pieces a day.

Only then can one hundred thousand troops be raised.

When doing battle, seek a quick victory. A long battle will blunt weapons and diminish ferocity.

If troops lay siege to a walled city, their strength will be exhausted."

If the army is involved in a long campaign, the nation's resources will not suffice.

When weapons are blunted and ferocity diminished, strength exhausted and resources depleted, the neighboring rulers will take advantage of these complications.

Then even the wisest of counsels would not be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Therefore, I have heard of military campaigns that were clumsy but swift, but I have never seen military campaigns that were skilled but protracted. No nation has ever benefited from protracted warfare.

Therefore, if one is not fully cognizant of the dangers inherent in doing battle, one cannot fully know the benefits of doing battle.

~Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

(Photo courtesy of APCR , used with permission.)

Description
Generally, the requirements of warfare are this way: One thousand four-horse chariots, one thousand leather chariots, one hundred thousand belted armor, transporting provisions one thousand kilometers, the distribution of internal and on-the-field spending, the efforts of having guests, materials such as glue and lacquer, tributes in chariots and armor, will amount to expenses of a thousand gold pieces a day.

Only then can one hundred thousand troops be raised.

When doing battle, seek a quick victory. A long battle will blunt weapons and diminish ferocity.

If troops lay siege to a walled city, their strength will be exhausted."

If the army is involved in a long campaign, the nation's resources will not suffice.

When weapons are blunted and ferocity diminished, strength exhausted and resources depleted, the neighboring rulers will take advantage of these complications.

Then even the wisest of counsels would not be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Therefore, I have heard of military campaigns that were clumsy but swift, but I have never seen military campaigns that were skilled but protracted. No nation has ever benefited from protracted warfare.

Therefore, if one is not fully cognizant of the dangers inherent in doing battle, one cannot fully know the benefits of doing battle.

~Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

(Photo courtesy of APCR , used with permission.)