Kitabı oku: «Искусство войны. Уровень 2 / The Art of War», sayfa 9

13. Timing is critical for the quality of decision like it is critical for a falcon to strike and destroy its victim at the right time.

14. Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and quick in his decision.

15. Energy is like the bending of a crossbow; decision is like the releasing of the trigger.

16. In the battlefield there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all. This seeming chaos will be proof against defeat.

17. Simulated disorder means perfect discipline; simulated fear means courage; simulated weakness means strength.

18. Making order look like disorder is simply a question of subdivision. Hiding courage under a show of hesitation means a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is made by tactical dispositions.

19. Thus the skillful general keeps the enemy on move to maintain false appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at it.

20. By using baits, he keeps him on the march; then with a body of picked men he lies in wait for him.

21. The clever fighter never requires too much from a single man but knows how combined energy is effective. Hence his ability to pick out the right men and use combined energy.

22. When he uses combined energy, his fighting men become as it were like rolling stones. For it is the nature of a stone to stay motionless on level ground, and to move when on a slope. If it is four-cornered it stops, but if it is round-shaped it goes rolling down.

23. Thus the energy of good fighting men is as the energy of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So much on the subject of energy.