Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is FOREKNOWLEDGE. One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his sovereign, no master of victory.

This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity. Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor. There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways. The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver.

Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.

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