The Art of War: The Liveblog

The Art of War: Chapter 9, The Army on the March

Paraphrase: Stay near valleys 'cause that's where the supplies are. Camp in high places. Don't climb in order to fight. Don't stick near rivers after crossing.

Ooh, I like this.

4. When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.

In hindsight it seems rather obvious though. Why go into the muck to meet them when you can make them wade through all the muck to get to you? Plus, you've divided their army without having to spend any resources.

There are some things that only make sense after a little thought though. For example Sun Tzu says that if you want to fight you shouldn't meet them at a river they have to cross. The commentator says it's because you'll prevent his crossing. My instincts say "well wouldn't it be better to prevent them from crossing?" But then I remember that this is in a scenario when you want to fight. I assume such a situation would come about because you are acting as a diversion from a more important target or ambush, or because you think you can end it in one battle.

6. Moor your craft higher up than the enemy, and facing the sun. Do not move up-stream to meet the enemy. So much for river warfare.

Makes sense. Rowing upstream is practically identical to charging uphill, which as we all know is profoundly stupid. I wonder how far you could take the comparison.

The advice for salt-marshes is simple, get out as quick as you can. If you can't get out, make sure you have water and stick to the trees where you have cover and the ground is less treacherous.

When on flat dry ground, get an easy position with rising ground on your right and rear, that way the enemy comes from the front.

"Facing the sun" was a tactic used during WWI and WWII by fighters; just climb above your target, get the sun behind you, and then dive! Hopefully the enemy will be blinded by the sun, and therefore unable to attack. So basically our little tactical mastermind came up with this idea, but for boats!

I think that's really cool. It's got to be pretty hard to find a river that runs the right way though.

I guess so, although I guess Sun Tzu assumed that you were more or less dictating the time and place of battle, as he said you should.

Dang, how is it that such simple and obvious advice has suddenly gotten so hard to apply? Combinatorial Explosion anyone?

edited 5th May '10 7:37:05 AM by CDRW

It does stack up after a while, doesn't it?

Sorry about missing yesterday, and I'm going to miss today too. It's finals week. I'll try to get one in tomorrow before the weekend, but no promises.

edited 6th May '10 4:57:52 PM by CDRW

All right I'm back. I should have a post up in about thirty minutes or so.

11. All armies prefer high ground to low, and sunny places to dark.

Good advice. I wonder if modern warfare has changed any of it though. Things like airstrikes could make taking the high ground dangerous because you're more exposed.

12. If you are careful of your men, and camp on hard ground, the army will be free from disease of every kind, and this will spell victory.

But soldiers like dysentary. Do you really want to deprive them of that? I do remember something said about the desert though. Because of the dry climate many things don't decompose, and so a large part of the dust is made up of animal dung. Should you not get a wound properly treated quickly there is a very good chance it will get infected. But of course, that concern isn't as big of a deal as controlling disease spreding insects, which dryness is great for.

In other words, don't camp in the middle of a malarial swamp.

^The wisest advice of all.

And we're back for the next installment of The Art of War: Chapter 9 continued!

We start off with a verse that strikes deep in my heart:

15. Country in which there are precipitious cliffs with torrents running between, deep natural hollows, confined places, tangled thickets, quagmires and crevasses, should be left with all possible speed and not approached.

<Sniff>. I used to feel that way about home too, but I've changed since then. I hope you changed your heart later on in life Sun Tzu.

He also says that since such places (home) are bad for you it only stand to reason that they're bad for the enemy too. Thus you should do everything in your power to force them into that terrain.

News flash! Sun Tzu says spies and soldiers like to hide in tall grass and undergrowth, and that you should make sure they're not doing that!

Now we get into the part that the commentary says is an excellent how-to guide to scouting.

18. When the enemy is close at hand and remains quiet, he is relying on the natural strength of his position.

19. When he keeps aloof and tries to provoke a battle, he is anxious for the other side to advance.

Because they're trying to get you away from your good ground.

20. If his place of encampment is easy of access, he is tendering a bait.

21. Movement amongst the trees of a forest shows that the enemy is advancing...

I thought this was wierd at first, but the commentary was good about explaining it. They say that it was common practice to have scouts climb a tree to look around, and also that shaking trees means that they are cutting down trees to clear a path for the army.

So obviously it comes down to having a strong enough will not to be tempted to walk out to meet the enemy.

Instead... send some horse archers/chariot archers out and lure them out.

The Art of War: Chapter 9 continued.

More how-to.

22. The rising of birds in their flight is the sign of an ambuscade (ambush?). Startled beasts indicate that a sudden attack is coming.

Wow, this stuff really is practical. I wonder if they teach this in basic training now days. I'm going to continue quoting instead of summarizing because this stuff is just plain cool.

23. When there is dust rising in a high column, it is the sign of chariots advancing; when the dust is low, but spread over a wide area, it betokens the approach of infantry. When it branches out in different directions, it shows that parties have been sent to collect firewood. A few clouds of dust moving to and fro signify that an army is encamping.

Suprisingly still quite applicable to today's technology. Allthough I don't know how often you'll see large bodies of infantry moving on foot. The commentary says it's because chariots and horses are heavier and move in each other's wheel tracks while infantry spread out. I live in the desert and have gone on many a hike with 50+ people. I can personally attest to the fact that the way he describes the dust behaving is accurate.

24. Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.

Humble because they're trying to make you think they're weak to make you drop your guard. The thing that gets me though is that it relies on your enemy being smart enough to bluff with that degree of finesse. What if you're up against a guy who thinks he can intimidate you into surrendering?

Yeah, he does seem to give the enemy slightly too much credit (and presumes too much).

What if you're up against a guy who thinks he can intimidate you into surrendering?

Then he must be weak, and so it is still a good idea to attack him anyway.

Earlier you wondered about how things like air strikes affect the desire for armies to have the high ground as this makes them an open target. But what you forget is that you are using the word ground in the literal fashion there. With your words you make it clear you understand that high ground is also upstream, but there we are talking about a river and not say a hill (though a river might run down a hill, it need not and can appear to cut level ground in half).

So it should not be a hard step to take to say if you control the skies this would be taking the high ground in a modern fight. And they have a term for this also that I am sure you know... Air Superiority.

Now consider if the US of A has Air Superiority (and it normally does) in a battle, go back to the actual ground. Where would the military still want to control. Again they would want the literal high ground, as they already the other type of high ground.

In the future if we ever have outer space combat (let's be clear here all combat is in space... it's just not outer space yet), the high ground in such a battle would be a point in space that is least affected by the gravitational pull of near by stellar bodies that puts the enemy within the gravitational pull.

But what about combat in deep space where there isn't a near by gravitational mass affecting things, well that's like fighting in the planes, and then the high ground actually changes a touch. As Ender would say "The Enemy's Gate is down", meaning simply that the most important target the enemy has is down and if you can angle yourself so that your hardest to hit points are facing their easiest and most vulnerable points, then you have the high ground.

Later still if time travel becomes possible, and Time Battles start to be waged, the high ground will be those parts of time where it is easiest to travel toward your enemy with the low ground being the parts where it is hardest to travel to your enemy. I'm using the logic that if we ever have time travel that time is like a river moving at an apparent rate of 1 second per second in the forward direction, but that the ability to time travel may reveal that is not the case with all time. For instance, the month of May in the year 2009 moved at a rate of 2 seconds per second in the forward direction. Nobody inside the timeline noticed because everything was moving faster. People outside the timeline could see the change in rate though and may have even been able to observe the cause of the change in the rate. If I was to set up a battle in the time line, I would set it up at the start of May so my enemy had to come at me from March.

So anyways, as you can see increases in technology don't change any of the basic ideas that Sun Tzu puts forth. The only thing that changes is finding out what is now the new meaning of terms like High Ground.

Edit add: As another point about time travel, high ground could also be defined as those points in time that are easier to change. For instance, why not go back in time and kill Hitler? Well perhaps he's in a part of time that is very hard to change. So controlling the sections of time that can be changed would be having the high ground in a Time War. (Or perhaps Hitler can be killed because his section of time can be changed, but it is held by a side of a time army that wants him alive, so they have the high ground.)

edited 17th May '10 9:30:36 AM by Syntic

Now consider if the US of A has Air Superiority (and it normally does) in a battle, go back to the actual ground. Where would the military still want to control. Again they would want the literal high ground, as they already the other type of high ground.

This assumes that your side (not necessarily the USA) can claim air superiority (and anyway, air supremacy is what you're thinking of: air superiority only ensures that you mostly have control of the air).

As well, if the enemy close air support (CAS) are sneaky enough, they might still be able to crush any enemies on high ground (of course, this assumes the ground troops do not have MANPADS systems).

Back to the point about "If they are behaving aggressively, they're about to retreat, if they're behaving timidly, they're about to attack" business. I think Sun Tzu was urging caution as well to a degree. If the enemy do pull back, thats fine. Follow them when its clear they are indeed withdrawing. They lose ground. However, if you fail to detect a hidden attack, you put yourself at a massive disadvantage by advancing into an ambush.

Wow, we've spontaneously got some really good discussion going on here. Thanks for reminding me about thinking of air power as having the high ground. Can't believe I didn't make that connection when I was so close before.

Sorry about the extended absence. I will have a new post up this evening should circumstances permit.

Well, the main advantage of having air superiority/air supremacy is that even if your ground troops are not up to scratch, air power is a massive equaliser/decider in terms of conflicts. If you've got an excellent air force, then you can basically steamroll anything and everything you want.

See that enemy bunker that's been a thorn in your side? Bam, gone.

That entrenched tank? No more.

Bombardment by the enemy's navy? It's been sent packing.

Enemy air support hitting your troops? Time for your fighters to clean their clock.

Yeah, but the old saw is, it's not so great at holding, pacifying, or patrolling occupied territory, as we're kinda seeing today.

I forget, what does Sun Tzu have to say about insurgencies or actually administering the conquered province?

• Probably something similar to what he says about fighting, leave the enemy an escape route?

And we're back! Chapter 9 continued.

26. Peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot.

HA HA! Looks like the Chinese learned what the people from the Middle East never did! I'm still angry about that lesson in my modern middle eastern history class. YOU DON'T SEND YOU RULER AND ALL HIS MILITARY ADVISORS TO A BANQUET HOSTED BY YOUR ENEMY IN WARTIME. They deserved what they got. I would say that you should be wary even if they are accompanied by sworn oaths.

27. When there is much running about and the soldiers fall into rank, it means that the critical moment has come.

No shit Sherlock.

28. When somje are seen advancing and some retreating, it is a lure.

I'm not quite sure on the reasoning behind this one though.

29. When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food.

Or their commander is named Captian Tylor.

30. If those wo are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst.

Eh, I'm not sure about that. I'd probably drink myself even if water wasn't scarce, just because it's there. But I come from the desert, so maybe that changes things.

31. If the enemy sees an advantage to be gained and makes no effort to secure it, the soldiers are exhausted.

For some reason my instincts want to find a reasonable exception to that rule, but I can't come up with one.

33. If there is disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.

I call upon the judgement of men more learned than me. Is this true?

1. 26 reminds me of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms; so many people got murdered during banquets.

2. 28, I'd guess...if it were a real retreat, they'd all be going, but...that almost rules out rearguard actions and the like. Still, I suppose if they're in good enough order to do that, you don't want to tangle with them.