He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and
appearances,
Literally, “to deceive their eyes and ears”—愚 being here used as
a verb in the sense of 誤.
and thus keep them in total ignorance.
Ts‘ao Kung gives us one of his excellent apophthegms: 民可與樂成
不可與慮始 “The troops must not be allowed to share your schemes
in the beginning; they may only rejoice with you over their happy
outcome.” “To mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy,” is one of
the first principles in war, as has been frequently pointed out.
But how about the other process—the mystification of one’s own
men? Those who may think that Sun Tzŭ is over-emphatic on this
point would do well to read Col. Henderson’s remarks on Stonewall
Jackson’s Valley campaign: “The infinite pains,” he says, “with
which Jackson sought to conceal, even from his most trusted staff
officers, his movements, his intentions, and his thoughts, a
commander less thorough would have pronounced useless”—etc.
etc.[181] In the year 88 A.D., as we read in ch. 47 of the _Hou
Han Shu_, “Pan Ch‘ao took the field with 25,000 men from Khotan
and other Central Asian states with the object of crushing
Yarkand. The King of Kutcha replied by dispatching his chief
commander to succour the place with an army drawn from the
kingdoms of Wên-su, Ku-mo and Wei-t‘ou, totalling 50,000 men. Pan
Ch‘ao summoned his officers and also the King of Khotan to a
council of war, and said: ‘Our forces are now outnumbered and
unable to make head against the enemy. The best plan, then, is for
us to separate and disperse, each in a different direction. The
King of Khotan will march away by the easterly route, and I will
then return myself towards the west. Let us wait until the evening
drum has sounded and then start.’ Pan Ch‘ao now secretly released
the prisoners whom he had taken alive, and the King of Kutcha was
thus informed of his plans. Much elated by the news, the latter
set off at once at the head of 10,000 horsemen to bar Pan Ch‘ao’s
retreat in the west, while the King of Wên-su rode eastwards with
8000 horse in order to intercept the King of Khotan. As soon as
Pan Ch‘ao knew that the two chieftains had gone, he called his
divisions together, got them well in hand, and at cock-crow
hurled them against the army of Yarkand, as it lay encamped. The
barbarians, panic-stricken, fled in confusion, and were closely
pursued by Pan Ch‘ao. Over 5000 heads were brought back as
trophies, besides immense spoils in the shape of horses and cattle
and valuables of every description. Yarkand then capitulating,
Kutcha and the other kingdoms drew off their respective forces.
From that time forward, Pan Ch‘ao’s prestige completely overawed
the countries of the west.” In this case, we see that the Chinese
general not only kept his own officers in ignorance of his real
plans, but actually took the bold step of dividing his army in
order to deceive the enemy.