We have been born in a time of troubles. We have grown up among innumerable difficulties, having every day before our eyes the spectacle of these enemy agents, these big bandits. Insolently parading in our public places. With the filthy tongues of owls and vultures they openly insult the court. Goats and dogs as they are. They yet have the audacity to despite our leading citizens. They invoke the authority of Kublai Khan to emty our treasuries. Of their gold and silver. To give in to their demands would be to throw meat to tigers in hope of satisfying their insatiable hunger and thus creat dangerous precedents for the future… But you observe today the humiliation of your masters without the least indignation, the dishonour of the Fatherland without the least shame. Military leaders of an independent nation, you can serve the enemy without disgust; you can listen to the royal music at banquets given to their ambassadors without the least anger. Maybe you enjoy cock fights; or maybe you delight in games of chance; or maybe you spend your time cultivating your garden or in the sweetness of family life; or maybe you only think of enriching yourself and despite state affairs; or maybe you absorbed in the pleasures of hunting you abandon military training; or maybe you are drunk with good wines or distracted by erotic song. But on the day when the Mongol bandits invade our country it will not be the spurs of fighting cocks that will pierce the armour of the enemy, nor gaming tricks which will be useful for military strategy. The wealth of your gardens and your ricefields will not save your life, as precious as a thousand taels of gold. Your devotion to your wives and children will not help the nation and the army. With all your money you will not be able to buy the enemy's head; the strenght of your hunting dogs will not be able to drive him away. He will not drink himself to death on your good wine, nor be made deaf by your erotic songs. So masters and servants, we would all be taken. What misery that would be. Not only would I lose my fief, but your properties and previleges would pass into other hands. Not only my family would scattered, but your wives and children would be captured by the enemy. Not only would the tombs built by my ancestors be trampled by the foreigners, but the temples of your ancestors would also be profaned. Not only would I undergo, while still living, unmentionable humiliation and after death perpetual dishonour, but the reputation of your own families would be tarnished by defeat. So can you still devote yourself to this life of pleasure?
Today, I tell you frankly, you must be as conscious of dangers as if you were lying on a pile of dead branches close to the fire. Be vigilant, even if you have to act like one who, once burned by hot soup, now blows on cold vegetables. Drill your soldiers; practice your bowmanship…I have made a synthesis of writing about strategic questions through the ages and turned it into a book called " Essentials of the Military Art ",
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