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[That is, when holding a position from which the enemy is trying

to dislodge you, or perhaps, as Tu Yu says, when he is trying to

entice you into a trap.]

19. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when

you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

[Tu Yu quotes a saying of T'ai Kung which has passed into a

proverb: "You cannot shut your ears to the thunder or your eyes

to the lighting-so rapid are they." Likewise, an attack should be

made so quickly that it cannot be parried.]

20. When you plunder a countryside, let the spoil be divided

amongst your men;

[Sun Tzŭ wishes to lessen the abuses of indiscriminate plundering

by insisting that all booty shall be thrown into a common stock,

which may afterwards be fairly divided amongst all.]

when you capture new territory, cut it up into allotments for the

benefit of the soldiery.