Sayfa 241 / 266

There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop

down exhausted on the highways.

[Cf. Tao Te Ching, ch. 30: "Where troops have been quartered,

brambles and thorns spring up. Chang Yu has the note: "We may be

reminded of the saying: 'On serious ground, gather in plunder.'

Why then should carriage and transportation cause exhaustion on

the highways?-The answer is, that not victuals alone, but all

sorts of munitions of war have to be conveyed to the army.

Besides, the injunction to 'forage on the enemy' only means that

when an army is deeply engaged in hostile territory, scarcity of

food must be provided against. Hence, without being solely

dependent on the enemy for corn, we must forage in order that

there may be an uninterrupted flow of supplies. Then, again,

there are places like salt deserts where provisions being

unobtainable, supplies from home cannot be dispensed with."]

As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in

their labor.