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[What Sun Tzŭ evidently has in mind is that nice calculation of

distances and that masterly employment of strategy which enable a

general to divide his army for the purpose of a long and rapid

march, and afterwards to effect a junction at precisely the right

spot and the right hour in order to confront the enemy in

overwhelming strength. Among many such successful junctions which

military history records, one of the most dramatic and decisive

was the appearance of Blucher just at the critical moment on the

field of Waterloo.]

20. But if neither time nor place be known, then the left wing

will be impotent to succour the right, the right equally impotent

to succour the left, the van unable to relieve the rear, or the

rear to support the van. How much more so if the furthest

portions of the army are anything under a hundred li apart, and

even the nearest are separated by several li!