be equal, to take the initiative is disadvantageous.
Now, these are the six kinds of ground. It is the duty of generals to study them.
Again, there are six calamities among the troops, arising, not from defect of ground, or lack of opportunity, but from the general’s incapacity.
These are: repulse, relaxation, distress, disorganisation, confusion and rout.
If troops be sent to attack an enemy of equal quality, but ten times their number, they retire discomfited.
Strong soldiers with weak officers cause relaxation.
Able officers with feeble soldiers cause distress.
Enraged senior officers, who fall upon the enemy without orders, and obey not the general because he does not recognise their abilities, produce disorganisation.
Weak and amiable generals, whose directions and leadership are vague, whose officers’ and men’s duties are not fixed, and whose dispositions are contradictory, produce confusion.
