The Art of War - Khamkoo

to confide in more, the infantry or the cavalry. Also, they consider the
location in which they are, and if it is more suitable for the enemy than
for themselves; which of them has the better convenience of supply;
whether it is better to delay the engagement or undertake it, and what
benefit the weather might give you or take away from them; for often
when the soldiers see the war becoming long, they become irritable, and
weary from hard work and tedium, will abandon you. Above all, it is important
for the Captain to know the enemy, and who he has around him:
if he is foolhardy or cautious: if timid or audacious. See whether you can
trust the auxiliary soldiers. And above all, you ought to guard against
leading an army into battle which is afraid, or distrustful in any way of
victory, for the best indication of defeat is when one believes he cannot
win. And, therefore, in this case, you ought to avoid an engagement,
either by doing as Fabius Maximus did, who, by encamping in strong
places, did not give Hannibal courage to go and meet him, or by believing
that the enemy, also in strong places, should come to meet you, you
should depart from the field, and divide your forces among your towns,
so that the tedium of capturing them will tire him.
ZANOBI
Can he not avoid the engagement in other ways than by dividing it
(the army) into several parts, and putting them in towns?
FABRIZIO
I believe at another time I have discussed with some of you that whoever
is in the field, cannot avoid an engagement if he has an enemy who
wants to fight in any case; and he has but one remedy, and that is to
place himself with his Army at least fifty miles distant from his adversary,
so as to be in time to get out of his way if he should come to
meet him. And Fabius Maximus never avoided an engagement with
Hannibal, but wanted it at his advantage; and Hannibal did not presume
to be able to overcome him by going to meet him in the places where he
was encamped. But if he supposed he could defeat him, it was necessary
for Fabius to undertake an engagement with him in any case, or to flee.
Phillip, King of Macedonia, he who was the father of Perseus, coming to
war with the Romans, placed his encampment on a very high mountain
so as not to have an engagement with them; but the Romans went to
meet him on that mountain, and routed him. Vercingetorix, a Captain of
the Gauls, in order to avoid an engagement with Caesar, who unexpectedly
had crossed the river, placed himself miles distant with his forces.
The Venetians in our times, if they did not want to come to an engagement
with the King of France, ought not to have waited until the French
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