第 13 章 用间篇

Sunzi said: War requires a lot of money.

If you send a hundred thousand troops to fight in a faraway place, it costs a lot of money every day.

The whole country will be very busy, and many people cannot farm.

War may last for many years, but victory may come in just one day.

If, due to unwillingness to spend money, you do not use spies, do not know the enemy's situation, and ultimately fail, that is very bad.

Such a general is not a good general, and such a ruler is not a good ruler.

Good rulers and generals win as soon as they go to war, are better than others, mainly because they know the enemy's situation in advance.

To know the enemy's situation in advance, you cannot rely on praying to gods or observing stars; you must obtain information from people who know the enemy's situation.

There are five methods of using spies: the first is called yinjian, which means making ordinary people of the enemy country act as spies.

The second is called neijian, which means bribing officials of the enemy country to act as spies.

The third type is called counter-espionage, which is to bribe the spy sent by the enemy and make him work for us.

The fourth type is called dead spy, which is to deliberately give false information, let our spy tell the enemy, and after the enemy is deceived, they often kill this spy.

The fifth type is called living spy, which is to send a spy to the enemy, and then return alive to report the situation.

When the five types of spies are used together, the enemy does not know what to do.

This is a very powerful method and an important way for the ruler to defeat the enemy.

In the army, spies are the closest people, the rewards given to them are also the most, and the use of spies is also the most secret.

A general who is not very intelligent cannot use spies; a general who is not generous and kind also cannot use spies; a general who is not very careful and clever in methods cannot obtain true information from spies.

The method of using spies is really very clever.

Spies can be used anywhere.

If the plan to use spies has not yet started, but is already known by others, then both the spy and the person who knows the secret must be executed.

Whenever we want to attack the enemy's army, assault the enemy's city, or kill the enemy, we must first know the names of the city defense generals, the trusted people around them, the messengers, the gatekeepers, and his subordinates.

We must order our spies to investigate thoroughly.

We must find the spies sent by the enemy to scout us.

After finding him, we can give him a lot of money, treat him well, guide him to work for us, and then let him go back.

In this way, the double agent can be used by us.

By learning the enemy's situation from the double agent, then the local spy and the inside spy can be used.

By learning the enemy's situation from the double agent, then we can pass false information to the enemy through the expendable spy.

By learning the enemy's situation from the double agent, then the live spy can return at the planned time to report the enemy's situation.

The ruler must understand the usage of these five types of spies, and the most important among them is to know how to use the double agent.

Therefore, we must give the double agent the best treatment.

In the past, the Shang Dynasty was able to rise because it reused Yi Yin, who had served as an official in the Xia Dynasty;

the Zhou Dynasty was able to rise because it reused Jiang Ziya, who had served as an official in the Shang Dynasty.

Therefore, if a wise monarch or a capable general can use very intelligent people as spies, they will definitely achieve great things.

This is a very important step in warfare; the entire army must rely on the intelligence provided by spies to act.