CHAPTER 5. ENERGY
1. Soldier Tzu said: BLU's control of a large force of maggots is the same principle as my control of you few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.
2. Fighting with a large army of maggots under BLU's command is nowise different from me fighting with a small army of good men: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.
3. To ensure that your bleeders may withstand the brunt of the enemy's attack and remain unshaken. This is effected by maneuvers direct and indirect.
4. That the impact of you on BLU maggots may be like a grindstone dashed against an egg. This is effected by the science of weak points and strong.
5. In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure control points and also victory.
6. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams and my rockets; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.
7. There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.
8. There are not more than five primary colors (or, so maggots can understand, RED, yellow, BLU, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues and dominations than can ever been seen.
9. There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, salt, sweet, bitter, and re-spawn), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.
10. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack: the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers and kills.
11. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle-you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?
12. The onset of troops is like the rush of a torrent which will even roll stones along in its course.
13. The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
14. Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.
15. Energy may be likened to the bending of Sniper's Huntsman; decision, to the pull of a trigger.
16. Amid the turmoil, tumult, and death of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, our array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.
17. Simulated disorder means that we have perfect discipline, simulated fear means courage; simulated weakness means strength.
18. Pretending to be disorderly is a question of subdivision; concealing courage under a show of timidity should hide a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions.
19. Thus you must be skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains a deceitful appearance, according to which the enemy will act. We sacrifice something so that the enemy's maggots may snatch at it.
20. By holding out baits, we keeps them on the march; then with a body of picked men we lie in wait for them.
21. An example for this is the clever Sniper, but less so than me, who looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals. Hence his ability to pick out the right head and utilize combined energy.
22. When we utilise combined energy, you fighting men become like rolling logs or stones, because logs and stones remain motionless on level ground, and, when moved onto a slope by brute force; if square or rectangular, not to move anywhere, but if circular, to rolling down and crush BLU maggots.
23. Thus energy developed by good fighting men, which you must be, is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So much on the subject of energy.
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