Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 9: 29 "Light chariots emerging first on the wings are a sign of battle formation."

Before we dive into today's verse, we need to review the last two verses just a small bit. They make up a yin/yang couplet. And, in fact, Giles puts them together into just one verse, likely for that reason. Let's look at his version, below.

Lionel Giles: #SunTzu 9: 24 "Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to attack are signs that he will retreat."

Can you see the yin/yang opposites?

Humble words/violent words.
Preparations/driving forward.
Advance/retreat.

If you wish to truly build your leadership capabilities, the more you bring just such analysis to your study, the better you will do.

In our version, those were the last two verses, 27 & 28. They stand on their own, but they're a lovely transition from the previous four verses on various types of dust and how to interpret their meaning. Well, beginning with today's verse, there are now 20 that form a unit also.

Each verse offers a condition, and then informs us what that condition means. When we worked with the types of dust, we looked backward to the cause creating it. In the last two verses, we looked at lies of word and action, the deceptions at the heart of the art of war.

In the coming 20 verses, we now look forward from the current moment - as a cause - to the coming moment - as its effect. Try to remember, Master Sun is always teaching us to go both ways, forward from cause to its following effect, backward from effect to its preceding cause.

Don't worry if your mind still struggles with those two directions, absolutely simple as they really are. Everyone struggles with them. Here's an easy example. Say the alphabet forward. Now, say it backward. Me? I can't even do it, at all, the backward part I mean.

There's a term for this. It's called linear thinking. We think in a line, and it only goes one direction, forward. Turning our minds around on that line to seek out hidden, invisible causes underlying current, visible conditions is a spectacular artform. Master Sun demands it.

Yet even rolling forward as we so much more comfortably do, we're often stuck in JUST THIS ONE MOMENT, and can't foresee the next one. We have these little, tiny, itsy bitsy time horizons. I see the now. I don't see the now + 1, in time, the next moment if you follow.

For instance, you've been camped out for a while, yelling threats over the no man's land with no action as of yet. Now, on guard watch, you suddenly see two formations of light chariots emerge on your left and right flanks.

What might this possibly mean?

Master Sun teaches us to take this particular condition with great seriousness. It means there is a battle formation of infantry that will soon follow, straight up the middle. It means more. Yes, you'll need to put up a light defense against the light chariots.

But by all means you MUST NOT allow the emerging, fast moving chariots to absorb your entire attention. Their purpose is to scare you, yes, but more, it is to split your force, making you weak in the center. In this manner, the infantry can complete the attack and defeat you.

Can you feel it? If you completely buy into the attack on the wings, you'll weaken yourself in the center. If their infantry arrives while you're that condition, it's over, you lost. Bye, bye. But since you've studied your Master Sun lessons, you know what to do.

You go into instant action, and your well-disciplined chain of command carries the message up and down and the light teams go lightly fight the chariots, but with minimal force. Everyone else forms up and commences forward movement immediately. And they yell a lot, too.

The drummers drum. The trumpeters trumpet. The banners fly. And the marching commands are to stomp down on the ground hard with each step. The rhythm of the steps in unison shakes the earth so that your enemy feels the earth move under his feet and fear fills his heart.

The key to your enemy's strategy was to have you be weak in the center. Strong in the center, he'll be in complete disarray possibly even before the first clash of weapons. And bowing, Master Sun allows that soft smile of his to emerge again, another one bites the dust.

Play with this lesson. The Never-Trump flank to the right. The socialist future Democrat flank to the left. They're actually light chariot formations. The real attack is to the center, right in our face. That's why following the failure of the Mueller Report, Impeachment.

But if we remain strong in the center of our souls, in the center of the MAGA movement, their entire feint is going to collapse. Can we hold the Senate to its obligation? If so, the Impeachment only strengthens us. It is only betrayal by Senate Republicans that is our risk.

They have their formation, ready to march up the center if we weaken. If we don't weaken our center, we'll crush them. Feel your might. Read Master Sun. Read the coming 20 verses and feel each one. I know, we'll do it here, of course. But, come on, this is fun. Do your homework!

257 verses completed, 199 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.