food,
[In the ordinary course of things, the men would be fed on grain and
the horses chiefly on grass.]
and when the men do not hang their cooking-pots over the camp-fires,
showing that they will not return to their tents, you may know that
they are determined to fight to the death.
[I may quote here the illustrative passage from the _Hou Han Shu_, ch.
71, given in abbreviated form by the _P’ei Wen Yun Fu:_ "The rebel Wang
Kuo of Liang was besieging the town of Ch’en- ts’ang, and Huang-fu
Sung, who was in supreme command, and Tung Cho were sent out against
him. The latter pressed for hasty measures, but Sung turned a deaf ear
to his counsel. At last the rebels were utterly worn out, and began to
throw down their weapons of their own accord. Sung was not advancing to
the attack, but Cho said: ‘It is a principle of war not to pursue
desperate men and not to press a retreating host.’ Sung answered: ‘That
does not apply here. What I am about to attack is a jaded army, not a
retreating host; with disciplined troops I am falling on a disorganized
multitude, not a band of desperate men.’ Thereupon he advances to the
attack unsupported by his colleague, and routed the enemy, Wang Kuo
being slain."]