felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable,
moreover, of quelling disorder: then your soldiers must be likened to
spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose.
[Li Ching once said that if you could make your soldiers afraid of you,
they would not be afraid of the enemy. Tu Mu recalls an instance of
stern military discipline which occurred in 219 A.D., when Lu Meng was
occupying the town of Chiang-ling. He had given stringent orders to his
army not to molest the inhabitants nor take anything from them by
force. Nevertheless, a certain officer serving under his banner, who
happened to be a fellow-townsman, ventured to appropriate a bamboo hat
belonging to one of the people, in order to wear it over his regulation
helmet as a protection against the rain. Lu Meng considered that the
fact of his being also a native of Ju-nan should not be allowed to
palliate a clear breach of discipline, and accordingly he ordered his
summary execution, the tears rolling down his face, however, as he did
so. This act of severity filled the army with wholesome awe, and from
that time forth even articles dropped in the highway were not picked
up.]