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Discipline Can Build Allegiance |
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If troops are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will be disobedient. If not obedient, it is difficult to employ them. If troops have become attached to you, but discipline is not enforced, you cannot employ them either. Thus, soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity, but kept under control by iron discipline. In this way, the allegiance of soldiers is assured. |
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If orders are consistently carried out and the troops are strictly supervised, they will be obedient. If orders are never carried out, they will be disobedient. And the smooth implementation of orders reflects harmonious relationship between the commander and his troops.* |
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Another translator clarifies: |
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*If in training soldiers commands are habitually enforced, the army will be well-disciplined; if not, its discipline will be had. If a general shows confidence in his men but always insists on his orders being obeyed, the gain will be mutual.
Lionel Giles |
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Colonel Ardant du Picq writes: |
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What makes the soldier capable of obedience and direction in action, is the sense of discipline. This includes: respect for and confidence in his chiefs; confidence in his comrades and fear of their reproaches if he abandons them in danger; his desire to go where others do without trembling more than they; in a word, the whole of esprit de corps. Organizations only can produce these characteristics. Four men equal a lion. |
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