SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! THE REASON THE GARDENER IS IN A BLOODY WAR IN THE FIRST PLACE IS BECAUSE THE WARRIOR'S ARMY IS PILLAGING THEIR GARDEN!!!!
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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chapotraphouse
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I assumed this quote was invented by the columnist in question, but I looked it up and since it's repeatedly attributed as a "Chinese proverb" or to Sun Tzu (I checked, not there) or Lao Tzu or Miyamoto Musashi, I'm pretty sure some other random white person made it up.
It stands out to me as a very modern idea- for the entirety of feudalism every man levied to an army was some kind of gardener/farmer to the point that the length of a campaign was usually defined by when the soldiers had to get back to harvest their crops
feudalism produces groups of people who have bound others to property to do that farming while they are on campaign, that's what knights were. a modern levee en masse is much more disruptive to agricultural production, because it doesn't tap classes who are already expected to go on a campaign. one shouldn't even assume because a certain peasant area was required to produce so many levy soldiers that this would be an excessive draw on the labor pool either--it bad times it might've, but in others a handful of third sons weren't exactly missed, and those men entering armed life was expected and prepared for in advance.
It deffinitly seems like something you think sun tzu would say if you've never read sun tzu.
I like Sun Tzu. Its a lot of don't fight unless you can win. The way you win is forcing your enemy to fight where they're outnumbered.
It sounds exactly like the kind of "Confucius Say" jokes but without a punchline.
Yeah, its kinda got a hard times make hard men chuddish vibe to it.
so based on that, it was probably a mil-SF writer in the 80s