Deliberately, with a patient spirit, absorb the virtue of all this, from time to time raising your hand in combat. Maintain this spirit whenever you cross swords with and enemy.
Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.
Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. Next, in order to beat more skillful men, train according to this book, not allowing your heart to be swayed along a side-track. Even if you kill an enemy, if it is not based on what you have learned it is not the true Way.
If you attain this Way of victory, then you will be able to beat several tens of men. What remains is sword-fighting ability, which you can attain in battles and duels.
In this the Fire Book of the Ni To Ichi school of strategy I describe fighting as fire.
In the first place, people think narrowly about the benefit of strategy. By using only their fingertips, they only know the benefit of three of the five inches of the wrist. They let a contest be decided, as with the folding fan, merely by the span of their forearms. They specialise in the small matter of dexterity, learning such trifles as hand and leg movements with the bamboo practice sword.
In my strategy, the training for killing enemies is by way of many contests, fighting for survival, discovering the meaning of life and death, learning the Way of the sword, judging the strength of attacks and understanding the Way of the "edge and ridge" of the sword.
You cannot profit from small techniques particularly when full armour is worn. ["Roku Gu" (six pieces): body armour, helmet, mask, thigh pieces, gauntlets and leg pieces. — Slaegr] My Way of strategy is the sure method to win when fighting for your life one man against five or ten.