“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”
If the other side cannot tell what you actually want or plan, they cannot prepare an effective response. Keeping intent opaque forces them to spread their attention and resources, while you act with clarity.
Chapter 6’s game of initiative needs one enabling condition: the enemy must not know your aim. If he cannot fathom your real intent, he must defend every plausible target, which is another way of saying he can defend none of them properly. The verse sits among Sun Tzu’s instructions for appearing where you are not expected — confusion is not a flourish on top of strategy, it is what makes the geometry work.
A candidate negotiating with two departments of the same company keeps her real preference unreadable — equally warm meetings, mirrored timelines, no leaked enthusiasm. Each department, unable to rule itself out, keeps improving its offer to stay in the race. The candidate who announces her favorite early collapses her own market: the preferred department relaxes, the other withdraws, and the offers stop moving.
Confusing the enemy does not license lying to partners, clients, or your own team — opacity aimed inward destroys the trust strategy runs on. The tactic belongs on the competitive interface, where the other side is actively modeling you. Even there it has a half-life: eventually intent is revealed by action, so the confusion only has to hold until the strike.