Yongzheng took a stone and thought carefully
and long about where to place it on the board. Just like a real-life war, this game
was all about clever strategy. Likewise, sometimes real-life stratagems could also be
applied in the game. He wasn’t a particularly brilliant go player, but he wasn’t bad at
it either, and in the current situation, he could very easily discern his opponent’s
trap. After deliberating on his next move, he decided that the best option was to play
right into it and lay down his stone. As the stone touched the board, his opponent smiled, not
knowing that Yongzheng was entirely aware of his plan. China has enjoyed great periods of peace,
where strategists honed their skills playing go, but it has also been through great wars, where
generals such as Sun Tzu, Zhuge Liang and Cao Cao implemented their tactics in real life
and left us great literary pieces of military thought. So join us today as we take a
look into some famous real and apocryphal stratagems that are described in the Romance
of the Three Kingdoms and the Sanguozhi. For a real taste of strategies like this, you need to go into some Three Kingdoms action
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strategies you learned today, for real! The Empty Fort
We will begin our survey of ancient Chinese military strategies
with the infamous ‘Empty Fort’ gambit. Listed as 32nd in the classic Chinese essay “The
Thirty-Six Stratagems” and standing out as the writer’s personal favourite, the empty fort is
a rather famous bluff. Using reverse psychology, a commander who is unable to defend a castle,
city or other fortified position in an orthodox way abandons the defence completely and
presents the fort as undefended in the hopes of making the enemy general suspicious
of an ambush and thus causing a retreat. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms,
the Sanguozhi, Cao Cao successfully used this trick against Lü Bu in the spring of 195. When Lü
Bu attacked Cao Cao’s camp in modern-day Shandong with around ten thousand soldiers, Cao Cao had
less than a thousand men available as the rest of his troops had gone to collect grain. Cao Cao
ordered the remaining soldiers to man the walls and even commanded the women to take up guard
duties, much to his troops' protests. When Lü Bu arrived and observed his camp, he immediately
became suspicious of the few guards. Adding to his concerns were the dyke and the deep
forest adjacent to Cao Cao’s camp that could have easily concealed an ambushing force. Fearing
the ambush, Lü Bu said, “Cao Cao is treacherous, and we must not fall into his trap,” and ordered
his army to move 10 li, or 5 miles, south of Cao Cao’s position and set up camp there. The next
day Lü Bu decided to finally assault the camp, but by this time, Cao Cao’s foraging force
had returned, and there was indeed an ambush force hiding in the dyke and the forest.
Consequently, Lü Bu’s force was defeated. Years later, the Empty Fort was used once more,
this time by Zhao Yun against Cao Cao during the battle of the Han River in 219. Zhao Yun and
his men had gone in search of another general of Liu Bei’s, Huang Zhong, who had earlier gone to
attack Cao Cao’s supply train but hadn’t returned. Zhao Yun’s battlegroup engaged their adversaries,
but finding themselves outnumbered, they were soon forced to retreat with their enemies hot
on their trail. Once they reached their camp, Zhang Yi, Zhao Yun’s subordinate, wanted to close
the gates and try to mount a defence. However, his order was countermanded by his superior, who
gave the command for the gates to be kept open, for the war drums to fall silent, and for
the flags to be hidden so as to give the impression of the camp being abandoned.
Cao Cao’s men, looking at the empty camp, suspected an ambush and retreated. But once
they had lowered their guard, Zhao Yun launched a counterattack, his men beating the drums
loudly and raining a hail of arrows on the enemy. Cao Cao’s troops were caught completely by
surprise and disorganized, and they preferred to flee rather than mount any resistance, with many
falling to the blades of Zhao Yun’s cavalrymen while others fell into the Han river and drowned.
Following this battle, Liu Bei visited the camp, praised Zhao Yun for his bravery and
cleverness, and threw a banquet in his honour. In addition to Zhao Yun, Liu Bei had
another general who could effectively employ the empty fort tactic, at least according
to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His name was Zhuge Liang. While Zhuge Liang’s story is
most likely ahistorical, it is by far the most famous and, to be fair, the most stylish example
of the empty fort stratagem being used. In 228, long after both Cao Cao and Liu Bei had
passed away and their kingdoms were ruled by their successors, Zhuge Liang launched the
first of a series [of campaigns?] that would be known as the Northern Expeditions. Here,
Zhuge Liang attempted to conquer Chang’an, the old capital of the Qin and Western Han
periods, which was now under the control of the Kingdom of Wei. However, his efforts
bore no fruit as his Shu forces were crushed at the battle of Jieting, exposing Zhuge
Liang’s position to the enemy while the main Shu army was fighting far away with
no hope of coming to the rescue in time. With only a handful of soldiers left, Zhuge
Liang retreated to the fortress of Xicheng. Here, the master tactician had to play the ultimate
bluff against the incoming Wei troops. He ordered for the gates to be opened, dressed his men
as civilians, and commanded them to sweep the streets while he himself sat on the city’s walls
and calmly played his guqin. When the equally famous tactician and Wei general Sima Yi saw this
image, he immediately became suspicious of an ambush due to Zhuge Liang’s reputation in military
strategy and thus ordered his army to turn back. Borrowing arrows with straw boats
While we are speaking of Zhuge Liang’s accomplishments, it would be impossible not
to mention another apocryphal trick he pulled, this time against Cao Cao himself. It is here
that we move on from the empty fort and on to the next major strategy, known as borrowing arrows
with straw boats. It was the year 208 when the armies of the Three Kingdoms clashed alongside the
coast of the Yangtze river in the famous battle of the Red Cliffs. On one side was Cao Cao, who
desired to conquer the land south of the Yangtze, while on the other stood the combined
forces of Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Liu Qi. Zhou Yu, a general and strategist who served
under Sun Quan’s banner, was able to detect Zhuge Liang's skill in tactics and strategy and could
foresee that he would become a threat to his lord. So, he came up with a plan to get rid of him. He
asked Zhuge Liang to help him produce 100 thousand arrows in preparation for the upcoming battle with
Wei’s forces. Zhuge Liang confidently proclaimed that he could accomplish this in just three days,
with Zhou Yu asking him to more or less bet his life on his statement, sure that Zhuge Liang
would fail to complete the task in time and thus be executed. Zhuge Liang had a plan of his own,
and with the help of Lu Su, another general of Sun Quan, he took 20 large boats and filled them
with straw-made figures that resembled soldiers. During the hours before dawn,
when thick fog covered the waters, he manned the boats with a handful of men,
just enough to maneuver them and set sail to approach the anchored Wei ships. As they
approached the enemy camp, his soldiers began beating the war drums loudly and screaming as
if shouting orders for an attack. Cao Cao’s men, who came under the impression they were
being attacked, rushed to respond and soon rained thousands upon thousands of arrows on the
boats. Due to the fog, they could not determine the attacking force’s true size, nor did they
know that the figures were made out of straw, so they kept firing. Many arrows fell into the
river’s waters, but thousands became stuck in the straw figures. When Zhuge Liang felt they had
borrowed enough arrows from Cao Cao’s archers, he ordered his small fleet to turn back,
and indeed, when they reached the shore, they found out they had collected the required
amount. Zhuge Liang’s head would remain on his shoulders, and the allied forces would
be more prepared to face the Wei army. Kill with a Borrowed Sword
We take a break from Zhuge Liang’s accomplishments and return to the leader
of the Kingdom of Wei, Cao Cao, as he pulls off the next strategy in our video, known as kill
with a borrowed sword. In late 219, Cao Cao had suffered a great defeat at the battle of Fancheng
by the armies of Liu Bei, which were led by one of the most brilliant generals of the era, a
man later deified as the God of War, Guan Yu. Cao Cao wanted to capture Jing province but was
also weary of Guan Yu and his military prowess, so instead of facing his adversary head-on, he opted
to pitch another rival against him, Sun Quan. Sun Quan, the king of Wu, had earlier been
an ally of Shu and had fought together with Liu Bei against Cao Cao at the Battle of the
Red Cliffs. Yet Guan Yu had recently insulted Sun Quan by refusing a marriage proposal from him,
and to add salt to the man’s wounds, he raided one of Wu’s granaries as his armies were lacking
in supplies. So it is no wonder that when Cao Cao’s messenger reached Wu’s court, it didn’t take
much convincing for Sun Quan to switch sides and ally himself with Wei. Sun Quan then sent one of
his generals, Lü Meng, to conquer Jing province. Lü Meng had his troops hide in disguised ships
and easily infiltrated the provinces' defences, while he was also able to convince the
local commanders, Mi Fang and Shi Ren, who were on bad terms with Guan Yu, to switch sides.
Therefore, without facing much armed resistance, most of the province was quickly brought under the
control of Sun Quan’s armies. Guan Yu, who had no choice but to abandon his offensive campaign,
tried to retreat toward safety, but gradually, his disheartened troops deserted him, and he was
ultimately captured and executed by Sun Quan’s men. His death benefited mostly Cao Cao as it
created a deep rift between the kingdoms of Shu and Wu, preventing any collaboration between
them, and they were ultimately conquered by Wei. The beauty of women
Not all stratagems revolve around armies, and not all enemies are defeated on the battlefield. Kings
and generals are ultimately humans and thus have their own vices that can be exploited to cause
their demise. One of the best ways to grow discord between two allies is to throw a beautiful woman
between them, and that’s just what Wang Yun did. Though likely fictitious, the account of Diaochan
in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is rather famous. She is considered one of the four beauties of
China and, according to the novel, was sent by the Han official to persuade Lü Bu to revolt and kill
his lord and foster father, the tyrant Dong Zhuo. Wang Yun first invited Lü Bu to a banquet, and
after making him drunk, he called Diaochan into the room and introduced her as his daughter.
Seeing that Lü Bu had fallen for the girl’s unmatched beauty, Wang Yun offered her as a
handmaid, to which an overjoyed Lü Bu gladly accepted. A few days later, and after making sure
the general was absent, Wang Yun visited Dong Zhuo and invited him to his home for a grand feast.
There, Diaochan danced and sang for the tyrant, who also fell for her charms and took her to the
palace as a concubine. Naturally, Lü Bu questioned Wang Yun as to why he had not honoured his promise
of giving Diaochan to him, to which the official replied that Dong Zhuo had taken her with the
intention of betrothing the girl to Lü Bu. Of course, Dong Zhuo had no such intention
and kept Diaochan constantly by his side for his own pleasure. One day, the lovestruck
Lü Bu had the chance to meet with Diaochan in a romantic one-on-one, with the young girl
proclaiming her love to him and telling him that Dong Zhuo had violated her. But while the two
“lovers” were in each other's caring embrace, Dong Zhuo, who had been searching the entire
palace grounds for his favourite concubine, saw them together. In a fit of rage, he picked
up Lü Bu’s halberd and hurled it towards him, with the young general hastily
making a run for his life. Li Ru, an advisor of Dong Zhuo, tried in vain to calm
the tyrant and advised him that he shouldn’t ruin his relationship with his adopted son and
greatest general just for a girl. Dong Zhuo was persuaded to forgive Lü Bu for a moment, but
Diaochan twisted the tale, claiming that the general was the one who had embraced her
against her will and that she would rather die than leave her master’s side. This convinced
Dong Zhuo to keep her and thus sealed his fate. Lü Bu, who had by that time found refuge at Wang
Yun’s house, was also enraged and was easily recruited in the plot to kill the tyrant that
had usurped the Empire. With Lü Bu on his side, Wang Yun set the final trap, a ceremony where
Emperor Xian would abdicate the throne in favour of Dong Zhuo. As his carriage was approaching
the Reception Hall, he noticed that Wang Yun and the rest of the officials were all armed and
was startled, but before he could even make an attempt to escape, Wang Yun shouted, “The rebel
is here! Where are the executioners?” and soldiers armed with spears and halberds surrounded the
carriage with one of them wounding Dong Zhuo, who called out for Lü Bu to protect him. Lü
Bu emerged from the crowd, saying that he was there to deal with the rebel and plunged his
own trident into Dong Zhuo’s throat, killing him. Thus, the most powerful man in the Empire met
his demise at that moment. As for Diaochan, the novel informs us that after Dong Zhuo’s death, she married Lü Bu and left Chang’an with him, but
besides a later cameo, she isn’t mentioned again. Outro
Because of the volume of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and
the Sanguozhi it would be impossible to mention all of the stratagems that are described there in
a single video. We just selected some of the most famous and what we thought were more entertaining
ones. We hope you liked the video and keep in mind that if you see a man playing a guqin on top
of the city’s gates, it’s most likely a bluff. More videos on Ancient Chinese culture and history
are on the way. To ensure you don’t miss it, make sure you are subscribed and have pressed
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