What Tactics Did the Ancient Chinese Use?

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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  yourself with our sponsor Infinite Borders. It’s a massively multiplayer  grand strategy game on PC and   mobile simulating the battles between states,  leaders, and armies in the three kingdoms era,   bringing history to life with beautiful art,  compelling characters, and charming music. While new in the west, it’s  been around a while in the east,   with seasonal updates adding  more and more to the game. Their new conquest season called ‘All  trades contention’ just released. This   update focuses on giving new skills  to the characters under your command,   and with it, new synergies to use on  your economy, army, and infrastructure,   bringing broader strategies into  play as you contend with your rivals. The five professions are now at your command:  farming and sericulture to improve your land;   earthwork, to access new resources; military  affairs, to boost troop recruitment;   medical matters, to reduce draft times; and  wisdom, bringing experience bonuses in combat. Whether you’re played before  or are just hearing about it,   use these new tools to your advantage in the  massive long-term wars of Infinite Borders. Get the game for free using  our link in the description,   and try out some of the three kingdom’s  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  the bell button. Please consider liking,   subscribing, commenting, and sharing - it  helps immensely. Recently, we have started   releasing weekly patron and YouTube member  exclusive content; consider joining their   ranks via the link in the description or button  under the video to watch these weekly videos,   learn about our schedule, get early access  to our videos, access our private discord,   and much more. This is the Kings and Generals  channel, and we will catch you on the next one.
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Channel: Kings and Generals
Views: 210,938
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Keywords: Three Kingdoms, romance, tactics, tricks, stratagems, Sanguozhi, china, chinese, ancient china, history channel, kings and generals, history lesson, documentary film, full documentary, history documentary, war - topic, ancient history, Han, greece, han dynasty, war of the heavenly horses, silk road, mobei, world history, successors, seleucids, rome, roman trade, ancient rome, china on rome, silk routes, silk roads, king and generals, roman economy, animated historical documentary
Id: VyHhGEUhcms
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Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)
Published: Fri Apr 26 2024
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