Chapter 16 The Second Plan Surrounds Wei and Rescues Zhao

It is better to divide the enemy than to share the enemy, and the enemy is not as good as the enemy. Instead of attacking a concentrated frontal strong enemy, it is better to force the enemy to disperse their forces before attacking to meet the enemy's frontal offensive, and it is better to detour to the enemy's weak side and wait for an opportunity to destroy the enemy. Fight against the enemy and control the water. For the fierce enemy, you must avoid its frontal impact, and guide it like a flood, so that its evacuation becomes a diversion; When Qi State went to rescue Zhao State, Sun Tzu said to Tian Ji: "To untie the tangled ropes, don't fight with your fists; if you want to prevent a fight, you can't join in and use your fists yourself. Attack the enemy's vital and weak parts, so that the other side will be affected by the situation. Obstacles and restrictions, unable to continue its military operations, the war will naturally be resolved."

The core content of this plan is: attack the enemy's defenseless and weak parts to indirectly contain the enemy, so as to achieve the final goal. The formation of this strategy is related to a battle in the history of our country. There are more detailed records in "Historical Records". During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China was divided into many small countries. These small countries often fought each other. In 354 BC, the State of Wei launched a war against the State of Zhao and surrounded Handan, the capital of the State of Zhao. The State of Zhao asked for help from the State of Qi. To relieve the crisis of Zhao State, Qi State recruited an army of 80,000 people, appointed Tian Ji as commander-in-chief, and Sun Bin as military adviser to rescue Zhao State. How should this battle be fought?

Tian Ji tried to lead the army straight to the state of Zhao, and the Wei army fought to the death. Sun Bin firmly opposed this method of fighting. He said: "If you want to untie a knot, you can't use brute force to pull it; The best way to break the heavy siege is to avoid the places where the enemy's soldiers are numerous and attack the places where their defenses are empty. All the elite troops of the State of Wei went to attack the State of Zhao, and there was no heavy defense in the country. Therefore, we should attack Daliang, the capital of Wei State, so that Wei State will stop the siege of Handan and immediately return to rescue the mainland."

Tian Ji followed Sun Bin's suggestion, and the news that Qi army attacked Wei State spread immediately. Wei Jun got the news, hurriedly withdrew from Zhao State, and hurried back to Wei State. At this time, Qi quickly withdrew from Wei State. An ambush was set up in the area of ​​Guiling, which must pass through this place, and preparations were made for the battle, so as to deal a sudden blow to the exhausted Wei army who had traveled a long distance. The Wei army was defeated and Zhao Guo was relieved. In real life, this kind of strategy of avoiding the opponent's strengths and attacking the opponent's weaknesses is not uncommon.

During the Warring States Period, Qi, Han, and Wei joined forces to attack the Yan State. Seeing that the Yan State was in danger, they sent the prince to rescue it with the Chu State.The king of Chu and the king of Yan made good friends, and immediately took Jingyang as his general and led his troops to break the siege of Yan. Under the circumstances at that time, directly attacking Qianqian and fighting against the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms can certainly play a role in supporting the Yan State, but the army of the State of Chu is not very strong, so it is obviously very risky to attack the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms rashly. .

The smart Jingyang did not directly send troops to rescue Yan, but chose Wei, the most powerful army among the Three Kingdoms, and the weakest defense, as his opponent, and used a capable light cavalry army to attack Wei's Yongqiu, and the result was easily defeated. Victory was achieved. After Jingyang led the army to attack the city, the people in Wei State began to be in chaos, and the morale of the frontline soldiers was also greatly affected. During the battle against Yan, Wei Jun was homesick, and the battle was not as active and brave as usual. This indirectly supported Yan State.

After capturing Yongqiu, the King of Chu was very happy and prepared to reward the generals who opened up the territory for him. However, Jingyang insisted on giving Yongqiu as a gift to King Song. The King of Chu was very angry and sent someone to question Jingyang. Jingyang replied: "Originally, the purpose of our sending troops this time was to rescue Yan State and relieve the siege of Yan State. How can we bring the danger of subjugation to Chu State for a mere small city?" Jingyang replied calmly: "On the surface, after we captured Yongqiu, we helped the frontal battlefield of Yan State on the one hand, and occupied an extra city on the other hand. It can be said that we kill two birds with one stone. The crisis is approaching. Although Chu State has a strong army and strong national power, it is still at a disadvantage compared with the coalition forces of Qi, Han, and Wei. Wei State will not be reconciled when Chu State takes the opportunity to seize a city. At that time, the war in Yan Kingdom has just ended, and we will not be able to help me. We will fight against the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms alone. Are we not in danger of being defeated? Once defeated, can the country still exist? How can this be alarmist? If We gave it to Song State, the king of Song State must be very grateful to us, because he has long coveted the city's industry, and if we are in trouble, they will send troops to help us. Besides, do we have anything better? method?"

The people who came here were sincerely convinced, and they reported the truth to the king of Chu when they returned home, and sent Yongqiu to the state of Song. Sure enough, it didn't take long for the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms to stop attacking Yan State and attack Chu State instead.The army of Wei was stationed to the west of the Chu army, and the army of Qi was stationed to the east of the Chu army. The retreat of the Chu army was only blocked, and the situation was very critical. Jingyang, who has a strategy in mind, once again used the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao. He adopted the strategy of uniting Qi to fight Wei, and east to fight west. In the daytime, he drove a carriage with rich gifts, and at night, he lit lanterns and torches, and at the same time sent suspicious soldiers to and from the Chu and Han armies.After the armies of the three countries saw it, they all thought that the armies of the other two countries were negotiating with the Chu army. They were afraid that the allied forces would make unfavorable actions. The Qi army withdrew first, followed by the South Korean army, and finally only Wei was left alone. They saw that it was difficult to fight alone, and the Chu army was difficult to break through, so they had no choice but to make peace and strike.

In this way, Jingyang cleverly used the strategy of encircling Wei and saving Zhao many times, which not only relieved Yan from the danger of destroying the country, but also wisely caused the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms to retreat without a fight. This is an extremely successful battle in history. At the beginning of 1904, the Japanese army attacked Lushunkou in China. At that time, Lushunkou was in the hands of the Russians, and the Japanese and Russian armies fought a bloody and tragic battle on the reef in front of Lushunkou.Under the continuous attack of the Japanese army, the defenders of Lushun could not resist, and they desperately asked the tsar for reinforcements. However, because the Japanese army was landing and fighting, the casualties were even more heavy, and they also required a rapid increase in domestic troops. It became a battle of reinforcements for both sides.

In order to guard the estuary of the Pacific Rim, Russian Emperor Alexander urgently ordered the Baltic Fleet to form the Second Pacific Squadron, appointed Lieutenant General Zetvinsky as the fleet commander, and led the fleet from the Baltic Sea to Lushunkou to reinforce the defenders stationed in the port. military. After the Japanese general Dongxiang Heihachiro learned of this situation, he immediately gave up the emergency plan to attack the Japanese army at Lushunkou, and shifted the focus of the attack from Lushunkou to the Russian fleet. In order to meet the Russian Pacific Second Fleet that came for reinforcements, Admiral Dongxiang assembled the main force of his combined fleet at Jinnan Bay in Korea on the north shore of the Tsushima Strait, and then conducted extremely secret and intense emergency training. Before the Second Pacific Fleet arrived at the port of Vladivostok, the Japanese warships took advantage of the long-distance voyage, when the ships were in disrepair, and the combat effectiveness was reduced due to fatigue. The Russian army in Lushun Port completely surrendered without help.

In order to achieve this goal, Togo Heihachiro adopted a series of camouflage measures. He quietly concealed his huge fleet in the Tsushima Strait, and sent some large merchant ships to disguise themselves as iron-clad ships, deliberately cruising in the waters north of Taiwan, causing the main force of the Japanese navy to The false appearance of intercepting the Russian army in this area induced the Russian fleet to divert to the Tsushima Strait in order to passively avoid the battle. Sure enough, the Russian fleet fell for it. In late May, when the Russian Second Pacific Fleet sailed to the waters north of Taiwan, it spotted a Japanese camouflaged fleet. Rozhestvensky mistakenly believed that this was the main force of the Japanese navy and decided to avoid it for the time being. Open it, and after rushing to Lushunkou and consolidating the defense of the harbor, it will not be too late to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army.So he diverted to the Tsushima Strait and headed straight for Vladivostok. How could he have expected that his diversion would just slip into the pocket formation that Togo Heihachiro had set up earlier, thus making Togo's reputation in the history of naval warfare. In the early morning of May 27, the Russian naval fleet sailed into the calm Tsushima Strait. Rozhestvensky was secretly thankful for the unprecedented record of the large fleet expedition created by this ocean voyage. The Japanese combined fleet commanded by Togo Heihachiro Suddenly appearing in front of the Russian fleet, Rozhestvensky almost screamed at the first moment: "My God, where did they come from? Isn't the Japanese fleet still cruising in the Taiwan Strait? Why? Drill out a huge fleet?" The panic of the commander of the Russian fleet is understandable. Just imagine, a huge fleet that has sailed at sea for more than 7 months, more than 10,000 nautical miles, and can reach its destination in two days, suddenly wants to start a battle formation on the spot. It's not that they lack mental preparation, and the entire fleet doesn't even have an emergency plan. An unprecedented sea battle broke out like this. In the face of the ferocious attack of the Japanese fleet, the Russian warships could only defend themselves. In the first round of the battle, the god of fate did not favor the superior Japanese fleet. The Japanese flagship "Mikasa" was the first to be shot and caught fire, standing in the command cabin Dongxiang in Li was calm and calm, and commanded calmly. He ordered the fleet to advance at full speed and approach the Russian ship for melee annihilation. It is much higher than ordinary guns, and the advantage of yellow explosives over black explosives is that the former dissipates quickly and does not block the line of sight, while black explosives have too much smoke and can disappear in half a day, which greatly affects continuous shooting. Under the bombardment of the superior firepower of the Japanese army, the leading Russian warship "Oslyiabia" was shot and sank, and the "Suvorov" and the second ship "Alexander III" were severely damaged. Gunpowder smoke fills the air, warships rush forward, and snow waves hit the shore... From time to time, huge ships sink, and pieces of corpses are thrown into the shallows. After two days of fierce fighting, the sound of guns gradually came to an end, and a sea battle came to an end. The battle ended with the victory of the Japanese navy and the destruction of the Russian fleet. In this battle, the Russian army lost 8 armored ships and 5 ships were struck by lightning. There were several ships, and Lieutenant General Rozhestvensky was injured and captured. Only 3 ships broke through and sailed to Vladivostok, and 6 ships fled to neutral ports. More than 5,000 soldiers were killed and more than 6,000 were captured. In this battle, almost all the possessions and essence of the Russian Navy were destroyed. The Japanese navy lost only 3 lightning strike ships and more than 700 casualties. Obviously, the victory was extremely brilliant. Because of this fatal blow, the Russian army who killed Lushunkou lost their fighting spirit. Within a few days, Lushunkou Fortress was attacked by Japanese General Nomoto's death squad. After the Japanese army captured Lushunkou, in order to vent their anger, they carried out a horrific massacre, killing only 36 people in the whole city at that time, who were used to carry and bury the corpses.Lushun became an empty city, a city of death, a city of blood. In modern life, such cases are not uncommon. In 1860, the Qing Dynasty mobilized more than 100,000 troops to surround Nanjing, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with two large camps in the north and south. The Qing Dynasty stormed Hangzhou, an important city in the Qing Dynasty. In order to understand the siege of Hangzhou, the Qing Dynasty had to transfer the army that surrounded Nanjing to relieve the siege. Such a siege of Nanjing could not be understood. In August 1947, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale attack on our revolutionary base. In order to smash the offensive of the Kuomintang army, Mao Zedong decided to fight out the Second Field Army led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, leap thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, and go to the rear of Chiang Kai-shek to open up the Second Field Army. On the battlefield, Liu and Deng's armies lived up to their expectations. With the courage and courage of the two armies to meet the brave and win, they forcibly crossed the Yellow River and crossed the Central Plains. Chiang Kai-shek's army that went deep into the hinterland was like a bone stem in his throat and a thorn in his back. He couldn't sleep at night and couldn't eat well. pressure and created conditions for an early strategic counter-offensive. In modern political struggles, this strategy is also widely used. In the Middle East, along with military struggles, there are often economic sanctions, food embargoes, etc., which are actually the practical application of the strategy of encircling Wei and saving Zhao. Therefore, the ancients said : "Soldiers are like water... water has no shape, and those who can change due to the enemy are called gods."