Chapter 18 The fourth strategy is to wait for work

The situation of trapping the enemy, without fighting, damages strength and gains softness Force the enemy into a difficult situation instead of taking a direct attack; the mutual transformation of rigidity and softness is a strategy deduced from the damage hexagram. This is how to manipulate the enemy.The Book of War says: "Anyone who fights the enemy on the battlefield first is at ease; he who fights on the battlefield later is exhausted. Therefore, those who are good at fighting can control the enemy without being manipulated by the enemy." The book of war talks about the relationship between labor and rest in war, but here it discusses the art of mastering the initiative in war. Its main purpose is not to choose terrain to wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy, but to use simplicity to control complexity, and not to deal with changes. , use small changes to deal with big changes, and stillness to deal with activities, and a small amount of activities to deal with a lot of activities, just like the center of a circle uses rotation to deal with endless surroundings.

For example, during the Warring States period, when Guan Zhong was in charge of Qi’s internal affairs, he carried out military training. In fact, he was preparing for war. He also set up an ambush on Maling Road, and Pang Juan was defeated and committed suicide.When Zhao general Li Mu was guarding Yanmen Pass, he fought against the Xiongnu for a long time. In fact, he was actively preparing for war, so he defeated the Xiongnu in one fell swoop. The core content of this plan: exhaust the enemy so as to take the opportunity to break the enemy. The phrase "wait for work with ease" comes from Sun Tzu's Art of War military article "Military treats near and far, and waits for work with ease." It means that you are in an active position tactically to deal with the enemy's attack.By extension, anyone who has made full preparations in advance and feels that he has to deal with the intrusion of external forces, no matter what happens, can be called "waiting for work with ease".The principle of dealing with affairs is different from that of being a person. To do things is to do today’s business today; to be a person, especially to deal with some complicated personnel issues, you need to procrastinate and wait until all parties calm down before handling them safely.

The strategy of waiting for work has been widely used in ancient and modern wars, creating many brilliant examples of victory with less, such as the battle of Qilu in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Battle of Feishui in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. What is even more remarkable is that in modern times During the war, in order to strive for national liberation and the rebirth of the motherland, under the guidance of Mao Zedong's military thought, the Chinese Communists successfully used the strategy of "waiting for work with ease" and smashed the hundreds of thousands of Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary troops with inferior equipment and weak forces. The second round of encirclement and suppression enabled the weak Red Army to develop, and eventually overthrew the Chiang Dynasty and established a new China for the people.

In 154 BC, the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" broke out led by Wu Wang Liu Bi.Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty worshiped Taiwei Zhou Yafu and ordered him to lead his army to meet the rebels. After Zhou Yafu took over the army, he made some adjustments and immediately attacked secretly. The army passed through Lantian, went out of Wuguan, arrived at Luoyang, and then invaded the arsenal of Xingyang. The actions were swift and concealed, appearing on the front line like magic soldiers and generals. for shock. Zhou Yafu knew that although his current division was famous, his troops were few and weak, and it would be difficult to win against the rebels head-on, so he decided to gather troops to defend the river and stick to it for a long time, waiting for the enemy's spirit to be defeated before making plans.

At this time, the rebels from Wu and Chu were attacking the state of Liang, and the state of Liang was in danger. The king of Liang sent envoys to Zhou Yafu several times to ask for reinforcements, but Zhou Yafu pretended to be ignorant and refused.While refusing to send troops, in order to seek a better decisive battle situation, Zhou Yafu sent a light cavalry to the northeast, occupied Changyi, and then built a line of defense to strengthen the depth of the defense to facilitate long-term persistence. King Liang Xiao asked Zhou Yafu for help many times but failed, so he became angry from embarrassment, and turned to Emperor Jing, asking Emperor Jing to issue an imperial decree to force Zhou Yafu to leave the current defensive position and go to relieve the siege of Liang. Emperor Han Jing had no choice but to issue an order because of his brother's affection , Zhou Yafu quickly sent troops to break the siege of Liang Guo.

After the envoy of Emperor Jing of Han came to Zhou Yafu's barracks, he read out the imperial edict loudly, but Zhou Yafu only accepted the imperial edict, and had no intention of sending troops to rescue him at all. The envoy asked angrily, "Zhou Yafu, do you dare to resist the edict?" Zhou Yafu replied respectfully, "I dare not." "Then why don't you send troops to rescue Liang?" Zhou Yafu said calmly: "Your Majesty ordered me to lead the army to fight against the enemy, and I was given command authority. How to deploy the army should be determined according to the specific situation on the battlefield. I know the critical situation Liang Guo is in. Liang Guoshang There are 50,000 defenders, enough food and grass, no major mistakes, and we should persist for another 10 days. Although our army has high morale, it has come from a long distance. The army is exhausted, and the enemy is strong, so it is not suitable for a decisive battle. When you get a good opportunity, attack again."

The envoy said dissatisfied: "Can you ignore the holy order?" Zhou Yafu said resolutely: "The general is out, and the king's order is not acceptable. Please learn from me." The envoy saw that Zhou Yafu was dead and would not send troops, so he had to go back and report. The news of Zhou Yafu's refusal to send troops quickly spread throughout the army, and also reached the ears of Wu Chu's rebel generals. The rebel generals thought that Zhou Yafu was afraid of death and cowardice, so they no longer kept strict surveillance on him, but calmed down. Attack Liang Guolai.

Taking advantage of the negligence of the rebel army, Zhou Yafu mobilized an elite army to cut off the rebel army's food road and burned the rebel army's food and fodder. The rebel army lost their food and grass. The army lost its food and grass and could not last long, so it could only fight quickly, so it turned back and wanted to fight Zhou Yafu's army to the death. At this time, Zhou Yafu had mobilized the enemy several times and won the initiative in the war. He knew that the rebels were in a hurry to jump the wall and wanted to fight with beasts, so he insisted on not confronting and avoiding the battle. After a few days, Wu The Chu rebels were unable to fight and were unwilling to leave. Zhou Yafu cleverly took advantage of the enemy's shortage of food and grass and the weakness of the army's instability.

Zhou Yafu saw that the time for a decisive battle had come, so he ordered his troops to create a false appearance of disordered formation and loose defense to lure the rebels to attack. The commander of the Wu-Chu Allied Forces had long been eager to attack, but he had been suffering from no chance. Now he suddenly saw the opportunity coming. , So he rectified the army and horses, and killed them at night, trying to establish the victory in one fell swoop. Zhou Yafu knew that his palace was originally located in the northwest of the camp, but the rebels were bluffing to attack the southeast of the camp. The southeast of the battalion resisted tenaciously. The commander-in-chief of the Wu-Chu Allied Forces saw the smoke and dust billowing in the southeast of the camp, and the soldiers of both armies were fighting with all their strength. His whereabouts were like moths thrown into the flames, and Zhou Yafu's ambush soldiers waited for him. At once, thousands of arrows were fired, and the killing sounded everywhere, and the rebels immediately fell into a tight siege.

The rebels had lost their fighting spirit at first, coupled with the lack of food and grass, and were exhausted. Now they are trapped in a tight siege. In the fierce battle, the allied forces of Wu and Chu suffered devastating losses. Seeing that the situation was over, King Liu Bi of Chu had to draw his sword and commit suicide. The siege of Liang was resolved. In daily life, we often use the method of waiting for work with ease, because it is a very effective method. The chemist Mr. Haiwei used this strategy to cleverly catch a jewel thief. The thing is this: Mrs. Kaul, a jeweler, has a precious Kimberley black diamond in her collection, which is invaluable. She praises everyone as a magic weapon to attract business.

One day, three gentlemen——Charle, Allen, and Bello came to visit. Mrs. Coul welcomed them into the collection room, and then opened the box. A huge, shiny black diamond was immediately presented to the people. before. The visitors admired the texture and color of the diamonds carefully. After viewing, the host closed the treasure chest and sealed it with a white seal covered with paste, and then invited the gentlemen to the living room for a chat. On this day, the manners and conversations of the three of them had their own characteristics, but there was a strange coincidence—all three of them had a little problem with their right fingers. Char's index finger might be inflamed and painted with purple lotion; Bello's thumb was obviously It was scratched, and red syrup was applied; Alan's thumb was probably swollen by poisonous insect bites, and iodine was applied. The atmosphere of the conversation was friendly and warm. Although the three gentlemen had left the table to urinate one after another, they were still chatting and laughing after returning to the living room. When the guest and host were talking about each other, Mrs. Kaur's former friend Haiwei, a doctor of chemistry, came to visit. Mrs. Kaul accompanied the doctor to visit the collection room again. When she peeled off the wet white seal and opened the lid of the box, she suddenly found that the diamond was gone. She only cried out in despair: "God!" go down. Although it can be concluded that diamonds will not fly out of the house in such a short period of time, a diamond is really too small. As long as people hide it in a random place, they may never be found. Sufficient reason is not to be searched at will.It's just a search. If you can't find the diamond, you can only bring shame on yourself. Dr. Haiwei helped Mrs. Cole to the living room, explained the theft of the diamond to the three gentlemen, and then said jokingly: "Dear gentlemen, this naughty diamond flew into your hands, didn't it?" The three gentlemen shrugged their shoulders, spread their hands, and said in unison: "This is absolutely impossible." While comforting Mrs. Kaul, Dr. Haiwei said calmly, "If you still want to see this diamond, please be patient and wait a little longer." The three gentlemen did not want to be suspected, so they took their seats again and joined the ranks of the chatter. While chatting and laughing, Dr. Haiwei carefully observed every gentleman's expression, look, and even the subtle movements of every gesture of hand and foot. A quarter of an hour later, Dr. Haiwei's sharp eyes swept over the hands of the three, and then pointed to Alan among them and said to Mrs. Kaul, "Okay, now the matter is clear, he was the one who stole the diamond." Mrs. Kaur asked in surprise: "How can you be sure it's him?" "Yeah, how can you use such a crime casually? You know, this will damage my reputation and reputation." Allen protested loudly. Hai Wei calmly pointed to Alan's blue-black thumb, and said with certainty: "The color on the finger has already told us everything." Everyone stared at Dr. Haiwei in bewilderment. Dr. Highway said: "Just now, when I shook hands with all the gentlemen, I found that your fingers were painted with different colors. Charle was painted with purple syrup, Bello was painted with red syrup, Allen was painted with iodine, and three After seeing this diamond just now, the diamond disappeared, and I thought, maybe some gentlemen are playing a little joke with us, playing a game of hide-and-seek." Dr. Haiwei looked around and heard everyone, and then said: "I think it takes time to judge who is playing this game, you know? There is a wonderful strategy in China called waiting for work with leisure, so I adopted this strategy and let everyone here Just casually chatting for a while. Sure enough, I got the result I needed, and a miracle happened, and you see..." Haiwei stood up, walked to Alan's side, grabbed Alan's finger, held it up and said, "Did you see that? Iodine was applied to Alan's finger, and when the iodine was in contact with the paste, his finger became wet." From the original yellow to blue-black, this is because of the chemical reaction between the iodine in the iodine and the starch in the paste. I think, after Mrs. Kaur had sealed the treasure chest, Mr. Allen went to Touching the paste on the seal must not be just out of curiosity, right?" Allen lowered his head dejectedly, and took the diamond out of the button of his clothes that had been hidden. In the autumn of 202 BC, the famous general Hannibal of Carthage led 20,000 elite soldiers and fiercely approached the defense line of the Roman general Scipio, trying to wipe out the Roman army in one fell swoop.Facing such a ferocious enemy, Scipio did not resist forcefully, but carried out a strategic retreat. He took the initiative to withdraw his troops to the Zama area where there was no water source and no danger to defend. After arriving at Zama, Scipio carefully arranged A strange formation, ready for a decisive battle with Hannibal. After Hannibal chased to Zama, he was also puzzled when he saw the strange formation formed by the Roman army. It turned out that in Hannibal's army, there were 80 well-trained elephants who were used to fighting. In the era of cold weapons, these 80 war elephants were very powerful when they stepped into the formation. Don't be afraid of the arrows, no matter how strong the defense is, throwing the formation will be overwhelmed by them. Therefore, this formation of Scipiobu is mainly used to deal with the 80 war elephants, but after Hannibal looked at it, he found that the formation set up by the Roman army There is a big distance between the team and the square team. Why, I can't figure it out for a while. Hannibal also began to form an array. He divided his troops into three lines, with the elite troops placed in the rear, the cavalry deployed on the left and right wings, and 80 war elephants placed in front of the first-line troops. His combat plan was to use The war elephants break through the opponent's frontal defense in one fell swoop, thereby reducing the resistance of the first-line attacking troops, thereby boosting the morale of the second-line troops, and finally relying on the third-line elite soldiers to make the final impact. After carefully observing Hannibal's formation, Scipio adopted the strategy of waiting for work with ease and avoiding the enemy's sharp edge.In order to avoid the impact of the enemy war elephants, he also divided the army into three lines, overlapping the troops of the first, second, and third lines.The reserved channel extends almost in all directions, so that the war elephant can pass through the middle smoothly.At the same time, he deployed the cavalry on the left and right wings, so that he could encircle the enemy's two wings at any time.In addition, he ordered the front-line infantry to bring back a lot of horns, war drums and other equipment, preparing to use the sudden sound of drums and horns to frighten the elephants away once they rushed over. The battle finally started. Hannibal dispatched his war elephants first to attack. When the war elephants approached the front line of the Pian army of the Western European country, Scipio's first-line troops suddenly blew their drums and horns, and their shouts shook the sky.The sudden noise made the war elephants frightened. Some stood still, some rushed forward, and some turned around and ran back. The neat and orderly formation of elephants suddenly became chaotic. The rushing elephants, because Scipio's army left many passages in advance, so the frightened elephants ran forward along the passages. A prisoner of others.However, the war elephants that turned around and ran around smashed the formation of Hannibal's army, killing countless people. Scipio seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and immediately ordered the cavalry to attack from the two wings, outflank the past, and at the same time concentrate the troops on the third line, form a fist, and storm towards Hannibal's front. Hannibal's entire army was in chaos, the command system failed, soldiers could not find officers, officers could not find subordinates, the left army lost contact with the right army, and the fighting spirit of the officers and soldiers was suddenly lost, and Scipio's army took advantage of the situation to cover up , Chasing and attacking fiercely. Seeing that the situation was over, Hannibal let out a long sigh, and could only turn his horse's head and flee. In this battle, the 20,000 Carthaginian army was almost wiped out, and the 80 elephants became the spoils of the Romans, except for more than 30 dead and injured. The Roman army led by Scipio only suffered more than 1,500 casualties. , Created a glorious example of waiting for work with ease and winning more with less. The Roman general Scipio became famous far and wide after this battle.But Hannibal, the god of war who was invincible before, was ruined and devastated.