The Thirty-Six Strategies of the Three Kingdoms: The Eleventh Stratagem of the Enemy War Li Dai Tao Jian
The final decision: There must be losses, and the Yin must be damaged to benefit the Yang.
Peach trees grow on the well, and plum trees grow beside peaches. Insects come to eat the peach roots, and plum trees replace peach branches. Tree bodies replace each other. Do brothers still forget each other? The words come from "Collection of Yuefu Poems: Rooster Crow". Li Daitaojiang comes from this poem. The meaning in the poem is that Li Shu knew that he had to suffer on behalf of Tao, let alone his own brother? Li Dai's Taojiang poems are similar to Cao Zhi's seven-step poems. In the Thirty-six Stratagems, Li Daitao's plan is equivalent to losing the car to save the commander. It means that when danger comes, unimportant interests can be sacrificed in order to preserve core interests.
Lose Yin to gain Yang. Yin here represents unimportant, local things; Yang represents major, overall things. In terms of military strategy, if the ultimate victory can only be achieved at the cost of a certain loss, the commander should make a decisive decision and make partial sacrifices to preserve or win the overall victory. It's like playing chess. When the situation becomes serious and you are entangled by your opponent and cannot escape, you need to have the courage of a strong man to cut off his wrist and abandon his pieces to fight for the lead. Although discarding a few pieces may seem like a partial loss, after gaining the upper hand, you gain the initiative to reverse the situation of the battle. Overall, it is cost-effective.
The ancients said: The feelings of our enemies have their own strengths and weaknesses. In war, it is rare to win completely, and the secret of victory or defeat lies in the comparison of long and short, which is the secret of using short to defeat long. For example, the lower Sichuang is against the upper Sichuang, the higher Sichuang is against the middle Sichuang, and the middle Sichuang is against the lower Sichuang. This is the unique and cunning plan of a sincere military strategist, which is very reasonable and predictable. What is mentioned here is "the lower Si is against the upper Si, the upper Si is against the middle Si, and the middle Si is against the lower Si" is exactly the classic battle example of Li Dai Tao Jiang, the story of Tian Ji's horse racing.
Classic battle examples:
Tian Ji’s horse racing is a popular story. Tian Ji, the general of Qi State, and other nobles of Qi State bet on horse racing to win or lose. Generally speaking, there is not much difference between the horses of both sides. If we follow the usual concept and compete one-on-one, Tian Ji is not sure of winning. Tian Ji's counselor Sun Bin gave him an idea, that is, race his low-grade horses against the opponent's high-grade horses, his high-grade horses against the opponent's medium-grade horses, and his medium-grade horses against the opponent's low-grade horses. He lost the first round, but won the next two rounds. According to the rule of best of three rounds, Tian Ji was sure of victory. In the first round, Tian Ji lost miserably in the laughter of everyone, but by sacrificing the first round, he won the next two rounds. According to the rules, he only needs to win two rounds to be considered a winner. Therefore, Sun Bin passed Li Daitao's plan. Sacrifice local or global victory.
Later in the battle of Guiling between Qi and Wei, Tian Ji encountered the same situation in actual combat. The left army of the Wei army is the strongest, the middle army is second, and the right army is the weakest. Tian Ji is ready to deal with the Wei army in the same way as Sun Bin's horse racing. Sun Bin disagreed. He believed that when facing the enemy, the goal is not to win two out of three games, but to eliminate a large number of enemies and achieve a comprehensive victory. Sun Bin arranged for his lower army to stand firm to face the enemy's strongest left army, use the central army to face the evenly matched central army, and use the strongest army to take the initiative to quickly destroy the enemy's weakest right army.
Although the Qi army suffered serious losses in the battle with the Wei army's left army, the enemy's right army was quickly defeated. Tian Ji quickly commanded his superior army to take advantage of the victory and join forces with the Chinese army to defeat the enemy's Chinese army in one fell swoop. Then, the three armies attacked together and defeated the enemy's left army, which had become a lone army. Sun Bin flexibly used Li Daitao's stiffness and once again sacrificed part of the situation in exchange for overall victory.
Examples of the Three Kingdoms War:
1. Cao Hong sacrificed his life to save Cao Cao
See the sixth chapter of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Cao Cao, who was chasing Dong Zhuo, was ambushed by Xu Rong. Fleeing in defeat. Cao Cao was shot with an arrow by Xu Rong, and was stabbed off his horse by two soldiers. Just then Cao Hong arrived and killed two soldiers. Cao Cao recognized them as Cao Hong. Cao Cao said: "I am dead here, my dear brother, please go quickly!" Hong said: "Young Master is in a hurry to get on your horse! Hong is willing to walk." Cao said: "The thieves catch up, what will you do?" Hong said: "The world is in danger. If you don't have Hong, you can't be ungrateful." Cao said, "If I were to be born again, it would be your strength." Cao mounted his horse, and Hong took off his armor, dragged his sword and followed the horse.
This is Cao Hong's Li Dai Tao Zhan plan. At the moment when he is defeated and fleeing for his life, two people and one horse must sacrifice one person to save the life of the other. Cao Hong knew very well that compared with Cao Cao, his weight was much smaller. If he could only survive alone, the value of Cao Cao's life would obviously be much higher than his own. Therefore, Cao Hong said: "The world cannot be without Hong, but cannot be without justice." Such a famous saying, and he gave up his war horse without hesitation and risked his life to protect Cao Cao from escaping.
There are many such stories of saviors who sacrificed their lives, such as the story of Zu Mao saving Sun Jian. Zu Mao said: "The red turban on my lord's head is pointed at the eyes, which will be recognized by thieves. You can take off the turban and wear it with someone." Jian took off the turban and changed into a Mao helmet, and walked away in two ways. The heroic army only hopes to catch up with the red-headed men, but the strong ones can escape from the path. Zu Mao did not have Cao Hong's luck and died in a battle. If it were not for Zu Mao and Li to replace Tao Zang and sacrifice his life to save the savior, and Sun Jian died, I am afraid that the entire Three Kingdoms story would have been rewritten.
2. Cao Cao borrowed money to tide over the food shortage
Cao Cao raised an army of 170,000 to attack Yuan Shu Shouchun, but the guard Li Feng stayed behind closed doors. The army's daily expenditure on food was huge, and there was not enough food and grass to disperse. The grain officer Ren Jun's subordinate Wang Ge, the warehouse officer, went to report to Cao Cao and said: "There are many soldiers but little food, what should we do?" Cao said: "We can scatter the small dendrobium trees to save the immediate emergency." Ge said: "Soldiers What if you complain?" Cao said, "I have my own plan.
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What's Cao Cao's plan? It's just a plan to use Li Daitao to overcome the food shortage.
He obeyed his orders and dispersed them with Dendrobium. Cao secretly sent people to each village to spy, and they all found He complained, saying that the prime minister was bullying everyone. Cao secretly called Wang Jie in and said, "I want to ask you to borrow something to suppress everyone's feelings. You must not be stingy." "Ge said: "What does the prime minister want to use? Cao Cao said, "I want to use your head to show it to the public." "Ge Da was shocked and said: "You are really not guilty! Cao Cao said: "I also know that you are not guilty, but if I don't kill you, the army will change." After your death, I will support your wife on my own, so don’t worry about it. ”
Cao Cao sacrificed a man’s life and honor in exchange for the temporary stability of the soldiers who were short of food. Then Cao Cao issued a fatal order: the city must be captured within three days. The soldiers worked hard, and Shouchun was indeed captured within three days. . Although this strategy is a bit vicious, Cao Cao is astute and transcends conventional thinking, showing his true qualities as a hero.