The Art of War - Strategy Two
Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao
This strategy directs one to relieve the besieged city/state by besieging the home base of the besiegers.
Let us say a far superior force is deployed against your city or state; or it may be that your neighbouring ally is the one on the receiving end and steadfast, stalwart resistance is not enough to deter hostilities or defeat the onslaught. Then clearly the best recourse would be to invade the enemy’s home territory. This would compel the foe to hastily divert a major part of their army to defend their home ground.
Meanwhile, having just reduced their forces arrayed against you, you may set a serious of ambushes to target the enemy’s weak points; the objective being to break the enemy’s massive army up into smaller, more vulnerable, segments.
The strategy of fighting a powerful enemy is like regulating the rivers. When the enemy is as ferocious and overpowering as a big flood, one should avoid a head on confrontation and wait until it has lost its initial momentum before steering a torrent into a dredged channel to divide the flow, calm it down and render it controllable. A minor enemy can be handled like a lesser flood. One can construct a dike to halt its movement.
Keep in mind that the motion of ground forces is comparable to the flow of water. Water avoids heights and tends to flow towards the lower ground. The flowing of water is typically determined by the terrain just as the movement of the army is determined by the enemy’s situation.
An effective force therefore avoids engaging a strong enemy directly and attacks the weaker segments. An army should have no fixed deployment. Like water it should have no definite shape. Lastly the superb military commander attains victory by changing tactics according to his different enemies.
In summary, a victorious army avoids engaging the strong and attacks the weak, avoids the solid to attack the brittle, and avoids the difficult to attack the easy. This is the sure way to achieve a hundred victories in a hundred battles.
The End.
