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36 War Strategies of Ancient China
Strategy 7
Create Something From Nothing
You use the same feint twice. Having reacted to the
first and often the second feint as well, the enemy will be hesitant to react to
a third feint. Therefore the third feint is the actual attack catching your
enemy with his guard down.
Tang Dynasty China
During the An Lushan rebellion in 756 AD the Tang
general Chang Shun was under siege by the forces of general Linghu Chao.
Outnumbered twenty to one, the defending Tang forces soon ran out of arrows. To
remedy this general Chang ordered his men to make straw dummies and to dress
them in black uniforms. That night the dummies were lowered over the city walls
by ropes, accompanied to the beat of war drums and gongs. General Linghu thought
the enemy was launching a surprise night offensive and ordered his archers to
shower the figures descending the walls with arrows. Once the dummies where
riddled with arrows the Tang soldiers pulled them back up the walls and thus
restored their supply of arrows.
The next day general Linghu realized he had been tricked
and attacked the walls in revenge for being humiliated. That night the Tang
again lowered the dummies but General Linghu ordered his men to ignore them
believing it was the same trick to get more arrows. When general Chang saw that
no one was firing at the straw dummies, he ordered that five hundred of his best
troops be lowered instead. They made a lightning raid on the encamped soldiers
who were caught completely by surprise. The siege was lifted and general
Linghu's army fled the field.
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