A Lifetime of Essential Sun Tzu's Art of War: The 36 Stratagems You Need to Master

Author: Zhang Junjie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: 【Military Application】In 354 BC, King Hui of Wei sent his general Pang Juan to attack Zhongshan. Zhongshan was originally a small country neighboring Wei during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but it was later conquered by Wei. However, Zhao seized the territory during Wei's state mourning and occupied it forcibly. Therefore, King Hui of Wei harbored a deep grudge against Zhao. Pang Juan, a general of Wei, believed that Zhongshan was merely a small place and was very close to Zhao. He suggested attacking Zhao's capital, Handan, directly. This would not only reclaim Zhongshan but also intimidate Zhao, achieving two goals with one arrow. King Hui readily agreed, and Pang Juan led his army straight to Zhao, surrounding the capital Handan. Faced with a formidable enemy, King Zhao of Zhao had no choice but to seek help from Qi, promising to return Zhongshan once the siege was lifted. King Wei of Qi agreed to assist Zhao and sent Tian Ji as the general and Sun Bin as the strategist to lift the siege. Tian Ji and Sun Bin led their troops to the border between Wei and Zhao. Tian Ji wanted to march directly to Handan to engage the Wei army in battle. However, Sun Bin said: "To resolve conflicts, one must not participate in direct combat. To calm disputes, one must strike at the key point, take advantage of the enemy's weaknesses, and use constraints to naturally separate the parties. Now, Wei's elite troops are well-supplied and have mobilized their entire nation. If we attack Wei now, Pang Juan will surely return to rescue them, and in doing so, the crisis in Handan will naturally be resolved. Meanwhile, we can ambush the enemy on their return journey and surely defeat them." Tian Ji greatly praised Sun Bin and acted according to the plan. As expected, when the Wei army learned that the Qi army was attacking their territory, they quickly withdrew from Handan and were ambushed by the Qi army on their way back. The two sides fought a major battle at Guiling. The Wei soldiers had already been fighting for some time and were exhausted from the long journey. Under the ambush, they quickly disintegrated into a rout. Pang Juan barely managed to gather the remnants of his army and retreated to Daliang. The Qi army won a decisive victory, and the siege on Zhao was successfully lifted. From the perspective of dialectical philosophy, things are always in an imbalanced state of development. Mao Zedong often said, "If the east is not bright, the west will be," which reflects the dialectical approach to problems. In war, as the offensive force in the front is greatly strengthened, the defensive force in the rear becomes relatively weak. When superior forces are concentrated to besiege a certain area, the strength in other areas is relatively weakened. In this way, we can seize favorable opportunities to target the enemy's weaknesses, which is the philosophical starting point of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao." 【Business Application】The world is like a chess game, and in business competition, one must layout strategies in various markets to win. Sometimes, to break out of one's business (troubles) and achieve strategic breakthroughs, one can adopt the strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao" to achieve success. In 2005, Lenovo finally completed the historic merger, marking the beginning of its international development journey. In reality, the reason why Lenovo, led by Yang Yuanqing, was willing to spend heavily to acquire IBM's PC business had profound historical context and industry trends. After the new century, the wave of globalization swept across the world, and the late effects of China's entry into the WTO had already begun to show. Faced with the covetous gaze of industry rivals, Lenovo could no longer follow its past cumulative development path. In other words, this was a critical moment, and the only way to break through was through this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As the direct competitor, HP and Dell had been