by
multipletext.com
The Classic Art
of War
An Empty Town (2)
空城计
19
October 2008
An
Empty Town (1)
When Sima Yi, the
warmonger from Wei, arrived near Pavilion Street
Town, he received a report from his vanguards that
Zhuge Liang had already deployed his armies guarding
the pass to the city. The warmonger signed, "His
grandma's bear! This guy's always got one step ahead
of me." And he was going to pull back his force.
"I think we can win
this war and will," his son, Sima Junior,
presented his daddy a map prepared by his central intelligent agents, which showed
Shu's defence force had pitched their camps on a
nearby hilltop instead of by the pass. The daddy
couldn't believe his eyes, and inquired, "Who's
their chief commander?" "It's Lieutenant
General Ma Su," replied a cia. "Aha,"
the daddy beamed brilliantly, "I know the guy, a
writer-turned-general. This idiot may be able to
write something like Grand Strategies for a Great
Kingdom, but he doesn't seem to be able to come
up with sensible tactics for a small battle."
Next morning, Sima
Yi laid a tight besiege of the hill and began a
vehement onset to storm Shu compound.
There were 20,000
Shu troops on the hill, but since they were General
Ma Su's men, they were not ordinary warriors. It
seemed most of them had read, or heard others read The
Grand Stragegy for a Great Kindgom, and learned
from their commander that a soldier has a
heaven-given right to pick side in a war or to
determine if he wants to be part of a war at all. So
when they found they were out numbered and
disavantagedly positioned, they decided they'd prefer
to swich side, therefore after nightfall, a large
number of soldiers deserted their camps.
With the help of
the defecting Shu soldiers, Sima Yi began to burn the
hill, which forced General Ma Su to venture a thrust
through the formidable blockage. When he was
eventually rescued by his assistant Wang and other
follow-up units, he only got several hundred men left
with him.
And worst still,
they lost Pavilion Street Town and another strategic
frontier post city.
An
Empty Town (3)
Original
drawings were done by Chinese artists 钱笑呆,徐余兴..
Pre: A Loud
Slap in the Face (2)
Next: An
Empty Town (3)
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Found WMD, Eventually!!!
It's right here
at home
After
five years of hard effort and have tens
of thousands of Iraqis killed in the
invasion and through the occupation, CIA
and Pentagon still haven't been able to
locate WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
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