Stratagems for the Confused Battle混戰計

水沸者，力也，火之力也，陽中之陽也，銳不可當；薪者，火之魄也，即力之勢也，陰中之陰也，進而無害；故力不可當而勢猶可消。《尉繚子》曰：「氣實則鬥，氣奪則走。」而奪氣之法，則在攻心。昔吳漢為大司馬，有寇夜攻漢營，軍中驚擾，漢堅臥不動，軍中聞漢不動，有傾乃定。乃選精兵反擊，大破之。此即不直當其力而撲消其勢也。宋薛長儒為漢、湖、滑三州通判，駐漢州。州兵數百叛，開營門，謀殺知州、兵馬監押，燒營以為亂。有來告者，知州、監押皆不敢出。長儒挺身徒步，自壞垣入其營中，以福禍語亂卒日：「汝輩皆有父母妻子，何故作此？叛者立於左，脅從者立於右！」於是，不與謀者數百人立於右；獨主謀者十三人突門而出，散於諸村野，尋捕獲。時謂非長儒，則一城塗炭矣！此即攻心奪氣之用也。或日：敵與敵對，搗強敵之虛以敗其將成之功也。

Water boiling is strength, the strength of fire, the yang within the yang, and its sharpness cannot be met. The firewood is the body of the fire, the very ground of that strength, the yin within the yin, and you may go near it without harm. So although the strength cannot be met, the force can still be dissolved. The Wei Liaozi says, "When the spirit is full, men fight. When the spirit is taken from them, they run." And the way to take away their spirit lies in attacking the mind. Long ago, when Wu Han was grand marshal, raiders attacked his camp by night and the army was startled and in an uproar, but Wu Han lay firm and did not stir. When the army heard that Wu Han did not stir, it grew calm after a little while. Then he picked out his best troops and struck back, and broke them utterly. This is not meeting the strength head on, but putting out the force and dissolving it. In the Song, Xue Changru was vice prefect of the three prefectures of Hanzhou, Huzhou and Huazhou, and was stationed at Hanzhou. Several hundred of the prefecture's soldiers rebelled. They opened the camp gate, plotted to kill the prefect and the military superintendent, and meant to burn the camp and raise a revolt. Someone came to report it, but neither the prefect nor the superintendent dared go out. Xue Changru went forward alone on foot and entered the camp through a broken wall, and spoke to the mutinous soldiers of what would bring them good and what would bring them ill. "You all have fathers and mothers, wives and children. Why do you do this? Let those who have rebelled stand on the left, and those who were forced to follow stand on the right." At this several hundred who had no part in the plot stood on the right, and only the thirteen ringleaders broke through the gate and got out, and scattered among the villages, and were soon caught. Men said at the time that but for Xue Changru the whole city would have fallen into misery. This is the use of attacking the mind and taking away the spirit. Some say: when enemy faces enemy, it is stabbing the empty place of the strong enemy to ruin the work he is about to finish.

動蕩之際，數力衝撞，弱者依違無主，散蔽而不察，我隨而取之。《六韜》曰：「三軍數驚，士卒不齊，相恐以敵強，相語以不利，耳目相屬，妖言不止，眾口相惑，不畏法令，不重其將：此弱征也。」是魚，混戰之際，擇此而取之。如：劉備之得荊州，取西川，皆此計也。

In a time of upheaval many forces collide, and the weak sway with nothing to lean on, hidden away and unable to see, so I follow after and take them. The Liu tao says, "When the three armies are startled again and again and the officers and men are not in order; when they frighten one another with the enemy's strength and whisper to one another of the odds against them; when glances and words at the ear pass along the ranks and wild talk does not stop and every mouth misleads another; when they do not fear the law and do not hold their general in weight — these are the signs of weakness." These are the fish. In a time of confused battle, choose such as these and take them. Liu Bei's getting of Jingzhou and his taking of Xichuan were both this stratagem.

共友擊敵，坐觀其勢。尚另有一敵，則須去而存勢。則金蟬脫殼者，非徒走也，蓋為分身之法也。故大軍轉動，而旌旗金鼓，儼然原陣，使敵不敢動，友不生疑，待己摧他敵而返，而友敵始知，或猶且不知。然則金蟬脫殼者，在對敵之際，而抽精銳以襲別陣也。如：諸葛亮卒於軍，司馬懿追焉，姜維令儀反旗鳴鼓，若向懿者，懿退，於是儀結營而去。檀道濟被圍，乃命軍士悉甲，身自（白）服乘輿徐出外圍，魏懼有伏，不敢逼，乃歸。

When you strike an enemy together with an ally, you sit and watch how the force of it goes. If there is yet another enemy, you must leave while the shape of your force remains. So the golden cicada shedding its shell is not simply running away. It is a way of dividing oneself. Thus when the great army moves, the banners and the gongs and drums stay as they were in the first array, so the enemy dares not stir and the ally breeds no doubt. Only after you have broken the other enemy and come back do ally and enemy learn of it, and sometimes they still do not know. So the golden cicada shedding its shell is the drawing out of one's best troops, in the face of the enemy, to strike another camp. When Zhuge Liang died in the army and Sima Yi pursued, Jiang Wei had Yang Yi turn the banners about and beat the drums as though he were making for Sima Yi, and Sima Yi drew back, and so Yang Yi ordered his camp and went away. When Tan Daoji was surrounded, he ordered all his soldiers into armor, while he himself rode out slowly beyond the ring in white clothes. Wei feared there were men in ambush and dared not come near, and so he got home.

捉賊而必關門，非恐其逸也，恐其逸而為他人所得也；且逸者不可復追，恐其誘也。賊者，奇兵也，游兵也，所以勞我者也。吳子曰：「今使一死賊，伏於曠野，千人追之，莫不梟視狼顧。何者？恐其暴起而害己也。是以一人投命，足懼千夫。」追賊者，賊有脫逃之機，勢必死鬥；若斷其去路，則成擒矣。故小敵必困之，不能，則放之可也。

In catching a thief you must shut the gate, not because you fear he will get away, but because you fear that if he gets away he will fall into another man's hands. And the one who has got away must not be pursued again, for you fear it is a lure. The thief is the extraordinary force (奇兵), the roving force (游兵), the one who wears us out. Wu Zi said, "Now let one thief bent on death hide in the open field, and though a thousand men pursue him, there is not one who does not peer like an owl and look back like a wolf. Why? Because they fear he will rise up all at once and do them harm. So one man who throws away his life is enough to frighten a thousand." If you pursue the thief, the thief has his chance to slip away and will surely fight to the death. But cut off his road, and he is taken. So a small enemy must be penned in, and if you cannot, then it is well enough to let him go.

混戰之局，縱橫捭闔之中，各自取利。遠不可攻，而可以利相結；近者交之，反使變生肘腋。范睢之謀，為地理之定則，其理甚明。

In the game of confused battle, each takes his own gain amid the vertical and the horizontal alliances. The far off cannot be attacked, yet they can be bound to you by gain. If you make friends with those close at hand, trouble arises instead at your elbow and your armpit. Fan Sui's scheme is a settled rule of the lay of the land, and its reason is very clear.

假地用兵之舉，非巧言可誑，必其勢不受一方之脅從，則將受雙方之夾擊。如此境況之際，敵必迫之以威，我則誑之以不害，利其幸存之心，速得全勢，彼將不能自陣，故不戰而滅之矣。如：晉侯假道於虞以伐虢，晉滅虢，虢公丑奔京師，師還，襲虞滅之。

To borrow a road and use troops upon it is not a thing that clever words can bring off by deceit. The state's position must be such that unless it submits to the threat of one side it will take the joint attack of both. In such a pass the enemy will surely press it with his weight, while I coax it with a promise to do it no harm. Turning to my gain its hope of coming through alive, I swiftly gain the whole of the force there, and it will not be able to draw up its own array, so it can be destroyed without a fight. So the duke Xian of Jin (晉) borrowed a road through Yu (虞) to attack Guo (虢). When Jin destroyed Guo, the duke of Guo, Chou, fled to the capital, and on the way back the army fell upon Yu and destroyed it.