27. Feigning Foolishness “Feigning foolishness” is a stratagem where you pretend to be foolish or insane in order to confuse your enemies. This is to prevent your enemies from knowing your intention and motivation. By feigning foolishness, you let your enemies underestimate you, leaving them to be overconfident, thus creating a weakness for you attack. [...]
26. Point at the mulberry tree, only to curse the locust tree “Point at the mulberry tree, only to curse the locust tree” is a stratagem where one criticizes faults without naming any names in order to spread a point across. Without passing blame, people are much more willing to acknowledge faults and weaknesses that [...]
25. Replace the beam with rotten timbers “Replace the beam with rotten timbers” is a phrase where one interferes with the enemy’s operation in order weaken him. It can mean from stealing the enemy’s talented to infiltrating and sabotaging the enemy’s structure. Replace what is strong to weak. Replace what is effective to ineffective. Destroy [...]
24. Borrow passage to destroy Guo “Borrow passage to destroy Guo” is an ancient stratagem of “passing through on the pretext of conquering Guo”. During the three kingdom era, Jingzhou was seized by Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei after the battle of Red Cliff. Zhou Yu, who held immense hatred on Liu Bei for stealing [...]
23. Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbor “Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbor” is a phrase where it is wise to enlist outside aid while attacking a close enemy. One has to conquer enemies that are close to him in order to strengthen his base before disputing mastery of the realm. [...]