Shi Bufan first taught the older boys, then asked them to gather around a round table and asked them what class they wanted to take. At present, these eleven or twelve-year-old boys have to think about their future life direction, so Du Junjue teaches them according to their aptitude, considers teaching them some practical things, and prefers professional courses.

"I want to learn the art of war!" Li Xiaoci said.

"I'm going to learn the art of war too!" Li Chongyi said.

Li Xiaoci, Li Xiaoyou, and Li Chongyi also proposed to learn the art of war, and the other children were not easy to object. Because Li Xiaoci and Li Xiaoyou's father is Li Shentong, and Li Chongyi's father is Li Xiaogong, their fathers are all famous generals of the founding clan of the Tang Dynasty, so naturally they also hope to learn the art of war. In the Tang Dynasty, although the recognized first place would be Li Shimin, other generals of the Li and Tang clans could not be ignored. After all, Li Shimin alone can't support the war of the entire empire, and the rise of a family is the result of the collective efforts of the family, it is difficult for one person to completely lead the rise of the family, after all, Li Shimin is also a human, not a god! The other clan generals of the Li family are also good, so their descendants are also proud to learn to fight.

In addition, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the martial arts were at their peak, and they were naturally proud of fighting in the army, and the literati were also proud of serving in the army, so they naturally wanted to learn the art of war.

However, Shi Bufan shook his head and said: "You want to learn the art of war, but in fact, I am not very good at this art of war and commanding wars, I am just a simple literati." ”

However, Shi Bufan continued: "However, I have an idea to discuss with you what war is!" ”

Shi Bufan took the initiative to sit down, and then said, "What do you think is war?" ”

Li Xiaoci took the initiative to answer: "War is also killing the enemy!" ”

"War is a siege!" Li Xiaoyou also replied next.

Li Chongyi also added: "War is to seize the land, and then create our Tang Dynasty!" ”

After listening to this, Shi Bufan took the initiative to make a summary, saying: "Actually, according to what you said, we can easily draw a conclusion. That is, war is actually a kind of violence, and to put it badly, it is a fight. Because killing the enemy is to kill the enemy by force, cities must also be attacked by force, and territory must be seized by force. And if there is not enough force, or enough violence, will the enemy be able to allow you to kill his enemy and take their territory? ”

"Although we constantly glorify the war and think that we are just. But in fact, we still have to use violence in the end, and only by using violence to make the other person submit is what we have to do. War is nothing more than the use of violence to bring the other side to your whims. In fact, war is no different from the joint fights in our daily life. In fact, it's just using your own violence, and then forcing the other party to give in to your ideas, and not dare to resist. ”

Those eleven or twelve-year-old children thought about it for a while, and it seemed that it was the same thing, and that war was not a means of violence after all. Isn't it just relying on violence to get the other person to submit? No matter how much you glorify the war, no matter how righteous your words are, in the end, you still have to rely on the use of violence to make the other side submit. If there is not enough violence, why should others submit to you? Therefore, the definition of Shi Bufan, although it is a bit "coarse", but it is not rough, in the final analysis, war is not to rely on violence to make the other side submit?

From this, we can know that war is nothing more than fighting. From the days of slash-and-burn farming, stones were used to fight. Until now, all kinds of advanced weapons such as iron tools and crossbows have been used to fight, and they are all fights. From some family fights of dozens of people, to tens of thousands of national wars, they are actually all fighting. It's just that the means used, the scale of the number of people, or the weapons are different, but in the final analysis, they are all fights. And when our new weapons come out, with strong crossbows and various weapons, what has changed is nothing more than the efficiency of killing the enemy, and the division of labor on the battlefield is clearer. ”

Shi Bufan guided these eleven or twelve-year-old children to gradually analyze the wars on their own, and then really analyze the wars one by one, so that they could become familiar with the nature of the war. In fact, this was also learned by Shi Bufan in later generations, because in later generations, Shi Bufan read the famous German military theorist Clausewitz's "Theory of War" in the West, which mentioned the nature of war and the essence of various wars. In later generations, this "Theory of War" has been compared with China's "Art of War", and some people think that "On War" is inferior to "Sun Tzu's Art of War".

However, when it comes to practical understanding, this "Theory of War" and "The Art of War" are actually not the same thing, that is to say, their biases are different. Sun Tzu's Art of War focuses on strategy and strategy, while the theory of war focuses on the level of campaign and tactics, so the levels of the two sides are not the same. Through studying the history of Western wars, Shi Bufan found that before modern times, their war strategies were not too good. Because the West is not very good at strategy, it has paid more attention to training the armed forces in a more pragmatic way, raising the training level of the armed forces, and developing weapons.

And the East released the strategy classic of Sun Tzu's Art of War too early, which has both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, there are many strategists in China, and China has never lacked strategists, almost all four dynasties and generations. But at the level of campaigns and tactics, there is clearly a problem. At the campaign and tactical level, it is evident that there is a serious emphasis on strategy and a neglect of the army's foundations.

And soon, Li Xiaoci immediately asked: "Shi Xiao Shulang, what do you think is the most important thing in the army?" ”

Shi Bufan replied: "It's a soldier!" ”

"I don't agree, I think it's the general! If there are no excellent generals, how can you come up with a strategy and how can you win a battle? Li Chongyi said in disbelief.

However, Shi Bufan replied: "I have no objection to strategy, but for the real battlefield, it is always the soldier's tactics that dominate the battlefield, not strategy." Strategy may be helpful in formulating strategies, but when it comes to fighting, you still have to rely on the soldiers to fight. No matter how strategic a general is, someone must carry it out. If there is only one general, how can he carry out his strategy? ”

"And this kind of pinning all victories on one general is certainly a great danger. And if it can improve the tactical and combat ability of the soldiers, increase the soldiers' weapons and equipment, and provide sufficient logistics materials. As long as every soldier of our Datang Dynasty can be the best in the world, then any general can win, even if he is a mediocre talent. ”

"I give you a suggestion, until you have become a great minister of a country, you should not be superstitious about the Art of War. Sun Tzu's Art of War was written by Sun Wu to King Wu, not to the generals. That is to say, Sun Tzu's Art of War is to be hierarchical, which is conducive to the king of a country or the minister of a country and the important ministers of the country, but it is not suitable for those generals to be too superstitious, otherwise they will inevitably fail in the end. Generals should be pragmatic, not superstitious about strategy, otherwise they will definitely die in the end. ”

Shi Bufan has also read Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Theory of War, because this Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Theory of War are respected as famous military books in the East and the West. Even many Western politicians and military commanders, as well as many businessmen, highly respected Sun Tzu's Art of War. But too many people know it but don't know why, Sun Tzu's Art of War is the bible of strategy, and no one objects to this. But not everyone should pursue strategy, because those who admire Sun Tzu's Art of War are either high-ranking generals, or politicians, as well as bosses or high-ranking executives of large enterprises.

They are all in the capacity of senior managers, so they have to think about strategy and strategy, so they respect the Art of War. If you are a senior executive of a country, a military or a company, then it is understandable to think about strategy, because they are the decision-making people. However, if it is the executive level, that is, the head of the government's department, or the military officer below the theater level, then if they consider any national strategy and strategy, it is obviously impossible to match his identity.

Shi Bufan has also studied management, and management has also mentioned that he is in his position, and don't easily try to interfere in your higher-level affairs. The executive level is also responsible for executing the strategy well, rather than thinking about the things and responsibilities that do not belong to you.

Ancient China highly respected the Art of War, the art of war of strategy and strategy, but instead caused China to have no shortage of strategists, but it was much worse in terms of execution. In many cases, China has done a good job at the strategic level, but when it comes to the executive level, it is easy to go wrong. If a good strategy is not implemented, it is useless.

In later generations, Westerners admired Sun Tzu's Art of War, and it was because of their strategic deficiencies that they advocated learning. China's generals should be more concerned with the executive, because China is too superstitious about the so-called saying that a thousand troops are easy to get and one general is hard to find. Completely superstitious about the strategy of the generals, this is bound to fail.

"If you want to fight, you must first understand your position, your strength, the level you are at, and your influence on this war. Only by understanding this can you understand what you need. If you don't become a great minister, then you can look at the Art of War, but don't think of him as something to be superstitious. Rather, you should think about how to implement the strategy of your superiors, so that you have to take things into account. ”

"No matter how good a strategy is, it needs someone to execute it, and it must ensure that someone executes it. If it can't be implemented, then the strategy is just a piece of paper, and it doesn't make any sense. And what guarantees the implementation of the strategy is the quality of middle and low-level generals, not high-level generals. Only with a sufficiently good mid- and low-level generals can the high-level advent and the implementation of the national strategy be guaranteed. If your own strength is not good, then no matter what strategy you have, it will not be able to be implemented. ”

"Maybe the history books pay more attention to strategy and ignore the role of those middle and low-level generals, but I want to tell you that the middle and low-level generals are the basis for the implementation of strategy. At that time, the Qin State was able to be so powerful, in addition to the excellent strategy, the most important thing is that most of their generals came from the bottom, they relied on real swords and real guns, and the foundation of the Qin army was solid. And if you think about it, during the Jin Dynasty, a large number of people filled those armies, and the really good officers could not be promoted, and the quality of soldiers and officers was greatly reduced, which finally caused the Yongjia Rebellion, and then the Wuhu Rebellion. Is it the Hu people's strategy that is better than ours? No, our Han strategy is much better than that of the Hu people, but it has not been able to be truly implemented, because the ability of the soldiers and the ability of middle and low-level generals cannot guarantee the implementation of the strategy, and in the end, they will be repeatedly defeated under the attack of the Hu people. ”

Shi Bufan believes that the reason why the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed is not because of their lack of strategic talents, but because the talents at the campaign and tactical level are too bad. The army of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty was filled with a large number of civilian officials, from the original military with literature to the later military with literature, which was in the process of eliminating the execution of the army.

Some politicians, although they have a strong sense of strategy, are terrible at the level of tactical campaigns. As a result, the quality of the army is getting worse and worse, and it is simply impossible to guarantee the implementation of the strategy at the top level.

Li Chongyi immediately asked: "Shi Xiao Shulang, according to your meaning, Sun Tzu's Art of War should be the king of a country and the important minister of the country to be truly studied in depth, but those ordinary people don't think much about this, right?" ”

"Yes! Wei Yizi once had a saying about victory, which is divided into victory without fighting, victory without fighting, victory of deterrence and surrender, and victory of battlefield confrontation. If it is the king of a country or an important minister of the country, what is considered is to prepare for victory, strive for victory, and seek victory. But as a general, it should be the opposite, ready to win, strive for victory, and seek victory. Different identities should all be considered. Different identities use different strategies, and this is the essence of the art of war. Not being able to blindly seek strategy is also putting the cart before the horse. Shi Bufan said,

From the perspective of management, it is no wonder that an executive level person thinks about strategic things, and such an enterprise does not have problems! It's like asking Han Xin to do Zhang Liang's work, or Zhang Liang doing Han Xin's work, but with Liu Bang's power, then there will definitely be a problem.

After Shi Bufan finished speaking, he suddenly exclaimed out the window: "Who?" ”

But after Bufan went out at that time, he only saw someone running away, and that person was still wearing an official uniform, but he didn't see his face clearly.