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To a large extent, the people who want to read this book have a considerable knowledge of Western history. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Because I'm afraid that in addition to the author himself, other people watching "Strategy" need to conduct multi-faceted research to know what is going on.

This can be seen from the annotations and explanations of some famous events in the translation of the Stratagem itself:

How to lead an army through a place threatened by the enemy:

1. The consul Emilius Paulus led his army along a narrow path by the sea in Lucania. At this time, the fleet of his Lintonians, who had set up an ambush and waited for him, opened fire on his troops with ballistas. He used captives to cover the marching ranks. In order not to harm the prisoners, the enemy stopped shooting. (282 B.C.)

(Emilius Paulus did not fight against the Tarinthonites, so it is still possible here that Papus did the work as mentioned in the note to the seventh case in chapter II of this volume.) ）

2. The Spartan Agesilaus returned from Phrygia with a large number of captives, followed by the enemy who took advantage of the favorable terrain to attack his troops. So he divided the prisoners into two columns and walked on either side of his troops. Thanks to the forgiveness of the captives by the enemy, Sparta was able to pass. (396 B.C.)

3. Or is it this Agesilaus who is going to pass through a ravine occupied by the Thebans. So he turned around and assumed a posture of advancing toward Thebes. The Thebans panicked and withdrew to defend the walls of their homeland. In this way, Agosilaus continued in the same direction as he had traveled, and without resistance, he reached his destination. (B.C.)

4. The Aeturian king Nikostratus had only one narrow ravine to penetrate the territory of Epirus when he fought against the Epirus. But he appeared at another location, pretending as if he was going to attack from there. When a large number of Epirus troops ran over there to stop them, he left a small number of men behind to give the impression that his army remained in place, while he himself led the rest of his army through the then unguarded gorge into Epirus.

5. The Persian Otto Phradatis led his troops to Pisidian and found that some key passes had been occupied by the Pisidians. So he pretended that his plan for Tongyue had been frustrated and began to retreat. The Pisidians believed it. Under the cover of night, Otto Fladatis sent a crack army to capture the original location, and the next day he led his entire army across the pass. (B.C.)

6. King Philip of Macedon heard of the Demobili Pass (Thermothermal Pass) during his advance to his destination Greece. It was occupied by Greek troops. Then Aetoria's messenger came to negotiate peace with him. He detained the messenger and personally led the army on a forced march straight to the pass. Letting his guard down as the defenders were waiting for the messenger to return, his surprise arrival allowed him to successfully pass through the Demobili Pass. (210 B.C.)

7. The Athenian general Iphicrates fights Anaxibus the Spartan near Abydos on the coast of the Hellespont. On one occasion he was to lead his army through an area occupied by enemy sentinels, with a steep mountain on one side and the sea on the other. After a period of delay, one day the weather is very cold, and no one will be worried about anything in such a climate. He picked some of the strongest men, had them rub their bodies with oil, and had them drink wine to keep warm. Then he commanded them to go close to the seashore and swim across the place where it was most difficult to travel. As such, he took the defenders of the pass by surprise and routed them from behind. (B.C.)

8. On one occasion, Gnaeus Pompey was unable to cross the river because the enemy was guarding the opposite bank. He devised a plan: to constantly pull his troops out and back. After a long time, the enemy was finally deceived into letting go of the Romans' intrusion on the passage, and he took advantage of the gap to make a surprise attack and successfully crossed the river.

Note: Xenophon, in the first chapter of Book II of the History of Greece, describes a similar stratagem by the Spartans in Egos Potami.

9. Maharaja Poros of India prevents Alexander of Macedon from leading his army across the Hidaspis River, and Alexander orders his troops to make a crossing. He used this ruse to force Poros to strengthen the defense on the other side, while he suddenly led his army across the upper reaches of the river. (326 B.C.E.)

9. Again, this Alexander, who was hindered from crossing the Indus River, sent cavalry to all parts of the river in the guise of crossing the river. This put the enemy in a tense state of readiness, and a little farther away he took possession of an island, at first with a small force, then with a large force, and from here he brought the troops to the opposite shore. While the main force of the enemy came to suppress this force, Alexander himself crossed the river at an unguarded shoal and joined his troops. (326 B.C.E.)

Note: In these two cases, the author names the same river twice, which is based on different historical sources.

10. On one occasion, Xenophon ordered his men to look for two places to cross the river on the other side of the river occupied by the Armenians. When he was repulsed by the enemy at the lower crossing, he turned upstream, and when he was met with enemy resistance here he turned back to the lower crossing, but as he left he ordered some of his men to stay where they were, and told them to cross the river at the upstream crossing when the Armenians returned to defend the downstream. The Armenians thought that all the Greeks had gone upstream, and did not notice those who remained, so they crossed the river at Tsuin downstream, without encountering any resistance, and covered their companions so that they could cross the river as well. (401 BC)

11. In the First Punic War, the consul Appius Claudius was unable to transport his soldiers from the shores of Region to Messina, because the Carthaginians guarded the strait. So he spread rumors that he could not continue a war without the approval of the people, and pretended to sail his ship back to Italy. When the Carthaginians thought he had departed and scattered, Appius suddenly sailed back and landed in Sicily. (264 B.C.)

12. Some of the Spartan generals who were about to sail to Syracuse, but fearing interference from the Carthaginian fleet anchored along the coast, sailed in front of them ten Carthaginian ships they had captured in triumphant manner, and dragged their own ships either next to the captured ships or behind them. The Spartans used this semblance to coax the Carthaginians and finally succeeded in navigating them. (397 B.C.)

13. Philip was unable to cross a strait called Stena (i.e., the Strait of Hellespont, now known as the Dardanelles) because the Athenian fleet was fortified at a strategic point, and he wrote a letter to Antipater, saying that the Thracians had rebelled, cutting off the garrison he had left there, and asking Antipater to rush to him in spite of everything. Philip managed to get the letter out of his hands. The Athenians assumed that they had learned secret information about the Macedonians and withdrew the fleet. Philip then crossed the Strait unhindered. (B.C.)

Chersonis was at one time under the rule of the Athenians, and Philip was unable to take it, because the strait was controlled not only by the Byzantine fleet, but also by the fleets of the Lords and Chios. But Philip won their trust by returning the captured ships to the people of these places as collateral for mediating peace between him and the Byzantines who had provoked the war. He delayed the negotiations and deliberately proposed amendments to the details of the terms, and soon he gathered a fleet and took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to break into the bay by surprise. (339 B.C.)

14. Cabrias, an Athenian, could not safely approach the harbor of Samos due to the tight blockade of the enemy. He sent several ships to the harbor, and he estimated that the enemy would follow them as a precaution. When the enemy had left, he seized the harbor with the fleet he had left behind. (388 B.C.)

......

How to get out of trouble:

1. During the Spanish War, Quintus Certorius was determined to cross the river, but the enemy attacked him from behind. He had his men build a crescent-shaped barrier on the riverbank, pile it with wood, and set it on fire. In this way, he blocked the enemy and crossed the river smoothly. (B.C.)

2. The same happened at the Battle of Thessaly, where Pelopidas, a Thebesian, wanted to cross the river. He chose a clearing on the shore that was much larger than he needed for camping, built a barrier with flammable materials and other materials, and set it on fire. When the fire cut off the enemy, Pelopida took the opportunity to cross the river. (B.C.)

3. Quintus Lutatius Catullus was defeated by the Cimbri, and his only hope of saving his life was to cross the river, but the enemy guarded the riverbank. He assumed the posture that his troops would be encamped on a nearby earthen hill, and ordered his men not to open their baggage, not to unload their ammunition, and not to leave their ranks or flags. In order to make a more effective impression on the enemy, he ordered several tents to be erected in plain sight, lights to be lit, and some soldiers to build the ramparts and others to collect timber where the enemy could see them. The Cimbri, believing that all this was serious, took it upon themselves to camp in the surrounding fields in order to prepare the supplies necessary for their stay. In this case, the Cimbri provided Catullus with the opportunity not only to cross the river, but also to harass the enemy camp. (102 BC)

4. Croesus could not cross the Haris River, he had neither the boat nor the money to build a bridge. He went up the river and dug a canal behind their barracks, so that the riverbed ran behind his troops. (546 B.C.)

5. Gnaeus Pompey decided to leave Italy in Burundisin and move the war to another place, because Caesar was pressing him from behind. When he was ready to get on board, he set up barriers in several passages, and in other places he blocked them with barriers built along the way, and in some places he broke them with ditches, in which many pointed piles were installed, which were covered with bundles of firewood, and sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. On the roads leading to the harbor, he placed many tree strips in all directions and stacked them in tall piles to ensure safety. Hoping to give the impression that he was trying to hold the city, he left some of his archers on the walls while the rest of his troops boarded the ships in an orderly manner. As he set sail, the archers who remained behind withdrew along the path they knew well, and pursued him in small boats. (49 B.C.)

6. When the consul Gaius Duelius accidentally broke into the port of Syracuse, he was trapped by an iron chain set up at the entrance to the harbor. He gathered all his men at the stern of the boat, and when the bow was upturned, he commanded the oarsmen to row forward. In this way, the bow of the ship pushed forward over the chain. When this part of the hull had passed, the soldiers returned to the ship, and when the bow was lowered downward, the weight shifted to this side, so that the ship was completely over the chain. (260 B.C.)

Note: According to Zonares, this strategy was used not in Syracuse, but in Hippo.

7. Because the enemy had sunk the ship into a rather narrow bay through which the sea flowed, the Spartan Laishand, along with his entire fleet, was trapped in the harbor of Athens (referring to the port of Piraeus). Laishan had to order his men to go ashore quietly. He then loaded his ship on wheels and transported them all to the nearby port of Munihia. (404 B.C.)

8. Irturaeus, the lieutenant of Quintus Cerdogius, led an infantry brigade in Spanish territory along a long, narrow road that winded between two steep mountains. Suddenly, he noticed that a large army of the enemy was approaching. So he dug a trench between the two mountains, blocked it with a wooden barrier, set the wood on fire, and then took the opportunity to escape. The enemy's attack on him was thus thwarted. (B.C.)

9. During the Civil War, when Gaius Caesar led his army to fight against Aphranius, he was unable to safely conceal his troops. He had the troops of the first and second lines of combat hold their weapons tightly and stay at the front, while the third line was secretly withdrawn to the rear to dig a fifteen-foot-deep trench. In this way, the soldiers can come here in the evening with their weapons to rest. (49 B.C.)

10. The Peloponnesians drove the Athenian Pericles to a place surrounded by high mountains with only two exits. Pericles ordered a wide trench to be dug at one end to keep the enemy out, and a passage to be laid at the other end to facilitate a breakthrough. The besiegers did not expect Pericles' army to escape through the trench he had built himself, so they gathered their troops at the paved end. However, Pericles set up the prepared planks on the trench and freed his troops from danger unhindered. (430 BC)

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In a certain sense, although the author of "Strategy" has a wealth of knowledge, and in some of the examples, it also has a very profound significance, but although "Strategy" also has a place in European military history, it is only a very clear situation, that is, "Strategy" itself is a niche military work no matter how you look at it. (To be continued.) )

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