At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia and Sweden fought a large-scale war for control of the Baltic Sea. After the defeat of the first attack, Sweden made serious preparations, gathered a strong navy and army, and launched a second attack on Russia.

The Swedish attack was fierce, and the army soon landed on the Russian coast. At that time, the Russian coastal areas were weak, and the Russian army was repeatedly forced to retreat by the Swedes. The hearts of the Russian military and civilians are fluctuating, and the country is in chaos. There were serious differences of opinion within the Russian ruling circles, and some suggested that the Russian army should abandon the key coastal areas and the defensive works under construction, and retreat to the Russian hinterland before making further plans.

At a time when Russia was facing a crisis, Peter the Great was unusually calm. He knew that King Charles XII of Sweden and the generals of the Swedish army had always been cautious and indecisive, lacking courage and determination. If this weakness of the Swedes is exploited, Russia will turn the corner.

Therefore, Peter the Great sent a large number of urgent messengers with his own orders to various places. His orders demanded that commanders everywhere immediately send reinforcements to support the coastal areas. Of course, these reinforcements mentioned by Peter the Great did not exist at all, and some of them could not quench their thirst. The messenger in charge of delivering the order deliberately wandered around in a daze, carelessly revealing his identity, and was captured by the Swedes, and the secret letter on his body was also searched by the Swedes. The Swedish generals were very concerned about Peter the Great's top-secret orders, believing that the Russians were concealing their military prowess and that the reason why the Russians did not put up stubborn resistance and withdrew from the coastal areas was because they had a deeper machination. Dominated by this idea, the Swedish army abandoned the occupied Russian coast and quickly retreated.

Peter the Great frightened the enemy off with a fake letter, relieved the siege of the coastal areas by the Swedish army without firing a single shot, saved St. Petersburg and the strategic facilities, and allowed Russia to tide over the difficulties.

The Russian army has repeatedly retreated, and the people in the country are panicked; The Swedish navy and army were brave and strong, and they were advancing steadily, and Russia seemed to have only one way to retreat. But Sweden, despite its military strength, its leadership is suspicious and indecisive. Peter the Great knew this, so he resorted to a plan to create something out of nothing, and succeeded in swaying the actions of the Swedish army, causing it to quickly retreat back to China, thus preserving Russian territory and troops.

"Something out of nothing" actually breeds "being" in "nothing", and "being" and "nothing" are not real, but the result of acting on the enemy's psychology.

The strategy of "creating something out of nothing" requires the person to be good at creating the illusion of tempting the opponent, saying that there are no ideas and saying that there are few ideas, so that the other party is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and believe that the false is true. That is, to confuse the true with the false, the true in the false, the false in the false, the true and the false, the true and the false, the false into the true, and the victory in the chaos is the wonderful point of this plan. A person's self-improvement and self-creation are also an extended application of creating something out of nothing. Deeply understand this plan and use it flexibly, which can be wonderful.