769: XII. Fire Attack

Sun Tzu said: There are five types of fire attacks: one is the fire man, the second is the fire accumulation, the third is the fire carry, the third is the fire storehouse, and the fifth is the fire team. There must be a cause for fire, and fireworks must be furnished. There are times when the fire starts, and there are days when the fire starts. The time is dry, and the sky is dry; The sun, the moon is in the kei, the wall, the wings, and the wings, and all these four dwellings are the day when the wind rises.

Whatever fire attacks will be responded to by the changes of the five fires. If the fire is on the inside, it should be on the outside. Those who send fire and soldiers are quiet, wait and do not attack, extremely firepower, can be stopped, not stopped. Fire can be sent out outside, not inside, and then it can be sent out at the right time. The fire has the upper hand, and there is no attack on the downwind. The day wind is long, and the night wind stops. All armies will know that there are five fires, and they will defend them by number.

Therefore, the attacker is bright with fire, and the attacker is strong with water. Water can be extinguished, not taken away.

If the husband wins, he will take it, and those who do not cultivate his merits will be fierce. The fate is Fei Liu. Therefore, it is said: If the Lord is concerned, the good will repair it. If it is not profitable, it must not be used, and it is not dangerous and not fighting. The Lord shall not be angry and will not be discouraged and cause war. Move in line with the benefit, stop if it is not in the favor, anger can be rejoyed, and sorrow can be replete; There can be no resurrection of the dead, and no resurrection of the dead. Therefore, the Ming Jun is cautious, and the good generals are the police, and this is the way of the whole army of the country.

Cao Gong said: Attack people with fire, and choose the time. (Cao Cao said: When attacking the enemy with fire, you should choose a favorable time.) ）

Cao Gong said: Because of the traitor. (Cao Cao said that relying on the enemy's internal personnel is the internal response.) ）

Cao Gong said: Fireworks, burning utensils.

Cao Gong said: Those who are dry, there is also drought.

Cao Gong said: Respond with soldiers.

Cao Gong said: When you see that you can advance, you can retreat when you know the difficulties.

Cao Gong said: It's inconvenient.

(The wind is long during the day, but the wind stops at night.) Cao Gong said: Of course, there are numbers. (Cao Cao said that the laws of nature are like this.) ）

Cao Gong said: The one who fights the fire will win the Ming also; The water supporter, but can cut off the enemy's way, divide the enemy's army, and cannot capture the enemy's accumulation. (The husband defeats the attack, but does not practice his merits, is fierce.) The fate is Fei Liu. ）

Cao Gong said: If the water is left, it will not be returned. Or say: The reward is not timely, but the fee is stayed, and the reward is not overdue. (Therefore, it is said: If the Lord is concerned, the good will repair it.) If it is not profitable, it must not be used, and it is not dangerous and not fighting. ）

Cao Gong said: Soldiers have to be used as a last resort.

Cao Gong said: You must not use troops for your own pleasure and anger. (Cao Cao said that he could not use troops according to his own mood and anger.) ）

(Anger can be rejoiced, sorrow can be rejoyed; There can be no resurrection of the dead, and no resurrection of the dead. Therefore, the Ming Jun is cautious, and the good generals are the police, and this is the way of the whole army of the country. ）

Cao Cao did not comment on the above sentence. But we can still understand the reasoning. ”

When Murong Tianshui said this, he couldn't help but feel a little relieved when he looked at the officers and soldiers of the whole army who had been deeply immersed in "The Art of War". So, he flipped through the "Art of War" that was about to end, and said: "This is the twelfth fire attack of "The Art of War"; The thirteenth, and the last, chapter, although they are arranged in this way, on the real battlefield, they are changed and used randomly according to the situation, and they are not prioritized because of the order in which they are arranged. In fact, each of its articles should be equally valued by those who are generals, and there is an intrinsic and inevitable connection between each article, and it must not be taken out of context and used in isolation.

Think back then, wasn't the example of 'Zhuge Liang beheading Ma Tan' the defeat caused by Ma Tan's out-of-context? Ma Tan boasted that he was familiar with military books and war strategies, and made a military order to protect the street pavilion. But he only knows that he is 'condescending', occupies the high mountains and sets up a village, but is cut off by the enemy and loses the street pavilion, isn't it painful?

Therefore, on the brutal battlefield, generals who want to be invincible and understand the "Art of War" must consider the factors of victory from many aspects, angles and levels, and must not take words out of context and use them in isolation.

The Battle of Chibi in the late Han Dynasty is a typical example of the fire attack chapter, which is the main embodiment of this great war. Of course, there are also many strategic and tactical ideas from the Art of War. For example, avoiding the real and attacking the weak, making use of the strengths and avoiding the weaknesses, quick solutions, and using the space. After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD, he won the victories of capturing Yecheng and conquering Wuhuan in the north in 204 and 207 AD respectively, annihilating the remnants of Yuan Shao's group in one fell swoop, occupying Sili, Yan, Henan, Green, Qing, Hebei, You, and other prefectures, and unifying the north. The successive victories strengthened Cao Cao's ambition to unify the world as soon as possible, and he began to actively prepare to go south to eliminate the separatist forces in the south and dominate the world.

In the spring of 208 AD, Cao Cao built a Xuanwu Pond in Yecheng to train the navy, preparing to wave his army south. At the same time, he sent people to Liangzhou in the northwest to win over Ma Teng and his son Ma Chao, and gave them the posts of guard lieutenant and partial general respectively, so as to prevent them from making trouble when they marched south, so that their flanks and rear would be threatened. However, Cao Cao's aggressive offensive led to the union of the two main separatist forces in the south, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu and Liu Bei of Jingzhou. The combined forces of Sun and Liu accurately analyzed the objective conditions of Cao's army, such as its strength, operational characteristics, length and shortness, and battlefield conditions, and found out the Achilles heel of Cao's army, which was not good at water warfare, and decided to adopt the operational policy of attacking the weak with a long attack, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, and aiding the war with fire.

Throughout the whole process of the Battle of Chibi, it can be seen that Cao Cao's defeat was by no means accidental. Cao Cao relied on his superiority in troops, and it was difficult for him to keep a clear head when the road was going smoothly, and he developed the feeling of pride and underestimation of the enemy, and used his own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strengths, so that his advantages were lost; In the process of surrendering, he was unguarded, panicked in the face of a surprise attack, and was caught off guard, which eventually led to defeat. The Sun-Liu coalition army, on the other hand, was good at taking advantage of its own favorable conditions, and when it discovered the enemy's weakness, it decisively carried out a fire attack and defeated the strong enemy in one fell swoop. In the process of implementing the fire attack, Zhou Yu and Liu Bei completely followed the principles, steps and methods of implementing the fire attack proposed in the "Art of War: Fire Attack", that is, preparing fire equipment in advance and choosing dry and windy weather. After setting fire, taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, he attacked the enemy with the main force, so that 'if the fire is from within, it should be dealt with from the outside'. The victory of the weak over the strong in the Battle of Chibi has made a successful historical verification for "The Art of War: Fire Attack". ”