Defeat the Enemy by Capturing Their Chief
故事全文
The An Shih Rebellion happened during the Tang Dynasty. Jhang Syun was the general in charge of defeating the rebels. Because he was an expert in military strategy, Jhang Syun defeated the rebel army in battle. The rebel army suffered significant casualties. However, they refused to retreat despite the huge loss. At this point, Jhang Syun realized that the only way to end the war is to capture the leader of the rebel army.
The rebel leader was Yin Zih Ji. But Jhang Syun did not know that, and he wanted to find out. So he came up with a strategy. He ordered all the soldiers to sharpen the end of the dried wheat stalks and use them as arrows to shoot at the rebels. When the rebel army saw that the defenders were using wheat stalks as arrows, they felt certain that Jhang Syun's archers must have ran out of arrows. So they all picked up the wheat stalks and ran to report this good news to Yin Zih Ji.
Unknown to the rebels , all their movements were being watched by Jhang Syun. He had ordered his best archer to shoot at whomever the rebels presented the wheat stalks to. As a result, an arrow hit Yin Zih Ji right in the left eye, leaving him badly wounded. The spectacle of their leader's injury created chaos among the rebels. As a result they stopped fighting.
Strategy 18 : Defeat the Enemy by Capturing Their Chief
Capturing the general of the enemy can destroy the enemy's fighting capability. This is because the general is the one who commands and controls the whole army. An army without its general is as weak and amorphous as sand.
