Shed Off the Shell Like a Golden Cicada
故事全文
In 1206 AD during the Song Dynasty, the emperor sent an army to attack Jin but was defeated several time. Bi Zai Yu, the general of the Song army, decided to retreat. But the question of how to retreat safely troubled him greatly.
Bi Zai Yu later came up with a solution. He gave three orders: First, the flags were not to be pulled out. Second, the army tents were not to be taken down. Third, the battle drums must not stop beating. This done, Bi Zai Yu ordered his army to retreat under the cover of night. At the crack of dawn, the Jin army saw nothing unusual on the Song side: The flags were flying, and the sound of battle drums continued. It was not until a few days later that they started to become suspicious because there was no sign of movement within the Song camp. So they sent a scout to see what was going on, only to find that the Song camp had long been deserted.
But if the camp were deserted, how could the battle drums still beat? The Jin soldiers walked to the back of the camp and discovered the answer. Bi Zai Yu had ordered his soldiers to catch several goats and tie up their hind legs up on a tree with a rope. The front legs of the goats were left dangling just low enough to beat on the drums. Due to the discomfort of hanging upside down, the goats struggled with their front legs to try to free themselves. This was why the drums were kept beating.
Strategy 21: Shed Off the Shell Like a Golden Cicada
When the golden cicada periodically sheds off its skin, it would fly off but leave its outer shell intact. Here, it means to divert the enemy's attention in order to escape intact.
