Openly Repair the Gallery Roads, but Sneak through the Passage of Chencang

Secretly Cross at Chencang Deliberately display feints and diversionary movements to the opponent, and exploit the posture in which the enemy, having thus settled into fixed defense and formed a firm judgment, holds still—while carrying out the real action in secret. Victory through surprise must be covered by normal, visible action; without the “open” layer, the truly “secret” cannot be deployed. Allusion:After the fall of the Qin dynasty, Xiang Yu declared himself Hegemon-King of Western Chu and enfeoffed Liu Bang in the remote region of Hanzhong. On his way to his fief, Liu Bang burned the plank roads leading in and out of Hanzhong, both to guard against attacks by the feudal lords and to signal to Xiang Yu that he had no intention of marching east to contend for the empire. Later, Liu Bang appointed Han Xin as grand general. Han Xin sent men to repair the burned plank roads with great fanfare, staging the appearance of launching a campaign from them. Zhang Han, seeing that the repair work was arduous and slow, relaxed his vigilance. Han Xin’s main force, however......