Remove the Firewood from under the Pot

Remove the Firewood from Under the Cauldron When it is impossible to withstand the enemy’s superior strength head-on, one should seek to eliminate at the root the very source from which his strength derives and by which it operates. This is the strategy of overcoming hardness with softness and dismantling the opponent from the source. Allusion:In the Northern Song dynasty, Xue Changru, controller-general of Hanzhou, encountered a mutiny among the garrison troops. The mutinous soldiers opened the camp gates, killed people, and set fires. The prefect and the military supervisor were so frightened that they dared not come forward. Xue Changru stepped forward and said to the mutineers: “You all have parents, wives, and children—why risk your lives? All who did not join the conspiracy, stand aside.” The soldiers who had been coerced stepped aside one after another, leaving only eight ringleaders, who fled and were soon all captured. Xue Changru did not fight the mutinous troops head-on; instead, he first dissolved their “momentum” by drawing the deluded majority away......