Wait at Leisure while the Enemy Labors

Wait at Ease for the Exhausted Enemy To force the enemy into a difficult position need not be achieved through direct combat. By means of defense and attrition, one may weaken the enemy’s formidable momentum, causing him to turn from strength to weakness, while one’s own side shifts from passivity to initiative. Allusion:During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei, seeking vengeance for Guan Yu, led a great army against Wu. Facing the Shu army’s high morale and its occupation of high ground and strategic passes, the Wu general Lu Xun did not seek an immediate decisive battle. Instead, he voluntarily withdrew, ceding hundreds of li of canyon and mountainous terrain to Liu Bei, and held fast without giving battle. The Shu army challenged repeatedly, and Wu’s generals were eager to meet them, but Lu Xun always kept his troops in place, waiting at ease for the exhausted enemy and wearing down the Shu army’s morale. The two sides stood off for months, until the Shu troops were weary and dispirited; moreover, because they had established linked camps among the forests and......