The Art of Deception and Adrian's Tale Chapter 14

Generally speaking, when the nations are at war, the only way for the weaker nations is to adopt the principle of teamwork and unite the weaker nations to attack the stronger nations. This has become an iron rule in history. The only way for the stronger nations to deal with the stronger nations is to destroy their principle of teamwork and try to dissolve the weaker nations’ alliances. Therefore, when the alliance of the six nations succeeded, Qin sent Zhang Yi to sow discord. When the alliance between Wu and Shu succeeded, Cao Cao tried to break up the alliance between Sun Quan and Wu.

Whether a weak country can defeat a strong country depends on whether the weak country can carry out the principle of cooperation thoroughly. Qi united the armies of eight countries to attack Chu, Jin united the armies of four countries to attack Chu, and Yan united the armies of five countries to attack Qi. They joined forces to the end, so they succeeded. Su Qin united the six countries to resist Qin, but the six countries conflicted with each other, so they failed; the alliance between Wu and Shu was broken by Sun Quan and Guan Yu was killed. Although they reunited later, their power was greatly weakened, so they still failed.

The doctrine of joint efforts should be applied not only to diplomacy, but also to domestic affairs. The reason why Qi Huan was able to dominate was that Guan Zhong was in charge of domestic affairs and sent military orders, and the internal forces were consistent; when Kong Ming governed Shu, the internal forces were also consistent, so the people of Wei feared him like a tiger. Since Shang Yang, Qin has been consistent in everything internally. The six countries were in conflict with each other, and each country did not care about internal affairs internally, so Qin rose and the six countries fell. Guan Zhong and Ning Bao and others were of the same mind and virtue, and they achieved the doctrine of joint efforts, so they succeeded; Su Qin had a good friend Zhang Yi, who did everything he could to drive him into Qin, violating the doctrine of joint efforts, so he failed.

The key to managing national affairs is to develop the national strength and concentrate it in the central government. There will be more than enough for external affairs. Therefore, those who bear the heavy responsibility of the country must have a vision that covers everything. The ancients said: "If there is a minister who is decisive and has no other skills, his heart will be at ease. If he is tolerant, he will treat others' skills as if they were his own. If others are wise and sage, his heart will like them as if they were coming out of his mouth." This is also the same. Liu Bang was open-minded and generous. He was able to recruit Han Xin, Chen Ping, Ying Bu, Peng Yue and other people from the enemy side to use them. The wise ones used their strategies and the brave ones used their strength. Xiang Yu was narrow-minded. Not only could he not keep Han Xin and Peng Yue, but he could not even use a loyal Fan Zeng. Liu Bang used the strength of the people, while Xiang Yu used his own strength. Therefore, Han rose and Chu was destroyed.

King Wu said: "King Zhou had millions of ministers, but they all had millions of hearts." This violated the principle of synergy. "I have three thousand ministers, but they all have one heart." This was in line with the principle of synergy, so King Wu rose to power and King Zhou of Shang fell. Others, such as Emperor Guangwu's openness to others and Zhuge Kongming's brainstorming, can be said to have practiced synergy.