36 Strategies Vernacular Full Translation

Chapter 37
The original text preserves its shape and completes its power; friends do not doubt, enemies do not move.Sunda stops, Gu.

The translation preserves the original shape of the position, creating a strong momentum of the garrison, so that the friendly army will not doubt it, and the enemy will not dare to act rashly.According to the principle of Gu Gua: If you can hide your actions without revealing your face, you can effectively prevent the enemy's damage.

Interpretation of golden cicada shelling is originally a biological phenomenon, which means that when cicada-like insects transform, they break away from the skin and fly away, leaving only the empty shell in place.The ancients used this phenomenon to refer to certain things in human society.

"Escape the shell of the golden cicada" is a kind of strategy, often when the situation is extremely unfavorable, you have to resort to tricks to get out in order to make a comeback.Therefore, at the critical moment of life and death, it is an expedient measure to conceal the other party by means of camouflage, cover or deception, leaving a false appearance to stabilize the other party in order to escape in secret.

This plan is used in military affairs, and refers to getting rid of the enemy by disguising, retreating or transferring to achieve our strategic goals.Stabilizing the opponent, retreating or transferring is not to panic and escape negatively, but to make an accurate judgment after carefully analyzing the situation, retain the external form, take away the real content, cleverly clone, and use elite troops to attack another part of the enemy Strategy.

Use this plan to choose the right time.On the one hand, the "shelling" should not be too early, as long as there is still a possibility of victory, and it is not a last resort, so as not to destroy the chance of victory; on the other hand, the "shelling" should not be too late , when the defeat is already decided, staying for one more minute will increase the danger and reduce the possibility of survival by one point.

In short, to escape from a certain dangerous situation without being entangled or chased, it is indeed a clever way for the golden cicada to escape its shell.If you escape without being discovered, the victory is almost sealed, because by the time the opponent finds out, it will be too late. 36 strategies, walking is the best strategy, but there are many ways to move, and the escape of the golden cicada is the best strategy among the strategies.

Of course, in the face of the enemy's golden cicada's plan to escape, we should take the following preventive measures to deal with it.

[-]. Press the cicada in a cage so that it cannot escape.Many people have the experience of covering a cicada with a shell under a paper cup at night, and uncovering the paper cup the next day only to find that the cicada is gone, leaving only an empty shell.At this time, how much we regret not pressing it firmly.Therefore, the best way to prevent the almost captured enemy from using the golden cicada to escape is to "close the door to catch the thief", make a quick decision, and lock it tightly in the cage.In this way, even if the enemy tried his best, he could not escape, so he had to submit obediently.

[-]. Learn to see the essence through the phenomenon, and not be confused by the false appearance of the enemy.When the enemy plans some new conspiracies, there will be more or less abnormal performances or special signs.We must be good at observation and discrimination, and grasp the enemy's movements in a timely and accurate manner.And once the enemy uses the golden cicada to escape the shell, they will often deliberately create false "shape" or "potential" to confuse our eyes.We must take advantage of these superficial phenomena to dig deep into the enemy's essence and true intentions, so as not to fall into the trap.

[-]. It is the enemy's usual trick to get away without promises and promises. Therefore, the enemy's promises must not be believed.Promises and tokens are often the cheapest escape substitutes for enemies.Knowing this law, we must pay attention not to easily let go of the enemies who are about to come because of those promises or tokens that have no binding force or control.Even if you relax temporarily, you must hold on to the reins that can bring the enemy back at any time.In short, it is most unwise, bordering on foolish, to trust the promises of the enemy.

Examples of Wisdom
The Soviet Army's "shell" counterattack

The strategy of "escape the shell of the golden cicada" does have the effect of being invincible in military battles.As long as you do a good job in "preserving its form and completing its potential", without showing any traces and preventing the other party from seeing through, you can easily achieve success.This strategy is widely used in modern warfare between China and foreign countries.

Marshal Zhukov

In 1943, the Soviet army fought the German Nazi army at the Dnieper River.As soon as the battle began, the Soviet Voronezh Front crossed the Dnieper River and captured the Buklin landing site about 140 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.Subsequently, the German Nazi troops fought back fiercely.After several large-scale repeated battles, the Soviet army temporarily fell into a passive situation. If they insisted on resisting, they would be in danger of being wiped out.

Under such circumstances, Marshal Zhukov, the representative of the Supreme Command of the Soviet Army, and General Vadudin, the commander of the Front Army, decided temporarily to change the direction of the main attack and launch an attack on the northern side of Kyiv, where the enemy's defense force was weak.Therefore, in order to transfer the main force of the troops without being discovered by the enemy, Zhukov planned to use the "golden cicada escape shell" strategy.

Zhukov ordered the main forces such as the Third Guards Tank Army to act secretly, first quietly marching along the route on the east bank of the Dnieper River, then go north along the front line, and cross the river again about 40 kilometers north of Kyiv. The Japanese landing field began to attack the German army.

At the same time, in order to smoothly transfer this mechanized force from under the nose of the enemy, Zhukov and other senior generals made up a false order to suspend the attack and switch to defense on the spot.In addition, the Soviet army also retrieved a corpse on the battlefield, changed into the captain's uniform, put this fake order in the "captain's" briefcase, and deliberately left it in the forward position together.

The German Nazi army moved back the corpse, and after seeing the false order, they immediately sent forward troops to launch a counterattack against the weak Soviet army.The Soviet army feigned defeat and retreated to the trenches of the second line of defense.

At the same time, the Soviet army used extensive propaganda methods to falsely claim that in the temporary passive situation across the board, the Soviet Supreme Command had issued an order to transfer troops to a solid position in order to prepare for a new offensive from Buklin.On the other hand, they stepped up the use of multiple sources to create the illusion that large troops were assembled on standby, several radio stations in the command post were working non-stop day and night, and anti-air attack preparations were in full swing, making the German Nazi army always mistakenly believe that the main force of the Soviet army was still sticking to Buklin Aspects, and has been focusing all on the Brooklyn area.

Afterwards, the German Nazi army bombarded the empty false position of the Soviet army indiscriminately for a week, and mobilized the reserve team to rush here.But how did they know that the Soviet army was already under the command of Marshal Zhukov at this time, the "golden cicada escaped its shell" successfully, and the main force had already been safely transferred.Subsequently, the German army in the Dnieper River area was destroyed by the main force of the Soviet army.

In this battle, the Soviet army used various methods to disguise its "golden cicada escape shell", which successfully deceived the German army and led it into the wrong direction of attack. At the same time, it secretly transferred the main force to buy time for its counterattack.It was this strategy that made the Soviet army finally change from passive to active, turning defeat into victory.

The rebel army breaks through

Live without shedding, die without shedding.People vividly regard "escape the shell of the golden cicada" as a flexible strategy for military struggle.If you can get rid of it, you can live and win; if you can't get rid of it, if you can't get rid of it, you will lose and perish.This has become a law on the battlefield, a truth.

Spartacus was the leader of the largest slave uprising in ancient Rome more than 2000 years ago.He was resourceful and intelligent, and once led a heroic uprising team to deal a fatal blow to the slave-owner regime.

At that time, Spartacus assembled the rebel army on Mount Vesuvius, facing the sea and surrounded by cliffs on both sides.The Roman Empire assigned Claudius to lead officers and soldiers to suppress it.While guarding the only passage in and out of Mount Vesuvius, Claudius set up numerous obstacles in an attempt to trap the rebels alive on the mountain.

The enemy's attempts did not corner the rebels.Looking at the wild vines growing everywhere on Mount Vesuvius, Spartacus immediately made up his mind.He ordered everyone to weave a long ladder out of wild grape vines, then jump over the cliff along the ladder, and sneak back to the enemy's back for a surprise attack.The counterattack of the rebel army made the Roman officers and soldiers at a loss, and finally had to flee in a panic.

After Claudius was defeated, the Roman Empire ordered Vanesse to lead two legions to continue to suppress the rebels.The continuous fierce battles cut off the food and grass of the rebel army, and many soldiers were also infected with diseases, and the situation was very critical.In order to break out of the siege, Spartacus made a careful and secret deployment, asking the soldiers to tie the dead bodies in front of the camp to pretend to be sentinels, and then leave a few buglers to blow the horn as usual.The entire barracks looked no different from usual.At this time, Spartacus has led the army to secretly break through the mountain road that the enemy thought was impossible to pass.

(End of this chapter)