36 Strategies Vernacular Full Translation

Chapter 8
In the original scriptures, the enemy is very harmful, and he takes advantage of the situation, and he is firm and soft.

Translation When the enemy is in crisis, take the opportunity to attack it in order to win the victory.If the enemy has internal troubles, he can seize his territory; if the enemy has foreign troubles, he can plunder his people's wealth;This is the strategy for the strong to take advantage of the situation, seize the opportunity at the right time, and defeat the enemy in doom in one fell swoop.

Interpretation No matter how powerful an opponent is, there will always be weaknesses, and there will be opportunities to take advantage of seemingly impeccable defenses.When a competitor is in trouble or in crisis, it is often the best opportunity to subdue the opponent.Smart decision makers will often make full use of this opportunity to attack decisively to obtain the maximum benefit.This is what we usually call "taking advantage of the fire".

"Take advantage of the fire to rob", there are the following two situations.One is to take advantage of people's dangers and fight fires with salaries.If the opponent's backyard is "on fire", we can pretend to be "fighting the fire" and go to join in the fun, so that we will neither be rejected by the opponent nor attract the attention of the opponent.In the process of "fire fighting", you can gain benefits secretly, or light a "new fire" in a dark corner to cause more trouble for the enemy, so that you can easily put it to death.When the enemy is in danger, using this method to launch an active attack against the enemy is often easy to succeed and seek benefits for oneself, which can also be called taking advantage of the gap and taking advantage of the gap between others.The second situation is to help the tyrant to do evil, join the gang and share profits.The fire was set by others. When others took advantage of the fire to rob, we took the opportunity to intervene and help the other party. After the incident was completed, we obtained part of the benefits.Both methods are extremely ingenious.

Although the tactic of "taking advantage of the fire to rob" seems not very bright and aboveboard, it is actually a time-tested strategy for defeating the enemy, and it can often turn the tide of battle and change the passive into the active.The essence of it is that when the opponent is in danger and can't take care of himself, take the opportunity to force him to accept harsh conditions that are unacceptable under normal circumstances.The key to using this strategy lies in the correct grasp of the timing of "robbing".This requires decision makers to grasp the opponent's dynamics, and through analysis, confirm that the opponent has "fired", is in danger or has something to ask for, and makes a decisive move to profit from the chaos.It should be noted that "looting while taking advantage of the fire" on the one hand requires decision-makers to be sensitive and decisive, because favorable opportunities are often fleeting. If the "fire" is extinguished before robbing, the effect will be greatly reduced; Be careful not to move blindly, not only to avoid being caught by the opponent's trap of leading the snake out of the hole, but also to pay attention to the degree of "kalpa" and not to get burned.

"Take advantage of the fire" is widely used.Used in the military, it is a common strategy for selecting fighters.The so-called "the enemy is confused, you can take advantage of it" also means this.The application of this strategy requires opportunities to be taken advantage of, as well as the disparity in strength between the two opposing sides.The confrontation between the two sides of the contradiction and the strength of the struggle determine the state of their internal contradictions.Only when the enemy's internal conflicts are fierce and sharp, and the strength changes from strong to weak, can one's own side have a chance to advance.And applying it to modern life is also a good way to take advantage of the opponent's danger to seek benefits and achieve various purposes.In business wars, "taking advantage of the fire" can be extended to mean: When competitors are in difficulties and crises, or when the market changes, take advantage of the situation and use your own advantages to defeat the opponent or seize the market, so as to weaken the opponent's strength and strengthen yourself.In the Western world, once a certain company is on the verge of bankruptcy, other consortia and companies will often flock to it and use various means to rob it of useful equipment and technical personnel, which is an effective use of the strategy of "looting while the fire is on the way".In short, this plan can receive excellent results in all fields of social life.

Of course, we should also take some preventive measures to deal with it once someone tries to "take advantage of the fire" against us.First of all, the door must be closed at all times, so as not to give the enemy an opportunity.Those who take advantage of the fire and looting generally take advantage of the gap to make profits, and take advantage of the chaos to seek profit. If we always raise our vigilance and close the door to prevent outsiders from taking advantage of the gap, it will not be easy for the enemy to find the "gap" to take advantage of.To take a step back, even if we are in a difficult situation one day, we must be calm and orderly.The enemy's opportunity is nothing more than the chaos after our "home fire". If we are calm, comprehensive, handle the problem properly, and maintain a high degree of vigilance to the outside world, the enemy will have no opportunity to take advantage of the "chaos". This is The most fundamental preventive measures.Secondly, once you are in trouble, you must defend yourself with all your strength, and make the enemy unprofitable.In the event of a crisis, losses are inevitable, but we must minimize the larger losses as much as possible.If the enemy takes advantage of our civil strife to attack, then the two parties involved in internal conflicts must clearly realize that "the snipe and the clam are fighting", and it is the fisherman who benefits.It is necessary to immediately abandon previous suspicions and unite with the outside world. This is not only beneficial to both parties, but also beneficial to the whole.

Examples of Wisdom
Tian Dan "robbed after cleverly attacking the heart"

In 284 BC, the five kingdoms of Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, and Qin jointly sent troops to attack Qi, which was powerful at that time.The Yan State sent General Le Yi to lead the armies of the five countries, and captured 72 cities of the Qi State one after another.In the end, only the two cities of Juzhou and Jimo remained unoccupied in Qi State. Le Yi deliberately did not capture these two cities in order to implement a benevolent government to the people, buy people's hearts, and make long-term plans for the future.

Five years later, Tian Dan, the guard of Jimo City in the State of Qi, sent someone to propose to the King of Qi: let Juzhou and Jimo be horns of each other, and jointly deal with the Yan army.In the past five years, Yan State has undergone great changes.Le Yi was envied and attacked by rumors in the court.So Tian Dan took the opportunity to send people to Yan to spread rumors, saying that Le Yi and Tian Dan were conspiring to become king.When King Yan heard the news, he immediately recruited Le Yi to return to Yan.Seeing that the situation was not good, Le Yi immediately defected to Zhao Guo as an official.King Yan was helpless, so he sent Qi Jie to replace Le Yi to lead the Yan army, and ordered an immediate attack on Jimo City.Unexpectedly, under the leadership of the guard Tian Dan, the soldiers and civilians in the city resisted desperately and held the city with one heart.However, because the Yan army had many elite soldiers and strong generals, Jimo City was quickly surrounded and impenetrable.Tian Dan thought hard in the city, hoping to have a good strategy to defeat the enemy cleverly.One day, he suddenly thought of it.

In the early morning of the next day, Tian Dan declared to all the soldiers and civilians: Last night he dreamed that the gods were going to send gods to help him deal with Yan.Soon, a soldier dressed as a divine master was worshiped as a "sacred master" by the people of Jimo City. It is said that he was the divine master in Tian Dan's dream.From then on, Tian Dan issued various division orders through the "divine master".One day, the "divine master" issued an order saying that the ancestors must be worshiped in the courtyard before the three meals.So Tian Dan hurriedly asked his subordinates to carefully prepare the sacrificial activities.During the sacrifice, seeing that there was food in the courtyard, the birds gathered over the city of Jimo every day.When Yan Jun saw this scene, he was very surprised at first, and he heard that Qi Jun got the help of a divine master. Soon, the hearts of the army were floating.

After Tian Dan knew the situation, he was overjoyed, so he dressed up more than 1000 cows in the city with red silk cloth and colored paints, tied sharp knives to the horns, tied hemp reeds coated with ointment on the tails, and let the selected five thousand cattle The elite soldiers, wearing colorful strange clothes and painting their faces with various colors of paint, look like heavenly soldiers and generals.As soon as it got dark, Tian Dan ordered the "magic soldiers and generals" to light the reeds on the tails of the oxen with fire, and drove thousands of strangely dressed oxen out of the holes they had already dug.As soon as the cattle were burned, they rushed out of the city gate and rushed to the camp of Yan State.Five thousand "magic soldiers and generals" also held steel knives and followed closely behind.For a while, the scene was very spectacular: the panicked Yan army thought it was the arrival of the gods and soldiers, and all of them were scared out of their wits and fled with their lives.But at this time, thousands of "strange" cows, carrying a lot of flames, were rampaging in the Yan camp like flying clouds and fog, descending from the sky, and they were extremely ferocious.The Yan army was in chaos and defeated.Tian Dan "took advantage of the fire to rob", killed the Yan army completely, and took advantage of the situation to conquer more than a dozen cities one after another.In the end, not only drove the Yan army out of Qi, but also regained all the territory in one go.Due to his outstanding military exploits, King Xiang of Qi appointed Tian Dan as the Prime Minister of Qi State and named him Lord Anping.

When Tian Dan regained the territory, facing the situation where the enemy was outnumbered and the enemy was strong and we were weak, he did not fear the enemy, but cleverly used psychological tactics and the "Fire Bull Formation", which first caused King Yan's dissatisfaction with General Le Yi. Trust led Le Yi to flee, and then used the performance of "Master of God" and "Heavenly Soldiers and Generals" to deceive the enemy, causing them to panic, and then took advantage of the fire to loot, quickly gained the upper hand in the confrontation between the enemy and us, and won the war in one fell swoop.From this point of view, the strategy of "taking advantage of the fire" is undoubtedly an effective means to attack the opponent and protect oneself in the disparity between the enemy and the enemy.

Hammer is caught in a trap
Armand Hammer, a legendary figure in the American industrial circle, was once known as the "God of Management" and "God of Luck".Indeed, as long as he is involved in the industry, he will set a record.Whether it was trading food, pencils, and furs with the Soviets, or dealing in whiskey and oil, he could make a lot of money from it.Even his opponents had to sigh - "Hammer is invincible".However, the "invincible" Hamer failed to escape a small trap.

During World War II, it was difficult to get a good steak.Inspired by this, Hamer decided to step into the cattle industry.At this time, there happened to be a bull named "Prince Eric" auctioned in Missouri. This bull was praised by breeding experts as the best bull of this century.Hamer knew that a good price for a cow would largely depend on the bloodline and quality of the breeding bull, so he went to the auction with confidence and called out a high price of 1.5 yuan.To his surprise, an entrepreneur named O'Brien was very generous and bought Prince Eric for 3.51 yuan.In desperation, Hamer had to spend 2.75 yuan to buy the champion of the previous year's International Bull Breeding Contest to breed the herd.In the second year, Hammer made a profit of millions of dollars, which made him more aware of the immeasurable value of "Prince Eric".

(End of this chapter)