Thousands of years ago, "Sage of War" Sun Wu said this in " Sun Tzu's Art of War ":
The method of using troops is the best in the country, and the country is the next best; the entire army is the best, and the army is the next best; the entire brigade is the best, and the brigade is the next best; the entire soldiers are the best, and the soldiers are the next best; the entire army is the next best, and the defeated army is the next best. Therefore, winning every battle is not a good thing; defeating others without fighting is a good thing.
In the Three Kingdoms era, although the war for hegemony was difficult to achieve the result of "a defeated the enemy without fighting" that Sun Wu hoped, how to maximize the judgment of the enemy commander, improve the morale of one's own and allied forces, and thus minimize and defeat the opponent is something that everyone must consider.
is used to analyze two decisive and influential battle examples in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. In fact, the role of "psychological warfare" is no less than directly killing and injuring opponents with swords and guns on the battlefield.
In the first month of 200 AD, the north Gongsun Zan , which had just pacified the north Gongsun Zan , had attracted the attention of warlords across the country. Why? Because Yuan Shao almost defeated the more powerful Gongsun Zan in desperate situations, from the Battle of Jieqiao to the Battle of Yijing , every victory of Yuan Shao was filled with certain luck factors.
At this time, Yuan Shao, who returned victoriously, began to focus on the land in the south. The first one was Cao Cao , which lies across the south bank of the Yellow River. Taking advantage of Yuan Shao's fierce battle with Gongsun Zan in the north, his former ally Cao Cao was also expanding his territory. The rapid expansion of his power has become a stumbling block for Yuan Shao to continue to move south. What's more, Cao Cao also kidnapped Emperor Xian of Han and his group from afar, thus gaining the title of "using the emperor to command the princes."
Cao Cao's ambitions are increasing day by day, which is not good news for Yuan Shao. In order to completely eliminate this stubborn opponent, both sides began to expand their troops tacitly, striving to win in one battle. The cunning Yuan Shao knew that Cao Cao had suffered from headaches for many years. It was fine, but once it broke out, it was even more uncomfortable than death.
In order to make his competitor Cao Cao lose his mind, it would be best to die immediately. Yuan Shao found Chen Lin, a famous scholar in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and ordered the latter to write a letter of humiliation to Cao Cao. Chen Lin's motive was unknown, but he quickly and brilliantly completed the task assigned to him by Yuan Shao.
"Expression to Yuzhou for Yuan Shao" came into being. In fact, the writing background of "Expression to Yuzhou for Yuan Shao" is very interesting. Before the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao instructed Chen Lin to write this article in 200 AD. " Yuzhou " means Cao Cao, the governor of Yuzhou at that time. The uniqueness of this article is that its skills in cursing people are very superb, well-known, and even appreciated by Cao Cao himself.
There is a plot in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Cao Cao was in a splitting headache when he first read Chen Lin's article and was covered in cold sweat. However, when he read it again for the second time, he no longer had the anger and helplessness he had in his heart, but instead he admired Chen Lin's talent very much. In the battle of Wuchao, Cao Cao's Youzhou Legion made a brilliant contribution to defeat Yuan Shao's Hebei people who were several times more than he had. Yuan Shao died soon afterwards. Along the Yellow River, Cao Cao took out this manifesto again and asked Chen Lin, who was already a prisoner, to read it loudly in front of all the soldiers. Chen Lin, who thought that the disaster was coming, had to submit. He never thought that Cao Cao would not only not kill him, but instead cherish his talent and worship him as a "military advisor". After that, Chen Lin was willing to surrender until he died of the plague 17 years later.
"Expression to Yuzhou for Yuan Shao" is a representative of parallel prose during the Three Kingdoms period. The whole text is unique in its momentum, with gorgeous rhetoric and unparalleled skills in cursing people. No one has ever come before. The whole text is logical and Cao Cao was convinced. At the same time, because of this shocking article, Chen Lin was finally able to be among the "Seven Sons of Jian'an". Cao Cao knew the shame and then bravely wiped out Hebei. Chen Lin's official career was successful since then, but the only one who was injured was Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shao's vicious plan not only did not interfere with and anger Cao Cao, but instead made Cao Cao feel relaxed and happy after reading this parallel prose, and thus had the confidence to defeat Yuan Shao. It can be said that "stealing chickens but losing rice." Yuan Shao paid the price for his cleverness and achieved the formation of Cao Cao's northern hegemony. There are risks in attacking the heart, so be cautious when using it.
Let’s look at the second example of winning because of “psychological warfare”. Before the Battle of Red Cliff, Liu Bei, who had been chased by Cao Cao, could only commit to seeking asylum under the Eastern Wu account. Although with the efforts of Zhuge Liang and others, it led to unequal strength between the two sides but faced a loose alliance of the same enemy, the alliance between Sun and Liu still aroused dissatisfaction among many people, especially the civil servants of the Eastern Wu.
Cao Cao's soldiers Jiangbei . Although there are as many as 270,000 people, in order to maximize the interference and suppress the morale of the coalition, Cao Cao decided to divorce and tell Sun Quan that he had 800,000 people. The immature Sun Quan believed it, and most civil officials advocated surrender to preserve the foundation of Jiangdong, so Sun Quan seemed very hesitant for a moment.
When Sun Quan was still undecided between "war and harmony", the anxious Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang from Jiangxia to Chaisang to seek the result. Zhuge Liang had actually known Sun Quan's attitude for a long time, and also heard about the conflict between the pro-war factions and the surrender factions within the Eastern Wu.
In order to encourage Sun Quan to send troops to fight, Zhuge Liang first stabilized Sun Quan's emotions, and then began to start with surrender, so that the Eastern Wu and Liu Bei always stood on the same boat. Zhuge Liang intentionally belittled Sun Quan and the Eastern Wu's determination to defend the country was not as good as Liu Bei who was defeated, which indirectly aroused Sun Quan's fighting spirit. After
, with the clear attitude of Sun Quan, the surrendered faction led by Zhang Zhao , Gu Yong and others, there was naturally no voice. In this case, Zhuge Liang's countermeasures had a miraculous effect, and it can be said that Zhuge Liang's "psychological war" against Sun Quan achieved results. Since the formal establishment of Sun Liu's alliance has become inevitable, the next thing to consider is how to defeat the powerful Cao Cao. In response to the northerners' inability to take boats and water stations, Pang Tong launched a "serial plan" to use himself as bait to lure Cao Cao to follow his own strategy to connect the warship head and tail, thus laying the foundation for the fire attack after Huang Gai.
Pang Tongsheng and Zhou Yu later beat Huang Gai to confuse Cao Cao and make him firmly believe that the chain ships could solve the problem of the disagreement of soldiers in the north, and that the internal harmony of the Eastern Wu was not harmonious, and the conflict between Zhou Yu and Huang Gai would become the entry point for Cao Cao to win this station.
Little did they know that Cao Cao himself was the one who was tempted and sacrificed. The subsequent ending was obvious. Battle of Red Cliff made Cao Cao no longer dare to go south to attack Wu easily, thus laying the foundation for the arrival of the situation of the Three Kingdoms. The Battle of Red Cliff is the result of the victory of the psychological battle between the Sun and Liu coalition forces.
