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三十六计英文-Thirty-Six Stratagems 22. Bolt the door to catch the thief 三十六计

三十六计英文

Thirty-Six Stratagems

 (三十六计法语-Les 36 stratagèmes)

23. Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbour
This stratagem has two applications: the first is the more obvious. Avoid a two-front war by making peace with everybody else before you go to war against an opponent. Additionally, if you have two battles to fight, it's wiser first to fight the one that is near at hand. But to do this, you must try to gain at least a temporary peace with the less emergent battle. One writer observes that a parent with a teen age son who eats junk food and drives too fast will first allow the junk food in order to focus on the battle of building responsibility in the boy's driving practices.

The second, less apparent application of this stratagem is that your route of advance must be organized. Sometimes, winning one battle makes the next battle easier to win. The order of operation can make your battles easier. In two-on-one fighting in taekwondo, the lone defender keeps moving so that the less aggressive of two attackers stays between the defender and the more aggressive attacker. This tactic wears out the aggressor in the middle and exposes him to deliberate kicks and punches from the defender and accidental kicks and punches from his ally. Thus, by economical maneuvering, the defender can whittle away one opponent. When the "man in the middle" gives up or goes down, the defender can then concentrate on a single opponent. But if the defender focuses on the stronger, more aggressive opponent first, then the defender gets tied up in earnest fighting, and the weaker attacker can do him serious harm.

Situation and ability will often determine the best order of operation in a battle, but---as Sun Tzu wrote---it's usually wisest to husband your energy and resources while making your opponents spend up their energy and resources.

孙子兵法 远交近攻

三十六计英文-Thirty-Six Stratagems 24. Borrow a route to conquer Guo 

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