What Tactics Did the Ancient Chinese Use?

Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the history of China continues with an episode on the tactics, tricks and stratagems used during the Three Kingdoms Period and described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Sanguozhi, including the Empty Fort, borrowing arrows from straw boats, kill with a Borrowed Sword and the beauty of women.

More videos on the history of Japan:
Japanese Warrior Women - Female Samurai: Japanese Warrior Women - Female Samurai


#Documentary #ThreeKingdoms #chinesehistory

[Twigs]

"Kings and Generals are ultimately humans"

He said the line!

[crazyviking]

I would have added Sima Yi's pretending to be crippled in an attempt to avoid having to serve as an advisor etc for Cao Cao and then later pretending to have dementia in order to get his rival regent to let his guard down.

[roihanfadhil]

"If anyone want to see the implementation of my strategy, read romance of the three kingdoms and watch Kings & Generals videos." - Sun Tzu, the Art of War.

[QuasarSniffer]

That "Borrowing Arrows With Straw Boats" strategy is some straight-up Bart Simpson shenanigans and I love it.

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

Mengzi once wrote:

"If someone stops where they should not, they’ll stop anywhere. If someone slights a person they should treat generously, they’ll slight anyone. And if someone races ahead, they retreat in a hurry"

[disappearingone]

One of Cao Cao's stratagems (probably apocryphal) that always struck with me for both its efficacy and cruelty is when he's besieging Yuan Shu's city of Shouchun and his army is running short on supplies. Cao Cao's subordinate in charge of distributing grain, Wang Hou, brings this to Cao's attention, to which Cao Cao replies, "Serve out with a smaller measure. I shall have another device in the future." Wang Hou does so, and predicably, Cao Cao's army begins to complain. When the situation becomes critical, Cao Cao summons Wang Hou and says, "I have a means of pacifying the army, but I need to borrow something from you." Wang Hou asks what this is, and Cao Cao replies, "I need to borrow your head to appease the soldiers." Wang Hou protests that he's done nothing wrong, to which Cao Cao says, "I know, but if I don't execute you, the army will mutiny. Don't worry, your wife and children will be in my care after your death." He then has Wang Hou publicly beheaded and places the blame for the grain shortage on him, mollifying the troops and encouraging them to fight harder. Shouchun falls to Cao Cao shortly afterwards.

[yacine]

9:10 "borrowing" the enemy arrows, then returning them to'em 😅

[umjackd]

Just wanted to comment to say that the art for this video was exceptionally beautiful. Hats off to your artists and animators.

[JohnDoe-ugsu]

For 36 stratagem,
you gotta mention the Mongol army favorite "make them believe there is a path out"

[bfdiepictennisballbfdi]

I am sincerely appaled that no one ever tried to make a time period called 3^2 Kingdoms, imagine the possibilities

[tsarzamancorpdna]

Zhuge liang: imma about to ruin this man's whole career
Repeat for 30 years

[spastado]

If you watch the tv series and read other stories, there are many other tactics and strategies that cao cao used.
When facing off with Liu Bei early on, he used his raw recruits to assault the walls and let them rout in disarray to create a disorganised illusion of his army. But laid an ambush outside the city when the defenders sallied out to chase.
He is cunning and ruthless to spend the lives of men to get the objective. And he also used the correct type of troops to fit the bill because no one would fall for it if he used the crack troops to assault the walls

[ReviveHF]

Basically, the Chinese armies during this time period undergoing the same changes as the Roman counterparts. Cavalry plays a much bigger role and Infantry adopted the more protective equipment of the cavalry. Instead of vast numbers of troops covered vast distances of the Empire, "Mobile field armies" combined with cunning tactics are favoured in late Eastern Han Era/Three Kingdoms Era. You could argue that historically, Aurelian, Stilicho, Aetius and Majorian relied more on deception to win battles.

[jameszhou]

Zhu Ge Liang did not trick Sima Yi but he knows Sima Yi’s biggest enemy is not Shu Empire but Cao Family which was viewing Sima family as a major threat especially if Sima defeats Shu empire. 兔死狗烹，鸟尽弓藏。 Sima Yi was not just a military strategist but also a shrewd politician who understands the bigger picture and Zhu Ge also knew. So a grand Strategen of plot within a plot

[vitorpereira]

I love the three kingdoms period. Cao Cao in reality was more likeable than his romance countepart. He was such a good administrator that among the three kingdoms Wei was the most stable and strongest. Sima Yi descendants unified China thanks to Cao Cao.

[gabriellin]

To clarify here to the general audience/viewers. The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (The Warring States of Three Kingdoms era/period) did not started with this 3 kingdoms. There were at least a dozen more kingdoms to begin with, it’s just that eventually the ultimate trio remained/survived/left to balance out the power and territory in middle earth. This 3 kingdoms era/period was already like the 3rd installment of the trilogy movie franchise. Hope the public gets a glimpse of the picture here.

[heskrthmatt]

3:46 Pretty hilarious Lu Bu would call someone else treacherous.

[MKfanmomo]

I simply love the Three Kingdoms so much, this content brought a smile to my face.

[ColdSceptical]

You are one of the best YouTube channels who tell us about history. I would like you to make a series on mughals because the way you present history is just undoubtedly amazing.

[Itskal]

During the Three Kingdom period, Chinese generals were each commanding armies with 100K+ men. The entire Roman Empire was only 160k.