Odd Solutions to Historic Problems

1. Playing Mind Games to Keep a Powerful Enemy From Seizing a Vulnerable City

Another of Kongming’s exploits, which became proverbial as “the empty fort strategy”, took place when he was tasked with defending a walled city with a severely undermanned garrison. A vastly superior enemy army approached – one against which Kongming’s minuscule garrison stood no chance. So he came up with another wily solution to his predicament.

Rather than barricade the city’s gates, he threw them open, then grabbed a musical instrument and played it nonchalantly atop the walls. When scouts told the enemy commander what they saw, he rode to the gates to see for him himself. He saw a city with its gates wide open, its walls unmanned, and Kongming playing music above. Suspecting a trap, the enemy commander turned his army around and left the vulnerable city that had been his for the taking.

_________________

Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

All That is Interesting – The Strange, Surprising History of the Vibrator

All Things Medieval – The Strangest Medieval Weapon Ever Created: The Lantern Shield

Big Think – Project 100,000: The Vietnam War’s Cruel Experiment on American Soldiers

China Highlights – Zhuge Liang (181 – 234)

Cracked – 17 Weird, Historic Solutions to Relatable Problems

Daily Beast, April 27^th, 2012 – ‘Hysteria’ and the Long, Strange History of the Vibrator

Encyclopedia Britannica – Charles II, King of Navarre

Laertius, Diogenes – The Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book 9

Epoch Times, November 29^th, 2019 – Chinese Idioms: Borrowing Arrows With Thatched Boats

Gonick, Larry – The Cartoon History of the Universe II (1994)