Empty Fort Strategy
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| Empty Fort Strategy | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 空城計 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 空城计 | ||||||
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The Empty Fort Strategy is the 32nd of the Chinese Thirty-Six Stratagems. The strategy involves using reverse psychology (and luck) to deceive the enemy into thinking that an empty fort is full of traps and ambushes, and therefore retreat. This tactic is best known for being used by the Three Kingdoms period strategist Zhuge Liang in a fictitious account in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
There are two actual recorded battles employing such strategy during the Three Kingdom period. The first one, recorded in Yu Huan's A Brief History of Wei, was employed by Wen Ping in 226 at Jiangxia during an invasion led by Sun Quan. The other and the more well known example was from Pei Songzhi's annotations in Records of Three Kingdoms, which was later romanticized by Luo Guanzhong in Romance of the Three Kingdoms (see the Hanzhong Campaign section below for more details).
Examples
Zhuge Liang's Empty Fort Strategy
The historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong is a romanticization of the events in the prelude, and during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. In the novel, chancellor Zhuge Liang of the state of Shu led six military expeditions to attack Chang'an, a city controlled by the rival state of Wei.
In the first expedition, Zhuge Liang's efforts were undermined by the loss of Jieting, a strategic passageway into Zhuge's base at Hanzhong. The defeat was due to the defiance of Ma Su, who had refused to follow Zhuge Liang's orders to barricade the pathway. With the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's current location, Xicheng (西城), was exposed and in peril of being attacked by the Wei army. As Zhuge Liang had deployed all his troops and was only left with a handful of civil officials with him in Xicheng, he decided to use a ploy to ward off the approaching enemy.
Zhuge Liang ordered all the city gates to be opened and had soldiers disguised as civilians sweeping the roads, while he personally sat on a platform on top of the gates, calmly playing the zither with two boys flanking him. When the Wei army reached Xicheng, its commander Sima Yi was baffled by the scene before him, and eventually ordered his troops to retreat.
Zhuge Liang later explained to his bewildered men that his strategy worked only because Sima Yi was a suspicious man, and had personally witnessed the success of Zhuge's effective ambuscade and misdirection tactics for many times. Besides, Zhuge Liang had a reputation for being a keen and extremely careful military strategist who rarely took risks. Zhuge Liang's well-known cautious attitude, coupled with Sima Yi's suspicions, led the latter to the conclusion that there was an ambush inside Xicheng. It was unlikely that the same strategy would have worked on someone else. Indeed, Sima Yi's son Sima Zhao saw through the ruse immediately and advised his father against retreat, but Sima Yi ignored his son.
Due to the lack of historical evidence, historians generally consider this account to be purely fiction and part of common folklore on Zhuge Liang.
Hanzhong Campaign
In 219, Liu Bei and Cao Cao were battling over the control of Hanzhong. Cao Cao had huge supplies of rice stocked up near the North Mountain. Zhao Yun sent his soldiers with Huang Zhong to attack Cao Cao's army and to capture the provisions. Huang Zhong did not return on time. Along with dozens of men, Zhao Yun went out of his camp to look for Huang. Cao Cao's main force was marching at that time, so Zhao Yun ran into Cao's vanguards. Not soon after the two sides commenced to engage in battle, Cao Cao's main force arrived. Zhao Yun fought his way out toward his own camp. When he found out his lieutenant general Zhang Zhu (張著) was wounded and fell behind, he went back to rescue him.
Cao Cao's army pursued Zhao Yun to his camp. At that time, the Administrator of Mianyang (沔陽), Zhang Yi, was at Zhao Yun’s camp. Zhang thought it best to have all the gates closed in order to defend the camp. However, upon entering the camp, Zhao Yun ordered all banners to be dropped and hidden, all drums to be silenced, and the gates to be left completely open. Suspicious of an ambush, Cao Cao's army hastily retreated. Then Zhao Yun ordered his drummers to beat drums as loudly as they could, while his archers rain arrows down on the enemy. Cao Cao's stunned army was completely routed, and some soldiers rushed toward the Han River in an attempt to escape, but in confusion and panic many were pushed into the river and drowned.
Battle of Mikatagahara
In 1572 during the Sengoku Period in Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu used the tactic during his retreat in the Battle of Mikatagahara. He commanded that the fortress gates remain open, and that braziers be lit to guide his retreating army back to safety. One officer beat a large war drum, seeking to add encouragement to the returning men of a noble, courageous retreat. When the enemy forces, led by Baba Nobuharu and Yamagata Masakage heard the drums, and saw the braziers and open gates, they assumed that Tokugawa was planning a trap, and so they stopped and made camp for the night.
Cultural references
- In Chinese culture, the act of leaving one's house doors unlocked is sometimes called "setting up an empty fort strategy" (擺空城計).
- The Portal Three Kingdoms expansion set of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game include a card named "Empty City Ruse".