Spy and Counterspy
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At the end of the Han dynasty, China entered what is known as the Period of the Three Kingdoms, during which, Wei, Wu and Shu were contending against one another for supremacy.
Cao Cao, the ruler of Wei, dominated the north. Wei was the most powerful of the three. As prime minister of the Han court, Cao Cao used the young emperor as a puppet, in whose name, to issue orders and attack his rivals. Wu controlled the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Shu, located in modern Sichuan, was the weakest of the three. Faced with the common threat from Wei, Wu and Shu formed an alliance.
In 208, Cao Cao’s army of 200,000 was ready to sail down the Yangtze River to invade Wu. But his troops were northerners with little experience in naval warfare. So Cao Cao ordered Zhang Yun and Cai Mao, two officers of the Wu navy who had defected, to train his men.
The training was conducted day and night. Bright torches and glowing water could be seen from the south bank. General Zhou Yu, commander of the Wu army, got on a boat to spy on the enemy. What he saw worried him, because the training was very professional.
It happened that his former fellow student, Jiang Gan, came to visit him. Jiang Gan was Cao Cao’s advisor, but denied he came as Cao Cao’s envoy.
Zhou Yu held a dinner party in his honor attended by many of his officers. The party went on till late into night. Zhou Yu seemed in high spirits. He even performed a sword dance for his friend. By the time the party was over, Zhou Yu was quite drunk.
He took Jiang Gan to his bedroom and suggested they share the room as they used to in their student days. Then he flung himself onto the bed and immediately fell asleep.
But Jiang Gan could not sleep. Looking around, he saw a pile of papers on the desk. They were letters. One bearing the signatures of Generals Cai Mao and Zhang Yun caught his eye. It said that they did not surrender to Cao Cao willingly, but were driven to do so by circumstances. That they were not really training his navy, but trapping them in the naval camps. And they promised to get in touch with Zhou Yu again.
Good gracious! Jiang Gan grabbed the letter and hid it in his clothes. In the middle of the night, he heard somebody coming to wake up Zhou Yu. He pretended to be asleep, but strained his ears trying to catch Zhou Yu’s conversation outside. He vaguely heard the names of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun being mentioned.
The next morning Jiang Gan left Wu while Zhou Yu was still sleeping. As soon as he returned, he showed the letter to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was thrown into a rage. He immediately ordered the two officers to be beheaded. But as soon as they were dead, he realized he had been tricked. When other officers asked him for the reason, Cao Cao, ever so loath to admit his own mistakes, replied, “They were executed because they lacked discipline.”
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Wise Proverbs
- To turn somebody's trick against him.
- 将计就计。
- Think thrice before you act.
- 三思而后行。
- To fight a hundred battles and win a hundred is not supreme excellence; what would be more supreme is breaking the enemy's resistance wothout fighting.
- 百战百胜，非善之善也；不战而屈人之兵，善之善者也。
Editor Says:
If Jiang Gan had asked himself why such confidential information could find its way into his hands so easily, he might not have walked into Zhou Yu’s trap.