14. The Chinese General Who Tricked an Enemy Into Supplying Him With Arrows
Zhuge Liang (181-234) was a wily chancellor and military strategist during China’s Three Kingdoms Period, whose greatest exploit occurred in 208, during the buildup to a climactic battle between armies separated by the Yangtze River. Zhuge Liang was maneuvered by opponents to commit himself to furnishing 100,000 arrows within a few days – a seemingly impossible task. After mulling it over, he gathered a flotilla of river boats, lined them up with bales of wet straw, and instructed their crews what he expected from them.
He waited for a foggy night, quietly rowed them across the river, and positioned them in a line close to the enemy camp. At a signal, his crews shattered the night’s silence by shouting, beating drums, clanging gongs, and creating an unholy din. Startled, the enemy camp awoke in a panic, and convinced they were facing a surprise night attack, unleashed a storm of arrows at the boat silhouettes flitting in the murk – arrows that were embedded in the bales of straw. Then, his pincushioned boats groaning with the weight of more than 100,000 captured arrows, Zhuge departed.
