Military art and science -- Early works to 1800; War -- Early works to 1800
[Tu Yu gives the best exposition of the meaning: "We ostentatiously do
things calculated to deceive our own spies, who must be led to believe
that they have been unwittingly disclosed. Then, when these spies are
captured in the enemy’s lines, they will make an entirely false report,
and the enemy will take measures accordingly, only to find that we do
something quite different. The spies will thereupon be put to death."
As an example of doomed spies, Ho Shih mentions the prisoners released
by Pan Ch’ao in his campaign against Yarkand. (See p. 132.) He also
refers to T’ang Chien, who in 630 A.D. was sent by T’ai Tsung to lull
the Turkish Kahn Chieh-li into fancied security, until Li Ching was
able to deliver a crushing blow against him. Chang Yu says that the
Turks revenged themselves by killing T’ang Chien, but this is a
mistake, for we read in both the old and the New T’ang History (ch. 58,
fol. 2 and ch. 89, fol. 8 respectively) that he escaped and lived on
until 656. Li I-chi played a somewhat similar part in 203 B.C., when
sent by the King of Han to open peaceful negotiations with Ch’i. He has
certainly more claim to be described a "doomed spy", for the king of
Ch’i, being subsequently attacked without warning by Han Hsin, and
infuriated by what he considered the treachery of Li I-chi, ordered the
unfortunate envoy to be boiled alive.]
13. _Surviving spies_, finally, are those who bring back news from the
enemy’s camp.
[This is the ordinary class of spies, properly so called, forming a
regular part of the army. Tu Mu says: "Your surviving spy must be a man
of keen intellect, though in outward appearance a fool; of shabby
exterior, but with a will of iron. He must be active, robust, endowed
with physical strength and courage; thoroughly accustomed to all sorts
of dirty work, able to endure hunger and cold, and to put up with shame
and ignominy." Ho Shih tells the following story of Ta’hsi Wu of the
Sui dynasty: "When he was governor of Eastern Ch’in, Shen-wu of Ch’i
made a hostile movement upon Sha-yuan. The Emperor T’ai Tsu [? Kao Tsu]
sent Ta-hsi Wu to spy upon the enemy. He was accompanied by two other
men. All three were on horseback and wore the enemy’s uniform. When it
was dark, they dismounted a few hundred feet away from the enemy’s camp
and stealthily crept up to listen, until they succeeded in catching the
passwords used in the army. Then they got on their horses again and
boldly passed through the camp under the guise of night-watchmen; and
more than once, happening to come across a soldier who was committing
some breach of discipline, they actually stopped to give the culprit a
sound cudgeling! Thus they managed to return with the fullest possible
information about the enemy’s dispositions, and received warm
commendation from the Emperor, who in consequence of their report was
able to inflict a severe defeat on his adversary."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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