I recently watched the movie Red Cliff II. It’s about a famous battle in the Three Kingdoms era in China. The battle was between Cao Cao who had about 800,000 soldiers and Liu Bei – Sun Quan alliance who had less than 100,000 soldiers.
Despite being greatly outnumbered, Liu Bei and Sun Quan eventually won the battle. One reason for their success was the role of an advisor named Zhuge Liang.
Again and again, Zhuge Liang devised tactics that cleverly turned the situation around. One of my favorites is when he was asked to provide 100,000 arrows for the alliance. He was given ten days to complete the task but he confidently asked for just three.
After two days, he didn’t make a single arrow. All he did was sitting beside the river, watching the weather, and waiting for some boats he asked.
When the boats arrived, he took them to attack the enemy. The river was foggy so the enemy couldn’t see clearly how many boats were attacking them. Zhuge Liang attacked first with some archers, but the enemy - being far stronger - fought back fiercely. They overwhelmed Zhuge Liang’s boats with arrows.
Guess what? All Zhuge Liang’s boats were covered with straw so he got all the arrows shot to him. When he eventually went home after “losing” the fight, he brought with him 100,000 arrows as requested - and he didn’t make even one of them.
Watching this movie makes me understand what a difference being smart can make. Those who are smart can achieve much more - with much less effort - than those just work hard.
Photo by Esparta
译文:
聪明行事的重要性
最近我看了电影《赤壁 II》， 影片拍的是中国三国 时期的一场有名的战役。 交战双方分别是曹操和刘备，曹操当时有80万士兵，而与孙权结盟的刘备只有不到10万兵力。
尽管兵力悬殊，刘备和孙权最后还是打赢了这场战役。他们获胜的原因之一是军师诸葛亮在这场战役中起了很大作用。
一次又一次，诸葛亮都出谋划策巧妙地扭转局势。我认为最精彩的一次是他要为盟国提供10万支箭，刘备给了他10天来完成这个任务，可他自信地说他只要3天就足够了。
两天过去了，诸葛亮一支箭也没造。他所做的不过是坐在河边，一边看天气，一边等待他要用的船只。
当那些船只都到了时，诸葛亮带着船队去攻打曹操。河面上雾气朦胧，曹操的将士们无法看清到底有多少敌人来犯。诸葛亮先进攻，让一些弓箭手放箭，但比他们强得多的对手马上激烈地还击，铺天盖地的箭完全包围了诸葛亮的船队。
你猜怎么着？原来诸葛亮所有的船上都盖满了稻草，所以他得到了全部射向他船队的箭。在“吃了败仗”回家后，他带给刘备10万支箭，而他自己一支箭也不用造。
这部电影让我懂得了聪明行事的重要性。相对于只会苦干的人，聪明的人总能用较少的精力来得到较多。