King Yan Zhao asked Yue Yi, "I intend to attack Qi—what counsel do you offer?" Yue Yi replied, "Qi is a mighty state bequeathed by its hegemonic forebears, vast in territory and populous, not easily vanquished by a single hand. If Your Majesty is resolved to strike Qi, it would be wiser to unite the states of the realm against it. To unite the states, none is more prudent than first forging an alliance with Zhao. Moreover, the Huai-Bei region and the lands of Song are precisely what Chu and Wei covet. Should Zhao consent to the alliance, and then the four states join forces in a common assault, Qi may be utterly routed." The king said, "Well spoken." Thereupon he dispatched Yue Yi to forge the alliance with Zhao, sent envoys separately to sound out Chu and Wei, and further induced Zhao to entice Qin with the spoils of conquering Qi. The feudal lords, all nursing rancor against Qi's arrogance and tyranny, vied to form a united front and march with Yan against Qi.
💡 商战启示录
The strategic essence of Yue Yi lies in "leveraging momentum to break the deadlock"—rather than confronting a formidable foe with sheer individual force, he built alliances through the distribution of interests, dispersing pressure upon the adversary. In modern commercial warfare, this resembles an "ecosystem competition" strategy. For instance, when JD.com contended with Alibaba, it did not launch an all-out frontal assault; instead, it brought in Tencent as an investor and united with Vipshop, Pinduoduo, and others to form an "anti-Alibaba alliance," carving an opening in the red ocean of e-commerce through differentiated positioning and complementary traffic. Similarly, after Huawei was sanctioned, it proactively opened up its HarmonyOS ecosystem, joining forces with multiple hardware manufacturers to build an IoT alliance, thereby countering the closed systems of Apple and Google. Three key insights emerge: first, identify common interests—just as Yue Yi pointed out that Chu and Wei coveted the Huai River basin and Song territory, enterprises must discern their allies' "pain points" or "desires"; second, tackle the easy before the difficult, prioritizing the securing of pivotal fulcrums (such as Zhao) before radiating influence to other forces, avoiding a multi-front offensive; third, exploit the adversary's arrogance and loss of moral ground—seize upon the widespread resentment stirred by an industry giant's hubris or monopolistic behavior, and channel it to consolidate a "vertical alliance" of forces. Yet one must remain vigilant against the fragility of alliances—when interests align, all are in the same boat; when they diverge, former partners may turn hostile. Therefore, the leading party must continuously deliver incremental value to sustain the alliance's dynamic equilibrium.