The states of Qin and Han were locked in battle at Zhuoze, and Han found itself in dire straits. Gongzhong Peng said to the King of Han: "Allies cannot be relied upon. At present, Qin's ambition is to attack Chu. It would be better for Your Majesty to seek peace with Qin through Zhang Yi, offering a great and renowned city, and joining forces with Qin to attack Chu. This is a plan whereby one city buys Qin's abstention from attacking Han and turns its forces against Chu instead—a scheme of losing one thing to gain two." The King of Han replied, "Well said." He then prepared to dispatch Gongzhong Peng on a westward mission to negotiate peace with Qin.
When the King of Chu learned of this, he was greatly alarmed and summoned Chen Zhen to inform him of the matter. Chen Zhen said: "Qin has long desired to attack our state of Chu. Now that it has gained a famed city and an army from Han, with Qin and Han united against Chu, this is precisely what Qin has prayed for day and night. Now that it has come to pass, Chu is certain to be invaded. Let Your Majesty heed my counsel: place the realm on alert, muster troops and proclaim that we are going to rescue Han, fill the roads with war chariots, and dispatch trusted envoys with numerous carriages bearing lavish gifts, so that the King of Han believes we will surely come to his aid. Even if Han does not follow our lead, it will certainly feel gratitude toward Your Majesty and will not serve as the vanguard of Qin against us. Thus Qin and Han will fall into discord, and even if Qin's armies do come, Chu will not suffer greatly. If Han does heed us and breaks with Qin, Qin will surely rage and harbor deep resentment against Han. Han, having obtained Chu's promised rescue, will look down upon Qin. Despising Qin, it will treat Qin with scant reverence. In this way, we hold back the armies of both Qin and Han while averting calamity from Chu."
The King of Chu was exceedingly pleased. He accordingly placed the realm on alert, mustered troops and proclaimed that he would rescue Han, and dispatched trusted envoys with numerous carriages and generous gifts. They said to the King of Han: "Though my state is small, all its forces have now been mobilized. May your state rest assured in confronting Qin, for I shall devote all of Chu to stand with Han unto the end." The King of Han was overjoyed and halted Gongzhong Peng's journey to Qin.
Gongzhong Peng protested: "This cannot be done. The one who truly aids us with strength is Qin; the one who rescues us in name only is Chu. To rely on Chu's empty reputation and lightly sever our bond with mighty Qin would surely invite the ridicule of all under heaven. Moreover, Chu and Han are not brother states, nor have they made any prior pact to attack Qin together. Having already shown signs of attacking Qin, Chu now sends troops and proclaims it will rescue Han—this must surely be Chen Zhen's scheme. To lightly break with powerful Qin and trust the counsels of Chu's ministers will, I fear, end in certain failure." The King of Han would not listen, and so broke off the peace negotiations with Qin.
Qin indeed flew into a rage, raised its armies, and gave battle with Han at Anmen. Chu's promised relief never arrived, and Han suffered a crushing defeat. Han's armies were not weakened, nor were its people foolish—yet its forces were captured by Qin, and its wisdom was mocked by Chu, all because it heedlessly trusted Chen Zhen and lost faith in Gongzhong Peng.
💡 商战启示录
This strategy illuminates the game of "information and illusion" in commercial warfare. King Han, deceived by Chu's "empty prestige," abandoned Qin's "substantive benefit," and ultimately met with crushing defeat. In modern business, enterprises frequently face similar choices: are a partner's promises "real" or "illusory"? One must penetrate the surface to discern the counterpart's true intent. For instance, a startup, eager for investment, naively trusted a rival's hollow rhetoric of "strategic cooperation," spurning a major client's long-term order. The rival merely sought to extract technology, and in the end, the order was lost, leaving the company in dire straits. Conversely, Huawei, in its early years, faced overtures of "collaboration" from international giants; coldly analyzing that their true aim was to stifle its own technology, it insisted on independent R&D and ultimately rose to become an industry titan. The lessons for commercial warfare: 1. Do not waver from established strategy due to an opponent's honeyed words (such as "empty prestige"); assess whether the counterpart's resources and actions match their rhetoric. 2. Beware of alliances that are "killing with a borrowed knife"—as Chen Zhen, under the guise of "rescuing Han," actually sought to drive a wedge between Qin and Han—enterprises should discern whether joint proposals harbor ulterior motives. 3. Heed "sunk costs" and "opportunity costs": King Han lost Gong Zhong's sound counsel, just as enterprises often abandon the optimal long-term path for short-term temptations. In decision-making, one should reason as rationally as Gong Zhong: who offers substantive resources, and who merely paints pies? Only by grounding choices in facts and logic—not emotion or empty prestige—can one avoid the ignominy of being "laughed at by the world."