The State of Qin attacked the State of Zhao, and the King of Zhao appointed Zhao Kuo as general. Zhao Kuo's mother submitted a memorial, saying, "Zhao Kuo cannot serve as general." The King of Zhao asked, "Why?" She replied, "In the past, I served his father. When his father was general, he personally offered food to dozens of guests and befriended hundreds of companions. Whatever the King and the royal clan bestowed upon him, he distributed entirely among his officers and men. From the day he received his commission, he never concerned himself with household affairs. Now, once Zhao Kuo becomes general, he sits facing east to receive his subordinates, and no officer dares to look up at him. The gold and silk bestowed by the King, he brings home and stores away, and daily he seeks out cheap lands and houses to purchase. Does Your Majesty think he resembles his father? Father and son are of different minds—I beg that Your Majesty not send him." The King of Zhao said, "Do not interfere; my decision is made." Zhao Kuo's mother then said, "Since Your Majesty insists on sending him, if he proves unworthy, may I be spared from punishment?" The King agreed. After Zhao Kuo replaced Lian Po, he altered all the military regulations and dismissed many officers. When the Qin general Bai Qi heard of this, he dispatched elite troops, feigning retreat, yet cut off the Zhao army's supply routes, splitting the Zhao forces in two, and the soldiers' morale crumbled. After more than forty days, the Zhao army starved, and Zhao Kuo personally led his crack troops into battle, where Qin arrows struck him dead. The Zhao army suffered a great defeat, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers surrendered to Qin, who buried them all alive. In total, Zhao lost four hundred and fifty thousand men.
💡 商战启示录
Zhao Kuo's failure of "fighting battles only on paper" is equally common in modern business. Many corporate leaders possess only theoretical knowledge without practical experience. Upon taking office, they rush to implement reforms while ignoring grassroots realities, ultimately leading to organizational collapse. For instance, a startup founder with an MBA from a prestigious university, lacking market understanding, blindly copied textbook models, refused to listen to frontline employees and customers, expanded recklessly, and eventually broke the capital chain. Zhao Kuo's mother's admonition parallels the risk-review duty of a board of directors—when appointing key executives, one must assess their actual capabilities and values, not merely their academic credentials or eloquence. Zhao Kuo's selfishness in "hoarding rewards and daily coveting land and estates" also warns that leaders who prioritize personal gain will inevitably lose team trust. Meanwhile, Bai Qi's strategy—feigning defeat to lure the enemy and cutting off their supply routes—can be analogized to competitive intelligence and supply chain management in business: rather than engaging head-on, one dismantles the opponent's internal stability by severing their resources or capital chains. In modern enterprises like Huawei, Ren Zhengfei's emphasis on "letting those who hear the cannon fire call for artillery" is precisely the remedy for preventing top management from becoming detached from reality. This case reveals that success requires integrating theory with practice, and leaders must possess humility and a spirit of sharing; otherwise, even with thousands of troops at their command, they cannot escape the fate of being "buried alive."