The state of Qin attacked Zhao, and the King of Zhao appointed Zhao Kuo as the supreme commander. Zhao Kuo's mother came forward to remonstrate, saying, "If Your Majesty makes Zhao Kuo the general, it will surely end in defeat." The King of Zhao paid no heed. Upon assuming command, Zhao Kuo replaced Lian Po, completely overturned the established military regulations, and dismissed many of the officers. When the Qin general Bai Qi learned of this, he dispatched elite troops in a feigned retreat, while secretly cutting off the Zhao army's supply routes, splitting the Zhao forces into two isolated segments and sowing discord among the soldiers. After more than forty days, the Zhao army was ravaged by hunger. Zhao Kuo personally led his finest warriors into battle, only to be struck down by a hail of arrows from the Qin forces. His army suffered a catastrophic defeat, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers surrendered to Qin, who buried them all alive.
💡 商战启示录
Zhao Kuo's defeat lay in "fighting wars on paper"—though well-versed in theory, he lacked practical experience. Self-opinionated and reckless, he abruptly overturned the prudent strategies of his predecessor, General Lian Po, while neglecting the protection of his supply lines, the lifeline of grain transport. In modern business warfare, similar cases abound. Consider a certain bike-sharing company: its founder, a prestigious graduate rich in theory, pursued blind expansion and frequently replaced senior executives, disregarding meticulous operations and cash-flow management. The result was a broken capital chain and eventual elimination from the market. In contrast, Huawei's Ren Zhengfei champions the principle of "letting those who hear the cannons make the decisions," emphasizing the fusion of practice and theory, while steadfastly safeguarding the "grain route"—namely, core technology R&D and supply-chain security—enabling the company to survive and thrive amid sanctions. The lesson of Zhao Kuo reminds entrepreneurs: strategy must be grounded in frontline realities, not copied from textbooks; change should be gradual, never wholesale rejection of proven models; and the security of the "grain route"—capital chains and core resources—must be guaranteed. Otherwise, however grand the strategic blueprint, one may suffer a crushing defeat on the market's "Battle of Changping."