The state of Qin attacked Wei, and the situation became critical. Someone said to the King of Wei: "To abandon resistance is not as easy as to make use of it; to fight to the death is not as easy as to abandon it. To be able to abandon yet not use it, to be able to fight to the death yet not abandon—this is a mistaken plan. Formerly, when Qin and Zhao fought at the River Zhang, Zhao defeated Qin twice; when they fought below Fanwu, Zhao again defeated Qin twice. Now Qin attacks Wei, and Wei is in peril, yet Your Majesty does not come to its rescue. I privately believe that Qin's scheme is to ally with Zhao and attack Wei. Your Majesty had best cede territory to sue for peace with Qin, thereby sowing suspicion in Zhao and provoking Qin's anger. When Zhao, enraged at Qin, is certain to unite with Wei; when Wei and Zhao unite, Qin will surely not dare to attack Wei. This is what is called 'making use of Zhao.'" The King of Wei said, "Excellent." Thereupon he ceded territory to sue for peace with Qin, and took the opportunity to send an envoy to Zhao. The King of Zhao, seized with fear, united with Wei. Qin indeed did not dare to attack Wei thereafter.
💡 商战启示录
The essence of this strategy lies in "leveraging momentum to break the deadlock"—retreating in order to advance. When Wei found itself besieged by formidable foes, it refrained from head-on confrontation. Instead, by ceding territory and suing for peace, it sowed discord between Qin and Zhao, prompting Zhao to forge an alliance with Wei, thereby dissolving the crisis. In modern commerce, when enterprises face suppression by industry giants, blind frontal competition often exacts a grievous toll. A wiser course is to proactively adjust strategy, exploiting the relationships between rivals and third parties to construct a community of shared interests. For instance, in the ride-hailing wars, Didi—caught between Kuaidi and Uber—did not recklessly burn through capital. Through deft capital maneuvering and strategic partnerships, it ultimately merged with Kuaidi and acquired Uber China, transmuting competition into alliance and securing market dominance. Likewise, when Huawei encountered the chip supply cutoff, it did not endure in isolation. Instead, it united the domestic industrial chain and partners, accelerated independent R&D, and championed the HarmonyOS ecosystem, forging a "countermeasure coalition." Wei's "cession of territory" appeared as submission, yet it was in truth a means to shatter the enemy's united front, buying time and allies for itself. In the arena of commerce, sometimes voluntarily yielding a portion of gains to earn the trust of pivotal allies can turn the tide far more effectively than clinging to entrenched positions. The crux lies in perceiving, as the King of Wei did, the delicate interplay of contending forces—exploiting latent frictions among adversaries to transform crisis into an opportunity for reshaping the competitive landscape.