Pagina 172 de 266

In difficult ground, keep steadily on the march.

[Or, in the words of VIII. § 2, "do not encamp.]

14. On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem.

[Ts'au Kung says: "Try the effect of some unusual artifice;" and

Tu Yu amplifies this by saying: "In such a position, some scheme

must be devised which will suit the circumstances, and if we can

succeed in deluding the enemy, the peril may be escaped." This is

exactly what happened on the famous occasion when Hannibal was

hemmed in among the mountains on the road to Casilinum, and to

all appearances entrapped by the dictator Fabius. The stratagem

which Hannibal devised to baffle his foes was remarkably like

that which T'ien Tan had also employed with success exactly 62

years before. [See IX. § 24, note.] When night came on, bundles

of twigs were fastened to the horns of some 2000 oxen and set on

fire, the terrified animals being then quickly driven along the

mountain side towards the passes which were beset by the enemy.