[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. The
strange spectacle of these rapidly moving lights so alarmed and
discomfited the Romans that they withdrew from their position, and
Hannibal’s army passed safely through the defile. [See Polybius, III.
93, 94; Livy, XXII. 16 17.]
On desperate ground, fight.
[For, as Chia Lin remarks: "if you fight with all your might, there is
a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your
corner."]