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Author: Green5

Jan 30th 2014 at 4:33:31 PM

Actually the description of this trope is wrong. The idea of trapping the army in the fort was something that was quite obvious to experienced generals, and (according to Ramance of Three Kingdoms, which is fictional) Zhuge Liang used this as reverse psychology for the enemy to retreat. This was because the city the enemy was going to invade did not have enough army personnel, and would be easily crushed. Zhuge Liang ordered for the citizens to flee while the soldiers dress up as old folks and do things like sweep roads or just sit around. Then he took a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqin Gu Qin]] and sat on top of the battlements, playing soothing music like nothing was wrong at all. When the enemy general saw this, he (falsely) thought that there was going to be an ambush in the city, and also taking into account Zhuge Liang's past record of strategic success, ordered a retreat. This reverse psychology is known as the Empty Fort Stratagem.

OlderThanFeudalism: One of TheThirtySixStratagems, which involves the enemy to think that a city is highly defended when it is actually weak, and overestimate the opponent.

Edit: Is anyone even listening to me?