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Crow and Cloud Formation in the Mountains

Disciplines > Warfare > The Six Secret Teachings > 5.5 Crow and Cloud Formation in the Mountains

Teaching set  | Observed lessons | Discussion | See also

Teaching set

Leopard Secret Teachings 5.5 (47)

Observed lessons

• In mountains, you can be besieged if you go high or imprisoned if you go low.
• When on top of a mountain, spread your troops around it and prepare for attacks on any side.
• Guard routes up the mountain.
• Sever routes through valleys below.

Discussion

Mountains can provide benefit and hazard. You can hide in them, but so can the enemy. It is easy to trap others or be trapped there. High up, the weather may be bad, which can again be helpful or harmful.

While being high can give advantage, defending a mountain is not like defending a castle as there are no fortifications or walls, other than natural barriers such as sheer cliffs. Some mountains are easier to defend than others, particularly where there are only a few ways up.

Crow and Cloud formation uses chariots and cavalry and is described as 'like the crows dispersing and the clouds forming together. Their changes and transformations are endless.' In other words, fight with constantly changing formations, flowing with the changing tides of battle.

See also

Lure the Tiger Out of the Mountains, High places

Sawyer, R.D. (1993). The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Basic Books