Idiom Explanation:
From the famous Chinese book “The Art of War”，to defeat an opponent with a strange and clever strategy. The metaphor is to use a wonderful and unexpected method or strategy to win.
Pronunciation:
出奇制胜
chū qízhì shèng
Origin:
春秋·孙武《孙子兵法·兵势篇》：“凡战者，以正合，以奇胜。故善出奇者，无穷如天地，不竭如江河。”
Story:
During the Warring States period, there were two famous generals named Le Yi and Tian Dan. Each served his master, and both were very good at setting up battles.
Once, the two men happened to fight at the place of Jimo (southeast of Pingdu, Shandong Province today). Tian Dan was leading the army of Qi and Le Yi was leading the army of Yan. Yue Yi trapped Tian Dan firmly in the city and did not attack in order to reduce casualties. Tian Dan also did not relax half-heartedly, and he ate and slept with his soldiers in order to boost their morale.
Three years had passed and Tian Dan was about to lose his strength. At that time, the king of Yan died and a new king took the throne. So Tian Dan had a bright idea and thought of a good way to turn defeat into victory.
When the new king heard the rumors, he quickly removed Le Yi from his position as a general without asking any questions. Knowing that he would be in danger after the dismissal, Yue Yi fled to Zhao.
When Tian Dan saw that his first goal had been achieved, he sent his men to Yan’s army again to spread rumors, saying, “The people of Jimo are most afraid of having their ancestral graves dug up by others. Once their ancestral graves are dug up, they will be in great disorder.” Tian Dan said this because he could see that the current general of the Yan army was an incompetent villain. As expected, hearing this, the new general of the Yan army really sent people to dig the ancestral graves of the people of Jimo. As a result, the people of Jimo were so angry that they had to fight with the Yan army. In this way, the morale of the Yan army to fight the war, at once improved a lot.
When Tian Dan saw that the time was ripe for fighting, he pretended to surrender to the Yan army. The new general of the Yan army actually really thought it was effective to dig the ancestral graves and happily neglected to take precautions. When accepting the surrender, Tian Dan ordered his soldiers to tie knives to the horns of the cattle, firecrackers to their tails, and to wrap the cattle all over with colorful silk. When the Qi army came near the Yan army, Tian Dan ordered the firecrackers to be lit. When the ox heard the sound of firecrackers, it was so frightened that it rushed towards the Yan army like crazy. Seeing this situation, the Yan army fled everywhere.
In this way, the Yan army was quickly defeated.
