The Empty Fort Strategy 空城计
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The story
One hundred fifty thousand soldiers were marching on a tiny city. Inside? Almost no army at all. The strategist Zhuge Liang had nowhere to run.
So he did the craziest thing possible. He opened all the city gates, climbed the wall, and calmly played music.
Below him, a few old men swept the empty streets, as if nothing was happening.
The enemy general, Sima Yi, knew Zhuge Liang never took risks. An open gate had to be a trap. So he turned his whole army around and retreated. The bluff worked. This legend comes from the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Would you have attacked?
A modern reading (ours)
A bluff works when your reputation makes it believable. Note: this famous scene is a literary invention of the novel, not recorded history.
Source
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 95, Luo Guanzhong, 14th c. (public domain); fictional episode. Retold in English; illustrations are AI-generated.