Is there any concrete example of the Empty Fort Strategy being succesfully used?

by ThePerson_There

The Empty Fort Strategy is a chinese strategy that requires to open the gates and let the enemy in with no oposition in order to make them think they walk in an ambush. Should it work, the enemy leaves.

Are there any examples of this strategy (or a variation of it) working? There are examples of it being used during the warlods era, but the problem is they either come from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or other unreliable sources.

Dongzhou3kingdoms

I'm unaware of any in the Latter Han, others can come in for earlier (though my understanding is the three kingdom ones are some of the earliest) or later ones that might be more clear cut. While the work of Chen Shou doesn't mention the empty fort strategy in the three kingdoms, there are some in the annotations collected by Pei Songzhi that do and where the description of unreliable seems harsh.

Wen Ping: Former officer of Liu Biao then Cao families long-serving governor of his home region in Jiangxia. In 226 Emperor Cao Pi had died leaving a young and at the time little known Cao Rui on the throne so Sun Quan launched an attack with 50,000 men on Wen Ping's local capital of Shiyang. In the main SGZ in Wen Ping's biography (supplementing here with Cao Rui's), Wen Pin held firm for over twenty days with Cao Rui confident in him to hold, sending Xun Yu (not the famed dead one) to gather up local forces and make a show of strength. On seeing this, Sun Quan retreated as Wei reinforcements were coming, at which point Pin pursued and gained some success, the size of Marquis was added to. The Weilue adds the empty city detail (translation by Yang Zhengyuan)

Sūn Quán once personally led an army of several tens of thousands troops there. At the time there was heavy rain, so the city walls were falling apart, and the people were scattered in the fields, and there was no way to make repairs. Pìn heard that Quán had arrived and did not know what to do, but then thought that if it appeared no one was there it could make them suspicious. Therefore he ordered the people in the hide to stay out of sight, and hid in his residence and would not come out. Quán was indeed suspicious, and said to his followers: “The north considered this man a loyal servant and therefore entrusted him with this commandery. Now I have come yet he does not move. If he does not have some secret plan, then he certainly has rescue outside.” Therefore he did not dare attack and left

Fang's ending translation has "In the end, he did not dare to attack and went off"

How true is this? The Weilue by Wei scholar Yu Huan is well regarded as a source, it is often used to supplement the main text. Pei Songzhi notes the text contradicts the main biography and Sima Guang doesn't include the Empty City version in the ZZTJ but modern historians don't see it as an either-or situation. Achilles Fang's ZZTJ commentary notes "Pei Songzhi, who quotes this account, thinks it disagrees with that in the SGZ biography, but there does not seem to be any palpable discrepency. " while Rafe De Crespigny in Generals of the South puts the empty city ploy at the start of the campaign rather than as a contradiction. Pei Songzhi sees it as a full retreat so contradicts, modern historians more that he didn't immediately press an attack

Zhao Yun: Zhao Yun, a long-serving cavalry officer of Liu Bei famed for his bravery in battle. In 219, Liu Bei the future Emperor of Shu-Han attacked Wei's position at Hanzhong under Xiahou Yuan, taking the mountainous region would be key for Liu Bei's security and give a chance to emulate Liu Bang, becoming King. After a long stalemate, Xiahou Yuan had been killed and Cao Cao's long-delayed reinforcements had arrived though would soon retreat.

The main SGZ doesn't mention Zhao Yun at Hanzhong or at all between the conquest of Yi in 215 when Zhao Yun was made a General, and after Liu Bei's death when new Emperor Liu Shan and his regents promoted Zhao Yun and given a fief in 223. However, Shu's records were notoriously poor and they had no history project, let alone to match the quality of Wei and Wu, there are a lot of gaps. The Zhao Yun biezhuan however tries to fill in the gaps, translation by Yang Zhengyuan

After Xiàhóu Yuān was defeated [219], Excellency Cáo fought for the territory of Hànzhōng, and transported grain through the northern mountains amounting to millions of sacks. Huáng Zhōng believed these could be captured. Yún’s troops followed Zhōng to capture the grain. Zhōng was gone for very long and did not return, so Yún led several tens of light riders past the camp fortification lines to search for Zhōng and the others. It happened that Excellency Cáo mobilized troops and greatly set out. Yún was by the Excellency’s vanguard struck, was about to battle, their main force arrived and pressed hard, and therefore he ahead charged their lines, both fighting and retreating. The Excellency’s army was defeated, but already reformed, Yún broke through and returned to his barricades. The officer Zhāng Zhù was wounded, Yún again galloped hard back to camp and rescued Zhù. The Excellency’s army pursued reaching the barricades. At the time Miǎnyáng Chief Zhāng Yì was inside Yún’s camp. [Zhāng] Yì wanted to close the gates to resist and defend, but Yún entered the camp and instead opened wide the gates, lowered the flags and quieted the drums. The Excellency’s army suspected Yún had hidden troops, so they withdrew. Yún then thundered the drums shaking the heavens, and with crossbows fire into the rear of the Excellency’s army. The Excellency’s army panicked, and trampled over each other, and those that fell into the Hàn river and died were very many. The next morning Xiān-zhǔ arrived at Yún’s camp to inspect the battlefield, and said: “Zǐlóng is all guts!” They feasted and made merry until dusk. In the army they called Yún the General with Tiger Might.

The Zhao Yun biezhuan is by an unknown author and bar written sometime after Zhao Yun died till Pei Songzhi compiled annotations, we don't know when. It doesn't contradict other texts but then, other sources don't tend to focus on Zhao Yun. Sima Guang used it as part of his ZZTJ including this particular tale, Professor Rafe De Crespigny uses the text in his works including A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms 23–220 AD.

Zhuge Liang: The romance (probably) borrowed it from an essay of criticism by Jin scholar Guo Chong. I don't have an easy quotable version but the gist of the tale is: during Zhuge Liang's retreat after the disastrous first Northern Campaign where Sima Yi arrives from Wan with a large army (somehow during the time where he was dealing with Meng Da's revolt and going to court where he recommended an attack on Wu). Cao Zhen and Zhang He the commanders on the ground take no part in this, just the head of Jing province. Zhuge Liang, for some bizarre reason, decides to separate from the main army, leaving it with Wei Yan (whom he refused to give 10,000 men to for a separate army at any other time) and is caught out so does empty city ploy. Huzzah, the day is saved.

Pei Songzhi was not a fan of Guo Chong's work and the tale isn't used in the ZZTJ or modern works like De Crespigny, who dismisses Zhuge Liang doing it as without authority, Jonathan Killigrew in his writings on Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns or in Achilles Fang's annotations to the ZZTJ.

So can we be conclusive that at least one empty city ploy happened? We can rule out Zhuge Liang's. De Crespigny's ZZTJ commentary notes after Zhao Yun's story "It was either a common device, or too good a story to be told only once."

The other two tales however are from sources regularly used by old and modern historians and while it is possible that both are wrong, somewhere by the time of Yu Huan the idea of an Empty City ploy being something that was around and used by at least one credible (and one not so credible) writer which suggests at least something had made the idea seem credible to such people. Quite possibly that someone, say Zhao Yun or Wei Ping, had pulled off an Empty City ploy.