Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting
without delay, is desperate ground.
The situation, as pictured by Ts‘ao Kung, is very similar to the
圍地, except that here escape is no longer possible: 前有高山後有大水
進則不得退則有礙 “A lofty mountain in front, a large river behind,
advance impossible, retreat blocked.” Ch‘ên Hao says: 人在死地如
坐漏船伏燒屋 “to be on ‘desperate ground’ is like sitting in a
leaking boat or crouching in a burning house.” Tu Mu quotes
from Li Ching a vivid description of the plight of an army thus
entrapped: “Suppose an army invading hostile territory without the
aid of local guides:—it falls into a fatal snare and is at the
enemy’s mercy. A ravine on the left, a mountain on the right, a
pathway so perilous that the horses have to be roped together
and the chariots carried in slings, no passage open in front,
retreat cut off behind, no choice but to proceed in single
file (鴈行魚貫之嚴). Then, before there is time to range our
soldiers in order of battle, the enemy in overwhelming strength
suddenly appears on the scene. Advancing, we can nowhere take a
breathing-space; retreating, we have no haven of refuge. We seek a
pitched battle, but in vain; yet standing on the defensive, none
of us has a moment’s respite. If we simply maintain our ground,
whole days and months will crawl by; the moment we make a move, we
have to sustain the enemy’s attacks on front and rear. The country
is wild, destitute of water and plants; the army is lacking in the
necessaries of life, the horses are jaded and the men worn-out,
all the resources of strength and skill unavailing, the pass so
narrow that a single man defending it can check the onset of ten
thousand; all means of offence in the hands of the enemy, all
points of vantage already forfeited by ourselves:—in this terrible
plight, even though we had the most valiant soldiers and the
keenest of weapons, how could they be employed with the slightest
effect?” Students of Greek history may be reminded of the awful
close to the Sicilian expedition, and the agony of the Athenians
under Nicias and Demosthenes. [_See_ Thucydides, VII. 78 sqq.].