The ravages of time

Few years back I tried to read Sun Tzu's 'Art of war'. I lost interest soon after few pages then and didn't bother to finish it. The book was dry then. It was as if I was running through an
instruction manual for a person who has bought a large army on Sunday evening sale and is planning to go at war next morning. I suppose when translated to English all the idioms and one liners (which may sound like a good composition in Chinese) lose their substance. I found the book quite hopeless. Since two years, my opinion remained unscathed and unaltered... until last weekend.

After looking for some new novel to read I was browsing the blogging community for satisfactory recommendations on which book to read. As ever, my favorite genre has been history. I was searching for history and literature when accidentally I stumbled across a blog owned by some American Manga enthusiast. He was encouraging Chinese history aficionados to read a certain Manga(comics) online. I decided to take a peek at the particular Manga. Although Naruto is my favorite, I wasn't exactly in a mood to pick a Manga for reading as a substitute for a history novel.

But nevertheless I went to the link out of curiosity. After reading the first chapter, I went one to read all the volumes in one week. It wasn't just some stupid manga, but rather a historical epic based on chinese history, and most importantly Sun Tzu's Art of War and its practical approach utilized by ancient chinese warlords in crafting havoc. I know all about people's perspective about Mangas. Most of them are based on fantasies and science fiction. However, unlike the traditional Manga this particular one was worth an year of history lessons in school.

The Ravages of time

The story is a spin off based on the events during the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China, when the Han dynasty was at the stage of culmination, narrowly clinging on to power. Three
kingdoms(Wei, Shu and Wu) distinctly surfaced to dominion out of the chaos of civil war which batterd the land. The story describes all the major battles during the times. Battles fought with
unparalleled deception and trickery rather than sheer strength, enriched with stratagem of superhuman subtlety. In those times, most of the successful generals followed Sun Tzu teachings on war tactics, which could all be summed up into a one liner... 'Let your enemies know your next move'.



The manga depicts all the prominent characters in history, like Dong Zhao, who appears in the story as a power hungry tyrant at the helm of the declining Han Dynasty; Lu Bu, the bloodthirsty warrior whose fame is analogous to the Greek Achilles; Lui Bei, a common thief who becomes a governor, and of course, Cao Cao who ultimately puts a full stop to Han Dynasty. The yellow scarf rebellion and Gaundong army's advance are wonderfully depicted in pictures. Even the burning of Luoyang (the Chinese capital) is employed by the author to shape the events in style.

However, rather than a straightforward storyline, the tale describes the events from the perspective of the primary protagonist, Sima Li, the head of the Sima clan and one of the key
players in the three kingdoms period (who eventually established his rule over the kingdom of Wei), and Liaoyuan Hou (a military general) who is portrayed in the Manga as a leader of an
assassination team working for the Sima clan.

Sima Li is an ultimate tactician and businessman who, through the means of Hou and his team of assassins, deliberately interferes in the plans of both Han dynasty and Guandong army by masterminding assassinations, setting up prisoner escapes, and surprise attacks to bring about a deus ex machina in major battles which ultimately serves the purpose of the Sima family's business in trading commodities across the country. By his machinations, Sima clan accrues vast fortunes.



Sima Li and Liaoyuan Hou



The story begins with an artistic scheme for the assassination of Xu Lin (Han dynasty's chief military adviser) to cut the advances of Dong Zhao's expansionist policy. The assassination itself is accomplished at the hands of Huo and his assassins. It sets the entire story in motion and war follows. Throughout the series, Sima Yi and Liaoyuan Huo along with his assassins are frequently the catalyst of the historical events presented in the story. They are involved in the downfall of Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao's rise to power, Battle of Xu Zhou, Battle of Puyang, etc. Their involvement it a common thread which runs through the narrative.

Liaoyuan Huo and his party of assassins


Although the primary subject is war, the story focuses on minor intelligence plots and assassination strategies. It describes all those subtle details and little events which bear a major impact on the outcome of battles. Sun Tzu's art of war is throughly applied in the manga in major battles with each verse being employed in some or the other chapter and explained accordingly. Its a must read for war history enthusiasts.


To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

Sun-Tzu

Against the odds (..Continued)

We will get back to the roman era again in the next post. But first let us take a peep into the period when the French revolution was at its peek. Yes guys, French revolution has a lot more to contribute to history than just some angry mob of psychopaths roaming around the streets and beheading every aristocratic organism they could find. The battle which I am going to tell you about now, occured in time when French revolution was at its zenith. Just like the battle of Alesia, even the battle of Tuileries is not among the most well known. Yet, to best describe it, if Battle of Alesia paved way for Caesar to become the most powerful man in the world, then Battle of Tuileries as good as placed Napolean Bonaparte at the helm of Revolutionary command. Moreover this battle is described in a completely erroneous way on Wikipedia, in just eight lines. Not only does it deserve a lot more emphasis, but also, the guys on Wikipedia have mentioned that " Bonaparte was serving in Paris and was given command of the improvised forces defending the Convention in the Tuileries Palace". This is totally bullshit. Technically, the whole sentence is correct. But they haven't written anything about the circumstances under which he was given command, nor about the importance of this battle. The person who wrote this probably forgot to include that if the Royalist would have won, the French Revolution would have ended then and there and that few hours before being given command Napolean was working near the palace as a librarian. From a librarian to a commander of 'National guards'(the term is explain later in this post), in a matter of hours, is really a feat only the greatest can perform. Which is why this battle must be given the attention it deserves(not on my blog). But yet this is for those who would like to read about such extraordinary feats.

Battle two

Battle of Tuileries : "Citizen Bonaparte knows the best"

Napolean was truly a hero made out of persistent hardwork right from youth. There was a time once when he couldn't work out a math problem in school, but reluctant to admit to anyone he can't solve it, he spent 72 hours working on it till he finally craked the nut. Imagine, three days one one problem. I can't spend more than an hour on a problem before I call up my pals for the solution. Much of todays warfare techniques and tactics like building bunkers and trenches, cover fire, gas bombs for cover, and even the concept of a sniper, were all a brainchild of this young man.


Few years after the French Revolution began, England made a desperate bid to attack France to help all the aristocrats being murdered there. They decided to attack from the south, and advanced in the Toulon region. Napolean then was hardly out of his teenage, and yet he was given command of the troops to drive the english out of Toulon, which he successfully did with along with the assistance of a young soldier named Junot(who later became the Duke of Abrantes). This was his first major battle in charge. Yet somehow the credit of victory was never given to Napolean since he was junior and of lower ranks, and people never knew the real mastermind behind the defeat of English. Nevertheless, the truth could not be hidden from the army and he became a celebrity among all the high ranking officers.

Toulon ; English ships hit by French artillery

But the celebrations were short lived as he was soon caught in an attempt to help an aristocrat escape out of the country. His reputation was the only thing that saved him from guillotine, and he went on to loose his place in the army. Later on he was overwhelmed with frustration, and unemployment didn't appeal to him at all. He said in his biography that he even considered suicide for some time. After a certain time he managed to get a job of a librarian in the capital of the Revolution and was working there.

Then ame the day when fortunes turned for both France and Napolean. The French army was engaged in war with Prussia, who just like england were trying to save the monarchy. All the major armed forced were on the battle front. Realizing this, the Royalist made their last and even their least attempt to save the kingdom. They managed to gather about forty thousand troops including supporters of monarchy and laid a siege on the capital. Citizen Robespierre was long dead then along with Danton and Marat. The country was then run by the "Committee of Public Safety', and was then gathered at the Tuileries palace. The Royalists planned to wipe out the committee, and end the godforsaken revolution. The capital had mere 4000 national guards, who hardly had any first hand combat experience, and were a sort of people used against local criminals and for arresting aristocrats. There were all the committee had to protect themselves.

On their first assault, the national guards were almost halved in numbers by the royalists. The Committee decided to hand over the command of the guards to General Menou, who was a well respected officer, and had never lost a battle in his entire career. But Menou refused the appointment, saying it was impossible to win, and that he didn't want to be the man responsible to end the revolution. The committee had then given up all hope and were waiting for the doom.

Just hours later, Menou while making his way out of the palace noticed Napolean around who had finished his library duties. He recognised him to be the man who drove the English out of Toulon, and greeted him. He then apprised Napolean of the circumstances, and Napolean said "Let me handle it". General Menou was an experienced man and he believed that if anyone could save the revolution now, Napolean would be that man. He then went on to introduce Napolean to the Committee, and told them he was the man they were looking for. At first glance the committee looked at Menou as if he had lost his mind. Napolean never had the features of a soldier, including his short height and feminine looks, along his record for helping an aristo. But realising they had no choice, they agreed to Menou's terms and appointed Napolean as the Commander of the guards.

On being appointed Napolean struck a 'commando operation' along with fellow soldier Joachim Murat, and captured all the royalist artillery(cannons). Adding this the the stockpile of cannons at the palace, he set up a number of booby traps withing the city for approaching royalist forces. Spending the whole afternoon setting up troops in the capital, he positioned the guards in such a manner as to create an ambush in every street, with help of the captured artillery.

Joachim Murat

An then there was the great battle. The royalist, who were already in half mind to celebrate victory, went in head first in the capital only to be shot like ducks. And they went on to save the revolution. Over twenty thousand were killed, and the survivors fled into the country. Napolean had hardly lost any men or any street in this whole battle. Two thousand men against forty thousand attackers. Not exactly a desirable ratio for the defending side. The odd are still the largest among all the battles fought, earlier and later.

Battle of Tuileries palace: Royalists killed in the ambush

Till morning he was just a librarian and by nightfall Napolean had become the national hero, with is name being pronounced in every corner of Paris. Vicomte de Barras, then the head of the committee, pardoned Napolean for his sympathy towards the aristocrats, and welcomed him on the committee. Within the next five years, Napolean had captured power, and was the undisputed ruler of France.

Vicomte de Barras

Its is to be noted that his achievements weren't sheer luck. He had worked hard than any other soldier, and was a high ranking official before he was dismissed from the army. He never wasted even so much as an hour without study, and was an exceptional academician. He still is the youngest person to be given the rank of a General till this date, which was before the battle of Tuileries took place.

Against the odds (part 1)

After an argument with Onkar lately, who is of the opinion that Moshe Dayan had no part to play in the Six days war (crap), I decided to post about major epoch making battles in history, when great military strategists turned the tables on their enemies by a series of tactical maneuvers in the battlefield, changing the course of military campaigns. Although it is true that luck has indeed played its part in all these battles, I cannot help feeling that the goddess of fortune has justly smiled upon the brave. So what happens when you suddenly find yourself in an ambush, when your enemies aim at you from an elevated position, or you run out of resources with no time left to think, your just a thousand men too short to face your opponents, or perhaps if you have only one bullet left to kill three birds. It my be a Catch 22 situation, but its only in times like these that great heroes are born.

For convenience I will post all the battles in each individual post starting with this one.
Battle ONE
Battle of Alesia: 'Let them eat grass'

This battle paved way for Julius Caesar to become the most powerful man in the world. A feeble version of this is actually included in the first version of Age of Empires pc video game, although it doesn't in any manner recreate the actual battle(apart from the ring shaped double circumvallation).

Caesar had spent his life's worth for his campaign in Gaul (present day nation of France). But the Barbarians in Gaul were united under their leader Vercingetorix. Caesar had to go through great ordeals to reach their capital city of Alesia. On one occasion when his food supplies ran out he ordered his men to feed themselves with grass, eating grass himself for that purpose.

Vercingetorix, the Gaul leader

Julius Caesar... everyone knows who this guy is

But after reaching the city he realized he just had twenty thousand men to attack the capital. To add to his despair a force of over one lac Gauls was right behind him to rescue the city. He did the most unimaginable thing a military commander could do. He first built a circular wall around the capital city to lay a siege. And then he built a second circular wall around the first one to defend themselves from the Gaul force approaching them to get relief to their leader Vercingetorix who occupied the capital. The roman army of twenty thousand men sandwiched between more than one lac bloodthirsty Gauls, occupying a narrow ring shaped wooden wall formation, with limited food supplies, was the scenario then. The fortifications built by Caesar are termed as double circumvallation at Alesia.


The picture shows city of Alesia on the top of the hill along with double circumvallation built by Romans

The Gauls attacked the weakest and the narrowest region of the circumvallation from both inside as well as outside. Romans found it difficult to control the situation. Caesar was right at the center of the battlefield with his men. After some time the Gauls managed to bring down the fortification, and it seemed as if the city's army and the relief force from outside will meet together and combine themselves to wipe out the Romans.

At this instance Caesar knew he had to do something, or he would be facing oblivion. The trick he pulled out then is regarded as the most shrewd military maneuver ever. He sent a small contingent of Romans soldiers out of the battlefield into the forest. These soldiers made their way into the woods and changed their uniforms to brand new one, with gold plated armour. Then they rode back to the battle field with huge pomp.

The Gauls looking at the manner of their arrival, thought that a fresh army of Romans had arrived. (Actually an army was on its way for help to Caesar, and the Gauls knew of its coming, but it was quite far away yet). Remember that the Gaul army comprised of Barbarian and and poorly trained savage militia who were in highly uncouth formation with no proper ranks or order. Mistaking it for the Roman division, fear spread among the fighting savages and the Gauls army was scattered, and the relief force returned to the forest. Vercingetorix retreated back to the city with no choice left and the Romans were saved.

Caesar's fortification around Alesia

The next day Vercingetorix surrendered. He arrived on his horse in the Roman camp, and presented himself to Caesar alone, unarmed and begged him to show mercy towards the citizen of Alesia, and asked Caesar not to kill them, but take them as slaves and let them live. Earlier all roman generals like Pompey, Lucullus and Crassus would usually massacre all their prisoners inhumanly. But Caesar agreed to his terms and took all the Gauls at Alesia as slaves, and war was over following the surrender.

Vercingetorix (on the horse) when he surrendered to Caesar

Vercingetorix was taken to Rome as a slave, and Caesar's generosity to spare the lives of all the Gaul women and children made him popular among Romans and Barbarians alike. It was his campaign in Gaul that provided him a platform for his conquest. He later went on to Rome, Greece and later Egypt. I really don't need to write about the rest of his exploits with Pompey and Cleopatra.

Eight Pass Charlie

In my opinion, there can be no peace between India and Pakistan unless the Kashmir issue is settled. For either of the countries, giving up hold over Kashmir would mean a colossal political defeat. And neither will be satisfied with shared pieces. To win the territory by force would involve a leviathan toll over human lives as well as economy, which at the moment neither country looks capable of sustaining. Even if in future we manage to actually empower our economy to buoy such a move, it is obvious that superpowers will interfere and pressurize us to bring about an entente. That goes to say that the debate over Kashmir, the militancy and the struggle will go on for decades, unless of course some 'Gorbachev' gets himself at the helm of political machinery of either of the nations, and compromises the pride of his country for sake of a larger picture, destroying his popularity along with it.

For this reason, we Indians can be forgiven for recognizing Pakistanis as our enemies. But one of my favourite generals Julius Caesar had said in his time, 'Respect your enemies, and you will be respected'. For this reason I feel proud to post about my favourite Pakistani war hero. Ironically I learned about him from officers of Indian Air Force. His tale is quite popular among our air force lads. We don't know his real name since it is a secret shared only by the Pakistanis. But here in India everyone refers to him by his codename, 'Eight Pass Charlie'.

During Lal Bahadur Shastri's era, although we celebrated victory after reaching Rawalpindi(then the capital of Pakistan), it may not be told in the books, but is a fact that Pakistanis dominated the air battle. To be better acquainted with air battles, it is well to know that there are three kinds of planes:

Fighter aircraft for air-to-air combat.

Bomber aircraft for air-to-round combat.

Cargo Airplanes for transportation.

Most of the ace pilots work with fighter airplanes. While bomber planes are used along with heavy cover of fighter jets. The bomber planes are heavier than fighter jets and have less maneuverability than fighter jets, along with large wing span, and less speed. This makes them soft targets of anti-aircraft guns. This is one of the reasons that they fly at a great height. In those days when our enemy had to attack our airbases, flying at a great height would reduce the accuracy of bombing to 0%. Hence they had no choice but to fly low.

For that reason, in order to avoid getting blown out of the sky by Indian ground defenses, they generally carried only eight bombs in each flight, which would reduce their weight and increase their speed. Many enemy pilots were dead scared of our anti aircraft defense, and hence probably pissing in their pants, they had to fly over our airbase for once and they would most often drop all eight bombs in a single pass, in a very erratic manner, resulting in a very inconsequential damage for us. After having done, they would return home to fill in another eight bombs.

However, when the 'Eight pass Charlie' would arrive in his bomber plane, it would be without any cover of fighter jets. He would fly close to the ground, and would make eight consecutive passes over our airbase, and drop one bomb in each pass, amid heavy barrage of anti aircraft fire. His aim was accurate and his single flight would inflict the heaviest damage on out troops, more than what the all other planes would collectively do in an entire day. Later on by the end of the war, every officer in Indian ground defense team was able to recognize his familiar engine noise and style of flight. All of them held great admiration for him in their heart for displaying such valour, when attempting to knock him out of air.


He remained unbeaten till the end of the war. Such was his skill and bravery that is quite hard to come buy, even among pilots. While Arun Lal might opine that discretion be the better part of courage, this guy must have definitely thought otherwise. His remarkable courage is what makes him stand out among other Pakistanis. He certainly cannot be called a terrorist for fighting against us.

I believe such a courage should be appreciated by us, despite being enemies. He is probably one of the elements Pakistan can be proud of, if not all the other bloodthirsty jihadis.

Read before you speak...

M.K.Gandhi
That name is known by almost every educated person in the world, because of reason you very well know(assuming that you're educated). Surprisingly he is despised by many Indians today, especially the youngsters.

I feel like kicking balls of every single person who has a go at him. (and his has nothing to do with Munnabhai). The reason for this is when I ask people about him, they reply with all kinds of expletives they could think of. And more annoyingly they make so many ridiculous allegations against him. A few of them are, 'He was a coward not to use weapons', and 'suppressed great leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and etc.', and the biggest and the most common one of them all is 'was responsible for partition of India' and the most disgruntling 'He paid 80 crore to Pakistan'.

Well as far as being a coward is concerned, I must say even a fraction of the courage he possessed would be more than enough for a common man to brave all disasters today. Suppressing leaders is out of questions because great leaders cannot be suppressed in any case.

I will forgive those who think that non-violence or satyagraha was a bad idea. Yeah maybe with violence things might have turned out differently for India, perhaps better or worse, which cannot be said. But that was his way of doing things, like every great leader has his own philosophy, and it wasn't totally futile either.

But what I cannot excuse is when people blame him for partition. I mean these people are the ones who hear stories from other friends and make up their opinion. Partition of India was much of an incident engineered by the ever lousy British lads, and in my opinion Gandhiji like every other Indian just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Of all the things that happened during the violence and partitioning I don't really suppose that even for one moment did the thought of splitting up appealed to a leader of his eminence. As far as Godse is concerned he was a maniac. After all he didn't really achieve anything by the assassination. If he were really concerned about the revenge he so boasted, he would have rather gone to Pakistan and killed Jinnah, which would have taken immense efforts and courage, rather than shooting an unarmed man without any security cover. Yeah I'll might be willing to accept that the words "HEY RAM" didn't really escape Ghandiji's tongue.

But the biggest misunderstandings among everyone was over that '80 crore to Pakistan' crap. If people would really be so sentimental and patriotic towards their country, and boast about so called values possessed by Indians, of what they call "Sankar' in hindi films, perhaps if they would have bothered to read all the historic books, which describe the incidents that happened during that era, they would have learned that India was indebted to Pakistan for about 150 to 200 crore rupees and that we great Indians as good as swindled Pakistanis in terms of fair business.

Before the Congress agreed to partition it was agreed among the two nations to pay the other, the difference in asset values at that time, which will be generated as a result of large 'shift of population'. In that event all the people abandoning their estates here in India were to get compensation in Pakistan in terms of incentives and other things. India had hence, agreed to pay Pakistan approximately 200 crore(as stated in Gen. Mushraff's autobiography), which after the British left, we never paid. This fact is never stated in any school history textbook here in India, and I don't think any history teacher is aware of it either. Because of Gandhiji, we at least paid Pakistan those 80 crore. Pakistan does have enough reasons to despise us. In my opinion this was cheating. And remember that these events happened before the Kashmir war, so we didn't have any dispute against them at that time, when we proudly claimed that we were a secular state.

This maybe a debate, but in my opinion Mahatma Gandhi did the right thing, since he so believed in not cheating anyone. There is one thing you cannot deny, that Gandhiji persisted till the end, against every odds, and that is what makes him one of the greatest leaders in the world. Today if you ask any foreigner about the first Indian face that comes into his mind, I am sure he would be anyone other than Gandhiji. And to bring about such result it takes an entire life of hard work, persistence and struggle, along with immense courage. So before you have a go at the Mahatma again you might want to ask yourself, 'to question his greatness, do you even possess a single attribute of his?'