📚 Yuanshen Haikua — a Qing-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move, and the task is to hold a draw against an army nearly twice the size. Black has two chariots, five pawns and an advisor and elephants guarding the palace; Red has a single chariot, two elephants and two pawns — but those two pawns have burrowed deep into Black's half, and Red's chariot can harass without pause. The classical manual Uyên Thâm Hải Khoát (game 329) concludes: draw. Not machine-verified; the result follows the book. The name marks the first encounter in the most famous tale of Zhuge Liang's southern campaign: in 225 he marched south, captured the chieftain Meng Huo — and released him. Why such a decisive commander released his prisoner again and again — seven times — before winning him over is told in the anecdote below. On this board: with Red's six pieces, can you hold the draw to the very end?
七度捕らえ、七度放つ――諸葛亮はなぜ孟獲を殺さなかったのか？
225年、諸葛亮は南中の反乱を鎮めるため南征した。族長・孟獲は生け捕りにされた――そして放たれた。二度目も捕らえられ、また放たれた。果断で知られる軍師が、なぜこれほど不可解な「慈悲」を繰り返したのか？ 『三国志演義』（第87～90回）によれば、諸葛亮が欲しかったのは土地ではなく人心だった。釈放のたびに孟獲へ蜀漢の陣営・兵糧・軍勢を自らの目で見せ、抵抗が無益だと悟らせたのだ。七度目に捕らえたとき、孟獲は叫んだ。「七度捕らえられ、七度放たれてきた。こんなことは古今にない！」そして二度と叛かぬと誓った。南方はいにしえの統治のまま安定し、蜀漢は北伐に専念できるようになった。 だが、意外な事実がある…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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