Fire Bull Formation

Shan was a nobleman from a distant family of the Tian clan in Qi. When King Min of Qi was alive, he was a small official in Linzi with no voice and no smell. When the Yan army hit Linzi, people in the city fled to the outside. He also fled to Anping [in the east of Linzi County, Shandong Province] in a car with his clan. This escape gave him a new idea. He felt that the axle sticks out a head outside the wheel, not only occupying too much space but also being easy to damage. He changed all the cars of his clan, sawed the axle head sticking out from the outside of the wheel, and wrapped the axle with iron. This small reform is the same as Zhao Wu Ling Wang changed the long sleeves to short sleeves, just for convenience. However, some people laughed at him and said, "If you saw the head of the axle so short, what does it look like?" Not many days later, when the Yan army broke through Anping, the people of Anping were scrambling, and the road was so crowded that it was like a spinning cattle formation. The axle heads stretched out and bumped into other vehicles, some of them couldn't move; some couldn't brake, and the axle was broken and overturned. Many of those who had ridiculed Tian Shan was taken prisoner by the Yan army. Because of this small reform, Tian Shan's clan escaped to Jimo. For this, Tian Dan became famous.

Then, Yan's army came to fight against Jimo. When the general of Jimo went out to fight, he was defeated and seriously wounded, and died in a short time. There was no one to preside over the city, no one to lead the army, almost chaos. The group elected Tian Dan as the general so that there was a leader. Tian Dan personally operated with the soldiers and made up his clan members and his wife in the ranks. The people of Jimo admired him because they saw his unselfish spirit.

Tian Dan knew about Yue Yi's ability, so he did not dare to go out to fight with him, but always guarded the city strictly. As soon as King Hui of Yan reigned, Tian Dan took advantage of the situation and secretly sent his men to Yan to spread rumors everywhere. King Huai of Yan sent a robbery to fight against Jimo. The first step of Tian Dan's strategy of "sowing discord and separating the ruler from the ministers" was accomplished. He took advantage of the superstition in the army and reported to the soldiers, saying, "The gods have told me in a dream that Qi will be strong and Yan will be defeated; in a few days, the gods will send a military commander, and the enemy will soon be defeated."

Tian Dan chose a smart soldier in his army and asked him to pretend to be "God's military advisor", dressed him in special clothes, and told him to sit facing south. In the future, whenever Tian Dan gave an order, he would first report it to the "military master", and the order was especially respected. He said to the people in the city, "The military commander instructed, 'When we eat breakfast and dinner, we must first offer sacrifices to our ancestors, and the spirits of our ancestors will come to help us. The ancestor worship is quite easy, just put a little food on the eaves of the house." The Yan people outside the city were already a little scared when they heard that there was a God's warlord in the city, and then they saw some birds flying to the city twice a day, morning and evening. They said to each other, "God is helping Qi, what can we do about it?"