(slang) take a lamb with one's flesh on one's side and hold it back

King Chu Chuang asked Duke Chen Ling Gong to make peace with Zheng Xiang Gong, but he was killed by Xia Zheng Shu. He had to put aside the treaty between the three states and pacify the civil strife in the state of Chen. This almost made King Chu Zhuang very angry. He hated the fact that Zheng did not count, and planned to conquer again. Sun Shu Ao, the magistrate, said, "If we go to fight Zheng, Jin will go to save us; to conquer Zheng, we must defeat Jin. Therefore, a large army must be sent." So King Chu Zhuang led three armies to Xingyang in 597 BC (10 years of King Ding of Zhou, 17 years of King Zhuang of Chu, 3 years of King Jing of Jin, and 8 years of Duke Xiang of Zheng).

The Chu army occupied the four suburbs of Zheng, surrounded Xingyang, and attacked it day and night. The Duke of Zheng Xiang relied on Jin and waited for Jin's help. The Chu attacked for seventeen days in a row. The soldiers gritted their teeth and defended the city, hoping every moment for Jin to come to their rescue. Their hope rose and set with the sun every day. At the end of the day, the wall at the northeast corner of Xingyang was broken by a large section of the Chu state, and it fell several feet at once. All the people of the city cried out. The cries were so loud and crazy that the whole city was turned into hell. Men, women, and children just cried and cried. The people of the city were waiting to be slaughtered or taken away to be slaves. As soon as King Chuang heard the cries of the city, he ordered the retreat of the army. Duke Yingqi stopped him and said, "We have been attacking for more than half a month, and we have easily collapsed a section of the wall, so we should storm the city. King Chu Chuang said, "Don't say that. The people of Zheng already know how powerful we are. Why do we need to use force? I don't want people to know our strength, we have to let them know our good intentions." Then the Chu army retreated a dozen miles to let the Zheng people take a breather.The king of Chu only knew that good intention were good intentions, but he did not know how to play tricks to make people know his good intentions. For example, when Duke Huan of Qi wanted to help Xing and Wei, he didn't do it right away. He had to wait until the two countries were destroyed by the Northern Di before he shouted to the vassals to rebuild Yi Yi and Chu Qiu so that people would know his good intentions. When the Duke of Jin wanted to conquer the original city, he first gave an order that if he could not take it within three days, he would not want it anymore. The Duke of Song wanted to resist force with benevolence and righteousness, so he had to make a big banner and put out the word "benevolence and righteousness" before people could see his good intentions. King Zhuang of Chu could not play this game. He ordered the retreat of the troops, and no one knew that it was his good intention, which was not in vain. The king of Zheng and the people of Zheng who were waiting to be killed, once they saw that Chu had retreated, instead of saying that Chu had given them a respite, they said that it was because Jin's men had arrived. The men were in high spirits to repair the city walls and wait for Jin to win the battle for them. The king of Chu knew that Zheng had no intention of surrendering, so he surrounded Xingyang City again. After three months of defending the city, no one from Jin could be seen. Then they felt that something was wrong. The general of Chu, Le Bo, led his warriors to the city wall and killed the defenders. Another part of the generals rushed to the bottom of the city and split open the gate. A large group of Chu's men entered Xingyang City.