Capability matters, but without absolute strength, operational skills are equally important.

How to leverage human nature? One part comes from hitting, and ten parts come from boasting.

The purpose of hitting is never the hit itself; the purpose of hitting is to create something to boast about.

Hitting only needs to happen once. They say “a single battle establishes fame,” meaning you fight once and brag about it for a lifetime. Because hitting carries risk, and because it carries cost. You recoup the protection money through boasting, not through fighting. You might win one earth-shattering fight, but what happens after that? It all relies on embellishing the story—going around telling people how overwhelmingly you crushed them. Others hear the tale and get afraid; once they’re afraid, they pay the protection money.

One part in your hands, ten parts on your lips.

War is the continuation of politics. Fighting exists to serve political goals. Fighting is about shaping the other side’s expectations. Once you’ve shaped those expectations, where do you collect your利益 (returns)? You collect them at the negotiation table.

We need to understand how to build momentum—momentum for whom? Momentum for ourselves.

In the first round, you’ll definitely have to rely on solo combat. There’s no way around it.

Starting from the second round, the prior hits and boasts become part of your strength. Will soldiers fighting under a legendary squad leader have the same morale as those under an ordinary one? Will their combat effectiveness be the same? Of course not. “A weak private makes one weak soldier; a weak leader weakens the whole unit.” If you can make people believe that following you guarantees victory, that following you will create miracle after miracle—that itself is a form of power.

In the first round, you go hard. But starting from the second round, the proportion of “bragging” keeps growing. Your subordinates will increasingly believe in your legend and expect the legend to continue. Eventually, investors will believe it, allies will believe it, and the scales will constantly tilt in your favor. At that point, are you relying on fighting? No. You’re relying on momentum. You’ve built up a势 (momentum/pressure), and under its weight, opponents involuntarily choose to concede.

This is called “achieving twice the result with half the effort.”