Put an army in a deadly situation of defeat and destruction, and it will survive. Get an army in imminent danger of death, and it will come through. When a force is endangered, it will harden to wipe out its enemies. (The Art of War)

When the generals came to present the prisoners and the heads of their enemies with congratulations, they asked Han Xin, “In common warfare, an army should march into battle with mountains to its right back and waters to its front left. But this time you ordered us to fight with the river to our rear and promised us a banquet when we defeated the Zhao army. We were doubtful, yet in the end victorious. What kind of tactic is this?” Han Xin replied, “Well, you weren’t aware, but it is mentioned in The Art of War. Doesn’t it say, ‘Send an army to its death and it will win, put an army in a death trap and it will live?’Moreover, these troops aren’t my usual command, so this was, as the common saying goes, a case of ‘driving the people of the downtown streets into battle.’In this case, the troops needed to be placed in life-threatening danger, so that every soldier had to fight to stay alive. If I put them in a location where escape is possible this time, they surely would have fled. How could they fight for our cause then!” (Records of the Historian)