The 48 Laws Of Power

menclimbed(hetree

for

the

r-ham,

they

saw

the

swelling

hood

of

thecobra.So

they

killed(hesnakewith

«Imr

ci'uh€,

f(‘Ifi(7\/(J6!

the

golden

cimin,

and

wentbacktothe

pond.

Am!the(‘rowand

his

wife

iéved

/mppiiy

ever

after.

A'I‘A1,emomTHE

PAN('HA‘|‘AN

ma,

mx:sz'rnr

‘min.

RF mzm

Tm:(‘RAFTourrowan,

R.GHS .1979

HUWT17

|iRU.\I)(.\.\"l'Vl'.\X 5

WhenOmar.son

of

al-Khallab,

wax‘

crmvermlI0

Islam,

he

wantedthenews

of

hit

conversiontoreach

everyonequickly.

Hr-

wenttoseeJamil.ran

of

Max

'marul-Jumalu.

Thelatterwasre-

nowneci

for

the

speed

with

whichhe

passed

on,m'ret.s.

[file

was

mlrl

anyllziizg

in

confi-

dmce,he

let

everymze

knowaboutitimmedi-

ately.

Omarmil!to

him:“Ihawi!(N‘l>II'lUa

Musiirrz.Do

not

say

arivrhirzg.Keep

itdark.

[)0notmmnbnitin

fromofanyone,

"

Jamilwen:outintothe

.'x‘N'<'exand

began

simul-

ing;

atthe

topof/iis

mire.‘"Do

you

believe

that

Omar,

son

of

al-

Kiumair.hasnot

becomeaMuslim?

Well,

donotbelieve

that.’Iam

tellingyou

thathehas!"

206i LAW 26

A

queen

mustnever

dirty

herhandswith

ugly

tasks,

norcana

king

ap

pear

in

public

withbloodonhisface.Yet

power

cannotsurvivewithoutthe

constant

squashing

ofenemies-«therewill

always

be

dirty

littletasksthat

havetobe done

to

keepyou

onthethrone.

Like

Cleopatra,you

need

a

Ca.t’s-paw.

Thiswill

usually

bea

person

fromoutside

your

immediate

circle,

who

willthereforebe

unlikely

torealizehowheorsheis

being

used.Youwill

find

these

dupeseverywhere——people

who

enjoydoingyou

favors,

espe

cially

if

you

throw

them

aminimal

boneortwoin

exchange.

Butas

they

accomplish

tasksthat

may

seemtotheminnocent

enough,

oratleastcom-

pletelyjustified,they

are

actuallyclearing

thefieldfor

you,spreading

the

information

you

feed

them,

underminingpeoplethey

donotrealizeare

your

rivals,

inadvertentlyfurtheringyour

cause,

dirtying

their

handswhile

yours

remain

spotless.

DBSERVANCEOFTHELAW 11

Inthelate

1920s,

civilwarbrokeoutinChinaastheNationalistandCom

munist

parties

battledforcontrol

ofthe

country.

In

1927

Chiang

Kai—shek,

theNationalist

leader,

vowedtokill

every

last

Communist,

andoverthe

nextfew

years

he

nearly

accomplished

his

task,

pushing

hisenemieshard

until,

in

1934-1935,

heforcedthemintothe

LongMarch,

asix-thousand

mileretreatfromthesoutheasttotheremote

northwest,

through

harshter-

rain,

in

which

most

of

their

ranksweredecimated.Inlate 1936

Chiang

planned

onelastoffensiveto

wipe

them

out,

buthewas

caught

ina

mutiny:

Hisownsoldiers

captured

himandturnedhimovertotheCommunists.

Nowhecould

onlyexpect

theworst.

Meanwhile,however,

the

Japanesebegan

aninvasionof

China,

and

muchto

Chiang’ssurprise,

insteadof

killing

himtheCommunist

leader,

Mao

Tse~tung,proposed

a

deal:TheCommunistswouldlethim

go,

and

would

recognize

himascommanderoftheirforcesaswellas

his,

ifhe

would

agree

to

fight

alongside

them

against

theircommon

enemy.

Chiang

had

expected

tortureand

execution;

nowhecouldnotbelievehisluck.

HowsoittheseRedshadbecome.Without

having

to

fight

a

rearguard

ac-

tion

against

the

Communists,

heknewhecouldbeatthe

Japanese,

and

thenafew

years

downthelinehewouldturnaroundand

destroy

theReds

withease,Hehad

nothing

toloseand

everything

to

gainbyagreeing

to

theirterms.

The

Communists

proceeded

to

fight

the

Japanese

intheir

usualfash~

ion,

withhit»and-run

guerrilla

tactics,

whiletheNationalists

fought

amore

conventionalwar.

Together,

alterseveral

years,

they

succeededin

evicting

the

Japanese.

Now,however,Chiang

finally

understoodwhatMaohadre-

allyplanned.

Hisown

army

hadmetthebnmtof

the

Japaneseartillery,

was

greatly

weakened,

and

would

takeafew

years

torecover.The

Com~

munists,meanwhile,

hadnot

only

avoided

any

directhitsfromthe

japa~

nese,they

hadusedthetimeto

recoup

their

strength,

andto

spread

out