英文：During the An Lushan rebellion in 756 AD the Tang general Zhang Xun was under siege by the forces of general Linghu Chao. Outnumbered 20 to one, the defending Tang forces soon ran out of arrows. To remedy this general Zhang ordered his men to make straw dummies¹ and to dress them in black uniforms. That night the dummies were lowered over the city walls by ropes, accompanied to the beat of war drums. General Linghu thought the enemy was launching a surprise night offensive and ordered his archers² to shower the figures descending³ the walls with arrows. Once the dummies where riddled⁵ with arrows the Tang soldiers pulled them back up the walls and thus restored their supply of arrows. The next night the Tang again lowered the dummies but General Linghu ordered his men to ignore them believing it was the same trick to get more arrows. When general Zhang saw that no one was firing at the straw dummies, he ordered that five hundred of his best troops be lowered instead. They made a lightning raid on the encamped soldiers who were caught completely by surprise. The siege was lifted and general Linghu's army fled the field.

 

中文：公元756年安禄山叛乱爆发，其部将令狐潮将唐朝将领张巡重重包围。由于敌众我寡，唐朝军队的箭很快就用完了。为缓解危机，张将军命令部下做些稻草人，并给它们穿上黑色的制服。夜幕降临之际，伴随着战鼓，他们将稻草人沿着城墙往下吊。令狐潮以为是敌人趁着夜色突袭，于是赶紧命令弓箭手将骤雨般的箭射向那些沿着城墙下降的物体。唐朝士兵将扎满箭的稻草人提上来，因此解决了箭的供给问题。第二天晚上，唐朝军队故伎重演，令狐潮认为又是敌人的诡计，命其部下不予理会。张将军见无人攻击稻草人，便下令迅速吊下五百名精锐部队，以迅雷不及掩耳之势突袭了驻营的对方士兵，打得他们措手不及。围城之急解除了，令狐潮的军队溃败逃离。

 

 

rebellion: 叛乱，造反

 

outnumber: 比…多，在数量上超过；如：

 

Men outnumber women here in the ratio of three to one.

 

此地男子数量以三比一超过女子。

 

straw dummy⁶: 稻草人；dummy在这里指傀儡，假人，另外dummy还有傻瓜的意思

 

shower: 此处作动词，纷撒，将……骤雨般倾倒下来

 

riddle⁴: 充斥，布满，把……打得满是窟窿；riddle还可以作名词，表示谜语，或作动词，表示解谜，如：

 

He found out the riddle at last.

 

他终于猜出了这个谜语。

 

lightning: 闪电似的，极快的；如：

 

lightning raid（突然袭击，突然查抄），lightning speed（闪电般的速度）

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