King Goujian of Yue used a military tactic in ancient China where his front line consisted entirely of condemned criminals who would decapitate themselves right before the battle started.

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King Goujian of Yue used a military tactic in ancient China where his front line consisted entirely of condemned criminals who would decapitate themselves right before the battle started. The sheer psychological terror of watching your enemy's vanguard cheerfully slice their own heads off was usually enough to make the opposing army break formation and run away in absolute horror. Talk about an aggressive opening move. You spend months training your troops, polishing your armor, and hyping up your soldiers, only to watch the other side immediately commit mass suicide just to assert dominance. It is the ultimate toxic power play. There is no counter-strategy in the art of war for dealing with a guy who is so unhinged that he uses his own soldiers' heads as a psychological warm-up act