Root-Base Priority / 根本根据地优先
Root-base priority / 根本根据地优先 enters the wiki through Hanji 987 as 荀彧’s answer to 曹操’s temptation to take 徐州. The principle is not anti-expansion. It says expansion becomes dangerous when the actor’s own base is still exposed, under-harvested, or politically unsettled.
The source case is 兖州. Xun Yu argues that Cao Cao’s root base is the place where his people trust him, where grain can be gathered, and where later attack or retreat remains possible. 吕布 and 张邈 make that base unsafe, so chasing Xuzhou after 陶谦’s death would trade a real foundation for an attractive but uncertain gain.
The concept differs from 退让式根据地经营. Strategic retreat base-building concerns turning an imposed fallback position into future power. Root-base priority concerns refusing an optional outward move until the existing foundation is secure. It also extends 战争成本与速决纪律 upstream: the cost problem is decided before the campaign begins, through harvest, rear security, local acceptance, and whether the target can feed the army.
Key Claims
- A tempting expansion can be strategically wrong if it exposes the actor’s base to a nearby unresolved enemy.
- A base is not only territory; it is harvest, manpower,民心, route safety, and a credible fallback.
- Historical precedent is useful when it identifies the function of a base, not when it becomes a slogan for passivity.
- Refusing a campaign can be an active strategy when it preserves the conditions for a later decisive campaign.
- The concept marks a boundary on opportunism: a target’s weakness does not matter enough if one’s own rear cannot hold.