Scorched-Earth Supply Denial / 坚壁清野式断粮

Definition

Scorched-earth supply denial / 坚壁清野式断粮 is a military logistics pattern in which a commander sends forces ahead of an enemy to make local communities fortify, remove accessible supplies, and deny plunderable food, so that an enemy dependent on movement and looting collapses without requiring a decisive frontal battle.

Current Synthesis

Hanji 675 grounds the concept through 陈俊 after 刘秀 recovers from the Shunshui defeat. Liu Xiu has already resumed pursuit after the enemy withdraws at night, but Chen Jun reframes the problem: because the enemy plunders along the route, a light-cavalry screen can move ahead and make every settlement deny food.

The strategy works because it turns the enemy’s operating method against itself. A force that expects to live off local extraction loses momentum when defended settlements hold out and supplies are cleared. The source presents this as a way to win through logistics and civilian preparation rather than direct battlefield collision alone.

Key Claims

• Supply denial becomes decisive when the enemy depends on plunder or local food during movement.
• The tactic requires speed ahead of the enemy, not only static fortification behind one’s own army.
• Civilian defensive preparation is part of the military mechanism, because settlements must deny resources without being overrun.
• The point is not indiscriminate destruction; in this source, the focus is denying enemy access while protecting local stores and people inside fortified positions.
• Command value appears when a ruler accepts subordinate logistics advice after a recent defeat.

Evidence

• Enemy dependence on plunder: Hanji 675 says the retreating enemy plunders along the route toward Yuyang.
• Forward screen: Hanji 675 has Chen Jun propose sending light cavalry ahead of the enemy.
• Fortify and clear: Hanji 675 says local people should strengthen walls and clear resources so the enemy gains no food.
• Collapse mechanism: Hanji 675 says the enemy scatters after failing to obtain supplies.
• Accepted advice: Hanji 675 records Liu Xiu adopting and later praising Chen Jun’s plan.

Counterevidence & Qualifications

This concept currently rests on one source note. Hanji 675 does not give a full implementation record for every settlement, casualty figures, or the enemy’s internal decision process. The concept is related to attrition and encirclement logistics, but it is narrower: it concerns moving ahead of an enemy to remove local supply access, not every case of siege starvation, defensive patience, or resource asymmetry.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 675 as the grounding case for the wiki’s first focused “坚壁清野” supply-denial concept.
• Distinguished civilian-protective resource denial from broader fortified attrition and battlefield encirclement concepts.

Related Concepts

• 陈俊 - commander whose advice grounds the concept.
• 刘秀 - ruler who adopts the tactic after recovering from a serious defeat.
• 战场围困与断粮 - broader logistics pattern that also makes food access decisive in battle.
• 坚壁耗敌式耐心 - adjacent patience pattern; this concept is narrower because it uses forward resource denial against a moving enemy.
• 资源不对称消耗战 - related attrition frame focused on making the opponent’s limiting resource decide the contest.
• 战场信息控制 - adjacent battlefield pattern because local denial changes what the enemy can assume about easy plunder and movement.