徒轅南門

　　Wu Qi wanted to remove the watchtower set up by the state of Qin that did harm to farming.

　　It wouldn't be worthwhile to use army to do that , so he considered using the force of common people to do it.

　　He first put a thill(車把，轅) outside the north gate, and ordered that whoever moved this thill to the south gate would be rewarded with good fields and house.

　　The people of the state of Wei did not believe that there would be such a good thing. Only after a long time did a person come to do this. Wu Qi gave him the rewards immediately.

　　After a while, he put a dan (an ancient Chinese unit of measurement ) of beans outside the east gate, and said whoever moved this to the west gate would get the same rewards.

　　The people contented to do it. Being assured that the people contented to do it. Being assured that the people would follow his directions, Wu Qi announced, "Whoever can get on the watchtower of the state of Qin tomorrow will be appointed dafu (senior official in feudal封建制度的 China ) and will get a reward of good fields and house." The next morning, people contented with each other to attack the watchtower and in no time the watchtower was removed.

　　吳起想拔掉秦國設置的對魏國百姓種田具有危害性的瞭望樓。

　　如果動用軍隊，從效益上講不合算,于是考慮借助民間的力量。

　　他先是把一根車轅桿放在城池的北門外面，下令說誰能夠把一根車轅桿扛到南門外面，就賞上等田宅。

　　魏國的百姓都不相信有這樣的輕松事，過了很久才有一個人來扛，吳起立即兌現(xiàn)了獎賞。

　　一會兒，又把一石赤豆放在東門外，說誰能把它搬到西門去，將給予同樣的獎賞。

　　人們都爭著來搬。見百姓能聽從自己的指揮，吳起宣布說：“明天誰能率先登上泰國的瞭望樓，就任命為國大夫，賞給上等田宅。”第二天一早，人們爭先恐后地向秦國的瞭望樓發(fā)起進攻，一會兒工夫就順利地拔掉了它。