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During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Chu army encamped behind the Xi region. The Marquis of Jin worried they might launch a sneak attack on the State of Jin.
Hearing a children's rhyme, "The old fields are plentiful, abandon the old and plan for the new," the Marquis of Jin became even more anxious.
Zi Fan advised him, saying: "Let us fight! If we win, we will surely gain the support of the various feudal lords; and if we do not win, with the mountains and rivers as our natural defenses, there will be no harm."
The Marquis of Jin then decided to launch an attack based on the advantageous terrain.

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Open the tool →表里山河 (biǎo lǐ shān hé) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “describes a strategic location or territory naturally fortified by surrounding rivers and mountains, making it easy to defend”.
表里山河 is pronounced biǎo lǐ shān hé in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 表里山河 means “Rivers outside, mountains inside”. It is used to mean “describes a strategic location or territory naturally fortified by surrounding rivers and mountains, making it easy to defend”.
表里山河 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
表里:即内外。外有大河,内有高山。指有山河天险作为屏障。