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During the Han Dynasty, Gong Sui served as the Administrator of Bohai. His predecessors had brutally exploited the common people, disregarding their well-being. The local residents, suffering from hunger and cold, rose up in rebellion.
Gong Sui submitted a memorial to Emperor Xuan of Han, describing the people's uprising as: "Your subjects, trapped by hunger and cold, were neglected by officials. This merely caused Your Majesty's beloved people to secretly play with Your Majesty's weapons in a shallow pond." Consequently, he adopted appeasement measures.

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Open the tool →潢池弄兵 (huáng chí nòng bīng) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to stir up a minor and often ill-fated rebellion or uprising”.
潢池弄兵 is pronounced huáng chí nòng bīng in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 潢池弄兵 means “Playing with weapons in a shallow pond”. It is used to mean “to stir up a minor and often ill-fated rebellion or uprising”.
潢池弄兵 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
潢池:积水塘;弄兵:玩弄兵器。旧时对人民起义的蔑称。也指发动兵变。