Grand Canal.

This is coolbert:

Here an instance of an attack on what is termed a high-value-target [HVT] the capture or destruction of which precipitates a sudden and most dramatic end to a war.

High-value-targets during wartime the recognition of which, the control, destruction, occupation, or interdiction of same [HVT] bringing a quick and speedy conclusion to hostilities.

"High-Value Target (HVT) — A target the enemy commander requires for the successful completion of the mission. The loss of HVTs would be expected to seriously degrade important enemy functions."

"a High-Value Target (HVT) is a target (a person or resource) that an enemy commander requires for completion of a mission"

That HVT not necessarily strictly a person, may well be a resource too!

Examples from the era of the Second World War [WW2] of HVT to include: [resources in each and every case]

* The oil fields and refineries of Ploesti.

* The hydro-electric power plants and dams of the Italian High Tyrol.

* The ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt. [Germany]

* The two main power plants in the western part of the Soviet Union.

[Those two power plants supplying 75 % of the electric power as needed by the munitions factories of the Soviet Union!]

During WW2 attacks on these various HVT carried out with less than effectiveness, results not as expected, the HVT in each and every case not disrupted or destroyed to the degree as desired.

Within historic times the Grand Canal of China an important HVT absolutely vital to commerce, trade, AND providing sustenance in the form of grain shipments to the armies of the Emperor.

From that latest edition of the National Geographic:

"He [Emperor Yang] needed a way to move rice from the fertile region around the Yangtze northwest to feed his court and crucially, his armies"

That Grand Canal begun in 605 A.D. the entire length completed only after many decades of frenzied effort.

That Grand Canal a priority target of the British during the First Opium War. The capture and interdiction of the Great Canal that result the swift and complete Chinese capitulation:

 "The canal [The Grand Canal] did more than move grain - - as the country's unifying feature, it was a potent political symbol and strategic target for invaders. In the early 1840's when the British wanted to put a stranglehold on China during the First Opium War, they occupied Zhenjiang, at the intersection of the canal and the Yangtze, throttling the flow of grain and tax revenues to Beijing. Within weeks China surrendered."

NO more grain, NO army being fed, NO taxes, NO more war making potential, further resistance futile, surrender or negotiations seen as the only alternative.

It all seems too simple. Identify that one HVT vital to your adversary, deny same, and voila', the war is over. Seems to be easier said than done. But a possible, and the First Opium War demonstrates this is so!

coolbert.