abadideatoday on how to tell a king his plan is stupid in the Warring States:
(The King of Wei wanted to attack the capital of a rival nation. One of his citizens said to him: ) So, a funny thing happened on my way here. I was at the Great Crossing, and I saw a guy heading due north. He said to me: "I'm going to Chu!"
I said to him, "Sir, if you mean to make for the southern kingdom of Chu, how are you going to get there heading north?"
He said, "I've got a good horse." Sir, no matter how good your horse is, this isn't the road to Chu.
He said, "I can spend whatever it costs." Sir, no amount of money or means can make this the road to Chu.
He said, "My driver's great." Yeah, great at driving you further and further away from Chu! This guy, he really needed to TURN AROUND.
original text: https://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han?searchu=%E7%8A%B9%E8%87%B3%E6%A5%9A
Rachel Barker