Ancient kings often dispatched armies to attack enemies.
Tips
usage
伐 is a formal/literary word most often seen in compounds: 伐木 (logging), 讨伐 (to punish/attack), 北伐 (Northern Expedition). In everyday speech, 砍 is preferred for 'to chop/cut down'.
memory
The character shows 人 (person) with 戈 (weapon/spear) — a person wielding a weapon, either to cut down trees or to strike an enemy.
Left side-form person radical — the indexing radical, two strokes for a standing figure seen from the side. Marks 伐 as an action done by a person, placing it in the family of human-verb characters: 攻 (attack — without person), 战 (war), 征 (campaign).
Right side 戈 — a long-handled bronze-age weapon with a hooked blade. Person + halberd is a compound ideograph: a soldier wielding a weapon, the original picture of cutting down both trees and enemies. The blade against the figure's neck in the oracle bone version specifically shows decapitation as the prototypical 'to attack / cut down.'
