place sb on a field of death and he will fight to live (idiom based on Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法[Sun1 zi3 Bing1 fa3]); to fight desperately when confronting mortal danger / fig. to find a way out of an impasse
to bend to a task and spare no effort unto one's dying day (idiom); striving to the utmost one's whole life / with every breath in one's body, unto one's dying day