wolf road

Chapter 27 Wolf Principle (6)
In the ancient officialdom, those who are sharp and sharp always easily arouse the suspicion and uneasiness of political opponents, making people feel fear and threat, so it is inevitable to make too many enemies, incur grievances, and ambitions cannot be realized.On the contrary, those mediocre and unambitious people can make political opponents feel a sense of security psychologically, and they are easy to be underestimated and ignored, but they can succeed unexpectedly.Therefore, keeping one's grand ambitions from being seen by others has become an important concealment technique used by ancient politicians.When the time is not yet ripe, the ambition and desire for power of a strategist are often hidden behind the back of indifference or indulging in sex.They restrained their edge for the time being, pretended to be indifferent to the world, and tried their best to conceal their political aspirations and desire for power.Many emperors in ancient China had a history of keeping a low profile before they made their fortunes.Before he ascended the throne, Li Yuan, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, believed that he was very strong and would be the master of others. Later, because of the suspicion of Emperor Sui Yang, he had to indulge in alcohol and accept bribes to conceal his identity.Tang Xuanzong Li Chen is the No.13 son of Xianzong.After Xianzong's death, Li Chen has become a distant member of Muzong, Jingzong, Wenzong, and Wuzong dynasties. Originally, the seat of emperor was not his turn, but because of his frequent dream of riding a dragon to ascend to heaven, he secretly longed for it. Those who know this is not suitable for others to know, so they become more and more obscure, living and traveling in groups, and there is nothing to say.Li Yuan's indulging in alcohol and Li Chen's unspoken words are both to cover up his ambitions and ambitions.

In order to be successful, ambition and desire for power naturally need to be covered up. Even if there is no ambition and desire for power, in some cases, you must deliberately make a gesture of no ambition to avoid suspicion from others and protect yourself.During the Warring States Period, Qin general Wang Jian led a total of 60 troops to attack Chu. Before the expedition, he asked the King of Qin for beautiful fields and gardens.Facing the generals who were puzzled by his actions, the scheming Wang Jian explained the mystery: King Qin was afraid and did not trust others.Today, the soldiers of the state of Qin are entrusted to me, and I don’t ask the fields and houses for the children and grandchildren to strengthen themselves. Gu Lingqin king sits and suspects me?A general aiming at petty profits such as fields, houses and gardens will make a jealous monarch feel more at ease than an ambitious general with a large army.

The second common method of keeping a low profile is to cover up one's talents.

If a person wants to engage in political activities, he cannot do without talent, and people's talents vary greatly due to various factors.In terms of how to select political talents, some people in ancient China put forward the idea of ​​selecting talents and promoting talents.However, this can only be an idealistic standard, and it is difficult to truly realize it in political practice, because power and status cannot be obtained simply by being talented.On the contrary, in many cases talent is but the shadow of power.The greater the power, the more talented he appears to others, although it is not the case.

In the eyes of courtiers, the monarch is always wise and great, and the boss is always correct and wise. This is the inevitable logic of ancient Chinese political reality.If the talents of the ministers and subordinates exceed those of the monarch and the superiors without knowing how to conceal them, the result is often not very good.During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao always wanted to get rid of subordinates whose talents were higher than his own, and then quickly punished those who had plans to outperform themselves.The director Yang Xiu is studious and talented, and he can often see Cao Cao's tactics and plans in advance.Cao Cao's Ping Hanzhong was in a dilemma. The slogan on the night of the order was tasteless, and the generals didn't know what it meant.Only Yang Xiu said: If you eat chicken ribs, you will get nothing, and if you discard them, it will be a pity. The Duke (Cao Cao) will make up his mind.In fact, Cao Cao had such intentions.Although Yang Xiu was outstanding in talent, it was a pity that he showed his sharpness and made Cao Cao pale by comparison. He finally dug his own grave, which made Cao Cao very jealous of him, and he killed him because of the trouble.

In Chinese history, there were many Cao Cao who were jealous of talent, so tragedies like Yang Xiu were constantly being staged.The reality of this bloody political struggle reminds those politicians who have secret ambitions or pride in their talents all the time: don't act smarter than your boss.Because concealing one's talents has become a common tactic used by politicians.

There is such a record in "Han Feizi": King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty drank for a long night, and he was so drunk that he didn't know the day and night. He asked about him, but he didn't know.Jizi deeply understands: No country knows it, but I know it alone, and I am in danger.So he used some tricks to hide and hide, and pretended to be drunk, saying that he was drunk but didn't know.

The third common method of keeping a low profile is to cover up one's reputation.

Politicians pursue not only power but also fame in political struggles.There is a close relationship between power and fame. Power can certainly bring a certain amount of fame, but fame also helps to acquire and consolidate power.Machiavelli in Europe believed that those emperors would always perish either because the previous generation did not leave a great reputation, or because they were not capable of acquiring a great reputation to control both the army and the people.Ancient Chinese political commentators also emphasized that the monarch must establish prestige and gain reputation.Both power and fame are goals sought by rulers.Like ambition and talent, the fame of others can also make the powerful feel a kind of threat.None of the powerful people in ancient China could tolerate the fame of their officials and subordinates surpassing themselves.The objects of gratitude, respect and worship of the people can only be the supreme rulers, and no one else is allowed to share with them.In some cases, loyal and loyal ministers who are well-respected may make the monarch feel more suspicious than corrupt officials who speak loudly.There are many such examples in history, those subjects who have gained a high reputation have to consciously destroy their own image, smear and frame themselves, and seek self-protection through self-defilement.Lord Xinling, the son of the Wei State in the Warring States Period, was a benevolent man and a corporal.Don't dare to be proud of your wealth.Scholars used this method to fight for thousands of miles to return.When the State of Qin attacked the State of Zhao, Lord Xinling resolutely stole amulets to save Zhao for the benefit of Wei and Zhao, regardless of the objection of the King of Wei.This kind of princes only heard about Mr. Wei, but did not hear about the situation of King Wei, so King Wei couldn't tolerate it.At this time, Qin State took the opportunity to implement a divorce plan, and King Wei deprived Lord Xinling of his real power.Although Lord Xinling has lost his power, his reputation is still there, and he is still a potential threat in the eyes of King Wei.In order to protect himself, Mr. Xinling thanked his illness and stayed away from the court. He drank alcohol for a long night with his guests, got close to women, and kept himself quiet.Xiao He, a famous prime minister in the early Western Han Dynasty, also had a similar encounter with Lord Xinling.He loyally assisted Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and worked hard to help the people and won the hearts of the people.It was a good thing for the consolidation of the new regime, but for Liu Bang, it was an invisible threat.Xiao He once suggested that the imperial garden be changed to the people's land. Liu Bang believed that this was the prime minister buying people's hearts and soliciting praise for himself, so he was arrested and imprisoned in a rage.Later, when Xiao was released, Liu Bang said angrily, "I won't allow Xiangguo to ask for court for the people."I am only Jie and Zhou Lord, and Xiangguo is a virtuous prime minister.I belong to the Xiangguo, and I want the people to hear about my past.On the contrary, when Xiao He followed the advice of his disciples, bought more land, and borrowed money at a low price to defile himself, causing the common people to accuse Xiangguo of forcibly buying people's land at a low price, Liu Bang felt relieved and joyful from the bottom of his heart: peace of mind, joy in peace .It can be seen that in order to protect himself, Xiao He really confused Liu Bang by using the technique of self-denigration and low reputation, but this was also his helpless choice at the time.

The fourth commonly used method of keeping a low profile is to cover up the physical aspect.

In order to paralyze the enemy, some politicians create illusions in terms of physiology to make them relax their vigilance and not be on guard, and they often receive unexpected results.The most convenient way to cover up physically is to pretend to be crazy.Because a mentally ill person will not pose a political threat to a normal person, and no one will have a serious political contest with a madman.So pretending to be crazy and being stupid saved the bad luck of many people in ancient political circles.In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, King of Yan, had always had ambitions to ascend to the throne.The monk Daoyan said to himself: Your Majesty's envoys have to serve you, and they will serve you a white hat to wear with your Majesty.The king wears a white hat, which means he is the emperor.Zhu Di then took Daoyan as his father.After Emperor Jianwen came to the throne, Zhu Di was deeply dissatisfied and tried to replace him.When the conspiracy was leaked ahead of time, Zhu Di pretended to be mad and claimed to be ill. He walked around Hohhot, robbed food and drink, spoke indiscriminately, or lay on the soil, dying, and shaking around the stove in midsummer: "It's very cold".This feigned madness made the court believe it a little, and won Zhu Di time to rebel. "Water Margin" describes that when Song Jiang was arrested by the government for reciting anti-poems in Xunyang Tower, in desperation, he had to pretend to be crazy: loose hair, rolled in the urine and feces pit, stared blankly, but beat the future indiscriminately, and talked nonsense. language.It's a pity that Song Jiang's ability is not good enough, this trick was seen through, and Song Jiang could not escape a disaster.Although this is a literary description, it also reflects that the concealment method of pretending to be crazy and foolish in order to protect oneself is very common in political struggles.

The fifth common technique of keeping a low profile: pretending to be seriously ill.

People who are dying, have been sick for a long time, are dying, and will soon die, if they cannot make political opponents feel compassion, at least they can make them feel at ease, so that they will no longer have the ability and energy to fight against themselves.In ancient Chinese history, the most successful performer of this concealment method was probably the treacherous Sima Yi.At the end of the Cao Wei Dynasty, Sima Yi and the royal family Cao Shuang jointly received the imperial edict to assist the government.

In the process of the two fighting for power and profit, Sima Yi retreated to advance, saying that he was sick and hard, and showed that he was winning.When Cao Shuang sent someone to take the opportunity to investigate, Sima Yi pretended to be old, sick, and dying: King Xuan (Sima Yi) ordered two maidservants to wait by the side, hold the clothes, and put them down; Drinking, the maidservant enters the porridge, King Xuan holds the cup to drink the porridge, all the porridge flows out and sticks to his chest, and he pretends to be stupid and absurd in his speech, confusing his words, like nonsense.Sure enough, Cao Shuang was fooled, and no longer cared about the dying and confused old man.Not long after, Sima Yi took advantage of Cao Shuang's opportunity to enshrine the tomb of Emperor Wei to launch a mutiny.Cao Shuang and his party were executed, and the Yi tribe.It can be seen how proficient and successful Sima Yi's technique of keeping a low profile is used.

Of course, there are many other techniques of keeping a low profile in history.

For everyone, life is very important. Only by surviving yourself first can you have the opportunity to make outstanding achievements.And Liu Xiu, the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty, escaped a catastrophe of life and death by hiding his secrets.

In the last years of Wang Mang, because of successive years of famine, rebel armies from all over the world rose up one after another, and the world fell into chaos.

In October of the third year of Emperor Dihuang (AD 22), Liu Xiu's brother Liu Zhe was in Chongling and Liu Xiu was in Wancheng, and at the same time they raised troops against Mang.In the fourth year of Emperor Dihuang (23 A.D.), the soldiers of the green forest pushed Liu Xuan to proclaim himself emperor, and Liu Jie was appointed as the chief situ.Liu Jie was murdered by Liu Xuan because he fought for power with Liu Xuan because of his meritorious service.At that time, Liu Xiuzheng, who was the general of Taichang Pian, was away in battle. When he heard that his elder brother had been killed, he rushed to Wancheng, endured the humiliation, and took the initiative to plead guilty to Liu Xuan.Liu Xuan saw that Liu Xiu had no intention of opposing him, and also sincerely apologized to him, so he worshiped Liu Xiu as the general of Polu, named Wu Xinhou, and ordered him to conquer Hebei with integrity.He called for the abolition of Wang Mang's tyranny and the restoration of the Han Dynasty system. With the support of Hebei's powerful and bureaucrats, he suppressed the peasant uprising army, recruited some rebels, defeated Wang Lang's separatist forces, and pacified Hebei.Gengshi dispatched his censor Shi Chijie to make Liu Xiu the king of Xiao and ordered him to return to Chang'an.

Liu Xiu refused to go to Chang'an to apply in the name of Hebei Weiping.At that time, internal strife broke out in the Gengshi regime, and the Quartet betrayed.After Liu Xiu pacified Hebei, his power grew rapidly.In the first year of Jianwu (AD 25), Sui (now Tongxiang County, Hebei) proclaimed himself emperor, and later moved his capital to Luoyang.After more than ten years of fighting, he successively suppressed Chimei and other peasant rebels, flattened the feudal separatist forces in various places, and unified the whole country.During Liu Xiu's reign, he issued many orders to release slaves and maidservants and prohibit the cruelty of slaves and maidservants, and leased state-owned wasteland to refugees for farming; persuaded the people to farm mulberry, build water conservancy, reduce taxes, organize troops to farm fields; More than a hundred counties, streamlining a large number of officials; abolishing the captains who hold local military power, and gradually expanding the central army with the North and South Army as the core; Exclusive power; reform of the official system, stipulating that the governor is a local official at the state level, who can directly report to the emperor, making the three princes ineffective.These measures are conducive to restoring production and stabilizing social order, and to a certain extent have promoted the overall development of society.

All these achievements are because Liu Xiu was able to survive first. If Liu Xiu lost his life, how could he possibly do what he did in the future.Lessons learned from the past, Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms period applied this strategy to the fullest.

In military strategy, pretending to be deaf and dumb, dumb, and ignorant on the surface, while being extremely sober inwardly, is actually a brilliant move.During the Three Kingdoms period, the story of Cao Cao and Liu Bei cooking wine with green plums and discussing heroes is a typical example.

Liu Bei had already had the ambition to conquer the world, but at that time his strength was too weak to compete with Cao Cao, and he was still under Cao Cao's control.In order to confuse Cao Cao, Liu Bei pretended that he just drank wine and grew vegetables every day, and didn't care about world affairs.One day, Cao Cao invited him to drink. At the banquet, Cao Cao asked Liu Bei who is the hero of the world. Liu Bei listed several names, but Cao Cao denied them.Suddenly, Cao Cao said: "There are only two heroes in the world, you and me!"One sentence made Liu Bei panic, thinking that Cao Cao knew about his political ambitions, and the chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground in fright.Fortunately, there was a burst of thunder at this time, and Liu Bei hurriedly covered it up, saying that he was frightened by the thunder and dropped his chopsticks.When Cao Cao saw this, he couldn't stop laughing. He thought that Liu Bei was afraid of thunder and could not achieve great things, so he relaxed his vigilance towards Liu Bei.Later, Liu Bei got rid of Cao Cao's control, and with Zhuge Liang's assistance, he established the Kingdom of Shu, which made a great achievement in Chinese history.

Before Zhu Yuanzhang became king, he always used the year name of Dragon and Phoenix of King Xiaoming, but he himself did not become king, but many people around him had already become king.In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chen Youliang first supported Xu Shouhui to become emperor, then he killed Xu Shouhui and proclaimed himself king and emperor.Zhang Shicheng was also called the king of Wu, Fang Guozhen was called the king, and Ming Yuzhen was called the king, but only Zhu Yuanzhang was not called the king.In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang is good at protecting himself when fighting the enemy.Liu Futong once sent the Third Route Army to the Central Plains, some from Shandong, some from Hebei, to the north of Dadu, entered the Mongolian grassland, and burned the palace of Shangdu.There was also a route to Shaanxi and Sichuan, but all three routes failed.But Zhu Yuanzhang did not join this army.

While others were on the Northern Expedition, his power was taking the opportunity to grow.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was an important general whom the Yuan Dynasty relied on called Chahan Timur.Chahan Timur's power was once very strong. After Chahan Timur captured Jinan, he wanted to march south.At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude was very ambiguous. Chahan Timur reported the situation to the Yuan Dynasty, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang could use it, so the Yuan Dynasty sent envoys from the sea to Jiqing, and gave him dragon clothes and royal wine. Therefore, some people suspected that Zhu Yuanzhang might surrender to the Yuan Dynasty, but in fact he did not.In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's contact with Chahan was to relieve the pressure on Chahan to march to the south. This was Zhu Yuanzhang's strategy.After Chahan died, his son was called Kokuo Timur. He was actually a Han Chinese, and his Chinese name was Wang Baobao.Wang Baobao still had a strong army and was one of Zhu Yuanzhang's main opponents.He and Wang Baobao still have letters to each other. He wrote to Wang Baobao to contact him. In the past, he called Tonghao seven times. To relieve the enemy's pressure on oneself, the strategy of keeping a low profile can be described as handy.

(End of this chapter)