warring states careerist

Chapter 772: Strategic Contraction

Uncle Gong's suggestion sounds more beneficial, but Uncle Gong also understands that it is really difficult for Wei Jian to change his mind.

Just as Uncle Zuo thought, Wei Jian was proud in his bones. He set off at the age of 15 and had no defeat until he encountered Niu Lan in Luyang, caught up with Han Hou and Zhao Hou and died at the same time, and had no choice but to withdraw.

What he inherited was at the height of the sky, Zhao Guochen, South Korea Gongjin, Chu State lost its main beam, Wang Ziding split, Qi Guotian's generation was under the surging internal turmoil, and Wei Guo was the most like a hegemon in the world.

He has been loved by his father since he was a child. As the eldest son, no one can compete for the position of heir. He has never experienced the cruel internal struggles of the nobles, nor the cruel internal struggles of their fathers and grandparents when they were the kings of Jin.

A person like Wei Jian was born in the wrong age. He should be a son, a monarch, and a real nobleman in the Spring and Autumn Period, but he inherited a Wei State under the tide of the earth-shaking era from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period and even more chaotic times.

Tian Zifang had warned Wei Jian back then that the era of the nobility was over, and if the power of those lowly scholars were not grasped, Wei State would decline in this world of great strife, but did Wei Jian listen to this?

If you can't change your mind, you can't let Wei Guo stand in this world of great controversy.

Uncle Gong hopes that Wei Jian can let go of the pride of being a true nobleman, learn to be patient, learn to bear temporary failures and think of future victories.

Pride has become one of Wei Jian's weaknesses.

The comprehensive strategic contraction, for Gong Shucuo, is to consider the future of Wei State from the perspective of the Prime Minister.

From Wei Jian's point of view, this is not the case.

What was Wei Guo like when he succeeded?

He is now strategically shrinking, how do people in the world evaluate him?
Everyone will compare, everyone will say that during the time of Marquis Wen, Wei State was the hegemon, Zhao Han surrendered, the Chu people were defeated, and the world was invincible.

In less than 20 years, the State of Wei even gave up the legal principles of Zhongshan, and did not even interfere with the Song State, a symbol of Wei State's hegemony. How much pressure will Wei Jian have to bear?
Uncle Zuo looked at Wei Jian.

Wei Ji pondered for a long time, then sighed and said, "Could it be that we don't care about Song's affairs?"

Gong Shucuo said: "Meet the alliance, ask the ink, don't send troops. Protest with your mouth, don't move your hands, make an alliance with Chu and Han, and take the opportunity to swallow Zheng."

"We want to make a move that we are about to interfere with Song State, so that Chu people's energy will be focused on Song State, and Sishang's energy will also be focused on Song State."

"But we signed a secret agreement with the Koreans to carve up Zheng's land, and took advantage of the opportunity of the alliance to attack Zheng."

"Before Chu and Sishang have time to react, annex Zheng Guo and create established facts."

The logic of the uncle's acne strategy, in summary, is actually very interesting.

That is, we opposed the Mohist intervention in Song State, so we, Wei State and South Korea, divided Zheng State together.

The timing chosen by Uncle Gong is extremely favorable, because Zheng Guo not only involves Wei and Han, but also involves Chu State.

Yuguan, an important border pass in the north of Chu State, is less than [-] to [-] miles away from Zheng Guohuayang, which can be regarded as the flank of Yuguan.

Yuguan is an important outlet for Chu State to face the Central Plains, especially under the premise that Song State continues to be neutral, without Yuguan, it is impossible to regain Daliang, and Chu State cannot gain a foothold in the Central Plains without regaining Daliang.

Now that the Song Dynasty coup d'état, Wei, Chu, and South Korea must react. This time, Sishang has attracted the attention of the princes of the world.

As soon as the Qi-Mo war ended five years ago, Sishang had become a force that the princes should not underestimate. With the spread of radical public opinion on Sishang, it became a place that the princes had to be vigilant about.

The meaning of Uncle Cuo is to use the diplomacy of Wei, Chu and Han to discuss the affairs of Song State, and quickly attack Zheng State with South Korea, divide Zheng State's land, so that even if Chu State wants to intervene, it can't do anything.

Zheng Guo's matter must be resolved, if it is not resolved, the relationship between Wei and Han will be very awkward.Moreover, Sishang began to infiltrate Zheng Guo, which also made Wei Guo extremely disturbed.

Wei Jian felt that this matter was a bit...unjust, and it was not good to think about it from the perspective of a real nobleman.Zheng Guo is innocent, and pays tribute every year, so it is not too unjust to attack this country, after all, he is on Sishang.

But taking advantage of the opportunity of the alliance to attack Zheng Guo blitz, this is a bit too unrighteous.

But Uncle Cuo's words are all about the state, so why does Wei Jian not understand the weakness of the Wei state at this time.

After thinking about it, he said: "So, once the Koreans come, they need to have a secret talk with the Koreans. In Xiangbang's opinion, then they have to speak out against Sishang's intervention in the Song Dynasty?"

Gongshu Cuo said: "Not so, one cannot win the hearts of the nobles, and the other is that it is not easy for the Chu people to interfere in Zheng Guo's affairs unintentionally."

"With [-] troops and [-] Koreans, Zheng can be destroyed within half a month, and the cost of food and money is very small."

"When Zheng died, the land would be divided into two, and hundreds of thousands of people would be gained."

"In the south, you can go to Yingshui, encircle Fenxing in Chu State from the side and back, cut off Yuguan, and go straight to Anling, Deng, Shangcai and other places."

"Secondly, because the threat from Sishang is greater, the Chu State cannot go to war with us, lest Sishang enjoy the benefits of being a fisherman."

"The three Chu people must guard against us and Sishang. They must station large troops in Yuguan, Shangcai and other places. This will exhaust the national strength of the Chu people."

"Four things can make Zhao Guo worry, thinking that Wei and Han are in an alliance and take the initiative to contact us, so we can take the initiative in diplomacy."

Of course, another reason is that once the land of Zheng State is obtained, the nobles of Zheng State can lose it. Some of those lands can be directly controlled by the king, and the other part can also be used as the fief of the uncle.

Uncle Cuo knows the depth, and knows that Xihe's military pawn system is the foundation of Wei State, so even if he wants to entrust land, he can't get his own fiefdom from places in Xihe that have been reformed. In such places, he just doesn't know It's serious.

His power and power stem from the prosperity of the Wei state, and he is quite sober about this.

In addition, Gongshucuo has another purpose.

The current situation of Wei State is actually very unfavorable. It is divided into Hexi and Hedong.

Uncle Gong hopes that the Xihe region can resist Qin, which is gradually beginning to reform and become stronger, and it is impossible for the Central Plains region to continue to maintain hegemony.

If you want to use the power of Hedong to maintain the interests of Wei, you must need allies.

But to win over allies, one must abandon some unnecessary burdens.

Including Zhongshan, which has been lost and only has legal principles; including Zheng Guo, who wanted to contain Han Chu in the era of hegemony, can be exchanged for benefits.

Let go of your body and recognize yourself, this is what Gong Shucuo has always wanted to tell Wei Jian.

He and Wei Jian squeezed Wu Qi away, and he killed Le Yang to prove that if Wu Qi rebelled in Wei State sooner or later, but he is not a person who only knows internal fighting but does not know how to seek the country.

After partitioning Zheng State with South Korea, the only vassal state of Wei State is Wei State, which can continue to be wooed.

Moreover, when the alliance was held in Heze, the Mohists actually harbored evil intentions. Zhao State itself had two cities in the north of Wei State, and they were Dunqiu where Cao Cao was the commander of later generations.

If the Mohists really followed the idea of ​​eliminating soldiers from all over the world, Dunqiu, Gangping and several Zhao countries inserted into the enclaves of the Central Plains, they could have advocated exchanging enclaves with Wei.

It's not that the Mohist's force at that time could force countries to accept it, but the Mohist didn't mention it at all in the Heze League.

Uncle Gong understood at that time that with Sishang's long-sleeved performance and grasp of the world situation these years, it is impossible not to know that this kind of enclave is likely to cause war, which is obviously harboring evil intentions.

Zhao State has Dunqiu, so it is possible to go south, invade the Central Plains, and attack Wei State's forbidden Wei State.

The fight between Zhao and Wei is no longer possible, and even the most basic trust will be lost if the fight continues. Uncle Cuo hopes to use this opportunity to suppress Zhao's idea of ​​going south and direct the disaster to Zhongshan, which has just been restored.

Before Wei Guo interfered in the civil war of Zhao Guo's succession rights, whether it was big or small, the hatred was actually not irreversible.

But if the war between Wei and Zhao broke out because of Zhao's strategy of going south to the Central Plains, then the relationship between Wei and Zhao would be completely destroyed.

After all, the love of the three Jins is still there at this time, but the love of the three Jins alone is not enough to form the alliance of the three Jins. They can only choose the strategy of pulling South Korea to suppress Zhao and causing trouble to the east.

Under the threat of Qin State, it is no longer possible to maintain a protracted war only by relying on the power of the Central Plains in Hedong. The era when Wei State did not need allies and only needed to make allies into disobedient ones is gone forever.

The domineering arrogance that dominated the world in the Wenhou era no longer has the strength to support it. If you still want to continue to maintain the shell of hegemony, you will be looking for a dead end.

What happened to the Song State sounds horrific, shaking the foundation of the rule, but if they really want to fight, what price will the Wei State have to pay?
Sishang has already mobilized, and the public opinion is clamoring, claiming that for the sake of morality and covenant, the last Mohist will be wiped out.

Such words have been said, and tens of thousands of people have begun to mobilize and gather. Uncle Cuo really doesn't want to start a war with Sishang at this time.

In such a war, Wei State may completely decline. Once defeated, the gunpowder of the national riots will immediately burn on the land of Wei State. He dare not take risks, and Wei State does not have the capital to take risks.

Uncle Cuo knows that Wei Jian has been shaken now, but it will take time to make a real decision and make a change.

After a long silence, Wei Ji smiled wryly and said: "In this way, I will bear the shameless name. With the idea of ​​Xiangbang, I will seek the country for a long time, but the prosperity of the country will depend on my descendants. I have to bear it, It is the laughing sound of the world."

Uncle Cuo said: "May your majesty put the ancestral temple of Sheji as the most important thing. In the past, Goujian tried his best to conquer Wu, and he was also the overlord."

Wei Chi smiled wryly and said: "Xiangbang's words... are bad. If Goujian could not destroy Wu back then, wouldn't the world laugh at him for just living?"

Gong Shucuo persuaded: "Your Majesty, have you not heard the irony of the foolish old man who moved the mountains? There is an infinite shortage of children and grandchildren, so it can't be done? Since Wei was Wei, it was only a few decades, but could it be that it was more than a hundred years ago?" Can the ancestors who were ministers in Jin laugh at them for not being princes and despise them?"

"If your lord chooses to go to war with Sishang, the nobles of the world will surely praise you, saying that you have benevolence and righteousness, and the law of etiquette, but the problem is... Wei will definitely suffer heavy losses, and Qin and Zhao will benefit. In the future, will Qin and Zhao win the world? Will enshrine the people of Wei, Sacrificial to the emperor's contribution to eradicating the heresy of equality in Mohism?"

"Not only can't, but I'm afraid you will laugh at me, saying that you have exhausted all your strength and don't know how to advance or retreat, so that Qin and Zhao benefited and won the world."

"Your Majesty also knows about Duke Xiang of Song Dynasty. With his deeds, he is a real gentleman."

"However, do people in the world praise him more? Or do people ridicule him?"

"For a gentleman, you can sacrifice your life for the elimination of equality; for a monarch, if you think so, you may not be a hero, but you will be ridiculed by others."

"Your Majesty must understand that the righteousness of a gentleman is to restrain and rule his subordinates, not to be obeyed by the monarch himself. Song Xianggong did not understand this truth, but as a monarch, he had to abide by the morals that should be obeyed by a gentleman, so he was criticized by others. ridicule."

"Your Majesty needs to understand that etiquette is nothing more than utensils, and the difference between high and low is nothing but utensils. Only slaves and children die to make utensils, but they cannot be the people who use these utensils."

(End of this chapter)