Originally, Li Ran's wonderful discussion had already reached a consensus among the Jin people on the matter of the alliance.
But he never expected that the sudden appearance of Shu Qi, one of the ten great officials of the Jin Dynasty, would cause this matter to happen again.
As he said, "We will never refuse the meeting in Guodi", a murmur suddenly arose in Lingtai Palace.
"Lord Sima, what do you mean by this?!"
"I don't know. Could it be that Lord Sima is really old and confused? How can I, the Jin people, go to such an alliance?"
Because the female uncle Qi was the Sima of the Third Army of the Jin State, her status was not as good as that of the Six Ministers, but as one of the ten officials, she had a long seniority, so her personal prestige was extremely high. Even if the Marquis of Jin met him in person, he would still be polite. Of course, let alone these doctors.
Although they were all confused by his remarks, they could only whisper behind the scenes and did not dare to discuss it in public.
Zichan and Li Ran looked at each other again and shook their heads. They were both puzzled by what their female uncle Qi said.
"Marquis, what do you mean by this? Please make it clear."
The Marquis of Jin was also a little unhappy, and his tone couldn't help but become lower.
Upon hearing this, the female uncles raised their hands and once again glanced at all the officials present.
"Your Majesty, Chu has gone through eight generations since the rise of Duke Wu. Its national power has increased day by day, its military chariots have reached ten thousand, and its northward and eastward expansion has become increasingly evident."
"I heard this, 'If Heaven wants to take it, it must first give it to you.' But now that the prince wants to make an alliance with Guo, this may be because God wants him to be proud of it, or to aggravate his evil deeds. . Everything here is unknown! And whether the envoys he has sent to persuade our Jin State will have a happy ending in the future? This is also unknown. Therefore, our Jin State and Chu State can only depend on the will of God. When doing things, you must never argue with him. Why don't you just agree to his request? And continue to cultivate ourselves to wait for the fate of their Chu country?"
"If his prince is the one who aspires to be a virtuous government, then we might have to obey them in the future? Not to mention the other vassal states? If God wants to indulge them and let their country be ridiculous to the point of violence, Then Chu will naturally be abandoned by the princes, and who can compete with us for hegemony?"
What the female uncle Qi said was not unexciting.
However, the core idea is one: if you want to truly become the overlord of a country, only the virtue of a country is the most critical. In this regard, this is true for the Jin State, and even more so for the Chu State.
If Chu wants to be arrogant now, let him be arrogant. As long as we do what we should do, even if he is so arrogant, he will still suffer a big loss in the end. Why should we worry about him here?
The Marquis of Jin frowned when he heard the sound, and the gloomy look on his face became darker.
"There is some truth in what the Marquis said."
He had to admit it.
"However, if we do this, our country, Jin, will still lose face in the end."
"Besides, I think that our Jin State has three conditions to resist its threats. If I reject him, what can Chu State do to our Jin State? Firstly, our Jin State has a dangerous terrain; secondly, our Jin State has dangerous terrain. There are a large number of horses in the country, and it is not surprising that there are thousands of military chariots. Third, now that Qi and Chu are in trouble again, I have refused Chu’s invitation to form an alliance, and I dare not show up here. Do you want to act rashly?"
What Jin Hou said is not bad. After all, the internal and external mountains and rivers of the Jin State are the Jin State's greatest confidence.
The moral character of a country is indeed very important, but so what?
If I don’t go, I won’t go. Could it be that Prince Wei still dares to dream of leading his troops to drink in the Yellow River?
When Li Ran heard this, his expression gradually darkened and his brows furrowed.
"No! What Jin Hou said is untenable. Now he has really fallen into the trap of female uncle Qi."
He is here to advise you to cultivate your virtue and wait for the day, but you actually want to confront him?
When the female uncle heard the sound, she let out an old, hoarse, yet extremely deep laugh. He bowed to the Marquis of Jin again, and then continued:
"Your Majesty, if our country of Jin wants to rely on the dangerous terrain and large number of horses, and also takes pleasure in the civil strife in neighboring countries, these are not the three benefits of our country of Jin, but precisely the three most dangerous places of our country of Jin. ! Your Majesty, please think carefully. Siyue, Santu, Yangcheng, Dashi, Jingshan, Zhongnan and other famous mountains are all dangerous places in Kyushu, but these places have never been continuously ruled by one surname. . And there are indeed many good horses in the north of our Jin State, but there was no decent country in that area before the rule of our Jin State. Therefore, it can be seen that the dangerous terrain and the geographical advantage of many horses, these two This condition cannot serve as the foundation of a country, and this has been the case since ancient times!”
"Therefore, kings of various countries throughout history must cultivate benevolence to worship the gods and appease the people. But Hou has never heard that the foundation of a country depends on difficult terrain and numerous horses!"
"In addition, your Majesty's so-called 'tribulations in neighboring countries' are also unreliable. Some countries have a lot of hardships, but they are able to consolidate the country, and in the future they can expand their territory and add more people. And some countries are always We were in a situation where there was no trouble, but in the end most of them lost their country. Things like this have happened everywhere since King Wu divided the world, and there are too many to mention. Therefore, why should we be happy because of the troubles of our neighboring countries?"
"I think back then, Gongsun Wuzhi of Qi State wanted to seize power, and Qi State had civil strife. However, it was precisely because of this that the rise of Duke Huan of Qi came to be, so that Qi State is still relying on Duke Huan of Qi. Hegemony. And look at our Jin State. At that time, Rick and Pi Zheng were in chaos, but in the end, our Jin State finally gained the hegemony of our ancestor Wen Gong, so that our Jin State is still the leader of the world to this day. .So other people’s suffering is not worthy of our joy.”
"If your Majesty only wants to rely on these three, but does not want to cultivate political and religious benevolence, how can you revive the hegemony of our Jin country?"
"So, please agree to Prince Chu's request to form an alliance. If your Majesty still can't figure it out, why don't you think about why King Zhou of Shang was so desolate and chaotic, but King Wen of Zhou wanted to be friendly with him? Therefore, Ji Zhou was destroyed and Ji Zhou prospered. If you think about this, you should understand that if you are the master of the world, how can you use it to fight for the princes?"
The female uncle Qi refuted the three points of the Marquis of Jin one by one. It can be said that every word is accurate and every sentence is reasonable. Even Li Ran couldn't help but be impressed when he heard the sound.
Although Confucius has not yet "cultivated successfully", he is still on the road of studying Deren. However, these words of the female uncle Qi can already be regarded as a model of Confucian governance. Treat others with chaos with benevolent governance, do not fight or rob, nurture the people with virtuous governance, and neither get angry nor rejoice. This is the way to become a great nation and the foundation of a thousand-year hegemony.
The Marquis of Jin looked extremely pale, but he had no words to refute.
All the officials in Lingtai Palace also fell silent one after another, with heavy expressions on their faces, so that they could only sigh and nod.
"Yes, what Master Sima said makes sense. Since the Song Alliance is ahead of us, how can we not cultivate Mingde when we are a large country in Jin?"
"Cultivating moral virtue is the foundation of a country."
"Please, Your Majesty, think twice!"
For a time, the ministers and officials who were originally opposed to participating in the alliance all bowed to the Marquis of Jin and asked him to agree to participate in the alliance. In an instant, the situation suddenly changed.
Zichan looked at Li Ran again, and both of them shook their heads slightly.
It's not that Li Ran has nothing to say to refute Nv Shuqi, but from the perspective of moral supremacy, he can no longer refute verbally.
If a country wants to have a deep foundation, cultivating morals is obviously the first priority. If he refutes at this time, it will be suspected of harming the Jin State. If not, he will eventually be hated by the whole Jin State.
"Every experience brings wisdom, and I learned something again."
Li Ran couldn't help but admire this female uncle. After all, in the Jin Kingdom today, he was probably the only one who could say these words.
The Marquis of Jin was silent for a long time. Faced with the reverse situation in the court, he thought over and over again and finally agreed.
The Marquis of Jin also knows the importance of depth and importance. He is not the king of Chu, so naturally he will not be too willful.
Therefore, whether it is due to the situation or from the perspective of the long-term development of Jin State, these words of Nu Shuqi are extremely reasonable and irrefutable.
