Regarding Li Ran's recommendation of Shen Wuyu as the Yin of Zhongli County, King Chu's suspicion was almost inevitable.
He looked at Li Ran with confusion and asked:
"Shen Wuyu?... This person's official position is no more than that of Yu Yin. He is a subordinate official of our Chu state, and he is not a descendant of a large family in our Chu state. Isn't it inappropriate to confer such a distinguished position as Duke Zhongli County? Why would you, sir, let such a person serve?"
"Furthermore, as far as I know, Shen Wuyu has no contact with Mr. Sir. Why did Mr. Sir recommend this person?"
He did not directly ask about the relationship between Li Ran and Shen Wuyu. After all, asking like this would make him appear too suspicious.
But the underlying meaning of his words expressed this very clearly.
What is Shen Wuyu's identity?
What is Li Ran's identity?
You recommended Shen Wuyu so openly, could it be possible that you two have really become allies?
"Haha, Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. I have nothing to do with Shen Wuyu."
Li Ran directly answered Chu King's doubts without thinking, and continued to speak bluntly:
"The reason why I recommend this person is because I see that this person can speak out, dare to advise, and is loyal to the emperor. This person thinks about what the emperor has done, and says what the emperor cannot do. He is sincere and true, which is really rare!"
"Such loyal people should be reused. Please give me a warning, Your Majesty."
Li Ran recommended Shen Wuyu because of his character.
But that's not the only reason.
The King of Chu obviously knew that what Li Ran said was true, but just hearing Li Ran's words made him a little uneasy after all.
"Cheating Kangxi"
So, he continued to ask:
"Shen Wuyu said bluntly before that he was remonstrating, and I have already seen it before. This statement is indeed true."
"But this person has done nothing for our country of Chu. If he only benefited from the position of Zhongli County Yin, wouldn't it be outrageous? If everyone was rewarded in this way, the number of county officials in our Chu country would have been reduced to nothing. Countless.”
"The Yin of Zhongli County is of great significance to me. Sir, do you know?"
In fact, who doesn’t know that Zhongli is very important to the Chu State?
Everyone knows this.
But the King of Chu didn't say that. He only said that it was very important to him.
Among the people present, only Li Ran, Wu Ju and a few others understood the meaning of King Chu's words.
As mentioned before, the King of Chu asked Li Ran to serve as the Duke of Zhongli County in order to leave room for himself in the future. If there was real turmoil in Chu State in the future, he would have a place to preserve the core strength of Chu State and gain momentum. Where the counterattack lies.
Moreover, this place is adjacent to the Central Plains. As an ambiguous buffer zone with other countries in the Central Plains, the King of Chu naturally did not trust others to guard it. The only one he could trust and believed in his ability to guard it was Li Ran.
He deliberately mentioned that this place was very important to him, hoping that Li Ran would understand the painstaking efforts he had put into making such arrangements.
When Li Ran heard what King Chu said, he immediately reacted.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly smiled and said:
"In this case, the king should let Shen Wuyu take up this position."
As soon as these words came out, King Chu was immediately speechless.
How come you still don't understand, no matter what?
Can the position of Zhongli County Yin be such a simple matter?
"What exactly do you want to say, sir?"
The displeasure on King Chu's face suddenly became even worse.
He knew that Li Ran should have understood what he meant at this moment, but Li Ran still insisted on recommending Shen Wuyu. In his opinion, this was undoubtedly deliberately looking for trouble, so of course he was not very happy.
Seeing this, Li Ran bowed to King Chu again.
Everyone was startled when they saw this.
They knew that Li Ran was going to start telling stories again.
King Chu also looked at Li Ran in surprise and thought, this is so good, why do you need to tell a story again?
Li Ran telling stories is equivalent to brainwashing.
So scary!
King Chu almost stopped breathing, but he had no choice but to let it go.
After Li Ran collected his thoughts for a while, he began to say:
"Since ancient times, laws have been made to regulate the people, and punishments have been made to control the people. The matters of criminal law have always been imposed only on the people."
"However, everyone knows that if the emperor, princes, ministers and dignitaries also lose their virtue, the consequences will be a hundred times more harmful than the common people!"
"For example, there are many lessons learned from King Zhou Li and King You in ancient times."
"King Li has no principles, and passers-by look at him, which will eventually lead to resentment among the people."
"Then King You went even further. He ignored the Zhou rites and violated the ancestral system. In the end, his country was ruined and he died."
"It can be seen that all the princes and princes, including the emperor, should be blamed if they make a big mistake. They are not allowed to do whatever they want just because of their status as the emperor and princes."
After hearing this, everyone present was confused, but they still nodded in agreement.
What's the point?
The reason why everyone nodded there was because what Li Ran said did make sense.
After all, these two lessons learned not so long ago and are familiar to them.
But why is it so confusing?
That's because what Li Ran said was obviously out of context. What does the matter between King Zhou Li and King You have to do with Shen Wuyu?
"When King Wen, the first king of Chu, was alive, he got Ruhuang's dog and Wanlu's scorpion, which he used to grudge Yunmeng, but he did not rebel for three months; he got Dan's concubine, who was promiscuous and refused to listen to the court for many years."
"This is the history of Chu, everyone should know it, right?"
Li Ran looked around and saw that everyone, including King Chu, was silent.
They obviously knew what this was all about.
What is this thing about?
Don't worry, let's first introduce the two protagonists of this story, one of which is King Chu Wen.
Since he was able to obtain the posthumous title "Wen" after his death, his ability must not be much worse. The evaluation of "Chu History" is: tough as thunder and electricity, and cunning as clouds and rain.
Seven parts majestic, three parts mediocre, unconventional and extremely unconventional way of thinking, he was able to destroy Shen, Deng, Xi and Cai successively on the basis of King Wu of Chu in just a few decades. Several small countries and so on completely opened the way for Chu State to enter the Central Plains from the north.
And Chu State has truly moved from a barbarian country to the international stage. The role played by King Chu Wen is obviously needless to say.
It was also in his era that the Chu State's desire to "see China's politics" for more than a hundred years was basically realized.
The other protagonist of this story is Shen Wuyu’s ancestor, Bao Shen.
Baoshen, originally from the Shen Kingdom, was brought back from the Shen Kingdom by King Wu of Chu when he attacked Shen.
After he came to Chu State, King Wu of Chu saw that he was full of knowledge and knowledgeable about the past and the present, so he asked him to be the teacher of his legitimate son, who later became the tutor of King Chu Wen.
But unlike the so-called imperial masters of later generations, the Taifus of that era were not actually serious ministers. Therefore, although Baoshen was the teacher of King Chu Wen, his status in Chu State was not very high.
After introducing all the previous ones, the next step is the highlight of this story.
——
Chapter 313_Two generations, one thing
The thing is like this, as mentioned in the previous article (ancient text): King Chu Wen once got a pet dog, a good bow, and a beautiful woman, so he spent the whole day playing with dogs and hunting in the world. And played with beautiful women.
After Shen Wuyu's ancestor Baoshen found out, he said to King Wen of Chu:
"Now the king has acquired a dog from Ruhuang, a dog of Wanlu, which will not rebel for three months; and a concubine from Dan, who is a prostitute and refuses to obey the court for many years, the king's crime shall be whipped."
What does this mean?
Translated simply, it means: The king plays with dogs every day, sleeps with beautiful women, and does not go to court for a whole year. He should be punished by whipping.
When a dignified king is actually said by his own ministers that he should be punished by whipping. You can use your toes to imagine how big of a fuss this is.
What's more, King Chu Wen is still such a heroic leader!
Whip him?
Who can whip him? Who dares to do this?
This person is none other than Shen Wuyu’s ancestor, Bao Shen.
He takes care of things that others dare not take care of.
He does what others dare not do.
What others dare not offend, he offends.
And this is what Baoshen will do next:
"The king's sins deserve to be whipped. I would rather blame the king for my crimes, and my mother for the past king."
What does that mean? It is your father who arranged for me to educate you, guide you, and assist you. If I don't beat you, I would be sorry for your father.
So I'm sorry, I have to whip you today.
And King Wen of Chu was worthy of being a hero of his generation. Seeing Baoshen being so determined, he seemed to truly realize his own problem.
So, he took the initiative to kneel on the ground, and without saying a word, Baoshen bundled fifty fine thorns, knelt down and held the thorn stick, only symbolically hit King Chu Wen on the back, and said, "The king is up."
When things developed to this point, King Wen of Chu's image of being open-minded and willing to be taught was already very clear, while Bao Shen's image of being outspoken and able to give advice was also very clear.
Logically speaking, the story should end here.
But in fact not yet.
At this juncture, King Chu Wen was still unwilling to let go, and actually wanted to get worse.
That's right, how can he demonstrate his own open-minded attitude by doing things so perfunctorily?
So, at this time, he actually took the initiative and said to Baoshen:
"It's called flogging!" (King Wen told Bao Shen, if you want Bao Shen, don't pretend to beat him, if you want to beat him, do it for real!)
If it were someone else at this time, how would they react when they heard what King Chu said?
It must have scared me to death. Everyone must feel that what King Chu Wen said is ironic.
Can this be a real fight? Who dares to fight? If the following is committed, this disagreement may be a serious crime that will destroy the whole family!
But just because others don't dare, doesn't mean he doesn't dare. When Baoshen heard this, he really whipped King Wen with a thorn stick!
The great leader of the generation, King Wen of Chu, was whipped with a wattle stick by Baoshen.
And the final script was very cliche.
After Baoshen finished smoking, he first fell into the abyss and asked for death.
King Wen sent someone to comfort him and said:
"This is a fault of not being honest. What's Bao Shen's crime?"
…
"After that, King Wen summoned Baoshen to kill Ruhuang's dog, analyze Wanlu's hair, and release Dan's concubine. After the Chu Kingdom, he conquered thirty-nine countries. Those who made the Chu Kingdom so vast were all Baoshen's power. .”
Li Ran recounted Baoshen's deeds like countless treasures, and attributed all the achievements of Chu's annexation and annihilation of thirty-nine countries to Baoshen. This was obviously an exaggeration.
After all, Baoshen just did what he should do as a teacher.
But it is not difficult to see from this that Baoshen's influence on King Chu Wen and the entire Chu State was not without profound influence.
After Li Ran finished speaking, the camp became quiet.
This story is not a folk anecdote, but something actually recorded in the history of Chu. Therefore, everyone present, especially the ministers and officials, are familiar with this matter.
Of course this includes King Xiong Wei of Chu.
"The late King Wen, King Wen, was a man of great talent and strategy. His ambition was as high as the sky. He knew how to do his job well. He knew his mistakes and would correct them. He laid the foundation for our country of Chu. He was truly a heroic leader of his generation!"
As a descendant of King Wen, King Xiong Wei of Chu naturally wanted to show his respect for him at this time.
But he only used the words "If you know your mistakes, you must correct them" to summarize what Li Ran just said.
There was a small detail, or a hidden fact, that he did not choose to reveal.
Hearing that the King of Chu was avoiding the important and taking the easy, Li Ran of course refused to let him go, and immediately bowed to him and said:
"What the king said is true."
"The ambition of the ancestor of the Chu Kingdom, King Wen, was to capture the moon in the nine heavens, and to capture the Kun in the four seas. Since the king is the successor of King Wen, he should always cherish the ambition of the ancestor and never forget it."
"But the king knows that Baoshen's ambition to serve the king is as strong as a rock in the frosty weather."
"And the reason why I recommend Shen Wuyu is precisely because he is a descendant of Baoshen!"
One is a descendant of King Chu Wen, and the other is a descendant of Baoshen. The two generations are hundreds of years apart, but exactly the same thing happened, but the results were different.
The reason why Li Ran wanted to tell this story was precisely because this story could not be more relevant to the current King of Chu and Shen Wuyu.
Since King Wen of Chu was able to change his past mistakes under Baoshen's "whipping", he washed away his bad habits and showed his proud talents and strategies.
So now, can't you, the King of Chu, follow Shen Wuyu's advice and follow the example of your ancestors and treat Shen Wuyu favorably to show your great ambition as the King of Chu?
As the saying goes, loyal words are harsh to the ears. As a descendant of Baoshen, Shen Wuyu still upholds the excellent qualities of being loyal to the country and fulfilling his responsibilities to the emperor.
Then can't you, King Xiong Wei of Chu, have the mind of the late King Wen, and the courage and courage to correct your mistakes after you know them?
Li Ran did not say these words in front of King Chu, because after he revealed Shen Wuyu's life experience, these words were equivalent to having been said.
Among the people present, how many of them didn’t know what Li Ran meant?
Since everyone is understanding, just stop there.
King Chu obviously understood the reason why Li Ran wanted to tell this story.
First, it was in response to his so-called statement that "Shen Wuyu has no merit."
After all, since people have the courage, they can boldly advise. This can be regarded as the only contribution in Chu State. And his contribution is completely comparable to that of his ancestor-Baoshen
Secondly, it also responded to his so-called argument that "Shen Wuyu is not from a wealthy family in Chu".
His ancestor was also famous, and he once assisted King Wen of Chu, the great sage Baoshen. As far as this level of status is concerned, there are probably only a handful of people in the Chu Kingdom who can compare with him.
So, King Chu Xiong looked at Li Ran and thought for a long time.
Now there is a fact that he has to admit, that is, he is indeed much worse than his ancestor King Wen.
But how could he, who had always been proud and even arrogant, admit this in front of everyone?
Since Shen Wuyu had done the same thing as his ancestors, could it be that Xiong Wei, the King of Chu, really couldn't do it?
After a while, King Chu looked at Li Ran with a ashamed expression, sighed and said:
"I would like to learn from your words today."
"Since it is your recommendation, I should accept it."
Yes, in the end King Chu agreed to Li Ran's recommendation.
And Li Ran's terrifying ability to tell stories has been verified once again.
