Just a dream and Gubu Ziqing's words were not enough to make Zhao Yang rashly abolish and establish major events. Zhao Yang has seen too much of the ups and downs of an official life, the rise and fall of honor and disgrace, and all kinds of people have passed under his eyes one by one. He needed to use his own method to examine Zhao Wuxie to see if he was his ideal successor.
To be a future clan leader, you must first set an example and abide by the precepts of your ancestors. Zhao Yang then carved the ancestral precepts on two bamboo slips and gave them to the current prince Bolu and the concubine Wuxie respectively. He told them to understand them carefully and recite them on time, and explained that they would be tested based on the ancestral precepts and rules. However, one year passed, and two years passed. Zhao Yang seemed to have forgotten all about the matter, and Bolu's initial worry gradually relaxed. But one day in the third year, Zhao Yang suddenly called for the two of them and asked them to recite the contents of their ancestors' instructions. Boru was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. Even if he had memorized it back then, how could he still remember it after so long? Bolu turned to look at Wujie, but his heart suddenly sank when he saw his face was expressionless and confident. Sure enough, Wuxie calmly recited the ancestral precepts, every word of which was correct. After finishing carrying the shirt, he touched his left sleeve with his right hand and pulled out the bamboo slip. The color of the bamboo slips has become darker, and you can faintly see the traces of Wu Shi's caressing and palming her day and night. And Bolu's piece of bamboo slips had been thrown away by him at an unknown time and place.
Zhao Yang's face was full of smiles, and he said "ok" twice to Wuxie, then turned to look at Bolu who looked embarrassed, sighing inwardly, but said nothing more. But I believe Boru also knows in his heart that since then, his position as heir has become even more unstable. He is a loyal person and doesn't care about these things. If one day he can relieve the family burden, he might sing a little song to celebrate.
After receiving Zhao Yang's praise, Wuxie still looked unfazed, but he was really happy in his heart. He had been waiting for this day for too long. Since his mother was a maid of the Zhai clan, Wuxie had been living like dust since he was born into the clan, and no one looked at him twice. There were occasional exceptions, but they all looked at him with contempt. However, this "ghost"-like bystander has long quietly seen the inside and outside of this family in the indifference of others. He needs a chance to prove his existence. He wants to shake off the dirt on his body and release Thousands of golden lights of the true nature of life.
Examining the ancestral precepts in school is just a small test. Another time, Zhao Yang told his sons that he had hidden a treasure talisman in Changshan. Whoever could find the treasure talisman first would be heavily rewarded. At that time, Zhao Yang's beard and hair were gray, and his sons were all eldest, so this was not a game, but another test to choose an heir. Everyone knew this very well, so they all rushed into Changshan to search anxiously, feeling excited and nervous at the same time. Only Wu Shi still maintained his confident and leisurely attitude.
At dusk, the young men came back dejected one by one. They found nothing. At this time, Wujie stood up and said loudly: "I have found the treasure talisman!" Zhao Yang looked at him, his eyes full of surprise: "Tell me about it!" A smile escaped from the corner of Wujie's mouth: "Under Changshan is Daiguo , we set out from the secret path in the mountain, from a high position, we can capture the country of Dai in one fell swoop!" Only then did Zhao Yang know that Gubu Ziqing had a unique eye, and that being without a shirt was indeed not a thing in the pond, and he wanted to attack the country of Dai, wouldn't it be confirmed? What did the dream interpreter say? Everyone in the Zhao family expressed their admiration for Wuxie. So Zhao Yang abolished Bolu's crown prince position and replaced him with Wuxie.
On the road to becoming the patriarch of the Zhao family, although Wuxie won the support of his tribe, he was still unable to get rid of the strong interference of outsiders. This outsider was Zhiyao, who was later called Zhibo.
Gratitude over a glass of wine
The reason why the Zhi family suddenly became the most powerful family in Jin is because when they eliminated the Fan family and the Zhongxing family, the Zhi family occupied all the land of the two families. At that time, Zhiyao had already become the head of the Zhi clan.
Wuxie is the concubine of the Zhao family, and there are many obstacles to inheriting the Zhao family's legacy. Zhiyao is the legitimate son of the Zhi family, so he is in a very advantageous position in the competition for successors. The threat to him from the other candidate Zhixiao is quite limited.
The previous patriarch of the Zhi family was Zhishen, Zhiyao's father, and he had long been inclined to make Zhiyao his heir. However, although Zhixiao did not have much opportunity to perform meritorious service, nor did he have the help of an expert like Gubu Ziqing, it did not mean that he did not have supporters behind him. His uncle - and of course Zhiyao's uncle - Zhiguo has always been on his side.
So when Zhishen announced Zhiyao as the heir at the family meeting, Zhiguo immediately objected: "Zhixiao is much better than Zhiyao, we should make Zhixiao instead." Zhishen contradicted others in person and frowned. Yue said: "Zhixiao has a ferocious face and is really not suitable to be the head of the family."
Zhiguo continued: "There are fictions and realities in the world, true and false, and we cannot make judgments based on appearances alone. Zhixiao looks fierce, but Zhiyao is poisonous in his heart. Zhiyao has a long beard and beautiful beard, is strong enough to carry a cauldron, rides a horse and drives a chariot. , outstanding, quick thinking, good conversational skills, and perseverance, these are his advantages. But he is too narrow-minded, and he will retaliate. If others touch him, he will cut off their limbs. Such cruelty is heart-breaking. Liang, how can I convince the public, and how can I ensure the peace and prosperity of my Zhi family? Virtue is the leader of talent, and Zhiyao's virtue is not enough to control his talent. If he is established as his heir, it will definitely bring disaster to our Zhi family. !”
To be fair, what Zhiguo said is very reasonable. Although most of the kings in later generations were people who licked blood with their swords, were cruel and easy to kill, and were mean and ungrateful, the times were different and we cannot generalize them. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the reforms in various countries had not yet officially begun, so the systems of each country still adopted the feudal system. The king of a country did not have absolute authority and had to work with subordinate nobles - such as officials and scholars - to govern the country. Therefore, later generations of kings could rely on their great power to maintain a relatively stable political situation with unlimited violent suppression. However, in the late Spring and Autumn Period, this method was not feasible. Zhiyao is determined to retaliate. He is blindly forceful and does not know how to compromise and cooperate. It is indeed easy to alienate everyone and lead to disaster.
However, Zhishen had already made up his mind at this time. He held a family meeting just to announce the news and had no intention of discussing it with everyone. So after Zhiguo finished speaking, he didn't even say anything to refute, and directly gave Zhiyao the gift of heir. The strong-minded Zhiguo left the meeting in anger, went home to pack his luggage, left the Zhi family with his wife and children, and ran to the Taishi of Jin who was in charge of sacrifices. He expressed his separation from the Zhi family, changed his name to the auxiliary family, and established another ancestral temple. The sad Zhiguo probably had superhuman sensitivity. He seemed to have seen the future downfall of the Zhishi family in his blurred eyes.
Sun Wuzi was in the late Spring and Autumn Period, when an important military revolution was taking place in ancient my country. The earlier traditional fighting method of fighting in formation and fighting with courtesy was gradually abandoned. The core idea of "The Art of War" written by Sun Wuzi is that in order to win on the battlefield, you can use any means to win. The so-called "war is established by deception", which is also what later generations called "war never tires of deceit".
Zhiyao, who was born eighty or ninety years later than Sun Wuzi, even more vividly displayed his "war is never tired of deceit".
After Zhiyao succeeded Zhao Yang and became the first ruler of Jin, King Wu sent Chishi as an envoy to Jin to congratulate Zhiyao. When Chishi completed his mission and returned to the Kingdom of Wu, Zhiyao changed his past greed and insisted on sending Chishi back home in a luxurious boat. Chishi felt strange in his heart. He didn't know what Zhiyao's intention was. After careful observation, he discovered that there were countless soldiers with armor and halberds hidden on the giant boat. Zhiyao was actually preparing to give Weiguo a fatal blow when the giant boat passed by Weiguo.
It turns out that the gift was false, but the attack on Weiguo was true. But this move was too self-serving and harmful to others. When the Wei Kingdom was annexed by the Jin Kingdom ruled by Zhiyao, everyone in the world would think that Chishi had accepted Zhiyao's bribe, so they colluded with him and provided cover for his attack on the Wei Kingdom. Akaichi wouldn't do this kind of thing that attracts people's attention. So he pretended to be sick and stayed in Jin State, asking Zhiyao to serve him with good food and drink, and his plan to attack Wei State was invisibly aborted. After all, raising troops is a matter of life and death for the country, and the situation in the world is changing rapidly, so there is not always a suitable opportunity to send troops.
Qiuyou is a vassal state of Zhongshan, and Zhiyao has coveted its land for a long time. Unfortunately, the road between Jin and Qiuyou was too narrow and rugged, so the chariot, the most important combat tool on the battlefield at that time, could not drive through it at all.
Zhiyao thought day and night about the path that blocked his progress, and finally asked him to come up with a solution. He had a large bell cast. The diameter of the bell is exactly equal to the width of the chariot. After the bell was cast, he gave it to the king of Qiuyou and asked him to send someone to get it. The simple-minded King Qiuyou ordered his army to open up roads and open mountains. However, when he happily welcomed back the big bell with exquisite craftsmanship and melodious bells, he was surprised to find that the Jin army was following behind him.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!" Qiu You's voice of national subjugation echoed mercilessly in the world.
From these two things, we can see that Zhiyao is indeed talented. He is the kind of "good attacker" mentioned in "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, who "moves above the nine heavens", uses mercury to pour down the ground, and uses every possible means, so even the envoys of Wu State congratulating him can be used as a cover. Attacking Weiguo, and when the target is Qiuyouguo, he can also cast a big bell to make the opponent dig his own grave. His flexibility of thought is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
However, God is fair. If he gives you advantages and privileges in some aspects, he will weaken you in other aspects. Therefore, geniuses are almost all "partial talents". As Zhiguo said, Zhiyao is narrow-minded and cannot achieve great things.
In 468 BC, Zhiyao, the first ruler of Jin State, sent troops with various families to attack Zheng State. At that time, Zhao Yang was already old and ill, so it was Prince Wuxie who represented the Zhao family and led the Zhao soldiers to the expedition.
There has always been a saying that "Zheng Sheng is obscene". How can a country that sings, dances, drinks and composes poems all day long withstand the tiger and wolf Jin army that has been fighting for a long time? So it didn't take much effort for the Jin people to attack Zheng's capital. Generally speaking, wars during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period started from the "wild", that is, the borders of various countries, and sieges were often the final stage of the war.
Since the population was sparse at that time and the boundaries were unclear, wars fought in the "wild" often ended quickly and were not too tragic, but sieges were not the same thing. For people in the city, if the city is broken, they often face the danger of men being captured and women being insulted, so they will fight to the death. Generally, a certain amount of food was stored in the city, and the city walls were built very tall and strong at that time. Therefore, the city defenders were condescending, taking advantage of the favorable location and people, and often took the initiative.
On the other hand, for the siegeers, their own side will inevitably suffer a large number of casualties before the defenders are short of materials and lose their combat effectiveness. When attacking a city, you are fighting for your life, and often you use ten of your own lives to win one of the enemy's lives. This is equivalent to sending your own people to be killed by the enemy, thus consuming their supplies and combat power!
If the command is unified, there will be no problems when Jin attacks Zheng. The problem lies in the fact that the Jin army is a coalition of several forces. Therefore, for such a thankless task as siege, several factions passed the blame to each other, and no one was willing to suffer this loss. Naturally, Zhiyao would not be such a pushover, so she winked at Zhao Wuxie and asked him to lead the Zhao army to attack the city. Wuxie thought to himself: "If you don't want to suffer, am I a fool?" So Wuxie remained silent and ignored Zhiyao. Zhiyao was angry, but now was a critical time in the war, and it was not good to have an attack in front of the army.
But since both sides had their own little plans, the siege ultimately came to nothing. However, after all, the Jin coalition captured a large amount of Zheng's property and population, which was considered a great victory, so a banquet was held to celebrate.
At the banquet, Zhiyao, who was sitting in the chair, was in high spirits. He kept drinking and finally became drunk. He pointed at Wuxie and said contemptuously: "You are ugly, timid, and disgusting. I really don't know how General Zhao chose you to succeed the family head. Is it possible that there is no one in the Zhao family?" Wuxie He looked at Zhiyao without giving in and said, "My father picked me because I can endure it!"
Zhiyao laughed wildly: "Show me!" After saying that, he shook off the wine glass in his hand and threw it towards Wu Shi's face. Wujie was sitting at the seat next to Zhiyao. He had no time to dodge at such a short distance, and the wine glass hit him on his forehead. Blood flowed through Shirtless's eyes and down his cheeks. All the retainers of the Zhao family couldn't stand it and drew their swords to kill Zhiyao. The Zhi family's retainers also drew their swords and faced each other one by one, and the atmosphere was immediately on the verge of breaking out.
Zhiyao looked at Wuxie coldly, waiting for his reaction. At this time, Wu Shi took out a piece of silk from his arms, wiped the blood from his face, turned around and said to the retainers: "Back off!" There was an undeniable flavor in his tone. Everyone had no choice but to sheath their swords and return to their original places to stand. Seeing this, everyone in the Zhi family had no choice but to return to their positions.
Seeing Wuxie holding the silk cloth firmly on his forehead, looking at his expressionless face, Zhiyao's heart tightened for no reason. But this feeling was fleeting, and he didn't take it to heart.
After returning to Zhao's house, everyone asked Wuxie why he didn't let them take action to avenge his shame. Wuxie said: "A small impatience will ruin a big plan. The reason why my father chose me as his successor is because I can bear the humiliation and bear the burden. Let's take a long-term view. We are not Zhi's opponents now." Of course, in Wuxie's heart, Zhishi Yao and him are already in a life-or-death situation.
After a drunken quarrel, Zhiyao once suggested to Zhao Yang that he should abolish Wujie. Zhao Yang tried his best to select this precious son, but of course he would not listen to him. However, Wujie eventually found out about this, and Wujie became even more hostile to Zhiyao.
Soon Zhao Yang died of illness, and Wuxie became the head of the Zhao family.
