Emperor Shuang: The counterattack started from the Gaopingling Incident Chapter 366: Making good use of morality, the difference between talking and doing
Chapter 366: Making good use of morality, the difference between talking and doing
Cao Shuang smiled and said: "Emperor Wu did a good job in making good use of morality and justice in the Battle of Guandu. When he was at a disadvantage in the early stage, he used the emperor in his hands for righteousness. When he had an advantage in the later stage, he discarded it, just to further drive Yuan Benchu to death.
There are really few people who can match it.”
The failure of the Battle of Guandu was also related to morality. Yuan Shao's failure had a deep relationship with his two counselors. In addition, Yuan Shao was indecisive. One of Yuan Shao's famous counselors was named Jushou, who had previously suggested that he threaten the emperor with the emperor.
Let the people of the princes!
At that time, Yuan Shao did not listen to him. Before the Battle of Guandu started, he once advised Yuan Shao not to fight, but Yuan Shao did not listen to him! At that time, Yuan Shao wanted to directly defeat Cao Cao through the Battle of Guandu. It is written in the history books that he
I want to "accomplish all my efforts in one battle."
At that time, Yuan Shao's counselors Ju Sue and Tian Feng had already anticipated such an outcome, so they firmly opposed Yuan Shao's "Battle of Guandu". Ju Sue was captured by Cao Cao, and Tian Feng was imprisoned!
Because his war was unjust and devoid of morality, but morality was on the side of Cao Cao, who "held the emperor to order the princes", allowing Emperor Wu, a person who seemed unjust to everyone in the world, to take advantage of morality. The main reason for Jushou's opposition was also
so!
Jushu said that the world was in chaos and the people were in dire straits. Your Majesty had just settled down, so there was no reason to start a war. We had already obtained the land of Jizhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, and the four states. We had eliminated Gongsun Zan, and we should report our victory to your Majesty.
If Cao Cao stops us, we can sue Cao Cao for blocking the royal road! Then we can send troops to harass him, and then deal with him slowly.
He suggested: It is reasonable to put Cao Cao in an unjust position and turn his political advantages into disadvantages; use guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare to deal with Cao Cao, which is low cost, low risk, and high in benefits! It is beneficial; work step by step, accept when things are good, and seize the opportunity.
Eliminating Cao Cao is called discipline! This analysis is quite accurate, but what?
Yuan Shao didn't listen, but he listened to Guo Tu, who was the judge. Both of them supported Cao Cao to immediately gather 100,000 elite troops and approach Xudu.
Why did Shen Pei and Guo Tu advocate so? Shen Pei was confused, and Guo Tu was flattering! Guo Tu knew him well and knew that Yuan Shao was stubborn! When Ju Shou saw that the situation was not good, he came out to speak again.
"Three Kingdoms" says: To save chaos and punish violence, we call it righteous soldiers, and to rely on the strength of the masses, we call it arrogant soldiers. The righteousness of soldiers is invincible, and the arrogant will be destroyed first. The emperor is in Xu, and our troops have no name, but they violate righteousness. Politically, this is
Lost one move first!
And relying on the strong to bully the weak and using power to bully others is another moral defeat. If we don't pay attention to some strategies, we still want quick success, we still want to preemptively strike, and we still want to accomplish all the results in one battle, then we have lost three more strategic moves!
This war is definitely unwinnable, and what Jushou said actually speaks to the fundamentals.
What is war? War is a continuation of politics, so whether it is politically beneficial and morally justified to conduct a war is very important! And Yuan Shao's loss was first caused by this place!
It can be said that political injustice, moral injustice, and strategic missteps were the primary reasons for his failure. However, after all, Yuan Shao had many soldiers and generals. He believed that political defeats could be redeemed through military gains, but he was wrong.
, so in the end he failed.
But when Wuchao burned Yuan Shao's army's food and grass, Cao Cao abandoned morality and resorted to sneak attacks. But only in this way can he speed up the victory of the war and prevent the situation from reversing again.
Morality, benevolence and righteousness were just tools in the hands of Emperor Wu. They were used when appropriate and discarded when inappropriate. This was not just a day or two, but hundreds of years.
When the country and the country are in a state of disorder, it is often the time when human nature and morality are most tested. Although the princes during the Spring and Autumn Period did not take the Emperor of Zhou seriously, they generally paid attention to moral principles. After all, there were more than 200 Zhou rites.
The influence of the year cannot be trampled on wantonly.
However, during the Warring States Period, the situation was different. The princes gradually abandoned moralism and turned to pragmatism, doing whatever it took to achieve the goal. The initiator of this was the Qin State. It can be said that the rise of the Qin State was accompanied by the decline of morality.
.
All this starts with Shang Yang's reform. Shang Yang's reform indeed followed the development trend of feudal society and made Qin become a superpower at that time.
However, Shang Yang's reform overemphasized pragmatism and ignored moralism. In the long run, it did more harm than good to the development of society. After being baptized by Shang Yang's reform thoughts, the Qin State gradually degenerated into a tiger and wolf country that only pursued interests and ignored morality.
country.
It destroyed the law of war that the two countries did not kill the envoys during the war. In 340 BC, Duke Xiao of Qin sent Shang Yang to attack Wei, and Wei Ang, the general of Wei, led the troops to defend against the enemy.
Since Shang Yang was an official in Wei State, he was an old friend of Wei Ang. Shang Yang used a trick to deceive Wei Ang into the Qin camp and imprison him in the name of an alliance.
The Wei army was in chaos without its leader, and was defeated by Shang Yang.
Although Shang Yang won military victory, it was at the expense of morality.
First of all, Shang Yang defrauded his friends' trust and used friendship to achieve his goals. His character is so despicable that no one would dare to associate with him in the future.
Secondly, it is an eternal iron law that the two countries should not kill each other when fighting. You, Shang Yang, broke it so blatantly. Although you did not kill Wei Ang, what is the essential difference between kidnapping and beheading? Besides, you invited the other party to your door.
.
It set a precedent for large-scale killing of prisoners of war. One of Shang Yang's reforms was to introduce military merit into the nobility system, and the number of enemy heads killed was used as the criterion for calculating military merit. So the Qin army became a group of murderous demons when they arrived on the battlefield, and killing prisoners became the Qin army's
It was common practice, and Qin General Bai Qi set a precedent for killing prisoners in large numbers, each time tens of thousands of prisoners.
In the Battle of Yique, 240,000 Han and Wei coalition forces were killed; in the Battle of Shangdang, 130,000 Han, Zhao, and Wei coalition forces were killed; in the Battle of Huayang, 50,000 Korean troops were killed; at the highest peak, Chang
In the Battle of Ping, 400,000 Zhao soldiers were killed. For this reason, Bai Qi was nicknamed "Human Massacre" and it has been passed down for thousands of years.
Later, King Zhaoxiang of Qin asked King Huai of Chu to go to Wuguan in Qin for an alliance, but he took the opportunity to detain King Huai of Chu and force him to cede territory.
This situation is simply an enhanced version of when Shang Yang detained Wei Ang, because that time Shang Yang deceived the ministers of one country to detain the ministers of another country, but now it has been upgraded to the situation where the king of one country deceived the king of another country, and the negative consequences it caused
The impact will definitely be much more serious than that of Shang Yang back then.
But even so, what does it matter in today's world of fierce competition between the weak and the strong? As long as we can win in the end and get more benefits, the one who finally unifies the world can only be Qin, not any of the other six countries.
After all, how can this unification of the world not violate some moral principles?
Bai Lingjun continued: "The Qin Empire that unified the world at the beginning was not criticized by the other six countries as a country of tigers and wolves because it did not abide by morality. But what's the use? The world was unified by unethical tigers and wolves.
The country has the strength to do it."
Cao Shuang thought to himself that this was what later generations often said was the difference between talking and doing.