Today I will tell you the story of a cook.
This story takes place in the last year of the Qin Dynasty, in fact, only 12 years after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, The Second Emperor of Qin, Hu Hai reused the eunuch Zhao Gao, implemented brutal means of rule, and was violent and extravagant in internal conquest, and the people were miserable and worse off than dead.
So Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, shouting the slogan "Prince General Xiang, Ning Has a Kind of Hu", rose up and raised troops to resist, and they led more than 900 poor peasants from Daze Township all the way to Chen County, and under the persuasion of famous people in the county town, they established themselves as the King of Chen, with the name of Zhang Chu, and appointed Wu Guang as the deputy commander to lead the troops west into HanguGuan to attack the Qin capital Xianyang, and at the same time accepted the suggestion of Zhang Er and Chen Yu, famous soldiers living in Chen County, and sent their friend Wu Chen to lead three thousand troops to cross the Yellow River north to attack the land of the former Zhao State.
So Wu Chen took Zhang Er and Chen Yu to the Zhao Kingdom, and everything went very well, first they successfully said that they had surrendered the generals stationed in the local area, occupied more than a dozen county towns, and collected tens of thousands of soldiers, and then adopted the strategy of the Fanyang people to pass on the thousands of miles and surrender more than thirty counties without a fight.
Under the persuasion of Zhang Er and Chen Yu, Wuchen established himself as the King of Zhao in the State of Zhao, and like Chen Sheng, Wuchen also sent his subordinate Han Guang to continue to attack the lands of the former Yan State north. It is very interesting that after Han Guang captured the Yan kingdom, like Chen Sheng and Wu Chen, he also established himself as the King of Yan under the persuasion of local celebrities.
Wu Chen knew that Han Guang was very angry when he claimed to be the queen, so he took Zhang Er and Chen Yu north to attack Han Guang in the Yan Kingdom, but unfortunately, Wu Chen happened to encounter the patrol troops of the Yan State and was captured and imprisoned in the Yan Army camp.
If the generals of the Yan army received the treasure, they immediately informed Zhang Er and Chen Yu, asking them to exchange half of the land of the Zhao state for their Zhao King Wuchen. Zhang Er and Chen Yu repeatedly sent envoys to negotiate and demand that King Wuchen of Zhao be released, but because they did not agree to cut the land, the generals of the Yan army killed all the envoys sent each time.
Just when everyone is at a loss, our protagonist today ---- a cooker who has not left a name in the history books.
When the cooker heard that their King of Zhao had been captured by the Yan army, he told Zhang Er and Chen Yu's disciples that he could send an envoy to the Yan army to persuade Yan to release the King of Zhao back.
The counselors looked at the cook's confident look, and they all laughed and asked him: "We sent more than a dozen people to the Yan army to ask for the release of King Zhao, not only failed to welcome back King Zhao, but they were all killed.
The cook did not answer after listening to it, and went directly to the Yanguo military camp.
After seeing the general of the Yan army, he asked him, "Does the general know what I want?" ”
General Yan replied, "Of course, I want to welcome back your King Zhao." ”
The cooker asked again, "Then do you know what Zhang Er and Chen Yu want?" ”
General Yan replied again, "But it is also the King of Zhao who wants to welcome you back." ”
The cook couldn't help but laugh, "It seems that the general doesn't really understand what Zhang Er and Chen Yu want, nor do they understand Zhang Er and Chen Yu's ambitions."
"Prince General Xiang, Ning has a kind of hu?" If there is chaos today, and the crowd rises together, everyone wants to take the opportunity to achieve something. Zhang Er and Chen Yu seemed to follow Wuchen to attack the Zhao kingdom and support Wuchen as the King of Zhao, but in fact, they also wanted to claim their own titles in their hearts, and did not want to be the prime minister and general who assisted King Zhao all the time.
The general must know that the general and the king are very different, and they cannot be the same day. At the beginning of the occupation of the Zhao State, the reason why they did not immediately divide the Zhao State and claim the title of king was only because the overall situation was initially decided, the people were dissatisfied, and the time was not ripe.
Today the situation is different, the Zhao Kingdom has been calmed, the people's hearts are mostly subjugated, the two are looking for a suitable opportunity to kill the Zhao King Wuchen, so as to divide the Zhao Kingdom, did not expect the general you to send the opportunity.
They openly sent people to demand the release of King Wuchen of Zhao, but in fact, they secretly wanted to borrow a knife to kill people, so that the general you killed King Zhao, so that they just divided the State of Zhao into two, and each of them became the king independently.
At that time, the situation was greatly unfavorable to the Yan state. Now to deal with one Zhao state, the Yan state is already powerless, not to mention that it is necessary to deal with two Zhao states at once, one led by the wise and able Zhang Er, and the other led by Chen Yu, who is both wise and courageous, and the two can also unite and ask for the guilt in the name of avenging the Zhao King Wuchen, and destroying the Yan state is an easy task.
After listening to the cook's words, Yan General couldn't help but wake up like a dream, and immediately asked someone to release King Wuchen of Zhao, and also found a car, and let this cook drive king Zhao back to the Zhao kingdom.
There are thousands of worlds, there are no wonders. Among the ranks, there are also sages.
A nameless cook, with only three inches of tongue and a few words, accomplished feats that many wise men could not accomplish.
This cook was really a high-ranking man, he judged the situation, insight into people's hearts, skillfully took advantage of the political situation at that time and the cruel fact that everyone wanted to be king, and successfully persuaded the Yan generals who imprisoned King Zhao to voluntarily release the other party to return to King Zhao without spending a single soldier or a pawn, not giving up one city and one place.
In fact, in what this cook said, it didn't matter whether Zhang Er and Chen Yu really wanted to establish themselves as kings, what mattered was that he let the generals of the Yan State know that there was such a possibility, Zhang Er and Chen Yu were indeed more virtuous than Wu Chen, and even if the two of them had no intentions, they did have the strength to divide the Zhao Kingdom, not to mention killing the Zhao King WuChen, just gave them a chance to be justified.
From the story of this cook, we can see that the best way to convince a person is not to be emotional, nor to know the reason, but to resort to interests, only to make the other party feel that listening to your words is beneficial to themselves, not listening to your words will be harmful to themselves, you can really convince him.
Pursuing profits and avoiding harms is the common sentiment of people, and it is also caused by human nature, and in the face of interests and harms, reason can only stand on the sidelines. In many cases, reason is just a fig leaf for profit!