In the ancient Chinese feudal dynasty, there was a very real problem, the merits of the military general were so great that they threatened the emperor's dominance, so how should he treat himself? This problem is even more prominent in the chaotic world, because we see that many military generals in the chaotic world are indeed loyal to the emperor at the beginning, but as their power increases, then they will inevitably have all kinds of thoughts.
For example, Zhao Kuangyin, who was initially a general of later Zhou, during the reign of Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin also showed great loyalty and did not have the slightest intention of rebellion, but when Zhou Shizong returned to heaven, Zhao Kuangyin immediately rebelled, and the example of Zhao Kuangyin during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was not unique, so it is no wonder that many emperors were so jealous of those military generals who had heavy troops.
Historically, there are only two people who can achieve great merit and shock the lord and the lord without doubt, one is Guo Ziyi of the Tang Dynasty, and the other is Wang Qi of the Qin Dynasty.
Of course, the cleverness of Wang Qi and Guo Ziyi lies in knowing how to prescribe the right medicine, otherwise if they dare to reward them so much in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, even the emotional intelligence of Wang Qi and Guo Ziyi will definitely be dead.
However, in history, there are too few people like Wang Qi and Guo Ziyi who know how to protect themselves, and more are like Yue Fei and Li Mu and others, and there is an obvious case in the Qing Dynasty, which happened during the Qianlong period:
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty was in its most prosperous period, although in modern history, the Qing Dynasty cut land and paid compensation for the loss of power and humiliated the country, but the Qing Dynasty in the Qianlong Period was still a camel that was thin and dead than a horse, and at this time the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty still made a lot of contributions to maintaining territorial integrity.
During the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty was generally in a stable stage, but the border was not peaceful at that time, and the Dzungars in the north and northwest who had harassed the Qing Dynasty for three generations were not completely pacified until the Qianlong period.
It was not easy for Dzungar to be pacified, and jinchuan began to do things again, because the rebellion came very suddenly, so qianlong was caught off guard, and even the main general of the early counter-rebellion was killed.
As a last resort, Qianlong had no choice but to send two of his proud generals, Hailancha and Urden, to put down the rebellion.
The two did not have much intersection before this, but both were famous players who had experienced hundreds of battles, although they were not familiar with each other's routines, but they cooperated quite tacitly, and finally Dajinchuan was successfully pacified.
However, the subsequent reward shows the difference between the two, or that the origin and environment of the two have created a difference in the ending of the two:
Hai Lancha came from the lowest level of society, and before this, he had a very rich life experience, worked as a small soldier, worked as Qianlong's personal bodyguard, and was promoted step by step by Qianlong because of his outstanding ability.
It is precisely because he came from the lowest level of society that he was accustomed to seeing Eryu and me, and at the same time he also understood Qianlong's thoughts.
Urden was different, he came from an aristocratic family, from a young age, he had no worries about food and clothing, and once he had also been Qianlong's personal bodyguard like Highlander, but he may have been born differently, he has not studied this aspect, his purpose is to gild Qianlong's side with chrome gold.
Both of them were promoted by Qianlong and can be said to be Qianlong's confidants, but Highlander was successful in the end, while Urden was defeated and killed. The roots lie in emotional intelligence:
After the Battle of Dajinchuan was settled, according to the custom, Qianlong wanted to reward meritorious ministers, and at that time Qianlong was polite with the two military generals, and he did not say that he wanted to reward them with anything, but asked them what you wanted.
In fact, the emperor said this sentence to mean to be polite with you, but the deeper level is to test you and prove whether you have ambitions.
Highlander heard the emperor's meaning, and he immediately said that all this was the emperor's grace and had nothing to do with us, but if the emperor really wanted to reward him, he could just give him a few beautiful women.
Hearing Highlander's reward, Qianlong turned his head in satisfaction and asked Urden.
Urden was not as as astute as Highlander, and he was very rude in the face of Qianlong's reward.
He told Qianlong that he didn't want anything else, he just wanted to lead troops to guard the Qing Dynasty's jiangshan.
The implication is that they want military power.
This sentence directly poked at Qianlong's weakness, among all the great powers, the most important thing for successive emperors is the military power, and it can be said that the military power is the emperor's "reverse scale".
This kind of thing generally requires the emperor to take the initiative to give, but you can't take the initiative to ask for it, at this moment, Urden directly asked the emperor for military power, I'm afraid he himself didn't know how much trouble he had caused.
For the emperor, they were ambivalent towards the ministers, and they wanted the ministers to serve them, but they were also worried that they would breed ambitions, so they would be evaluated in various ways, and those who passed the examination would continue to be reused, and those who failed the examination would be blacklisted.
Although Hai Lancha was a rough man, he was thick and fine, and he immediately saw the emperor's meaning; and Urden did not have such a high political acumen, he really thought that Qianlong would be so generous, but he did not know that his behavior touched the deepest anti-scales of Qianlong.
In a subsequent military operation, Urden was defeated, and Qianlong directly ordered Urden to die without asking the process, which was the gap.