Although there were many heroes who made meritorious contributions to the monarch in ancient history, the nature of everyone was not the same. According to the professional attributes, it can be divided into courtiers and military generals; according to the ending, it can be divided into meritorious heroes and tragic heroes. The classic example of a courtier who died well is Zhang Liang in the early years of the Han Dynasty, who assisted Liu Bang in stabilizing the world and then retreated in a rapid stream, refusing 30,000 households to eat and eat, as long as a piece of land was retained.
Zhang Liang died in 189 BC, when the head of the Han Dynasty had become Empress Lü. Zhang Liang was not arrested by Liu Bang to ask for his guilt, relying on avoiding fame and fortune and refusing temptation, but in fact, his method was also learned from his predecessors, who was the famous minister Fan Li in the Spring and Autumn Period. Fan Li ran to do business after assisting him, and in stark contrast to him, it was the literary genre.
Wen Zhong and Fan Li are the two major heroes who have conspired to restore the country. Interestingly, at that time, Wu and Yue were fighting each other, and the 4 people who decided the direction of that period of history were all from the Chu state, the Yue state's wen and Fan Li were Chu people, and Wu Zixu and Bo Yao of the Wu state were also Chu people, but the situation of the two sides was different: Wen Zhong and Fan Li worked together, and Bo Zhao specially pulled Wu Zixu's hind legs and even framed him.
In 494 BC, Gou Jian was defeated by Wu Wangfuchai, and when the Wu army besieged him in the city of Huiji, he was in a very low mood: "Is this how my life is?" "At that time, the person who persuaded him to reinvigorate his spirit was Wen Chuan, who gave him examples of the exile of Duke Wen of Jin and the exile of Duke Xiaobai of Qi Huan, saying that these people could eventually establish hegemony, and what are you afraid of, King!
Later, Wu Wangfu bypassed Gou Jian and told him to go to the State of Wu to be a slave for himself, feed the horses to guard the grave, and do psychological construction work for him by wen. From the monarch to the slave, the psychological gap is too large, and the literary style will advise the practice, everything must be hidden, rely on obedience to win the trust of King Wu, wait until the return to the country, and then consider the long term before it is too late. Gou Jian did as the text instructed, and indeed escaped and returned to Vietnam.
And Wen Zhong also mentioned the "Nine Techniques of Breaking Wu" to Gou Jian, and the central idea was to give King Wu a beautiful woman and make him addicted to sound; to send a golden veil to King Wu to make him feel that yue guo was obedient; to send him skilled craftsmen, so that King Wu could vigorously build a palace and work hard to hurt the people's wealth; to send treasures to Wu Guo's traitors, so that he could say more rumors to confuse the king; and secretly weaken the power of Wu Guo's important ministers such as Wu Zixu, and so on.
These strategies all worked, in 473 BC, the Yue army invaded wu capital, the state of Wu fell, the king of Wu almost committed suicide, and even Zhou Tianzi sent someone to make him a count, and the king of Yue was satisfied for a while and planned to develop into the Central Plains. The history books record: "The Yue soldiers ran rampant in Jiangsu and Huaidong, and the princes Bihe were known as overlords. Fan Li witnessed the success of Yue Wang's hegemony and decisively resigned and left.
The language did not go. In fact, Fan Li had persuaded Wen Zhuan, saying that yue wang could only suffer together, not with the same sweetness, and that he was born with the ungrateful appearance of the "long-necked bird's beak", and if he did not leave, he could only face the end of "the bird is exhausted, the good bow is hidden; the cunning rabbit dies, and the lackey cooks". However, Wen Zhong felt that he had made great merits, and he was reluctant to make a name and a fortune, so he only said that he was sick and did not go to the court at home, but he never resigned.
As a result, someone told Gou Jian that Wen Zi had the intention of rebellion, and Gou Jian sent someone to send a sword to Wen Zi and said to him: "The son has a conspiracy and war method, and the enemy takes the country." The strategy of the Nine Arts, now with three has broken the strong Wu, and the sixth of them is still in the Zishou, may Yu Shu be the lone former king to plot Wu before the underground. "Translation: I used your 3 strategies to restore the country, and the remaining 6 you go underground to use."
Wen Zhong regretted that he did not listen to Fan Li's words, and had to kill himself. Since then, there has been more legend in the folk: Wu Zixu, the nemesis of Wen Zhong's life, was psychic after his death, and he resented it incessantly, and he heard that his fellow villagers had also died because of the ungratefulness of the king, so they launched a flood to flood Wen Zi's tomb, took Wen Zi away, and the two became water gods together. Of course, this is a story imagined by later generations, and it can be seen that the injustice of the literary genre has made the people in The land of Vietnam very uneven. But if Wen Zhong had listened to Fan Li's words earlier, why would he have done so?