Wu Qi is a patriot and is good at using soldiers.
He once studied from Zengzi and served the monarch of Lu State.
The army of Qi attacked Lu State, and Lu Jun wanted to appoint Wu Qi as a general, but Wu Qi married a wife from Qi State, so Lu Jun suspected him.
At that time, Wu Qi wanted to become famous, so he killed his wife to show that he was not attached to the Qi State.
Lu Jun finally appointed him as a general, led the army to attack the Qi State, and defeated the Qi army.
Someone in Lu State slandered Wu Qi and said: "Wu Qi is a human being, and he is suspicious and cruel.
When he was young, his family had a lot of money, but he had no results in seeking official positions outside, and his family property was also wiped out, and the people of his fellow villagers and neighbors laughed at him, so he killed more than 30 people who ridiculed him. Then he fled from the east gate of the Patriotic State. When he said goodbye to his mother, he bit his arm and said fiercely: "I Wu Qi will not be the prime minister, and I will never return to defend the country." So he worshipped Zengzi as his teacher.
Soon after, his mother died, and Wu Qi did not return to mourn in the end. Zengzi looked down on him and severed the master-apprentice relationship with him. Wu Qi went to the country of Lu to learn the art of war to serve Lu Jun.
Lu Jun suspected him, and Wu Qi killed his wife to show his intentions and used it to seek the position of general. Although the country of Lu is a small country, it has the reputation of a victorious country, so the princes and countries will have to plot against the country of Lu. Moreover, Lu and Wei are brother countries, and if Lu Jun reuses Wu Qi, it will be tantamount to abandoning Wei Guo. Lu Jun was suspicious of Wu Qi and alienated Wu Qi.
At this time, Wu Qi heard that Wei Guowen Hou Xianming wanted to serve him.
Wen Hou asked Li Ke, "How is Wu Qi?" Li Ke replied: "Wu Qi is greedy for fame and loves women, but if he wants to lead troops to fight, even Sima Sui Tho can't surpass him." So Wei Wenhou appointed him as the main general, attacked the Qin state, and captured five cities.
Wu Qi was the commander-in-chief, wearing the same clothes and eating the same food as the lowest soldiers, sleeping without mattresses, marching without riding horses and horses, and personally carrying the bundled food and sharing weal and woe with the soldiers. A soldier had malignant sores, and Wu Qi sucked pus for him.
When the soldier's mother heard this, she burst into tears. Someone said, "Your son is a nobody, but the general himself sucks the thick liquid for him, why is he still crying?" The mother replied: "No, in the past years General Wu sucked poisonous sores for his father, and his father died at the hands of the enemy when he bravely marched forward on the battlefield." Now General Wu is sucking poisonous sores for my son, and I don't know when and where he will die, so I cry for him. ”
Because Wu Qi was good at fighting with soldiers, was honest and not greedy, treated people fairly, and could win the favor of all his soldiers, Wei Wenhou appointed him as the governor of the Xihe region to resist Qin and Korea.
After the death of Marquis Wen of Wei, Wu Qi served his son Marquis Wu of Wei. Wuhou boated down the Yellow River, and when the boat was halfway through, he turned back to Wu Qi and said: "The mountains and rivers are so dangerous and magnificent, this is the treasure of the Wei Kingdom!"
Wu Qi replied: "The stability of state power lies in the benevolence of the people, not in the danger of the geographical situation.
In the past, the three Miao clans were close to Dongting Lake on the left and Peng Lize on the right, because it did not cultivate virtue and did not emphasize faithfulness, so Xia Yu could destroy it. The territory of Xia Wei is bordered by the Yellow River and Jishui on the left, Mount Tai and Huashan on the right, Yique Mountain is in the south of it, and Yangjiban is in the north of it. Because he did not exercise benevolence, Shang Tang banished him.
Yin Xun's territory has Mengmen Mountain on the left, Taihang Mountain on the right, Changshan Mountain on its north side, and the Yellow River flows through it to the south, because he did not show benevolence, and King Wu killed him. From this point of view, the stability of political power lies in the benevolence of the people, not in the danger of the geographical situation. If you don't show kindness, even those who are in the same boat will become your enemies!" replied to the Marquis of Wu, "Well said. ”
Wu Qi became the West River Shou and achieved a high reputation.
Wei set up a phase and appointed Tian Wen as the prime minister. Wu Qi was very unhappy and said to Tian Wen: "Please let me compare the merits with you, is it okay?"
Tian Wen said: "Yes. Wu Qi said: "Command the three armies, let the soldiers be willing to fight to the death for the country, the enemy country does not dare to plot against the Wei State, you and me, who is better?" Tian Wen said: "Not as good as you." ”
Wu Qi said: "Manage the civil and military officials, let the people be attached to them, and enrich the reserves of the government treasury, who can compare you with me?" Tian Wen said: "It's not as good as you." Wu Qi said: "The army of the Qin State did not dare to invade the east and refused to defend the West River, and the Korean and Zhao States obeyed and surrendered, you and I compared, who can?" Tian Wen said: "Not as good as you." ”
Wu Qi said: "You are inferior to me in these aspects, but your position is above me, what is the reason?" Tian Wen said: "The monarch is still young, the people are suspicious, the ministers are not attached to him, and the people do not trust, at this time, should you entrust the political affairs to you, or should you entrust them?" Wu Qi was silent for a long time, and then said: "It should be entrusted to you." ”
Tian Wen said: "This is the reason why my position is higher than yours." Only then did Wu Qi understand that he was inferior to Tian Wen in this regard.
After Tian Wen's death, his uncle became the minister of state and married Wei Jun's daughter, but he was afraid of Wu Qi.
The uncle's servant said, "It is not difficult for Wu Qi to drive away. The uncle asked, "What should I do?" and the servant said, "Wu Qi has a backbone and likes fame and prestige.
You can find an opportunity to say to Wu Hou first: 'Wu Qi is a virtuous man, and your territory is too small and borders the powerful Qin State, so I am privately worried that Wu Qi has no intention of staying in Wei for a long time. ’
Wu Hou will say, 'Then what can I do?' and you will take the opportunity to say to Wu Hou, 'Please test him by marrying the princess, if Wu Qi has the intention of staying in Wei for a long time, he will definitely agree to marry the princess, and if he does not have the intention of staying for a long time, he will definitely refuse.'
In this way, his mind can be inferred. 'You find an opportunity to invite Wu Qi to go home with you, deliberately make the princess angry and despise you in person, Wu Qi sees that the princess despises you like this, then he will definitely not marry the princess. At that time, Wu Qi saw that the princess was so contemptuous of the prime minister, and he politely declined Wei Wuhou.
Wu Hou doubted Wu Qi and no longer trusted him. Wu Qi was afraid of attracting disaster, so he left Wei and immediately went to Chu.
King Chu Mourning has always heard that Wu Qi is virtuous, and appointed him as the minister of state as soon as he arrived in Chu.
He made the law clear, acted according to the law, and ordered it to be done, eliminating and cutting out inconsequential redundant personnel, and stopping the routine supply of alienating the royal family, so as to raise the warriors. Committed to strengthening the military and exposing lobbyists who come and go.
So he pacified Baiyue to the south, annexed Chen and Cai to the north, repelled the attacks of Han, Zhao, and Wei, and attacked Qin to the west.
The princes were worried about the strength of the Chu State. In the past, the alienated royal family that was stopped by Wu Qi wanted to murder Wu Qi. As soon as the mourning prince died, the royal ministers launched a riot and attacked Wu Qi, who fled to the place where the mortuary of the king of Chu was buried and ambushed the body of the mourning king.
The gang that attacked Wu Qi took the opportunity to shoot Wu Qi with arrows, and also shot the body of King Mourning.
After the mourning king was buried, the crown prince ascended the throne.
Let Ling Yin put to death all the people who shot Wu Qi and shot the body of the mourning king at the same time, and more than 70 people were exterminated because of shooting Wu Qi.
Tai Shi Gong said: People in society who praise the military tactics of war all praise the thirteen chapters of "Sun Tzu" and Wu Qi's "Art of War", these two books are widely circulated in society, so I will not discuss them, but only comment on the situations involved in their lives.
As the saying goes, "What can be done may not be said, and what can be said may not be done." "Sun Bin was wise in calculating Pang Juan's military actions, but he himself could not avoid the torture of cutting his feet in advance.
Wu Qi told Wei Wuhou that it was better to give kindness to the people by virtue of the danger of the geographical situation, but once he came to power in Chu, he lost his life because of meanness, violence, and lack of kindness. What a pity!