"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" portrays Yang Xiu's death very well, almost a household name, and was even selected into the ninth-grade Chinese textbook.
This process is roughly like this, in the battle of Hanzhong, Xiahoudun entered the account and asked for a night password. Cao Cao replied casually! Yang Xiu asked the accompanying soldiers to pack up and prepare to withdraw. Xiahoudun asked him what was going on, and Yang Xiu explained that the chicken ribs tasted without meat, and it was a pity to lose it. Now the army can't win, and the retreat is shameful, but sooner or later you have to go back, so pack up first. So Xiahoudun also packed his bags, and the generals were also ready. Cao Cao was very surprised when he found out, and after asking Ming Xiahou about the situation, he killed Yang Xiu on the charge of disturbing the army's heart.
曹操
Yang Xiu was evaluated by many as smart, even extremely smart, for example, this time he thought he could know Cao Cao's thoughts. The question is that if you really know Cao Cao's thoughts, then why don't you know that Cao Cao will kill yourself?
At this time, it seemed that he was the smartest one - as far as he could guess from the word chicken ribs, Cao Cao would retire sooner or later, but in fact he was the stupidest one, and it would be no good for him to die because of it. Some people may have exchanged their death for the preservation of their families, or national integrity.
And it doesn't necessarily matter if you guess Cao Cao's mind or not, who else in the whole book has got obvious advantages or disadvantages because of guessing Cao Cao's thoughts? However, shaking the morale of the army is probably inevitable punishment in any unit. The black sheep should be eliminated as soon as possible for the team.
Besides, even if you know that you are going to retire from the army, why do you have to prepare in advance? Shouldn't you wait for the official notice to prepare? Now there is no notice, the two armies are fighting, and you are talking to yourself and preparing to withdraw the army, which is definitely a taboo in war, and this kind of stupid behavior is to seek death.
The article also gives some examples, which are actually paragraphs (that is, at first glance, they are a bit interesting and basically cannot stand up to scrutiny):
Once, Cao Cao built a garden. When it was caused, Cao Cao went to watch, and without praise and criticism, he asked someone to take a pen and write a "live" word on the garden door and left. No one understands what it means. Yang Xiu said to the craftsmen, adding movable words to the "door" is the word "wide", and the prime minister thinks that you have made the garden gate too big. So the gate of the garden was rebuilt. After completion, ask Cao Cao to watch it. Cao Cao liked it very much and asked, "Who knows what I mean?" The subordinate replied: "It's Yang Xiu!" Although Cao Cao is good on the surface, he is very jealous in his heart.
Another day, Saibei paid tribute to Cao Cao with a box of crisps. Cao Cao wrote the words "Yihe Crisp" on the box and put it on the desk. When Yang Xiu saw it, he actually took a spoon and finished eating the crisp with everyone. Cao Cao asked the reason, and Yang Xiu replied: "The box clearly says 'one person and one bite of crisp', how dare you disobey the prime minister's order?" Although Cao Cao laughed, he hated Yang Xiu in his heart.
Cao Cao was afraid that someone would plot to kill him, so he often instructed the guards: "I am so murderous in my dreams, whenever I am asleep, you must not come near me!" Once Cao Cao was sleeping in the tent during the day, and the quilt fell to the ground, and the attendants hurriedly took the quilt and covered it for him. Cao Cao immediately jumped up and drew his sword to kill him, and then went back to bed. When I got up in the middle of the night, I pretended to be surprised and asked, "Who killed my guard?" Everyone told the truth. Cao Cao cried bitterly and ordered someone to bury his servants. People thought that Cao Cao really killed someone in a dream, but Yang Xiu knew his intentions, and when he was buried, he sighed and said: "It's not the prime minister in a dream, it's you in a dream!" When Cao Cao heard this, he was even more disgusted with Yang Xiu.
Cao Cao's third son, Cao Zhi, admired Yang Xiu's talent and often invited Yang Xiu to talk about it, and he never rested all night. Cao Cao consulted with everyone and wanted to establish Cao Zhi as the son. After Cao Pi learned about this, he secretly invited Wu Zhen, the prefect of Chaoge, to his house to discuss, because he was afraid that someone would find out, so he hid Wu Zhen in a large bamboo box, only saying that it was silk inside, and transported it to Cao Pi's mansion. After Yang Xiu knew about this, he came directly to tell Cao Cao. Cao Cao sent people to the gate of Cao Pi's mansion to observe. When Cao Pi found out, he told Wu Zhen in a panic. Wu Zhen said: "Don't worry, tomorrow you will load the silk horses in a big bamboo box and transport it into the house to confuse them." According to Wu Qian's words, Cao Pi used a large bamboo box to carry some silk into the house. Cao Cao's envoy searched the bamboo box, and sure enough, it was a silk horse, and reported it to Cao Cao, so Cao Cao suspected that Yang Xiu had framed Cao Pi and hated Yang Xiu even more.
Cao Cao wanted to try out the talents of Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. One day he commanded them to go out of the gates of Yecheng; But in private, he ordered the soldiers guarding the gate not to let them out. Cao Pi arrived first, but the soldiers guarding the gate prevented him from going out, and Cao Pi had to retreat. After Cao Zhi heard about it, he asked Yang Xiu for advice. Yang Xiu said: "You are ordered by the king to go out of the city, and if anyone stands in the way, just behead them." Cao Zhi listened to him, and when he reached the city gate, the soldiers stopped him, and Cao Zhi scolded him loudly: "I will go out on the orders of the king, and see who dares to stop me!" Then he beheaded the soldiers who had stopped him. So Cao Cao thought Cao Zhi was talented. Later, someone told Cao Cao: "This is what Yang Xiu taught him to do." Cao Cao was furious, so he didn't like Cao Zhi anymore.
Yang Xiu often taught Cao Zhi more than ten questions how to answer well, as long as Cao Cao asked him questions, Cao Zhi would follow the answers that Yang Xiu taught him. Cao Cao asked Cao Zhi about military affairs, and Cao Zhi answered fluently. Cao Cao was very puzzled in his heart. Later, Cao Pi secretly bought off the people in Cao Zhi's mansion and secretly came to tell Cao Cao. Cao Cao was furious when he saw it and said, "Piff actually dares to come and deceive me!"
I won't scrutinize the reasonableness of these paragraphs. Judging from these paragraphs, Yang Xiu seems to be very smart, but in fact, it is the same as the chicken rib incident, which is only done by people who think they are smart and are actually very stupid. Cao Cao is surrounded by many talents, and there are Xun Yu, Xun Yu, Guo Jiajia, Cheng Yu, etc., how can these genius-level smart people never show their so-called intelligence in this kind of thing? On the contrary, when wisdom is really needed, such as wars and political struggles, we often see those real masters around Cao Cao to give advice and find ways to solve problems, and in those times, did Yang Xiu perform? Not once.
Because Yang Xiu's family background was a famous Han family, he was able to serve as the chief bookkeeper by Cao Cao's side. Although Cao Cao is not the emperor, but the world's strength of the first person, in this kind of people to serve, some have the opportunity to contact all kinds of cattle and all kinds of upper-level affairs, some have the opportunity to learn and participate in practice, can broaden their horizons, improve their abilities, expand their contacts, generally speaking, after the transfer, they can normally reach the provincial and ministerial level cadres, and even national level cadres if they are good. But Yang Xiu not only did not improve, did not solve any practical problems in his work, and often did things that were clever to sabotage Cao Cao.
In contrast, Sima Yi, who was also from a famous family, did what he had to do after he was by Cao Cao's side, in addition to being diligent in his duties, when Cao Cao was consulting Zhang Lu, Sima Yi made suggestions, but Cao Cao did not listen, probably because the level was not enough at this time, and the ideas were not thorough enough. Later, it was suggested that Tuntian solve the grain problem, which was adopted by Cao Cao. Guan Yu besieged Fancheng, Sima Yi and Cao Rafter, and Jiang Ji advised Cao Cao not to move the capital and unite with Sun Quan to deal with Guan Yu, and Cao Cao also accepted. It can be seen that the really smart Sima Yi never engaged in those so-called little cleverness, but tried his best to solve practical problems and grow up in practice. In the end, Sima Yi became a national-level cadre.
In daily life, most people will feel that if they are exposed to too much, they will feel that they are somewhat useful, and pure pig heads are rare. So we need to grasp the direction, that is, what this person does and his ability, in general, how much it will improve the team and themselves, how much it will help, some things may actually be negative, the more capable people are to identify, the more they can see the overall situation, the more they can get things done. When encountering a black sheep, that is, a person who is actually harmful to the team rather than beneficial to the team in general, it is necessary to get rid of it as soon as possible, and if possible, simply kill it.
However, the above is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, if it is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the cause of Yang Xiu's death will be different, so I hereby declare it.