Preface
Throughout the ages, people have liked smart people, after all, doing things with smart people can save a lot of tongue and time, and get a better experience, who wouldn't like that?
But there is a degree to everything, when a person is too smart and doesn't know how to converge, he will be smart and mistaken by smart, because "Zhiduo is close to the demon" is feared by others, and even killed by too smart.
Yang Xiu during the Three Kingdoms period is a very good example, his intelligence was famous at that time, even Cao Cao praised Yang Xiu's intelligence, but in the end Yang Xiu also died at the hands of Cao Cao.
However, when Cao Cao killed Yang Xiu, he even asked his father why Yang Biao had lost weight, who could stand the black-haired man sending the white-haired man? So Yang Biao replied to Cao Cao, and a sentence became a famous quote for the ages.
1. Gain Cao Cao's trust
Yang Xiu was born in a family of eunuchs, and his ancestors were all officials in the imperial court for several generations, so the Yang family's family background was also quite wealthy, and more importantly, at that time, the family background basically represented the inheritance of talent and learning.
And Yang Xiu himself is also a very talented young talent, in that troubled era, scholars do not hide their clumsiness, and any outstanding talents will be shown sharply, hoping to attract the attention of heroes from all walks of life, and finally Cao Cao noticed it.
Cao Cao is a very talented person, and no one under his command can surpass Cao Cao in the number of strategists during the Three Kingdoms period, so he naturally will not let go of a young talent like Yang Xiu, who is quite important to him.
At that time, although Cao Cao was already dominant, there was always a lack of manpower to manage internal affairs, so he let Yang Xiu serve as his main secretary and handed over many internal affairs to him, which shows his trust in Yang Xiu.
This work is also quite suitable for Yang Xiu, because Yang Xiu is a person who is very good at observing words and feelings, and many times he can see what should be done from people's faces.
As the prime minister, Cao Cao has a lot of military affairs, and he divides most of his energy into military affairs, so Yang Xiu's eyesight is very convenient for Cao Cao, making his work very much in line with Cao Cao's mind.
As a result, Yang Xiu's position became more and more important in the Cao Wei group, and he became more and more aware of Cao Cao, even to the extent that he could know what he was thinking without seeing Cao Cao himself.
This made Yang Xiu not only appreciated by Cao Cao, but also trusted by his colleagues, and many times when facing the tasks sent by Cao Cao, he would first ask Yang Xiu if he had any hidden meaning, and then do it.
Second, discerning and intelligent
There are several stories of Yang Xiu's success in figuring out Cao Cao's thoughts, which vividly show Yang Xiu's observation of words and his understanding of Cao Cao.
Legend has it that after Cao Cao became prime minister at that time, in order to highlight his status that was different from the present and the past, he ordered the gate of his mansion to be rebuilt.
When the frame of the gate was set up and the roof was ready to be built, Cao Cao and the ministers came to inspect how the project was progressing after discussing official business.
Unexpectedly, he frowned when he saw the gate, obviously not very satisfied, and then asked someone to bring a pen and write a big "live" word on the unrepaired gate, and then turned around and left.
Everyone felt very confused, not knowing what the prime minister meant and what the word "live" was trying to express, only Yang Xiu walked out of the crowd and explained Cao Cao's meaning to the mason.
"You see, this 'living' word is in the 'door', isn't that the word 'wide'? The prime minister thinks that the door is too open, so you can make it smaller. ”
Only then did people suddenly realize Cao Cao's thoughts, and they couldn't help but sigh that Yang Xiu's understanding of the prime minister was too deep, and such a puzzling puzzle could be guessed.
Another time was also Yang Xiu's solution to the puzzle left by Cao Cao, as the king of Wei who "coerced the Son of Heaven to order the princes", there were many people who rushed to pat Cao Cao's ass, and giving gifts was the most direct way.
On this day, someone offered Cao Cao a rare dim sum from outside the Saiwai to taste, but Cao Cao was not very rare for this kind of thing, and he didn't want to waste it, so he wanted to give this box of dim sum to himself and try it to his subordinates, and by the way, reward everyone for their hard work.
So Cao Cao wrote the words "Yihe Crisp" on the paper wrapped in the box, and then put it on the table.
But who would dare to touch what is on the boss's desk so easily? Even though the subordinates wondered why the lord put the dim sum on the table of the discussion, no one asked, and everyone tacitly ignored the box of dim sum.
Only Yang Xiu saw this box of dim sum after he came, and then looked at his colleagues who were working, smiled, and then opened the box of crisps and gave them food to his colleagues.
Everyone was very frightened when they saw him doing this, and asked him how he could touch the lord's things without permission, Yang Xiu laughed and explained: "Ladies and gentlemen, please see, this 'one combination' is 'one person and one mouthful' when taken apart, and this crisp was originally prepared for us by the lord, how can we disobey the lord's kindness?" ”
After listening to Yang Xiu's explanation, people suddenly realized, but Cao Cao was not very happy when he learned about it, although he praised Yang Xiu with a smile, but in fact, he felt quite dissatisfied in his heart.
3. Being smart is mistaken by being smart
At this time, Cao Cao had already achieved fame, and Cao Wei had become the most powerful of the princes, so Cao Cao was naturally quite pretentious and could not tolerate others being disrespectful to him.
It is true that he admires Yang Xiu's intelligence very much, but Yang Xiu is inevitably too disproportionate in front of him, because he sees through his thoughts and acts on his own, which undoubtedly makes the suspicious Cao Cao feel threatened.
This is indeed just a small box of snacks, Yang Xiu's own assertion is not a big deal, but in the future, if Yang Xiu sees through his ideas in government affairs and even in the military, it will definitely not be a good thing.
Therefore, Cao Cao gradually began to not trust Yang Xiu as much as before, but began to guard against him, ready to seize his mistakes and punish him well.
At that time, Cao Cao was struggling with the choice of his heir, especially the hesitation between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, Yang Xiu and Cao Zhi were good friends, so they wanted to help Cao Zhi win the heir, and Cao Cao was indeed more inclined to Cao Zhi.
However, Cao Zhi relied on his talent and arrogance, and his behavior gradually became more and more presumptuous, which made Cao Cao more and more disappointed with him, so Cao Pi took the opportunity to start adding fuel to the fire, making Cao Cao even more distrustful of Cao Zhi and the ministers who supported him.
Once, Cao Pi secretly transported Wu Zhen into his house in a silk cart, but Yang Xiu noticed it and reported it to Cao Cao, and his son recruited guests behind his back, which made Cao Cao very unhappy, but there is no definite evidence.
So the next day, Yang Xiu immediately reported to Cao Cao after seeing the silk car again, but Cao Cao didn't find anything after he came to search the car, so he began to wonder if Yang Xiu deliberately framed Cao Pi, so that Yang Xiu couldn't argue.
In fact, this was Wu Zhen's strategy, he expected that Yang Xiu would definitely fight hard to completely defeat Cao Pi, so he deliberately used this opportunity to arrange an empty silk car, so that Cao Cao pounced, but Yang Xiu was smeared.
After that, Cao Cao became more and more distrustful of Yang Xiu, and after establishing Cao Pi as his heir, he was even more jealous of Yang Xiu, so when he was getting sick, he found an excuse to "collaborate with the enemy and leak secrets" and ordered Yang Xiu to be executed.
But Yang Xiu was born in a big family, and being executed for just such a reason could not convince his family, and Yang Xiu's father, Yang Biao, was both sad and angry.
So Cao Cao had to write a letter to Yang Biao to explain the ins and outs of the matter, and emphasized the seriousness of Yang Xiu's crime, and finally asked him why he had been getting thinner and thinner recently.
Isn't this pouring salt into someone's wounds? So Yang Biao wrote only one sentence angrily in his reply: "Although I don't have the foresight of Jin Riyan, I still have the love of the old cow licking the calf." ”
Jin Riyan was a minister who was very favored by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also loved and connived at Jin Riyan's son, and even tolerated him in the palace to tease the palace maids.
But Jin Riyan was loyal, how could he tolerate his son being rude to the emperor like this, so he actually killed his son to eradicate the misbehaving people around Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and was praised for his loyalty by later generations.
However, after all, not every father can abandon family affection for loyalty, so Yang Biao borrowed Jin Riyan's allusion to apologize on the surface and actually replied to Cao Cao with such a sentence.