Author: Our special guest author Qian Qiuyuan
First, the end of the famous general
One winter in 257 BC, with cold winds and snow falling, it was the coldest season in the north, but it also seemed to herald the coming of spring. But for a special old man, this day is his last day on earth.
Faced with the sword sent by the king to cut himself, he asked: Why did the king kill me? What is my charge?
Yes, people always have to die to understand. If you don't even know why you died, how depressed that person must die!
But when this sentence was asked, the sergeant who came to deliver the sword was speechless. This old and majestic man was once a being looked up to by countless people up and down the Great Qin Kingdom, he was an idol of the soldiers, and he was also the dependent of the kingdom. Once, as long as he was there, Great Qin's army had nothing to fear. And now, these sergeants have to personally send their idols to complete the last step of life.
His name is Bai Qi, and this name alone is enough to make the princes tremble in this era! He has a supremely glorious title, the God of War, and he also has a repulsive nickname, Human Slaughter.
No one at the scene could answer the question of the God of War Bai Qi, because they did not understand why a generation of gods of war had to die. Bai Qi didn't understand even more, he had thought that these people were the emissaries sent by the King of Qin to welcome him back. At that time, there were only two people who could answer this question: Qin Zhaoxiang Wang and Fan Ju.
Second, Fan Ju's suspicions
The reason why he had to die was, first of all, he provoked Fan Ju's suspicions.
Turning the time back to the Battle of Changping a few years ago, that year, the State of Qin launched a decisive battle with the State of Zhao at Changping, which ended with the total annihilation of the 450,000 troops of the Zhao Army. The Qin army itself suffered more than half of the casualties.
This was actually a war to kill the enemy one thousand and lose eight hundred, and Bai Qi's suggestion was to directly attack Handan and destroy the Zhao state, so as to make up for the losses of the Qin state, which was in line with the interests of the Qin state.
However, this is not in the interests of one person- State Minister Fan Ju: if Bai Qi destroys Zhao Guo, then the prestige will directly overshadow him as the State Minister, and his position will naturally be unstable. What's more, Bai Qi was a former political enemy, Wei Ran, the Marquis of Yong, who had pulled it up by hand, and was not a close associate of Fan Ju.
Of course, the above ideas were not actually generated by Fan Ju himself, but a big fool to Fan Ju, his name was Su Dai, and it was said that he was Su Qin's brother. Although it is not Fan Ju's original, this kind of thinking is indeed in line with Fan Ju's interests.
The so-called "ass decides the head", just when Bai Qi was preparing to establish an immortal deed, Fan Ju, who was sitting in the position of minister of state, had already crackled his own little abacus, and he decided to stop Bai Qi.
On the other hand, King Zhaoxiang of Qin obeyed Fan Ju's words.
Although Bai Qi was recalled, Fan Ju had already deeply felt the threat of Bai Qi, and Bai Qi had quietly landed on his hunting list.
Second, the anger of the King of Qin
Secondly, it was the anger of the King of Qin.
Because just after the end of the Battle of Changping, the defeated Zhao State began to play tricks, and they refused to pay the promised land!
Tricked? This result, King Zhaoxiang of Qin naturally could not accept it! He was determined to teach Zhao Guo a lesson again. This time, the King of Qin naturally thought of letting Bai Qi lead the way.
However, Bai Qi believed that the Zhao State Mourning Army would be victorious, and with the interference of other princes, this battle could not be fought! Not only that, Bai Qi directly said that he could not get sick and refused to lead the army to fight.
Bai Qi was "sick", the King of Qin asked twice, please do not move, Fan Ju came forward, please do not move.
Not only please do not move, but whenever the Qin army loses, Bai Qi will always mutter, "Don't listen to the old white words, suffer losses in front of you" ("History": "Qin did not listen to the plans of his subjects, how to do it now").
And it turns out that Bai Qi's worries are completely correct. The Qin army besieged Handan for two years, but instead was counterattacked by the combined forces of the princes, and was pursued all the way, losing troops and breaking the generals.
As an undefeated victory in a lifetime, in addition to first-class tactical execution, Bai Qi's strategic analysis is also first-class. But sometimes, the right opinion is not the opinion that the boss likes. The boss likes to see a completely obedient, hard-working white up, rather than a high-ranking employee who plays with his temper and sells intelligence.
In the siege of Handan, if the Qin state wins, it is better to say that the king of Qin at most has a high posture and gives Bai a little punishment. However, the State of Qin was not only defeated, but also defeated very ugly, and the face of King Zhaoxiang of Qin could be said to have been beaten by Zhao Guo first, and then beaten by Bai Qi, and after a few slaps, the King of Qin was beaten and hurt! Qin Zhaoxiang King's face really had no place to put it!
Third, the responsibility for defeat
Since the war is lost, someone must come out and take charge!
Think about it from another perspective: as the CTO of the technology of a listed group company, in the eyes of the chairman and CEO, they feel that any technical problems are difficult to fall in vain. Fire fighting, wiping your ass, isn't that what you do technically? However, you, the CTO, are disobedient, not only watching the ambitious merger and acquisition plans of the chairman and CEO fail, but also saying cool things on the side.
In this case, the chairman only has two ideas: First, insufficient understanding, review mistakes, correct the CTO to the position of CEO, think bitterly, beat the drum and fight again. The second is to find a scapegoat for defeat, shirk responsibility, clear relations, and maintain their prestige.
Obviously, the first thought is incomparably correct, and the second is dark. However, in this world, it is the minority that chooses idea one, and the majority who chooses idea two.
And more than two thousand years ago, the King of Qin and Fan Ju also chose idea two! They believe that all the responsibility for the defeat should be borne by one person - white! If it weren't for Bai Qi's repeated refusal to fight, then the outcome of this war would not have been lost! The fate of Bai Qi was thus decided!
Fourth, the fate of the white rise
The King of Qin, who was furious, first stripped Bai Qi of all his honors, and went from being the first person in the Qin army to the end, directly becoming a grass-roots big-headed soldier, and also going far away from Gansu.
However, Bai Qi only went to Du You, and he received another order: self-cutting!
This is because the King of Qin suddenly thought that even if Bai Qi was no longer Wu Anjun, his prestige as a god of war in the Qin State was too high, and his influence was too great ("Bai Qi's migration, its meaning is still unconvincing, there are remaining words").
The result of the discussion between The King of Qin and Fan Ju for half a day was "killing"!
Bai Qi finally picked up the sword that ended his life, and reluctantly found a reason for himself: in this life, he killed too many people, especially changping pit killed 400,000 elephant soldiers, and now this result is retribution ("I should die, the battle of Changping, Hundreds of thousands of Zhao pawns, I cheated the pit, it is enough to die"))
At the last moment of Bai Qi's life, he believed that it was not the god of war of the Qin State who raised the sword to cut himself, but the repulsive man Tu. Bai Qi died, along with some of his hardcore generals, one of whom was named Sima Jin, and hundreds of years later, he would have a descendant named Sima Qian.
epilogue
White-risen death, wronged? If we talk about the sins he has accumulated by killing people, then he has more than enough to die, and he is not wronged at all. But for the Qin State, he never did anything harmful to the interests of the country from beginning to end, and died at the hands of his own boss, which was unjust, and because of this, after his death, the people of the Qin State infinitely missed the god of war.
From the death of Bai Qi to the present, although more than two thousand years have passed, unjust cases similar to Bai Qi's death in Chinese history have occurred repeatedly and repeatedly, and it seems that the logic of "ass determines the head" is rooted in human nature.
References: "History", "Warring States Policy", "Changping Fengyun"
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