A small story of an idiom every day - "Two Eagles with One Stone" is from Tang Li Yanshou's "Biography of Beishi Changsun Sheng"

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > from Tang Li Yanshou's "Biography of The Northern History of Changsun Sheng"</h1>

There was a man named Changsun Sheng in Luoyang in the Northern Weekend Year. He did not read much, but he was very resourceful and strong in martial arts, especially in archery. It is said that when he was first born, he was very thin and weak, and many people thought that he would not live to adulthood. But Changsun Sheng's mother did not think so, in order to make her son's body stronger, Changsun Sheng's mother often let him go to the mountains to cut firewood when he was 3 years old. By the time Changsun Sheng was 8 years old, he was already stronger than a boy of the same age, and he had an inexhaustible strength. Not only that, Changsun Sheng was also particularly proficient in archery. The young companions raced and hunted with him, and no one could match him. At the age of 18, he became a Sergeant (military attaché of the Janissary Eastern Palace). But because of the low position, no one appreciated his talent. Until one time, Yang Jian, the Duke of Sui, saw him, talked for only a moment, and then said to people: "Changsun Sheng's martial arts are superior, and he has many strange plots, and who else but him will be a famous general in the future?"

During the reign of Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou, there was an ethnic minority in the northwest, the Turks, and the Turkic chieftain Regtu and the Northern Zhou envoys were married. In order to show off their respective strengths, both sides specially choose brave and powerful people as messengers when interacting. One day, the Turkic khan took a picture to propose to northern Zhou, and brought many of their brave soldiers to show off their strength. Northern Zhou also sent many warriors and Turkic warriors to compete, and both sides won and lost. At that time, Changsun Sheng was also present, and he alone defeated three Turkic warriors in an instant, which made the Turkic khan admire him. When testing archery, Changsun Sheng's archery skills also amazed the Turks present.

Soon, Northern Zhou was to send someone to escort the princess to the Turks. When considering the candidate, Emperor Xuan of Zhou immediately thought of Changsun Sheng, and Khan Zhaotu originally respected Changsun Sheng, and was very happy to see him coming. So he feasted on the eldest son sheng. After three rounds of drinking, according to local customs, it is better to help with martial arts. Khan said: I heard that the eldest grandson is highly skilled in martial arts, especially famous for his archery, so when you come to us Turks today, let's show our hands.

Therefore, the Turkic king ordered the people to bring a hard bow and asked Changsun Sheng to shoot a copper wire a hundred steps away. Only to see the eldest Sun Sheng pulling a bow to shoot arrows, the hard bow was pulled into a crescent moon, and a sharp arrow "whizzed" into the small square hole of the copper coin, which attracted everyone's applause. Khan saw such accurate archery skills, and also admired Changsun Sheng, and toasted him three bowls of wine in a row.

After drinking, the Khan asked Changsun Sheng to stay in turkistan for a while, and Changsun Sheng was embarrassed and agreed. During the Turkic year, the Khan often asked the eldest son Sheng to accompany him to hunting. Over time, Changsun Sheng's superb archery skills became famous in the Turks.

Once, while they were hunting, the photographer looked up and saw two large eagles in the sky fighting for a piece of meat. He hurriedly gave Two arrows to Changsun Sheng and said, "Can you shoot these two down?" ”

Changsun Sheng said: I'll try it. So he took two arrows and galloped away. At this time, the two large eagles were fighting each other. Changsun Sheng took the arrow, pulled out his bow, and shot an arrow at the two eagles, and the two large eagles fell down strung together. The people present immediately cheered and praised one after another: "The general killed two eagles with one stone, and he really deserves to be a sharp archer!" Sha Baoli Khan was also very happy, and ordered all his sons and nobles to be close to Changsun Sheng and learn his archery skills.

The younger brother of Theotu, Luo Hou, was deeply contradicted by the photograph, and he wanted to use the power of Changsun Sheng to oppose the photography, so he secretly sent someone to befriend changsun Sheng. Changsun Sheng took advantage of this opportunity to often go out hunting with him, carefully observing the terrain of the mountains and rivers in the Turks and understanding the strength of the troops of each department.

In 581, Yang Jian seized power from Northern Zhou and established the Sui Dynasty, known historically as Emperor Wen of Sui. When he received the news, he joined forces with Apo, Tuli and other khans to attack the Sui Dynasty, hoping to avenge Northern Zhou. At this time, Changsun Sheng had already returned to the Sui Dynasty and was deeply trusted by Emperor Wen of Sui. He was well aware of the inside story of the turkic khans' struggle for power and profit and mutual suspicion, so he wrote to Emperor Wen of Sui, asking him to use the trick to alienate the Turks and isolate the map. Emperor Wen took his advice. The photo did indeed attack each other with the other khans, and soon withdrew.

The story was later simplified to "kill two birds with one stone". It is often used as a metaphor for doing one thing for two purposes or for both benefits.