It is said that accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, throughout the long river of history, countless generals have led to the disaster of killing because of their achievements. The so-called meritorious lords, those ministers with outstanding contributions, usually have a very high self-esteem, but they ignore the jealousy of them in the emperor's heart at this time, so they often do not end well.
However, there are still some heroes in history who can enjoy their old age and die in peace. Those who have made great achievements for the country and can still gain the trust of the emperor need superior wisdom to prove their loyalty to the king and the country through some things. However, this is often impossible for ordinary people to do.
Those who know how to prove their loyalty to the emperor usually know how to "defile themselves." "Self-defilement" is a very clever means. By discrediting one's own reputation, he changed the way others thought of himself, proved to the king that he had no great ambitions, and thus eliminated the jealousy in the king's heart.
As early as the Warring States period, a famous general Wang Qi used the means of "self-defilement" to die well under the fierce and violent Qin Shi Huang. Wang Qi made a great contribution to the destruction of the other six kingdoms and the unification of the world by the Qin state, but this also frightened the young Qin king At that time.
Wang Qi naturally also saw the thoughts of Qin Wang Yingzheng, so after obtaining the battle merits, he asked Yingzheng for a large number of fields and houses, and even sent people to ask For good land and houses from Yingzheng during the conquest.
In the eyes of outsiders, most of them felt that Wang Qi was too greedy, but this made the concerns in the heart of the King of Qin dispelled, and the King of Qin felt that Wang Qi had no political ambitions and was not enough to suffer, so he rewarded a large number of good land and luxurious houses. And Wang Qi's descendants are safe and can enjoy glory and wealth. This is the wisdom of showing the King of Qin his weaknesses.
Guo Ziyi, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, served four kings in his lifetime, and he was able to enjoy his old age in peace until he was 85 years old, which also depended on his way of being a subject.
According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", Guo Ziyi won many military achievements in his life, but in his later years, he was a group of wives and concubines, indulging in wine.
In fact, this is also his "self-defilement" means. He deliberately pretended to be addicted to wine, and let several beautiful women follow him every time he went out, and did not shy away from outsiders.
Not only that, he often held banquets, invited many ministers to come over, drank and had fun, and there were beautiful women around him, which was very happy. This made outsiders angry and annoyed, and they were very sad that this famous general who had made so many achievements in battle was so addicted to wine.
As everyone knows, this is Guo Ziyi's means, he knows the consequences of the lord, so he shows that he has no ambition and only likes the appearance of wine, so as to protect his descendants. And this is exactly the case, Guo Ziyi has always been respected by the emperor, and was also given additional titles after his death.
Compared with Wang Qi and Guo Ziyi, Sima Yi knew how to gain the trust of the king, and what was even more powerful was that he always had the ambition of rebellion in his heart, but he had always hidden it, and finally launched a coup d'état in one fell swoop to lay down Sima Tianxia.
There are many accounts of Sima Yi's life in the Zizhi Tongjian. According to records, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the world was in chaos, Cao Cao, who had ambitions, also recruited talents everywhere. At this time, Sima Yi had already shown great talent, so he recruited Sima Yi to his command.
Cao Cao was suspicious by nature, wanting to reuse Sima Yi and was very worried about Sima Yi's ambitions. Later, although Sima Yi showed great loyalty, Cao Cao felt that Sima Yi had a "wolf look" and always warned his son Cao Pi not to get too close to him, and not to reuse Sima Yi in the future.
However, Cao Pi did not think so, and after he succeeded to the throne, he let Sima Yi take on a heavy responsibility. Later, after Cao Pi's son Emperor Wei ascended the throne, Sima Yi began to show his skills and achieved many achievements in many struggles.
In the later Liaodong War, Sima Yi launched a large-scale killing spree in the captured city, almost exterminating the originally prosperous Liaodong, making Liaodong almost a wasteland. Not only was he very cruel to his enemies, but he was also very cruel to his soldiers.
At that time, it was already a cold winter at the end of the Liaodong War, and liaodong at that time was now the northeast region, which was already very cold at this time, and the soldiers were wearing thin clothes. Some of the soldiers had even been frozen to death.
Later, Emperor Wei Ming sent some cotton clothes, but Sima Yi did not distribute them to the soldiers, and he said: "The officials and goods of the people are selfless. The implication was probably that these were all imperial court things, and he didn't have the right to give them to soldiers.
When the soldiers on the frontier learned of this news, they scolded Sima Yi one after another. When this news reached The Emperor of Wei Ming's ears, not only was he not angry with Sima Yi, but he was a little complacent in his heart, even a general who was not loved by his own subordinates, and who else followed him to rebel? As a result, sima yi's defensiveness was much less.
However, all this was premeditated by Sima Yi, and after a long period of planning and dormancy, he gave Cao Shuang a fatal blow after 11 years, and showed his ambitions to the world, successfully founding the Sima Dynasty.
Many people did not expect that Sima Yi, who had always been loyal and old, had hidden his ambitions for so long. What makes people feel even more admired is that his wisdom in the dprk was able to win the deep trust of the emperor through disguise.