Dong Zhuo wanted to depose the emperor, Yuan Shao immediately opposed it and almost took action. Dong Zhuo was very angry and wanted to kill Yuan Shao. However, after listening to the advice of two courtiers, he changed his mind. Later facts proved that his move was really clever.
01 Dong Zhuo is really smart.
After conquering Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo felt that he had become full-fledged, so he hosted a banquet for the ministers and insisted on deposing the Han Shao Emperor and establishing King Chen Liu as the emperor. Yuan Shao immediately expressed his opposition and said: "The emperor has just ascended the throne, and there is nothing immoral. If you want to abolish the imperial concubine, isn't this a rebellion?"
Dong Zhuo was very angry when he heard that Yuan Shao dared to talk about himself like this. He shouted loudly: "I decide everything in the world. Now I say that I want to depose the young emperor. Who dares to disobey? Do you want to see if my sword is sharp?" But Yuan Shao is not a vegetarian. Your sword Sharp, my sword is also sharp.
The two people were in a stalemate. Dong Zhuo wanted to kill Yuan Shao, but his son-in-law persuaded him: "The situation is uncertain, so don't kill rashly." With everyone's persuasion, Yuan Shao also said goodbye to the courtiers and rushed to Jizhou.
The thorny head left and everyone became quiet. Dong Zhuo said to the ministers: "Anyone who dares to obstruct the great discussion will be dealt with according to military law." At this time, the ministers were shocked and felt very frightened in their hearts. When people are afraid, it is difficult to stand up against something. Therefore, they all agreed with Dong Zhuo's opinion.
However, how to deal with Yuan Shao's affairs is still a difficult problem before Dong Zhuo. Because if it is not handled well, it may make the world unstable. After the banquet, Dong Zhuo left the servant Zhou Ai and the school captain Wu Qiong behind and asked them what they should do with Yuan Shao.
Zhou Ao said: "Yuan Shao left in anger this time. If he is pushed too hard, great changes will inevitably occur. Moreover, the Yuan family has accumulated four generations, with disciples and old officials all over the world. If they conquer heroes from all walks of life and gather ordinary people, Ordinary people, if the hero takes the opportunity to rise up, then the territory of Shandong may not be owned by you. It is better to pardon him and give him a county guard, then Yuan Shao will be happy that he can be exempted and will not rise up in rebellion, so there will be no trouble. "
At this time, Wu Qiong, the captain of the school, also said: "Yuan Shao is so scheming that there is nothing to worry about. It is better to give him the post of county guard to win over the people." Dong Zhuo heard them all say this, and it made sense when he thought about it. . He obeyed them and sent people to Jizhou to worship Yuan Shao as the governor of Bohai on the same day.
Dong Zhuo followed the advice of the two counselors and appointed Yuan Shao as the governor of Bohai. This approach is actually very clever. From this we can also see how important mature think tanks are to people in power who want to achieve success.
02 You must know how to keep your mouth open
Zhou Ai suggested this because they know that rabbits will bite when they are anxious. Why? Because if you push it too hard, it will die anyway, so why not bite you? It's definitely going to bite you, and it might bite you hard.
people are even more like this. Because Yuan Shao supported General He Jin and opposed Dong Zhuo, he did not agree with what Dong Zhuo said about abolishing the emperor and establishing a new one. This seems to be for the stability of the court, but in fact it is also for his own vital interests. In other words, his vital interests determined that he and Dong Zhuo were in an antagonistic structure.
They are bound to fight over this. But how to deal with the other party seems to be a lot of room for discussion. At this time, Dong Zhuo was already the actual controller of the Eastern Han court, possessing violent advantages that others did not have. Especially after conquering Lu Bu for his own use, he was at the height of his power and no one could resist him.
Despite this, as a ruler, he did not want to cause more trouble. If many people rebel against themselves, even if they can be pacified, it will take a lot of effort and the foundation of rule will be unstable. This was certainly not the situation he wanted. Therefore, there is a lot of room for thinking about how to face opponents. If handled properly, not only can you save a lot of trouble, but you can also establish a good image of yourself, which will of course be more conducive to your rule.
Dong Zhuo asked Zhou Ai, the servant, and Wu Qiong, the captain, for advice, just to get the best way to deal with it. Zhou Ao and Wu Qiong had the same opinion. They both said that Yuan Shao should be given an official title. This would have hundreds of benefits and no harm. why?
The main reason is that if Yuan Shao is pushed too hard, it will be detrimental to Dong Zhuo's consolidation of rule. They first analyzed Yuan Shao's strength. Yuan Shao may not be scary, but the forces behind him need to be carefully considered. The Yuan family has been running the business for four generations, and there are many disciples and old officials everywhere. It can be said that there is a big net behind the family. This big network is huge. If it doesn't work well, it will rise up and form an action group, and its strength cannot be underestimated.
What's more terrifying is not them, but if they rise up, and the heroes of the world take the opportunity to rise up, causing a lot of trouble, then the entire Shandong area will be out of the control of the imperial court. This is the divisive situation that comes with having actual control. The division of political power means that the area that rulers can rule is shrinking. This is obviously something that rulers like Dong Zhuo are not willing to see and accept.
Then we must find ways to prevent them from rising up. The first thing is to stabilize them, not to force them, so that they will not rebel because they are forced to do nothing. Then slowly pick them up. The strategy Zhou Ao and Wu Qiong told Dong Zhuo was exactly the method to stabilize Yuan Shao and the Yuan family group.
The core of their strategy is to leave an exit so that the other party will not be trapped because there is no way out. What is achieved by this is "exit control", that is, control is achieved by leaving an exit.
03 This kind of control is very powerful.
Zhou Ai and the others talk about mouth control. It looks calm and gentle, but it is actually very powerful and can produce powerful control power. This strategy reminds us of the strategy adopted by Liu Bei Zhu Jun and others when they suppressed the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army .
At that time, Liu Bei saw that if the city was surrounded by iron barrels, the remaining Yellow Turban Army would desperately resist, and the result might not be good, so he suggested to his coach Zhu Jun that the southeast entrance should be vacated. In this way, when the enemy sees that there is still a way to retreat, they will not resist desperately. When they run to the southeast entrance, they can pursue them and defeat the Yellow Turban Army in one fell swoop. This strategy turned out to be very effective, and the Yellow Turban Army was defeated.
The strategies offered by Zhou Ai and Wu Qiong still have this meaning. Although they were not facing the rebel team of the Yellow Turban Army, they were indeed those who were fighting against Dong Zhuo. After all, they are also enemies. By the same token, if you press forward step by step and want to kill or suffocate Yuan Shao to death, then Yuan Shao and the forces behind him will definitely unite to resist.
They advocated that Dong Zhuo grant Yuan Shao an official position and adopt a gentle attitude, that is, leaving a way out for the other party. In this way, Yuan Shao would not resist because he was pressed, but would instead feel happy because he was pardoned, so that he would relax his guard. . Therefore, the group headed by Yuan Shao will not violently resist Dong Zhuo.
Whether it is Liu Bei's siege or Zhou Ao's softening of officials, the underlying logic is to leave a way out for the opponent so that the opponent cannot form the "necessity of fierce resistance", thereby easing and diluting the fighting spirit, thereby setting the stage for subsequent restraint or even elimination of the opponent. The other party offers greater possibilities.
There is another internal logic here, that is, once the opponent's fighting spirit is relaxed, it will be difficult to inspire it again. Because he did not inspire enough fighting spirit in the most intense stage, it is even less likely that he would be able to inspire enough fighting spirit in the subsequent stages that have calmed down. " Cao GUI's Debate " said that "one vigorous effort will weaken again, and three times it will be exhausted", which means that a person's fighting spirit can only be vigorously exerted. If it is delayed, it will be difficult to increase it again. Why is
like this? The main reason is that human breath is usually in a normal state. In order to stimulate it to a state that can cause drastic changes, the energy and blood need to be invigorated abnormally. The most important thing and the most motivating thing is the real threat to survival.Just like when people encounter severe accidents that are related to life and death, they are often able to exert courage and strength that they cannot usually inspire.
However, after that period of time, after that state of being filled with a sense of urgency that threatens survival, the body and mind will naturally return to normal, and it is impossible to maintain that feeling all the time. Even if you encounter danger again later, because your Qi and blood have dropped, it will take more intense stimulation than the first time to cheer you up again. This is obviously unrealistic. Therefore, leaving an exit actually eliminates the opponent's fighting spirit and the possibility of fighting again.
This internal logic was clearly verified by the Yellow Turban Army, which was the target of Liu Bei's suppression. Later, they no longer had the courage to compete with Liu Bei and Zhu Jun's army. The fundamental reason is that they originally had a death wish and wanted to compete with Liu Bei and others. Even if they died in battle, they would look very tragic. This actually shakes the other party, and softens the other party's fighting spirit on the basis of shaking the other party's heart.
This feeling of generously dying can especially inspire people's fighting spirit. To suppress the troops who generously sacrificed their lives, it would take twice as much fighting power and sacrifices. However, these remnants of the Yellow Turban Army later lost their courage to die generously because they had a way out, and finally became discouraged and quickly collapsed.
After knowing these inner logics, you will understand that the strategy proposed by Zhou Ao and others for Dong Zhuo is actually very clever. Using the method of "softening the opponent" to force the opponent to a point of defeat where there is no way to win may seem a bit unethical, but in the era of competition for hegemony, this is a high-level advantage supported by wisdom.
