Chapter 17 7. The death of Kong Rong

In the previous section, what we saw was Cao Cao who cherished talents, but several well-known talents Kong Rong, Mi Heng, and Yang Xiu died in his hands one after another. What is going on? Let’s talk about Kong Rong first. When it comes to Kong Rong, people will think of the story of "Kong Rong gave pears".Kong Rong has been benevolent and intelligent since he was a child. He was called a child prodigy by the local people. He is also the twentieth grandson of Confucius.Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Kong Rong is a talented person all over the world. When Kong Rong was 38 years old, he became Prime Minister of Beihai, and later went to Xuchang to serve as the Minister in charge of engineering, which is equivalent to the current cadre of the Ministry of Construction.At that time, the imperial court's imperial meeting was Kong Rong's exclusive speech meeting, and other officials could not intervene at all.

Having a big background and great talent naturally made Kong Rong have a big temper. In 197, Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor. Yuan Shu's in-laws Taiwei Yang Biao and Cao Cao had always had a grudge, so Cao Cao wanted to take the opportunity to kill Yang Biao.After Kong Rong knew about this, he went to Cao Cao and tried to stop Cao Cao with the words "Father and son are brothers, the crimes are not related to each other" in "Book of Zhou".Cao Cao argued that I was fulfilling the emperor's will.Kong Rong retorted: "Could it be that King Cheng wants to kill Duke Zhao, and Duke Zhou also said he didn't know?"Now the world respects you because you are smart and benevolent. If you kill innocent people indiscriminately, the world will be chilled.First of all, as a dignified Lu country man, I will not come to court tomorrow.When Cao Cao heard this, he had nothing to say, so he agreed not to kill Yang Biao, but there was a grudge in his heart.

Kong Rong was unaware of Cao Cao's subtle psychological changes, and he always confronted Cao Cao's operation, and sarcasm was commonplace. After Cao Cao captured Yecheng, his son Cao Pi occupied Yuan Xi's wife Zhen.Kong Rong said in a letter to Cao Cao: Back then, King Wu defeated Zhou and gave Daji to Duke Zhou.Cao Cao believed it was true, so he searched for the classics foolishly, but he couldn't find the source anywhere, so he asked Kong Rong, where did you see it, and Kong Rong replied leisurely, "It's a matter of course." Only then did Cao Cao realize that he had been played like a monkey by Kong Rong.

If Kong Rong still has some truth in the first few things, then the latter thing Kong Rong is too arrogant.In order to save food, Cao Cao ordered a ban on alcohol.Kong Rong liked to drink, so he got up and sang a different tune, saying that there are wine stars in the sky, wine springs on the ground, and wine virtues in the world. How can this wine be banned?If alcohol can be banned, then women can also be banned. I don't see how many cases of countries subjugated because of women since ancient times.These words reached Cao Cao's ears, of course every sentence was thorny, but Cao Cao endured it all.

Cao Cao is by no means a narrow-minded person. It doesn't matter if you just say weird things about small things, but the problem is that no matter small things or matters of principle, Kong Rong has no taboo. He criticizes when he wants to criticize, and attacks when he wants to attack.Before Cao Cao's battle against Guandu, Kong Rong spread his words everywhere, saying that Cao Cao would be defeated. Didn't this disturb the morale of the army? So Cao Cao couldn't bear it, and Kong Rong and Liu Bei had always had a close relationship. If such a person was kept in the court, Cao Cao was not at ease to fight Liu Bei, so he killed Kong Rong before sending troops to Jingzhou.Of course, Cao Cao couldn’t just kill as he said, he still found some reason. The reason is that Kong Rong once said a word: "If there is a world, why bother with a golden knife", Maojin knife is the traditional "Liu" Words, this is treason, so Kong Rong was executed soon.

Yang Xiu, courtesy name Dezu, his father was Yang Biao who was stopped by Kong Rong when Cao Cao wanted to kill him.Yang Xiu is a very intelligent person, but unfortunately he likes to show off his intelligence too much.Yang Xiu is Cao Cao's chief bookkeeper, but he is very tired of the nine-to-five office life, and wants to sneak out to enjoy his freedom every now and then.Cao Cao often asked him a few questions when he was at work. In order not to reveal his flaws, Yang Xiu guessed Cao Cao's thoughts in advance, wrote the answers on a note, put them in order, and told his attendants that if the prime minister sent someone to ask, Answer the questions in the order they are written.Yang Xiu is indeed very smart, and he figured out what Cao Cao was thinking every time.

However, one time, God intentionally joked with Yang Xiu, a gust of wind blew, and the notes on the table were scattered on the ground, and the order was messed up when they were picked up again.Cao Cao sent someone to ask again, but the attendants answered in the wrong order.Cao Cao saw that answering and asking were two different things, so he asked Yang Xiu to question him.Yang Xiu was timid after all, so he confessed and was lenient.When Cao Cao heard that Yang Xiu was playing with himself like this, he secretly hated him. It's nothing more than playing smart with Cao Cao, and Yang Xiu refuses to restrain himself in front of everyone.Once, when the Xiangguo Mansion was built, Cao Cao went to inspect it. After seeing it, he didn't give any advice, so he wrote the word "living" on the door.Yang Xiu ordered the door to be demolished and rebuilt quickly, explaining that the word "job" in the "door" was the word "kuo", and the prime minister thought the door was too wide.

Another time, Cao Cao received a box of crisp candy, took a bite, wrote the word "he" on the box and handed it to everyone.No one else knew what it meant, but Yang Xiu took it and ate it, saying, isn't this just "one bite for one person"? At that time, Yang Xiu belonged to Cao Zhi's school, and when assisting Cao Zhi, he used his cleverness inappropriately.Once, Cao Cao ordered the two brothers Cao Pi and Cao Zhi to go out of Yecheng on business, but secretly ordered the guards not to let them go, to see how they reacted.Yang Xiu guessed Cao Cao's arrangement in advance, so he told Cao Zhi that if he was stopped by the guards, you have the king's order, so you can kill him and leave the city directly.As a result, Cao Zhi followed suit and was able to get out of the city, but Cao Pi failed to get out of the city.

It's a pity that Yang Xiu has only a little cleverness and no great wisdom. He guessed the beginning but not the ending.Cao Cao asked this test question not to see if they could leave the city, but to comprehensively test the quality of the two.Cao Zhi killed people and left the city, leaving a cruel impression on Cao Cao. He seemed to have won the game, but lost Cao Cao's heart. Yang Xiu was obsessively interested in trying to figure out Cao Cao's mind. He often imagined many questions and wrote down the answers to Cao Zhi, so that he could answer quickly when Cao Cao came to ask questions.However, Cao Zhi's agility and ingenuity aroused Cao Cao's suspicion.Cao Cao sent someone to investigate, and knowing that it was Yang Xiu's trick again, he hated Yang Xiu even more.

It's fine if it's something insignificant. Like Kong Rong, Yang Xiu also violated Cao Cao's taboo in military affairs.In 219 A.D., Liu Bei captured Hanzhong, and Cao Cao led his troops to take it back. As a result, the city was so strong that it could not be attacked no matter what.When Cao Cao was worrying about this matter, someone came to ask for instructions on the military command that night, and Cao Cao blurted out: "Bad chicken ribs." Yang Xiu immediately started to pack the bedroll when he heard it. Everyone asked what happened, and Yang Xiu explained that chicken ribs are eaten There is no meat, but it tastes good to throw it away. My lord is planning to go home.

There is nothing wrong with Yang Xiu's answer, but there is something wrong with his head.A few months later, Cao Cao charged Yang Xiu with "leaking his words and preaching and handing over to the princes", which means leaking state secrets, forming a party for personal gain, and killing Yang Xiu. Before he died, Yang Xiu said: "I am sure I will die too late", and I should have died long ago.Regarding the cause of his death, Yang Xiu couldn't help thinking about the answer again, but he didn't think well.He thought that his death was implicated by Cao Zhi, but he didn't expect him to die by his own hands.But all rulers, especially those in the autocratic era, will take great pains to leave others with the impression that they are intelligent, unfathomable, and supernatural, so as to create a sense of mystery and make everyone worship themselves willingly.Yang Xiu, on the other hand, wanted to speculate on the meaning of the leader without authorization, making the leader look like a child without a city. Of course, the leader cannot allow such a thing to happen. This is the root cause of Yang Xiu's death. Kong Rong and Yang Xiu are both smart people, but they are equally smart but they were misunderstood by their cleverness, and they shot themselves in the foot with a rock.It can be seen that one step forward from the truth is a fallacy, and showing off cleverness and playing smart will turn cleverness into petty cleverness.Kong Rong always criticizes when he wants to criticize and attack when he wants to, no matter in daily trivial matters or military and national affairs, but does not imagine what the consequences of doing so are. , It is a big omission; Yang Ze, regardless of the big or small things, can't help playing smart, seeing the answer to the first step, but not seeing the answer to the second step, it is a big mistake.