Chapter 42 7. Liu Bang understands politics, Xiang Yu is a real man

A successful politician must be good at capturing information, especially information that is beneficial to him. This is the so-called acuity and insight.In addition, you must know how to use external forces.External force is sometimes a person, sometimes an event, and sometimes it may be a false proposition that does not hold true but can be used at any time.They will make a big fuss about this in order to make the political weather vane biased in their favor. Liu Bang is a successful politician. He can capture information, use external forces, and turn disadvantages into advantages.Liu Bang used external forces, and he didn't care whether it was in compliance with the norms or not, as long as it was beneficial to him, this was his starting point for doing things.And he can always pretend them to be very normative and moral, and let you follow his thinking, control your thinking, and make you feel that it is a natural thing. "Wang Guanzhong" actually later became an excuse for Liu Bang's expansion of his ambitions, rather than a simple appointment of personnel, because Liu Bang at that time had no longer regarded the little Guanzhong King in his eyes.

Xiang Yu doesn't know this. The proposition of "Wang Guanzhong" has also become a fatal injury to Xiang Yu.If he later sits in Guanzhong and becomes the king of Guanzhong himself, this problem can also be solved.But he didn't.If Xiang Yu did not kill Emperor Yi and continued to choose him as a puppet, Xiang Yu would not give others a handle and become an excuse for Liu Bang to attack him further.But Xiang Yu's temper is like this, he doesn't have that much scheming, since he doesn't like Xiong Xin and thinks he's in the way, it's better to let him go to see the King of Hades.

In fact, Liu Bang didn't necessarily have such a deep relationship with Xiong Xin, but he felt that if Xiong Xin was there, he and Xiang Yu would still be on the same level, so he would lift Xiong Xin to a higher place.Compared with Liu Bang's use of Yidi's death to talk about things, Xiang Yu's killing of Emperor Yi did not seem so despicable.Xiang Yu's killing of Xiong Xin was motivated by momentary anger, at least out of a sense of gratitude and enmity, and daring to act.And Liu Bang's cry of bear's heart is a fake compassion for a cat crying for a mouse, and he is secretly excited because there is one more reason to oppose Xiang Yu.From this point of view, Liu Bang's humanity is far worse than that of Xiang Yu.

Although Xiang Yu was dissatisfied with this false proposition a thousand times and looked down on Xiong Xin ten thousand times, when he finally made a decision, he was able to ask Xiong Xin first, which showed that Xiang Yu still had a conscience.At least deep down in his heart, he still took the promise seriously.From this point of view, Xiang Yu can be regarded as a real man who values ​​faith and righteousness.Such people are worthy of admiration and respect in real life, but playing politics is not enough.Political propositions are not necessarily true propositions, and political promises are not necessarily true promises, so Xiang Yu is destined to be entangled and troubled by it, and the one who suffers in the end can only be himself.Liu Bang is different. His insistence on this matter does not mean that he is a person who keeps his promise, because this matter is beneficial to him.As long as it is beneficial to Liu Bang, he doesn't care whether he promises or not, or whether he is moral or immoral.This point is fully reflected in Liu Bang's future life.

Said that Xiang Yu doesn't understand politics, it can also be seen from the matter of entrusting the world after he respected Xiong Xin as Emperor Yi.Xiang Yu's enfeoffment was based on his military achievements, and he did not take care of the descendants of the royal families enshrined by the Six Kingdoms.This is supposed to be good, there is no favor, it all depends on the military exploits.However, this is precisely the manifestation of Xiang Yu's ignorance of politics.Because politics is about people.Being inhumane is the need to use inhumanity to cover up the ulterior purpose.It's as if you have taken care of your boss. When promoting you, he will evaluate you from a very high height, and will not say how excited he is by your gift money.

Xiang Yu's distribution of feudal titles in this way will only convince some second-line leaders, that is, those who lead troops to fight, and will not satisfy the descendants of the six countries.In fact, since these people established the descendants of the Six Kingdoms, if Xiang Yu really wants to entrust these descendants, these people will not have any objections.Moreover, it is difficult to unify the standards for enfeoffment according to military achievements, because no one will feel that their contribution is less than others, but fiefdoms are good or bad, big or small, so that hidden dangers of contradictions are buried.Later, Chen Yu's rebellion was a living example.

Xiang Yu will only act according to his own will and ideas. He lives a real life and is an upright man, but he is not a good politician.In a political arena full of scheming and cunning, he is doomed to fail.The only thing he can get, perhaps, is to be respected by future generations because of his truth, nothing more.However, this kind of reality is exactly where the soul of our Chinese nation lies, and it is what we need and advocate. People always like to study political tricks, and express their sincere admiration for those scheming and cunning, which is caused by human vanity and desire.In fact, politics is cruel, and it is better to stay away from it.