Chapter 5 5. The meritorious man and the meritorious dog

In 201 BC, on December 22, Liu Bang prepared to seal a large area. Before that, he had put wine on the table, and named Xiao He, Zhang Liang, and Han Xin as the "Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty".Liu Bang granted Xiao He the Marquis of Feng, and asked Zhang Liang to choose 30,000 households in Qidi, and planned to entitle him to 30,000 households. We know that Qi State was the richest vassal state at that time. Liu Bang asked Zhang Liang to choose 30,000 households in Qi, and his love for Qi was beyond words.However, Zhang Liang refused.He said to Liu Bang: "It is God's arrangement that I raised an incident in Xiapi and met the emperor in Liu County."Please the emperor seal me as Marquis of Liu, the minister's wish is enough!

Liuhou, his food city is only 10,000 households.In this world, we have never seen people who fight for more, but Zhang Liang who fights for less.This is not a show by Zhang Liang, but a real humility and refusal.Zhang Liang told Liu Bang again: In my life, I have become the emperor's teacher and been named Liuhou with only a three-inch tongue. I am very, very satisfied.The emperor also knew that the minister was sick. From then on, he wished to abandon human affairs and follow the Chisongzi fairy to travel around the world. Zhang Liang's following the gods is fake, in fact, his trick is called rapid retreat.It has always been the good ambition of the sages to retire after success, to be a boat and drift on the rivers and lakes, and to live in the world ever since.If you are selfless, you become selfish; if you don't fight, no one in the world can compete with him. Zhang Liang's courage and brilliance are second to none in the world.

The fact that Zhang Liang does not fight does not mean that the secular world does not fight.Why not fight?Back then, I, Xiao He and Cao Shen worked hard, but I still had to get into trouble, so I had to go to Pei Gong, one in front and one behind, sprinting tens of millions, and finally achieved the overall situation; back then, I, Zhou Bo, played all the sad songs in the world, and I have seen Thousands of things are impermanent, life and death are up to God, wealth and honor belong to me, how can I give up; I think back then, I Guanying and Fan Kuai, one was a businessman, the other killed a dog, for the profit of the business, and the killing of a dog for a living, both were forced by life, That's why there is the heroic cavalry and Hongmen's heroic passion for chasing and killing Xiang Yu; I think that at the beginning, I, Chen Ping, endured the humiliation and took care of the funeral for others. After all the hard work, the wish of the rich and powerful finally came true!I think back then...

To fight is inevitable, not to fight is futile.This world, if there is no desire, it will stagnate; if there is no ambition, it is just a pool of stagnant water.It is the endless desires and ambitions that stimulate the hormones in the human body, and thus get extremely reasonable and unreasonable catharsis.There is contention in the world, so we see the various forms of the earth; if there is no contention in the world, then human beings can only be monkeys hanging on the tree to rest forever; if Xiao He and Cao Shen do not fight, they can only be lonely souls in the wild Wild ghost; if Zhou Bo didn't fight, he was just the faceless farmer in the village; if Guan Ying and Fan Kui didn't fight, they would still be just a treacherous businessman and a butcher who fought with animals; if Chen Ping Indisputable, he may not have the crown of robbery on his head, but he will be silent until death!

We can admire Zhang Liang's detachment, but we can't reject human disputes. Numerous facts and laws of social development tell us that for all small and humble human individuals, resistance is the most authentic way of making a living for their development and survival. ! Zhang Liang was named Marquis, and no one had any objections.However, when the heroes heard that Xiao He was named Marquis of Feng by Liu Bang, almost all of them jumped up and strongly opposed it. Their reason was: we charged forward on the battlefield and risked life and death, while Xiao He only dipped his pen in the rear and never shed blood. , let alone shed tears, why does he have more food than us.

The so-called Marquis of Bing is the town of Shi Bing County.Feng County, which is now Xibing City and Township, Yongcheng County, Henan Province, had only 8,000 households at that time, and Cao Shen and others had been enfeoffed as Marquis of Pingyang, with more than 10,000 households. This is really hard to convince people. In fact, it doesn't matter how much you eat, what matters is that these generals see if you are pleasing to the eye.It's a pity that generals don't like Xiao He, so they attack him in groups and find fault with him. What exactly is going on?As soon as the truth is explained, it is very clear that the generals have trouble with Xiao He. There are two major reasons: first, Xiao He has lived in the rear for a long time, isolated from the generals, and has little affection; As with martial arts, martial arts should be the first.However, when Liu Bang discussed meritorious deeds, he seemed to have reversed the standard. Instead, civil servants came first, and military commanders came back.

The reasoning of the generals seemed to have a solid basis for argument, but Liu Bang didn't think so. He asked the generals: Have you heard of hunting? Generals: I have heard of it. Liu Bang: Then you should know that hunting requires hunters and hounds, right? Generals: Of course. Liu Bang: Then let me give you an analogy. Dogs are the ones who hunt and kill beasts and rabbits; people are the ones who give orders. May I ask you, is the dog or the person more important? Generals: Of course they are people! Liu Bang: You charged at the front line, but it was a meritorious service; Xiao He gave orders in the rear, and what you accumulated was a meritorious service.May I ask you, is it the meritorious work, or the meritorious work?

Generals: ... The generals were speechless, and Liu Bang was proud.Now that the generals don't have any objections to being named Marquis, I'll proceed to issue a list of meritorious officials.Therefore, Liu Bang made a list of eighteen people. These eighteen people are all the first-class heroes of the Han Dynasty. The first is still Xiao He, and the second is Cao Shen. This Xiao He, it doesn't matter if there are too many food cities, but he still wants to fight for the first place.The generals became furious again, and united unanimously to say to Liu Bang: Cao Shen, Marquis of Pingyang, suffered seventy great wounds, conquered cities and plundered land, and made the most achievements, so he should be the first!

The generals still mean the same thing: Wenzhi and martial arts should be ranked first with military achievements. Is not it?Military generals are fighting with their lives, but Xiao He, a stinky civil servant, hides behind and only does things like collecting taxes and counting taxes, and even puts it on top of us, isn't this nonsense? It seems that Liu Bang can only tell one more story about the meritorious person is better than the meritorious dog.But at this moment, someone took the initiative to stand up and report the high merits to Xiao He, and he was the one who was in charge of entering the audience, E Qianqiu, Marquis of Guan Nei.

E Qianqiu said to the generals: You are all wrong.Cao Shen plundered a lot of land in the field, but this was a short-term achievement; the emperor and King Xiang fought for hegemony for five years, traveling around the world, but Xiao He always replenished the army, and what he created was an eternal achievement.If hundreds of Cao Shen died on the battlefield, the Han Dynasty would not suffer any major losses, and if the Han Dynasty gained hundreds of Cao Shen, the Han Dynasty would still be the Han Dynasty, and it would not only rely on other countries for security.From this point of view, how can Cao Shen's momentary achievements compare with Xiao He's eternal achievements? Therefore, Xiao Heying is the first and Cao Shen is the second.

Wonderful, so wonderful. Liu Bang was so excited that he wanted to applaud.E Qianqiu really lives up to his name, and what he talks about is the great cause of Qianqiu. Since you sang a good show, I have to make a high-profile reconciliation. Therefore, Liu Bang immediately said to the generals: Xiao He's contribution is already very high. After E Qianqiu's comment, his reputation is even more prominent.There is one more thing I have to tell you, you follow me to fight the world, there are no more than two or three members of your own family, but when I was trapped in the Central Plains, Xiao He not only mobilized the people in Guanzhong to support the front line, even sent dozens of people from his own family to the battlefield Now, you said that his credit should not be ranked first? The generals looked at each other in blank dismay, once again suffering from being dumb. Liu Bang issued another edict: Xiao He, his father, son and brothers, and more than a dozen people, all have food; The so-called walking up to the palace with a sword, not to enter the court, means that Xiao He can wear a sword, can wear wooden clogs to the Golden Palace, and enters the palace gate without having to run with small steps, but still walks at a normal speed.The treatment given by Liu Bang to Xiao He is like a certain leader asking his subordinates that you don’t have to wear professional attire to work, you can also enter my office in slippers, and you can even push the door and come in without knocking. In fact, there are two reasons why Liu Bang granted Xiao He more than two thousand households: First, when Liu Bang went to Xianyang on business, Xiao He always gave him two hundred extra money every time he sponsored him. Return favors.Secondly, Liu Bang took this opportunity to tell the generals: The more jealous and aggressive you are, the more I want to promote, because only by doing this, the beneficiary will be more determined. Now, Zhou Bo and the others finally gained another insight.