Chapter 19 The Fall of a Good Night: Alcohol Mistakes

In the summer of 544 BC, Gongsun Shezhi, the "state" of Zheng State, died. As mentioned earlier, according to the surname system in the Spring and Autumn Period, the sons of princes are called "Gongzi", and the sons of princes are called "Gongsun".When it comes to the generation of Gongsun's son, it can no longer be linked with the word "Gong". It is necessary to be given a clan name by the monarch, and it will establish its own family, which is called "given family".Generally speaking, the title given by the monarch is the name of his grandfather.Take Gongsunshe House as an example:

Gongsun Shezhi's father, Gong Zixi, was the son of Zheng Mugong, and his style name was Zihan.Gongsun Shezhi's son was named Hu, and was given the Han family name, which was called Hanhu in history. The political structure of Zheng State is different from other countries. Under the monarch, in addition to "being the country", there is also "ruling".If the relationship between the three is considered in terms of an enterprise, it is roughly like this: the monarch is equivalent to the shareholder, the chairman of the country is the chairman, and the general manager is the executive.Although there is no separation of powers, there are still some checks and balances.

After Gongsun Shezhi's death, Hanhu's son inherited his father's business and became the ruler of Zheng State.The heir of the Han family showed mature political wisdom as soon as he came to power.According to "Zuo Zhuan", at that time, the famine in the Central Plains of the previous year was still spreading, and the disasters in Song and Zheng were particularly serious, and people starved to death every day.Han Hu ordered the warehouse to be opened, and free relief food was distributed to the people across the country, with the standard of one bell (about 150 catties) per household.Moreover, he told everyone very modestly: "This is not my own intention, but my late father's last wish. I just faithfully carried out his old man's order."

It is not difficult to see the cleverness of Han Hu.The release of grain was originally a good thing that won the hearts of the people, but he did not take credit for it, but pushed the credit to his dead father.In this way, the common people got benefits and naturally supported him; Zheng Jiangong and the officials of the same dynasty would not feel that he was too sharp and would not be wary of him; more importantly, he maintained his father's face , which also maintained the family's face, which made the prestige of the Han family in the state of Zheng soar.There was even such a discussion between the ruling and opposition parties: among Zheng Guo's "Seven Mus", the Han family may be the last to perish.

The so-called Qimu, as I have introduced before, is the powerful family passed down by the seven sons of Zheng Mugong. Uncle Zi of the You family, Gongsun Duan of the Feng family, and Yin Duan of the Yin family.Among them, Hanhu ranked first as the country, Liang Xiao ranked second as the ruler, and Zichan ranked third.These people are either Zheng Mugong's grandchildren or Zheng Mugong's great-grandchildren. The family does not speak two languages, and should have lived in harmony and helped each other in the same boat. The cause of the incident has to be traced back to eighteen years ago.

In 562 B.C., when Sidai’s grandfather and son was in charge of the state, Zheng Jiangong sent Liang Xiao to the state of Chu, asking him to handle the mission of breaking off diplomatic relations with the state of Chu. As a result, the people of Chu state detained Liang Xiao until 560 B.C. Released in winter. Because of this incident, Liang Xiao has always been brooding, and does everything possible to find opportunities to vent and revenge.In 546 B.C., after the meeting of the military alliance, Zhao Wu of the state of Jin received Qi Mu of the state of Zheng and asked everyone to compose poems. Everyone else sang praises, but Liang Xiao sang a song "Quail's Benben" in front of the audience. Zhao Wu's face satirized Zheng Jian's bad conduct and his unworthiness to be a king, so that even Zhao Wu couldn't listen to it, so he had to pretend to be stupid and perfunctory.

During Gongsun Shezhi's reign, Liang Xiao became the ruler.People say that the poor are mean and the rich are tolerant, but that is not the case at Liang Xiao.The rise in status not only did not make him forget the humiliation of being imprisoned by the Chu people, but made him more and more revengeful.When Gongsun Shezhi was alive, Liang Xiao still had scruples and didn't dare to mess around. When Gongsun Shezhi passed away, he expected that Hanhu had not been in the country for a long time and his foothold was not stable, so he would not dare to restrict his behavior too much, so he decided to treat him The son's descendants retaliated.

The son's son was named Zisi, so later generations took "Si" as his surname.Gongzi 騑 died in the winter of 562 BC, and his eldest son Gongsun Xia inherited the family business.And Gongsun Xia also passed away not long ago, and passed on the family business to his son Si Dai, and asked his younger brother Gongsun Hei to assist Si Dai. In the winter of 544 BC, Liang Xiao proposed at the court meeting to send Gongsun Hei as an envoy to Chu. Gongsun Hei didn't want to go, and said: "The state of Chu and the state of Zheng just had a bad relationship, and they sent me to visit the state of Chu, don't they want my life?"

In all fairness, Gongsun Hei's excuse is not very clever. Everyone knows that Zheng Jiangong attended King Chukang's funeral in person not long ago.Going to Chu State now is not dangerous at all.If Liang Xiao had no distracting thoughts, he could easily see through Gongsun Hei's excuses and force him to submit obediently.But obviously, the fire in Liang Xiao's stomach has been simmering for too long, and it will explode with just a light touch.He almost blurted out: "Your family has been doing diplomacy for generations①. This is your job. Why don't you go?" As soon as this remark came out, all the people present were stunned: the Si family has been ministers for generations, and the son was once in charge of the country. Gongsun Xia ranks not low among the ministers. , How could it be a pedestrian who handles diplomacy for generations?Surprised, everyone couldn't help turning their eyes to Gongsun Hei to see how he reacted.

"Diplomatic matters, go as soon as you can, and don't go if there is danger." Gongsun Hei said coldly, "Why do you handle diplomacy from generation to generation? When your father was in power, you were the one who handled diplomacy, right?" Liang Xiao jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on, his eyes were burning, and he stared at Gongsun Hei: "Do you want to disobey?" Gongsun Hei also stood up abruptly, and put his hand on the hilt of his sword: "That's right, I want to disobey orders, what can you do to me?" Kicking the table over, he left the hall without looking back.

Liang Xiao was trembling with anger. This conflict between Liang Xiao and Gongsun Hei is known as "the battle of Liang Si" in history.After the incident happened, the officials of Zheng Guo came forward to mediate, hoping that the matter could be resolved peacefully. In December of the same year, under the mediation of everyone, Liang Xiao and Gongsun Hei shook hands and made peace at Liang Xiao's home. An oath was taken. However, the superficial drinking and talking cannot conceal the inner tension.At that time, among the great officials who witnessed the alliance at Liangxiao's home, one named Pichen privately said to his good friend Ranming: "Although an alliance has been formed, what's the use of it? It is said in the "Poetry" that a gentleman forms an alliance at every turn. , Disasters breed because of this. What we are doing now is also a way to breed turmoil! I pessimistically estimate that this round of turmoil may take three to five years to end." "Yes!" Ran Ming also said worriedly, "In your opinion, if there is chaos, who will control the power of the country?" "It's destiny to replace bad people with good people. Who else is there besides Zichan?" Pi Chen replied straightforwardly, "Even if you follow the steps, it's Zichan's turn. Only by choosing such a good person can you gain everyone's respect. Even the heavens cleared the obstacles for Zichan—Boyou (Liang Xiaozi Boyou) lost his soul, Zixi (Gongsun Xia Zixi) had passed away, who else but Zichan? It's been a long time, this time we must let Zichan calm it down, the country still has hope. Otherwise, the state of Zheng will perish!" In the spring of 543 BC, Zichan accompanied Zheng Jiangong to visit the state of Jin.When Uncle Xiang asked about Zheng's political situation, Zichan replied, "I can't say for sure. The situation is not clear. There should be a result this year. The Si family and the Liang family are fighting openly and secretly, and I don't know how to reconcile them." Uncle Xiang said, "I heard that the reconciliation has been done, hasn't it?" Zichan said: "Bo You is extravagant and stubborn, and Zibai (Gongsun Heizi Zibai) is good at being superior to others. The two of them refuse to give in to each other. Even though they are reconciled on the surface, they are not convinced in their hearts. The chaos will soon come to an end. It's coming." In April of the same year, because he was worried about the "Controversy of Siliang", Zheng Jiangong personally came forward and called all the ministers and officials of the court to make an oath, hoping that everyone would put the overall situation first and coexist peacefully.The starting point of this move is naturally good, but it also exposed that the internal conflicts in Zheng State have reached a rather intense level. Some people commented: Even the king has participated in the doctor's alliance, and the disaster of Zheng State is not far away! The mountains and rains were about to come, and when Zheng Guo was in a state of uneasiness, Liang Xiao, the person involved in the matter, was unexpectedly calm. There are only two possibilities for the so-called unexpectedly calm, either he is very wise and stupid, or he is really stupid.Liang Xiao obviously belongs to the latter. "Zuo Zhuan" records that Liang Xiao has a hobby: wine.He is not a general lover of wine, but addicted to alcohol.According to Zhou etiquette, Doctor Qing is not allowed to drink alcohol after dark, otherwise it would be an act of extravagance and lust.Of course, Liang Xiao couldn't bear such a rule. In order to deceive others, he built a basement at home, and hid in the basement every night to drink and have fun, and often stayed up all night, forgetting to return. It is said that one morning, all the doctors went to Liang Xiao's house to have an audience as usual, and planned to go to the king together under his leadership.It happened that Liang Xiao drank happily the night before, and the banquet lasted until dawn.Everyone waited until the sun was high and Liangxiao could not be seen, so they asked his retainers: "Where is the ruling?" The answer was very humorous: "My master is in the valley!" At this moment, the sound of bells and drums beeping faintly came from the ground.Everyone looked at each other, as if they understood something, they all laughed and said: "In this case, we will go back." So they went home without going to court. The next day, Liang Xiao woke up very early, and followed everyone to the palace to meet Zheng Jiangong.After a few words, Liang Xiao asked again: Why hasn't the matter of Gongsun Hei's envoy to Chu State not been implemented yet? As soon as this remark came out, Gongsun Hei stood up with a "swipe", and everyone present raised their hearts to their throats, and Zheng Jiangong's face also turned dark. He thought to himself, in order to reconcile the conflict between Liang and Si, everyone, Just the alliance has been done twice, and even my monarch condescends to try to persuade you to fight. It's hard to get the situation like today.How about you, your mouth is full of alcohol early in the morning, and you can't sit still, so you just mention "going to the Chu country", don't you think the world is not chaotic enough? Liang Xiao didn't notice the change in everyone's face, and continued to babble while hiccupping.San Chao returned home, went back to the basement, and continued to drink. drink it!How to relieve worries, only Dukang! That night, Liang Xiao got drunk.In a trance, he seemed to see his grandfather——Zheng Mugong's son, Gongzi Quji.The son Quji was named Ziliang, so his descendants took "Liang" as their surname.In the history of the state of Zheng, Prince Quji was widely respected for two main reasons: First, after the death of Duke Ling of Zheng, people originally wanted to elect him as the king, but he resolutely declined and gave the opportunity to the prince. Jian, who later became Duke Zheng Xiang; second, after Duke Zheng Xiang came to power, he wanted to deport all the Mu brothers including Qi Mu, but he did not do so because he argued hard.In a sense, without the young master Quji, there would be no Zheng Guo Qimu today, and this is what Liang Xiao has always been proud of.Seeing Young Master Quji, Liang Xiao hurriedly got up on his knees, wanting to salute him, but unexpectedly lost his balance after drinking, and collapsed as soon as he got up on his knees.Young Master Qu Ji's face was stern, he sighed, the corner of his mouth moved slightly, and said a few words to Liang Xiao.Liang Xiao didn't hear it clearly, and crawled to the young master Qu Ji, and hugged the hem of his clothes, but the hug was empty, only to find out that the young master Qu Ji had no legs.Liang Xiao gasped, and was so frightened that his wits disappeared, and looking at the face of Young Master Qu Ji, it had already turned a miserable green.Sadness was written on that thin and terrifying face, and something was clearly being said in his mouth.This time Liang Xiao heard clearly, what the young master said quickly was: "Run, kid, don't come back again!" Then Liang Xiao felt that he was lifted up, passed through a scene of thick smoke billowing from the fire, and then was thrown onto a bumpy carriage.The carriage moved so fast that it almost knocked him over several times.When he woke up, he opened his eyes and saw the sky full of stars. "Where is this?" He asked in amazement. "Yongliang." The retainer's voice sounded in his ear. He suddenly sat up, the surroundings were lonely and pitch black, apparently in the wilderness.He could vaguely see a dozen retainers sitting around him, holding knives and bows, maintaining a posture of vigilance. "Yongliang?" An ominous thought flashed in Liang Xiao's mind. He knew that this was a place about forty or fifty miles away from Xinzheng. "Why am I here?" "This...Gongsun Hei suddenly launched an attack. He led the soldiers of the Si clan to attack us and set fire to the Liangfu. We carried you out of the basement and ran here." The retainer answered truthfully. "Ah!" Liang Xiao yelled, "Gongsun Hei openly attacked the governor's mansion, did no one stop him?" "I'm afraid all the high officials in the court are secretly supporting Gongsun Hei, otherwise, he wouldn't be so bold." The retainer said. "What secret support is it? It's clearly helping with all your strength!" Another retainer said, "Didn't you see that it's not just Si clan soldiers who besieged us, but also people from other clans?" "What about the monarch! Does the monarch also support him?" Liang Xiao asked hastily. "I'm afraid it is." Liang Xiao sat down slumped, and asked for a long time, "Did Han Hu send anyone to participate?" The retainers whispered to each other for a while, and told him clearly: "I didn't see the Han clan soldiers." "That's easy." Liang Xiao showed a look of joy.He thought to himself that Hanhu did not participate in the attack on him, which meant that Hanhu did not support Gongsun Hei, which meant that Hanhu was still on his side, and the worst was not yet reached. He fled to the state of Xu with his retainers.Soon he will discover that there are many things in the world that are not as simple as either one or the other. What is Hanhu's attitude towards the dispute between Liangsi? On the second day of Liang Xiao's escape, the officials of Zheng Guo gathered together to discuss the aftermath.Hanhu expressed his opinion in this way: "The ancients said that those who are in chaos take it, and those who die insult it. For things that have perished, just clean them up, and don't leave residues; for things that still exist, we will consolidate them. This is the country. Where the interests lie. The Qi Mus are originally of the same spirit, but Bo You is too arrogant and alienated from his brother's family, so he has ended up like this." The implication is that Liang Xiao's escape is mostly because he brought it on himself. For the stability of the country, let him go! Objectively speaking, the biggest beneficiary of Liang Xiao's escape is Zichan.He has already ranked third among the ministers of Zheng Guo, and as soon as Liang Xiao left, he will be ranked second, and he should be in power as a matter of course.Someone suggested to Zichan that the Si family is in the limelight at present, and the Han family, Si family and Feng family were born from the same mother and are powerful. It is better to take the initiative to draw closer to these three families and form a political alliance. Zichan disagreed with this, and he retorted: "Am I with them? Who knows how to calm the country's troubles? If the people in charge of the country's affairs are upright and strong, the troubles will not happen." It happened. I, let’s maintain my independence in this troubled world for the time being!” He personally led people to collect the bodies of the victims in Liang Xiao’s house, and left without attending the court meeting that day.Yin Duan of the Yin family was moved by Zichan's integrity and ran away with him. Han Hu, who was in a meeting, got the news and immediately sent someone to dissuade Zichan. Some people felt puzzled: Didn't you just let him go if you left? Since Zichan didn't want to follow you, why didn't you let him go? "This person can maintain respect for the dead, let alone the living?" Hanhu said, left the venue, drove the carriage to chase Zichan himself, and promised Zichan that as long as he was alive, he would guarantee Zichan production safety. For Zichan, leaving was just to show his attitude.He quickly accepted Han Hu's kindness, and returned to Xinzheng the next day, while Yin Duan returned a day later. Both of them came to Gongsun Hei's house, made an oath with all the officials, and approved Gongsun Hei's attack on Liang Xiao. Behavior.A few days later, Duke Jian of Zheng made an oath with the senior officials in the ancestral temple, and later made an oath with the residents of the capital outside the city gate of Xinzheng.The battle of good Si came to an end with Gongsun Hei's victory. Up to now, Liang Xiao's judgment on the situation is still too optimistic.His counterattack came quickly and was very creative. On the thirteenth day after his escape, he led people to sneak into Xinzheng through the gutter of Xinzheng's tomb gate (a special gate for funerals for people below Qing). With the help of horse trainer Yu Jie He opened Zheng Xianggong's arsenal, took out weapons and armor to arm himself, and then attacked the old north gate in an attempt to control the entire Xinzheng.Sidai, the patriarch of the Si family, mobilizes the residents of the capital to resist Liangxiao's invasion.Both sides sent people to win over Zichan.Zichan said: "Brothers have come to this point. I have nothing to say. I will listen to whoever God helps!" As a result of the battle, Liang Xiao's side was defeated, and Liang Xiao himself died in the livestock trading market in Xinzheng. In retrospect, eleven years ago, that is, in 554 BC, Gongsun Pun of Zheng State died.When the funeral was about to be held, the doctor Gongsun Hui and Pi Zao got up early in the morning to discuss the funeral, passed by Liang Xiao's house, and saw the dog's tail grass growing on his door.Gongsun waved jokingly and asked Pi Zao: "Do the math, will the dog's tail grass still be there on the day Uncle dies?" Still in the middle of the sky, the sky was already bright.Pi Zao made calculations, pointed to Jiang Lou and said, "We can wait for Jupiter to go around one more time, but Bo You can't survive Jupiter to reach this position." Gongsun Hui didn't believe it at the time. At the position of "娵訾", it will take another year to reach Jianglou. When Zichan heard the news of Liang Xiao's death, he ran to the scene to put Liang Xiao in a dress, lay down on the corpse and cried for a while, and then ordered Liang Xiao to be buried in Doucheng.Si Dai and Gongsun Hei were very dissatisfied with Zichan's actions and planned to remove Zichan together.When Han Hu knew about it, he was furious and reprimanded them, saying: "Li is the pillar of a country. Kill the people who are polite, and the country will collapse!" Only then did they dispel their thoughts. It is easy for future generations to accuse Zichan of staying out of the matter, being irresponsible, and taking care of himself alone.But I think that in troubled times, keeping silent, adhering to the moral bottom line and giving dignity to losers are already very valuable.You must know that the vast majority of those who take part in the disputes of the troubled times and prescribe medicines to the world randomly are those who start the chaos and abandon it, and what they bring to the world in the end is nothing more than a more prolonged disaster.