Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2387: Unusual Movement (VI)
The word "show weakness" was like a thunderclap, splitting the dark clouds in Gao Youshi's heart and illuminating the haze that had been shrouding his heart.

I actually forgot about this!
In fact, Gao Youshi was not unaware of the use of "showing weakness to the enemy" in military tactics, but the people he had defeated over the years were almost all men - if eunuchs were also counted as men. Therefore, when he put himself in the shoes of his opponents, even if he would simulate the situation of his opponents "showing weakness", his specific means of showing weakness could not be kneeling down and crying to apologize.

Top politicians are often extremely rational in power struggles, because those who are not rational have long died in the process of pursuing power. Some so-called democratic countries in later generations use ballot politics to send a candidate who may have no experience in political struggles directly to the pinnacle of power, but this has almost never happened in Chinese history - except when a new monarch takes the throne.

This is why the old-timers in the power struggles in ancient China rarely showed political immaturity, but it often happened in some later generations in the voting political environment that claimed to be a democratic system. [For example, if Yin Kaka had read this book, he would not have made the international joke a few days ago. By the way, it is said that before the Xibisibi coup, General Quan had studied the Gaopingling Incident thoroughly, which was hilarious.]
Of course, some people may say that during the Gaopingling Incident, Sima Yi swore an oath by the Luo River. How could General Cao Shuang, who seemed to be very smart before, be so childish and believe Sima Yi's nonsense? Doesn't this overturn the previous statement?

No, because although Cao Shuang was smart and resourceful, he had almost no experience of setbacks before, or had almost no experience of being at a power disadvantage. When this situation suddenly occurred and he was faced with such a drastic event, it was not surprising that he made the wrong decision.

And don’t forget that even if similar situations have occurred in history, they are obviously not well-known. So for Cao Shuang, he lacked historical experience as a reference and could only risk his own life - thus leaving behind valuable lessons for future generations.

At this point, Gao Yousi and his opponents, both enemies and friends, in recent years have enough historical cases to refer to, so the political immaturity of both sides is naturally less.

To sum up, Zhang Juzheng's failure was because he wanted to catch the cicada while Gao Gongshi was a cheater, who easily played a trick behind the scenes, and succeeded in a sneak attack, sending the fate of Gao Gong in history to Zhang Juzheng as a boomerang, thus laying the foundation for the stability of the "Reform of Practical Learning" for 30 years. If we were to say where Zhang Juzheng failed, it was obviously not because of political immaturity, but because one of his opponents cheated.

From then on, whether it was Feng Bao, Zhang Jing, Zhang Cheng and others, because of the inherent defects in the source of their power, Gao Yousi could easily defeat them by guiding the emperor and borrowing the imperial power.

Compared with Zhang Juzheng, they were somewhat politically immature, mainly because they did not see one thing clearly: their power came entirely from the emperor, while Gao Youshi's power was based on the system of court politics (he was born as one of the six top scorers in the imperial examinations and was promoted according to the system), and then was reinforced by his personal friendship with the emperor.

In this situation, the eunuchs trying to compete with Gao Youshi for favor is like a cripple trying to race with Bolt, and Bolt is trying his best, so it would be a miracle if they don't lose.

In contrast, the level of Shen Shixing, Wang Xijue and others has obviously returned to the standard of "political veterans". Although Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue have been partners for many years and have not been able to curb the gradually powerful momentum of the practical school, in fact, it is because Gao Youshi created the trend with the special ability of a time traveler, and Shen Shixing and other talents are really unable to reverse it.

If you compare them carefully, you will find that it was not a fluke that Shen Shixing was able to hold the position of Prime Minister for so many years. On the one hand, Gao Youshi felt that he was not qualified enough to replace them, so he was not in a hurry to overthrow them. On the other hand, it was also because the other party was always cautious and did not go all out when they took action, but left room for maneuver, so Gao Youshi did not have enough room for maneuver.

Did Shen Shixing and his team fail because of their own rash actions? No. Their ultimate failure was because their subordinates saw that the situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable to the School of Mind, and lost their composure in haste, so they were caught in a trap, and then Gao Fusi used all kinds of tricks, both overt and covert, to eventually implicate Shen and Wang, forcing them to resign.

In this process, Shen Shixing, who was the most cautious, actually had no obvious flaws from beginning to end, and Wang Xijue was implicated because he had been suffering from a long-term illness and could only hope to take a final gamble. In short, if we have to make a qualitative assessment, Wang Xijue may be considered to have acquiesced to his subordinates' actions and "kept silent", while Shen Shixing can only be considered to have failed to control his subordinates and should "bear leadership responsibility."

If Shen Shixing had been thicker-skinned and severed his ties with Wang Xijue at the last moment, he might even have been able to protect himself successfully. Although he looked a little embarrassed, he would still be able to cling to the position of Prime Minister.

Fortunately, Shen Shixing was a man of honor, and he might have really lost the confidence to continue suppressing the practical school and Gao Youshi. Therefore, he was completely desperate and simply gave up treatment and resolutely resigned.

This is the level of political veterans. To use Sun Tzu's words, in political struggles, we must insist on "those who were good at fighting first made themselves invincible, waiting for the enemy to be defeated."

And when the struggle has already decided the outcome, you must decisively admit defeat and leave, so that the other side will lose the rationality and necessity to continue to attack you. At the beginning, Gao Gong sent people to investigate the land properties of Xu Huating's family. In the end, the Suzhou prefect Cai Guoxi insisted on investigating it to the end. Why did Gao Gong call a halt?

Do you really think Gao Gong cares about the pressure from public opinion? His favor at that time was so great that he could completely ignore these things, and even label all these people as "Xu Jie's accomplices". The reason why he called for a halt was that political struggles in this era still had a bottom line, and had not deteriorated to the state of the later "Donglin Dianjianglu" period. Therefore, as the prime minister, he should let the other party suffer a little, and that was enough, and he should not continue. Otherwise, Gao Gong would become the sinner of the bottom lineless party struggle.

Precisely because Gao Youshi had been fighting with masters like Shen Shixing who were "skillful but simple" in recent years, he fundamentally ignored the fact that the imperial concubine, who had only been "trained" in the harem environment, did not actually understand very sophisticated political strategies. He actually considered it from beginning to end based on "what cards do I have" and "what cards does she have". The conclusion was naturally "how can I lose with my card of flying dragon riding on the face", "her cards are so rotten that I can't play"...

The last thing was funny. After Menggu Zhezhe’s reminder, Gao Youshi realized: Well, it turns out that people don’t play cards based on calculations, but on feelings!

The only normal man that concubines in the harem can face on a daily basis is the emperor, so the means they use to deal with the emperor are very primitive: playing the emotional card.

The method of "crying, making a fuss, and then hanging oneself" summarized by later generations in harem dramas is somewhat suspected of deliberate belittlement, but it is undeniable that facing the emperor who "holds the law of heaven", the concubines in the harem, under the premise of "not being allowed to interfere in politics", only playing the emotional card is the most cost-effective option.

When a set of methods is used for a long time, it will form path dependence - for example, Gao Youshi's thinking mode just now can be regarded as a kind of path dependence. Since Concubine Zheng, who was born as a concubine in the harem, believed that Gao Youshi was the only individual who had the ability to strike her besides the emperor, it was reasonable for her to subconsciously use the emotional card.

However, it was easy for her to play the emotional card with the emperor, because the emperor was indeed deeply in love with her, but Gao Youshi had no feelings for her at all, so this card was not so easy to play.

For her, the only killer weapon at present is the different image of women and men in this social system - men can only show strength, even if they have to puff up their faces, they have to pretend to be fat, otherwise they will be ridiculed and despised from all angles;

Women are just the opposite. In the Neo-Confucian social system, women who are strong will be attacked at all levels, but if they show weakness and pity, they can often arouse sympathy and love. Even if the other party is an extremely ruthless person, because of social opinion, most of them have to raise high and put down gently to show that they are a "benevolent" gentleman.

Once a social system is formed, it will not only discipline the individuals under the system, but also make people form inertia of thinking. For example, under this rational system, men will self-suggest and constantly strengthen the belief that "I am strong", which will lead to their polarized thinking towards "weak women": one extreme is that they cannot tolerate women's "rudeness" to them, and the other extreme is that once a woman gives in, men will often lose their vigilance - I am strong, she has given in, how dare she have any bad intentions towards me?

However, rationality is the strength of men, while sensibility is the strength of women. Even though women in this era often do not have the knowledge to compete with men due to unfair education, sensibility does not require theoretical learning, and it will be naturally mastered by women in life. Therefore, when the emperor and his ministers were calculating state affairs all day long, the concubines in the harem only needed to focus their wisdom on figuring out one thing: what is the emperor's likes and dislikes?
During this process, the concubines would discover various corners of the emperor's character through observation, testing and other means. Without exception, the favorite concubines knew the emperor's character very well, and might even know him better than the emperor himself.

However, they could only understand the emperor, a normal man. When Concubine Zheng needed to use some means on Gao Youshi, she had no other reference and could only treat him the same way she treated the emperor.

What is the way to treat the emperor? Show weakness and stimulate the emperor's desire to protect him.

During the "struggle for the crown prince", especially before the queen gave birth to a legitimate son, Concubine Zheng had demonstrated this tactic. On the one hand, she had "repeatedly petitioned" to make the eldest son the crown prince, which made the emperor think that "the court was forcing the concubine too much, so that she had to take the initiative to ask for someone else's son to be the crown prince", thus arousing the emperor's desire to protect her and he kept dragging his feet and refusing to make the crown prince.

On the one hand, when she was alone with the emperor, she cried out her true feelings many times, saying that she had received enough favor from the emperor, so how could she dare to covet others? And the outside court pressed hard, fearing that she and her son might not have a good end...

This is also a practice that arouses the emperor's desire to protect. Moreover, because the emperor is the supreme ruler, he will develop a rebellious mentality because of things like "the outside court coercing my concubines". He regards the outside court's insistence on the system as a contempt for his own authority, and is therefore even more reluctant to establish a crown prince.

In short, Concubine Zheng is a master in this method, and she even applies it to many other people. She feels that it is not difficult to control men, so she subconsciously used it on Gao Youshi today.

As luck would have it, although Gao Youshi didn't buy it, her behavior was too bizarre for him to figure out the reason. However, Gao Youshi's usual way of thinking was to "predict the enemy's strategy" - first figure out what the other person was thinking, and then make plans based on that - so he successfully confused himself.

Fortunately, there were not only two grown men, Gao Youshi and Gao Mo, present today, but also Menggu Zhezhe, who was able to really "put himself in the other person's shoes" and think from their perspective. This helped pull Gao Youshi out of his misconceptions.

"Huh..." Gao Youshi let out a long breath and held his forehead with his hand, saying, "I see, I see... I understand. Noble Concubine Zheng, regardless of other matters at this moment, is certain of one thing: she wants to calm me down first and make me let down my guard against her."

Menggu Zhezhe nodded repeatedly and agreed, "That's right, I feel the same way."

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Gao Mo bowed deeply and blamed himself, "I was so careless that I almost made a big mistake for you, Master. I deserve to die."

"I was also negligent, so what's your fault?" Gao Youshi waved his hand and said, "Now that we know Concubine Zheng's intention, the most urgent thing is to prevent it before it happens... Uncle Mo, Menggu, what do you think she is trying to do by setting up such a confusing situation?"

Perhaps because Gao Mo failed to detect Concubine Zheng's intention just now and felt that he was a little unsure of Concubine Zheng's thoughts, he bowed slightly to Menggu Zhezhe, signaling her to express her opinion first.

Menggu Zhezhe did not refuse, but nodded slightly and said to Gao Shishi: "In my humble opinion, Concubine Zheng cannot hope that today's kneeling will make the master completely let go of his prejudice against her, so what she wants is not a long-term, but only a short-term confusion."

Gao Fusi nodded. He shared the same opinion, so he said "hmm" and motioned Menggu Zhezhe to continue.

Menggu Zhezhe then continued, "Since it is only a temporary confusion, it means that if she wants to do something, these things will happen in a short period of time... But according to the master's previous analysis, I really can't figure it out. Even if the master does nothing in the next one or two days and just sits in the mansion and watches the situation develop, what can she do?"

This time, Menggu Zhezhe did not wait for Gao Youshi's signal, but continued to analyze, and said as if talking to himself: "As the master said, there are two people who can control the situation in the capital: the master and the emperor.

Even if the master does nothing, Concubine Zheng can really persuade Li Wenjin to fake the imperial edict, mobilize the Jing army, and successfully win over Li Chengliang and Li Rumei, father and son, and bring in the more than 10,000 imperial guards... But even at this point, as long as the emperor gives an order, can these people really risk their lives to help Concubine Zheng and her son succeed?"

When Gao Youshi heard this, his heart suddenly tightened, and he said in surprise: "Could it be that the emperor's health is in trouble? Oh no, the emperor has been staying in Yikun Palace recently, and I have no time to pay attention to the changes in the palace because of the impending disaster. Could it be that the emperor's condition has become so serious..."

He took a deep breath and suddenly thought of the worst possibility: the emperor was seriously ill and might not live long, but only Concubine Zheng knew the news.

If it was an ordinary time, it would be useless for her to know this information, because the government was under the control of Gao Youshi. Even if the emperor suddenly passed away, Gao Youshi, as the chief minister, could lead the ministers to petition for the crown prince to succeed him. In this procedure, there was no place for Concubine Zheng to intervene, so she could only passively accept it all.

However, as luck would have it, Gao Youshi suddenly "fell ill." This meant that the civil and military officials were suddenly leaderless. If the emperor happened to pass away, there was no one in the court, in theory or in terms of procedure, who could lead the officials to petition for the crown prince to succeed him.

Of course, the doubts here are also obvious, because Gao Youshi, the Prime Minister, did not necessarily need to be present in person when submitting the memorial - three requests and three rejections would take several days to go back and forth. Only when submitting the memorial for the last time, Gao Youshi needed to lead all the officials to kneel outside the Zhongji Hall - meaning that if the prince does not agree to succeed to the throne, then we will kneel here and die today!

In the first two cases, Gao Youshi could have gone in person or just expressed his opinion. That means that as long as he was not dead, he could have asked his subordinates to write a petition for the emperor to ascend the throne and take it out in his name for all officials to sign. After a few days, when he was well again, or at least able to move, the subsequent things would be in order.

In this process, Concubine Zheng should have no room for maneuver. However, the premise here is that Concubine Zheng waits for the court to go through the process.

So, what if Concubine Zheng, the only one who knew in advance that the emperor's illness had reached the point where it was "unbearable to speak of", was unwilling to wait patiently for the court to go through the procedures?

Gao Fusi felt the hairs on his back stand up for a moment.
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PS: I don't know if this is a little-known or hot topic: In the 30th year of the Wanli reign, Zhu Yijun was once "critically ill" and thought he was going to die soon, so he quickly summoned all the ministers including Shen Yikuan and asked them to assist the crown prince, and issued an edict to cancel the mining tax, release prisoners who had been detained for a long time, pardon officials who were convicted for speaking out, etc. Who knew that he would be well again the next day, so he quickly sent people to retrieve the edict to cancel the mining tax, and also caused some interesting things... If you don't know and are interested, you can check it out yourself.