wolf road

Chapter 28 Wolf Principle (7)
Zeng Guofan is also a person who knows how to hide and hide.He respected Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism all his life.He is not only good at running the army and family, but also well versed in the art of keeping a low profile and escaping from the dangers in the political world.When he took the power of suppressing the Taiping Army to the peak of his power in his life, he unexpectedly dismissed the Hunan Army on his own initiative, and returned to his hometown to retire in the name of recuperating.This move not only dilutes the emperor's worry that his ministers will be superior to the master, but also relieves the princes' worries about supporting their troops. The next murderous disaster.

To a large extent, the strategy of concealment is a special way to avoid disasters that people under the pressure of feudal autocratic rule have to adopt to protect themselves, but the various forms of strategy of concealment still show people's wisdom.Hidden strategy has a clear purpose and utilitarianism, has a strong subjective consciousness, and is very rich in human subjectivity.Hidden tactics are also extremely aggressive. Although on the surface it seems that there are many retreats and forbearances, it shows the resilience of a person from another aspect, and shows a person's inner strength to endure humiliation.

Using the strategy of keeping a low profile is a prominent feature of the wisdom of life, and some scheming people are even more proficient in this way. If they apply the strategy of keeping a low profile with ease, the result will naturally be twice the result with half the effort.Back then, Zhang Zuolin, who was born as a bandit in the Northeast, adopted this rule and successfully dug a tunnel for himself. As a result, he was able to prosper in official career in the days to come, skyrocketing, and rising all the way.

Zhang Zuolin is an ambitious person. Although he is already a big bandit leader, he always wants to be an official of the court.

The news that General Fengtian Zengqi's concubine was going to return to Fengtian from the pass was discovered by Zhang Zuolin's subordinate Tang Erhu and hurriedly reported to Zhang Zuolin.Zhang Zuolin slapped his thigh and said: This is really a pig arch, and the goods were delivered home.

So Zhang Zuolin ordered Tang Erhu to take the opportunity to act like this.

Tang Erhu was ordered to set up an ambush in Xinlitun. When the team drove to Xinlitun, Tang Erhu stopped them with an order, and then escorted them to a compound in Xinlitun.

Zengqi's concubine and personal attendant were housed in a big house surrounded by bandits with guns.At this time, Zhang Zuolin had already received the report, so he galloped to the compound, and deliberately raised his voice and asked Tang Erhu: Where did you get so many people?
Tang Erhu also deliberately raised his voice and said: This is a business that the brothers just made on the road. I heard that it is Lord Zengqi's family, so I brought it back.

Zhang Zuolin pretended to be angry and said: You bastard!I told you a long time ago that we are here to protect the environment and the people, and we cannot stop pedestrians casually, and we only take the underworld of the green forest as a last resort.If there is an opportunity to serve the country in the future, we have to ask for more people to take care of us!You guys are doing such a stupid thing today, how can I explain to the enlarged people in the future?Treat them well tonight, and send them back to Fengtian early tomorrow morning.

Zhang Zuolin's words were clearly heard by Zengqi's concubine in the room, and immediately sent a message to have an interview with Zhang Zuolin.Zhang Zuolin immediately sent someone to bring the best opium to Zengqi's concubine, and then he entered the house and knelt down to pay respects to her.

The concubine said gratefully to Zhang Zuolin: After hearing what you said just now, I will definitely do something in the future. As long as you guarantee that I will reach Fengtian safely today, I will definitely recommend this part of your strength to the general to serve Fengtian.

Hearing these words from Zengqi's aunt, Zhang Zuolin was very happy, and even knelt on the ground and couldn't get up.

The next day, Zhang Zuolin waited on his aunt to eat breakfast, and personally led the brothers to escort his aunt to Fengtian safely.

After returning to Fengtian, the concubine told General Zengqi about the danger on the way and Zhang Zuolin's willingness to serve the court.Zengqi was very happy after hearing this, and immediately asked the imperial court to incorporate Zhang Zuolin's troops into a patrol battalion. From then on, Zhang Zuolin bid farewell to the life of horse thieves and horse thieves, and became the real Qing court leader (battalion commander).

In this way, Zhang Zuolin made use of the strategy of keeping a low profile to accomplish a major event from the underworld to the white way, laying the foundation stone and paving the way for his future path.

Not only in China, but also in foreign countries, there are many people who make good use of this strategy.

Skander, national hero of medieval Albania.But for a long time, he used to be the favorite of the Turkish Sultan, ruling the people of Albania.At that time, Turkey had already occupied Albania, why did Skander willingly serve his master?Since he is a tool of the invaders, why is he called a national hero?
In fact, Skander hated Turkey's invasion of Albania, especially when he was a child and was detained in Turkey as a hostage.The seeds of hatred were deeply buried in his heart.But he was a scheming man, and he won the favor of the Turkish Sultan by using the technique of concealment.The Sudan sent him to a military school and entrusted him with important tasks.He also pretends to be a Turkish aristocrat, and seems to have forgotten that he is an Albanian and that he has forgotten Turkey's aggression against his own nation.

After gaining the trust of the Turkish Sultan, especially after becoming the chief executive of Albania, Skander began to contact the anti-Turkish forces in various places, and the people also hoped that he could lead the Albanian people to carry out the restoration movement.But Skender believes that the time is not yet ripe, and he cannot act rashly, otherwise all previous efforts will be wasted, and it will bring even greater disasters to the country and the people.

Later, the Hungarian people occupied by Turkey broke out an uprising, and the flames of struggle became more and more intense. The Turkish rulers mobilized troops from Albania in order to suppress the uprising.Skender believed that the time had come to fight against the soil. He withdrew his troops from the tense front line and returned to Tirana. With lightning speed, he took control of all the military fortresses in Albania and completed the task of national revival.

Later, Turkey mobilized a large number of troops to attack Albania. Skander broke up the troops and concealed them skillfully, and there was a rumor that Skander had hidden in the deep mountains and old forests.In fact, this is just another hidden strategy of Skander. He knows that he is not an opponent of the Turkish army, and he also understands the compromise and vacillation of the leaders of the various tribes in Albania, so he switched from the open battlefield to the underground struggle.He wasted no time in mobilizing troops, gathering them and training them.Just as Turkey celebrated its reconquest of Albania, Skander's army appeared near Tirana as if it had fallen from the sky, and surrounded the stunned Turks.

After the victory of this war, Skander firmly controlled the situation in Albania, which not only frightened the aggressors, but also convinced Skander of the vacillating and compromising nobles.A new Albania gradually became stronger in Europe.

It is not difficult to see from it that if Skander does not have a strategy to hide, it is unknown whether he can win the final victory.

And in the following story, we will see how the clever village head uses his resourcefulness to hide his real intention of asking for help very cleverly, and confuses the other party with false appearances, so as to stabilize other people's emotions and ensure that they follow their own thinking. Take action to achieve what you want to achieve.

In a village, the apples grown from the planted apple trees are big and sweet, and they sell well in the market, occupying a large market share. However, due to the bad roads in the village, it is always inconvenient to transport them outside. , affecting the development of the apple industry.Under such circumstances, the village branch decided to apply for funds from the township to build an asphalt road for the village.

I applied for several times, but the township government refused because of insufficient funds and too many projects.Seeing that the apples sold so well, but they were difficult to transport, the village branch staff were very anxious and came up with a plan.

One day, the village head personally came to the township government with a stack of invitations, and invited all the township leaders, big and small, to visit and inspect the development of the apple industry and hold an apple exhibition.For such a good thing, the township leaders are of course willing to attend the appointment.The road leading to this village is so bad that the leaders have experienced the hardships of this road due to the bumpy journey.However, the one-stop development model of apples in this village is really worth seeing and has a bright future. The township leaders highly appreciate the apple industry in this village.

After the exhibition, the village's apple industry quickly alarmed the county leaders, who decided to visit this well-known apple village in two months.

After the leaders of the township government heard about this incident, the first thing they thought of was the road problem in the village. If the leaders of the county saw such a road again, they would definitely blame the work in the township for not doing a good job. It was unlucky, so an emergency meeting was held to study the problem of road construction.As a result, in just two days, all the funds were in place, and the construction started on the third day. Before the leader came to visit, the road was finally repaired.

This village head can be said to be a very smart person. He did not directly ask the township leaders to allocate funds for road construction. Instead, he invited the leaders to visit and guide him as an introduction, and under the pretext that the county leaders would come to visit. Also had to fix it.

Whether in life or in business, we express to each other that we can use various illusions to hide our true intentions, and use various methods to arouse the enthusiasm of others and lay the foundation for our success. This is also the best effect of concealment .

Leiter was the editor-in-chief of the "New York Tribune" run by Greeley, and at that time he lacked a shrewd and capable assistant.He took aim at young John Hay, who he needed to help him make a name for himself, to help Greeley become a successful publisher at the broadsheet.At that time, John had just resigned from his post as a diplomat from Madetank, and was going to return to his hometown to be a lawyer.

How can John be kept in the newspaper office?Leiter invited him to the Union Club for dinner.After dinner, he suggested that John go to the newspaper office to have fun.It happened that the foreign news editor was away at that time, which gave him the opportunity to find an important piece of news from among the many telegrams and said to John: Please sit down and write an editorial on this news for tomorrow's paper.

Of course, John couldn't refuse this request, so he started writing.The editorial was well written, and Greeley liked it very much after reading it, so Leiter suggested that John should not rush home and help out here for a few days.Gradually, John felt that being a journalist was very interesting and handy, so he stayed at the newspaper.

From the trivial matter of Lei Te’s ingenious request for an assistant, we can see that: Lei Te is using the strategy of bypassing the other party’s disapproval and drawing up a false purpose as a cover to let the other party accept it, so as to achieve the real purpose. Ended up with this nice assistant.

At that time, Zheng Zhuanggong was going to attack the state of Xu.Before the war, he first organized a competition in the capital to select the first officer.When the generals heard that the opportunity to show their faces and meritorious service came, they were all eager to try, ready to show their skills here.

The first event is fencing and fighting.All the generals tried their best to see short swords flying, shields shaking, fighting back and forth.After rounds of competition, 6 people were selected to participate in the next round of competition.

The second event is an archery competition. The six winning generals shoot three arrows each, and the one who hits the bull's-eye is the winner.

Some hit the side of the target, and some hit the bull's-eye.The fifth person who came up to shoot arrows was Gongsun Zidu.He is highly skilled in martial arts, young and energetic, and never takes others seriously.I saw him put an arrow on the bow and hit the bull's-eye with three arrows.

He held his head up, glanced at the last shooter, thinking that seeing the old man like that, he must be the winner, so he withdrew.

The last shooter was Ying Kao Shu, an old man with a gray beard.But he once persuaded Duke Zhuang to reconcile with his mother, and Duke Zhuang valued him very much.Ying Kaoshu stepped forward, unhurriedly, swishing three arrows, and even hit the bull's-eye, making a tie with Gongsunzi.

Zhuang Gong saw that there were only two of them left, so he sent someone to pull out a chariot and said, "You two stand a hundred paces away and come to grab this chariot at the same time."Whoever grabs the hand will be the first officer.Gongsunzi looked at it contemptuously, and started to grab it.Unexpectedly, halfway through the run, Gongsunzi slipped and fell.When he got up and wanted to grab it again, Ying Kaoshu had already snatched the car into his hands.No matter how convinced Gongsunzi was, he raised the halberd and came to seize the chariot.When Ying Kao Shu saw it, he pulled up his cart and ran quickly. Zhuang Gong hurriedly sent someone to stop him, thinking that Ying Kao Shu won this round, so he announced Ying Kao Shu as the first official.Because of this, Gongsunzi has a grudge against Ying Kaoshu.

Sure enough, Ying Kaoshu lived up to Duke Zhuang's expectations. When attacking Xu's capital, he took the lead in rushing to the top of Xu's capital from the ladder with a big flag in his hand.Seeing that Ying Kao Shu is about to complete his great success and make another great achievement, the grandson and grandson are so jealous that they feel pain in their hearts, so they draw out their arrows, aim at Ying Kao Shu on the top of the city wall, and shoot Ying Kao Shu at once. Feeling cold, he fell from the top of the city.Another general, Xia Shuying, thought that Ying Kaoshu had been shot by Xu Bing and died in battle, so she hurriedly took up the battle flag, commanded the soldiers to charge the city, and finally captured Xudu.

As the saying goes: Flowers must be half-bloomed, wine must be drunk until half-drunk, when the flowers are in full bloom, they will either be picked immediately, or decay will begin.The same is true in life: don't take yourself too seriously, don't take yourself too seriously, don't think of yourself as a sage and gentleman who saves the country and the people, it's better to restrain your edge, cover up your talent, and be a low-key person.

In this modern society, this principle still applies. If you don’t show your edge, you may never get an important job; if you show your edge too much, you are easy to be framed.Although it is easy to achieve temporary success, it is also digging its own grave.When you display your talents, you also plant the seeds of crisis, so the display of talents should be stopped in moderation.However, not everyone can do it properly. If you don't have a good sense of proportion, you will mess things up instead.

Thinking about the past and measuring the present, taking history as a mirror, understanding the facts, showing others the truth, taking into account the current situation, keeping pace with the times, and being persuasive... There are many golden words and jade words: whether in fierce and cruel political struggles or in ordinary real life, Everyone should know how to advance and retreat and how to keep a low profile in order to preserve themselves and plan for the long-term.

Hidden strategy has created countless successful people. Therefore, if we want to be successful, we should study this rule seriously. Hidden strategy has strong effectiveness because of its great concealment. It often surprises and wins by surprise. , get twice the result with half the effort.The correct use of the strategy of hiding is one of the important contents of grasping the wisdom of life in ancient China.Of course, it is also necessary to distinguish between good and evil, beauty and ugliness when using the experience of concealment, because any means are only a way to achieve the goal and can never replace the goal itself.Keeping a low profile is always one of the forms of wisdom, and it is also a deep extension of wolf wisdom.

Retire after success

In addition to catching some weak wild animals as their delicacies, wolves will also catch domestic animals such as sheep and yaks.When wolves prey on these domestic animals, they are very agile.They often take advantage of the unpreparedness and pounce on them, first biting off their throats and arteries, and then desperately sucking their blood, causing the livestock to lose their resistance and die quickly.A wolf jumping into the sheep pen can kill dozens of sheep overnight.In fact, it can only eat one at most.It can be seen how harmful wolves are to livestock.The livestock that wolves usually prey on are mainly sheep.Because sheep are small in size, timid and easy to catch.Especially those little lambs, which are easy prey for them.An old herdsman told such a story: One day, when he was grazing sheep on the mountain, he was suddenly hit by a snowstorm, and the flock scattered and ran around.Just as he was busy blocking the flock of sheep, a wolf pounced on him, picked up a lamb, and ran away, making it impossible to guard against.

After the wolf has its prey, it will leave quickly and never stay.And a further extension, that is, to retreat bravely in a hurry, and to accept it as soon as it is good.It is no wonder that this law has been used wonderfully in politics from ancient times to the present.

There is a sentence in Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" that is not self-confident, so long.What I said is the principle of retiring after success.

(End of this chapter)