Speaking of the legendary story of Wu and Yue, in addition to the old Wu King Lu was beheaded by Goujian, the king of Yue, the most eye-catching thing is the story of Fucha defeating Goujian and the two sides conducting peace talks.
According to the description of "Zuo Biography", there is nothing to say about this matter, the two sides just fought a small battle, although Wu Guo won, but both sides did not take it seriously.
This statement of Zuo Chuan is obviously not convincing to the public, because after this battle, Gou Jian went to the state of Wu.
How can it be a small battle to let the king of a country act like this?
According to Tsinghua Jian's "Yue Gong Qi Shi", the scale of this battle was not small, Wu defeated Yue Guo, but he suffered heavy losses, so in desperation, he had to agree to Gou Jian's peace.
And it was specially explained: Wu Zixu agreed to accept the surrender, and did not persuade his husband to continue to attack Yueguo.
There is also a problem with this statement, Wu Zixu was later forced to death by his husband, and the mainstream view is that it is because the contradiction between Wu Zixu and another minister, Bo Yao, is getting bigger and bigger, and the first contradiction between the two sides is whether to accept Gou Jian's surrender.
If Wu Zixu agrees to Gou Jian's surrender, how can he and Bo Yao still have differences?
The historical record says that the scale of the war was large, the Yue country was defeated, Gou Jian asked for surrender, and was willing to take his wife to Wu as a slave.
This statement is very close to the mainstream view of later generations.
The record of "Wu Yue Chunqiu" is more detailed, not only repeating the content of "Historical Records", but also adding many details.
For example, Gou Jian raised horses in Wu State, and the husband had to get on the horse, and Gou Jian had to kneel on the ground as a horse stool;
For another example, Gou Jian is not only very good to the horse, but also very good to the husband, the husband is sick, Gou Jian personally tastes the stool of the husband, and comes to the conclusion that he is about to get better.
After going back and forth, the husband was moved, so three years later, he put Gou Jian back to Yueguo.
I don't know if you have found a problem: the version that is most familiar to later generations is often the most bizarre and topical version, that is, the version of "Wu Yue Chunqiu".
In the course of the first great war between Fucha and Gou Jian, the most basic fact was that Wu State won, Gou Jian surrendered, and soon after went to Wu State, and returned to Yue State three years later.
Other than that, all the details are questionable.
From this point of view, although there are certain problems with the statements of "Zuo Chuan" and "Yue Gong Qishi", it does not mean that the records of "Historical Records" and "Wu Yue Chunqiu" must be fine.
If we analyze the "Left Biography" alone, we will find that its problems may be incomplete, not factual errors.
Is there necessarily a connection between Wu's victory and Gou Jian's surrender? Not necessarily.
There is a possibility: Wu Guo got a small victory this time, then another small victory, and then another small victory......
The successive defeats made Gou Jian impetuous, so he played a set of sassy operations and successfully sent himself to Wu as a prisoner, nothing more.
In other words, a correct math problem should be 1+2+3+4=10, and the record in the Zuo Chuan is 1+......=10。
How the numbers after 1 and before 10 should be arranged, "Left Biography" is not written, we can only guess within a certain range.
If we only analyze "Yue Gong's Affairs", we will find that its record is actually the most realistic.
As I said earlier, Gou Jian is not just the king of the Yue country, but the leader of the entire Yue people, and it is useless to kill him alone, neither the symptoms nor the root cause.
And judging from Wu Zixu's past behavior, he is not a brainless and reckless man, and this stake can be understood.
So there are two possibilities, one is that Wu Zixu never suggested that his husband kill Gou Jian, which is a factual error; The other is that Wu Zixu did suggest that Guo Fucha kill Gou Jian, because he had a better way to solve the Yue problem.
If it is the first possibility, then the amount of work is too large, and all the history of the disputes between Wu and Yue, as well as the infighting in the court of Wu State, must be reorganized, which is a problem that cannot be solved by the current historical data.
If it is the second possibility, then there is no historical evidence, and it can only be guessed.
Therefore, for the content of "Yue Gong's Affairs" about Wu Yue's peace talks, I only believe that "Wu Yue's strength is equal, and killing Gou Jian will not solve the problem", and about Wu Zixu's choice, I can only "listen to it in vain".
The records of "Historical Records" and "Wu Yue Chunqiu" can be put together.
Why are the contents of these two books so widely circulated? "Historical Records" is because Sima Qian's IP is big enough and loud enough, and people have endorsed him in all dynasties; "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn" takes advantage of the title of the book, giving people the feeling that it is more reliable to record the history of Wu and Yue, and there are indeed many details.
But here's the thing: if you talk all day in a fog, the audience may think you're not a real person. But if what you say is always very detailed, then it is too convenient to find fault in your words, because "if you say too much, you will lose".
For example, the old King Wu Lu, when he fought the Chu State, he fought five battles and five victories, and in more than ten days, he went all the way to the capital of the Chu State, and beat the King of Chu Zhao to the end of the world, if it were not for the help of the Qin State, although the Chu State would not be destroyed, but the future days would be sad.
But such a fierce strongman was frightened by the death row prisoners in Yueguo, and then died on the spot.
If you really want to pick out the details, then you can't say it clearly for three days and three nights.
Another example is the husband of the new Wu Wang, who swore categorically to avenge his father, and made his first shot two years later, directly beating Gou Jian to the end of the road, it seems that as long as the husband reaches out lightly, he can push Gou Jian down the abyss.
However, the husband seemed to have become stupid overnight, and he didn't push it when he said anything, but Gou Jian slowly came to his senses and pushed the husband with his backhand.
I don't dare to say that there will never be such a person in history, but there are also many unreasonable places.
If the history of Wu and Yue is all reversed because of the difference between the two people's thoughts, then it is inevitable that history will be too simple, and the development of productive forces will be too worthless, and the fights and brawls of primary school students will be more brain-burning than this.
Friends who have played strategy games should understand that after winning a war, there are often three options: kill, release, and surrender.
Needless to say, it's a hundred times to kill.
But the problem is that it is easy to kill people and it is difficult to deal with the aftermath, maybe the will of the Yue people to resist is not very strong, but as soon as you Wu Guo got started, you killed the leader of the people, can people not hate you?
Even the little devils who are professional in aggression know that they have to get the title of "Co-prosperity Circle" to fool people, doesn't Wu Guo even understand such a simple truth?
It's easy to understand if you put it, you can go back and hand over the money to buy your life.
Don't look at the fact that the State of Wu at that time could raid the capital of the State of Chu, you think they are amazing, in fact, the State of Wu at that time was very poor, or the military discipline would not have been sloppy as soon as they entered the capital of Chu.
The main reason is that everyone has never seen such a prosperous metropolis, so it is inevitable that they will get carried away, and even the soldier saint Sun Wu can't control it.
At that time, the Yue Kingdom was poorer than the Wu Kingdom, and asked them for ransom, do you want wood or stone?
At that time, the most valuable thing was people, men were strong laborers, and women were fertility machines, which could be continuously realized.
That's why population is very important. If Wu State begins to plunder the population of Yue State, it is basically the rhythm of settling enemies, and Yue Guo will definitely not give up, so it is better to directly slaughter Gou Jian with a knife.
So on the whole, Nazhan is the best choice.
Just like Zhuge Liang treated Meng Huo, as long as Nanban was willing to surrender, all issues would be easy to discuss, but Meng Huo would not surrender, so Zhuge Liang grabbed and let go, and made Meng Huo worse than dead, and finally could only surrender aggrievedly.
Gou Jian took the initiative to ask for surrender, and the husband accepted it, and then took him back to Wu for three years of transformation.
Just looking at that, Fucha has done a very good job, and I don't think there is a better option than this.
Some people may ask: "Can you temporarily detain Gou Jian, and then continue to attack Yue Guo, and find a way to destroy them in one go?" ”
This is extremely unlikely, almost non-existent.
At that time, although the Yue State was not a big country, it was backed by the Yue people, and its size was obviously much larger than those small countries in the Central Plains, and it could be regarded as a quasi-power.
What about Wu Guo? Although he has the help of the Jin Kingdom, his own body size has not improved much, after all, he has no border with the Jin Kingdom.
In addition, the state of Wu deeply offended the state of Chu, and it was obviously impossible to put the center of gravity to the south, because even the state of Chu in the recovery period still had the war potential to severely damage the state of Wu.
This point is very clear to both Fucha and Gou Jian.
Later, Yue Guo also entered the capital of Wu State, but as soon as the husband asked for peace, Gou Jian immediately agreed.
This is not at all a "leader's benevolence", but an objective environmental constraint, Wu and Vietnam can not determine the outcome through a war, can only fight a long tug-of-war.
And when Fucha defeated Gou Jian, Wu obviously did not have the strength to fight a tug-of-war with Yue, which was also the main reason why Fucha wanted to be the hegemon to expand his strength.