Wenzhong came to the king of Wu and pretended to be respectful and said, “your conquered subject Gou Jian asked me to tell you boldly that he is willing to be your servant and offer his virtuous and beautiful wife to you as a concubine. I beg the king to accept it.” The king of Wu was always not cautious enough and was prone to arrogance. After defeating Gou Jian this time, he relaxed his vigilance against Vietnam. Plus the excellent performance of Wenzhong, he cheated him, so he wanted to promise Wenzhong. But standing beside the king of Wu, Wuzixu was not a vegetarian. His strategy and insight were no worse than that of Fan Li. Seeing that this was a conspiracy, he opened his mouth and said, “king, don’t promise him. Gou Jian has many clever ideas. Be careful of fraud.” The king of Wu thought it was reasonable, so he sent back the script.
This is tantamount to taking the initiative to send it to the door. People don’t want it. Wenzhong angrily returned to Gou Jian and reported the situation at that time. Gou Jian felt insulted again. In a fit of anger, he pulled out his sword to kill his wife and children, destroy all the treasures of the country, and fight with his husband to fight again. Even if YueDi was occupied, he could not get anything good from Wu. Impulse is the devil. Fortunately, such reckless behavior was stopped by Wenzhong. Wenzhong said, “I learned that the king of Wu is very greedy. We can bribe him with a lot of money to help us say good words in front of the king of Wu. Maybe things will turn around.” Gou Jian thought it was so, so he asked Wenzhong to give him a lot of gold and silver treasures and beautiful women.
Take people’s money and help them eliminate disasters. From then on, he tried to convince the king of Wu how sincere Gou Jian’s heart of submission was, so that the king of Wu gave Wenzhong another chance to meet. Wenzhong kowtowed and said, “I hope your majesty can forgive Gou Jian’s sins. We, the state of Yue, will give you the treasures handed down from generation to generation. If you are not willing to forgive Gou Jian, he will kill his wife and children, destroy the treasures, and fight to the death with you. You will inevitably pay a heavy price.” Tut Tut, the threats, bribes and inducements have all come out, and some people are still beating around the bush. The king of Wu finally agreed to Wenzhong’s request in a muddle headed way. Hearing about this, Wuzixu hurriedly admonished him and said, “you will regret not destroying the state of Yue today. Gou Jian is a wise monarch. He can correct his mistakes and follow the good as the flow. Wenzhong and Fan Li are wise ministers. Their combination is a great threat to you. If they can return to the state of Yue, they will certainly make trouble.”
Fuchai did not listen to Wuzixu. Pictures unfolded in his mind of how Gou Jian bowed to himself. Such treatment was so attractive that he agreed to the request of the language. After learning the news, Gou Jian entrusted the domestic affairs to Wenzhong and other ministers. In 492 BC, he took his wife to the state of Wu. The people of the state of Yue understood Gou Jian very well and thought that he was willing to suffer humiliation for the sake of protecting the country and revenge. They all cried to see him off. The ministers also promised to govern the state of Yue.
Gou Jian then set out at ease and arrived at the capital of Wu. Although he was ready to be humiliated, he didn’t expect fuchai to do so well. When arranging accommodation, Fu Chai led him to a hut in front of the Helu grave. The hut is made of stone, without any decoration. It is very simple. There are also some horses in the house. Once you enter the door, you can smell the feces. Even the poorest people in the country would not live in such a place for a long time. But fuchai let Gou Jian live there, guarding the grave and feeding the horses. Let his wife remove excrement and sweep. Gou Jian not only did it, but also called himself a “humble minister”, just like the grandson of the king of Wu. When the king of Wu was riding a horse, he asked Gou Jian to lead him. He also deliberately walked around in front of the people. The eyes of the Chinese people made Gou Jian’s back prick, but he had to endure it. In addition, he listened to King Wu’s advice and let his wife sleep with him. He applied to wear a green hat and became a “Ninja Turtle” alive.
King Wu’s treatment of Gou Jian can be said to be spiritual humiliation and physical torture. Both hands should be grasped and both hands should be hard. Gou Jian is doing hard labor. He hasn’t had a good meal yet. He eats coarse grain every day. Although people today have realized that coarse grains are rich in fiber and regard eating coarse grains every day as a fashionable and healthy way of eating, many women still take this as a unique way to lose weight. But thousands of years ago, it was the patent of the poor to eat coarse grain. They also suffered from the misery of life.
After three years, Gou Jian did not show any anger or hatred in front of others. Surprisingly, once, when fuchai was ill, Gou Jian went to see him. Ask questions, but also deliberately open the toilet cover to observe whether the stool just pulled out by fuchai is abnormal. Eyes do not count, but also lick with your tongue. The so-called willing to cut all over the body can pull the emperor off his horse. Even Fu Chai was shocked by his move, and then he was full of joy. He thought, “Gou Jian is really a sincere subject to me. It seems that he is right. I’d better let them go home earlier, and don’t let anyone say I’m too ruthless.”
So he really let Gou Jian go. He didn’t know that Gou Jian was surrendering, but secretly planning revenge. Letting him go this time is tantamount to letting the tiger go back to the mountain. From the perspective of Gou Jian, he is really a success. When insulted by King Wu, the immediate superior, he did not adopt the attitude of “Non Violence and non cooperation”, but retreated to advance and finally achieved his goal.