According to Ying Zheng's memory, he remembered that King Zhaoxiang was a wise and far-sighted ruler but nobody is perfect even King Zhaoxiang himself.
This can be seen when King Zhaoxiang killed the talented general Bai Qi because he refused to do as he said and showcased his talent by being right. This led to the demise of Great general Bai Qi.
What The great general Bai Qi did was a rookie mistake after all the first law of power is never to outshine the master.
"Always make those above you feel comfortably superior in your desire to please and impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power."
Everyone has insecurities. When you show yourself in the world and display your talents, you naturally stir up all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity. This is to be expected. You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others. With those above you, however, you must take a different approach: when it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.
Those who attain high standing in life are like kings and queens: they want to feel secure in their positions, and superior to those around them in intelligence, wit, and charm. It is a deadly but common misperception to believe that by displaying and vaunting your gifts and talents, you are winning the master's affection. He may feign appreciation, but at his first opportunity, he will replace you with someone less intelligent, less attractive, and less threatening.
This day was Ying Zheng's day in name. He and some competitors from the King and ministers were supposed to compete and naturally, Ying Zheng was representing himself.
The competition was Archery horse riding sword fighting and most importantly drinking.
Ying Zheng arrived the outside of Xianyang an hour early to meet up with the ministers and generals and create backings for himself.
King Zhaoxiang arrived half an hour later. As the king, he was fashionably late. After arriving King Zhaoxiang ceremoniously apologized for being late while the ministers and generals laughed it off by saying they had also just arrived. Hearing this the King had a delighted look in his eyes which were unnoticeable unless you looked carefully.
He then came to Ying Zheng and prime minister Zhang Lu's side and said "I am happy you could make it prime minister Zhang."
Hearing this Zhang Lu bowed slightly and answered: "It was my pleasure your highness how can be absent when your grace is present and even if I was dead I would have still crawled out of the grave to come to your majesty."
Hearing the prime minister's flattery even Ying Zheng had to admit he was on another level.
King Zhaoxiang was delighted to hear this and turned to Ying Zheng and asked "I hope you are ready general Ying I have brought a very competent soldier."
Hearing this Ying Zheng bowed and said "You surely jest your highness how can I defeat a man chosen by your highness but I will try to come close to your highness's expectations of me."
King Zhaoxiang laughed and continued to exchange a few pleasantries with prime minister Zhang Lu and Ying Zheng then left.
After almost an hour of socializing the competition in the event began.
When it came to archery thirty six men were competing.
The match consists of four ends of two arrows each for each archer. This means a total of 24 arrows are shot. The archer has two minutes to shoot all six arrows. In the event of a tie, each man is allowed one minute for each team member to shoot an arrow.
ps(these are the rules for Olympics archery).
...
Evening.
All in all Ying Zheng won third place in the archery game the King's representative was first and a new and upcoming soldier representing the small minister was second.
In the horse riding game, Ying Zheng was fourth the King's representative was second and the representative of the small minister was first the prime Minister's representative was third.
Seeing he came in the first place the smart ministers shook their heads. After all the King was not a kind man but the foolish minister did not understand this.
it is not a weakness to disguise your strengths if, in the end, they lead to power. By letting others outshine you, you remain in control, instead of being the victim of their insecurity. This will all come in handy the day you decide to rise above your inferior status. If like Galileo, you can make your master shine even more in the eyes of others, then you are a godsend and you will be instantly promoted.
The next competition was the sword fighting competition. Ying Zheng finished second this time after the King's representative.
The games ended on a pleasant tone on top but there was drama brewing under the cover. It was the calm before the storm.
Nobody wanted anything to do with the small minister and even tried avoiding him.
King Zhaoxiang was the most toasted individual and he was happy.
When someone toasted Ying Zheng he immediately turned it to King Zhaoxiang while saying things like it was all thanks to the King or if it was not for the King I would not be here.
Ying Zheng knew more than to overpraise the king he would sometime toast the prime minister generals and ministers.
If you flatter someone too much your praises become worthless and if you do not do it you will reach nowhere so it is always important to take the middle step but never forget to throw the ministers and courtiers a bone once in a while.
***
End of chapter
I believe the mortal world is taking too many chapters from the next chapter onwards I will try to use the third person perspective instead of Ying Zheng's.
I was planning on starting the cultivation journey from chapter 60 to around 90 but it seems like using the warring states period history to t was boring since almost everybody learned it in school on the media or in other novels.
So please tell me what you think.
Anyway, most of this chapter was inspired by Robert Greene's 48 laws of power. Especially the first law "Never outshine the master."
I would recommend it to you. There is always something for everyone there. It is like the legends of Ren Zu of our world.
Thank you very much for reading
And please do not hesitate to comment on what is wrong and any mistakes I made.
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