Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 227 Famous Family
While studying the mainstream Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty, Ni Heng also read many classics of the "famous scholars" of the pre-Qin period. The famous scholars were also called "debaters" in the pre-Qin period. They were called "famous" because the basis of their debates was generally based on the correspondence between "nouns" and "actual meanings".
In addition, in terms of political advocacy, Mingjia rarely proposed the idea of "de-respect", that is, "equality for all", which seemed incompatible with other schools of thought of the same period, especially the Confucianism that emphasized etiquette... and even completely opposite.
He was one of the six great masters in the pre-Qin period, but he had been in decline for a long time since the Han Dynasty.
Hui Shi and Gongsun Long are both representative figures of the School of Names.
According to legend, Hui Shi once obtained "The Book of Heaven Volume 6: Names", and his interpretation was to delve into the "distinction between name and reality", which was completely different from Xu Shao's, and gradually gave rise to the dominant thought of the School of Names.
"Huizi" has been lost in later generations, and only in "Zhuangzi" some of Huizi's thoughts are preserved.
However, Ni Heng did interpret Huizi, and his level of study reached the level of studying a "second-hand heavenly book"...
The Heavenly Book itself can only choose its own master. Even the owner of the Heavenly Book cannot completely repeat or copy the Heavenly Book. However... if one studies the Heavenly Book to a certain depth, one can reproduce one's own understanding.
The holders of the Heavenly Book throughout the ages actually had their own understandings of the Heavenly Book, which was equivalent to a second-hand Heavenly Book. As for Ni Heng... he further added his own understanding to Huizi's understanding, making it a third-hand book.
However, this also enables Ni Heng to possess special strategic skills - "sword of the tongue" and "eloquence (杠)" and "eloquence (隐)".
The latter is a strategy completely learned from "Huizi". The authentic "eloquence" should be Huizi's strategy, but Ni Heng's eloquence is obviously different from Huizi's.
Judging from Hui Shi’s experience, as an early organizer of the coalition against Qin, his “eloquence” should have been mainly used to persuade others, while Ni Heng’s “eloquence (argument)” was more likely to make people upset and uncomfortable, but the persuasive effect was very weak…
However, the key point is the word "lever" - whenever someone feels upset, Ni Heng's special strategy will act like a "lever" to shift the opponent's mental strength to his side.
But this move is two-way. If Ni Heng is at a disadvantage, his mental power will also be tilted to the opponent's side.
The "tongue sword" consumes one's own mental power, which also reduces the target's mental power...
As for the effect of "eloquence (hidden)", it can make Ni Heng better at hiding his guilty conscience and less likely to have his logical weaknesses discovered.
At the same time, the target in the debate will not be able to detect any abnormality in his own mental power.
Because of the relationship between mental power and thinking ability, it is possible to quietly reduce the other party's thinking logic and enter a virtuous cycle for oneself.
Therefore, for Ni Heng, the correct combo is to take the initiative to provoke the opponent's anger, then start to absorb the opponent's spirit while constantly using the sword of tongue to pull the opponent to the same level as himself, and then continue to "fight" until the opponent's logic completely collapses!
The effect of "barging" is strongest in a debate. After the debate, the mental strength of both sides will gradually recover, but... the "winner" can permanently absorb part of the opponent's mental strength.
Because the amplitude is small and there is a "hidden" effect, Ni Heng's opponents usually won't realize that their intelligence has been reduced.
After all, mental power is intangible, and one's own mental state will cause mental power to fluctuate. A strategist does not pay special attention to his own mental power.
It was only after the debate that Zhou Yu discovered some mysteries through the reflection of "appearance" by his mental power.
Fortunately, Zhou Yu took advantage of it. Otherwise, if Zhou Yu found that his "appearance" had been reduced, he would probably ask Sun Ce to bring him back to sacrifice to the heaven...
In fact, this kind of "argument" is not only used to irritate people. Rather than being a variant of Huizi's "eloquence", it is better to say that it is a part of the genuine "eloquence"!
The most typical example is the "Zhuge Liang's Debate with the Scholars" which has not yet happened - he tried to persuade Sun Quan by striking a blow to the arrogance of the surrenderist officials of the Eastern Wu.
This is also a technique to persuade the ruler. Hui Shi also had to argue with the debaters of the Hezong faction in order to gain the support of the monarch.
However, Ni Heng only learned part of it and did not understand the true meaning of "gang". He did it to gain the support of bystanders and superiors and just to improve his spiritual power. He kept "ganging" and it was like he was covering the precious pearl with dust.
The reason why he is still alive today is that Ni Heng always chooses safe targets - from the very beginning, Ni Heng knew that Cao Cao, Liu Biao and Huang Zu would not kill him.
The most dangerous one among them is Huang Zu, but Ni Heng has established a good relationship with his son in advance...
Under normal circumstances, the three would not kill Ni Heng. The only dangerous time is when they have just been "beaten", that is, when their intelligence has been most severely reduced. At this time, they are most likely to be impulsive and kill him directly.
As long as he could survive this wave of side effects, Ni Heng was sure that he could save his life - in history, when Ni Heng was killed by Huang Zu, Huang She's rescue was a step too late, and Ni Heng had already been beheaded. Huang Zu only regretted it after Huang She's dissuasion... If Huang She had been a few steps faster, Huang Zu probably would not have really killed him.
Of course, this special "strategy" also gave Ni Heng a special ability, or an auxiliary passive strategy, which is the ability to "see" the "combat effectiveness" of potential opponents.
In terms of eloquence, the so-called "combat effectiveness" is difficult to summarize, and what Ni Heng can see is the approximate strength of the opponent's mental power, and... the number of times he has "confronted" others and been "confronted" by others in the past!
Although it is impossible to measure it accurately, we can get a rough idea.
Generally speaking, the stronger the mental power of a strategist, the greater his "aura" will be in Ni Heng's eyes. It looks like misty light and shadow, and its color and shape are related to the nature of the opponent's mental power.
For example, when looking at Zhou Yu, Ni Heng could see that there was a misty dark red glow three feet around Zhou Yu, and... there was also a face like an evil ghost behind him, appearing and disappearing from time to time.
Three feet means that Zhou Yu's mental strength ranks among the top five among the people Ni Heng has ever seen. The only ones who can be compared with him are Xun Yu, Guo Jia... those top strategists in the Prime Minister's Mansion in Xudu.
Ni Heng himself was only two feet two or three inches tall.
Of course, this does not prevent Ni Heng from using trash talk to look down on them, because his purpose is to launch a "debate (argument)" and he does not care whether what he says is reasonable or not.
As for the "achievements"...
According to Ni Heng's experience, the main thing to look at is the "eyes". Eyes are the windows to the soul. Ni Heng feels that his eyes are very sharp, so the battle results are shown in his eyes in the form of "eyes".
Generally speaking, the more eyes there are, the more times there will be "battles". As for the results of the "battles", we need to analyze them based on the shape and expression of the eyes.
People like Kong Rong and Yang Xiu were the kind of people that Ni Heng had no confidence in being able to control...
Historically, after Cao Cao conquered Ye City, Cao's army once again massacred civilians and looted women, especially women from the Yuan family. Even Cao Pi secretly married Yuan Xi's wife Zhen Ji. When Kong Rong learned about this, he immediately said to Cao Cao, "After King Wu defeated King Zhou, he should have given Daji to Duke Zhou." Cao Cao wondered where this unofficial history came from. Kong Rong replied, "This is my assumption based on what is happening now."
Considering that Kong Rong had compared Cao Cao to "Duke Zhou" many times when he still had hope for him, and used King Wu and Duke Zhou as examples after conquering Yecheng, he was undoubtedly saying to Cao Cao: "Are you worthy? How worthy are you?"
Its fighting power is evident...
However, now, Ni Heng, in front of the hall, only saw that Bai Tu's spiritual power halo had dissipated outside the hall!
San Chi is already a top strategist, and Bai Tu's mental strength...
Judging from the area of the central hall of the general's mansion, it is already around thirty meters .
Moreover... in terms of the outer shape, it has already taken on the shape of twisted tentacles - this is because the mental power is too huge, and Bai Tu has no proactive strategy to utilize or restrain it, so he allows it to dissipate.
What frightened Ni Heng even more was that each of the twisted giant tentacles was covered with densely packed "eyes"...
Some are full of energy, some are scarred, some are complacent, and some are depressed!
Hundreds or thousands? No, at least tens of thousands, or even more!
Ni Heng was not good at estimating, but he also understood how big a concept this was...
For a moment...Ni Heng hesitated to move forward.
"Hmm? What's wrong with Mr. Ni?" Taishi Ci asked.
Ni Heng swallowed hard and said, "No, nothing. Is that Bai Gong in there?"
Although the "Eloquence (Hidden)" effect was in effect, Ni Heng could still be seen to be clearly guilty.
"Of course it's Lord Bai." Taishi Ci was a little puzzled - the lord wants to see you, who else could be in there if not the lord?
Not to mention the excessive mental power, which is not the focus of Ni Heng's attention, but... what's going on with these eyes?
You can’t just pick a fight with anyone on the street. No matter how good your eloquence is , can you go to the fields and fight with an old farmer you don’t know? If you talk to him about all sorts of things, he won’t understand. If he talks to you about farming, you won’t understand either! You can’t fight with him…
Ni Heng even doubted whether there were so many opponents in the entire Han Dynasty who could compete with each other!
And how do you get to the top one by one and “brush up your records” on the white map?
Although judging from the shape and expression of each eye, Bai Tu doesn't win every time, but... having accumulated such terrible experience, to what extent has Bai Tu's "combat effectiveness" reached?
It doesn't matter if you only have huge "mental power". As long as you don't give the opponent a chance to fight back, and then use the "tongue sword" continuously to weaken it, you can win by keeping up the combo, and... you will get a huge improvement!
Judging from Bai Tu's spiritual power, if Ni Heng absorbs a little bit of it, it will "increase dramatically".
Meanwhile, if that fails...
"Mr. Ni, aren't you going in yet?" Taishi Ci urged.
Taishi Ci had no idea that what he saw in front of Ni Heng at this moment was a scene that was enough to cause attacks of gigantic phobia and claustrophobia.
Ni Heng even imagined in his mind that after he entered, he would be hung up by tentacles and his brain would be pulled out because of a wrong word - that's right, with Bai Tu's mental strength, if Ni Heng failed once, he would probably be beaten into a fool...
"This, let's go in now..." Ni Heng forced a kind smile to Taishi Ci, as if he suddenly became weak, pitiful and helpless.
Taishi Ci: ???
