The Six No-Tax Pledges, timber profits, exclusive supplies of tribal goods, the Ten Thousand Mountains Freight Depot... So it could be done this way, too...
If what he had presented at Ruyi Tower was an overarching strategy for pacifying the tribes, was this the concrete means of carrying it out?
Xiao Baoyue studied Wang Yang's way with words while trying to fathom his thinking, and felt she had gained a great deal.
Eloquence, however, was a rather elusive art. It was not merely fluent speech, meticulous reasoning, worldly understanding, or a broad and retentive memory. Those things were certainly difficult to achieve, but at least there were methods to follow. What Xiao Baoyue found hardest to analyze and imitate was Wang Yang's ability to stir emotions and beguile hearts when he spoke.
When to press and when to ease, when to strike hard and when to touch lightly-he handled these subtle distinctions to perfection in just a few words. Listening to him was like being led along by an invisible thread. One moment he made your blood surge; the next he made your heart tighten. By the time he had nearly finished, you finally realized you had followed his reasoning around who knew how many bends! Most of your earlier doubts and resistance had long since scattered. His arguments filled your mind, and the more you considered them, the more reasonable they seemed!
He first saw through the other person's thoughts, then considered all their advantages and disadvantages, gains and losses, joys and sorrows for them, before choosing the words that best struck the chords of their heart. That was why he could always reach straight into people's hearts. Such penetrating insight and comprehensive understanding were already harder to learn than any rhetorical technique. Besides, thinking it through was not