No matter what you do, it is difficult to be 100% sure. Therefore, when there is no absolute certainty of success, you should first leave yourself some leeway so that you can advance and retreat freely.

When doing things, you must consider both the success and the possibility of failure. Only by taking into account both can you be comprehensive. When you want to make progress but have not yet made progress, you should seriously think about what to do if it fails? Leave a way out for yourself as early as possible.

When Ji Xiaolan was serving as the censor of Zuodu during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Yashi, the wife of Yuanwailang Haisheng, died unexpectedly. Haisheng's brother-in-law Guining sued Haisheng for beating his sister to death. Hai Sheng said that Wu Yashi hanged herself. The case is getting bigger and bigger, making it difficult to make a decision. The infantry commander's office couldn't handle it, so it was handed over to the Ministry of Justice. After trial by the Ministry of Criminal Justice, there is still no result. The reason is that Guining, Wu Ya's younger brother, refused to draw a confession because his sister did not hang herself.

After the Ministry of Punishment reported to the Emperor, he sent a special official to conduct a reexamination.

This case was not a big deal at first, but because Hai Sheng was a relative of A Gui, a bachelor and military minister, the trial officials were afraid of offending A Gui, so they deliberately protected Wu Ya and sentenced Wu Ya to suicide. Exculpation. Unexpectedly, Guining refused to give up and kept complaining, which alarmed the emperor. The emperor sent Ji Xiaolan, the censor of the Left Capital, together with Jinglu and Du Yulin, the ministers of the Ministry of Punishment, Chongtai and Zheng Zheng, the censors of the Ministry of Punishment, and Qingxing, who had been senior in the Ministry of Punishment for a long time and was familiar with the names of punishments, to open the coffin and inspect it.

Ji Xiaolan also felt a headache after taking over the case. It's not that he doesn't have the ability to solve the case, but because Agui and Arsenic are involved. Both of them are bachelors and military ministers, and they have conflicts and have been fighting openly and secretly for a long time. Haisheng is a relative of Agui, and the original judge flatters Agui. Does Ji Xiaolan dare to overturn it? Guining, on the other hand, refuses to give up until he wins. Why is he so bold? He actually has the secret support of He Kun. What is He Kun's purpose? He wants to take the opportunity to get rid of Agui, the chief minister of military aircraft who is above him. And He Kun and Ji Xiaolan have deep grudges. If Ji Xiaolan turns to A Gui to resolve the case, can He Kun not take the opportunity to punish him together?

Open the coffin and Ji Xiaolan and others examine it together. After looking around, Ji Xiaolan saw that there were no signs of hanging on the dead body. He knew in his heart that he wanted to see everyone's opinions first without saying anything.

Jing Lu, Du Yulin, Chongtai, Zheng Zheng, Qingxing and others all said that there were wounds on their necks, indicating that they had obviously been hanged. Now Ji Xiaolan had an idea, so he said: "I am short-sighted. I can't see clearly whether there are scars or not. It seems to be there and it seems not to be there. Since you can see it clearly, let's make it this way." So, Ji Xiaolan and Chai The officials who came to do the autopsy signed a memorial together: "Public examination of the injuries revealed that he was actually hanged." This made Guining even more angry. This time he filed a lawsuit with the infantry commander's office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, saying that because Hai Sheng was a relative of A Gui, these officials deliberately protected him, engaged in malpractice for personal gain, and made the case unfair.

Qianlong saw that Guining was not convinced and had doubts about the case, so he sent his ministers Cao Wenzhi, Yi Ling'a and others to re-examine the case. This time the problem came up. Cao Wenzhi and others reported that there were no signs of constriction on Wu Ya's body. Qianlong thought that this matter had a lot to do with A Gui, so he sent A Gui and He Kun to examine it together with the officials of the Xingbu Hall and the original inspection and reexamination halls. "Paper cannot contain the fire." The truth finally came out: Wu Yashi was beaten to death.

So Hai Sheng was interrogated. Seeing that he could no longer hide it, Hai Sheng had to confess the truth: he was the one who kicked Wu Yashi to death and then made it look like he hanged himself.

The case was completely turned over, and dozens of officials from the original inspection and re-inspection were all in bad luck! Qianlong issued an edict: "The official who was originally involved in this case and reexamined it actually dared to protect him intentionally because Hai Sheng was A Gui's in-law. If we do not punish him severely this time, how can we employ people? How can we administer it?" Gui was dismissed from his post and retained in office, and fined five years' salary; Ye Cheng'e, Li Kuo, Qingxing and others were dismissed from their posts and assigned to Yili to serve as atonements. The emperor made it clear in the edict. Only for Ji Xiaolan, the edict wrote: "The Ji Xiaolan I sent is a useless and rotten scholar, so he is not qualified. Moreover, he is not familiar with criminal names and other matters, and his eyesight is short-sighted. During the inspection, Kuo Zuo was not able to find out in detail, so he was accompanied by an official from the Ministry of Punishment who agreed that his fault was excusable. Kuo Zuo was handed over to the Ministry for severe punishment, and he was only dismissed from his post and was reinstated soon after.

The reason why Ji Xiaolan was forgiven by the emperor in this case was mainly because he left himself a way out during the autopsy on the grounds that "I am short-sighted" and "cannot see clearly".

There is a famous saying in "Warring States Policy" called "The Cunning Rabbit has Three Caves", which means that the rabbit has three hiding holes. Even if one of them is destroyed, two will remain; if two are destroyed, there will still be two. one. This is a way of survival that is prepared for danger in times of crisis, and it is also a prescient prevention strategy.

Use your best efforts to strive for good results, and at the same time make psychological and material preparations for failure, as well as contingency measures. In this way, we can respond to all changes without change and remain invincible forever.

——Quoted from "There Are More Methods than Problems" by Yanbian People's Publishing House