Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Dare to Compete with the Son of Heaven

In 720 BC, the throne of the Zhou Dynasty changed, King Ping of Zhou passed away, and Prince Fox was still a hostage in the State of Zheng.So Heijian, Duke of Zhou, who was assisting the government, sent someone to send the prince of Zheng Zhuanggong back to Zheng Guo, and exchanged it for Prince Hu, who returned to the country to succeed him. This prince, Fox, has an honor that will shine in the annals of history: he is the first prince in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty to take hostages in a vassal state.After catching up with this first incident, Prince Fox must be in a very complicated mood.I think that during the days when I was in Zheng Guo, there were many people pointing behind my back: Did you see it?This is the crown prince of the world, and he is alive this time!Now, knowing that he can finally leave this nightmarish ghostly place and end this shameful hostage experience, one can imagine how excited Prince Fox is.But if you are too excited, you are prone to cerebral hemorrhage. This truth has been confirmed by Prince Fox.He had just set foot on the land of Zhou's royal family, and before he had time to ascend the throne, he reported to his father.Therefore, Prince Fox's son, Ji Lin, succeeded his grandfather King Ping, who became King Huan of Zhou.

King Huan of Zhou resented Zheng Guo very much because of the death of his father, Prince Hu.This Emperor Zhou was also young and energetic. When he thought that his father went to Zheng Guo as a hostage and died before he could ascend the throne after returning, he was not angry at all.If it weren't for Zheng Zhuanggong's arrogance and domineering, how could the Prince Fox, who is the prince of the world, go to a vassal country as a hostage? Therefore, every time King Zhou Huan saw Zheng Zhuanggong, who assisted him in the administration, yelling and drinking in front of him, he felt bored for a while.This old thing, I really want to clean him up.The former king was also weak, why couldn't he deal with this guy?I must give him some color to see.

Another auxiliary minister, Zhou Gong Hei Jian, saw the signs and quickly persuaded King Huan: "Uncle Zheng is indeed not a good bird, but when the royal family moved eastward, they relied on the help of Jin and Zheng. Now we want to deprive Zheng Uncle Zheng's position, I'm afraid this matter will not be easy to handle, Uncle Zheng is not easy to mess with!" King Zhou Huan's blood came up: "Back then, the previous king wanted Guo Gong Ji's father to replace Wu Sheng, but he failed. I can't be weak anymore! I still don't believe it. Would he dare to kill me?"

Therefore, King Zhou Huan said to Zheng Zhuanggong with a concerned look: "Aiqing, you have worked so hard for our great Zhou world for so long, should you go home and enjoy the blessings? I heard that when the first king you died If you want to resign, how about this, you don't care about the affairs of the court, I will allow you to go home to farm and take care of the children, how about it?" Duke Zhuang of Zheng held back his anger and said calmly, "Your Majesty is so sympathetic to this humble official, and I thank you so much. I will pack up and leave." King Zhou Huan saw that Uncle Zheng was very knowledgeable, so it was easy to handle. up.Sending you off with courtesy, go all the way, you don't have to worry about the government, I will replace you with Guogong Jifu according to the last wish of the late king.

Zheng Zhuanggong drove back to the country, and the prince suddenly led a crowd to greet him. Zhuanggong told the story of being dismissed by Zhou Huan.Zheng Zhuanggong was very angry, and said to the ministers: "This ungrateful and bad boy, I didn't stop his father, Prince Fox, from returning to the country, but the prince's life is poor, so can you blame me? Besides, if I don't support him, he can Then you can become the emperor smoothly?" Jizu said: "My lord, don't be angry. Let's teach this ignorant emperor a lesson. I will take the soldiers to the emperor's territory and try the emperor's attitude." Zheng Zhuanggong agreed.

In April 720 B.C., Jizu led an army to Wendi (probably in today's Wen County, Henan Province) on the Zhou border, and asked the Wendi doctor for food and grass.Of course Doctor Wendi would not agree, thinking what are you doing?Jizu didn't talk nonsense with him, seeing that the wheat in the field was already ripe, he directly ordered the soldiers to pick up the sickle and harvest all the wheat in Wendi.The doctors in Wendi saw that Zheng Guo's soldiers were tough, so how dare they come out to stop them! Jizu returned home with a large pile of wheat, and Duke Zheng Zhuang recorded a great service for him.There was no response from Zhou Tianzi either, maybe the news had not reached Luoyi yet.Jizu suggested that Zheng Zhuanggong try again.So in the autumn of this year, Jizu took his army to Chengzhou (the area east of Luoyi, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty), and harvested the millet there.

Although there were no mobile phones or the Internet at that time, the voles of Zheng State went to the royal family's land again and again to grab crops, and King Zhou Huan knew about it no matter how blocked the news was.Had it not been for Zhou Gong Hei Jian's persuasive persuasion, King Huan would have sent troops to crusade against Zheng Guo long ago.Duke Zhou suppressed King Huan's anger with black shoulders, and said: "We fired Uncle Zheng, and it is normal for him to be dissatisfied. Uncle Zheng is a tiger, and there is no good fruit to fight with him. The most important thing now is to appease him. Isn’t it just a little food? Forget it for him, we can still be short of food? What’s more, this matter was done by people under Zheng Guo, Zheng Bo may not know about it. If Zheng Guo is not stabilized, Jiangshan Sheji will be in danger It's gone." King Huan had no choice but to hold back his anger.

It's a pity that food is a strategic resource. The royal family is really short of food after Zheng Zhuanggong robbed it so much.As a last resort, King Huan of Zhou had no choice but to lower his face and borrow food from the princes through the state of Lu.This King Huan of Zhou is also suffering enough. Seeing that King Huan had no intention of blaming him, Zheng Zhuanggong felt a little sorry, so he wanted to go to the royal family for another pilgrimage to mend the relationship with King Huan.Just at this time, the envoy of Qi State arrived and proposed to form an alliance with Zheng State.

Qi State and Lu State were neighboring states, located in the northern and central parts of today's Shandong Province, and a small part in the eastern part of Hebei, with the capital Linzi (near today's Zibo, Shandong).Qi State is a big country in the east, and its ancestor is Jiang Ziya, a famous legendary figure in the Great Zhou Dynasty, who is said to be able to call the wind and rain, and sow beans into soldiers (see).In normal times, Zheng Guo may not be able to curry favor if he wants to curry favor, and now he is rushing to form an alliance. Where can he find such a good thing?

In fact, Qi Xigong took a fancy to Zheng Zhuanggong who has been serving as an official in the Zhou royal family and has been very active these years, so he wanted to take the opportunity to follow Zheng Zhuanggong to gain some benefits.Due to an unexpected incident more than 100 years ago, the relationship between Qi State and the Zhou royal family was very stiff (what happened, we will introduce later), and he was looking for an opportunity to improve it.Moreover, Prince Fox had stayed in Zheng Guo for a while, so his son must have somewhat inclined feelings towards Zheng Guo, right?In fact, it’s not surprising that Marquis Qi had such thoughts. We always wonder why there were so many pro-Japanese factions in China during the Anti-Japanese War. Just look at how many Chinese students Japan accepted before the Anti-Japanese War, don’t you understand?

But Qi Xigong obviously didn't expect Zheng Guoguo to have a stalemate with the emperor so soon, not to mention that Zheng Zhuanggong also had ups and downs in the royal family of Zhou, so he still cares about this time?Don't you see that Zheng Guo harvested the royal family's crops, didn't the emperor say nothing? Therefore, in the winter of 720 BC, Qi Xigong and Zheng Zhuanggong held a bilateral meeting in Shimen (now southwest of Changqing County, Shandong).The meeting was held in a warm and friendly atmosphere. The leaders of the two sides shook hands and exchanged gifts.After consultations, the two sides decided to establish a strategic cooperative partnership for the new era. Based on the principle of good-neighborliness and friendship, it is hoped that the cooperation between the two parties can play a greater role in future international affairs.Duke Xi of Qi also expressed the hope that Zheng Bo could recommend to Emperor Zhou at a convenient time to restore Qi State's tribute relationship with Emperor Zhou, and Duke Zheng Zhuang expressed his support for this.Duke Zhuang of Zheng also cordially invited Duke Xi of Qi to visit the State of Zheng at a convenient time, and Duke Xi of Qi accepted the invitation happily. At the banquet that followed, the leaders of both sides and their entourage drank to their heart's content, demonstrating the close relationship between the two countries.Of course, after the banquet, Zheng Zhuanggong overturned his car into a ditch on the side of the road because of drunken driving. Things are recorded, is there any special meaning). Forming an alliance with the Qi State made Zheng Zhuanggong feel much better.The unhappiness I had with Zhou Tianzi earlier was put aside for the time being.However, the emperor still has to go to the court, after all, he has cut other people's crops, if there is no explanation for this matter, it will be embarrassing for both parties.Zheng Zhuanggong didn't want to be a field mouse stealing crops. But some things are often like this, the less you rush to do it, the less chance you have to do it.The same is true of Zheng Bochao's meeting with Zhou Tianzi.Seeing that the covenant with Qi was reached, it seemed that he had time to go to the emperor to make amends, and something happened to Wei.According to regulations, when the monarch of a vassal state dies, he must publish an obituary to other countries.When Wei Guo's obituary emissary came to inform Wei Huan that Duke Huan had died of a sudden illness and his son Zhouxu had succeeded to the throne, Zheng Zhuanggong knew that Zheng Guo's disaster was coming again. The ministers are puzzled, what does the death of the king of Wei have to do with us?Zheng Zhuanggong said: "Marquis Wei has always been in good health. It is said that he died of a sudden illness. How can there be no tricks here? This boy Zhou Yu has always been warlike and has been coveting the throne for a long time. Once he becomes the king this time, he must go through war. Establish your own prestige. Zheng Guo borders on him, and there was a bit of trouble before, if he doesn’t come to beat us, who else can he beat?” Everyone felt that Zhuang Gong’s words were reasonable.Therefore, Zheng Zhuanggong was not in a hurry to go to the emperor's pilgrimage, and concentrated on preparing for the war with Weiguo. Zhou Tianzi has been waiting for Zheng Zhuanggong to come and make amends.King Huan of Zhou, after Zhou Gong Hei Jian's persuasion, also felt that his dismissal of Zheng Zhuanggong was a bit hasty, so don't bother with Zheng Bo about stealing food.Fortunately, when Zheng Bo was dismissed, there was no formal dismissal document, so there was still room for redemption.If Mr. Zheng Zhuang came to the capital to make amends in person, then it would be a favor, and the relationship between the two parties could be eased.As a result, after waiting and waiting, not only Zheng Zhuanggong did not come to the court, but Zheng Guo could not even see a person.King Huan's nameless fire flared up again.This Zheng Wusheng even pushed his nose on his face! In fact, it's not that Zheng Zhuanggong really doesn't want to come, but the country's war is imminent, and he really can't get away.With such a delay, the rift between Zheng Guo and Zhou Tianzi became wider and wider.So what is going on in Weiguo that makes Zheng Zhuanggong so worried?