Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-Four

In the fourteenth chapter of this book, it introduces in detail the process of the split of the Jin State, and the annexation of the Jin Dynasty by its branches.In 678 BC, Duke Wu of Quwo completely wiped out the orthodox forces of Jin State, and became the new monarch of Jin State himself, that is, Duke Wu of Jin.Duke Wu of Jin died of illness in the second year after reunifying the state of Jin, and his son succeeded him. This is Duke Xian of Jin mentioned above. During the period of Duke Xiangong of Jin, the national power of Jin further developed and soon became a big country in the north.How the Jin State developed, we will introduce it in a special chapter later.This chapter will introduce what happened in the family of Duke Xian of Jin.

After Jin Xiangong came to the throne, he conquered east and west and destroyed many small countries.The northern part of the state of Jin borders Rongdi, so there are many conflicts between them.Among them was a Rong tribe called Li Rong, which was defeated by Duke Xiangong of Jin.Li Rong resorted to the customary kinship policy and married a beautiful girl to Jin Xiangong, who was called Li Ji. Li Ji gave birth to Duke Xian of Jin a son named Xi Qi.Li Ji's younger sister also married Duke Xian of Jin and gave birth to a son named Zhuo Zi.Duke Xiangong of Jin's original wife was called Qi Jiang, and one could tell by this title that she was from Qi.Qi Jiang gave birth to Jin Xiangong a son named Shen Sheng, who has been made the prince by Jin Xiangong.

Later, Qi Jiang passed away, and Jin Xiangong had a new love, Li Ji.Li Ji is a thoughtful and tactful woman.Duke Xian of Jin once asked her: "I want to abolish Shen Sheng and make Xi Qi the crown prince. What do you think?" Li Ji immediately cried and knelt down, and said, "Shen Sheng has been established as the prince for a long time, and this matter is known all over the world. Moreover, the prince has a good reputation and is quite prestigious in the country. If you want to abolish the prince and establish Xi Qi, Doesn't this put me on the opposite side of the people of the whole country? If you make Xi Qi the crown prince, I would rather die." Jin Xiangong never thought that his little wife would be so virtuous and sensible. If so, what else can I say?Shen Sheng continued to be the prince, and Jin Xiangong's trust in Li Ji deepened.

Li Ji said so on the surface, but behind the scenes, people continued to spread various rumors about Shen Sheng, and tried to make these rumors reach Jin Xiangong's ears.This made Duke Xian of Jin hate Prince Shen Sheng more and more. In 656 BC, that is, the year when Duke Huan of Qi led an army of princes to crusade against Chu, Li Ji sent someone to deliver a letter to Shen Sheng (the new capital of the Jin State was Jiang, and Shen Sheng was in Quwo at this time, the ancestor of the Jin State. The temple is in Quwo), and the letter said: "Your father has dreamed of Qijiang, you must hurry to sacrifice to your mother, so that the king will not worry about it." .So Shen Sheng didn't dare to delay, and hurried to Quwo's ​​ancestral temple to offer sacrifices.

After the sacrifice, according to the usual practice, the wine and sacrificial meat used for the sacrifice must be handed over to Duke Xian of Jin.Li Ji took advantage of Jin Xiangong's absence and secretly poisoned the wine and meat.When Duke Xian of Jin came back, Li Ji told Duke Xian of Jin: "The crown prince sacrificed to his mother, and here comes the wine and meat for sacrifice." Duke Xian of Jin was very happy.Li Ji suddenly pressed Jin Xiangong's hand and said, "You don't dare to drink this wine without trying it to see if it's okay?" Jin Xiangong was very surprised: "My son sacrificed his mother's wine. Ji said: "There is no harm in trying, what do you think?" Duke Xiang of Jin thought it was right, so he poured the wine on the ground. Unexpectedly, the soil on the ground smoked and there were small dirt bags.

Duke Xian of Jin was taken aback, picked up the sacrificial meat again, and threw it to the dogs.After the dog ate it, it died soon after.Jin Xiangong was still worried, and forced his close servant eunuch to eat the meat. The poor little eunuch was also poisoned to death after eating the meat. At this time, Li Ji's performance started again.While wiping her tears, she said to Jin Xiangong: "Unexpectedly, the prince will ignore the relationship between father and son in order to succeed to the throne sooner. You are old, and the prince will succeed sooner or later, but he can't wait for two years." , It’s because of me and Xi Qi. Your Majesty, you should let our mother and son go abroad for refuge, or we will have to commit suicide.”

Today, Li Ji is definitely a star with first-class acting skills. Jin Xiangong was already so angry that his seven orifices were smoked.In his rage, he immediately ordered someone to arrest Prince Shen Sheng.Shen Sheng quickly fled back to Quwo.Duke Xian of Jin was not willing to give up, and he sent troops to attack Quwo, vowing to arrest Shen Sheng, an unfilial son.People around him persuaded Shen Sheng: "Prince, this is obviously Li Ji's frame for you. You should make a good argument to the monarch. Our monarch will not be so confused." Shen Sheng sighed and said: "Father is old, and he likes Li Ji. Without Li Ji, he would not eat well, and he would not sleep well. Even if I succeeded in my defense, my father believed me and killed Li Ji , he won't be happy either. As a son, you can't be so unfilial."

Another suggested: "Since the crown prince is unwilling to plead, you can still flee abroad." Shen Sheng said: "Which prince would accommodate me if I ran away on the charge of unfilial piety? Pity the world is so big that there is no such thing as Shen Sheng." Shelter." After saying that, Shen Sheng committed suicide with tears in his eyes. Shen Sheng is dead, and Li Ji got rid of a serious worry.But Jin Xiangong also has two adult sons, namely Chong'er and Yiwu (this guy has the same name as Guan Zhong).Li Ji felt that these two sons were also stumbling blocks for Xi Qi's succession, so she told Jin Xiangong that the two sons and Shen Sheng were in the same party, and encouraged Jin Xiangong to kill the two sons as well.

Duke Xian of Jin sent someone to kill the two young masters. When the two young masters heard the news, they hurried abroad.They are not as righteous as Shen Sheng.In this way, all obstacles were removed, and Li Ji got her wish and made Xi Qi the legal heir of the monarch. Five years later, in 651 BC, Duke Xian of Jin wanted to attend the Kuiqiu Conference, but failed to catch up.Shortly after his return home, he died.Before he died, he seemed to predict that his successor, Xi Qi, would not have enough prestige, so he entrusted the doctor Xun Xi to assist Xi Qi. After Jin Xiangong died, Xi Qi succeeded to the throne and became the king. It is conceivable that the forces of Shen Sheng, Chong Er and Yi Wu would not be convinced.

Rick and Pizheng, the doctors of the state of Jin, wanted to make Chong'er the king, so they plotted to kill Xi Qi.They found Xun Xi and asked him: "When the king was dying, he entrusted Xi Qi to you. Now Jin and foreign countries are not convinced, and there will be trouble soon. What are you going to do?" Xun Xi simply said, "Then I will die." Rick said: "What's the use of you being dead? It's better to follow us to kill Xi Qi and replace him with Chong'er." Xun Xi said firmly: "I have promised the king. If I cannot assist Xi Qi, then I will have to die. How can I not keep my promise?" Seeing that Rick and Pizheng could not persuade Xun Xi, Take action on your own.They organized an army and killed Xi Qi at Jin Xiangong's funeral.Xun Xi failed to fulfill his responsibility to protect Xi Qi, so he committed suicide to fulfill his promise.At this time, someone advised him: "Liji's younger sister has another child, Zhuozi. You might as well make Zhuozi the king, as it is not a failure of the king's entrustment." Xun Xi made Zhuozi the king.But Rick and others have already planned to make Chong'er the king, so how can they tolerate Zhuo Zi?They attacked him again and killed Zhuozi.

This time, Xun Xi had nothing to worry about, so he committed suicide.The ancient people's concept of honesty is really amazing.Li Ji had nothing to rely on, so she had to commit suicide.It's a pity that they deliberately sent their son to the throne of the monarch, but in the end they ruined the lives of their mother and son. The opposition forces had been wiped out, and Rick and Pizheng sent people to pick up Chong'er and return to the country to ascend the throne.Chong'er is very smart, he knows that the country is in chaos now, and if he goes back now, he will die if he goes back, so he politely declines.Rick and Pizheng made fun of themselves, so they had no choice but to meet Yiwu. When Yiwu saw that someone from China had come to welcome him back home, he was not to mention very happy.He kept making wishes to Rick and Pi Zheng Fengguan.The state of Qin sent people to visit Yiwu, and Yiwu exchanged the support of the state of Qin at the price of cede land.In this way, Yiwu gained domestic and foreign support, and finally returned home to inherit the throne. This is Duke Hui of Jin.The news of the riots in the state of Jin spread to the state of Qi, and Duke Huan of Qi sent Xi Peng to lead an army to the state of Jin to quell the chaos. Due to the long distance of the state of Jin, it took time for the news to pass back and forth, so when Xi Peng came to the state of Jin, Duke Hui of Jin had already returned to the state to ascend the throne. Xi Peng came from afar and didn't know much about the situation in Jin.In addition, he heard that Qin State also sent troops to Jin State to quell the chaos, so he joined Qin State's army.After negotiation, Xi Peng learned that Yiwu became the king only after he got the support of domestic doctors (in fact, domestic doctors wanted to support Chonger, but Chonger didn't appreciate it, so what should we do), which is legal.Therefore, Xi Peng, on behalf of the overlord Duke Huan of Qi, recognized Yiwu's status as the monarch. Now that the overlord has spoken, Yiwu will naturally be his monarch safely.The story of the state of Jin is not the focus of this stage, so it will come to an end for now.Qi Huan just settled the turmoil in Jin, which shows that the prestige of the overlord is still there.However, in the Spring and Autumn Period when there were as many careerists as a cow's hair, the overlord would never be idle. Remember the prince belt who competed with King Zhou Xiang for the throne?Back then, because Duke Huan of Qi supported Prince Zheng, who later became King Xiang of Zhou, Prince Dai failed to become the king.Wang Zidai was naturally unconvinced. In 649 BC, Prince Dai, who had been dormant for a long time, secretly contacted Rongdi in the north, preparing to attack King Zhou Xiang and seize the throne of the emperor. In recent years, because the Central Plains has the overlord Duke Huan of Qi, it is relatively stable. Rong Di has never found an opportunity to harass the Central Plains on a large scale.Now that there is an internal response, of course he is willing to raise troops and attack Luoyi, all the way into Luoyi, and burn the east gate of Luoyi. King Zhou Xiang never let go of his guard against the prince's belt. Seeing that Rong Di was attacking, he guessed that the prince's band was probably responsible for it, so he deployed troops to resist Rong Di, and on the other hand sent people to arrest the prince's belt. Killed to vent anger. When Wang Zidai heard the news, he didn't dare to stay in Luoyi, and ran to Qi State in a hurry.The prince ran away with him, but Rong Di's army would not retreat.How could King Zhou Xiang still have the strength to deal with Rongdi?Only send someone to Qi Huangong for help.Duke Huan of Qi took the prince to watch and didn't let him run around.Then in 648 BC, Guan Zhong was ordered to lead the army to rescue the royal family from the crisis.Rong Di was not afraid of Emperor Zhou, but they had to be afraid of Duke Huan of Qi.Rong Di had suffered from the overlord, so he also had a long memory. When he heard that Qi's army was coming, he hurriedly withdrew.Guan Zhong drove away Rong Di, and King Zhou Xiang let out a sigh of relief.Guan Zhong naturally wanted to visit Emperor Zhou.Compared with the previous generations of Zhou emperors, King Zhou Xiang was still kind and repaying.Guan Zhong made contributions to the royal family, and King Zhou Xiang entertained Guan Zhong with Shangqing's etiquette.Guan Zhong resigned politely and said: "I am just an official from a humble background. In our country, there are Shangqing Guo and Gao appointed by the emperor. How can I accept Shangqing's gift?" King Zhou Xiang was quite moved, so he persuaded Guan Zhong: "You have made great contributions to the royal family, and I am grateful. Although you are not Shangqing, you are the ruler of Qi, so you should accept Shangqing's etiquette. You should not be humble. gone." Guan Zhong still insisted on accepting the gift of Xiaqing, bid farewell to the emperor and returned home. Although Guan Zhong was the most important minister of Duke Huan of Qi, he still placed himself under the two families of Guo and Gao.It can be seen that in the Spring and Autumn Period, people still attached great importance to the dignity of status. The royal family stopped, and Duke Huan of Qi wanted to take the prince back.But when the envoy sent by Tan Feng came back, he told Duke Huan of Qi, "Don't send it away, the emperor's anger has not subsided yet. I don't think the prince will be able to return to Luoyi within 10 years." Duke Huan of Qi had no choice but to give up. . Of course, after a few years, the prince brought him back to Luoyi, and it didn't take as long as 10 years.Not long after the prince brought him back to Luoyi, another disaster broke out.At that time, Duke Huan of Qi had already passed away.The pacification of the prince's chaos again belongs to the deeds of another overlord, Duke Wen of Jin.This is something. In order to further stabilize the royal family, Duke Huan of Qi convened another alliance of princes and sent coalition troops to station in Luoyi to prevent the Rong Di from invading again. In this way, Duke Huan of Qi once again completed the righteous deed of Qin Wang and fulfilled his duties as the overlord very well.However, Duke Huan of Qi, who entered his twilight years, had gradually withered his hegemony and life.It can be said that it was the last afterglow of Duke Huan of Qi's hegemony to pacify the internal turmoil in Jin and stabilize the royal family. In what way will Duke Huan of Qi, the hero of his life, take his curtain call on the big stage of Spring and Autumn?