As the beginning of a war-torn era in Chinese history, the Spring and Autumn Period has always been a wonderful era. In this era, there are many topics that future generations are interested in talking about.In the Spring and Autumn Period, the five tyrants took turns to sit in the manor, from the downfall to the history of blood and tears of the overlord, from the overlord to the vicissitudes of the country, there were many major wars and battles. There are many outstanding figures, and there are many strange life experiences of outstanding figures, such as Guan Zhong sitting in a prison car, Baili Xi who was exchanged for five sheepskins, Goujian, the king of Yue who tried his best, and Fuchai, the king of Wu who committed suicide with his face covered. .All the people and things are connected together by this period of war, and there are many chants and emotions in the middle.

However, among the many arias and emotions, there is an important problem hidden deep.How did the Spring and Autumn Period change from the "unification of the world" of the Zhou Dynasty to "an old hen turned into a duck" in the blink of an eye, and became a scene of princes fighting for hegemony?How did Zhou Tianzi, who ruled the world back then, change his body so that the phoenix is ​​not as good as the chicken, and the generation is not as good as the generation, from the supreme king back then to the puppet that the princes fought for?How did all these major changes happen?

These major changes are related to the first Overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.This person is not included in the traditional Spring and Autumn Five Overlords, and he is not as good as the two overlords of Wu and Yue who have not entered the "Five Hegemons" rankings: Helu and Goujian.The qualifications of this person are older than all the overlords mentioned before.It's just that his country went from bad to worse, and later became weaker than any overlord. In most events in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, he couldn't be ranked high.This person is the first Overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period——Zheng Zhuanggong.

Zheng Zhuanggong is collectively referred to as "Zheng Zhuanggong Xiaoba" by later historians. He is not fake, and he is indeed small. In the early days of the enfeoffment of the Zhou Dynasty, Zheng Guo, where Duke Zheng Zhuang lived, could not afford the word "small". On the contrary, it was an extremely important country. Compared with the vassal states of the Central Plains, Zheng Guo's qualifications are not old, but his status is extremely noble.Although the state of Zheng was established during the period of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty, its founding monarch, Duke Zheng Huan, was the youngest son of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty.The monarch of Zheng State is hereditary, and the royal family is rooted in Zheng Miaohong.Duke Huan of Zheng also made a great contribution. King Zhou You used to play with the princes in the beacon fire, and finally played a big game, which attracted the crazy attack of the dog army. .This huge change also changed the fate of Zheng Guo.Zheng Guo, who suffered a national mourning, had to move out of his original fief and move to Xinzheng, Henan today, in the face of internal and external troubles.Zheng Wugong was very discerning. He chose the prime location at that time. Not to mention the fertile land, it was located in the center of the world's transportation.Of course, the state of Zheng couldn't spoil such a good location, so starting from Duke Wu of Zheng, the state of Zheng adopted policies to encourage the development of industry and commerce, and signed alliances with merchants to protect commercial trade.At that time, almost all the wealthy businessmen and households of the vassal states were concentrated in this most prosperous "economic development zone".In the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the land of Zheng State was not the largest, but the economy was the richest.

The state of Zheng, which is small in land but rich in economy, was in a good situation in the early Spring and Autumn Period.During this period, the Jin State had not yet risen, the Chu State still lived in the Yangtze River Basin, the Qi State was busy with the war with the Dongyi, and the Qin State suffered from the intrusion of the barbarians in the northwest.The Xinzheng area where the state of Zheng is located is a paradise away from the flames of war.With a noble status, a descendant of a martyr, and a big pocket, Zheng Guo was naturally noble at the time.As the royal family of the Zhou royal family, King Zheng Guo was also completed with the help of Zheng Guo when King Ping of Zhou traveled to Luoyi and established the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Speech on behalf of Zhou Tianzi.In front of the princes from all walks of life, it was quite "a fox pretending to be a tiger".

But when Zheng Zhuanggong came to the throne, he was not satisfied with the "fake tiger prestige". What he wanted was "true prestige", that is, to dominate. As the son of Zheng Wugong, the outstanding monarch of Zheng State, Zheng Zhuanggong was a troublemaker since he was a child. When he was born, he found trouble with his mother.When his mother Wu Jiang gave birth to him, she happened to have a dystocia, and almost lost her life.This incident also brought trouble to him in the future. Although after Zheng Wugong passed away, he inherited the monarch as the eldest son of Zheng Guo, but his mother Wu Jiang didn't like him. On the contrary, he loved his younger brother, uncle Duan.When Zheng Zhuanggong came to the throne, his mother and younger brother began to trouble him.The mother asked Zheng Zhuanggong to confer the capital of the largest city in the country to his younger brother, and to give him the title "Uncle Capital".Everyone on earth knows what kind of calculations they are making: mothers love younger brothers, so naturally they must find a way to let younger brothers usurp the throne of older brothers.Behavior like this is big trouble.

Zheng Zhuanggong, who likes to make trouble, is also a person who is not afraid of trouble.He is not afraid of any troubles from his mother and younger brother: If you want a fief, give it!To title, seal.He will give his mother and brother whatever they want!Minister Cai Zhong is an honest man, and advised him to be careful, but he pretended to be stupid.Seeing that Zheng Zhuanggong seemed easy to bully, his younger brother, uncle Duan, started to make troubles with the support of his mother, colluding with his cronies and rectifying the army, all he wanted to do was to finish the big trouble he was expecting - to take Zheng Zhuanggong's throne.

When Uncle Duan was about to make trouble, Lord Zheng Zhuang started to make trouble for him.Uncle Duan had just assembled his army and contacted his mother as an internal response. Before he sent troops, Zheng Zhuanggong's army fell from the sky, and he was easily wiped out.In the end, he chased him all the way to Yancheng, and completely drove away this younger brother who had caused him trouble for many years.This is the famous story of "Ke Duan Yu Yan" in history.To this day, philosophers still use this story to educate young people.If you hate someone, the best thing to do is to indulge his flaws.

After ending his trouble-loving younger brother, Zheng Zhuanggong also broke his heart to his mother Wu Jiang who helped his younger brother to make trouble for him.He first imprisoned his mother viciously, saying, "If you don't reach the underworld, you will never see each other again."But soon after, I regretted it, but I couldn't break the oath. Finally, after much deliberation, I came up with a way to get the best of both worlds, and dug a tunnel to meet my mother.The two mothers hugged each other and cried, and they reconciled ever since.This is another famous story about Zheng Zhuanggong: Huangquan Huimu.Today's old people sometimes tell this story to young people. The central idea is simple: there are no parents who are not right, and one must be filial.

But through two simple stories and a simple central idea, we clearly see a more important thing.The disintegration of the Zhou Dynasty and the separatism of the princes, fundamentally speaking, all came from this event-the collapse of rituals and the destruction of music. As one of the most powerful slavery empires in the world at this time, the moral system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the patriarchal system, and the core content of the patriarchal system was the filial piety advocated by the Zhou Dynasty.In the patriarchal law of the Western Zhou Dynasty, unfilial piety is the greatest sin, especially Zheng Zhuanggong, who is a Zhou royal family, should respect filial piety.But judging from the process of Zheng Zhuanggong's family making troubles with each other, Zheng Zhuanggong first pretended to be stupid, then fooled, and finally counterattacked and reckoned.However, the social reprimand and criticism against him were almost zero in all kinds of records at that time.The filial piety, which was the cornerstone of the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty, began to decline from then on.

Even the most basic filial piety has been lost, let alone the others.The unified national concept, the traditional well field system, whether it is the loyalty of the king's land or the king's subjects, everything is either "collapsed" or "broken".Under the calm on the surface, a brand new era of hegemony is about to come.Zheng Zhuanggong, who likes to make trouble, is the first one among them. After reconciling with his mother, Zheng Zhuanggong stabilized the inside and started to make troubles outside. Zheng Zhuanggong's first object of trouble was Xu Guo.This is a small country in the south of Zheng State, with a small territory, but it is a strategic place for Zheng State to develop southward.This small country has a background.It had strategic alliances with powerful countries at the time, such as Song and Wei.Zheng Zhuanggong was not discouraged, you pulled the "background", and I pulled the "background".Zheng Zhuanggong brought Qi and Lu to the east, and formed a strategic alliance with these two powerful countries at that time by selling land and donating money.With the background, Zheng Zhuanggong started to act.He personally led the army to defeat the coalition forces of Song, Wei, Chen, and Cai, and supported Song's son Feng to be the king of the country, and became a good boy who obeyed his orders.After finishing the background of Xu country, it's time to fight Xu country.In 712 BC, Zheng Zhuanggong joined forces with Qi and Lu to annex Xu.Shocked by Zheng Guo's powerful combat power, allies Qi and Lu were frightened. They did not dare to trouble Duke Zheng Zhuang.At this time, Zheng Zhuanggong had actually become the boss of the three alliances of Zheng, Qi, and Lu. But when Zheng Zhuanggong is the boss, some people are not happy, such as Zhou Tianzi, who is the ninth-five-year-old. At this time, the emperor of Zhou was King Ping of Zhou who moved his capital to Luoyi.In the eyes of King Zhou Ping, what is Zheng Zhuanggong?Our family's guest ministers are nothing more than relatives of our family.The mission of Zhou Tianzi's guest minister is to assist Zhou Tianzi in handling state affairs, but Zheng Zhuanggong actually caused trouble, so King Zhou Ping also decided to make trouble for him, and found an excuse to cancel Zheng Zhuanggong's guest affairs power.After all, during this period, Zheng Zhuanggong was fledgling, and Zhou Pingwang's power was weakened, so they communicated several times and became harmonious again, and there was the famous "Zhou Zheng cross-talk", that is, the sons of both parties went to each other's territory as hostages.King Zhou Ping, who is the son of heaven, has to sit on an equal footing with Zheng Zhuanggong at this time. What he is afraid of is that Zheng Zhuanggong is looking for trouble. After the death of King Ping of Zhou, his son King Huan of Zhou was a man who was not afraid of trouble.Not afraid of trouble, of course he had to find trouble with Duke Zheng Zhuang. Before the ass of the throne was hot, he took back Duke Zhuang Zheng's power as a guest of the Zhou royal family.Then when Zheng Zhuanggong came to pay homage, he gave him a full spectrum of being a great king, which was extremely humiliating.Not long after, he made his own claim and assigned the fields around the state of Zheng to the name of the Zhou royal family, and started a forced demolition of the land.A series of troubles.It was as if a series of "three axes" slammed fiercely at Zheng Zhuanggong. Zheng Zhuanggong's reaction was very simple, he straightened his neck and let you hit him. It doesn't matter if my power is stripped away, it's easy to be unofficial.It doesn't matter if you show me the king's score, let's pretend to be stupid and play haha.Take my place?It doesn't even matter, money and wealth are external things, whether you like to occupy them or not.After several concessions, King Huan of Zhou was full of courage.It seems that you are also a person who is afraid of trouble. Since you are afraid, then I will make you a big trouble. If you look for it, you will find it big. In 707 BC, King Huan of Zhou, who was determined to solve Zheng Zhuanggong's trouble once and for all, gathered troops from the vassal states of Chen, Cai, and Wei to attack Zheng Zhuanggong.Of course, the reason for leaving the teacher this time was not only because Zheng Zhuanggong was not pleasing to the eye. Although the power of the Zhou royal family was declining at that time, it was still the emperor after all. go down.What's more, King Huan of Zhou, who is proud of the spring breeze, believes that Zheng Zhuanggong is just a vain name. I have made trouble for him several times and he dare not accept the trick. It seems that it is not difficult to kill him in one go.Destroying a Zheng Zhuanggong, establishing my prestige as a great king, and defending the authority of the Zhou royal family seem to be within reach. Judging from King Zhou Huan's mobilization of troops this time, it is even more difficult for him to think confidently.This time the Zhou army has a very strong lineup. The central army led by King Huan of Zhou himself, the left army composed of Cai and Wei, the right army composed of Chen Guo, and the elite troops from the three major vassal states have all come. It is well-known as the banner of "crusade against rebellion".The "personal conquest" of the emperor's commander-in-chief seems to have taken full advantage of the right time, place and people.Zheng Zhuanggong's side is much more bleak. His two younger brothers Qi Guo and Lu Guo dare not bear the charge of "fighting the emperor" for anything, and simply stand aside to watch the scenery.What Zheng Zhuanggong can use is Zheng Guo's own army. Although the fighting power is strong, but one is to fight against the emperor as a prince, and the "moral" loses half; the second is that the army is far inferior to the opponent; Attacked from three sides, the location is even more disadvantaged.All kinds of victory conditions, seemingly all are not accounted for. But the murderous King Huan of Zhou didn't know that, just like Zheng Zhuanggong's younger brother Gongshu Duan, he also fell into Zheng Zhuanggong's trap this time. He was weak, conceded, and pretended to be stupid at the beginning. fatal blow.Because Zheng Zhuanggong, who has been fighting for a long time, has already found his only chance to win under the various unfavorable situations of this battle, that is, there are too many Zhou soldiers. At this time, the Zhou royal family did not have many troops directly subordinate to them.The main armies come from various vassal states that are loyal to themselves.Although there are a large number of people, they are a mixed bag of fish and dragons. They really come from all corners of the country. Regardless of the fact that the government orders are not unified, they do not belong to each other, and they fight to cooperate with each other. There are various problems.For example, the army of Chen State who served as the right army for King Huan of Zhou had a famine in his country, that is to say, the king of Chen State wanted to show his loyalty and took the lead to fight this battle. The soldiers were all thinking about their wives and children in their hometown.As for Cai Guo and Wei Guo, their own national strength is very weak, and the combat effectiveness of the army is also poor, so they followed them noisily, just to take advantage of it.But how can it be so easy to take advantage of the cheapness?This kind of large army of tens of thousands of people is fighting, and if one family collapses, it is likely to lead to the collapse of the whole line.What is even more terrible is King Zhou Huan himself. The emperor's personal conquest can certainly improve morale, but the key depends on the emperor's level.For a rookie like King Zhou Huan who has never experienced a war before, it is unreliable to command in front of the battle. Even if the morale can be temporarily boosted, the morale is like an inflated ball. There is a slight omission, and it is faster to discourage than to cheer up. many. These problems are not considered problems if you encounter an ordinary opponent, but they are serious problems if you encounter an unusual opponent.Unfortunately, the Zheng Zhuanggong that King Huan of Zhou met was an unusual opponent.Facing the patchwork King Huan of Zhou's "Tianzi Shi", Zheng Zhuanggong found the key point of victory at a glance: if he wants to smash the "big ball" in front of him, he must vent his anger on him. The way to vent your anger is to hit the junction of the Zhou army's left, middle and right armies. In 707 BC, the crusade army of King Huan of Zhou started a fight with the army of Zheng State in Suige (now Changge County, Henan).After the battle broke out, Zheng Zhuanggong first waved the banner with the left and right armies, shouting and killing like thunder, but did not launch an attack in the middle.On the contrary, Zheng Zhuanggong's elite troops rushed out, beating Chen Guo's army who served as the right army first.As Zheng Zhuanggong expected, Chen Guo's army did not fight, it collapsed as soon as it was beaten, and it became chaotic when it collapsed. The right army of King Zhou Huan collapsed in an instant.Before King Huan of Zhou recovered his senses, the troops of Cai Guo and Wei Guo didn't even say hello, and hurriedly escaped for their lives.After just a few rounds of fighting, King Zhou Huan's left and right armies ran away completely, leaving only Zhou Huan's central army on the battlefield.The following things will be much easier to handle, Zheng Zhuanggong will encircle and attack.Zheng Junbing divided into three groups and launched a brave charge against King Huan of Zhou, taking the emperor as a bandit and beating him.Zhou Jun, who was fighting alone, was retreating steadily. Seeing that it was impossible to defeat Zheng Zhuanggong, it was better to run away.Driven by the desire to survive, King Huan of Zhou assembled the remnants of the army, desperately broke through, and finally opened a bloody road.But at this time, an incredible thing happened. Zheng Zhuanggong's general Zhu Dan was able to kill, and led the troops to chase and kill the Zhou army. Not to mention the defeat of the Zhou army, he actually killed King Zhou Huan. I had a "close contact" with King Zhou Huan.Probably because he was so happy to see the emperor, Zhu Dan bent his bow and set up an arrow excitedly, and "swiped" the ground, and unexpectedly shot King Huan of Zhou in the shoulder with an arrow. This is playing big. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Son of Heaven was a body of ten thousand metals, which was sacred and inviolable, and he could not touch a single hair.But King Huan of Zhou, the emperor, was beaten to the point of losing his helmet and armor, and his "body of ten thousand gold" was shot in a hole. He was really embarrassing to the extreme. The result of losing face was that King Huan of Zhou went all out, endured the pain, gritted his teeth and directed, and finally broke out of Zheng Zhuanggong's encirclement, and came back with his life.Of course, it was also because Zheng Zhuanggong gave an order, saying: "We are forced to defend ourselves when we fight, how can we still bully the emperor?" inside. The famous battle of Sui Ge in history ended with the defeat of King Huan of Zhou and the victory of Duke Zhuang of Zheng.The significance of this war is far-reaching. Of course, King Huan of Zhou lost a lot. His elite troops were completely lost, and the prestige of the Zhou royal family among the princes was greatly damaged.I wanted to be arrogant, but in the end I lost all face.Zheng Zhuanggong made a lot of money.The little princes have defeated the emperor's army, is that okay?After this battle, Zheng Zhuanggong consolidated his dominance among the princes, and soon led his army to help Qi defeat the invasion of Beirong. This is how the situation of "Zheng Zhuang Gong Xiaoba" was formed. Xiaoba's Zheng Zhuanggong, his hegemony is destined to be short-lived.Just like in martial arts movies, the most powerful characters who appear first are often Xiao Xiami, and the real hidden masters often appear very late.Throughout the history of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, Zheng Zhuanggong of "Xiaoba" is actually just a shrimp. From the perspective of the external situation, the Zheng State in this period was located in the Yellow River Basin of the Central Plains, with fertile land, and naturally had the best capital to dominate.But from the perspective of development potential, it is much worse.There is no advantage of Qi State's fishing and salt from the sea to the east, no geographical advantage of Chu State's southern location in Baiyue, and no Qin State's wealth and wealth in Qinchuan, which is 800 miles away.The so-called fertile land and convenient transportation of the territory of Zheng State, in terms of military, it is the "land of the Four Wars" surrounded by powerful enemies.Under such conditions, it is impossible to seek long-term hegemony without a long-term strategic vision.However, Zheng Zhuanggong is not a person with a long-term strategic vision. During his reign, he conquered Wei, Cai, Song, and annexed Xu. Shunli has become the boss, and he seems to be majestic, but he is only satisfied with being the boss. He has not overly weakened the power of the Song, Chen, and Cai countries, and he has not taken the opportunity to occupy a territory with a strategic position. .He reigned for forty-three years, and no one dared to mess with him while he was alive, but once he passed away, the Zheng State left behind would "be returned sooner or later".During the reign of his son Zheng Zhaogong, "retribution" came soon.In 700 BC, when Zheng Zhaogong was on the throne, the powerful ministers Jizu rebelled, overthrew his rule, and made his younger brother Zheng Hu the throne.For many years after that, Zheng Guo has been in the civil war between brothers fighting for the throne. Several of his sons and powerful officials fought and killed each other, and experienced 27 years of turmoil.Zheng Guo, once a "little bully", completely lost its overlord status during this period, and changed from a "little bully" to a "small country". Although Zheng Guo's hegemony is only a "shrimp", it is a very important "shrimp".Zheng Zhuanggong's life of "seeking trouble" and "being troubled" shows that the power of the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period grew stronger and the power of Zhou Tianzi declined.It was also this "one-time hegemony" Zheng Zhuanggong who really broke through the "gold and jade" window paper of the Zhou royal family and opened the "Pandora's Box" of princes' hegemony.Behind him is the rumbling drama of the feudal lords fighting for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.