Chapter 4 Chapter Four Song Xianggong's "benevolence and righteousness" is worthless

Among the five tyrants recognized in history in the Spring and Autumn Period, there is one person who "is on the list", but it is more like a consolation prize-Song Xianggong. Speaking of this person's hegemony as a "consolation prize", one of the main reasons is his failure to compete for hegemony.This man, like Duke Huan of Qi back then, was a man with great ambitions, but his life was thinner than paper. He ambitiously wanted to be the overlord, but suffered repeated setbacks. Facing a great opportunity to defeat his opponent, he chose to practice "benevolence and righteousness". He was "benevolent and righteous", but his opponent was not benevolent. A ruthless defeat not only ruined his dream of dominance, but also made him hate Jiuquan for it.He failed to seek hegemony, benevolence and righteousness were fruitless, and later generations sighed deeply when they talked about it.

Song Xianggong, why did he make such a stupid mistake, even under such circumstances, why is he still listed as one of the "Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period"? Let us look at the origin of the Song State itself. In the history of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, the Song State was actually a very interesting country. The royal family of the Song State has a strong background. The Song State was established by Wei Ziqi, an aristocrat of the Shang Dynasty in the early Zhou Dynasty.This Qi was a very famous person at that time. He was a loyal minister of King Zhou of Shang. Because he was dissatisfied with King Zhou of Shang's perverse actions, he was ordered to be hunted down by King Zhou of Shang when repeated remonstrances were ineffective. In the state of Zhou, after the Zhou Dynasty overthrew the rule of the Shang Dynasty and put down Wu Geng's rebellion, the placement of Weizi became a problem.He was originally an old minister of the Shang Dynasty, and he was supposed to be purged, but he was well-known, and he was a rare loyal person at that time. If he was not treated kindly, he would inevitably leave a story for the old people of the Shang Dynasty.Therefore, when Zhou Gongfu became king, after weighing several times, he finally decided to canonize him in the eastern part of Henan today, and the country was called Song State.This arrangement is very knowledgeable. The territory of Song State, on the surface, is very rich, but it is sandwiched between big countries, especially close to Qilu, which was the hard core of the Zhou royal family at that time. It is surrounded by plains, and there is no danger at all. Shou, once a rebellion occurs, it can be easily put down.It was such an arrangement that laid a tragic foreshadowing for the fate of the Song State during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

When the Song Kingdom was established, the rank of the Song Kingdom was still very high, and the title of the Song Kingdom's monarch was "gong".At that time, they belonged to the first-class vassal states on the same level as Qi, Lu, Zheng, Jin and other countries. This kind of noble status gave the king of Song a lofty sense of superiority in the "peaceful years" of the Western Zhou Dynasty. .After the struggle for hegemony began in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, this sense of superiority continued.In the early days of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, the State of Song was also a tyrant. He once competed with the State of Zheng for the status of "little tyrant".When it was time for Duke Huan of Qi to dominate, Duke Xiang of Song saw the direction of the wind and tied the fate of Song State tightly to the chariot of Duke Huan of Qi.During the period of Duke Huan of Qi and the nine princes, Song was a staunch supporter from beginning to end.Taking advantage of several opportunities to help Duke Huan of Qi to form an alliance with the princes, Duke Xiang of Song at that time was very popular, especially at the largest Kuiqiu meeting, Song Guo also acted as the "spokesperson" of Duke Huan of Qi, presiding over the meeting on behalf of Duke Huan of Qi At the ceremony of the alliance and issuing orders to the vassals, Song Guo seemed to be the second child in the vassal state.

Song Xianggong himself was unwilling to be the second child. When he ascended the throne in 650 BC, he also made a lot of achievements.At that time, he appointed virtuous ministers Ziyu and Gongsun Gu, and actively developed production and military strength. In particular, he also picked up a lot of "Yangluo" by closely following Duke Huan of Qi's hegemony.He took away a lot of Zheng Guo's fertile land back then, and Duke Huan of Qi also acted as the overlord, giving him a lot of the land and population that originally belonged to Zheng Guo.At this time, Song Guo was like a well-off family, because it had made several investments with a big boss, and it followed suit.At that time, whether among the vassal states or within the Song State, Duke Xiang of Song gave people the impression of "benevolence and righteousness", so his reputation was second only to Duke Huan of Qi at that time.

In the few years following Duke Huan of Qi, Song's military strength and national influence have been rising steadily among the princes.If we compare modern international political relations, if Duke Huan of Qi is like the United States, the "world policeman", then Duke Xiang of Song is like the United Kingdom, which follows the United States all day long. But Song Xianggong himself is not willing to be a follower. In his heart, he has always had a very firm dream-to be the boss.At that time, Duke Huan of Qi was at the height of his power, but Duke Xiang of Song had confidence, so what if he was at the height of his power, I am younger than you, so I can afford to wait, you will grow old one day, and Qi will also weaken one day, and that day will be Song When the country is replaced by the country.Therefore, under such circumstances, Song's dream of hegemony is by no means a whim, but something they have been working hard to plan for many years.

In 643 BC, the opportunity of the Song Dynasty came. In this year, Duke Huan of Qi, the invincible leader of the Spring and Autumn Period, passed away. If only Duke Huan of Qi passed away, this was not an opportunity for Song to fight for hegemony, because even if Duke Huan of Qi died, the national strength of Qi would still be there. With the national strength of Song at that time, whether it was economic, population, or military strength, it was a great opportunity for Song to fight for hegemony. It is difficult to compete with Qi.As long as Duke Huan of Qi can achieve a smooth transfer of power, the strength of the Central Plains vassal states at that time, except for the powerful Chu State in the south, no one can threaten the hegemony of Qi State.

But the opportunity was given to Duke Xiang of Song, because after the death of Duke Huan of Qi, the transfer of power in Qi State was very unstable. When Duke Huan of Qi was alive, he considered everything, but he didn't consider the issue of his son's succession.He dotes on Young Master Zhao very much, and even entrusted Song Xianggong to help Young Master Zhao ascend the throne in the future.But after his death, his five sons all wanted to ascend the throne, because ascension to the throne not only means being a king, but also being an overlord. In such a situation, conflicts arose.The three favorite ministers of Duke Huan of Qi before his death supported different princes and fought with each other. The invincible Qi army began to fight among themselves.This civil war lasted for nearly a year. Young Master Zhao lost to the other princes and had to flee to the State of Song. Remembering Duke Huan of Qi's entrustment to Duke Xiang of Song, he asked Duke Xiang of Song to help him seize the throne.Song Xianggong was very warm to Prince Zhao at the beginning, but he seemed very indifferent to sending troops to help him.Young Master Zhao is a smart man. After seeing this situation, he immediately knew what Song Xianggong wanted, and promised Song Xianggong that "as long as I can ascend to the throne of the country, I will treat my uncle with the courtesy of the leader", that is to say, for To be able to seize the throne, Young Master Zhao is willing to give up the position of leader that his father has fought for all his life.With this promise, Song Xianggong immediately ordered the world to send troops to escort the prince of Qi back to the country to seize the throne, as if he had been given a shot in the arm.After all, Duke Xiang of Song is not Duke Huan of Qi. When Duke Huan of Qi was alive, everyone took him as the "second child". How can it be enough to deal with the powerful Qi State?Song Xianggong gritted his teeth and went all out.Song Xianggong rectified almost all the soldiers and horses in the country, plus the troops of the three small countries, and just like this, they went to Qi State in a mighty way.I didn't expect that it would be better to come early than to come early. At this time, in Qi State, after continuous civil strife, all parties have been exhausted. As soon as Song Xianggong's new army arrived, everyone didn't want to fight. Only after a few small-scale battles After military contact, all the Qi armies from all walks of life scattered like birds and beasts, and young master Zhao returned home smoothly and became the king. This is Qi Xiaogong in history.

At this time, the state of Qi, after this large-scale civil strife, suffered an extremely serious loss of national power. Take Linzi, the capital of the country at that time, as an example. In Linzi at that time, about three-fifths of the houses were burned down. One can imagine.Therefore, Qi Xiaogong obeyed the order of Song Xianggong. In the eyes of Song Xianggong, hegemony is a matter of course. Qi is the leader of all countries. Now that Qi is listening to me, then I am not the leader. I have been the second child for so many years , and now it is finally the boss.In the early days after Qi's internal turmoil was settled, Song Xianggong began to show off his might.First of all, when Duke Song Xiang issued a document asking the world to send troops to serve the king, he did not buy Song Xianggong's account. At this time, Song Xianggong settled the account after autumn and beheaded Cao Guo. Lord Teng had offended Song Xianggong in the past. He was also punished by Song Xianggong, who insisted on killing him to sacrifice to the gods. In the first days when the internal turmoil in Qi was pacified, Song Xianggong was indeed so majestic, almost to the point where he would destroy whoever he saw, and he would beat whoever he said. It's overlord.

In fact, it is still far away. Struggle for hegemony has always been based on strength but not on people. To be the overlord, it is useless to be designated by the old overlord. The key point is that the organization of the entire vassal state needs to be identified, that is to say, the entire vassal state must recognize you as the boss. .If you want everyone to admit that you are the boss, you have to rely on your strength to convince everyone. Does Song Xianggong have the strength?Yes, but not enough. Regarding this point, Song Xianggong himself is also clear in his heart, so after killing the king of Teng, he immediately organized an alliance with this prestige, but he also knew that with his own influence, it was far from enough. To achieve the goal, it is necessary to obtain the support of some powerful countries. The most powerful country in this period has been replaced by the Chu State that had fought against it during the period of Duke Huan of Qi.In the era of Duke Huan of Qi's hegemony, Chu State was the veritable second child. Among the northern princes, only Qi State had the power to counter Chu State, and after failing to compete with Qi State for hegemony, Chu State had been working hard to develop production for many years.Song Xianggong thought, why can't I get the support of Chu State? I have influence among the princes, and he has the strength of a big country. If we cooperate together, my hegemony may succeed immediately.

Song Xianggong not only thought so, but also did so.He immediately sent someone to contact the state of Chu. To his surprise, the state of Chu responded very readily, expressing his willingness to participate in the alliance organized by Song Xianggong, and willing to use his own name to contact various princes and countries to participate. That's it.Led by the three kingdoms of Song, Qi, and Chu, a meeting was held on Lushang, and an alliance of various vassal states was held.After the notice of the meeting was sent out, with the participation of Chu State, all countries responded and expressed their willingness to participate in this alliance.Now Song Xianggong is very proud, with the support of Chu State, the support of the old overlord Qi State, and the huge influence of being the second child all the year round, I will definitely become the leader of the alliance smoothly this time!

Judging from the situation at the time, it was reasonable for Song Xianggong to think so.After the civil unrest in Qi, he really had a good time for a while, seeing whoever he saw in the Central Plains and who he was destroying.At this time, the state of Jin was suffering from civil strife, and the state of Qin was unable to advance eastward. The states of Zheng, Cao, Lu, Wei, and Xing in the Central Plains were all small fish and shrimps compared to Song. The monarch was supported by him, so of course he had to listen to him. Although the Chu State is powerful, he is an outsider and has not been seen by the Central Plains countries. He can come to the meeting because the Central Plains countries have given him face. If you want to be the overlord, you have to push your nose on your face. It seems reasonable, but it is actually unreasonable.Because Song Xianggong's biggest mistake in this matter was exactly what his brother and son Mu Yi said: Song is a small country, and if it wants to compete for the leader, it will cause disaster. This is indeed on the point. The national power of Song State at that time could not be compared with that of Chu State. Even if it was compared with Qi State, it still took advantage of Qi State's vitality.Song Xianggong tried his best to win Chu State because he knew this, but he didn't know enough.Song Xianggong's wishful thinking is that everyone is afraid of Chu, and if Chu supports me, it means that everyone will support me, so that I can become the overlord.This logic seems to be the famous story of "the fox pretends to be the tiger", but the problem is that in this story, there is no stupid tiger, but Song Xianggong, a fox who pretends to be smart. The king of Chu who was regarded as a "silly tiger" by Duke Xiang of Song Dynasty was one of the outstanding kings in the history of Chu——King Chu Cheng.During his reign, he cultivated the rule of law internally, introduced the advanced politics and culture of the Central Plains, promoted the civilization of Chu State, vigorously expanded externally, and annexed the vast territory of South China. In terms of personal ability, he was absolutely no less than Duke Huan of Qi. Ruthless role.Such a person with great ambition and outstanding ability, why would he listen to your orders? The reason why Chu State agreed to Song State so readily was not because it gave you Song State face, but because Chu State has always wanted to go northward and annex the princes of the Central Plains However, because the princes of the Central Plains adopted a strategy of uniting against Chu, it has been difficult for Chu to expand to the north to break through the Jianghuai River Basin. This alliance is the best opportunity.The idea of ​​the Chu State is to obtain at the negotiating table what they cannot get on the battlefield through the alliance. Song Xianggong is not clear about this. So from the very beginning of the alliance, the state of Chu was doomed to be uneasy. Even so, Song Xianggong himself had a good chance, because the location of the alliance was, after all, in the north far away from the mainland of Chu.No matter how ambitious the Chu people are, it is impossible to move all the powerful troops there, but this is close to the territory of the Song State, and the Song State can easily send troops here. Therefore, as long as the Song State can make preparations before the meeting, arrange Such a powerful army, when the time comes to force Chu to submit, it seems that there is still hope. But Song Xianggong himself turned this seemingly promising into hopeless.The son Muyi once suggested that the Song State should lead a sufficient army to prevent the Chu people from playing tricks, but Song Xianggong said very noblely, that’s not good. I am the leader of the alliance based on benevolence and righteousness. If there is no benevolence and righteousness, what kind of leader should I be? .In this way, Song Xianggong went to the alliance without a single soldier, and a polished commander.The facts were as expected by the young master. At the meeting, Song Xianggong had just proposed to be the leader of the alliance, and a group of heavily armed Chu soldiers came and arrested Song Xianggong on the spot.This is a bad idea. Not only was Song Xianggong himself taken hostage, but Chu State even aggressively attacked Song State. Seeing that Song State not only failed to dominate, even the country would not be able to protect the country. , Gongzi Muyi led the army and the people to resist desperately, and he just repelled the attack of the Chu people.Later, after the mediation of Lu and Qi, the meeting elected King Chu Cheng as the leader of the alliance. Only then did King Chu show "benevolence and righteousness" and let Song Xianggong come back. He was tricked by the king of Chu. It is said that Song Xianggong should have woken up from his dream, but Song Xianggong refused. He believed that this failure was definitely not the fault of benevolence and righteousness, but that the state of Chu was lucky for a while. His son Muyi persuaded him to rein in the precipice. But Song Xianggong said: "Chu's treachery can take advantage of it for a while, but in the end, it will be benevolence and righteousness!" One, the reason is that this time the position of leader was obtained by despicable means. After the meeting, all the princes who returned to the country changed their faces one after another and refused to recognize King Chu Cheng's vested position as leader. Song Xianggong felt that the situation was very good.He decided to take this opportunity to take revenge. Of course, with Song Xianggong's brains, he would never have the courage to attack Chu State actively. After all, the national strength of Chu State and Song State is far behind. Those who dare to fight, the first one to fight is Zheng Guo.There have been feuds between Zheng Guo and Song Guo for several generations, especially when Duke Huan of Qi was the overlord, Song Xianggong often bullied Zheng Guo by virtue of his status as the second child. , Zheng Guo became the first among the princes of the Central Plains to defect to Chu State. Song Xianggong fought this early bird. He wanted to let everyone know through this war that cooperating with Chu people would not end well.You're right, but it's not the same thing when you fight.The son Muyi once persuaded Song Xianggong that if we want to attack Zheng State, Chu State will definitely come to our rescue, and the war with Chu State will be inevitable at that time. If we do not have the strength to defeat Chu State, we should not take this risk lightly.But Song Xianggong, who was bent on revenge, would not listen to anything.In the autumn of 639 B.C., the State of Song brazenly launched a war of aggression against the State of Zheng. According to Song Xianggong’s thoughts before the war, if you, the State of Chu, did not come to rescue, I would destroy the State of Zheng; Set up an encirclement circle, and come to an encirclement point to fight for aid.Either way, I'm sure to win. What Song Xianggong did not expect was that Chu State adopted a strategy that he could not even imagine in his dreams. He directly "surrounded Wei and rescued Zhao" and attacked the mainland of Song State. Instead, he was being led by the nose by the state of Chu. In desperation, Song Xianggong had no choice but to return to the rescue.At this time, the debate about war or peace resumed. The ministers of Song State at that time, such as Gongsun Gu, who had assisted Song Xianggong for many years, believed that it was impossible for Song State to fight against Chu State with the current national strength. If one battle is won, the next battle is likely to be lost, because Song State's geographical location and military strength cannot compete with Chu State, so it is best to use the contradictions among major powers to ensure their own safety. Choice, the blind war for hegemony, will only ruin Song.But Song Xianggong couldn't listen to anything. His head was full of the word "benevolence and righteousness" he admired. He said repeatedly, I am a teacher of benevolence and righteousness. Are you afraid of the tiger and wolf teachers of Chu?In the tenth month, Duke Xiang of Song led his army to line up in Hongshui to fight a decisive battle with the Chu army.In this battle, the army of the Song Dynasty still grasped the opportunity very well. At that time, they rushed to the battlefield ahead of the State of Chu. At this time, the people of the State of Chu were preparing to cross the river in great strength. Chance.The son Muyi discovered this opportunity, and quickly asked Song Xianggong to attack immediately, and attack Chu State when he was crossing the river, and completely wiped it out, but Song Xianggong refused. He thought it would be very inhumane to launch an attack at this time. Performance.After the people of Chu State crossed the river, they lined up in full force. Prince Muyi saw that he was in a hurry. He grabbed Song Xianggong's sleeve and said, "If we don't attack immediately, then wait for the people of Chu State to line up, and our entire army will be destroyed." overwhelmed.Song Xianggong is still very stubborn, you don't understand this, it's called etiquette, if the enemy hasn't lined up, we launch an attack, it's unrighteous, even if we win, it's disgraceful.In this way, Song Guo's great chance of winning was wasted in vain.After the Chu State successfully crossed the river, it immediately launched an attack. The weak Song State army was no match for Chu State at all.As a result, Song Xianggong himself was surrounded. Thanks to his son Muyi's desperate protection, he finally escaped from the encirclement of the Chu people, but the Song army was completely annihilated. In the battle of Hongshui, Song Xianggong was very benevolent, and the consequences were very serious.Song Guo's elite army lost almost all at once in this absurd battle. Once a small country like Song Guo experienced such a disastrous defeat, it meant that it would not be able to recover for several generations.Before Song Xianggong, Song Guo could still maintain the status of the second child at any rate. In this way, he would be completely reduced to a weak person. What's ridiculous is that even with such a disastrous defeat, Song Xianggong still didn't think he was at fault. After returning home, the ministers complained that he shouldn't fight with Chu, and he shouldn't fight like this, but Song Xianggong was still very stubborn: " I am benevolent and righteous, and this is how benevolence and righteousness should be done in war. For example, if you see a soldier with gray hair on the other side, don’t arrest him; if you see the soldier on the other side is injured, don’t hurt him any more.” After hearing this, the young master Mu Yi sneered and said: "The purpose of fighting is to defeat the enemy. What's the point of fighting like you?" Song Xianggong was speechless. the world. After the Battle of Hongshui, the reason why the Chu State did not take advantage of the victory to pursue and destroy the Song State was thanks to the mediation of the son Mu Yi.Prince Muyi visited the two countries of Qi and Qin and asked them to intervene. Under the interference of the two countries, King Chu Cheng also made a high-profile withdrawal. Go north easily.Therefore, in the next few years, Chu State still focused its energy on swallowing Baiyue in the south and accumulating strength. It should be time for Jin Wengong Chonger to fight for hegemony when he really started to move north again. However, the stupid Song Xianggong finally became wise before he died. He said to the prince who is about to ascend the throne that the current situation of Song State is very bad. Neither Qin State nor Qi State can be relied on. The country will be in danger again at that time. If that is the case, the only one who can help us at that time is Chonger, the prince of Jin. He will definitely become the overlord in the future, and he will also be the protector of Song.In the ensuing Battle of Jin-Chu Chengpu, the final battle proved that Song Xianggong was correct. If he could maintain such wisdom most of the time, he and his Song Kingdom would not have ended up in this way. Song Xianggong’s failure to fight for hegemony is not so much a failure of a country as a failure of an old social order. What Song Xianggong insisted on was still the old morality of the patriarchal society of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but the era he lived in was a ritual In the period of Benglebai, everyone didn't play cards according to the routine, so Song Xianggong who played according to the routine could only suffer a loss.Another significance of the Battle of Hongshui is that since then, there have been fewer and fewer battles that were practiced with formations in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The means of warfare have become more and more abundant, and the art of war has gradually become the mainstream of warfare.