In the spring of 632 BC, Duke Wen of Jin led the three armies of the Jin State from Jiangdu to attack the State of Cao as planned, in order to contain the army of the State of Chu and rescue Qi and Song. The people of the state of Jin once again used the method of falsely attacking Guo, and sent envoys to the state of Wei to ask for an excuse.Of course Wei Chenggong knew the intentions of the Jin people, and he faced a dilemma. If you agree to the request of the Jin State, let the Jin army pass through the Wei State, and wait for the Jin army to destroy the Cao State, and then wipe out the Wei State on the way back to the division. China—a lesson learned from the past, we must guard against it.

If he disagrees with Jin's request, Jin Wenzheng can take advantage of the problem, label Wei as "non-cooperative", and send troops to attack in a legitimate manner. After weighing it over and over again, Wei Chenggong decided not to agree to Jin's request.This was also expected. Jin Wengong immediately changed his marching route, detoured to the south of Weiguo to cross the Yellow River, and placed the main attack direction on Weiguo. He only sent a small number of troops to harass Caoguo to prevent Cao Jun from wreaking havoc behind the Jin army. The momentum of the Jin army was like a rainbow, and they captured Wulu within a few days.

For Jin Wengong, Wulu is a place of special significance.I think back then, he set out from Zhai State and went to Wei State in exile. He was rejected by Wei Wengong. When he was hungry, he begged for food from the peasants in the fields of Wulu. Immediately knelt down and said: "This is the land given to you by God!" Unexpectedly, the words became a prophecy. Twelve years later, Jin Wengong entered Wulu as the master.Unofficial history records that, apart from being grateful to Hu Yan, Jin Wengong did not even forget to find the peasants who threw mud at him to express his gratitude.Since ancient times, being rich and tolerant, being poor and mean, being able to treat those who looked down on you kindly in the past is the real wealth.

In February of the same year, Que (xi) Gu, Marshal of the Chinese Army, died in Wulu due to illness. Xian Zhen was transferred from Deputy Marshal of the Chinese Army to Marshal of the Chinese Army, and Xuchen Jiuji took over as Deputy Marshal of the Lower Army. "Zuo Zhuan" emphasizes that the main basis for the above-mentioned personnel adjustment is still the virtue of each person. In March, Jin Wengong and Qi Zhaogong met in Lianyu of Weiguo and formed an alliance.Under tremendous military and diplomatic pressure, Duke Cheng of Wei couldn't sit still any longer, and sent someone to Lianyu to request peace talks, but Duke Wen of Jin refused.

"The widows give you a chance first, but you have delayed asking for peace until now, don't you think it's a little late?" He said unhurriedly while picking his nails, without even looking at the envoy. "Go back and tell your lord to wash his neck and wait for the widow to come and take his head." Jin Wengong did this not to frighten the people of Wei, but to have other considerations.The state of Wei is just between the two great powers of Qi and Jin, with the Di tribe in the north and Song and Zheng in the south.If Duke Wen of Jin wanted to rescue Song State, he had to conquer Wei State first; if he wanted to unite with Qi State, he had to go through Wei State;In other words, if Duke Wen of Jin wanted to dominate the world, the Kingdom of Wei was his gateway, and he had to firmly control it in his own hands.If we too easily agree to the peace request of the people of Wei, the easier it is for the people of Wei to get it, the less they will cherish it, and they will inevitably be at odds with each other, and they will be at odds with Jin.Therefore, a profound lesson must be taught to the state of Wei, so that the people of the state of Wei will completely submit to the state of Jin psychologically.

If you want to fight, you can fight, if you want to make peace, it's not that easy. Wei Chenggong was in a hurry, he couldn't fight and surrender, and he couldn't surrender. In this case, he had only one way to go, and that was to take the initiative to seek refuge in Chu State. And King Cheng of Chu was also trying to use the state of Wei to contain the state of Jin.After receiving Wei Chenggong's request for help, without further ado, he immediately asked the allied Lu State to send troops from the east to the west, and the Chu army to march from the south to the north, and the troops were divided into two groups to rescue Wei.

Unexpectedly, the plan could not keep up with the rapid changes.Hearing the news that Wei Chenggong had defected to Chu State, the residents (Chinese) of the capital of Wei State quit.In their view, the state of Chu is not of our race, and its heart must be different; while the state of Jin is of the same family, and they are close relatives and neighbors, so they must be friendly.Under the instigation of a small group of people, the people of the country actually attacked from below and attacked in groups. They expelled Wei Chenggong to live in Xiangniu, and recommended representatives to go to Wulu to ask Jin Wengong for peace talks again.

At the same time, the rescue troops of the Chu Army were blocked by the coalition forces of Jin, Qi, and Qin, and could not continue to go north; while the Lu State sent Prince Mai to lead the army into the Wei State, and was also caught in a dilemma due to the coup of the Wei State. Duke Xi of Lu suddenly became frightened. He seemed to have a premonition that Jin might win the melee in the Central Plains.If that is the case, offending the Jin State in order to rescue the Wei State is really not worth the candle.But the troops have already been sent out, and King Chu Cheng will definitely be very unhappy if he orders them back now.

How to do it? Any problem that seems to be a dilemma will not trouble a wicked person.Duke Xi of Lu quickly thought of a way to get the best of both worlds—he withdrew his troops back to show that he would not be an enemy of Jin; The widow is very angry that he failed to complete the rescue mission and returned to the teacher without permission, but he has no choice but to kill the young master and take his head to plead guilty to you!" "Spring and Autumn" records this matter: "The son buys the guard, if he does not serve, he is stabbed." It is said that the son bought to defend the country, but he failed to complete the task and was assassinated.This statement is basically consistent with the official statement of the State of Lu, but the historian's pen poison is found in a word "thorn".

The king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die. The word "kill" could have been used generously.However, Mr. Lu Xi wants the son to buy him dead, which is not right and wrong. In fact, he is framing Zhongliang and killing innocent people indiscriminately. What I want to say is that behind a wicked leader, there are always a group of subordinates who are so unlucky that they are ready to take the blame at any time. Now defending the country is no longer a problem. Duke Wen of Jin did not waste too much time, and quickly sent his troops south to attack the country of Cao and surrounded Taoqiu, the capital of the country of Cao.At this time, the troops he commanded were not only the three armies of Jin, but also the troops of Qi and Qin who joined the Jin army.

The Jin army concentrated its forces to attack the gate of Taoqiu, and the Cao people resisted desperately, repelling the enemy's attacks time and time again.The Jin army suffered heavy casualties and left a large number of corpses under the city of Taoqiu, but still did not make any progress. In the era of cold weapons, siege is an extremely difficult job. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" once described: "The first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the handover, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city. The method of attacking the city is a last resort. Repairing the scull (fen) (wen), with equipment, three It will be completed in a month; and it will be three months from the distance. If the ants are too angry, they will kill one-third of the soldiers and the city will not be pulled out, and this attack will be a disaster." Translating this passage from Sun Tzu into modern Chinese: the best way to use troops is to win by strategy; the second is to win by diplomacy; the second is to win by defeating the enemy's army; siege is the last strategy and the last resort .In order to attack the city, it will take three months just to prepare the equipment; if the attack cannot be done for a while, it will take another three months to build mounds outside the city to besiege the city; Attacking like ants, using crowd tactics, the casualties will be even more severe, possibly as high as one third, while the enemy city is still standing—this is the disaster of a siege. This passage vividly reflects the hardships of siege, and also embodies Sun Tzu's guiding ideology of "surrendering the enemy without fighting".In retrospect, Duke Huan of Qi and Guan Zhong ruled the Central Plains for 30 years. Although backed by powerful force, they always tried to avoid wars and used diplomacy and strategy to solve problems, which coincided with Sun Tzu's thinking.But now, just after Jin Wengong came out of the rivers and lakes, he was caught in the predicament of attacking the city under Taoqiu City. Although his courage was commendable, his strategy and communication were insufficient. Of course, from another perspective, the reason why Duke Wen of Jin stormed Tao Qiu was related to his strategic goal of rescuing Song.The state of Song was already in danger under the attack of the Chu army. If the Cao state was not resolved as soon as possible and the Song state was directly helped, then when the Jin army and the main force of the Chu army met, the Cao army would definitely become the Jin army's worries.Therefore, to save the Song Dynasty, Cao must first be defeated. Although attacking the city is a bad strategy, it is also an unavoidable solution. Duke Wen of Jin originally thought that with the strength of the three armies of Jin and the assistance of Qi and Qin, capturing Taoqiu would be a piece of cake.Unexpectedly, this side dish is so difficult to eat.The Cao people not only repelled the Jin army's attack, but also adopted psychological tactics to weaken the fighting spirit of the Jin army-hanging the corpses left by the Jin army on the city wall.This move was very vicious. Seeing such a scene, the soldiers of the Jin army were resentful and frightened. They dared not shoot arrows, throw stones, or build ladders, for fear of destroying the corpses of their comrades, and the siege came to a halt for a while. Someone offered Jin Wengong a strategy of "returning his own body with his own way": move the Jin army troops to the Cao State Cemetery on the outskirts of Taoqiu to station, and declared that they would dig the ancestral graves of the Cao people as revenge . The ancestral grave being dug, that is a major event that the sky will fall down.And digging someone's ancestral grave is a wicked thing that can't be more wicked. If it weren't for the corpses of the Cao people, the people of the Jin country would not dare to do it—humans, after all, there is still a bottom line.When Cao Guoren heard the news, they were all terrified and extremely guilty.They immediately sent people to negotiate with the Jin people, asking the Jin army to withdraw from the cemetery as soon as possible, and stop harassing the gods of their ancestors. Duke Wen of Jin was very straightforward and said yes, as long as you pack up all the corpses of the Jin army and return them to us in coffins, we will immediately withdraw from the cemetery. Clever did something wrong. This request is not excessive at all, Cao Guoren of course agreed.A few days later, they collected the corpses of the Jin army, pulled hundreds of coffins in ox carts, opened the city gate and sent them to the Jin army camp.Just a third of the way out of the team, there was a sound of drums outside the city, and countless Jin soldiers rushed over from all directions.The people of Cao Guo knew that they had been duped and wanted to close the door, but the door was blocked by a bullock cart.In a hurry, the Jin people had already controlled the city gate, and Taoqiu City fell. Cao Gonggong was curious and peeked at Jin Wengong taking a bath, and now he has paid a heavy price for it.Jin Wengong denounced his crimes in public, there are three in total: First, you don't need to restrain such a virtuous minister; Second, in the small country of Cao, there are actually 300 "Chengxuanzhe" (doctors), and the number of government officials is seriously overstaffed; Third, disrespect nobles and peek at others taking a bath. According to the records of "Zuo Zhuan", Xi Luji delivered meals to Chong'er behind Cao Gonggong's back, not out of his own will, but the result of his wife's persuasion.Even if it was his own wish, to be called a virtuous minister just because he delivered a meal was too subjective.But for Duke Wen of Jin, now is the time to repay the kindness of dripping water.In order to express his respect for Xi Luji, he also specially issued an order to the troops that no one is allowed to break into Xi Luji's house, and anyone who violates it will be beheaded. In the Jin army, there are two people who are in a bad mood, that is, Wei Chou (chou) and Dian Jie.Both of them followed Duke Wen of Jin in exile to other countries, but they were not reused after returning home.A year ago, Duke Wen of Jin was in charge of the three armies, and he hired new recruits such as Quegu, Queqin, Xianzhen, Luanzhi, etc. Wei Ji was only serving as the escort of the military chariot, and Tianjie was not on the list, which made the two of them even more resentful.Now that Cao Guo was defeated, Xi Luji was rewarded so generously by Jin Wengong just because of the kindness of a meal, which further deepened the dissatisfaction of these two people. Why is it that a meal for outsiders is better than our ten years of perseverance? Wei Ji and Dian Jie couldn't figure it out, so they gathered together for a drink.The wine enters the heart of sorrow and turns into complaints.While drinking, Wei Ji had an evil idea, and he leaned into Dianjie's ear and said it, and Dianjie immediately agreed. That night, when the moon was dark and the wind was high, the two of them brought firewood to Xi Luji's house with their own soldiers. They surrounded the yard of his house and piled up firewood, and locked the front and rear doors with chains.Wei Ji gave an order, and the soldiers lit the firewood and threw dozens of torches into the yard.All of a sudden, fires broke out everywhere, people in the courtyard woke up from their sleep, men, women and children were in a mess.Wei Ji was drunk to the point of 12 points, and when he heard crying father and mother inside, the pleasure of revenge came to him spontaneously, he even forgot that he was doing something shameful, he jumped up and down with a long knife in his hand, yelling The soldier: "Security at each gate, and no one is allowed to come out!" Unexpectedly, extreme joy gave rise to grief, and suddenly a section of the burning courtyard wall broke and crushed him. Dianjie was so frightened that he immediately sobered up, quickly pushed aside the bricks, carried Wei Ji on his shoulders, and fled the scene of the crime with his own soldiers.When he got home, he called a military doctor to see that Wei Ji's entire chest was burned, and the injury was so serious that he would have to stay in bed for at least half a month before he could recover. And dozens of members of Xi's family died in the flames. When Jin Wengong rushed to the scene with his officials, he saw only a pile of ashes.The military judge investigated everywhere, and without much effort, he found out that the murderers in the case were Wei Ji and Dian Jie.Wei Ji was eight feet long and capable of fighting tigers. He was one of the best warriors in the Jin army. In the raging fire, who would not recognize his figure or hear his voice?After arresting two of the Wei family's personal soldiers and interrogating them, they made it clear what happened that night. Duke Wen of Jin was furious.Burning Xi Luji's family to death was a serious crime, and openly disobeying his orders was even more intolerable.He decided to behead the two criminals for public display in order to abolish military discipline. Dianjie is mediocre, so if he kills him, he will kill him.But Wei Ji is a fierce general, his ability is not trivial, so it would be a pity to kill him. To fight for world hegemony, what do you need most? talent. Duke Wen of Jin thought again and again, and sent Zhao Shuai to Wei Ji's residence to see his illness.His idea is very simple, if Wei Ji's injury is too serious, it will be of no value, and keeping it is still a waste, it is better to kill it. Although Wei Ji is a rough person, he also knows the purpose of Zhao Shuai's visit.He ordered someone to bandage his wound, and pretended to be indifferent. When he saw Zhao Shuai, he bowed to the ground and made a big salute. "Old Wei, why are you being polite to me all of a sudden? This is not your style!" Zhao Shuai said, pretending to be intimate, and punched Wei Ji twice on the chest.Wei Ji was in pain, but he didn't even frown, and said with a smile: "You should, you should, you are the leader!" "Oh, what kind of leader does not lead! We are all old people around the lord. We have endured hardships and exiled together, and we are brothers and sisters. You call Duo Shengfen that way!" At this point, Zhao Shuai turned his head and glanced at Wei Ji, only to see this guy Still smiling innocently, he changed the subject and asked suddenly, "How are you doing recently?" "Okay, it's great! If you don't believe me, look at it." Wei Ji said, ran to the yard, and did 300 push-ups in one go, and then 300 jumps. "Enough, enough." Zhao Shuai said with a smile, "I'm just asking casually, you're still that quick-tempered, even worse than back then!" As soon as Zhao Shuai left, Wei Ji collapsed on the ground, covered his chest with his hands, and rolled all over the floor.Pain to pain, his life was saved, but he was removed from the post of military guard and replaced by Zhou Zhiqiao.Tianjie was not so lucky, he was pulled out and beheaded. After dealing with these messy things, the envoy of the Song State, Men Yin Ban, also came to Taoqiu. He brought a message to Jin Wengong: "If you don't step up to send troops to rescue, Song State will be wiped out by Chu State." Men Yinban is definitely not exaggerating.It has been more than three months since Song State resisted the attack of Chu State and its vassal states with the strength of a single country, and Shangqiu City is in danger.Even if Men Yin Ban didn't come to report, Jin Wengong guessed that the situation of Song State was critical. The purpose of the Jin army's attack and invasion of Cao was to contain Chu and rescue Song.Now that the Wei and Cao countries have been resolved, King Cheng of Chu is still unmoved and clings to the Song State. Obviously, the containment strategy of the Jin State has not had the expected effect. To rescue the Song State, they had no choice but to continue to march south and fight face to face with the Chu State army.But in this way, the Jin army worked hard to attack far away, while the Chu army waited for work with ease, and the initiative of the war was held in the hands of the Chu people.On the other hand, Jin's allies Qin and Qi also disagreed on whether to take the initiative to provoke the Chu army. If the Jin army must go south, the Qin army and Qi army are likely to stay in Cao and watch from the sidelines. Only with the three armies of the Jin State rushing to attack the Chu army, the chances of winning are very slim.But if they sit idly by, Song State will definitely abandon Jin State and turn to the embrace of Chu State, which will be an unacceptable blow to Duke Wen of Jin. He could only find a way to continue to contain and mobilize the Chu army, forcing it to leave the Song State and take the initiative to come to the Jin army for a decisive battle. The new Chinese Army Marshal Xian Zhen proposed a solution: On the one hand, the Song people were asked to seek help from the Qi and Qin countries with a lot of money, and asked the Qi and Qin countries to appeal to the Chu country for a truce; On the other hand, when Qi and Qin called for a truce, Jin imprisoned Cao Gonggong and donated the land of Wei and Cao to Song. When King Cheng of Chu learned of this, he was definitely angry and disagreed with Qi and Qin's call for a truce.However, Qi and Qin accepted the heavy bribes from Song, and were angry at the unreasonableness of the people of Chu, so they would definitely go all out to fight against the people of Chu. (Conversely, if King Cheng of Chu agrees to the truce, he will be in the arms of Duke Wen of Jin and resolve the Song issue in a peaceful manner, and he will still be credited.) Xian Zhen's plan is like forcing a hot potato into King Chu Cheng's hands. Whether he accepts it or not, he will be in a very disadvantageous position. Jin Wengong adopted Xian Zhen's suggestion. Xian Zhen's strategy is superb, and King Cheng of Chu is even more vigilant.As soon as the envoys of Qi and Qin entered the camp of the Chu army, he smelled something suspicious.Soon after, he heard the news that the state of Jin divided up the lands of the Wei and Cao countries and gave them to the state of Song, which further confirmed his idea: this was a trap set by Duke Wen of Jin for him. With Chu Chengwang's temperament, he would naturally not agree to the call for a truce proposed by Qi and Qin, and let Jin Wengong reap the benefits of the fisherman.But if they refuse, Qi and Qin will be completely pushed to Jin's side and become Chu's enemies.The combination of the three great powers has already surpassed the Chu army in terms of military strength, and it is very likely that the alliance of Lu, Zheng, Chen, and Cai will take advantage of the wind and turn against each other. After thinking about it, King Cheng of Chu made an unexpected decision: to withdraw his troops and return home. As a veteran player at the poker table, he clearly knows that when the opponent has all the good cards in his hand, and both the upper and lower sides tend to support the opponent, the best way is--I will stop playing . Chu people have always been vigorous and resolute in handling affairs.That night, King Cheng of Chu led his guards to withdraw from Song State, and returned to Shen County in Chu State to establish a headquarters, where he continued to command the overall situation.At the same time, Shen Shuhou, who was guarding Gucheng, was ordered to withdraw his troops, and Cheng Dechen, who was besieging Shangqiu, was ordered to give up attacking Song State and quickly withdraw his troops to Chu State. King Chu Cheng knew that Cheng Dechen was unwilling to give up like this, and sent someone to bring him a letter, which said: "The Marquis of Jin has been in exile for nineteen years. In the state of Jin, it was because God cared for him and helped him remove obstacles. The fate of heaven is such that human power cannot abolish it. It is said in the military book that if the enemy and the enemy are evenly matched, avoid and not fight; Come on, don’t fight against people with benevolence. The current situation is like this. Please follow the order and arrange the military withdrawal properly without any mistakes!” Fight if you can, and run if you can't. Only those who can afford and let go are real heroes.But when Cheng Dechen saw this letter, his first reaction was not to obey, but to make a wrong judgment: someone was gossiping about me in front of the King of Chu. Since Ziwen Rangxian, Cheng Dechen has served as Lingyin of Chu State.Ling Yin is the chief executive officer and military commander of the Chu State, and it was his duty to go to the Song State.However, King Cheng of Chu did not consider letting Cheng Dechen take the lead at the beginning, but asked Ziwen, who had already retired to the second line, to take the lead. Obviously he was worried about entrusting such a large military operation to Cheng Dechen's command.Although Ziwen used the method of passive sabotage to force Chu Chengwang to appoint Cheng Dechen, and Cheng Dechen won the applause of the public as soon as he stepped out, but in Cheng Dechen's heart, the shadow of inferiority had already been planted. He urgently needs to prove through this war that he is no worse than Ziwen. But I didn't expect that this battle lasted for three months, and Shangqiu City was close in front of us, but it always stood firm.Just at this time, he received an order to withdraw his troops and return home.For Cheng Dechen, this order is undoubtedly a reminder.He desperately believed that his return without success this time would definitely make King Chu Cheng doubt his ability even more, and at the same time, it would also create a public opinion in the country that "Ziyu is not as good as Ziwen". Didn't a child once say "Give Ziyu a chariot of more than three hundred rides, and there will be no return"?Even a child dares to speak such nonsense, and I don't know how many people are waiting to see him make a joke of Cheng Dechen. Fearing that someone was jealous that he became Ling Yin at a young age, worried that he would capture Shangqiu City and make a world-class feat, so he slandered the King of Chu and ordered him to withdraw from Song State as soon as possible.This thought flashed through Cheng Dechen's mind, and immediately became an ironclad fact. Since this is the case, then I will completely defeat the Jin army and let you idlers see how powerful I am! Cheng Dechen sent someone to Shen County to send a letter to King Cheng of Chu, requesting a battle with the Jin army.The letter read: "It's not that I want to make meritorious service, but I hope to stop some people's mouths through this war." "Bastard!" King Chu Cheng was so angry that he almost jumped up.But years of experience in governing allowed him to control his emotions and not get angry in front of the envoy.This ignorant Cheng Dechen actually regards war as a tool of anger. Doesn't he know that war is not a game, war will kill people, and a little carelessness will bring huge disasters to the country?King Cheng of Chu regretted that he did not stick to his own opinion and entrusted the general affairs of the country to such an irresponsible person.But what can I do now?The main force of the expeditionary force is still in Song State. If they are replaced by Dechen at this time, it may cause confusion in the army and be robbed by Jin people.What's even more frightening is that Cheng Dechen is likely to join forces to cause chaos and attack Chu State in turn. In that case, things will get out of hand. Since Cheng Dechen wants to fight, let him fight, or teach him a lesson.King Chu Cheng thought so, and finally agreed to Cheng Dechen's request, but only sent "six soldiers from Xiguang, Donggong and Ruo'ao" ​​to reinforce Cheng Dechen. To briefly explain, during the Spring and Autumn Period, all countries maintained a certain scale of clan armed forces, called "private soldiers" or "clan soldiers", which were generally composed of relatives of the monarch or ministers, which were equivalent to the "personal soldiers" of later generations.The private soldiers are not large in scale, but they are well-equipped, well-trained, and have strong combat effectiveness. They are elite troops in the armies of various countries.According to the tradition of the Chu State, the private soldiers owned by the king of Chu amounted to 30 chariots, which were divided into east and west, with 15 vehicles each; King Chu's Liangguang; and the so-called Ruoao's six soldiers are the six hundred soldiers of Cheng Dechen's clan. From this point of view, the troops that King Cheng of Chu sent to reinforce Cheng Dechen consisted of fifteen soldiers of the King Chu's guards, and the eldest son's private soldiers probably did not exceed fifteen vehicles, and Cheng Dechen's clan soldiers were six hundred. people.As an elite force, this batch of assistance is neither too big nor too small.In addition, the main force of the Chu army's expeditionary force originally in Song State should be able to compete with the coalition forces of Jin, Qi, and Qin. Cheng Dechen is not a brave man.After receiving reinforcements from King Cheng of Chu, he did not immediately march north, but sent an envoy named Wan Chun to the camp of the Jin army, and said to Duke Wen of Jin, "Don't you want to save Song? You make a deal, please restore Wei Hou and Cao Bo to the status of monarchs, I am willing to give up the siege of Song State." The implication is that as long as Jin spares Wei and Cao, Chu will spare Song.This is tantamount to kicking the ball back from Jin to Chu. Jin Wen made public a meeting to discuss Cheng Dechen's request. Hu Yan slammed the case: "This Ziyu (Cheng Dechen's word Ziyu) is too rude! He is a minister, and you are a king. Why should he make a deal with you? And it is only a credit for you to save the Song Dynasty; He saved the Wei and Cao countries, which are two credits. This person doesn't understand etiquette, and he is greedy for profit, we have to teach him a lesson!" Xian Zhen stood up and patted Hu Yan on the shoulder, and said slowly: "Instead, I think it's better to agree to him. With Ziyu's words, the three countries will be peaceful; with our words, the three countries will be destroyed. In any case, it is our fault. If you don’t agree to his words, it means you have given up on Song. We were here to save Song, but in the end we gave up on Song. What will the princes think? This proposal from the people of Chu is a boon to Song, Wei, and Cao. If we do not agree, it will definitely arouse the resentment of these three countries, which will be of great disadvantage to us.” Hu Yan spread his hands and asked angrily: "Are we just being manipulated by him to jump in the circle he drew?" "Of course not." Xian Zhen said with a smile, "Why do you want to take advantage of Ziyu boy? We made a deal with Wei and Cao in private, promised Wei Hou and Cao Bo to return to the country, and alienated their relationship with Chu. Then we detained Wanchun, Enrage the Chu people and lure them to fight!" Kicking the ball back and forth is still the original strategy, luring the Chu people to take the initiative to fight. Duke Wen of Jin once again adopted Xian Zhen's strategy and detained Wan Chun, the envoy of Chu State, in Wei State, and sent people to reach a secret deal with Duke Cheng of Wei and Duke Gong of Cao: Jin State agreed with them to restore the country as kings, on the condition that they would cooperate with Chu State. Cut off. Cheng Dechen posed this difficult problem to Jin Wengong, and his original intention was to trap Jin into injustice.Unexpectedly, Xian Zhen saw through his intentions and turned against the guests, causing Chu State to lose its two allies Wei State and Cao State. After suffering this blow, Cheng Dechen could no longer hold his breath.In April 632 BC, he mobilized the whole army to set out from Song State to attack the Jin State army. When Cheng Dechen made this move, the people of Song State immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and Duke Wen of Jin was even more ecstatic. He ordered the whole army to pack up their belongings immediately and prepare to escape. In the Jin army camp, except for a few core figures such as Xian Zhen, almost all the officers were puzzled by Jin Wengong's order.They went to Hu Yan noisily, and asked him: "We have been waiting here for more than a month, just hoping that the Chu army will take the initiative to attack? Now that the Chu army has delivered the goods to the door, we ran away. What's the reason?" Some people said more sharply: "Cheng Dechen is just the Ling Yin of the Chu State. If the army commanded by our lord is driven away by him, wouldn't it be a shame and a shame? What's more, the Chu army has been out of the army since last year. It has been more than four months since the Song Dynasty was defeated, and the teachers have no merit, and the morale of the army must be slackened, why do we still avoid them?" "No." Hu Yan pinched his mustache and said slowly, "If you are a famous teacher, you are strong; if you are an unnamed teacher, you are old. It doesn't mean that the longer you are a teacher, the more tired you are. If there was no support from the King of Chu back then, my lord There is no such thing as today. The purpose of withdrawing from the front is to keep the promise and repay the kindness of the king of Chu. If you keep your word, the people of Chu will feel that they have been deceived, and the morale will be boosted instead. How can you say' What about "Master"? Let's give in, if the Chu army just goes back home, that's a good thing; if the Chu army insists on it, it's them who are at fault, and that's called "Master", understand?" According to Hu Yan, fighting is all about reasoning, and whoever is reasonable will win.Of course not.The Jin army avoided the Chu army. On the surface, it was fulfilling the promise of Duke Wen of Jin to "retreat three houses", but the most fundamental purpose was to lure the enemy to go deep and find favorable opportunities. After unifying their understanding, the Jin army retreated ninety miles in one breath, and retreated to Chengpu, the city of Weiguo.It was already a little far away from the state of Song, and the soldiers of the Chu army didn't want to chase them any further, and they all asked to retreat back to the country.However, in Cheng Dechen's view, the retreat of the Jin army was a sign of cowardice. Despite the strong dissuasion of his subordinates, he insisted on launching a decisive battle with the Jin army in Chengpu. At that time, in addition to the army of the Jin State, the troops of the State of Song under the leadership of Song Chenggong, the troops of the State of Qi under the leadership of Guo Guifu and Cui Yao, and the troops of the State of Qin under the leadership of Gongzi Yin, were stationed in Chengpu at that time.Cheng Dechen ordered the Chu army to camp on the back of the mountain, and confronted the troops of other countries. Up to now, an unprecedented war is inevitable.