Chapter 14 Aspiring to the top of the world: the ulterior motives of King Zhuang of Chu

In the second year after Jin Chenggong came to power, that is, in 606 BC, the state of Jin once again launched a war against the state of Zheng, and hit the city of Yan (郔) in the state of Zheng.This time, the state of Zheng chose peace talks, and the state of Jin accepted it as soon as it was good, and sent a messenger to the state of Zheng for talks, and the two sides signed a peace treaty. Jin State attacked Zheng State at this time, taking advantage of Chu people's loophole.In the spring of this year, King Zhuang of Chu unexpectedly led an army northward to attack the Luhunrong tribe living in the Yishui River Basin.

The Yishui River Basin has been the territory of the Zhou royal family since ancient times.When King Ping of Zhou moved to the east, Xin You, a doctor of the Zhou Dynasty, passed through the Yishui River on business and saw the local people with disheveled hair, holding activities to worship ancestors in the wild. He predicted: "In less than a hundred years, this place will become the home of the Rong people. The territory is gone, because the people here have given up the Zhou rites." During the reign of King Xiang of Zhou, the Rong tribe invaded Luoyi many times due to the turmoil in the royal family.In order to solve this problem for the royal family, the Qin and Jin countries came up with the idea of ​​"using the Rong to control the Rong". In 638 BC, they moved the Luhun Rong people who originally lived in Dunhuang, Gansu Province to the Yishui River Basin. Make it a barrier for the royal family to resist the invasion of Rong people.

How the Qin and Jin countries induced the Lu Hunrong people to move from Dunhuang to the Yishui River Basin is not recorded in the history books.What is certain is that after Lu Hun’s Rong tribe moved, they maintained a relatively good relationship with the Jin State, and it did play a certain role in resisting the invasion of other Rong tribes by the Zhou royal family.However, the disadvantage of using soldiers to control soldiers is also obvious, that is, driving away wolves and attracting tigers.With the weakening of the power of the Jin State, the threat of the lost Lu Hunrong to the Zhou royal family became increasingly obvious, and became a heart disease for the royal family.

Since Duke Huan of Qi put forward the slogan of "respect the king and fight against the barbarians", the princes who wanted to become hegemony all took the crusade against the "four barbarians" as an important means of making achievements.The State of Qi used to conquer Diyi in the north and crusade against the Shanrong; the State of Jin defeated Chidi and Baidi and captured their tribal leaders; the State of Qin attacked Xirong and opened up thousands of miles of territory to the west.However, Chu State has been regarded as a country of barbarians for many years. In the theme of "respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians", it is the object of being "disturbed"-this is also the important reason why King Chu Cheng's literary and martial arts, who roamed the Central Plains, were not regarded as the overlord. reason.In the era of King Zhuang of Chu, King Zhuang of Chu realized that if he wanted to write a glorious stroke in Chinese history, he could not be satisfied with conquering the weak countries of Chen, Zheng, Cai, and Song, nor could he defeat Jin. Such a big country is proud, but it wants to throw an olive branch to the Zhou royal family and win the first prize in the matter of "King Qin".Therefore, King Zhuang of Chu chose the Lu Hunrong tribe as his target, and led his troops to the Yishui River Basin not far away, and dealt a surprise blow to the Lu Hunrong tribe, which was regarded as a meeting gift for Zhou Tianzi.

From another perspective, if the Chu army can go to the Yishui River Basin to attack the Rong people, it can directly threaten the southern border of Jin State, which is also a military deterrent to Jin State. After defeating Lu Hunrong, King Zhuang of Chu was in high spirits, and led his army to the city of Luoyi, where he held a grand military parade. At that time, the Emperor Zhou was the newly appointed King Ding of Zhou.He was both gratified and worried about the actions of the Chu people.What is gratifying is that the people of Chu State came all the way to King Qin. Although they did not completely clear the Lu Hunrong from the Yishui River Basin, they have already made the royal family very satisfied. The worry is that the people of Chu State have always been strong and have the barbaric habits of the southern barbarians. , Tens of thousands of tiger and wolf troops stationed outside Luoyi City, it is hard to say what problems will happen.

After thinking about it again and again, King Zhou Ding sent his doctor Wang Sunman to the Chu camp to comfort King Zhuang of Chu and reward the three armies of Chu. Since Wang Sunman is called "Wang Sun", he is naturally a descendant of the royal family.In 627 BC, Duke Mu of Qin sent Meng Mingshi to attack the State of Zheng thousands of miles away.The Qin army passed through Luoyi, the capital of the king. At that time, the young Wang Sunman was standing at the north gate of Luoyi. Seeing the frivolous behavior of the Qin army, he predicted that the Qin army would surely fail.Later, on the way back to the division, the Qin army was ambushed by the Jin army when they passed through the Confucian Mountain, and the whole army was wiped out. Therefore, Wang Sunman was considered to have the foresight.

King Chuzhuang received Wang Sunman with grand etiquette. After he was full of wine and food, King Chuzhuang suddenly asked a question: "I heard that Dayu cast Jiuding, which was handed down from Xia, Shang, and Zhou generations as a national treasure. Now It is stored in the royal palace of Luoyi. I don’t know the shape, size and weight of the Jiuding? Please introduce it.” The so-called tripod, in layman's terms, is a large bronze cooking pot, usually with three legs and two ears, which is mainly used for cooking meat.However, in the Chinese civilization, the tripod has been endowed with a meaning far beyond cooking utensils. The tripod has been passed down from generation to generation as a "ceremonial vessel" that symbolizes royal power and monarchy.The Jiuding made by Dayu is the supreme ritual vessel that symbolizes the ruling power of Kyushu in the world. Before Qin Shihuang's "Jade Seal" appeared, Jiuding was a well-deserved symbol of supreme power.

When King Zhuang of Chu asked this question, he seemed to be diligent and inquisitive, but it actually had a deep meaning.Wang Sunman is an exquisite character, and he heard something in the words of King Zhuang of Chu, so he replied: "The Xia, Shang, and Zhou generations passed down, it is virtue, not the tripod." Yi Sap: You even got the premise of the question wrong, so please listen to my lesson carefully. Wang Sunman went on to say: "When Dayu ruled the world, his descendants established the Xia Dynasty, and Xia's 'virtue' was in the ascendant. They ordered the local governors of Kyushu to donate metal to cast these nine great tripods, which painted the strange things of distant mountains and rivers. Cast on the tripod. Jiuding has the images of the world, so that the people know what is a god and what is a demon. Therefore, the Chinese people open up their territory, enter the mountains, forests and rivers, not afraid of all kinds of ominous things, and will not encounter demons and ghosts. Therefore, the world Harmony, carrying the blessings of heaven. Later Xia Jie was fatuous and immoral, and Xia's "virtue" also declined, and he was no longer worthy of having Jiuding. The tyranny of King Zhou led to the subjugation of the country, and Jiuding was transferred to our Great Zhou Dynasty. From this we can see that as long as a country's "virtue" is perfect and bright, Jiuding is as heavy as Mount Tai; No matter how big it is, it is as light as a feather. Heaven is wise, and blessings to the lower world are not endless. At that time, my ancestor King Cheng of Zhou placed Jiuding in the king's city. He once held a grand divination, saying that the Zhou Dynasty would last for thirty generations. Seven hundred years, this is the Mandate of Heaven. Although Zhou Zhi's 'virtue' has declined, the Mandate of Heaven has not changed, and the weight of the Nine Cauldrons is beyond your ability to inquire."

King Zhuang of Chu heard this, laughed dryly, and said, "I'm just curious, just curious..." In the summer of the same year, the Chu army went north again to attack Zheng State to punish him for his peace talks with Jin State.In the winter of the same year, Zheng Mugong, who was struggling to survive in the cracks of a big country, passed away. Zheng Mugong is the son of Zheng Wengong, and his mother is Zheng Wengong's concubine, known as Yan Yan.According to "Zuo Zhuan", when Yan Yan was not yet pregnant, she had a strange dream. She dreamed that a god gave her a bouquet of orchids and said, "I am your ancestor Bo Shu. If you give birth I named my son after Lan, because Lan is the most fragrant in the country, and people must love him like Lan." After a while, Zheng Wengong and Yan Yang shared the same bed and gave birth to a son. Named Lan, that is, Zheng Mugong.

At that time, Zheng Wengong also had sons such as eldest son Hua, son Zang, son Shi, son Xia, and son Yu Mi, but these sons all had miserable fates.Among them, the eldest son Hua was discovered by Zheng Wengong because he tried to rely on the power of Duke Huan of Qi to control the regime of Zheng State, so he fell out of favor. Prince Zang fled to Song State and was lured and killed by assassins sent by Zheng Wengong on the border of Song State; Prince Shi was killed by Chu people with poison when he visited Chu State; Prince Yu Mi was weak and sick and died early; Prince Xia fled to The state of Chu, who later followed King Cheng of Chu to crusade against the state of Zheng, accidentally overturned his car in the "Wang of the Zhou family" and drowned.Prince Lan, the son of Yan Yan, fled to the state of Jin very early, and was later taken care of by Duke Wen of Jin. With the support of Jin State's force, he returned to China and became the eldest son, and successfully ascended the throne after the death of Duke Wen of Zheng. Zheng Mugong.

It is said that before Zheng Mugong passed away, it happened to be the season of withering orchids. He lamented: "When the orchids are dead, I should die too. I was born because of the orchids!" So he ordered people to harvest the dead orchids. Then let go. After the death of Zheng Mugong, the eldest son Yi came to the throne, which was Zheng Linggong in history.King Zhuang of Chu heard the news, and in the spring of 605 BC in the second year, he sent an envoy to Duke Ling of Zheng with a strange gift—a huge mountain turtle. King Zhuang of Chu hoped to win over Zheng Guo through tortoise diplomacy, but he did not expect to bring Zheng Linggong a fatal disaster. The State of Zheng is located in the Central Plains, with far fewer mountains, rivers and lakes than the State of Chu. In addition, due to over-development, strange birds and animals have long since disappeared.Seeing the big tortoise sent by the Chu people, Zheng Linggong felt very strange.However, strangeness is strangeness. According to Chinese habits, even if you see a dinosaur, the first question is: "Can you eat it? Is it delicious?" What's up.Therefore, when Zheng Linggong received the big turtle, he ordered it to be killed, stewed a pot of turtle meat, and distributed it to the left and right ministers.In order to increase the drama of this dinner, he deliberately kept it secret, and did not let everyone know what to eat in advance, but sent someone to invite everyone to the palace for a meeting. The ministers rushed to the palace in twos and threes, and among them, Prince Guisheng and Prince Song accompanied each other.Young Master Song suddenly felt his index finger moving, so he raised his hand to show Young Master Guisheng. "In the past, as long as I moved my index finger, there must be a delicious taste." He said happily. Modern people say "the index finger moves greatly", presumably it came from this sentence of Gongzi Song. When they arrived in the palace, they happened to see the chef in the kitchen disassembling the big turtle, and the two couldn't help but smile at each other.This smile didn't matter, it happened to be caught by Zheng Linggong, and he was puzzled. When these two guys saw this big turtle, they didn't exclaim, but smiled at each other, as if everything was expected?The more Zheng Linggong thought about it, the more unhappy he became--of course he was upset that he was known in advance before the burden was shaken off.So he stopped Young Master Guisheng and asked them why they were laughing.Young master Guisheng told the truth. When Zheng Linggong heard this, he immediately had an idea to play tricks on others.When it was time to start the meal, a group of people were amazed around the cauldron where the turtle was boiled, and there was a lot of haha. He suddenly announced: Everyone can eat freely, but son Song can't eat it. Young Master Song was stunned when he heard this: "Why, why?" Zheng Linggong lowered his face, raised his voice and said: "You are not allowed to eat, you are not allowed to eat, why are there so many?" Young Master Song glanced at Zheng Linggong, without saying a word, walked to the side of the cauldron, dipped his index finger into the soup in the pot, put it into his mouth and took a good sip, and then walked out of the courtroom in a big way. What Young Master Song thinks is that he can't treat my magical index finger badly.However, this action made the young Zheng Linggong very angry, and a farce suddenly escalated. Zheng Linggong looked at the back of his son Song Yuanqu, and said through gritted teeth: "I want to kill him!" Young master Guisheng was taken aback.After eating the big tortoise, he immediately ran to son Song's house and told son Song what Zheng Linggong had said.He hoped that Young Master Song would pay attention to this matter, go to the palace in time to admit his mistake to Zheng Ling, and turn the big thing into a small one.But Young Master Song was not surprised when he heard Young Master Guisheng's warning, instead he calmly said to Young Master Guisheng: "Since this is the case, I might as well kill him first to avoid future troubles." Young Master Guisheng's heart sank, and he said, "Don't do this. People are still reluctant to kill an animal when it is old, let alone a king?" Young Master Song didn't argue about anything.Within a few days, strange rumors suddenly appeared between the government and the opposition, saying that the young master Guisheng wanted to kill the king and stand on his own, and seek to codify the throne.This is naturally a good thing that Young Master Song did. Since he has let Young Master Guisheng know about his thoughts, he has only two options: either kill Young Master Guisheng to keep the secret; He rebelled.Son Song chose the latter. The rumors became more and more intense, and Zheng Linggong seemed to believe the rumors, and his attitude towards Young Master Guisheng became colder.Young Master Gui Sheng couldn't argue with his words, so he simply joined Young Master Song's conspiracy and became Young Master Song's accomplice.Prince Song launched a palace coup in the summer of the same year and assassinated Zheng Linggong. "Spring and Autumn" records: "Zheng Gongzi Guisheng killed his junyi." "Zuo Zhuan" explained that Gongzi Guisheng had been in charge of Zheng for many years, but his tactics were not enough to stop civil strife, so he was criticized in this way.He also commented that it was a sign of "benevolence" that the young master Guisheng talked about animals and dissuaded the young master Song; however, he did not expose the conspiracy of the young master Song, but was forced to become the accomplice of the young master Song, which was an expression of "not martial".Therefore, Gongzi Guisheng could not achieve the state of "benevolence" and fell into the crime of killing the king. After the death of Duke Ling of Zheng, the people of the state of Zheng planned to make his half-brother, son Quji (Ziliang), his son, as king.The son went to Ji to resign and said: "If you choose a monarch based on virtuousness, I obviously can't meet it; according to the principle of orderly seniority, I am not as old as Gongzi Jian." So Zheng Linggong's other half brother, Gongzi, was established. Jian Weijun, that is, Zheng Xianggong in history. Since Zheng Xianggong ascended the throne as the king, according to the custom at that time, Zheng Mugong's other sons were collectively called "Mu's clan".After Zheng Xianggong came to power, he planned to expel Zheng Mugong's other sons out of the country to prevent them from threatening his status.Only the young master Quji gave way to him, so he was very merciful and allowed the young master Quji to continue living in Zheng Guo.The young master Quji resolutely opposed this, saying: "Mu Gong's descendants should stay in Zheng State, this is his old man's wish. If you must expel them, you should treat them equally. What's the use of leaving me alone?" Zheng Only then did Duke Xiang realize that he had gone too far, so he let his brothers go and let them all stay in Zheng Guo as doctors. A tortoise owned by King Zhuang of Chu caused Zheng Guo's regime to change, which was beyond his expectation.However, he was not in the mood to watch the excitement of Zheng Guo, because he himself was facing the biggest crisis since he took office. The root of the crisis is Yin Douyuejiao, the incumbent Ling of Chu. As mentioned earlier, Douyuejiao is a descendant of the Ruoao family, and is of the same ancestor as King Zhuang of Chu.Since Dougu Yutu became Lingyin of Chu State in the reign of King Cheng of Chu, the Ruoao family basically monopolized the position of Lingyin and became a professional Lingyin household of Chu State. Dou Yuejiao's father, named Ziliang, was Ziwen's younger brother, and served as Sima in the reign of King Cheng of Chu.Ziwen has never been interested in Dou Yuejiao, his nephew, and it can even be said that he is very disgusted.He once persuaded Ziliang: "Your son has the appearance of a tiger and the voice of a jackal. It is best to kill him now. Otherwise, it will bring disaster to our Ruo'ao clan. The proverb says, 'The wolf is ambitious. ’, your son is a wolf, how can he raise it?” Ziliang was suspicious of Ziwen's words, and gradually forgot.But Ziwen's views on Dou Yuejiao have not changed. When he was about to die, he called his clansmen together and said: "Once Dou Jiao is in power, you should flee from Chu State as soon as possible, so as not to be dragged by it, and catastrophe is imminent." The more Ziwen thought about it, the more worried he became. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he lamented, "Even if we are ghosts, they still ask for food. Could it be that if we are the ghosts of the Ao clan, we will have no food to eat?" Ghosts are supported by descendants.When Ziwen said this, he naturally meant that the Ruoao clan was about to be wiped out, so that there would be no descendants to worship and worship their ancestors. In the reign of King Zhuang of Chu, Ziwen's son Dou Ban served as Lingyin, Dou Yuejiao served as Sima, and Lu Jia served as Gongzheng.Dou Yuejiao and Ruo Jia formed a political alliance, and they joined forces to speak ill of Dou Ban in front of King Zhuang of Chu, driving Dou Ban out of power and being replaced by Dou Yuejiao, and Ruo Jia was promoted to Sima.Later, Dou Yuejiao had conflicts with Lu Jia again, so he used the power of Ruo Ao's clan to imprison Lu Jia in Liyang (a place name in Chu), and later killed him. Sima is a senior official at the Qing level.Dou Yuejiao dared to imprison and kill Sima through the power of his family, which shows how domineering and domineering he is in the country, and he completely ignored the talented and generous monarch King Chuzhuang. What is he relying on?It is the status of Ruo Ao's clan in Chu State.Since Ziwen, Ruo Ao's family has occupied the high position of Ling Yin of the Chu State, and they have become venerables who are under one person and above ten thousand people. Their disciples, old officials, relatives and friends have formed a huge root system, firmly Rooted in the state of Chu, Ruo Ao's family has become Godzilla in the political arena. It is no exaggeration to say that if Ruo Ao's clan stomped their feet, the whole land of Jingchu could feel the vibration.But after Dou Yuejiao killed Lu Jia, he simply didn't do anything, and he raised the banner of rebellion in Zhiye, and pointed the spearhead directly at King Zhuang of Chu. Faced with the challenge of Douyuejiao, King Zhuang of Chu's first reaction was not to attack, but to compromise.He proposed to Dou Yuejiao that he would take the son of the three kings as a hostage and send them to Dou Yuejiao in exchange for the peace of Chu. The so-called sons of the three kings are the descendants of King Wen of Chu, King Cheng of Chu and King Mu of Chu, and they are also an important part of the Chu royal family.King Zhuang of Chu proposed to send these people to Dou Yuejiao as hostages. He also played a family card, hoping that Dou Yuejiao would not split Chu for the sake of the same ancestor. However, this suggestion was rejected by Dou Yuejiao.He led the army to advance to Yingdu and established his own base camp in Zhangli. As things stand now, King Zhuang of Chu can't do without fighting.He had no choice but to lead his troops to set off from Yingdu to meet Yuejiao. The two sides met in Gaohu.In terms of numbers, King Chuzhuang's troops had the upper hand.However, in terms of quality, the Ruoao soldiers led by Dou Yuejiao have been the elite of the Chu army since ancient times. They are well-equipped, well-trained, and have rich war experience. Compared with ordinary Chu troops, they are professional The difference between a soldier and a conscript is not the same.Dou Yuejiao himself is both civil and military. He can go out to the court and go to the battlefield. He is especially famous for his good shooting. At that time, the two armies were confronting each other. Douyue Jiaoyi was so bold that he ran out of the queue alone in a bicycle and asked King Zhuang of Chu to come out for a dialogue.King Zhuang of Chu had heard of Dou Yuejiao's archery skills a long time ago, so he was not fooled by him. He hid far away from the shooting range, willing to be a turtle. Dou Yuejiao yelled and cursed in front of the battle, but no one came out to fight, so he looked for the location of King Zhuang of Chu, bent his bow and set an arrow from a distance, and shot it. Judging by people's common sense, the arrow of Douyuejiao could not hurt King Zhuang of Chu no matter what, because it would lose its strength halfway and fall into the pond.King Zhuang of Chu also thought so.Therefore, when he saw Dou Yuejiao bending his bow and nodding his arrow, he didn't feel nervous at all. By the time he realized something was wrong, the arrow had already shot through the shaft of the military chariot with a "swish", firmly Nailed to the drum stand of the war drum. King Zhuang of Chu was in a cold sweat.Dou Yuejiao missed one arrow and shot another arrow.This arrow shot through the shaft of the chariot again, and pierced the hood of the military chariot without knowing where it ended up.King Zhuang of Chu couldn't take it anymore, and quickly ordered the whole army to retreat to avoid the sharp edge. That night, King Zhuang of Chu sent people to inspect the camp, and comforted the soldiers, saying: "The former king, King Wen of Chu, conquered Xi State and obtained three long arrows from the temple of Xi State. Dou Yuejiao stole two of them. , it's over, there's nothing to be afraid of." Even King Zhuang of Chu didn't quite believe this, but it played a great role in boosting the morale of the soldiers.Early the next morning, King Zhuang of Chu led his entire army to attack Dou Yuejiao's troops and wiped out Dou Yuejiao and his Ruo'ao soldiers. Regarding this battle, the records in "Zuo Zhuan" can be described as concise and concise, only "(King Zhuang of Chu) marched in with drums, and then destroyed the Ruo Ao family", nine dry words.However, in the fictions of later generations, this battle was full of excitement and climaxes.The most well-known to the world is that Yang Youji, a well-known archer who was unknown at the time, competed with Dou Yuejiao across a river. As a result, Yang Youji easily shot Dou Yuejiao to death. King Zhuang made his first contribution in quelling the rebellion. Since it is fabricated, let's just listen to it.It is worth mentioning that the character Yang Youji will appear many times in the records of "Zuo Zhuan", after all, he is not a fabricated character. Through the Battle of Gaohu, King Zhuang of Chu completely eliminated the influence of the Ruoao clan on the political situation of Chu State, which played an important role in stabilizing the internal affairs of Chu State.Back then, Ziwen had the foresight to persuade his people to stay away from Douyuejiao before he died.However, after Dou Yuejiao became Ling Yin, instead of fleeing from Chu State, Ruo Ao's family helped the tyrants, helping Dou Yuejiao to imprison and kill Lu Jia, and embarked on the road of rebellion and splitting Chu State. There is a catastrophe of genocide. Ruo Ao's clan was not completely extinct because of this.When Dou Yuejiao raised his troops to rebel, Ruo Ao had a descendant named Ke Huang, who was Zhen Yin (official name) of Chu State at that time, and was sent by King Zhuang of Chu as an envoy to Qi State.On the way back, he heard the news of Dou Yuejiao's rebellion and defeat.Those who followed him said that they could not go back to Chu.Ke Huang said: "Abandoning the mission of the monarch, who dares to take in such a person? The monarch is heaven. If he is guilty of crimes, where can he escape?" King Zhuang of Chu was very moved by Kehuang's behavior. He couldn't help thinking of Ziwen's great contribution to Chu State during his tenure as Ling Yin, and said: "If Ziwen has no successor to Chu State, how can we encourage everyone to unite?" Unanimously, what about building a better tomorrow for Chu?" So he made an exception and allowed Ke Huang Guan to return to his original post, and renamed him Sheng, Sheng Sheng Sheng Sheng. After that, a man named Ruo Ao stepped onto the political stage and served as Ling Yin of Chu State.Ruao was also called Sun Shuao.In history, the combination of "Chu Zhuang Wang and Sun Shuao" is no less famous than the combination of "Chu Cheng Wang and Ziwen".