Chapter 8 Section 2 Tianfu Ghosts and Creatures

In the area where the chasm meets Yingshui in the south, there is a big city standing majestically. This is Chen. Although Chen is the county seat, it is an important town in the northern part of Chu State.People all over the world say "Chutou", and nine times out of ten they refer to this county of Chen.The reason for this is that Chen is not an ordinary county seat, but a metropolis of an ancient country.This ancient country is the Chen country.After Zhou Wuwang destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he first granted eight vassal states: Yan (Zhao Gongshi), Yin (Wu Geng), Guan (Shu Xian), Cai (Shu Du), Huo (Huo Shu), Kang (Kang Shu), Cao ( Shu Zhenduo), Chen (Hu Gongman).Among the eight great vassals, although Chen Guo is ranked last, it is impressive and unique.Its peculiarities, one is that although the rank is last, it shares the first-class duke with the princes of the royal family, and occupies a hundred miles of land; the other is that King Wu of Zhou married his Yuan daughter (eldest daughter) Daji to Hu Gongman, Chen The country has become a vassal with foreign relatives, enjoying the glory of the royal family.The most fundamental reason why the Hu Gongman tribe became the first eight princes was that this tribe was a descendant of Emperor Shun; secondly, it was because they sent troops to Mengjin to help Zhou destroy Shang.In ancient times, the Shun tribe lived in the River Valley of the River Dong.According to the ancient customs, the land is the surname, and the family members are surnamed Gui.After the birth of Emperor Shun, the Gui tribe has been living and farming in the Guishui River Valley in a mediocre manner, and there has never been a storm.Suddenly the country was established as a vassal, and naturally the country name was the largest, and the entire Gui tribe also took the country name "Chen" as their surname, and the world has since then had the Chen family.

King Wu of Zhou died of illness in the second year after the extermination of Shang. The six princes (Guan, Cai, Huo, Kang, Cao, Yin) among the first batch of princes rebelled together!Therefore, it led to Zhou Gong's eastward expedition to quell the chaos.Chen Guo also resolutely joined Wang Shidong's army.After the Jing Rebellion, all the six princes were annihilated, and only Yan and Chen were left with the first eight princes.The Duke of Zhou divided the feudal titles in the name of King Cheng of Zhou, and then there were a group of princes such as Lu, Qi, Wei, Song, Jin, Chu, Zheng, and Cai.From then on, Chen Guo had the supreme glory of the loyal and diligent royal family overcoming difficulties and calming chaos, and became a great pillar among the princes in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

The vicissitudes of the world are also unpredictable.Since then, this Chen Guo has never been outstanding.At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty for more than a hundred years, Chen Guo was quietly reduced to the second and third-class princes.Unexpectedly, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Chen Guo once again rose to fame and became a famous prince. One of the reasons is that the country of Chen is located on both sides of the Yingshui River, the land is fertile and has many ditches, and the people of Chen are good at farming, farming is prosperous, and the people of the country have ample food and clothing.As a result, Chen became known as the "Nation of Sufficient Food". When a small country encountered floods, droughts and hunger, it borrowed more food from Chen.Second, the capital city of Chen State was built solidly and majesticly, and it was expanded several times in the Spring and Autumn Period.Three cases, the Chen Guogong's ancestor Yanfu once served as Tao Zheng when King Wu of Zhou was proud, and claimed that the Chen people were "good at business operations", and the monarch was good at business from generation to generation, and opened the country for business travelers: exempted from pass taxation, and called on all countries Business travelers enter Chen, and a private market with free trade is built outside the official market.Gradually, Chen Guo became the most prosperous and prosperous place in the south of the Central Plains.

If it's just that, this Chen Guo also coincides with the trend of the world, and the people of the world will never despise Chen Guo as they did later.It happened that under the glamorous style, Chen Guojun and his ministers indulged in extravagance, and the monarchs and ministers competed to have fun as their ability, and the obscenity flourished, and various scandals continued to spread along with the business travellers.After a long time, Chen Guo gradually became corrupt. Passed down to the eighteenth generation of monarchs, Chen Guo finally had a major event. The eighteenth generation monarch is Chen Linggong.Those who are spiritual are also known as stealing the country.The posthumous title of "Ling" on the monarch is generally the generation that has lost the country.The ancients were very wise and created the method of posthumous posthumous posthumous title, which is to give a general assessment of a person's conduct as a character during his lifetime after death, and give the deceased a title, so as to promote the king's morality and depreciate evil deeds. "Book of Zhou" says: "The posthumous title is the trace of deeds. The title is the expression of merit. The one who wears the car is the highlight of the position. It is the great name for the big deeds, and the small deeds for the small deeds. Deeds come from oneself, A name is born in a person." The title of the monarch is proposed by the ceremonial officer and decided by the ministers.The title of the minister is bestowed by the monarch.It should be said that until the Qin and Han Dynasties, the ancients were still very realistic about posthumous posthumous titles, and the titles they added were generally accurate.It's not as if later generations have turned posthumous posthumous titles into a cheap trick to sing praises.For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, there was also Jin Linggong, who was also a loyal and indiscriminate monarch who caused chaos, causing the tragedy of "Zhao's Orphan", which led to the decline of Jin State.This Chen Linggong is even more absurd and surly. After he ascended the throne, he didn't do a single thing, but gave birth to the biggest scandal that the world despises——

At that time, there was a girl named Ji from the state of Zheng, who was beautiful and obsessive. She married Xia Yushu, a minister of the state of Chen, and was called Xia Ji by people.Xia Ji gave birth to a son Xia Zhengshu, and her husband Xia Yushu died.There were rumors among the boy servants in the mansion that the head of the family couldn't bear Xia Ji's obsession day and night, so he died of exhaustion.Rumors spread like wildfire, and Chen Linggong, who was fond of lecherous pleasures, entered the Xia mansion in the name of comforting the dead minister, and had an affair with Xia Ji.There were two other ministers, one named Kong Ning and the other named Yi Xingfu, both of whom were Chen Linggong's usual obscene companions. When they heard the news, they also had affairs with Xia Ji one after another.The three monarchs and ministers each hid one of Xia Ji's close-fitting clothes, and watched and commented on each other after the court meeting in the hall to see whose collection was the real obscenity.Later, the three monarchs and ministers simply stopped avoiding taboos, and openly prostituted themselves with Xia Ji in the Xia Mansion, pointing at Xia Zhengshu who was practicing martial arts outside the corridor, talking loudly and arguing whose son it was?Although the words came out, Xia Zhengshu heard clearly, and his heart was full of anger!One night, as soon as Chen Linggong came out of Xia Ji's bedroom, he was shot dead by Xia Zhengshu with an arrow.Kong Ning and Yi Xingfu, who came to pick up the work, were shocked and fled to Chu State overnight.

At that time, the state of Chu was in the sixteenth year of the reign of the ambitious King Zhuang of Chu.As soon as he heard the news, King Zhuang of Chu immediately led his army into Chen Jing's rebellion, killed Xia Zhengshu, destroyed Chen State, and turned Chendi into Chen County of Chu State.Soon, the alliance of vassals headed by Jin State in the Central Plains denounced Chu State for "disobeying the king's order and arrogating to destroy Chen", and wanted to send troops to intervene.Faced with strong pressure, King Chu Zhuang pulled out Chen Wu, the son of Chen Linggong, to become the king again, and he restored the state of Chen. This is Chen Chenggong.

Although the country was restored, the reputation of Chen State plummeted because of this huge scandal, and he could only be a vassal of Chu State tremblingly, surviving in the cracks between the princes for hegemony.After another 120 years of the Five Dynasties, the four major tribes of the Jin State (Zhi, Wei, Zhao, and Han) had hollowed out the largest old prince, and the Jin State was no longer able to preside over the "justice" of the disputes among the princes.At that time, the power of Chu State rose sharply, so they sent troops to destroy Chen State in one fell swoop, turning Chen State into Chen County again.Chen Guo, which has been passed down for twenty-four generations for six hundred and forty-five years, disappeared forever on the eve of the Warring States Period.

This year was the tenth year of King Chu Hui, and it was only four years since the three families were divided into Jin and the world entered the Warring States Period. Chen Guo returned to Chu, and Chu had a foothold in Huaibei.At that time, although the hinterland of Chu State was located in the Yunmengze area of ​​Jingshan Mountain, it was called "Jingchu" by the world, but because there were Wuyue and Yue countries in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the banks of Dongting Lake and Lingnan in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River were still wild and undeveloped. Therefore, in order to seek rich land and population goods, the only way to expand is to the Central Plains.For hundreds of years in the Spring and Autumn Period, the promising monarchs of the Chu State have always regarded going north to the Central Plains to fight for hegemony as the top priority of expanding the Chu State.For Chu State, there are only two ideal directions to compete for the Central Plains. One is the old road, which is to fight for land with Qi State from the northeast;However, after more than three hundred years, the state of Chu has never won a big victory over the state of Qi. This old road seems to be laborious and fruitless.If you want to go north, you have to get through Huaibei!

By coincidence, the biggest prince in Huaibei is Chen Guo.Defeating Chen and occupying Huaibei was the biggest dream of Chu State at the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.King Zhuang of Chu heard of the chaos of Chen and did not hesitate to raise troops. This is the root cause.After more than a hundred years, the dream of the Chu State finally came true, and the Chen State became the Chen County of the Chu State. Why is the Chu State not overjoyed? To destroy Chen Dedi, Chu State's first priority is to continue Chencheng's tradition as a business and travel city, and turn Chen Land into the biggest sucker for Chu State to absorb the wealth of the Central Plains.For this reason, King Chu Hui promoted Chen county magistrate to a minister with the title of "Shangzhigui", with Zuo Yin as the minister.Shangzhigui is the third-ranked noble in the Chu state, second only to the monarch and marquis.Zuo Yin is Ling Yin's deputy.In other words, the county magistrate of Chen was actually served by a minister who had been a deputy prime minister (Zuo Yin), and his title was higher than when he was Zuo Yin!As a matter of fact, the state of Chu regards Chendi and Chencheng as an important town.But in name, it is only regarded as a county.This is the brilliance of Chu's monarchs and ministers: to paralyze the princes of the Central Plains, and declare that they don't value the Chen land that the Central Plains covets.

As a result, Chen County has become the most prosperous business and travel city on the edge of the Central Plains, competing with Daliang, Luoyang, and Xinzheng, the three largest Central Plains cities, and becoming one of the most famous business and travel cities in the world.The reason why it is famous is that Chencheng is neither the capital at that time, but has the cultural background and business travel tradition of the capital of the great princes. It is a pure business travel world, with almost no transaction restrictions, and there is no need to socialize with many officials and joints in the metropolis. , As long as the businessman pays the tax, no one will care about anything else.Over time, this city of Chen has become a paradise for businessmen from all over the world. Not only business travelers from various countries in the Central Plains gather here, but also Ronghu businessmen are like crucian carp crossing the river. Generally speaking, all the materials and goods that cannot be traded in the official cities of the capitals of big countries are available here. .In the big market during the day, in the sea market at night, swallowing gold, spitting jade, iron, and salt to accumulate wealth and wealth, every moment in Chencheng is a life-and-death moment for businessmen who are fascinated and frightened.

The capital of business travel is naturally also a hot spot for all kinds of workshops.There are many workshops, so craftsmen of all kinds come here to find a living.There is no "reporting people" law here, and all populations are not checked. No matter if you are a fugitive slave, a hungry person fleeing the country, or a criminal who murdered and robbed you, as long as someone hires and takes you in, no one will ask you about your ins and outs.As a result, the population of Chencheng is indiscriminate, with crowns, belts, carts like clouds, traffickers and pawns like a stream, brocade clothes all over the streets, hungry people in power, and people of all colors merged into a vast ocean. Therefore, the world's business travel has the saying "Chutou Chencheng, Tianfu ghosts". It's strange to say that such a ghost of a merchant capital that swallows money and goods from all over the world like a whale drinking from a river, stands on the edge of the Central Plains, but Chu State has no large army to garrison it.Until the end of the Warring States period when the Chu State moved its capital north to Chen, Chencheng had always had no more than 10,000 soldiers and no more than a hundred officials, and it was almost ruled by doing nothing.What is even more puzzling is that in the nearly 200 years since the Warring States period, no country has tried to compete for Chencheng, no country has accused Chu of breaking the morals of the world, and there is no covenant of nations to force Chu to change its rules.All big and small countries turn a blind eye to Chencheng, and no country has ever restricted business travelers from entering Chencheng. All of a sudden, the business wind of Chencheng filled Huaibei vigorously.