Why did Wu Wang Shoumeng's eldest son and grandson come to power by a coup d'état? The mainstream logic of ancient Chinese throne succession is the primogeniture inheritance system, but in reality, it is difficult to ensure the inheritance of the eldest son, such as the monarch died too early, there is no heir or the eldest son is young, and then for example, the monarch has reigned for too long, the eldest son has not lived his own father, or although the father and son are just right in age, but the eldest son is not favored, it is difficult to ensure that the eldest son inherits the throne.
In fact, in the Spring and Autumn Period, it is very common for fathers to die and sons to succeed, brothers to brothers and alternate inheritance, why is it that brothers and brothers are replaced? Because the average life expectancy of ancient people is too short, the state affairs are heavy and urgent, for the security of the entire royal family and the strength of the country, it is in line with the rational choice of the elderly and powerful brothers of the first king to take the throne, and as for whether it is the eldest son, there are many possibilities.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Guang of the State of Wu encountered this problem, and his grandfather King Shoumeng of Wu died at the age of sixty, and then his father Zhu Fan reigned as the eldest son of Shoumeng for thirteen years, until he was killed by a cold arrow in a battle with the Chu army in 548 BC. Gongzi Guang was supposed to be still young at that time, but most importantly, he also had three uncles who were in their prime: Yu Ji, Yu Ming, and Ji Zha. In accordance with the last wishes of Shou Meng and Zhu Fan, and according to the reality of the war environment faced by the State of Wu, the brother and the brother, the second uncle Yu Jie, and the third uncle Yu Ming successively became the king of Wu.
Yu Ji reigned for only four years, and his death was relatively unexpected, when King Yu Ji of Wu inspected the boat, he was assassinated by prisoners of the Yue Kingdom, and Wu Yue's hatred grew deeper and deeper, and his brother Yu Yu took the throne in order.
Yu Ming reigned for a long time, there were seventeen years, according to the history books should be a normal death, before Yu Ming died, he wanted to continue to pass the throne to the fourth brother Ji Zha according to Shou Meng and Zhu Fan's will, but Ji Za fled from Wu capital, and he was unwilling to take the throne of Wu when he died.
So Yu Ming was faced with a choice, to pass the throne to the longest of the grandchildren of the old Wu King Shou Meng, that is, the sons of Zhu Fan and Yu Ji, or only to his own son. Yu chose to pass the throne to his own son Gongzi Zhouyu, later king of Wu, who reigned for twelve years from 526 to 515.
Wu Wang's (Zhou Yu)'s father, Yu Ming, reigned for seventeen years, laying a solid power foundation for his son's smooth succession, and we believe that Yu Yu must have arranged for Yu Yu to be entrusted with his own vassals, as well as Zhou Yu's two powerful brothers to cover Yu and Candle Yong, and Zhou Yu's son Qingji also grew up healthily and strongly, so no matter what the true psychology of Ji Zha and Gongzi Guang was, it did not affect Yu Yu's handing over the throne to his son Zhou Yu.
The first is the Battle of Wu-Chu Chang'an, in 525 BC, the second year after Wu Wang's rise to power, he ordered gongzi Guangfa Chu, and the first battle of the Wu army was defeated, the most important thing was that the warship "Yu Huang" was captured by the Chu army. Perhaps this is the result that Wu Wang's staff hoped, the Wu army lost a little, did not hurt the vitality, but lost the "Yu Huang" warship of the previous king, and the prince was strictly punished according to military law, and his political life was over.
After a brief period of panic, Gongzi Guang quickly held a pre-battle meeting, and with the general Xiaoming, formulated a counter-offensive plan, recaptured the "Yu Huang" in one fell swoop, and also defeated the Chu army in one fell swoop.
In 519 BC, king Of Chuping learned of Wu's attack on Zhoulai and ordered Sima Xueyue to lead the combined forces of Chu, Dun, Hu, Shen, Cai, Chen, and Xu to the rescue, and ordered Yin Yang (子暇) to bring the sick overseer. Taking advantage of the death of the Chu state and Yin Junzhong, the Wu king quickly approached the Chu coalition army, and launched an attack the day after reaching the battlefield of Jifu, taking advantage of the special weather conditions of the "obscure day" of the day (in ancient times, the obscure day did not fight), taking advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation, and winning with a surprise attack. In terms of troop deployment, first attack the armies of the States of Hu, Shen and Chen with a part of the troops, disrupt the armies of other princely states, and then concentrate their forces to attack the main force of the Chu army.
The victory in the Battle of The Chicken Father established a huge personal reputation for Gongzi Guang, and also became the political capital for him to become the authority of the Wu state in the future.
The third is the "Battle of Silkworm Mulberry" of Wuchu, also in 519 BC, in the other direction, the city of Beiliang at the junction of Wu and Chu, there was a dispute between the maidens of the Wu kingdom and the maidens of the Chu state when picking mulberry leaves, which then led to family fights, village armed struggles, and finally border conflicts. The "Records of History" records that "the king of Chu heard the anger and sent soldiers to destroy The Humble Liang." King Wu was furious and sent troops." In the end, the State of Wu defeated the State of Chu and "took both capitals and left". Finally, "Chu Fear, Chengying". This means that the Chu state has been defeated one after another and has begun to build walls to strengthen the capital city.
Wu Wang's staff must have also discovered that Gongzi Guang had made many military achievements and made high achievements, and it happened that in 516 BC, King Chuping died. King Wu wanted to take advantage of the mourning of the State of Chu and send his two brothers Tou Yu and Zhan Yong to lead troops to attack the State of Chu, and at the same time to make Ji Za yu Jin and send an envoy to the Central Plains to watch the changes of the princes.
From the perspective of The King of Wu, Wu Guo even had the upper hand over Chu's military force, and the opportunity to make meritorious service so easily could no longer be given to Gongzi Guang, leaving it to his brother and leaving Gongzi Guang in Wu Du. However, this time, Wu Wangfu miscalculated, and the Chu army "sent troops to eliminate Wu, and Wu soldiers could not return it." The Chu army knew that it could not defeat the Wu army head-on, but this time it cut off the Wu army's water, land, grain and grass, and it was still very flexible to cut the back road.
The time window for the coup d'état was fleeting, the two brothers of The Wu King's staff and the main force of the Wu army were in a dilemma on the front line, the highly respected fourth uncle Ji Zha was in the Central Plains, the Wu state was empty, and Gongzi Guang increased the pace of instigating the coup d'état, invited the Wu King's staff to eat grilled fish in the palace, sent the emperor to hide his sword in the belly of the fish, and took the opportunity to assassinate the Wu king's staff, which is the story of the famous "special assassination of the king's staff" in history, so Gongzi Guang seized the throne of Wu for the sake of Lu Lu.
Ancient celebrities often lack records of the year of death, even if the history books record the year of death, and the time of birth is mostly a question mark, such as this Gongzi Guang, that is, the Wu King Lu Lu, who reigned for twenty years, people know that the time of his death is 496 BC, and the time of his birth is not accurately recorded.
Let's assume that Shou Meng was born to Zhu Fan at the age of twenty-five, Zhu Fan was born to Gongzi Guang at the age of twenty-five, and when the third uncle Yu Ming died, Gongzi Guang was already forty-three years old, because the Wu king was still on the throne for thirteen years, and Gongzi Guang was too old to ascend the throne. Unless we assume that Zhu Fan had many sons, Gongzi Guang was a relatively small one, and when Yu Ming died, Gongzi Guang was in his thirties, which seemed more reasonable, and after Wu Wangfu reigned for twelve years, after Que Lu arranged for the assassination of Wang Guan, it was normal for him to be between the ages of 45 and 50 when he ascended the throne in 515 BC, because twenty years later, in the Battle of Qiu Li, the sixty or seventy-year-old male lord Lu Lu was wounded and killed by the Yue general Linggu Fu, which is also more reasonable.
Sima Qian recorded that "Shou Meng stood and Wu Shi Da", and the small southeastern state of Gou Wu had been obscure since the founding of TaiBo and was ignored by the Central Plains states until the nineteenth Wu Wang Shou Meng ascended the throne. King Shoumeng of Wu was born in 620 BC, ascended the throne in 585 BC (the twenty-first year of King Ding of Zhou), died in 561 BC (the eleventh year of King Ling of Zhou), and his next three sons were successively kings, the eldest son Zhu Fan reigned for thirteen years from 560 BC to 548 BC, the second son Yu Ji reigned for a total of four years from 547 BC to 544 BC, and the third son Yu Yu reigned for seventeen years from 543 BC to 527 BC. Yu Ming's son Wu Wangyuan reigned for twelve years from 526 BC to 515 BC. From 514 BC to 496 BC, Wu reigned for nineteen years, and Wu Wang Fuchai reigned from 495 BC to 473 BC, reigning for twenty-three years.