Spring and Autumn 295 (5) Zhengzhuang Duke Zhou Huan Wang broke up, Chen Huan Duke Zheng Zhuang married

In April, april 718 BC, Duke Huan of Wei was officially buried. Zheng Guo took advantage of this opportunity to send troops to invade the outskirts of Weiguo City, in revenge for the five-day siege of Zheng Guo's east gate by the Song Wei Chen Cai coalition forces the previous year. At this point, the tug-of-war between the Wei, Song and Zheng kingdoms caused by the Battle of Dongmen officially opened the curtain.

At this time, when Wei Xuangong first established, he was attacked militarily by Zheng Guo, Wei Guo's sworn enemy, and of course he had to fight back. Therefore, Wei Xuangong dispatched the Southern Yan army close to Zheng Guo to attack Zheng, but the result was unfavorable, not only failed to give the Zheng army a counterattack, but was defeated by the Zheng army.

Although the Battle of Dongmen originated from the weiguo prefecture, it was after all led by the Duke of Song. Therefore, Zheng Zhuanggong always wanted to take revenge on Song Zhengong. The opportunity soon came. Shortly after Zheng Guo defeated Wei Guo, dukes of Zheng Zhuang asked Zheng Zhuang to send troops to attack the Song in order to retaliate against the Song state for occupying the fields of the state of Wei. This is a good reason for sending to the door, does Zheng Zhuanggong have any reason not to? Therefore, Zheng Zhuanggong once again used Wang Shi and Zhou Tianzi's army to attack the Song Kingdom. This time, the Song Dynasty was carried out very smoothly, and Wang Shi actually attacked all the way into the outer city of the Song Kingdom, and the Song Kingdom was in danger!

Remember that the Song and Lu kingdoms formed an alliance in 722 BC, that is, four years ago? When this was a critical situation, the Duke of Song immediately sent someone to the State of Lu to ask for help from the Duke of Lu Yin. Lu Yingong had been paying close attention to the international situation, and the intelligence on the progress of the war between Song and Zheng was also very timely, he heard that the Wang Shi dispatched by Zheng Guo had entered the outer city of the Song Kingdom, and Lu Yin Gong wanted to send troops to support; but when Lu Yin Gong asked about the emissaries sent by Song Yinggong, the emissaries said that Wang Shi had not yet entered the outer city of the Song Kingdom. Listening to the messenger's words, Lu Yingong stopped doing it, and was furious--the situation was not urgent, and he wanted to use my army at will. And isn't there a danger of the demise of the society, when I am who? Is it coming? Even if you form an alliance, it is not this game! Duke Lu Yin thus completely stopped the idea of sending troops to support Song Gong.

I think that Lu Yingong's message should be accurate. When the emissaries of the Song Kingdom set out from the Song Kingdom, perhaps the two armies were still in a state of stalemate, and Wang Shi or Dang had indeed not yet entered the Song Foreign City, but the Song Emperor sent emissaries to the State of Lu for help for the sake of safety. And the emissaries from the Song Kingdom to the Lu Kingdom, the road takes time. It is likely that just as he was in a hurry, Zheng Guo's Wang Shi attacked the outer city of the Song Kingdom. And lu yingong's information channels were very well-informed, so the news of Wang Shi's entry into the song outer city was one step ahead of the Song envoys and had already reached the ears of Lu Yingong; on the contrary, the Song envoys who were bent on hurrying on the road did not know anything about the progress of the war, so when Lu Yingong asked about the situation of the Song kingdom, he "told the truth" to Lu Yingong according to what he knew when he left, thus angering Lu Yingong and finally making a fuss and dispersing.

Although the State of Lu did not send troops to rescue the State of Song, Zheng Zhuanggong's move to cut down the Song Dynasty this time ended with the entry into the outer city of the Song Dynasty.

In the winter of the same year, the State of Song, in revenge for Zheng Guo's entry into his outer city, sent troops to besiege Zheng Guo's Changge. This time, Song Guo was very patient, and it took a whole year to turn Zheng Guo's Changge into his own pocket in the winter of the following year. Of course, that was already 717 BC.

In the Battle of Dongmen, in addition to the Song State and the Wei Foreign Country, chen guo and Cai guo were also sent troops. In 717 BC, Zheng Zhuang sent an army to invade Chen, and was captured. In the winter of that year, Zheng Zhuanggong went to Jingshi Luoyi to meet King Huan of Zhou (Ji Lin).

This was the first time that Zheng Zhuanggong had met King Huan of Zhou. Remember that I talked about Zhou Zheng's evil deeds earlier. After the death of King Ping of Zhou, because of the issue of the ownership of the state, Zheng Zhuang sent the doctor To zhong to collect Zhou's crops. From then until 717 BC, King Huan of Zhou had been on the throne for almost four years, and Duke Zheng Zhuang, as the Zuo Qing of the Zhou court, never went to the court to see him. In the winter of that year, Zheng Zhuanggong finally left for Luoyi and launched an ice-breaking operation.

Zheng Zhuang gong had the heart to shake hands with king Huan of Zhou and make peace, but he thought that king Huan of Zhou always remembered that four years ago, Duke Zheng Zhuang sent someone to collect his crops. After seeing Zheng Zhuanggong, King Huan of Zhou deliberately did not give Zheng Zhuanggong a good look, nor did he treat him with due courtesy. Duke Hei of Zhou (After the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Zhao were enthroned at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the concubine hereditary throne, and the second son, Shi Shou Wang Qi, served as an official in the Zhou Dynasty, and continued to take the title of Duke of Zhou and Zhao Gong. At this time, the Duke of Zhou was nicknamed "Huan", so he was called the Duke of Zhou Huan in the "Left Biography". Don't get confused with King Huan of Zhou) Seeing that King Huan of Zhou was angry, he advised King Huan of Zhou that when King Ping of Zhou moved from Hojing to the capital of Luoyi, he had been dependent on Jin and Zheng since then; now that he was too late to treat Zheng Zhuanggong well, how could he not treat him with courtesy? If this continues, Zheng Zhuanggong will probably not come to hajj you in the future. The words were all good words, and King Huan of Zhou was deeply resentful of Zheng Zhuang and could not listen to the advice of Zhou Gong's black shoulders.

The four kingdoms of Song, Wei, Chen, and Cai were all neighbors of the Zheng state. Today, we often say good-neighborliness and friendship, but in fact, whether it is between countries or between families in life, the relationship between neighbors is usually not too good.

Taking Chen Guo and Zheng Guo as an example, before Zheng Guo sought revenge on Chen Guo at the East Gate, Zheng Zhuanggong took the initiative to reconcile with Chen Guo, but was rejected by Chen Huangong. No matter what purpose Zheng Zhuanggong wanted to make peace with Chen Huangong, he could not influence Chen Huangong to have his own ideas. At that time, Duke Tuo of Chen Guo still painstakingly advised Duke Huan of Chen huan to be "kind and kind to his neighbor" and accept the goodwill of Duke Zheng Zhuang; however, Duke Huan felt that Zheng Guo was not enough, and that Song Guo and Wei Guo were the big trouble (seeing no, in Chen Huangong's heart, his allies were his hidden dangers), and did not listen to Gongzi Tuo's advice. Therefore, when Zheng Guo sent troops to invade Chen and achieved great gains, the gentleman at that time criticized Chen Huangong, saying that he did not distinguish between good and evil, could not curb the momentum of the spread of bad people and bad things in time, and could not grasp the key points in governing the country.

In this way, Chen Guo insisted for another year, and only then did he make peace with Zheng Guo in 716 BC. Duke Huan of Chen sent gongzi Tuo to Zheng Guo to hold an alliance ceremony with Zheng Guo. The ancients formed an alliance with a blood-crushing ceremony, but just when Chen Guo and Zheng Guo were engaged in this blood-crushing ceremony, there was a big interlude.

The so-called blood is to kill the cow on the spot, cut the left ear of the cow to take its blood, and put the cow's blood in Yudun (a kind of vessel, which held food in the early days and later developed into a ceremonial vessel), and then the participants in the alliance drank the blood of the cow separately. This ceremony is arguably one of the most important parts of the ancients' alliance ceremony. However, at the blood-crushing ceremony of the alliance between Zheng and Chen, before the death, Chen Guo's son Tuo, who came to participate in the alliance ceremony on behalf of Chen Huangong, seemed to be possessed by something, and when it came to drinking blood, he forgot about this link - the blood was connected and did not drink. At that time, how to explain how to explain this matter and how to find excuses could not be said, so through this matter, Dr. Zheng Guofu predicted that Gongzi Tuo did not treat the alliance ceremony solemnly, and he would not be spared disasters one day.

Regarding this squint, Dr. Zheng Guo's doctor Liangzuo also has a similar view. Zheng Chen and Chen made an alliance this time, and exchanged envoys to each other's countries to hold an alliance ceremony. Chen Guo, for his part, sent Gongzi Tuo to Zheng Guo to participate in the ceremony presided over by Zheng Guo, while Zheng Guo sent Doctor Liangzuo to Chen Guo to participate in the ceremony presided over by Chen Guo. Seeing that Liang Zuo had developed ideas similar to that of Yu Qi through himself in Zheng Guo, he also felt that there was a big problem in Chen Guo, and predicted that Chen Guo would soon cause people to be in turmoil.

Most of the history we see today about the Spring and Autumn Period comes from the records of the Zuo Zhuan. One of the characteristics of "Zuo Biao" is that it often uses the mouths of various characters to predict the future and destiny of a certain country or individual. On this point, we say less about the idealistic view of history, but more from the perspective of reality - all those who can appear in the history books are the people closest to the core of power, they are often very knowledgeable, especially the best of them, so that some of them will smell unusual breaths, or observe unusual clues before many things have happened, and thus make their own personal predictions or judgments. Of course, since the "Left Biography" only records those predictions that were later confirmed, it seems to be a bit mysterious, as if it opens up a God perspective for some people, and in fact these predictions that are later fulfilled are just another kind of survivor bias.

In fact, among us living in today's and modern times, there must also be a considerable number of people of insight who have this forward-looking vision. This stems from their status and insight, both of which are almost indispensable. Insight is basically the ability to obtain information. Therefore, in today's world, the more high-status people can access more information, the more they can see the many possible forms of the future in advance than ordinary people. For example, the leaders of various countries should know roughly what the world will look like in twenty or thirty years, or even forty or fifty years from now; and those who are at the top of a certain field of science and technology can roughly know what the world will look like in the next ten or twenty years after the discipline and its practical application. Bill Gates, for example, has made many predictions over the years, and some have counted that his predictions are 86 percent accurate. This is really nothing remarkable, if you can reach his height in life, have the opportunity to know all kinds of top figures in the world, have the opportunity to contact the pyramid of world information, the so-called Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet, you can also become a great prophet with a high accuracy rate.

Let's get back to the point and return to this alliance between Chen Guo and Zheng Guo. Chen Zheng's alliance had a by-product, that is, Chen Huangong and Zheng Zhuanggong made a covenant of children, and Chen Huangong decided to marry his daughter to Gongzi Kuo, the son of Zheng Zhuanggong, who was now a hostage in the Zhou Dynasty. As we said earlier when talking about Zhou Wu, Chen Huangong was now favored by the King of Zhou, and it is estimated that he should have seen the precious son sent by Zheng Zhuanggong to Jingshi into the hostage.

Everyone should note that Chen Huangong had not paid special attention to Zheng Guo before, and in his mind, Zheng Guo was not as great a threat to him as the Song State and the Wei State. This small detail also shows that in this period of the Spring and Autumn Period, Chen Guo's strength was not bad, at least on par with the three kingdoms of Zheng, Song, and Wei. Although the relationship between the princes is being broken and reorganized, there is no hegemon who can command the princes. Princes restrain each other more than they cooperate with each other, and because they are evenly matched, a balance is formed.

Therefore, in this year, Zheng Guo not only restored peace with Chen Guo, but also restored peace with Song Guo, and the two countries also made peace and formed an alliance in the same place.

However, the State of Song actually formed an alliance with Zheng Guo, which Lu Yin did not expect. On the same day, Zheng Jun invaded the song foreign city, and Song Yinggong sent emissaries to ask him for help from Lu Yingong, but Lu Yingong failed to help in time, thinking of this layer, Lu Yingong was worried that Song Yingong would turn over old accounts with him. What to do? Lu Yingong's mind moved rapidly. Yes, on that day, the State of Song occupied the land of the State of Yi, and the Duke of Lu went to ask Duke Zheng Zhuang to send troops to attack the Song, and then the State of Song sent emissaries to ask for help from the Duke of Lu Yin--this was ultimately all blamed on the Duke of Yi, so he poured all his anger on the Duke of Yi, out of jealousy of the Duke of Song, the Duke of Lu Yin decided to send troops to fight against the Duke of Song, and claimed to be on behalf of the Duke of Song, and wanted to curry favor with the Duke of Song by means of the crusade against the Duke of Song.