In 771 BC, King You of Zhou was killed by the Inuyasha at Lishan Mountain marking the end of the Western Zhou era. King Zhou You's son, King Ping of Zhou, moved the capital from Hojing (present-day Xi'an) east to Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) to avoid the threat of Inuyasha. When King Ping moved east, Zheng Guo was one of the "protectors" of close protection. After King Ping moved east, Zheng Wugong was appointed as a secretary by the Zhou royal family. This enabled Zheng Wugong to use the name of the king to justify the expansion of the matter. With the support and acquiescence of the Zhou royal family, Zheng Guo quickly rose to become a rising star. Zheng Guo ostensibly took it as his duty to assist the Zhou royal family, but in fact used the royal family as a banner to fight for his own interests.
After Zheng Wugong's death, his son Zheng Zhuanggong, in addition to inheriting the throne of Zheng Guo from his father, also inherited the official position of secretary of the Zhou royal family. At this time, the Zhou royal family was not as non-existent as it was later. Although King Ping of Zhou, who was supported by the princes, was forced to divide his powers from the princes due to the situation, he always wanted to restore his authority as the co-lord of the world one day. At the beginning of Zheng Zhuang's succession, his younger brother Duan plotted to usurp the throne with the support of his mother Wu Jiang. Zheng Zhuanggong had to wear a mask all day long to act with his mother and brother. In fact, Zheng Zhuanggong used this means to confuse his younger brother Duan, who was plotting to usurp the throne.
King Ping of Zhou saw that Duke Zhengzhuang had just ascended the throne and was unstable, and that his uncle Duan was watching from the sidelines, so he planned to appoint Duke Yu as a secretary to contain Zheng Zhuanggong. King Zhou Ping's move was actually to weaken Zheng Guo's power and restore the authority of the royal family. At first, Zheng Zhuanggong was busy dealing with shu Duan's threat at home, so he had to choose acquiescence to King Zhou Ping's move. Later, Zheng Zhuanggong saw the opportunity to thwart Shu Duan's rebellion in one fell swoop. At this time, Zheng Zhuanggong began to resent King Zhou Ping. When King Zhou Ping knew about it, he quickly explained: "There is no such thing (biased towards Gong Yu)."
In order to dispel Zheng Zhuanggong's concerns, King Ping of Zhou also offered to exchange hostages with Zheng Guo: King Zhou Ping's son Hu was held hostage in Zheng Guo, and Zheng Zhuanggong's son was taken hostage in the Zhou royal family. Previously, only the exchanges between the princes and monarchs would exchange hostages, and Zhou Tianzi would only ask the princes to hand over hostages. Today's blatant exchange of hostages with the princes is tantamount to announcing that the Zhou royal family has fallen to the point of being on an equal footing with the princely states. However, after the death of King Ping of Zhou, the Zhou royal family was ready to put Duke Yu in charge. In April 720 BC, Zheng Guo's sacrificial foot army harvested the wheat of Wenyi, and in the autumn, it harvested a week of rice.
Since then, the Zhou royal family and the Zheng kingdom have become increasingly antagonistic. Regardless of who Zhou Tianzi intended to put in charge, Zheng Zhuang always insisted on being active in the political arena as a dual figure of Zhou Dynasty secretary and prince. Zheng Zhuanggong played a special role with his own wisdom and power: after the Zhou Dynasty was invaded by the Inuyasha Rebellion and moved east, it had reached the point where it could not protect itself without the help of the princely states, so it lost its former strength and prestige. The Inuyasha Rebellion greatly liberated people's minds, broke people's superstitions about the Zhou Dynasty, and openly demonstrated to the society the weakness and importance of the strength of the ceremonial system.
To put it bluntly, the belief in people's hearts changed from the ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty to the power, because only the strong can protect themselves and their families. At this time, if you want to call on the nations to make a difference in the political arena and rely on the Zhou Room, it is absolutely impossible, you must make yourself have enough strength. In view of this situation, Zheng Zhuanggong decided to firmly place the foothold of his career in Zheng Guo, so he did not hesitate to confront his brother and mother by force, and he also did not hesitate to fall out with Zhou Tianzi for this reason. Zheng Zhuanggong ran his country with great energy, and eventually made Zheng Guo a prominent princely state in the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
The first thing Zheng Zhuanggong encountered in order to develop his country was the constraint of geographical conditions. Zheng Guo was in the land of four wars: barbarian Chu in the south, Qiangjin in the north, and Eastern Zhou in the west. Zheng Guo could not compete with the front, so he could only develop eastward. The great lords of the Song kingdoms of Wei, Cao, Lu, Song, Chen, and Cai in the eastern neighbors also had appeal in the small eastern states, which was a serious obstacle to the development of the Zheng state. Therefore, Zheng Zhuanggong set the goal of using force to the outside world at the Song Dynasty. This was the best strategy in the circumstances. Zheng Zhuanggong began a intensive layout in order to achieve military victory against the Song Dynasty.
First of all, Zheng Zhuanggong and qi and Lu, two eastern powers, established a stable alliance. Qi and Lu were located in the northeast of the Song Dynasty. The establishment of alliances with Qi and Lu formed a containment and encirclement of the Song state. Zheng Zhuanggong dated Qi and Lu Erjun many times. Zheng Zhuanggong gave it to the State of Lu after capturing gao and defending eryi in the Song state. Zheng Zhuanggong's series of moves effectively consolidated the alliance between Zheng, Qi, and Lu. Zheng Zhuanggong allied himself with Qi and Lu at the same time, but at the same time called on the nations under the pretext of the king's order. As a newly fledgling small country, Zheng Guo did not win the favor among the princes.
However, Zheng Zhuanggong had a special status as a secretary of the Zhou Dynasty. Zheng Zhuang declared that the Duke of Song had long lacked tribute, and he himself accepted the king's orders as a secretary to lead an army to fight. In this way, Zheng Guo entangled more countries, and then formed public opinion pressure on the Song State, and afterwards taught a lesson on the charges of "disobedience" to the small states of Xu and Yun (northeast of present-day Ningyang, Shandong) who did not follow the troops. Zheng Zhuanggong also provided support to the opposition forces within the Song state: The son of the former monarch of the Song state, Gongzi Feng, ran to Zheng, and the Song state sent troops to negotiate for it, and Zheng Zhuang took protective measures against Gongzi Feng.
After a civil unrest, the people of the Song Dynasty wanted to welcome Gongzi Feng as a king, and Gongzi Feng wept before he left to worship Zheng Zhuanggong and said that after he returned to China, he was "a vassal in the world, and did not dare to be a second heart." During zheng zhuanggong's reign, Zheng guo did win victories against the Song state, but Zheng guo was unable to eat the Song state. This peaceful victory was the only form of great victory that Zheng Guo could achieve against the Song State. The unfavorable political geography here plays a decisive role: Zheng is between several great powers and is almost undefendable. Even if one day the Song Dynasty is forcefully eaten, then the neighboring powers will never sit idly by and watch its rise.
In fact, in the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, the great powers of the north and the south fought for world domination. This led to Zheng Guo falling into the cracks of the struggle for hegemony and often making him breathless. The Northern Jin Dynasty and Southern Chu were afraid that the other party would eat themselves or hurt themselves, so they needed a buffer zone to avoid direct contact. Zheng Guo's geographical location determined that it was most suitable as a buffer zone between the two great princes of the south and the north. The Northern Jin Dynasty and Southern Chu all needed Zheng Guo to exist at their side as a barrier, but the two great powers had to strike at each other and demonstrate in the world, so Zheng became a frequent place to use troops.
Zheng Zhuanggong was followed by several generations of rulers who were often in power in the Jin Dynasty. This is really a last resort due to the geographical environment. Of course, these later events were not expected by Zheng Zhuanggong himself. Zheng Zhuanggong had become a small hegemon in the early Spring and Autumn Period after winning the victory over the Song Dynasty, but he faced a very difficult problem: how to deal with Zhou Tianzi? After King Ping of Zhou moved east, the strength of the Zhou royal family declined, but the Zhou Dynasty's yu wei as the co-lord of the world still existed. King Huan of Zhou, who succeeded to the throne after the death of King Ping of Zhou, vigorously suppressed the then powerful state of Jinqi, Zheng Guo, in order to restore Zhou Tianzi's dominance over the world.
This naturally caused zheng zhuanggong's dissatisfaction. As a secretary of the Zhou Dynasty, Zheng Zhuanggong should be loyal to the royal family. He was a figure that the princes had attracted attention and respected, but he put the foothold of his career on the management of his own country, so he wanted to annex and expand, to destroy the established division of power in the Zhou Dynasty, and even to call on the nations by strength, which would inevitably have irreconcilable contradictions with the Zhou Dynasty. Zheng Zhuanggong wanted to take advantage of the role of the secretary, but he was unwilling to abide by the duties of the secretary. This contradictory situation and mentality determined that he adopted the means of fighting and kissing Zhou Tianzi on the whole.
When the royal family wants to restrict the development and freedom of zhengguo, it strikes at the royal family; when this blow satisfies its own needs to a certain extent, it is close to the royal family. The attack on the royal family is to resist the restrictions placed on itself by the royal family, to demonstrate to the nations; to be close to the royal family is to maintain one's status as a secretary of state, but also to maintain one's appeal to other princes. Duke Zheng Zhuang did not serve in Zhou for a long time in order to prevent domestic rebellion, but when he heard that King Ping of Zhou wanted to divide the government from Duke Yu, he drove into Zhou on the same day. It can be seen that even at the critical moment when he was sitting in the defense of the country, he closely watched the movement of the DPRK and China.
Zheng Zhuanggong devoted his main energy to the operation of his country, but at the same time he was unwilling to give up his power to influence the Zhou government. The exchange of hostages between Zheng Zhuanggong and King Ping of Zhou could be used as a means of gaining favor with the crown prince as a means of getting close to the royal family, and at the same time, it could be used to control the prince of Zhou as a means of attacking the royal family. After King Huan of Zhou stripped Duke Zheng Zhuang of his position as a secretary, Zheng Zhuang almost immediately sent troops to grab the grain from the royal family's territory, but after the fact, he was ready to personally apologize for his sins and repair it. Such a two-sided performance is nothing more than a carving insect trick for zheng Zhuanggong, an excellent politician and excellent actor.
In 717 BC, Zheng Zhuang went to Luoyi to make a pilgrimage to King Huan of Zhou. King Huan of Zhou also remembered that three years ago, Duke Zheng Zhuang sent people to the royal territory to grab grain. King Huan of Zhou, who was not happy in his heart, did not entertain Zheng Zhuanggong according to the etiquette of receiving the princes. Zheng Zhuanggong, who was busy wrestling with the Song Kingdom at that time, did not bother to break these false heads and eight brains with king Huan of Zhou. In 715 BC, Zheng Zhuang, who had slowed down, decided not to sacrifice Mount Tai (Zheng Guo's sacrifice of Mount Tai was originally from the king's order), and he also exchanged the sacrificial land with Lu Guo. At this time, the Duke of Qi of the State of Qi came out as a peacemaker and accompanied Duke Zheng Zhuang to Luoyi again for a pilgrimage.
In the following years, Zheng Zhuanggong used the banner of the royal family to clean up the Song and Wei countries enough. According to Zheng Zhuang, the reason for fighting the Song kingdom was because the Song state did not pay tribute to the royal family; the reason for fighting the wei state was because the wei state did not obey the orders of the son of heaven to fight the Song state. This reason is simply too double-standard. First of all, the Song Dynasty committed the crime of not paying tribute to the royal family, so Zheng Guo wanted to go on a crusade against the Song Kingdom, but I Zheng Guo could fight the Song Kingdom, but if you defend the Country and fight the Song Kingdom, you would disobey the king's orders. This is really a sin that cannot be added to it. The Song and Wei countries, who could not defeat Zheng Guo, could only dare to be angry and dare not speak out, but King Huan of Zhou was not happy about this.
Why do you Zheng Guo always beat up others in my name? Co-authoring should you eat meat I back pot how? Besides, didn't you let Zheng Zhuanggong deprive him of his position as secretary of state earlier? So why do you still claim to represent the royal family? King Huan of Zhou considered that he had not taken advantage of Zheng Zhuang's previous moves, so this time he decided to take a different path: in the name of promoting traditional friendship, he wanted to exchange territory with Zheng Guo. Zheng Zhuanggong did not know what medicine was sold in the gourd of King Huan of Zhou, but he still cut the land according to the will of King Huan of Zhou.
Here, King Huan of Zhou also cut a piece of land for Zheng Guo as agreed. Zheng Zhuanggong took a look at the map and realized that he had been tricked. The land that King Huan of Zhou wanted to cede to the State of Zheng was the territory of the People's Su Kingdom. This is actually a trick of using the land that you can't do as the Lord's bait to play with the empty glove white wolf. Zheng Zhuanggong has been mixed into a small overlord for so many years, and he did not expect that this time the gutter overturned the ship and was played by others. On the surface, the Zhou royal family was able to win back a game this time, but this did not affect the development momentum of Zheng Guo in essence: Wei, Song, Lu and other countries were all obedient to Zheng Guo, and the State of Qi, as an old qualified power, was an ally of Zheng Guo.
In the face of Zheng Guo's aggressive development momentum, King Huan of Zhou decided to suppress this head bird: in 707 BC, King Huan of Zhou led the Zhou army and the forces of the four kingdoms of Chen, Cai, Yu, and Wei against Zheng. Zheng Zhuang led the Grand Master Ji Zhong and Gao Qumi to line up against the enemy at Qige (繻葛; present-day Changgebei, Henan). At that time, the Zhou army was divided into three armies, and King Huan of Zhou led the left army and the Chen army in an attempt to defeat Zheng Zhuanggong. Zheng Zhuang opened a new position called "Yuli": the chariot charged forward, and the infantry followed. First attack the weakest Chen Guo army, thus forcing Cai Guo and the Wei army to withdraw from the battlefield in fear.
After the armies of Cai and Wei withdrew from the battlefield, the Zheng army concentrated its forces to attack the Zhou army from both sides. During the battle, King Huan of Zhou was shot in the shoulder by an arrow from Zhu Yan, a general under Duke Zheng Zhuang. King Huan of Zhou reluctantly commanded his army to escape from the siege. Zhu Nie wanted to chase and capture King Huan of Zhou alive, and Zheng Zhuanggong stopped him and said, "Gentlemen don't want to force people too much, let alone bully the Son of Heaven?" We are self-defense, and it is enough for the country to be saved from danger." After the war, In order to show his respect, Zheng Zhuanggong also sent a doctor to pay tribute to the wounded King Huan of Zhou and his entourage. Zhu Nie's arrow completely shot Zhou Tianzi from the altar to the mortal world.
If the Zhou-Zheng confrontation marked that the Zhou royal family was reduced to an equality with the princely states, zhu Yan's middle shoulder marked that the Zhou royal family was even inferior to the princely states. People completely saw who was the boss in the true sense between Zhou Tianzi and the overlord. Although the arrow that shot at King Huan of Zhou's shoulder was not fatal, it really shot down the last dignity of Zhou Tianzi. Before the Battle of Qiange, Zhou Tianzi had not completely given up his efforts to restore his former authority, and by the time of the Battle of Qiange, the Zhou royal family had completely become a supporting role on the stage of history. A new era in which the princes of the weak and the strong eat and speak on their strength has arrived.