This is the 282nd original article of Shi Shuoxing
It is said that in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, The Duke Wen of Jin, the King of Chu Zhuang, and the Duke of Qin Mu took turns to dominate. However, King Chu Zhuang had two magical three-year spells on his body. At the beginning of his reign, he indulged in wine all day, and only after three years did he begin to make a difference, which was his life; three years after his death, the State of Chu conquered the Jin state's ally The State of Lu, and also held 14 congressional alliances, with Chu as the leader of the alliance and officially dominating!
Previously, the author analyzed in detail the beginning of the reign of King Chu Zhuang, and within three years, he not only indulged in wine, he only used it as a mask to deceive the world. In fact, King Chu Zhuang was secretly probing, so that it would take three years before he could make a splash and succeed in reforming by thunderous means. It can be said that without his painstaking management in the past three years, there would have been no subsequent hegemony at all.
Then later went north to the Central Plains to compete with the Jin state for hegemony, the previous author analyzed, he frequently ravaged the small countries in the Central Plains, of which Zheng Guo was the key, because Zheng Guo was a fortress to restrain the Jin state to go south, and he must effectively control the Zheng state. Therefore, the famous second battle between Jin and Chu broke out, the Battle of Wu, and due to the discord between the generals of the Jin state, first because of a general, the whole army crossed the river, and then because of a general, they sabotaged the peace talks, and finally they also confused themselves and rushed to cross the Yellow River, causing internal friction. After this battle, the Jin state lost its hegemonic position.
Among the three major states in the Central Plains, Chen and Zheng had already been conquered by Chu, and the king of Chu Zhuang was about to point the spearhead at the Song state. In the winter of the Battle of Wu, Chu took advantage of the situation to destroy the Song vassal Xiao Guo (萧国, in modern Xiao County, Anhui) and attacked the Song state every year. In September of the nineteenth year of King Zhuang of Chu (575 BC), the Chu army besieged the capital of Song, and Song asked Jin for help, but Jin believed that "although the whip is long, it is not as good as the belly of a horse." Heaven has come to the aid of Chu, but it is not possible to fight with it", and even refused to send troops to rescue.
After a nine-month siege by May of the following year, the military and civilians in the city had reached the miserable situation of "changing children and eating, and dissolving the skeletons (cuàn strings)". King Zhuang accepted Song's request, retreated 30 miles, and after making an alliance with Song, with Song Dafu Huayuan and Chu as hostages. At this point, the three major countries in the Central Plains had all surrendered to Chu. King Zhuang won the war against the Jin Dynasty and basically achieved his political goal of controlling the Central Plains.
In the sixteenth year of King Ding of Zhou (591 BC), King Zhuang of Chu died, but his influence did not disappear immediately. In the third year after his death, Chu conquered The Jin ally Of Lu, forced him to take the crown prince to Chu as a hostage, and held an alliance of princes in Shu (present-day Tai'anxi, Shandong), with 14 kingdoms including Chu, Lu, Qi, Qin, Zheng, Chen, Song, Cai, Wei, Xu, Cao, Yi, and Xue attending, and Chu as the ally and officially dominating the meeting.
But unfortunately, if he died three years late, or if he had removed the three years of previous drunkenness, and the whole process was three years ahead of schedule, he might have been able to see the hegemony he had created, but history could not be assumed after all, perhaps this was the life of King Chu Zhuang!
This was the result of King Zhuang of Chu's life fighting for chu supremacy. According to the "Han Feizi Youdu" record, during his reign, "he merged the country for twenty-six years and opened up the land for three thousand miles." Objectively, it promoted the great integration of the people of all nationalities in the south of our country and realized the partial unification of the Jianghan region, creating favorable conditions for the national reunification of later Qin, and at the same time making some contributions to the development of the war!
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