The Battle of Zhou Zheng in the thirteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (707 BC) was an unforgettable and far-reaching battle for the Zhou royal family. Fifty-two years before this great war, that is, in the twelfth year of King Ping of Zhou (759 BC), King Ping of Zhou had just moved east to Luoyi.
For the zhou ping regime that moved eastward, the zhou ping king defeated the king's regime in the twentieth year (750 BC) and became the only king in the world, which was the first major political victory. However, after the great victory, due to the suspicion of killing his father by the Zhou Ping dynasty, he was not unanimously approved by the princes of the world. The Zhou royal family's political sphere of influence was limited to the area west of the Song Mountains and southwestern Jin, and although the Weihe Plain was Qin, most of it was under the control of Rong Di. The traditional Central Plains princely states, Song, Qi, Lu, Wei, Cao, Cai, Chen, Xing, Northern Yan, etc., had not yet recognized the legitimacy of the Zhou Ping king's regime at this time. Therefore, after the Zhou Ping regime moved east, there were only two powerful countries that could be relied on: the Zheng state and the Jin state.
In the twenty-fifth year of King Ping of Zhou (746 BC), Marquis Wen of Jin died, and the State of Jin fell into a dispute between Quwo and the Marquis of Jin for sixty-seven years. This made the "one leg" that the Zhou royal family relied on folded. In the twenty-seventh year of King Ping of Zhou (744 BC), Duke Wu of Zheng also died, and the thirteen-year-old Duke Zheng Zhuang became the monarch. The young monarch Zheng Zhuanggong was obviously unable to expand the political territory of the Zhou royal family in such a delicate political environment. Therefore, the "other leg" that the Zhou royal family relied on was no longer good. From the 27th year of King Ping of Zhou (744 BC) to the 49th year of King Ping of Zhou (722 BC), the political sphere of influence of the Zhou royal family remained around the Luoyang Basin and could no longer expand eastward.
King Ping of Zhou
The reason for this situation is not that the Jin State and the Zheng State did not make subjective efforts, but that there were indeed objective difficulties in the country: the Jin State was in constant civil strife, and the Zheng State was ruled by a young monarch. But for the Zhou royal family, the Zhou Ping king could not afford to consume. Decades have passed since the fall of Western Zhou in the eleventh year of King Zhou (771 BC), and King Ping of Zhou has changed from an ignorant teenager to an old man, but the Zhou royal family has not yet been generally recognized by the princes of the world, how can the Zhou royal family survive in the Luoyang Basin for a long time? In order to speed up the expansion of the Zhou royal family in the political sphere of influence in the Central Plains, King Zhou Ping wanted to support another capable man to fill the gap between Jin and Zheng. After several years of consideration, King Ping of Zhou finally decided to promote The Duke of Xiyu to the position of consul. But the mistake of King Zhou Ping was that he had been thinking about it for too long, and at this time Zheng Zhuanggong had grown up. Seeing that the Zhou royal family wanted to divide the government of Zheng Guo, Zheng Zhuanggong immediately protested to the Zhou royal family. As soon as Zheng Guo spoke, King Zhou Ping immediately confessed, swore that there was no such thing, and offered to exchange protons in exchange for Zheng Guo's trust.
This is the root cause of the contradiction between Zheng Guo and the Zhou royal family: there is a major divergence between the reality of Zheng Guo and the goal of the Zhou royal family to unify the world. After the forty-ninth year of King Ping of Zhou (722 BC), this contradiction was not only not bridged, but became more and more prominent. Due to the power struggle between Zheng Zhuanggong and his younger brother Ji Duan, it unfortunately triggered a great scuffle between Zheng Guo and the surrounding princely states of Lu, Song, Wei, Cai, Chen, etc., which lasted for eleven years! For the State of Zheng, in order to survive, it was necessary to defeat the powerful "anti-Zheng alliance" established by the neighboring countries; but for the Zhou royal family, in order to get the approval of the princes of the world as soon as possible, these princely states hostile to the State of Zheng were indispensable objects of "united front". The greater the contradiction between the Zheng state and the surrounding princely states, the more it deviated from the political goals of the Zhou royal family, and of course, the contradiction with the Zhou royal family became more and more large.
Zheng Zhuanggong
Therefore, after the death of King Ping of Zhou in the fifty-first year (720 BC), the succeeding King Huan of Zhou immediately appointed the Duke of Xiyu as the new consul, in preparation for the future replacement of Zheng Zhuang. When Zheng Zhuang heard this, he was furious: in April of that year, he sent a doctor to sacrifice Zhongzhong to harvest the wheat of Wenyi, the king of Zhou, and in the autumn of the same year, he also snatched the rice around Luoyi! Under the threat of Zheng Guo's powerful force, King Huan of Zhou had to take back his life. Since then, the contradiction between the Zhou royal family and the Zheng state has developed from the inconsistency of the initial political goals to a private feud between the King of Zhou Huan and the Duke of Zhengzhuang. Therefore, in the third year of King Huan of Zhou (717 BC), when Duke Zheng Zhuang first came to see King Huan of Zhou, he actually said, "The king is not polite!" ”
Although King Huan of Zhou hated Zheng Zhuang to the bone, King Huan of Zhou knew that the royal family was inferior to others, and did not dare to openly fall out with Zheng Guo. However, King Huan of Zhou would not let Zheng Guo go. After the third year of King Huan of Zhou (717 BC), Duke Zhengzhuang borrowed the name of the royal family and frequently fought with the party and achieved many victories. To some extent, this also inspired King Huan of Zhou: Since Duke Zheng Zhuang can do so many things in the name of the royal family, can't the Zhou royal family do more?
Therefore, on the one hand, King Huan of Zhou sent emissaries to visit the princely states to strengthen ties with the princes, and on the other hand, he began to frequently criticize the state of Zheng: in the summer of the fifth year of king Huan of Zhou (715 BC), king Huan of Zhou appointed the duke of Xiyu as the deputy consul and divided the power of the duke of Zhengzhuang; in the eighth year of the king of Zhou Huan (712 BC), the king of Zhou Huan announced that he would take back the four pieces of land from the state of Zheng, Liu, Wu, Huang, and Qiu, and then emptyly promised the state of Zheng the state of Su, so that the state of Zheng lost four pieces of land in vain. King Huan of Zhou made these small moves in order to provoke Zheng Zhuanggong.
However, Zheng Zhuanggong was not an idle man. Although King Huan of Zhou repeatedly put small shoes on Zheng Guo, at this time Zheng Guo was relying heavily on the royal family, so Zheng Zhuang put up with all this and did not retaliate against the royal family.
In the thirteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (707 BC), seeing that Duke Zheng zhuang never resisted, king Huan of Zhou, who was ready to stop, used the last killer skill: he revoked the post of duke of Zhengzhuang's ruling secretary and appointed only the Duke of Xiyu. Since the royal family had completely abandoned the State of Zheng, Zheng Zhuanggong was no longer willing to maintain face-to-face harmony with the Zhou royal family--from then on, Zheng Zhuanggong no longer went to the royal family for hajj.
Zheng Zhuanggong's move just fell into the trap of King Huan of Zhou.
After so many years of preparation, King Huan of Zhou had been waiting for Zheng Zhuanggong's rebellion. King Huan of Zhou immediately united with the three kingdoms of Cai, Wei, and Chen, and announced in a high-profile manner that he was "not the king" of zheng guo! In the autumn of the thirteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (707 BC), the royal army and the Zheng army encountered the Zheng land of Changge. However, King Huan of Zhou, who was full of confidence before the war, was defeated!
After the defeat of the Zhou royal family chief Ge guo at the zheng state, its political influence was extremely far-reaching: in the fourteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (706 BC), King Wu of Chu began to invade Suiguo, and immediately claimed the throne after his request for honor was rejected; in the fifteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (705 BC), Duke Wu of Quwo began to attack the Marquis of Jin with impunity and killed another Jin jun; in the twenty-first year of King Huan of Zhou (699 BC), the state of Qi still began to annex the Ji state under the premise of knowing that Ji's daughter had married into the royal family and became queen.
The great defeat of King Huan of Zhou reflected the success of Zheng Zhuanggong in operating in Eastern Zhou for more than ten years. By the thirteenth year of King Huan of Zhou (707 BC), Zheng Zhuanggong had successfully defeated the "anti-Zheng Grand Alliance" centered on Song, Wei, Chen, and Cai. The Song Duke, who was hostile to Zheng Guo, was killed by the Song people, and replaced by the Song Zhuang Gong, whom Zheng Zhuang had vigorously supported; in the later period of the Duke of Lu Yin, the State of Lu had already turned enemies into friends with Zheng Guo and became a staunch ally of Zheng Guo; the relations between the State of Qi and the State of Zheng were even stronger, and although the distance between the two countries was far away, the relationship was the closest.
The Battle of Changge
Zheng Guo's strong influence in Eastern Zhou forced King Huan of Zhou to find only the three princely states of Wei, Cai, and Chen when looking for allies to attack Zheng. Although Wei Guo was powerful, under wei Xuan's chaotic government, its national strength was weak and it was no longer a rival to Zheng Guo; Chen Guo had just experienced civil strife in the killing of the emperor, and the people's hearts were scattered; although Cai Guo was a state surnamed Ji, it had long been an insignificant existence, and its strength was not outstanding. Wei, Chen, and Cai were all defeated generals of Zheng Guo for a long time. Moreover, Chen Guo married Zheng Guo in his early years, and the Zheng people had a more thorough understanding of the hypocrisy of his army.
Therefore, when the Battle of Changge officially broke out, under the advice of Gongzi Jitu, the first breakthrough point for Zheng Guo's army to find was Chen Guo's army: "Chen chaos, the people do not have a fighting heart." If he commits it first, he will run. Since it is gathered in the king's pawn, it can be gathered. ”
Because of the lack of support from powerful princes before the war, the allies collapsed first during the war, resulting in a major defeat in the Battle of Changge, the King of Zhou Huan. King Huan of Zhou was also shot in the shoulder by Zheng Ren, and almost lost his life!
King Huan of Zhou's great defeat was caused by overestimating his own strength. King Huan of Zhou chose the wrong allies at the wrong time to fight the wrong "enemy" in a wrong showdown. After the defeat of Changge, the strength (including hard power and soft power) accumulated by the Zhou royal family for more than forty years after moving east was destroyed, and there was no chance to realize the royal family's ZTE after that!