During the Spring and Autumn Period, the princely states not only competed with Zhou Tianzi for power, but also had contradictions within their own families in order to compete for power and profit, and tragic cases such as father-son cannibalism and brotherly vendetta abounded.
As the saying goes, the tiger poison does not eat children, the wolf father of the Jin state can be described as fierce, in order for the younger son to successfully inherit the throne of the country, he has poisoned three of his own sons, he is the king of the Jin state Jin Xian Gong Ji Wei Zhu.
Ji Weizhu can be regarded as an accomplished monarch, reigning for twenty-six years, during which he attacked the city strategically, "merging the seventeen kingdoms and serving the thirty-eight countries." Ji Weizhu was cruel to his enemies, and even more cruel to his own son.
In the twelfth year of the Jin Dynasty (665 BC), Li Ji, the favored woman of the Jin Dynasty, gave birth to his younger son Xi Qi, and the Duke of Jin planned to depose the crown prince Shen Sheng and establish his younger son Xi Qi instead.
On the grounds that "Quwo is the center of the temple, Puyi is close to the Qin state, and Quyi is close to the state of Zhai, and it needs someone to guard it", The Duke of Jin sent Crown Prince Shensheng to live in Quwo, and the other two sons, Gongzi Zhong'er, lived in Puyi, and Gongzi Yiwu lived in Quyi.
Jin Xiangong and Li Ji took their young sons and lived comfortably in Daidu. Based on this, the Jin people deduced that the monarch wanted to change the rhythm of the prince! Jin Xiangong had nine sons, and the three sons he sent to the border guard were all very virtuous.
Jin Xiangong's intention was obvious, that is, to clear the stumbling block for his younger son Xi Qi. The "Left Biography" records that Shen Sheng, the crown prince of the Jin Dynasty, offered some wine and meat to his father Jin Gong, and at that time, the old father was not in the palace, and the empress dowager Li Ji accepted it on his behalf.
Six days later, Li Ji "poisoned the meat and offered it", Jin Xiangong threw the wine and meat on the ground, a small bag appeared on the ground, fed it to the puppy, immediately died, and then let a small servant eat it, and died immediately.
Does the son dare to poison the wine and meat? In fact, this matter can be figured out with his heels, and the parties are only Li Ji and Shen Sheng, and it is obvious that the stepmother planted the stolen frame.
Jin Xiangong was unwilling to conduct further investigation, and Li Ji burst into tears, saying "Thief by the eldest son", Jin Xiangong insisted that it belonged to the eldest son and poisoned.
Duke Xiangong of Jin first arrested Du Yuanqian, the teacher of Crown Prince Shensheng, and ordered him to list the crown prince's crimes. Du Yuanqian shouted unjustly: "Bacon has been released for six days, who knows if anyone has moved his hands and feet, if the meat is really poisonous, will it not change color?" ”
Jin Xiangong ordered two lux soldiers to smash Du Yuan's brain with a large hammer. Subsequently, he sent Dongguan Wu and Liang Wu to lead troops to capture the prince.
Some people advised the prince and his father to argue on the basis of reason, the prince Shensheng was too kind, in order to let the elderly father not be sad because of the loss of Li Ji, in order to let his father not be laughed at by the princes, he gave up the glimmer of life of fleeing and chose to hang himself.
Duke Xiangong of Jin forced the prince to die, and began to get rid of Gongzi Zhong'er and Gongzi Yiwu, the two sons. The reason for killing his son was that they all knew that the prince had poisoned him, and they all knew about it, and they belonged to the co-defendants.
In fact, these two princes were far away in the borderlands, and at that time, transportation was inconvenient and communications were not developed, and they had no idea what was happening in the capital.
From an early age, Duke Xiangong of Jin witnessed his grandfather and father brutally killing his own relatives, and the result of this cannibalism made the Jin state more and more powerful.
Jin Xian believed that mutilating clan relatives and killing other sons for the younger son was the only means of centralized power, and Li Ji only played a role of carrying a black cauldron, even if she did not poison, these three sons would have to die, must die.
In the twenty-second year of the Reign of Emperor Xian (655 BC), the Jin Dynasty made Xi Qi crown prince, and the following year, he sent the eunuch Bo Yan [dī] to Pucheng to assassinate Gongzi Zhong'er, who only cut off the sleeve of the heavy ear, and he climbed the wall and escaped.
Twelve years later, The Duke of Jin sent Bo Yan to assassinate Heavy Ear, and Heavy Ear escaped again.
At that time, Gongzi Yiwu was also attacked and killed by his father twice, and fled to the Qin state. After the death of Duke Xiangong of Jin, Dafu Rick killed Ji Xiqi, who was only fourteen years old.
Ji Yiwu learned of the changes in the country and agreed with the State of Qin to "cut off the eight cities west of the Jin River", and the State of Qin sent troops to send him back to the State of Jin, killed Dafu Rick and his henchmen, and established himself as the monarch of the country, that is, the Duke Hui of Jin.
Duke Hui of Jin died of illness after eleven years on the throne, and was succeeded by his son Ji Yuan, the Duke of Jin Huai.
Later, with the support of Duke Mu of Qin, the fleeing prince Ji Zhong'er returned to China and killed his twenty-two-year-old nephew Duke Huai of Jin, seizing the throne of the state, known as Duke Wen of Jin. Since then, the tragedy of the father and son of the Jin Dynasty and the brothers and uncles has come to an end.