After invading Chaoge, the Zhou people faced a new problem, that is, how to rule and manage the "Dayi Shang". The long-standing thinking of the Zhou people played a decisive role. They did not believe that they could easily conquer the Dayi merchants, and although Makino defeated the merchant army and invaded Chaoge, the Zhou people did not consider themselves the rulers of the merchants, and they were still somewhat afraid of the merchants.
The ruling wisdom of the Zhou people
So, they did two things, one was to move the Shang remnants to the Weishui River Basin. Regarding this historical event, there is a record of the "Shi Wall Plate" inscription, which is divided into two parts, the front is praising the founding achievements of the Zhou Dynasty, from King Wen to King Mu, and behind is the family tree of the Shi Wei clan, which has the sentence: "Wei Clan Liezu" went to King Wu, and King Wu ordered the Duke of Zhou to arrange a place for them to live and settle them in Qi Zhou.
History Wall Plate
Fengyan Village is Qi Zhou, where the historical wall plate was unearthed, proving the authenticity of the inscription. Through the Shi Wall Plate, we can confirm that the "Shi" family (with the "book" inscribed on the family emblem, may have been responsible for the recording work of the Shang Dynasty), migrated from Yin to Qishan after King Wu's felling. They lived here for seven or eight generations, forged historical walls and recorded their family trees.
The family tree on the historical wall plate, there is Xin Gong, there is Yizu, it is obviously the merchant naming method. Some of the bronzes unearthed in the Weishui region have a strong Shang dynasty style, and some of them should have been brought by the Shang remnants when they migrated, or they were cast here.
Historical wall plate inscription rubbing
From this example, it can be seen that the Zhou people had a certain selectivity towards the migration of Shang remnants. They deliberately choose families that have a special role in the business culture system. This is the talent and expertise that the Zhou people lacked in the past, and it is an important factor in determining the legitimacy of the regime and the legitimacy of the rule. On the one hand, the population of Chaoga was moved out, so that the merchants lost their original legal status; On the other hand, transfer this symbolic ability to Zhou Ren. Bronze and inscription were important tools for merchants, so these professionals were moved to Zhouyuan.
Zhou summoned the Eastern Crusade
King Wu moved the professionals to Zhou Yuan and handed over the central area of the merchants around Chaoga to King Shu's eldest son, Wu Geng, and arranged for Uncle Guan, Uncle Cai, and Uncle Huo to be in charge of monitoring, while King Wu himself returned to Zong Zhou Fenghao. Soon after, he became seriously ill. It is recorded in "Shangshu Jinteng" that Zhou Gongdan prayed to heaven for his brother's illness, wanting to replace him with his own life. King Wu died two years after his death due to a serious illness, and his son was young, so the Duke of Zhou ascended the throne and became the ruler of the Zhou people.
Zhou Gongfu became a portrait stone of Wang Yu Kitchen
Whether the Duke of Zhou ascended the throne or not was debated in later generations. The traditional system of the Zhou people is very clear, all fathers die and sons succeed, and there are no brothers and brothers. King Wu was the eldest son of King Wen, followed by Uncle Guan, not the Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou succeeded King Wu, which went against the tradition of the Zhou people.
Zhou Gong Images
But there are some special reasons: first, King Wu died early, and King Cheng was still too young; Second, their direct conflict with the merchants has just begun, and the situation is still tense; Third, King Wu's brothers were all arranged in the merchant area to watch over Wu Geng, and Zong Zhou only had the Duke of Zhou. Under such circumstances, Zhou Gong was actually the real controller.
Zhou Gong Crusade route
After the Duke of Zhou came to power, there was a brotherly dispute, and Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai both openly expressed their opposition to the Duke of Zhou. Behind Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai, stood Wu Geng's merchant power. In a very short period of time, there was a serious division in the Zhou Dynasty, on the one hand, the Zong Zhou controlled by the Duke of Zhou, on the other hand, the forces of Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai, as well as the Shang remnants.
At this critical moment, the Zhao Clan played a decisive role. The Duke of Zhou and his brothers turned against each other and persuaded the leader of the Zhao clan, Zhao Gong, to establish a close alliance with him, giving him the strength to fight Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai, so the Duke of Zhou took a tough stance, refused to back down, and launched a crusade. In later history books, it is generally called the "Zhou Gong Crusade", but in the Jinwen materials, it is all "Zhou Zhao Crusade" without exception. Zhao Gong and Zhao Clan played a great role in this operation.
The Zhou Gong Crusade Fang Ding and the inscription rubbing
As for military operations, the scale and difficulty of their military operations are even greater than those of King Wu. The war zone was widely distributed, from Liangshan in Shanxi in the north to the north bank of the Huai River in the south, with Zongzhou as the center, expanding outward in a fan shape. The importance of this battle even surpassed the Battle of Makino. In fact, the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty did not begin with King Wu's felling, but after the Zhou Zhao Crusade.
In this war, the forces of the Zhou people were forced to approach the east. After King Wu's felling, the Zhou people only symbolically replaced the co-lordship of the merchants, and only symbolically managed those places that had been subject to the merchants. Except for asking them to recognize the special status of the Zhou people, they basically maintained their original status quo in other aspects, and they did not think that they had the ability to control such a large area, so they returned to their old lair, and operated carefully, without any ambition.