The Shang Dynasty was the first dynasty in Chinese history to have written records of the same period, and the second hereditary dynasty after the Xia Dynasty, which was established by Cheng Tang. The Shang Dynasty was originally a Fang country subordinate to the Xia Dynasty, but the Xia King was tyrannical and unreasonable, and Cheng Tang complied with the Mandate of Heaven to raise troops to attack Xia, and finally took the world into his pocket. Let's take a look at the entrepreneurial history of the Shang Dynasty.
The merchant is a branch of the Dongfang Yi people, with the Xuanniao as the totem, its ancestor is the son of Emperor Yu and Jian Di, because of the meritorious service of assisting Dayu to control the water and was sealed in Shangyi, and later the tribe of the deed was named after "Shang".
Qi has been fond of business since he was a child, and under his leadership, the entire Shang tribe began to do business, so later generations called those who engaged in trading activities merchants. And it is precisely because of the love of business that businessmen have accidentally gained the opportunity to rise.
When the Shang tribe passed to Wang Hai, the sixth grandson of the deed, the Xia Dynasty had been established for more than 200 years, and the Shang tribe had been very wealthy after several generations of operation, and Wang Hai pushed the tribe's commercial trade to a climax. During his reign, he domesticated bison to speed up agricultural production, and often used cattle to haul goods to the outside of the country for trading. During a trade with the Yi tribe, the leader of the Yi clan plundered Wang Hai's goods and killed him.
After Wang Hai's death, his younger brother Wang Heng succeeded him as the leader of the Shang tribe. In order not to cause a war, the Yi clan ransomed the blood debt with a heavy amount of money, Wang Heng accepted the gift of the Yi clan, and the two tribes reconciled. This move caused Wang Hai's son Shangjiawei to be dissatisfied, so Shangjiawei began to investigate the cause of his father's death.
After Shangjiawei learned that his father was killed by the Yi tribe, he decided to take revenge. But at this time, his uncle Wang Heng had already reconciled with the Yi clan, so he couldn't count on his tribe to intervene in this matter. Fortunately, the transaction between Wang Hai and Youyi was guaranteed by Hebo, and Hebo must be responsible for Wang Hai's death. Shangjiawei borrowed troops from Hebo, and then brought the family armed forces who were willing to fight with him to fight against the Yi clan, which is known as the battle of the Shang Shangjia Wei to destroy the Yi clan. In this battle, Shangjiawei won the victory, and then relied on his military exploits and prestige to compete with his uncle Wang Heng for power, and finally succeeded in ascending the throne.
After Shangjiawei succeeded to the throne, a series of reforms were carried out, changing the inheritance system of the Shang tribal leaders from the parliamentary election system to the hereditary system, so that the state form of the Shang tribe began to take shape. The Shang state also gradually became one of the most powerful Fang states in the east of the Xia Dynasty.
At the end of the Xia Dynasty, the power of the Shang State had penetrated into the ruling area of the Xia and extended to the middle reaches of the Yellow River.
Cheng Tang appointed Yi Yin and Zhong Yu as the left and right ministers, and regardless of their background, they only promoted and reused many people in terms of talent. Yi Yin first persuaded Cheng Tang to stop paying tribute to the Xia Dynasty, and as a result, Xia Wei was attracted to attack Tang by "raising the army of Jiuyi". Seeing that Jiuyi was still listening to the command of the Xia Dynasty, Yi Yin knew that the time had not yet come to destroy Xia, so he offered a plan to temporarily resume paying tribute to the Xia Dynasty and moved the battlefield to the public opinion that could not see the smoke of gunpowder.
After that, Cheng Tang listened to Yi Yin's advice, created public opinion, counted various crimes of Xia Wei, and called on the princes to abandon the darkness and surrender to the Shang State. Of course, there are also those who follow the Xia Dynasty with all their hearts, such as Ge, Wei, Gu, and Kunwu. These small countries were naturally not Chengtang's opponents, and they were successively destroyed by Shang. At this point, Xia Ji's wings have all been cut off, and Chengtang is also famous, and the decisive battle between Shang and Xia is about to start.
About 1601 B.C., Chengtang stopped paying tribute to the Xia Dynasty again, and this time "the division of Jiuyi could not afford it", and Xia Wei completely fell into the predicament of isolation and helplessness. About 1600 B.C., Chengtang officially raised troops to attack the army, and held a swearing-in meeting to read out the text of the war, and the morale of the merchant army was greatly boosted under the mobilization of Chengtang. Then Cheng Tang led 70 chariots and 6,000 merchant troops to attack the summer capital, the Xia army hurriedly went out to battle, the two armies met and fought in Puzhou, the Xia army was defeated and retreated to Mingtiao, Cheng Tang led the army to chase after him, and finally started a decisive battle with the Xia army in Mingtiao.
The battle of Naruto coincided with a thunderstorm, but the Shang army was fearless and did not avoid the thunderstorm, and they were all extremely brave, and the Xia army was defeated like a mountain. Seeing that the general trend had gone, Xia Wei led the remnants of the army to flee to his subordinate Fang Guo Sanshu. Seeing this, Cheng Tang immediately marched eastward, and Yu Cheng'er engaged the Sanshu army, not only defeating the Sanshu army, but also seizing Sanshu's treasure jade and property. Seeing that things were not going well, Xia Wei fled south again, and the merchant army pursued closely until he was forced to Nanchao.
After the Battle of Mingtiao, the rule of the Xia Dynasty fell, and the Shang army invaded the Xia capital, and the magnates of the original Xia Dynasty surrendered one after another. After Cheng Tang pacified the subjects of the Xia Dynasty, he held a ceremony to worship the heavens in the Xia capital, and then returned to the Shang capital. Princes, Fang Bo and tribal leaders from all over the country came to the Bo Dynasty to congratulate Chengtang and elected Chengtang as the Son of Heaven, and the Shang Dynasty was officially established.