In the previous article, the eighteen-year-long Zhou royal family's 'Prince's Dynasty Rebellion' was all told, and then the time was pushed forward to the eighth year of King Jing of Zhou (512 BC), and returned to the previous article - in June of this year, the Duke of Jin Qing died, and Prince Wu of Jin succeeded him as the new Marquis of Jin, that is, Duke Ding of Jin.
And because of the funeral ceremony of Jin Qinggong, Wei Shu, the ruling military general of the Jin State, also had a fierce confrontation with Zheng Guoqing's Shi You Ji (Uncle Zi, Uncle Zi) on the etiquette system, and finally You Ji persuaded the Jin people with excellent eloquence and sensitive reactions, and successfully completed the diplomatic etiquette process of condolences and worship to Jin Qinggong.
In the following two years, among the states, the southern state of Wu and the state of Chu were still fiercely fighting, and the side of Chu had obviously shown a decline in national strength, and was made busy and exhausted by the rising state of Wu; But for the sake of the continuation of the 'hegemony', the state of Chu is still gritting its teeth and insisting, and the final decisive moment between Wu and Chu has not yet come.
On the Lu side in the north, the domestic turmoil has not yet ended - after the monarch Lu Zhaogong was driven out of the country by the ruling secretary Ji Sun Yiru, he has not been able to return to Qufu for many years and has been in exile in Qianhou; At this time, the Lu State was actually managed and ruled by the Ji family.
At that time, Jin Dinggong wanted to send Lu Zhaogong back to the capital Qufu by force as the 'overlord of the princes', but by mistake (coupled with Lu Zhaogong's own continued death), the contradiction between the monarchs and ministers of Lu State was not resolved, Lu Zhaogong and Ji Sun Yiru looked at each other wrongly, and the political chaos of Lu State would continue for a while.
However, these external circumstances did not affect the internal government of the Jin State very much; Under the rule of Zhengqing Wei Shu, the court of the Jin State was calm, and there were no outstanding contradictions and signs of infighting, which was already a rare situation in the history of the Jin State.
In the autumn and August of the tenth year of King Jing of Zhou (510 BC), King Jing of Heaven, the son of heaven, who had returned to the royal capital of Luoyi for five or six years after quelling the "Rebellion of the Prince's Dynasty", specially sent the royal family Da Fuxin and Shi Zhang to the Jin Kingdom to "visit" the Duke of Jin Ding, and asked the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State to contribute to the construction of the city wall of Chengzhou (the royal capital of Luoyi) for the royal family.
King Jing of Zhou, as a dignified son of heaven and a 'co-lord of the world', so lowered his stature to ask his subordinate Jin Dinggong (and Wei Shu, the ruler of the Jin State), and asked the Jin State to build a city wall for the royal family, which is also a matter of no way - today's Zhou royal family, don't say to 'order' the princes, it is the matter of 'food, clothing, housing and transportation' of their own family, if there is no irregular 'court employment' (that is, alms, alms) from the princes (excluding the Chu State), it will be faced with 'lack of food and clothing, Three meals are not enough's embarrassing situation.
After the 'Rebellion of the Prince Dynasty', the territory of Chengzhou was in a mess, the fields were barren, the city was ruined, and the only valuable materials were brought to the Chu State by the Prince Dynasty, and King Jing of Zhou himself was led by the Jin State to gather the princes to send them back to Luoyi and continue the career of the Son of Heaven (if there was no support from the princes, King Zhou Jing would probably still be eating soil in Diquan now!). ）； The royal family no longer had any spare strength and materials to renovate the royal capital and other cities in Wangji.
It can be said that in the five or six years since King Jing returned to the royal capital, he nominally returned to the royal capital and re-ascended to the position of the Son of Heaven, but in fact he was basically like a homeless man living in a wild earthen enclosure, and he was still a dilapidated earthen enclosure with a serious collapse of the city wall; After living like this for a long time, King Zhou Jing is about to live out of the psychological shadow.
Therefore, the royal family did not have the ability to build the dilapidated city, Zhou Tianzi thought about it, and had to ask the princes of the 'leading brother' Jin Guo for help, and asked the Jin State to help the royal family again and assist in building the city wall of the royal capital, which can be regarded as a specific manifestation of 'supporting the royal family and respecting the Son of Heaven again'.
In order to impress the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State to contribute to the construction of the Zhou city for the royal family, King Jing of Zhou also specially asked Fu Xin and Shi Zhang to bring their own handwritten letters to see Jin Dinggong and Wei Shu; In the letter, King Zhou Jing also called Jin Dinggong 'uncle' very sensually.
According to the custom of the Zhou royal family, the Son of Heaven called the princes with the same surname as brothers or uncles, and the princes with different surnames as nephews or uncles; But this also depends on the age gap between the Son of Heaven and the princes, if the difference is not large, it is called brother or nephew, if the difference is too large, it is called uncle or uncle; For example, after Jin Wen's security set the rebellion between the royal family and Prince Ping, King Xiang of Zhou called Jin Wengong his uncle; But Jin Dinggong is afraid that he is not much older than King Zhou Jing, and King Zhou Jing calls him his uncle, which is too numb and too low to his identity as the son of heaven.
King Jing of Zhou said to Jin Dinggong in a letter asking for help:
"Heaven is restless, and such a great calamity has been brought upon the Zhou family (the rebellion of the prince's court), which has caused chaos among my brothers, and it has also become a worry for you, uncle; The kingdom of my close nieces and uncles has not been allowed to rest for ten years now, and it has been five years since the princes sent troops to defend the royal capital. Not a day has I ever forgotten this, and I waited with trepidation, like a farmer looking forward to a good harvest, for the time of harvest.
Uncle, if you show great grace to the royal family, follow and rebuild the deeds of the first monarchs of the Jin Kingdom, Wenhou and Duke Wen (referring to the Marquis of Jin assisting King Zhou Ping to move eastward, killing King Zhou and bringing him to the east, and stabilizing the Zhou family; Duke Wen of Jin sent troops to quell the rebellion of the prince's belt, assisted King Xiang of Zhou, and stabilized the Zhou family again), alleviating the worries of the royal family, and then asking King Wen and King Wu (King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, this is the common ancestor of the Zhou royal family and the Jin Kingdom) for blessings, in order to consolidate the position of the lord of the alliance of the princes of my uncle and promote the good name of the Jin Kingdom, this is my greatest wish.
In the past, King Cheng (King Cheng of Zhou) joined the princes to build a city in Cheng Zhou, which was used as the eastern capital of the royal family, which was a manifestation of respect for Wenzhi. Now I want to ask the former king (King Cheng) for blessings, increase the city wall of Chengzhou, so that the soldiers who defend this place will no longer have to work hard, and the princes can be at peace, and then banish the thieves and bad people (referring to the prince dynasty) to a distant land, all of which can only be completed by relying on the strength of the Jin Kingdom. Therefore I entrust this matter to you, uncle, that he may reconsider, so that I myself may not arouse resentment among the people, and that you have a glorious deed, and the kings of the past will bless and thank you. ”
Although King Jing of Zhou's letter was written to the Duke of Jin Ding, and he also called the Duke of Jin Ding his uncle, but in today's Jin State, the power position of the monarch Jin Dinggong is actually not much worse than that of King Jing of Zhou in the princes, and at most he is treated as a 'mascot'; at present, the actual military and political power of the Jin State is still held by Wei Shu, the ruling secretary, and the other five secretaries, but Wei Shu's right to speak is more than that of the other five secretaries.
Therefore, after Jin Dinggong received King Zhou Jing's request to 'assist the royal family and build the city wall of the royal capital', he forwarded the letter to Liuqing without saying a word, and asked them to arrange for the implementation, and he no longer interfered.
After receiving the 'Letter of Appeal from the Son of Heaven' forwarded by the Duke of Jin Ding, the ruling six secretaries headed by Wei Shu immediately convened a court meeting to discuss how to deal with the matter.
"Rather than us continuing to send troops to defend Chengzhou (after the rebellion of the prince dynasty was quelled, the Jin state and other princes have been stationed in Luoyi to assist the royal family in defending against the counterattack of the remnants of the prince's dynasty), it is better to build more walls there. The Son of Heaven has now spoken openly (please go and assist in building the city), as long as we do this, even if the royal family has something to do in the future, the Jin Kingdom can not participate. Now obey the orders of the Son of Heaven, and let the princes breathe a sigh of relief (less obligations, less consumption of national strength), and the Jin Kingdom will have no worries in the future. If we don't commit ourselves to doing this, what better thing can we do? ”
Wei Shu agreed with Fan Ying's words, so he said:
"Okay, just do as you say."
And the ruling Zhongjun General and Zhongjun Zuo have already decided on a good matter, and the other four secretaries such as the Shangjun General Zhizhen, the Shangjun Zuo Zhao Ying, the lower army general Zhongxingyin, and the Xiajun Zuo Han Buxin will not be able to oppose it anymore, and this matter has been decided.
Subsequently, Wei Shu sent the doctor Boyin to reply to the royal envoys Fu Xin and Shi Zhang, and they relayed it to King Jing of Zhou:
"Since the Son of Heaven has an order, how dare the ministers run and report to the princes for execution without obeying the king's order; As for the progress of the construction of the city and the distribution of the quantity of the works, they were all under the orders of the Son of Heaven. ”
In the winter and November of that year, in order to implement the construction of the royal capital for Zhou Tianzi, Wei Shu took his army Zuo Han Buxin to the royal capital Luoyi, and met the doctors of the vassal states in Diquan (that is, the place where Zhou Tianzi lived when he fled in distress) (because the Duke of Jin Ding did not come this time, so all countries were also attended by doctors), first reviewed the past covenant (that is, the 'alliance of the Yellow Father'), and then ordered the doctors to contribute to the construction of the city wall for Cheng Zhou (Luoyi) according to the agreement between the Jin State and the royal family.
Originally, it was a good thing for the Jin State to take the lead in building and reinforcing the city walls of the Zhou Dynasty for the royal family, which could also bring a good reputation to the Jin State and stabilize the hegemony of the Jin State; But when he summoned and met with the doctors of the vassal states and arranged their respective 'city building' project tasks for them, Wei Shu, who was only the 'secretary' of the Jin Kingdom, actually sat facing south, and let the other doctors stand on his left and right!
Facing south at the time of the meeting, this is the position where Zhou Tianzi or the monarchs of all countries can sit! The Jin State is the leader of the princes' alliance, but this time the Duke of Jin Dinggong did not come, even if Wei Shu is actually in charge of the military and political power of the Jin State, he is still 'Qing' in terms of identity, not the monarch, he is not qualified to sit in this position!
Therefore, in response to Wei Shu's arrogant gesture of sitting facing south, Biao Jie, the patriotic doctor who participated in the meeting, prophesied:
"Wei Zi (Wei Shu) will definitely have a great disaster in the future; It is not something he can afford to overstep his duty and occupy the throne as a 'secretary' and use it to issue orders to the princes. In the Psalm, it is said, "Treat the wrath of Heaven with respect, and dare not be contemptuous; Respectfully treat the mutations of the heavens, and dare not indulge arbitrarily (the wrath of the heavens, dare not joke; Respect the heavens, don't dare to gallop)', not to mention that Wei Zi dares to exceed his duty and do the big thing of trespassing?! ”
On the 14th of the same month, Shi Mimu (Shi Jingbo), the great doctor of the Jin Kingdom, was entrusted by Wei Shu to design a feasible plan for the construction of the city wall in Chengzhou—calculating the length of the city wall to be built, estimating its height, measuring the thickness of the wall, calculating the depth of the ditch outside the wall, inspecting the amount of soil required, calculating the distance of transportation, budgeting the date of completion of the entire project, calculating the amount of labor, planning the use of equipment, and estimating the rations required by the labor workers of the project.
In the end, according to the actual employment situation, Shimimu assigned a detailed labor plan and the project bids for which each vassal state was responsible, recorded it and handed it to the relevant vassal state doctors, and ordered the princes to send their husbands to serve and work. The princes and doctors who participated in this project were Han Buxin of the Jin State, He Ji of the Sun of the Lu State, Gao Zhang of the Qi State, Zhongji of the Song State, Shushen of the Wei Kingdom, Zheng Guoguo Guoshen, and the doctors of Cao, Ju, Xue, Qi, Xiao Yi and other countries.
The entire Chengzhou city wall repair plan was handed over to the royal secretary Liu Yu (Liu Wengong) and handed over to Zhou Tianzi (King Jing of Zhou) for approval; In addition, the project was supervised by the Jin military Zuo Han Buxin to supervise the construction of the project with the intention of various countries; This is the 'royal capital repair plan' designed and finally implemented by Wei Shu.
The life changes that occurred because of the Jin State leading the princes to build the royal capital and the Jin State ruling Wei Shu will be summarized and narrated in the next article.