The ancestor of the Chu state was Emperor Gaoyang of the Chu Dynasty, who was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the son of Changyi. And Emperor Gaoyang's great-grandson Chongli was Emperor Gaoxin's Huozheng, that is, the person responsible for keeping the fire, because of his merit, Emperor Gao named him Zhu Rong, and he was revered by the people as the god of fire. Later, because of the rebellion of the Gonggong clan, Emperor Zhao ordered Chongli to quell the rebellion, and Chongli failed to completely eliminate the rebels, emperor was very dissatisfied, so he killed Chongli, and then let Chongli's younger brother Wu Hui replace him, and returned to Huozheng, still Zhu Rong. Wu Hui's son Lu had six sons, the sixth of whom was called Ji Lian, and his surname was "芈" and Xiong.
During the reign of King Zhou Cheng, Feng Jilian's Miao xiong xuan was made a viscount and established the State of Chu.
The original meaning of the Chu character is Jing, this kind of deciduous shrub can be seen everywhere in the south, the Chu people took "Chu" as the national name, also known as "Jingchu", and the Central Plains countries contemptuously called it "Jingman".
At that time, the State of Chu was extremely poor and backward, and there was no way to compare with other princely states. Xiong Xuan saw the grandeur of the Zhou royal family, coupled with the contemptuous attitude of the princes, and under the double stimulation, he secretly decided: he would definitely enlarge the Chu Kingdom. So Xiong Xuan and his subjects wore torn clothes, cut down trees such as thorny bamboo in Chudi, made cars, and worked tirelessly to develop barren mountains and mountains. This is the origin of the idiom 筚路蓝缕.
Through years of hard work, the national strength of the Chu State has been continuously enhanced, and its territory has also been continuously expanded.
Until the time of King Zhou Yi, the royal family declined, and Xiongqu's ambitions were nakedly displayed in front of the people of the world. It turned out that XiongQu had three sons, and XiongQu used the excuse that Chu Nai was barbarian and that his title was different from that of the Central Plains, and named his eldest son Kang the King of Jurchen, the second son Hong the King of E, and the third son The King of Yuezhang. This is both a dissatisfaction with Zhou Tianzi's sealing chu in the barbarian land, and a naked provocation to Zhou Tianzi's authority. This is undoubtedly bold and arrogant, and it is also the first time among the princes. However, although Xiongqu did this at this time, his heart was still a little worried, so when King Zhou Li succeeded to the throne, this famous tyrant in history still made the princes fearful, and Xiongqu was naturally no exception, he was afraid of angering King Zhou Li and being attacked, so he obediently took the initiative to cancel the title of king.
However, his groundbreaking move, in addition to making Zhou Tianzi dissatisfied and making the princes look sideways, also stimulated the ambitions of the descendants of the Chu State.
Until Xiong Tong killed his nephew and succeeded to the throne, he brought the Chu state to a small peak stage.
The State of Chu originally practiced the system of primogeniture, but out of a strong desire for power, when the blade died, his younger brother Xiong Tong disregarded Ren Tianli and killed his nephew who was supposed to succeed to the throne and established himself as the King of Chu, who was the historical King of Chu Wu.
Because Xiong Tong's means of succeeding to the throne were both fierce and disgraceful, the opposition of the Doctor of the DPRK was very high.
In order to seek support, Xiong Tong married Deng Man, the daughter of Deng Hou. Through the marriage to get the full help of Deng Guo, the doctor of the dprk saw that he had full wings and did not dare to say more, so Xiong Tong sat firmly in the position of Chu Jun. From then on, he began a political career of expanding the territory.
Soon after King Wu of Chu succeeded to the throne, he marched across the Han Dynasty and made an expedition to the Nanyang Basin to attack the Zhou Dynasty's important town in northern Han, and then spy on the Zhou royal family, but this time it ended in failure. King Wu of Chu naturally did not give up, and turned his gaze to the Jianghan Plain, and with the strong military strength of the Chu state, he quickly destroyed the power state.
King Wu of Chu was very shrewd, and he mobilized the masses to destroy the state of power, his purpose was not to show his face and prestige in front of the princely states, he was a practical faction, and getting the land was the real thing, and the so-called false names were all floating clouds, so the king of Chu Wu simply set the state of power as a county of power, and officially incorporated it into the territory of the state of Chu. Speaking of which, this is still the first of the Chu Kingdom.
After several conquests, the State of Chu had become the largest vassal state in the Jianghan region.
Xiong Tong knew that if he wanted to accomplish something, he would be assisted by a sage, so he reused the courtier Ling Yin Dou Bobby.
Xiong Tong summoned Ling Yin Doubobi, with an extremely humble and sincere attitude, and asked, "The ancestor of the Valley, the ancestor of the Valley, opened the mountains and forests, and only then did he have today's Chu Kingdom." However, it is still impossible to compare with the princely states of the Central Plains, and it is not necessary to make a difference, what does Qing think? ”
Dou Bobi said: "The Zhou Dynasty is weakening, the princely states are powerful, if the lord wants to be strong, he must develop his power to the north, and compete with the Central Plains states, but if he wants to chase the Central Plains, the princely states of Shen, Deng, Sui, and Huang have blocked the way to the east, and among these princes, Suiguo is the most powerful, so it is imperative to cut down and follow." ”
Xiong Tong pondered for a moment, thought deeply, and asked, "Fa Sui, does Qing have a brilliant plan?" ”
Dou Bobi said, "With the sage Ji Liang present, it is not easy to cut down and follow." Can the Lord first test the reality of the country? If you listen to Ji Liang with Hou, it means that the time machine is not yet mature. If you listen to the young master, it means that it is a heavenly opportunity, and the harvest can be successful. ”
Xiong Tong asked busily, "Then how to test?" ”
Dou Bobi said, "The lord can first salute and then the soldiers, temporarily station the army in the flawed land, and then send Xue Zhang to seek peace, and see who will be sent by the country to preside over what to talk about?" Re-establish the strategy. ”
Suiguo sent a young master to preside over the peace talks.
When Dou Bobi saw this, he clapped his hands and smiled, "The young master has come, just in line with my wishes." So he turned to Xiong Tong and said, "The young division is arrogant and arrogant, and the lord can hide the elite troops of our army and show the old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers to the young division to slow down his heart." ”
Moreover, when the young division saw that the Chu army was so weak and weak, he thought in his heart: "It is said that the Chu army has a neat lineup and is well-equipped, and it turned out that it was just a false name, and there is no need to worry." ”
So after the young division returned, he told Suihou about the lineup of the Chu army and asked to attack the Chu army, and Suihou xin thought that he really wanted to agree, but was persuaded by Ji Liang.
Ji Liang said, "Chu Jun is ambitious and bent on chasing after the Central Plains, and Cutting Sui is only the first step in his strategic deployment, but he is only afraid of following the strength of the country, so he does not dare to rush to raise troops, Chu Jun's purpose is nothing more than to test the reaction of our army, so he deliberately shows the weak division, this is a strategy to lure the enemy to go deeper, if you attack Chu, our army will be defeated, the yuan qi will be seriously injured, the lord is not as good as cultivating politics, and the Chu army is bound to retreat when it sees the situation." ”
Suihou pondered that if it was naturally good to let the Chu army retreat without a single soldier, he did as Ji Liang said, and the Chu army did not come to attack Suiguo. However, Xiong Tong was not comfortable in his heart, but he believed Ling Yin's words, and since Ling Yin thought that the time was not ripe, he had to give up.
Dou Bobi naturally saw that the lord was in a bad mood, so he advised: "Although our army does not follow, it does not mean that there is no action. If the name of everything is not correct, it is not smooth, and if the lord wants to chase the deer in the Central Plains, he must have a better and louder name, if he directly asks for it from the Son of Heaven, he really cannot open his mouth, so why not let the marquis convey it from it? ”
When Xiong Tong heard this, he was immediately overjoyed, and in disregard of Suihou's wishes, he forced Suihou to ask Zhou Tianzi for the name of Zhou Tianzi on behalf of Chu Guo.
Suihou feared the Chu state and did not dare not do it, but unfortunately Zhou Tianzi did not sell Suihou's face, or that although the Zhou royal family was weakened, it had not yet paid too much attention to the Chu state in the barbaric land, especially thinking that Xiongqu had arbitrarily sealed his own son as king, and there was anger in his heart, so he resolutely refused.
Xiong Tong heard that Zhou Tianzi refused to raise his name, and his heart was angry, and he secretly wondered: Letting Zhou Tianzi raise his name is also looking up to the Zhou royal family, since he does not know good and evil, why should he give the Zhou royal family face? Therefore, Xiong Tong simply did not do two things and followed the example of his ancestor Xiong Qu, but instead of making his son king, he directly crowned himself as king, for the "King of Chuwu".
King Wu of Chu, the king, also set a precedent for the princes to claim the title of king. And the decline of the Zhou royal family, there is nothing to do about the Chu state? Zhou Tianzi must have repented of his intestines, mainly because he never dreamed that the Chu State, which was in a barbaric land, would dare to risk the world's great disobedience to claim the title of king, and he had not yet explained that the Chu State's title was not the same as that of the Central Plains, was this not a naked provocation? Zhou Tianzi can't help it! Knowing this, why not push the boat along the water to give him a count or marquis? Now I'm making a fuss about my facelessness.
Two years later, Dou Bobi heard that Suihou was very fond of the young master, and felt that the opportunity had come, so he advised the King of Chuwu to recruit the princes of Jianghan to Shenluhui.
First, in order to test the status and influence of the Chu state in the princely states around Jianghan and Han; second, to see the reaction of the Suiguo, now that the Hou Hou favors the young master, the Suiguo is likely not to come, and it is just right to go to the Suiguo.
Sure enough, as Dou Bobi had predicted, the small princely states of Ba, Yong, Hang, Luo, Yun, Shen, Pu, Deng, Yi, Yun, and Jiang all arrived, and only the two relatively large princely states of Huang Guo and Sui Guo did not arrive.
King Wu of Chu first sent Xue Zhang to rebuke the Yellow Kingdom, and the Yellow State did not dare to offend the State of Chu, so he had to present a lot of gold and silver jewelry to the State of Chu, and the King of Chu Wu naturally would not let go of the Yellow Kingdom, but now was not the time to cut the Yellow Kingdom, so he gladly accepted it, and at the same time maintained friendly relations with the Yellow State to avoid the United States of Huang and suiguo.
Without Huang Guo's concerns, he was bent on dealing with Sui Guo.
The Chu army was stationed between Hanshui and Huaishui.
In the face of the Chu army once again suppressing the territory, the monarchs and subjects of the country were divided into two factions, one side advocating surrender and the other advocating a strong battle. The young division had never looked down on the Chu army, and two years ago he had personally seen the weakness of the Chu army, and this time he must fight and show his skills.
Ji Liang, on the other hand, remained silent.
Suihou asked Ji Liang what he thought?
Ji Liang said, "Let's surrender!" ”
Suihou looked at Ji Liang sheepishly, thinking that he had heard wrongly. He thought that Ji Liang would never be able to advocate surrender.
Ji Liang naturally knew the surprise and confusion in Suihou's heart, and then said: "If we surrender, the Chu people will not agree, so it is the Chu state that is at a loss, and if our soldiers hear about this, they will inevitably regard death as if they were fighting the Chu army, and the morale of the army is high, and it is possible to win the war with one enemy and ten enemies." ”
Suihou suddenly realized that Ji Liang wanted to retreat into advance.
The young master was jealous of Ji Liang, so he said, "Soldiers are precious and fast, and our army should fight quickly and make a quick decision, so why waste time with them?" ”
Suihou also felt that sooner or later there would be a war, so why should he make himself look very despicable! So he personally led the army to resist the Chu army.
Ji Liang and the young division accompanied Hou to watch the battle.
Ji Liang advised: "The Chu people respect the left, and the king of Chu is fixed in the left army, so the weapons, equipment, soldiers and horses of the left army are stronger than the right army, the front is flourishing, it is difficult to resist, once there is a loss of the army's heart, it is better to attack their right army, once the right army is defeated, the morale of our army is naturally high, and the Chu army will affect the combat morale because of the defeat of the right army, and our army will attack with all its strength to have the certainty of victory." ”
Chu state chariot war horse
The young master squinted at Ji Liang, his face was contemptuous, and his tone was rather unkind, "Knowing that the King of Chu is on the left side and not daring to attack, aren't you afraid?" How can such a timid person win a battle? Not to mention the thief who captures the king first? As long as our army captures the king of Chu, it can coerce the state of Chu to form an alliance with our country, and then the princes of Jianghan will not respect Chu as their respect, but with their entourage, and the lord and prince must not lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! ”
The young master's words fluttered with Hou, and his mind immediately came up with the appearance of the king of Chu being humble and submissive in front of him, so he did not follow Ji Liang's advice, but directly attacked the left army of the Chu state. In this way, the army launched a hand-to-hand combat with the Chu army at Suqi.
The left army of the Chu army is all elite, all of them are brave and good at fighting, where is the opponent of the Chu army? Defeated, shaoshi originally wanted to capture the king of Chu in this battle, so as to make a name for himself among the princes, but was unexpectedly beheaded by the Chu general Dou Dan, who was in a different place, and Dou Dan also captured the chariot of the Marquis.
Suihou deeply regretted that he did not listen to Ji Liang's words, fled into the wilderness, and ran to Suidu.
The Chu army was in hot pursuit, and Suihou had to seek a way from Ji Liang?
Ji Liang said, "For the sake of the present, we can only ally with the Chu state, honor Chu as the greatest, and pay tribute to Chu every year, in order to preserve the Zongmiao Temple of suiguo." ”
Suihou's dream of Huang Liang had been completely shattered, and he had to send Ji Liang to see the King of Chu.
It is said that Ji Liang came to the top of the Chu Kingdom Hall, saw the King of Chu sitting on the upper throne, with an arrogant attitude, and when Ji Liang saw the ceremony, he recounted the meaning of the alliance, and his attitude was not humble or profane.
The King of Chu angrily rebuked Ji Liang: "Each of the kingdoms of Jianghan and Han respects Bugu, but Suiguo is disrespectful to Bugu. Bu Gu was kind enough to ally with the princes of Jiang and Han in Shen Luhui, but only Huang Guo and Sui Guo did not arrive. Huang Guo's road is far away, Huang Jun explained to Bugu, with a sincere attitude, and Bugu naturally did not account. But what about Suihou? If you don't measure up to your own strength and don't fight against the valley, you will have to destroy the country, otherwise how can you be worthy of the Chu soldiers who died in battle? ”
Ji Liang said, "Shen Lu's alliance wanted to go with Hou Ben, it was the young master who advised Hou not to do it, and now the young master is dying, and he still hopes that the king of Chu will forgive him, moreover, the two countries will fight a war, death and injury are inevitable, and the soldiers of my country will also suffer countless casualties, and I also hope that the king of Chu will be able to forgive the country for the people, pay tribute with the hou every year, and respect Chu, just to be able to save the Zongmiao temple and save the people from the scourge of war." ”
King Wu of Chu's purpose was to destroy Suiguo, and just when he wanted to refuse, he saw Dou Bobi hand him a look to signal him: The Great King has eliminated the foolish young master, but the sage Ji Liang is still there, the opportunity to destroy the country is not yet ripe, the suiguo has been served, our purpose has been achieved, if we want to destroy the Suiguo, we have to wait for the opportunity!
King Chu Wu was so clever that he immediately changed his smile, "Since Suihou has known his sins, bugu does not want to see the lives of the people ruined, so according to the words of the doctor." So he made a pact with Ji Liang.
From then on, Suiguo no longer dared to offend the Chu state.
The State of Chu defeated the Sui State, and the States of Jianghan did not dare to offend the State of Chu even more, and the position of the hegemon of the State of Chu and the State of Jianghan was also stable, and from then on the State of Chu began the road of hegemony in the Central Plains.