The life of King Xiong Heng of Chu Qingxiang can be said to be very legendary.
Before Xiong Heng became the king of Chu, he was once in the Qin State, but because he killed the doctor of the Qin State, Qin and Chu became enemies.
Later, Xiong Heng was defeated by the Chu State because of the battle between Qi and Chu Chuisha, and was forced to be hostaged in the Qi State and became a hostage in the Qi State.
After spending a few years as a hostage in the State of Qi, when his father King Chu Huai was detained by the State of Qin, Xiong Heng returned to the State of Chu after nearly three years of absence and became the new king of the State of Chu, so as to save the situation that King Huai of Chu was detained and the State of Chu was ownerless and chaotic.
After Xiong Heng became the king of Chu, he carried out some rectification in the country and stabilized the situation in Chu.
Because the Qin State detained the first king of the Chu State, Xiong Heng continued to adopt the strategy of uniting Qi to resist Qin, and this strategy was naturally very successful at the beginning.
In this year, that is, in 299 BC, Meng Weijun of Qi and Han and Wei sent troops to crusade against Qin, and even broke through the Qinhan Valley Pass, and Qin was also forced to cede land to the Three Kingdoms to sue for peace.
After the news of the defeat of the Qin State and the suing for peace with Han and Wei, the king of Chu Qingxiang immediately thought that the time had come for the Chu State to recover the lost territory and rescue the first king, so he immediately reorganized his troops and horses and took the opportunity to crusade against the Qin State.
But I didn't expect that after the battle of Chuisha, the military spirit had long been dissipated, and the combat effectiveness was declining day by day, although the Chu State recaptured the land north of Danyang, but it was defeated by the Qin army outside Wuguan, and 50,000 soldiers died, and even the land of Danbei that had just been recovered was completely buried.
After the defeat of King Chu Qingxiang, he also understood that he was not an opponent of Qin, so he hurriedly sent people to ask for peace with Qin, and because Qin was eager to solve the threat of Wei and Han to himself, he agreed to King Chu Qingxiang's request for peace and stopped attacking Chu.
But at this time, King Chu Huai wanted to escape from Qin and fled to Zhao, but no one dared to take him in, and he died of illness after returning to Qin.
However, because King Chu Qingxiang was afraid that he would go to the Qin State, he ended up like his father King Chu Huai and refused the request of the Qin State to invite him.
However, it didn't take long for the Three Jin Dynasty to break out in turmoil, first the death of King Xiang of Wei, then the death of King Xiang of Han, and the 'Dune Rebellion' occurred in Zhao State, and the situation of the Three Jin Dynasty in the Central Plains fell into a chaotic situation.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Qin State began to send troops to attack Korea, and South Korea sent people to ask for help from the Chu State, and Qu Yuan took this opportunity to propose to the King of Chu Qingxiang that the King of Chu Qingxiang send troops to aid Korea, so as to unite the Three Jin and Qi States to crusade against the Qin State and recover the lost territory.
And during this period, the envoy of Qin also came, and the envoy of Qin directly threatened King Xiang of Chu, saying that after Qin attacked Korea, the next one would be to attack Chu, and asked King Chu to marry the princess of Qin.
Because King Chu Qingxiang was afraid of being beaten by Qin, coupled with the fact that the land of Nanyang was occupied by South Korea after the 'Battle of Chuisha', Zilan and others around him provoked it, which made King Chu Qingxiang want Qin and Han Wei to lose both, so he rejected South Korea's request for help, and exiled Qu Yuan, took the initiative to show goodwill to the Qin envoy, and promised to marry the princess of Qin.
The goal of Qin to divide Chu and Han was achieved, and the princess was immediately married to King Xiang of Chu, and the two countries re-established the friendship between Qin and Chu, and Qin was able to focus on dealing with Han and Wei.
After the Korean envoy for help arrived in Wei, Wei immediately agreed to Korea's request for help, and sent troops to Qin together with Korea, which is the famous 'Battle of Yique'.
If King Xiang of Chu had understood the truth of death at that time, listened to Qu Yuan's suggestion, agreed to Korea's request for help, and formed an alliance with Korea and Wei to deal with Qin, he would not have ended up with the Qin army in the future.
It was precisely because of the 'Battle of Yique' that Han and Wei in the north were weakened since then that the Qin State dared to unscrupulously clean up the Chu State in the south.
Due to the continuous sending of troops to attack Han and Wei during this period, the state of Chu obtained a period of peaceful development, but this period did not last long.
In 288 BC, Qin and Qi called each other 'emperors', and after the two countries cleaned up the Three Jin Dynasty together, they began to jointly attack the state of Chu.
The Qin State went all the way south from Danyang, occupied Yancheng, and hit Yunmengze, and the Qi State captured the entire land east of Shouchun of the Chu State, and the Chu State suffered heavy losses in this war.
After the end of this war, King Qingxiang of Chu finally came to his senses and immediately agreed to Zhao's request to 'unite with the people' and united with Zhao, Wei, Han, and Yan to form a five-nation alliance to start dealing with Qin first.
King Xiang of Chu also took advantage of this 'unity' of the Five Kingdoms to recapture Yancheng and Yunmeng, which had previously been occupied by the Qin State.
At this time, in order to prevent the five states from turning their troops to Qi, Qi took the initiative to show goodwill with Chu, returned part of the Chu land it had occupied before, and invited Zhao, Wei, and Chu to attack the Song State, which was making enemies everywhere.
The Song State was attacked by the Four-Nation Alliance and was soon on the verge of extinction.
During this period, Wei and Zhao took the opportunity to occupy all the richest places in the Song State, which naturally caused Qi to be dissatisfied, after all, the crusade against the Song State, Qi State contributed the most.
Therefore, the State of Qi invited King Xiang of Chu to send troops, wanting to squeeze out Zhao and Wei and re-divide the Song State with the State of Chu.
However, King Xiang of Chu Qingxiang did not want to intervene in the contradictions between Qi, Zhao, and Wei, and took the position of watching the play.
Qi then turned his face and attacked Wei, the Wei army was forced to withdraw from the Song land contention, and then the Qi State sent troops to crusade against Zhao, but Zhao was not interested and did not want to spit out the bones that were swallowed, but instead increased his troops to fight with the Qi army, and the two countries came to a three-year fierce battle.
In the end, although Zhao was defeated, it greatly injured the vitality of Qi, and in order to win over Chu, Qi agreed to give a quarter of Song's land to Chu.
At this time, the position of King Xiang of Chu Qingxiang shifted from the 'Five Kingdoms Alliance' to the alliance with Qi.
Because the weakness of Qi gave Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qin, Han and other countries opportunities, the five countries formed a coalition to crusade against Qi.
King Xiang of Chu hesitated between 'saving Qi' and 'not saving Qi', and finally lost the opportunity to rescue Qi, and was forced to instruct Mourning to kill King Min of Qi in exchange for reconciliation with the princes and avoid suffering from the joint crusade of the princes after the death of Qi.
However, King Xiang of Chu also missed the last opportunity to unite Qi against Qin.
After the state of Qi was completely weakened, the state of Qin first sent troops to besiege the city of Daliang of the Wei state, which shocked the princes of the Central Plains, and then began to send troops to attack Chu.
Because of his inability to resist the Qin army, King Xiang of Chu began to move to Chendi after abandoning the capital of Ying, and actively resisted the Qin army.
Because the Qin State attacked the Chu State too far away, and had to cross the Han and Wei countries, the King of Chu Qingxiang got a period of rest.
King Qingxiang of Chu, who had been aggrieved for half his life, was also completely sober after the loss of Yingdu, so King Qingxiang began to actively recover the lost territory while vigorously managing the eastern land, so that the national strength of Chu began to gradually recover, and there was also a trend of prosperity.
After all, the loss of Yingdu dealt a big blow to the Chu State, and it was difficult for the Chu State to completely recover even if it was Zhongxing.
Although King Xiang of Chu was unable to recover the Yingdu that he had lost with his own hands until his death, his later efforts to revive the heart of Chu are still worthy of recognition.