In October of the eighth year of King Ling of Zhou (564 BC), because Zheng Guo secretly reached an 'oath of peace agreement' with Chu in private, but did not notify the current alliance lord Jin (and Jin Mourning Duke) in advance, so after learning the news, Jin Mourning Gong was furious, and immediately issued a royal order to assemble the army, and then united the armies of other allies to the south, and gathered in Zheng Guo's Tiger Prison (now under the control of Jin), ready to launch a crusade against Zheng at any time.
On October 15 of that year, under the command of Jin Mourning Gong, the coalition forces launched a fierce attack on Xinzheng, the capital of Zheng State; In order to avoid another ruthless blow from the Jin coalition forces, Zheng Zhengqing's Zisi preemptively sent an envoy to Xun Gang, the commander of the Jin army, who was commanding the battle outside the city, to request peace.
Because Xun Gang's purpose in sending troops to attack Zheng this time was to 'take the opportunity to be tired', and use the war to attack Zheng State continuously, so that Chu State had to send troops to rescue Zheng, so as to consume the national strength and military strength that were already declining in the continuous dispatch of troops. Therefore, Xun Gang agreed to the peace request of Zheng Guo's envoy.
But even so, it is not possible not to teach the capricious Zheng Guo a lesson; Therefore, in order to punish the repeatedly untrustworthy Zheng Guojun and his ministers, Xun Gang proposed that when the peace alliance was carried out, Zheng Guojun (Zheng Jiangong) must be present in person, meet with the secretaries of the Jin State and reach a peace alliance (that is, to form a peace alliance with the monarch); And the six ruling ministers of Zheng Guo and their sons-in-law (that is, the heirs of their respective families and thrones), and the doctors of Zheng Guo should also all be present as witnesses of this alliance.
Regarding the harsh conditions for peace talks put forward by the Jin side, Zisi and other Zheng State ministers were not qualified to talk about the conditions, so they had to agree to all of them.
On the tenth day of November, Xun Gang led the secretaries of the Jin State and the secretaries and doctors of other countries in the coalition army to the place of the alliance determined with Zheng Guo - Zheng Guo Opera (west of Xinzheng, Henan), and waited for the arrival of Zheng Guo's monarchs and ministers under the stage of the alliance that had been prepared for a long time.
And the six secretaries of Zheng Guo's reign: Dangguo Zisi, Sima Ziguo, Situ Zikong, Sikong Zier, Ling Zhengzi Chan, and Shaozheng Zizhan also served Zheng Jiangong, who was only seven years old, rushed from the national capital Xinzheng to the theater to complete the 'Jin and Zheng League Oath' in accordance with the peace conditions reached with the Jin State before.
Among the nobles of Zheng Guo who went to the theater with the monarch to watch the oath of the oath, there were also the sons of Liuqing (i.e., the heirs) - Gongsun Xia (Zixi, Zisi's son-in-law), Gongsun Qiao (Zichan, Ziguo's son-in-law), Gongsun Chu (Zikong's son-in-law), Liangxiao (Boyou, Zi'er's son-in-law), You Qian (Ziming, Zi's son-in-law), Hanhu (Zipi, Zizhan's son-in-law), and Zheng Guozhu's doctors.
After arriving at the theater, because Zheng Jiangong was too young, he could not complete the oath on stage alone, nor could he accurately recite the full text of the oath, and read the oath in exile; Therefore, after urgent deliberation and reporting to the secretaries of the Jin State for approval, Zheng Guo decided to take the oath and recite the alliance book instead of the monarch (in doing so, it also reduced some of the humiliation brought to Zheng Guo by the 'minister alliance monarch').
At the official ceremony of the alliance held later, Xun Gang, who presided over the alliance, ordered the Jin State Doctor Shi Liang (a member of the Zhongjun Zuo Shi Kuo) to announce the alliance between the Jin State and the Zheng State; The weak man read the book of the alliance aloud in public:
“..Since this alliance, Zheng Guo has only obeyed the order of Jin Guo, if there are two different intentions, there is such an alliance (punishment in the covenant)! ”
After that, it was Zheng Guo's turn to swear an oath, and Zisi immediately took the stage, and read the letter of Zheng Guo and Jin Guo that had been prepared long ago
"Disaster from heaven fell on Zheng Guo, between the two great powers; The big country does not add kindness and increases troops to Zheng, so that the ghosts and gods of Zheng will not be sacrificed, the people will not be benefited, and the husband and wife will work hard and have nothing to tell. Since then, if Zheng Guo does not follow the great power of being polite and strong, and showing kindness to protect our people, but dares to have different aspirations, there will be such an alliance! ”
The content of the alliance book read by Zisi is really very intriguing and very chicken-thief, and the text does not directly say the words and phrases of the alliance with the Jin state, but refers to it as "a great country that is polite and strong, and gives kindness to protect our people"; In other words, whoever can give Zheng Guo a favor and protect Zheng Guo's safety, then Zheng Guo will ally with whomever Zheng Guo is.
In other words, Zheng Guo's covenant can be interpreted in such a way that if another great power (such as Chu) gave Zheng the same kindness and protected Zheng Guo's security, then Zheng Guo considered this great power (Chu State) to be 'a great power that was polite and strong, and protected Zheng with kindness', and thus formed an alliance with it.
Zisi's slippery head and word games in the alliance book, how could Xun Yan, the general of the Jin Shang army, who was already very dissatisfied with Zheng Guo, not hear it, so Xun Yan was immediately furious and stood up and scolded Zisi and said:
"Revise your covenant! ”
But before Zisi could reply, Shaozheng Zizhan, one of the six secretaries of Zheng Guo, also stepped forward quickly and said to Xun Yan reasonably:
"No, it can't be modified, our alliance has already been announced to Haotian, how can it be easily changed? If the covenant can be changed at will, then it can also rebel against the great powers at will, what is the meaning of such an oath! ”
Zizhan is actually the political enemy of Zhengqing Zisi in Zheng Guo, and the political ideas and governing ideas of the two sides are very different, and the personal relationship is also very bad (Zisi is attached to the Chu faction, Zizhan is attached to the Jin faction); However, on the premise of safeguarding Zheng Guo's interests and adhering to the dignity of the country, Zizhan still put aside his personal differences with Zisi and resolutely came forward to refute Xun Yan, which can be seen in his personal cultivation and loyalty to the country.
However, Xun Yan still refused to listen to Zizhan's arguments, and still asked Zheng Guo to revise the alliance with a strong attitude, and the two sides quarreled for a while, and the alliance suddenly fell into a stalemate; At this time, Zhi Gang, who was still old and serious, came forward to pull his nephew in anger (Xun Yan is Xun Gangtang's nephew) and persuaded him
"The virtue of the Jin State is not enough to hold Zheng Guo hostage and forcibly enforce the alliance, and it is not in accordance with etiquette to forcibly suppress Zheng Guo to reach an alliance; If it does not conform to etiquette, how can he be the chief of the princes? For the time being, he and Zheng Guo will complete this oath, and then retire and return to China, cultivate morality and politics in the country, train soldiers, and accumulate grain millet, and when they come back, Zheng Guo will eventually get it; If the Jin State loses its morality, then it will be abandoned by the people, and then it will not only lose a Zheng State; If you can cultivate virtue and settle the people, no matter how far away you are, there will be people who will come to attach you, so why worry that Zheng Guo will not be attached? ”
The reason why Zhi Gang adopted a tolerant and understanding attitude towards Zheng Guo's deliberate tricks and word games in the alliance book was not entirely out of moral and credit considerations (of course, there were also elements of maintaining the face of the overlord of the Jin State), he had already formulated a military strategy of "cutting down Zheng to exhaust Chu" with the Duke of Jin, and the reason why he sent troops to attack Zheng was to deliberately provoke Zheng and Chu to alienate each other, so that the Jin State would have a reason and opportunity to come to interfere with Zheng State's "attachment to Jin" after a long journey The Chu army was attacked, weakened, and consumed the already declining national strength of the Chu State.
And if Zheng Guo and Jin do not achieve this oath, then Jin and Zheng are still hostile state relations, although Chu State also has to go north to rescue Zheng State, but compared with the cost of 'cutting Zheng', it is still much less, at least the speed of the march is much slower, and the military consumption is relatively small. And this situation is exactly what Xun Gang does not want to see (if the oath is not reached, the Jin army will continue to surround Xinzheng, and the material and personnel consumption brought by the military operation will be large).
Therefore, Xun Gang didn't care about the incorrect wording in Zheng Guomeng's book at all, what he wanted was to reach the oath as soon as possible, then withdraw the army, and let Chu know the news, so as to send troops north and continue to fight for Zheng with Jin, which is the purpose of Xun Gang and Jin Mourning's "tired" strategy.
Of course, such a complex political and military two-in-one strategy does not need to be known to most people (so as not to be clever but mistaken by cleverness, let Chu State understand that after he comes over, he will plan and unite with Zheng State to play a trick on Jin State), as long as those top members who can influence the movement of the Jin State court participate (such as Jin Mourning Gong himself, Xun Gang, Shi Kuo, etc.; And Xun Yan, as well as all the secretaries including Zhao Wu, Han Qi, and Wei Jiang, simply carry out the orders of the monarch).
So, under Xun Gang's persuasion, Xun Yan finally stopped insisting that Zheng Guo revise the covenant, and Zisi and Zizhan also got off the donkey and continued the process of vows; The two sides, who had no sincerity in forming an alliance, completed the whole process of the oath after reluctantly reaching an agreement.
Subsequently, Zisi and others returned to Xinzheng under Zheng Jiangong, and the allied forces of the princes also withdrew from Xinzheng City and retreated to the Tiger Prison; This covenant that everyone is awkward and uncomfortable, and both sides have their own thoughts, has finally been 'reached', which is the "Jin Zheng Opera Alliance".
After completing the oath that both parties were not satisfied with, the Jin and Zheng sides each withdrew from the theater, the Zheng people returned to Xinzheng, and the Jin army also withdrew from the city of Xinzheng under the leadership of Xun Gang, and returned to the tiger prison where the Jin mourning duke was stationed; After returning to the Tiger Prison, Xun Gang, Shi Kuo, Xun Yan and others immediately reported to Jin Mourning Gong about the process of the 'Opera Alliance' and Zheng Ren's reaction.
After learning that Zheng Guoren was playing tricks and deliberately distorting the meaning of words in the alliance book, Jin Mourning Gong was furious, thinking that if he didn't give Zheng Guo a little color, Zheng Ren would have to kick his nose in the face in the future! Therefore, Jin Mourning Gong decided to send troops to teach Zheng Guo a lesson before withdrawing his troops and returning to China, warning them not to be embarrassed (there is also the meaning of luring the Chu army to the north and consuming the national strength of Chu).
On the fifth day of the twelfth month, Jin Mourning Gong, who had already received the news that Qin had sent troops to harass and cause trouble on the western border with the intention of disturbing the situation, still put aside Qin's harassment first, and personally led the coalition army to send troops from the Tiger Prison to attack Xinzheng again to punish the dishonest and evil Zheng State; This time, the coalition army surrounded Xinzheng for five more days, and once again attacked the three gates of Xinzheng, which gave Zheng Guojun and his ministers a great shock.
On December 20, the main force of the coalition army led by the Duke of Jin Mourning crossed the Great River (Yellow River) at Yinhan and continued to attack the other cities of Zheng State, looting the spoils of war; The main force of the Zheng army only dared to retreat in Xinzheng City, and did not dare to go out of the city to fight against the coalition army; A few days later, the allied forces that had obtained a large amount of booty were stationed in Yinkou, and after encouraging and comforting the allies' armies and dividing up some of the spoils, the Jin Mourning Gong announced that the coalition forces would be disbanded on the spot and that they would withdraw their troops back to China (at this time, the Jin army should also return to China in time to deal with the harassment of the Qin army).
Just before the withdrawal, Lu Xianggong, the monarch of Lu who participated in the battle of Zheng with the army (the actual commander of the Lu army was Ji Sunsu, the ruling secretary of Lu who went out to fight with the monarch), accompanied by Ji Sunsu (Ji Wuzi), made a special trip to the camp of the Jin Mourning Duke to bid farewell to the alliance leader (it can be seen that Lu has respect and respect for the Jin State).
For Lu Xianggong's such a 'courteous and respectful' approach, Jin Mourning Gong was very happy, so he specially held a banquet on the bank of the big river (Yellow River) to entertain the monarchs and ministers of Lu who came to bid farewell to him.
However, because the Duke of Jin Mourning held a banquet on the bank of the river to invite Lu Xianggong, it inadvertently led to a dusty past in the Lu State many years ago; Lu Xianggong's father, Lu Chenggong, who has passed away, and his grandmother Mu Jiang, who just died this summer, and the three ruling clans of Lu State, Meng's family, Shusun's family, and Jisun's family, are all involved.
What kind of old story is this, I will continue to tell you in the next article.
Enjoy the New Year