At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, such a figure once appeared.
Zheng Huan, the king of a country, sought an official position in the Zhou royal family. He worked for the Zhou royal family dedicatedly, but aroused the suspicion of the Zhou royal family. In desperation, he returned to China to lead the army and started a battle with the Zhou royal family.
Originally, he just wanted to prove his presence, but in the end, he defeated the Zhou royal family. This victory sparked contempt for the Zhou royal family in other countries, and the vassal states began to become independent and compete for world dominance.
From this point of view, Zheng Huan Gong can be said to be the real fuse of the Spring and Autumn War. He was the "Spring and Autumn Xiaoba" written by later historians, and although he was not included in the Spring and Autumn Five Tyrants, his influence surpassed them.
It can be said that his influence on the history of the Spring and Autumn Period even exceeded that of the recognized overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Zheng Zhuanggong: The Rise and Fall of the Spring and Autumn Period During the Spring and Autumn period, Zheng Zhuanggong was a high-profile leader, but his identity and background and the fate of his country are full of mysteries.
Why did he fight the Zhou royal family? Why did his country later decline into a small state? The answer to all this is hidden in the history of Zheng Guo. People have the impression that Zheng Guo is not a powerful country, and its inhabitants do not seem to have high IQs.
However, this is not entirely true. At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zheng was actually a first-class power. The origin of Zheng Guo can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the uncle of King You of Zhou was the first monarch of Zheng Guo, and Zheng Zhuang Gong was his grandson and the third generation of Zheng Guo.
Why, then, did Zheng later decline into a small state? There are many reasons for this, including political, economic and military. However, regardless of the reason, we can be sure that Zheng Zhuanggong was a leader with wisdom, courage, and determination, and he led Zheng Guo to become a powerful nation in the early Spring and Autumn period.
Therefore, when we look back at the history of Zheng Guo, we can see not only the great leader of Zheng Zhuanggong, but also the rise and fall of a country, and the various reasons behind it.
During the reign of King Zhou You, in order to support the declining royal family, he canonized his own uncle Zheng Guo. In order to make up enough land for Zheng, the royal family took out a part of the land themselves, and at the same time, several other neighboring vassal states also contributed the city.
However, the missteps of King You's administration led to the defeat of the Western Zhou capital, Hojing, and he himself was killed. In this historical event, the first monarch of Zheng State, that is, the uncle of King Zhou You, accompanied him to die in Hojing without hesitation.
This is because according to the system at that time, Zheng Guo, the first monarch, was not only the monarch of Zheng Guo, but also the ** within the Zhou royal family, and he was also canonized in order to collect territory from other vassal states.
When Inu Rong broke through Hojing, the first monarch of Zheng Guo resolutely chose to sacrifice himself. His son, the father of Zheng Zhuanggong, inherited the throne and became the second monarch of Zheng State, Zheng Wugong.
After Zheng Wugong ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to lead the army to rescue Hojing, which had fallen. Through the joint efforts of Zheng Guo and other countries, Inurong was repulsed, but the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Hojing, was burned.
In order to protect the Zhou royal family and rebuild Hojing, everyone decided to move the Zhou royal family to Luoyang. This is the famous eastward migration of King Ping in history.
After King Zhou Ping ascended the throne, in order to bring the Zhou royal family and Zheng Guo closer and better help each other, he decided to move east to the Luoyang area. However, Zheng Wugong, the second-generation monarch of Zheng State, did not do what King Zhou Ping envisioned.
Zheng Wugong used Zheng Guo's merits and his ** status in the Zhou royal family to constantly dig into the corners of the Zhou royal family, and also took the opportunity to annex the territories of other countries, making Zheng more and more powerful, but at the same time, it also put the Zhou royal family in a dilemma.
Because Zheng annexed the lands of other countries, all under the banner of the Zhou royal family, this practice seriously affected the unity.
This week, the royal family originally planned to use Zheng Guo's military strength to deter other countries to make up for the loss of the fall of the Western Zhou. But things backfired, and Zheng Wugong was used to expand his territory, and the relationship with the Zhou royal family was strained.
After the death of Zheng Wugong, Zheng Zhuang Gong ascended the throne. Much of his life trajectory was influenced by Zheng Guo's historical background, and his mother also influenced the rest of his life.
Although Zheng Zhuanggong was the eldest son, his path to the throne was full of twists and turns, mainly due to his mother's partiality. According to historical records, Zheng Zhuanggong's mother had a difficult birth when she gave birth to him, so she was always cold to him, but preferred his younger brother because his younger brother was born naturally.
Although the way of birth cannot be changed, this event has affected the distribution of their maternal love. When they grew up, the mother clearly favored the younger son, turned a blind eye to the eldest son, and even offered to have the father change the heir.
This story shows the human disparity between brothers.
Historians have different opinions about Zheng Zhuanggong's life experience. Some people suspect that he was not born to his mother-in-law, but was fostered under his name. Whatever the facts, the experience of his youth is unmistakable: from an early age, his mother treated him badly.
This special juvenile encounter and lack of maternal love grew up in an environment that made him develop a cautious character, good at thinking twice, and at the same time having a strong desire for revenge.
Some people think that this character is a manifestation of good political talent and sets him up for success in the future, but others feel that it is simply a sign of a lack of love. Fourteen years later, his father died, and he officially became the heir to the state.
Although the country has been inherited by him, his mother's influence continues. Generally speaking, the eldest son has taken over, and the mother, who is the mother, should take a back seat.
However, Zheng Zhuanggong's mother was unusual, she always intervened. First of all, she asked to give her brother the big city of Gyeong-eup, which was inside Zheng State. Then the younger brother was in his own fiefdom, vigorously reinforcing the city walls, rearming for war, and it seemed that war could start at any time.
But it is not clear who exactly will be hit. Then, she directly ordered that the northern and western parts of Zheng Guo should completely obey her command and no longer obey Zheng Zhuanggong's arrangement.
When the northern and western parts of Zheng Guo were under her administration, she began to blatantly buy ** again to form an army. At this time, everyone understood that the second son was going to rebel.
However, Zheng Zhuanggong chose to show weakness and did not take any action.
The historical description of Zheng Zhuanggong is that he did nothing. But we believe that he is only superficially calm. After all, his biological mother, who is also Zheng Guo's queen mother, knows everything about him.
He had to do everything quietly without letting her know. Even if you can hide it from the Queen Mother, it is enough to hide it from the historian. However, twenty-two years after Zheng Zhuanggong ascended the throne, his younger brother finally officially rebelled.
After more than 20 years of preparation, my younger brother is in his thirties and is in the prime of life. And the eccentric Queen Mother has always favored her younger son and provided him with information. Even after her brother raised an army, she planned to take the initiative to open the city gate for him.
Eccentricity to this extent is rare. However, as the younger brother hits the capital, what happens next becomes strange.
When Zheng Zhuanggong learned of the rebellion, he immediately blocked the capital and sent troops to attack the second child's fiefdom Jingyi. However, unexpectedly, the people of Jingyi actually sided with Zheng Zhuanggong and supported him against the second child.
After several rounds of fighting, Zheng Zhuanggong managed to defeat the second child and drive him out of Zheng Guo. This story teaches us that parents should not favor one child too much because it will hurt other children.
After driving away the second child, Zheng Zhuanggong also forgot his favorite wife, imprisoned her, and promised to meet him only in Huangquan. Although more than a year later, Zheng Zhuanggong still met his mother and let her enjoy her old age in peace, but the queen mother, who once held great power, has since lost her real power.
Zheng Zhuanggong began to take over the task of the novice village at the age of fourteen, that is, to defeat the elder brother, put the old lady under house arrest, and control Zheng Guo, although this task was difficult, but it took him a full twenty-two years to complete.
In the past 22 years, he has experienced domestic disputes, but he has not stopped the pace of external development. During this period, the Jin state rose to prominence and became the overlord of the Shanxi region, but suspended its external expansion due to internal power struggles.
The Qin state, on the other hand, gradually became an emerging power in the Shaanxi and Gansu regions during the war with the Xirong tribe.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the state of Qi in Shandong was mired in a long period of civil strife. However, the coming to power of Qi Zhuanggong changed all that. He was the grandfather of Qi Huangong, the overlord of Qi State.
Under the leadership of Duke Zhuang of Qi, the civil strife in the state of Qi was completely quelled and began to develop rapidly. He was not only a long-reigning monarch, but also ruled for more than 60 years, making Qi grow rapidly and becoming the overlord of Shandong.
In contrast, the state of Chu in the south was less controlled because it was far from the ruling core of the Zhou royal family. By expanding their territory and eliminating disobedient states, they rapidly expanded their land area.
In the past 20 years, when Zheng Zhuang was playing the task of novice village, several other emerging powers were rising rapidly. And Zheng Guo, an old power that was previously supported by the Zhou royal family, has lagged behind these emerging powers, and has even been overtaken.
Although King Ping of Zhou's long standby did not revive the Zhou royal family, at least he succeeded in maintaining the stability of the royal family and avoiding civil strife. However, this is not entirely due to him, as the Zhou royal family suffered heavy losses in the battle of the princes of the Beacon Theater, and as he moved eastward, almost all of Shaanxi's territory was lost.
To make matters worse, some princes did not approve of his rule and instead adopted his uncle as the Son of Heaven, making it rare for the Zhou royal family to have two Sons of Heaven for a period of up to twenty years, which led to the attrition of infighting.
It was not until twenty years later, not long after the accession of Zheng Zhuang Gong, that the Jin Kingdom intervened to help King Zhou Ping solve his uncle, and the Zhou royal family ended the situation of the two kings standing side by side.
King Zhou Ping, after solving his uncle's problem, found that he had lost control of the princes of the world. The territory he could actually control was only six hundred miles in size, which was smaller than Zheng Guo.
At that time, several powerful vassal states were busy expanding, and no one wanted to help him. It can even be said that those princes were happy to see the decline of the Zhou royal family. King Zhou Ping originally hoped that the two vassal states of the Ji family, Jin and Zheng, would be able to help him, but the Jin State was busy with its own expansion, and Zheng Zhuang Cheng of Zheng State was on a mission to attack the Novice Village.
In the end, King Zhou Ping lost all hope.
More than twenty years have passed since King Zhou Ping killed his uncle, and his health has deteriorated day by day, knowing that his days are numbered. To make matters worse, his son, the crown prince of the Zhou royal family at the time, died early, resulting in him having to pass the throne directly to his eldest grandson.
However, this eldest grandson was too young, and King Zhou Ping was worried about his ability to rule. All of these complex issues, intertwined, make people feel powerless.
At this moment, King Zhou Ping heard the news: Zheng Zhuanggong had passed the mission of the Novice Village. For King Zhou Ping, the news was both good and bad. Previously, Zheng Zhuanggong's father had dug into the corners of the Zhou royal family, and Zheng Zhuanggong himself had not been able to help the Zhou royal family because of the task of raiding the novice village.
However, Zheng Zhuang Gong inherited his father's position and continued to serve as the "secretary" of the Zhou royal family, and never stopped digging the foot of the wall.
In ancient times, the Qing Shi could be regarded as the prime minister of later generations, selected by the Zhou royal family to lead the powerful vassal states, with the aim of uniting more forces and strengthening themselves. King Zhou Ping tried to take advantage of Zheng's internal turmoil to get rid of Zheng Zhuanggong's position as a secretary, but Zheng Zhuanggong fought back effectively, and King Zhou Ping had to compromise, and even sent his crown prince to Zheng Guo to study as a hostage in disguise.
Zhou Tianzi's humiliation also reflected the political pattern at that time. As time passed, Zheng Zhuanggong was no longer satisfied with just digging into the wall, and he turned his attention to the Zhou royal family, hoping to continue to strengthen himself like his father.
When Wei Guo took the opportunity to declare war on Zheng Guo, the second child who was driven away by Zheng Zhuang Gong became Wei Guo's help. And Zheng Zhuanggong has already reached an agreement with the Zhou royal family, so naturally this opportunity cannot be wasted.
As a result, Zheng Guo united with the Zhou royal family and the Zhou royal family's ally Yu Guo to jointly launch an attack on the Wei Kingdom. In the early spring and autumn, such a lineup is truly awe-inspiring. Although the great powers of Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu had already risen, if the combined armies of Zhou and Zheng were combined with their smaller vassal states, they would have been enough to defeat any emerging power in the first fifty years of the Spring and Autumn period.
Of course, this is when other emerging powers are not looking for help. With the attack of the combined forces of Zhou and Zheng, Wei Guo was not to be outdone, and united with Song, Chen, and Cai to fight together.
Then, Zheng formed an alliance with Qi and re-established friendly relations with Lu, which had previously been in conflict, ......
This dispute, which originally belonged to Zheng Zhuanggong and his younger brother, gradually escalated into a melee involving many countries. After several years of conquest, although Zheng did not completely defeat the Wei State, Zheng Zhuanggong won prestige and occupied a large territory.
Moreover, he managed to co-opt the enemy's allies during the war, such as the Song and Chen states. Although the scale of this melee involving more than a dozen countries is small, it involves a wide range of countries, populations and forces, and almost the entire countries in the core region of the Central Plains are involved.
In the end, Zheng Zhuanggong, with his heroic performance and wide influence, became the big brother of these countries. This can be considered the "First Spring and Autumn War".
The role of the eldest brother seems to be nothing, but at a critical moment, it is actually very practical. In addition, during this time, there was another important thing that happened. During this time, King Zhou Ping died.
As the king of the transition from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, when later generations looked at King Zhou Ping, most of them would think that he was mediocre and incompetent. After all, if it wasn't for the faint monarch, why did the Western Zhou Dynasty pass into his hands and instantly decline from the status of the co-lord of the world to a medium-sized vassal state?
But in fact, if we dig deeper into this history, we will find that King Zhou Ping was not as weak as people think. The decline of the Zhou royal family was not the responsibility of King Zhou Ping, but his predecessors, or the trend of history.
In the face of this trend, King Zhou Ping's ability to protect the Zhou royal family from being removed is already a huge achievement.
Although King Zhou Ping was a master in terms of political skill, the situation changed after his death. His eldest grandson, King Zhou Huan, was young and vigorous, and after ascending the throne, he decided to regain the lost territory by force.
However, this method is not always feasible in reality, otherwise his grandfather, King Zhou Ping, would have adopted the same strategy.
After King Huan of Zhou succeeded to the throne, there was a major change in his attitude towards Zheng Zhuanggong, which made Zheng Zhuanggong immediately aware of this change. As the secretary of the Zhou royal family, Zheng Zhuang was in charge of many government affairs, so the relationship between the Zhou royal family and Zheng Guo became increasingly tense over the next decade.
King Huan of Zhou believed that since Zheng Guo had tried to ** the Zhou royal family, it was best to suppress it by force and bring it to its knees. And Zheng Guo had long been prepared for this, on the one hand, it did things as ruthlessly as possible, not giving the Zhou royal family a chance to find trouble, and on the other hand, it quickly expanded its influence.
Ten years later, Zheng successfully convened an alliance with Chen, Qi, Lu, Cai, and other countries, and defeated Wei and Song, which had long been opposed to it. In the core region of the Central Plains, Zheng Guo has become the number one power.
King Huan of Zhou intervened in the internal affairs of the Jin Dynasty for ten years and received the support of the Jin state, while showing cold attitude towards the Duke of Zheng Zhuang and promoting the monarch of the state of Yu to weaken his power. Thirteen years later, King Huan of Zhou, ready and supported by several countries, decided to subdue Zheng by force.
In the summer of that year, King Huan of Zhou formally dismissed Zheng Zhuang Gong from his post as secretary and forbade him to interfere in the affairs of the Zhou royal family, and Zheng Zhuang decided not to worship the Zhou royal family anymore to show his attitude.
This decision of Zheng Zhuanggong undoubtedly challenged the traditional ritual music system of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Under this system, if the princes refused to see the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven had the right to ask for it. Therefore, King Huan of Zhou ordered the gathering of allies to directly conquer Zheng State.
This news shocked the whole world at that time. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou royal family never conquered other vassal states on a large scale, but used Huairou means to increase its influence during the reign of King Ping of Zhou.
Now, however, the Zhou royal family not only went on an expedition, but also directly targeted the powerful Zheng State, revealing its great strength.
If the Zhou royal family can defeat Zheng, then it means that the Zhou royal family has recovered a certain military strength. Previously, the reason why the princes in various places dared to become independent was because the Zhou royal family lost most of the army.
If in this battle, the Zhou royal family can easily defeat the Zheng state, then it can also easily defeat other powerful vassal states. In this way, at least in the core area of the Central Plains, the prestige of the Zhou royal family can be established again.
Therefore, when King Huan of Zhou announced that he was going to crusade against Zheng, all the vassal states set their sights on this war. Everyone understands that the outcome of this war will determine many things.
King Zhou Huan naturally knew the importance of this battle. For the Zhou royal family, this battle can be said to be a life-and-death battle. If Zheng can be defeated, the prestige of the Zhou royal family can be established again, and things will be relatively easy in the future.
But if they are defeated, the few remaining younger brothers of the Zhou royal family may switch to other big brothers, and those big countries will not obey the orders of the Zhou royal family in the future.
In the eyes of Zheng Zhuanggong, the victory or defeat of this war is related to the survival and independence of Zheng Guo, once the victory is won, Zheng Guo will be free from the shackles of the Zhou royal family, and those countries with Zheng Guo will respect Zheng Guo more.
Conversely, if he loses, King Huan of Zhou may reclaim all of Zheng's territory and make it disappear. Therefore, for both sides, there is no reason to lose this war.
In this case, the history of famous"The Battle of Kazuku"Here we go. On the eve of the war, the Zhou royal family issued a summoning order, hoping that other princes would come to help in the war, but only four of them, Chen, Cai, Yu, and Wei, responded.
These four countries were willing to come because they were either at enmity with Zheng or closely tied to the interests of the Zhou royal family.
King Zhou Huan knew that it was his own direct army that could really decide the outcome of the war, so his deployment was to hand over the armies of the left and right flanks to other countries, and put the main force in the middle army to directly face the enemy.
In order to win this war, King Zhou Huan did not hesitate to pay a high price. After learning of the arrangement of the Zhou royal family, Zheng Zhuanggong also formulated a counterattack strategy. He decided to attack Chen's ** team first, because Chen Guo was internally unstable at that time, and the morale of the army was not high.
As long as the Zheng ** team charges, they can easily defeat the Chen ** team, and then disrupt the formation of the Zhou royal army and win the battle.
When the two sides went to war, the gap gradually became apparent. Due to the perennial war, Zheng Guo's army has strong combat effectiveness and is familiar with combat skills. Although the Zhou royal family did its best to send the main force, due to the lack of war for many years, the combat ability of the soldiers declined significantly.
After a brief stalemate, the battle turned out as Zheng Guo expected. Chen's team began to rout, and the flanks of the Zhou royal family were exposed. Zheng Guo's main force took advantage of the situation to raid from the flank and disrupt the Zhou royal army.
The Zhou royal army was in chaos, and there was no suspense about the outcome of the battle. At this time, Zheng Guo's victory is in hand.
At the critical moment, a small episode occurred: Zheng Guo's general shot an arrow at King Zhou Huan, which hit him right in the shoulder. Zheng Zhuanggong, who was present, was scared out of a cold sweat.
Although Zheng Guo dared to confront the Zhou royal family on the battlefield, he gave him a hundred dares, and he did not dare to kill Zhou Tianzi. Once the arrow misses and really kills King Zhou Huan, then all the vassal states will attack Zheng Guoqun, and even his younger brother will turn against him.
Those princes did not necessarily want to avenge King Huan of Zhou, but wanted to carve up the territory of Zheng State, so they would not miss this opportunity. Therefore, after King Huan of Zhou was shot in the shoulder, Zheng Zhuanggong immediately declared a truce and let the Zhou army retreat.
That night, he also sent someone to comfort Zhou Jun, and after confirming that King Zhou Huan was only slightly injured and not in danger of life, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The Battle of Zhou-Zheng ended with the defeat of the Zhou royal family and the victory of the Zheng state, an outcome that had a profound impact on the entire history of China. Since then, the orders of the Zhou royal family have been ignored, and the Zheng state has rapidly risen to become the overlord of the core of the Central Plains.
Zheng Zhuanggong was therefore known as the "Spring and Autumn Little Overlord", and his status as the eldest brother was limited to the Central Plains, and there was still a gap between him and the real overlord. However, this battle brought great benefits to Zheng Guo, and Zheng Zhuang Gong could use his position to lead the other younger brothers to conquer the disobedient vassal states.
Over the next six years, Zheng Zhuanggong increased Zheng Zhuanggong's prestige by helping Qi solve its problems and fighting and winning victories against Beirong in the north. Then, he cooperated with the state of Qi and seized territory from the state of Lu.
At this time, Zheng Zhuanggong had realized that Zheng Guo's land location was too limited, and its geographical location in the core of the Central Plains made it difficult for Zheng Guo to expand externally. Therefore, he decided to expand his territory by using his position and influence to suppress the surrounding countries.
He would find all sorts of moral justifications to attack them and then take land from them. Unfortunately, just as Zheng Guo began to show signs of rising, Zheng Zhuang Gong suddenly fell ill.
In 701 BC, Duke Zheng Zhuang fell ill six years after the Battle of Xiangge, and then died in May of the same year at the age of fifty-seven.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, although some people lived long, the death of Zheng Zhuanggong made a great change in the situation of Zheng Guo. Although his son ascended the throne, he died early due to infighting.
Zheng's internal strife led to an abrupt halt to the country's upward momentum, and Zheng was left behind by the rise of other powers. By the time Zheng Guo stabilized again, it was already the era of Qi Huan's hegemony.
Zheng Guo, who is located in the land of the four wars, is surrounded by strong enemies, and the giant Qi Huan Gong is even more eyeing him. At this time, Zheng Guo's expansion was an impossible task.
As the mid-to-late Spring and Autumn period passed, Zheng gradually lost its former strength and was eventually annexed by Korea, one of the Seven Heroes, during the Warring States period. If Zheng Zhuang Gong had held out longer, perhaps the history of Zheng Guo would have been completely different.