Overview of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
After the death of King Wu, the young Chan succeeded to the throne as King Cheng of Zhou, and the regent of King Wu's younger brother Zhou Gongdan (Zhou Gong's interpretation of dreams is this Zhou Gong, of course, Zhou Gong's interpretation of dreams is written under the pretense of Zhou Gong, which is similar to the situation of the Yellow Emperor's Neijing). After the completion of the eastern capital into Zhou, the Duke of Zhou also became the king, King Cheng died when he was young, and King Kang of Zhou (Zhao) succeeded to the throne, which was the stable period of the Zhou Dynasty, and was known as the "rule of Chengkang" in history.
After the death of King Kang of Zhou, he was succeeded by his son King Zhao of Zhou. In the sixteenth year of King Zhao, he personally led a large army to the south to conquer Jingchu, until the Jianghan region, a total of 3 years, King Zhao also drowned when crossing the Han River (there is a clear record of the first person at the level of the emperor who was drowned), and the army was also destroyed. King Zhao was succeeded by his son King Mu of Zhou (Man), who reigned for 44 years. He is so happy that he still wants to develop in all directions. King Mu is playful, which causes the government to relax. At that time, the state of Xu in the east was in the period of King Xu Yan, and the state of Xu led Jiuyi to invade Zhou. King Mu marched south, and by uniting the forces of Chu, he was able to pacify. After the Zhaomu era, the Zhou Dynasty weakened in strength. During this period, Rongdi in the northwest region gradually flourished.
During the reign of King Yi of Zhou, Rong Di invaded Zhou alternately, and the Zhou people suffered deeply. By the time of King Zhou Li, there were years of war, which brought deep suffering to the people. In 841 BC, the Chinese people rioted on a large scale, and King Li was driven away. The DPRK was administered by two ministers, Zhao Gong (Zhao Mu Gonghu) and Zhou Gong (Zhou Dinggong), and was called the Republic. In 828 BC, King Li died, and Prince Jing ascended the throne as King Xuan of Zhou, reigning for a total of 46 years. King Xuan made great efforts to govern the country, and the government and government made a significant improvement. In King Xuan's later years, the Zhou royal family reappeared. King Xuan interfered with the succession to the throne of the Lu State, causing discord among the princes. The expedition to Tiaorong and Benrong was a fiasco. The battle with the Jiang clan of Xirong was also defeated in Qianmu (now Jiexiunan, Shanxi).
In 781 BC, King You of Zhou succeeded to the throne and appointed the well-used Yu Shifu to govern, and the corruption of the government aroused the resentment of the people; In 779 B.C., the battle of Liuji failed; At the same time, natural disasters were frequent, and the Zhou Dynasty ruled in internal and external difficulties. King You abolished the daughter of Shenhou and the crown prince Yijiu, Yijiu fled to Shenguo, and Shenhou united with the Zhangguo and the Western Dog Rong to attack Youwang. King You and the new prince Bofu were both killed by the dog Rong. In 771 BC, the Western Zhou Dynasty fell.
Due to the successful promotion of the clan system of the Zhou Dynasty and the successful operation of the feudal state, the population of North China was further integrated, and under the leadership of the strong Zhou Tianzi, under the conditions of further development of agricultural production, the Chinese ethnic group of agricultural culture was gradually formed. The main foundation of Chinese culture is farming culture or farming civilization, and the Chinese ethnic group is also based on the common bloodline and the reproduction of the Yanhuang tribe bloodline. The Chinese ethnic group not only has the same culture, but also the same bloodline. Whether it is the leading tribe of the Xia Dynasty, the leading tribe of the Shang Dynasty, the leading tribe of the Zhou Dynasty, and the many princes and kings of the Zhou Dynasty, they have all become the most important noble bloodline in the Yanhuang tribe, especially the descendants of the Yellow Emperor.
At that time, the aristocracy had the advantage of greatly reproducing offspring, and the expansion of the population at that time was mainly caused by the expansion of the descendants of the nobles, so to speak, the Han population during the Han Dynasty, most of them were the descendants of the nobles in various periods since the Yan and Huang Dynasty, and a considerable part of them may be the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. It may be said that the Han population is mainly descended from the Yellow Emperor, at least with a considerable proportion of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor is not just a symbolic ancestor of the Han people, he is likely to be the true ancestor of most Han men. Due to the mixture of bloodlines brought about by the marriage relationship, the bloodline of the Yellow Emperor has been carried by every Han person and has become an important part of the bloodline of every Han population.
The six divisions of the Zhou royal family used by the Suwei Sect Zhou were called the "Western Sixth Division"; The Eight Divisions that shocked the Eastern Princes in Cheng Zhou were called the "Eight Divisions of Cheng Zhou". The vassal states of the feudal kingdoms all had a certain amount of armed forces. Large countries generally do not have more than three armies, and small countries also have one army. The armies of the vassal states, which the king of Zhou could deploy, were part of the armed forces of the entire Zhou dynasty. The army was nominally under the direct command and dispatch of the king of Zhou, and the king of Zhou often personally led his troops on major expeditions. If the king of Zhou did not go out in person, he assigned important ministers to lead the Chinese army as the commander of the whole army. The various major officers were also often appointed by the king of Zhou.
The grass-roots units of the army are the first to ride, and each of them has a four-horse military chariot, with 3 armor soldiers on the car, 72 foot soldiers under the car, and 25 logistics personnel, a total of 100 people. Officers of all ranks, held by nobles corresponding to their status. The lowest level of armor were filled by the lowest nobles and commoners. Slaves served in the army.
At that time, the most common chariot, the horse chariot, had a chariot driver in the middle, and on either side were long-range archers and melee halberders. In the open area, it has a great impact on the infantry, and for the Chinese region with the North China Plain as the core at that time, such a combat vehicle was an indispensable basic equipment for the army at that time, and its position in the army was like a tank during World War II. This is with the more metal tools, people's ability to process wood greatly increased, horse-drawn carriages appeared, and mainly used in the military field, and finally evolved the most common horse chariot at that time, which was a high-tech product at that time, with the highest technical content at that time. From the late Shang Dynasty to the late Warring States period, due to the gradual popularization of iron tools, the sharpness of weapons increased, such as the gradual increase in the importance of crossbowmen, crossbowmen gradually became the core force of the army, and sharp weapons also promoted the gradual increase of cavalry, these factors led to the decline in the importance of the powerful impact value of the horse chariot, and the chariot gradually withdrew from the military field. It can be said that the combat vehicle was the most important heavy ** equipment in that period of nearly a thousand years.