In the 22nd year of Duke Zhuang of Lu (672 BC), Duke Xian of Jin sent troops to attack the Rong people in Li. Under the impact of the Jin army, Li Rong was quickly defeated, so he sued for peace from Jin and sent his leader Li Ji, his two daughters, were dedicated to Duke Xiang of Jin. Because of Li Ji's beauty, she quickly gained the favor of Duke Xian of Jin, and gradually participated in the government. A few years later, Li Ji and her sister gave birth to the son Xi Qi and the son Zhuo Zi to Duke Xiang of Jin. Li Ji was also made his wife. .
Previously, Qi Jiang, the wife of Duke Xian of Jin and daughter of Duke Huan of Qi, and Hu Ji and Xiao Rongzi, who later married from the Di people, gave birth to three sons, Shen Sheng, Chong'er and Yiwu respectively, and Shen Sheng was the eldest son. , was established as the prince early. However, Qi Jiang died young, and Li Ji was deeply favored by Duke Xian of Jin. Seeing that Shen Sheng had no biological mother to protect her, and was not favored by Duke Xian of Jin, she wanted to persuade Duke Xian of Jin to depose Shen Sheng and make her son Xi Qi the crown prince.
But Li Ji understood that just getting rid of Shen Sheng was not enough. If the princes Chong'er and Yiwu, who were older than Xi Qi, were given the title of prince, then she would just marry someone in vain. So she first bribed Xian Gong's favorite ministers and asked them to create a public opinion in front of Xian Gong: Quwo is the location of Jin Jun's ancestral temple and must be guarded by the prince. Pucheng is close to the territories of Nan and Bei Qu and Rong Di, so it needs to be reliable. If there are people stationed there, please send two young masters to guard them. After hearing what they said, Duke Xian of Jin asked Shen Sheng to leave Jiangcheng, the capital, and go to Quwo. He also sent his son Chong'er and his son Yiwu to Pucheng and Qucheng respectively.
Li Ji found excuses to send away the three young masters, cutting off the direct contact between Xian Gong and them, and cutting off the communication channel between their father and son. However, she never came forward to cover up her sinister intentions. Then she blew the pillow wind to Duke Xian in the middle of the night: "I heard that Shen Sheng is very good at winning people's hearts. I'm afraid he will do harm to you and seize the throne!" Duke Xian frowned, shook his head and said, "He loves the people so much. , how can he not love his own father?" Li Ji saw that although Duke Xiang of Jin did not like his son Shensheng, he still trusted him very much out of the love between father and son, so she used another strategy to deal with this.
Li Ji also suggested to Duke Xian that Shen Sheng should return to the capital to stay for a few days, saying that she wanted to show Shen Sheng his virtue and harmonize the relationship between the emperor and his ministers. After Shen Sheng came to the palace and had several meals with Li Ji, Li Ji told Xiang Gong in tears that Shen Sheng had molested her while drinking. Xiangong didn't believe it, so Li Ji arranged for her to go to the garden with the prince and let Xiangong observe from the stage.
The next day, Li Ji asked Shen Sheng to play with her. Li Ji first spread honey on her hair, so that the bees gathered around her hair. Li Ji said: "Can you please help me to drive them away?" Shen Sheng didn't know what the plan was, so he stood behind her and brushed his sleeves over her head to drive away the bees. Duke Xian of Jin saw this and thought that Shen Sheng was really teasing his beloved concubine. Unexpectedly, Shen Sheng ignored the relationship between father and son. His anger reached the extreme and he wanted to kill the prince immediately. Li Ji knelt down and begged: "I asked the prince to come back, but he was killed. I was the one who harmed him. Besides, outsiders don't know these things in the palace, so just bear with it." Li Ji designed to ignite Xian Gong's anger. However, he still spoke good words for Shen Sheng. This was to clear the suspicion of being framed and destroy the father-son relationship between Shen Sheng and Jin Xiangong. Li Ji was about to make a fatal blow.
One day, Li Ji sent someone to Quwo to tell Shen Sheng: "The king dreamed of your mother Qi Jiang, you should sacrifice her as soon as possible." At this time, Shen Sheng did not know that Li Ji had repeatedly assassinated him, and thought she was telling him. How to please his father, he quickly held a ceremony in Quwo to sacrifice Qi Jiang, and then sent the sacrificial meat back to the capital to be presented to Duke Xiang of Jin. At that time, Lord Xian of Jin Dynasty was hunting in the countryside, and the messenger sent the sacrificial meat to his wife Li Ji's palace. Li Ji took the opportunity to poison the meat.
A few days later, when Duke Xiang of Jin came back from hunting, Li Ji took out the sacrificial meat and told Duke Xiang of Jin that it was the sacrificial meat that Prince Shen Sheng had used to sacrifice Qi Jiang. Duke Xiang of Jin was very happy and planned to eat it. Li Ji suddenly stopped him and said, "This meat comes from outside the palace. Please test it for poison first." Duke Xiang of Jin sent someone to cut off a piece of meat and feed it to the dog. He found that the dog was foaming at the mouth, twitching and lying dead. He found an eunuch to eat it, and the eunuch died immediately. Duke Xiang of Jin was shocked and couldn't understand what happened. Li Ji cried on the side: "This is the crown prince's ambition!"
Duke Xiang of Jin was furious and thought that Shen Sheng's teacher, Du Yuanjian, had taught his son bad things, so he ordered Du Yuanjian to be killed. Someone advised Shen Sheng: "You are innocent, why don't you escape from Jin?" Shen Sheng said: "I can't escape. If I leave, this crime will definitely fall on the king. Publicizing my father's fault will definitely bring disaster." Laughing at the princes, who would be willing to take in such a person? Escape will aggravate his own sins. If the king wants me to die, I should not escape. I will lie down here and wait for my fate, and I will never escape."
To be honest, people who are too stubborn will not end well. This is just for him.
Shen Sheng refused to leave Jin, and Jin Xiangong was also hesitant and couldn't bear to kill his son. Li Ji saw that the matter was at a deadlock, but the night was long and the dream was long, something would happen. So he went to see Shen Sheng in person and accused him with tears streaming down his face: "You actually did such a cruel thing to your father. How can you treat the people with kindness? Killing your father to seek benefits is not a good thing." People will spurn you, do you still want to live a long life?"
After listening to Li Ji's words, Shen Sheng thought that his father had decided that he had poisoned his father and killed his father, and there was no hope of redressing his injustice. He also thought that in the future, everyone would despise him as a patricide and a regicide, and he would no longer have a foothold in the world. Under the double blow of grief, anger and despair, Shen Sheng no longer wanted to live in the world, so he hanged himself in the ancestral temple. Before Shen Sheng died, he sent someone to find his grandfather, the doctor Hu Tu, and said: "Shen Sheng is guilty and did not listen to your words, so he committed suicide today. Now Shen Sheng does not dare to be greedy for life and fear death, but the king is old and the country is too big." Difficult, if you can come out to assist the king, Shen Sheng will die without regrets."
Li Ji succeeded in forcing Prince Shen Sheng to death, so she targeted the princes Chong'er and Yi Wu. She privately slandered Duke Xian of Jin and said that both Chong'er and Yi Wu were involved in Shen Sheng's conspiracy to poison his father. The incident of Shensheng was a great blow to Duke Xiang of Jin. He could no longer trust any of his sons, so he sent Yan Chu to kill Chong'er, and Chong'er fled to Beidi; he also sent Jia Hua to kill Yi Wu, and Yi Wu fled to Liang Kingdom. Duke Xian of Jin drove away his sons one by one and made Xi Qi the crown prince. From then on, the royal family of the Jin Dynasty declined and was unable to suppress the power of the ministers, which laid hidden dangers for the subsequent carving up of the Jin Dynasty by the ministers of Zhao, Wei, and Han.
After the death of Duke Xian of Jin, the officials were dissatisfied with Xi Qi's accession to the throne and wanted to welcome the young master Chong'er back to the country as king. So they gathered the subordinates of the three young masters who had stayed in Jin and killed Xi Qi and Zhuo Zi. Seeing the chaos in the country, Chong'er did not dare to go back rashly, so his son Yiwu returned to the country with the help of Qin and ascended the throne as Duke Hui of Jin. However, the temporary prosperity brought about by Duke Wu and Duke Xian of the Jin State disappeared with all their efforts and misery. The country fell into turmoil. There is still a long way to go for the revival and hegemony of the Jin State.
Prince Chong'er was framed by Li Ji, and his uncles Hu Mao and Hu Yan, together with the ministers Zhao Shui, Wei Ji, Dian Jie, Xu Chen, Jiezitui and other wise ministers, protected him and escaped from Jin. They first came to Chong'er's mother. The country of Di. The king of Di State welcomed Chong'er and his entourage very much. It happened that Di State defeated a branch of Chi Di's Liao Jiuru, so he gave the captured two daughters of the leader of Liao Jiuru, Shu Wei and Ji Wei, to Chong'er. Chong'er married his sister Ji Wei and gave his sister Shu Wei to Zhao Shuai. Zhao Dun, who later became the most powerful person in the Jin Kingdom, was her son. Chong'er lived in Di Kingdom for twelve years.
After Shen Sheng's death, Chong'er became the eldest son of Duke Xian of Jin. He was known as a virtuous man and had a high reputation in Jin. After Duke Hui of Jin came to the throne, he was worried that his brother would return to the country to compete with him for the throne, so he sent people to assassinate Chong'er. The doctor Hu Yan then advised Chong'er and said: "We chose to come to Di State because it is close to the road and easy to get help. But now we have lived here for too long and it is easy to lose our ambition. We should leave now. Didn't we choose Qi State in the first place? The reason for the two countries is that they are too far away. Now we have been preparing for twelve years, and we can just go far. Duke Huan of Qi is old, and he wants to win over the State of Jin. Now that Guan Zhong is dead, Duke Huan of Qi is surrounded by many treacherous ministers. He will definitely look for wise men like Guan Zhong, so we might as well go and defect to Qi." After hearing this, everyone felt that Hu Yan's words made sense, so they left Di and went to Qi.
On the way from the State of Di to the State of Jin, you need to pass through the State of Wei, but the State of Jin had a grudge against the State of Wei before, and Chong'er and his party came from the State of Di, which had a feud with the State of Wei for the country's subjugation. Wei Wengong did not follow the etiquette at all. receive them. So they had no choice but to ask for food from the farmers in the suburbs. The farmers knew that they were from Di and were unwilling to help them, so they picked up clods of soil and handed them to Chong'er.
Chong'er has been pampered since he was a child. How could he have ever been humiliated like this? If you raise the whip, you will beat the peasants. When Hu Yan saw that he was alone, and if he beat the Wei people on the territory of Wei, he would be out of control, so he quickly took Chong'er's hand and said, "Soil is the territory, it is the country. This is This is a good sign from God!" After hearing this, Chong'er turned from anger to joy, saluted the farmer, took the soil from his hand, got into the car and left. These are superficial articles after all. Because Chong'er also understood what Hu Yan meant to him.
After arriving in Qi, Duke Huan of Qi was indeed very courteous to Chong'er and his party. In order to win over Chong'er, Duke Huan of Qi married Qi Jiang, a member of the clan, to Chong'er as his wife, and also gave Chong'er eighty horses as a gift. After a long period of exile and many years of living in the wild and backward state of Di, Chong'er finally had his own wealth and family in the prosperous capital of a great country, and also enjoyed the kindness of the king. He was satisfied and wanted to live in Qi for a long time. Go down and never go back to Jin.
The accompanying officials believed that although the state of Qi was good, it was not their homeland after all. They should return to the state of Jin in order to gain true glory and wealth and bring glory to their family. So they gathered under the mulberry tree to discuss how to persuade Chong'er not to be greedy for pleasure and to leave Qi as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, there happened to be a mulberry picking girl on the tree at this time and heard their discussion clearly. After everyone dispersed, the mulberry picking girl quietly left, quickly found Qi Jiang, and told her that Chong'er's ministers were plotting to make Chong'er leave Qi and Qi Jiang.
Qi Jiang is a woman who understands justice well. She knows that a better development for Chong'er is to return to Jin. However, if Chong'er is planning to leave Qi while enjoying Qi's salary, he will definitely be punished. So Qi Jiang killed the mulberry-picking girl, and then went to Chong'er and said, "The real man has ambitions in all directions. I know you are leaving. Don't worry, I have already killed those who knew about it." Chong'er quickly said, "Where do these words come from? Talking about it, I have never thought of leaving Qi." Qi Jiang said: "You go, it is not a gentleman to indulge in pleasure, and people will laugh at you if word spreads." Qi Jiang tried to persuade him again and again, but Chong'er was Resolutely refused to leave.
So Qi Jiang found Hu Yan to discuss countermeasures together, got Chong'er drunk, and then sent him out of the city overnight. After Chong'er woke up, he found that he was not in his mansion in Qidu, but in a running carriage. He knew that everything he had enjoyed in Qi had to be discarded, and he had to embark on a precarious life of exile again. He was very angry. He took a weapon and chased Hu Yan to kill him. Hu Yan and others grabbed him and persuaded him, and then they continued on their way.
Soon after, Chong'er and others came to Cao State. Cao Gonggong heard that Chong'er's ribs were different from ordinary people and were connected together. He was very strange and wanted to take a look. However, doing so was inconsistent with etiquette and a great insult to others, so Gonggong Cao took advantage of Chong'er's bath to sneak up and take a look. Such behavior simply corrupts etiquette.
When Xi Ouji, the minister of Cao State, found out about the matter, he went home to discuss it with his wife. His wife said: "In my opinion, the followers of the Duke of Jin are all talented enough to serve as the prime minister of a country. People like them must be There will be a day when they return to the State of Jin. Once they return to the State of Jin, the State of Jin will prosper, and then they will attack those who are rude to them, and Cao State will be the first to bear the brunt. You'd better prepare early and leave a path for yourself Let's retreat." So Xi Fuji prepared delicious food and jade to give to Chong'er to show his goodwill. Chong'er was very angry when he learned about Cao Gonggong's behavior, so he accepted the food but sent back the jade bi, and left Cao country within a few days.
Chong'er and his party passed through the Kingdom of Song and the Kingdom of Zheng successively, and then arrived at the Kingdom of Chu. King Chu Cheng warmly received Chong'er and his party with high standards. During the banquet, King Chu Cheng proudly asked Chong'er: "If you can return to Jin, how will you repay me?" Chong'er said: "The king already has his children, jade and silk; feathers and leather are the specialties of Chu. , these things that Jin has are all the leftovers that you bought from Chu all the way, I really don’t know what I should use to repay you.”
King Chu Cheng said: "Then how do you plan to repay me?" Chong'er said: "If, with your blessing, I can return to Jin in the future, then one day Jin and Chu will fight in the Central Plains, and the Jin army will retreat. If they arrive. If I still can't get your understanding, then I can only fight with your army and have a good deal of it."
Yin Ziyu, the commander of the Jin State, heard that Chong'er had been in exile for many years and dared to speak arrogantly on the land of the Chu State. He believed that if this person was not eliminated, he would be a future trouble for the Chu State, so he asked King Chu Cheng to kill Chong'er. King Chu Cheng said: "The prince of Jin is generous, frugal, gentle and courteous, and his followers are also dignified, loyal and capable. The revival of Jin depends on him. This is God's blessing. If you go against God's will, you will surely be destroyed." Causing trouble.”
Chong'er had lived in Chu for several months. Suddenly, an envoy from Qin came to invite him to Qin. Previously, the State of Qin sent troops to escort Duke Hui of Jin back to his country to ascend the throne, but Duke Hui of Jin did not cede the Hewai area south of the Yellow River to Qin as agreed. Later, the State of Qin sent troops to attack the State of Jin, captured Duke Hui of Jin, and obtained the land in the east of Hedong. After peace talks, the State of Qin released Duke Hui of Jin, and only asked that the prince of Duke Hui of Jin should be brought to Qin as a hostage. Unexpectedly, within a few years, Prince Yu secretly escaped back to the state of Jin and succeeded him as Duke Huai of Jin. After he ascended the throne, Duke Huai of Jin immediately announced that he would cut off all ties with the state of Qin, and even abandoned his daughter Huaiying who was married to Duke Mu of Qin. Regardless.
Duke Mugong of Qin was very angry at the unfaithful behavior of Duke Hui of Jin and his son, so he planned to appoint another pro-Qin prince among the Jin princes who had been exiled in various countries to return to the country and take the throne. I heard that Prince Chong'er had been in exile for more than ten years, but he was very popular and had great influence in the Jin Dynasty, so he chose Chong'er. King Chu Cheng saw that Ziyu was determined to kill Chong'er, but he neither wanted to kill him nor offend Ziyu. Just when the state of Qin came to pick him up, he said to Chong'er: "Although I want to send the young master back to my country, it is very inconvenient for the two countries to be too far apart. The two countries of Qin and Jin are adjacent to each other, and the King of Qin is also very wise. It is better for you to go to Qin for help." In this way, the young master Chong'er said goodbye to King Chu Cheng and embarked on the road to the west.
