Chapter 356: Spring and Autumn Period
In the early Spring and Autumn Period, there were twenty kingdoms. In an instant, seven heroes divided the country and fought fiercely. ------------"Mupi Sanren Gu Ci" by Jia Fuxi of the Qing Dynasty
Speaking of the outskirts of Yecheng, Chunyu Qiong followed Guo Tu's suggestion and erected a strong fort to resist the attack of the defeated army. Guan Yu led his pursuers in pursuit, but was driven back by a hail of arrows from Chunyu Qiong's army, and even Guan Yu himself was injured.
Guan Yu retreated to the military camp. Chen Long was shocked when he saw an arrow hit Guan Yu's arm and personally treated Guan Yu's injury. After some bandaging and suturing, Guan Yu felt no pain and turned around to go back to the tent, but he felt a little grateful to Longzhu.
As soon as Guan Yu walked into his tent, the pain in his right arm started to burn because there was no anesthetic. Without even frowning, Guan Yu picked up a copy of "Spring and Autumn" in his left hand and began to read it carefully in the light of the day. Although he had read it many times, Guan Yu was still immersed in the profound meaning of Spring and Autumn and soon forgot about the pain. The vastness of the world, the essence of the sun and the moon, and the principles of life seem to be all contained in this wonderful book.
"Spring and Autumn" is indeed a wonderful book. The Spring and Autumn Period is the historical stage of the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history. From 770 BC to 476 BC, history is called the "Spring and Autumn Period". The historians of the State of Lu recorded the major events reported by various countries at that time by year, season, month and day, and recorded the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. In short, they called this chronicle "Spring and Autumn".
The Spring and Autumn Period began in 770 BC (the first year of King Ping of Zhou), the year when King Ping of Zhou moved eastward to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and ended in 476 BC (the forty-fourth year of King Jing of Zhou), the eve of the Warring States Period, a total of 295 years. Confucius compiled and revised the Spring and Autumn Annals compiled by Lu historians, and it became one of the Confucian classics.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the power of the Zhou kings weakened, and the princes fought among themselves. Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Xiang of Song, Duke Mu of Qin, and King Zhuang of Chu successively came to dominate, and were known as the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period in history. The royal family is declining day by day, power is falling apart, vassal states are attacking each other, and wars are frequent. Small vassal states were annexed one after another, and powerful vassal states achieved unification in local areas. This is very similar to the Three Kingdoms period.
In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a relatively peaceful period. The reason was that all countries were very exhausted by the war and needed to rest and recuperate. Therefore, an agreement was reached through the second "Annihilation Conference" participated by 14 countries in 546 BC, and the war was temporarily be appeased. However, during this period, hegemony struggles broke out many times in the Yangtze River Basin between Wu, Chu, and Yue. In the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, with the popularization of cattle farming and the application of iron farm tools, the economy developed rapidly, and profound social changes occurred, such as the development of private fields and the collapse of the well-field system. In some vassal states, the aristocracy became stronger and began to compete for power from the king. The emerging vassal powers successively achieved hegemonic status, and in fact, they succeeded the Zhou royal family as co-leaders of the dynasty.
In 453 BC, the three families of Han, Zhao, and Wei joined forces to defeat the Zhi family in Jinyang. Afterwards, they gradually divided the Jin country and established their own countries, which is the famous "Three Families Divide Jin". In 379 BC, the Tian family of Qi State replaced the surname Jiang and became the Marquis of Qi, which was called "Tian Qi". As a result, the era of seven heroes standing side by side and competing for hegemony gradually came, and the Spring and Autumn Period moved towards the Warring States Period.
Among these overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Yunchang admired Qi Huan Gong Xiaobai the most. Duke Huan of Qi is the leader of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period and the fifteenth king of Qi State. His surname is Jiang, his family name is Qi, and his given name is Xiaobai. He is 73 years old. He is the twelfth generation grandson of Jiang Taigong Lu Shang, and his mother is from Weiguo. After Duke Xiang, the eldest son of Duke Xi of Qi, and Gongsun Wuzhi, nephew of Duke Xi, died in civil strife one after another, Prince Xiaobai and Prince Jiu successfully competed for the throne, and the throne became Duke Huan of Qi.
Duke Huan appointed Guan Zhong as prime minister, carried out reforms, and implemented the system of integrating military and political affairs, and integrating military and civilians. Qi gradually became stronger and stronger. In 681 BC, Duke Huan convened the four princes of Song, Chen, Cai and Zhu for an alliance in Beixing. He was the first prince in history to serve as the leader of the alliance. At that time, the various princes in the Central Plains were suffering from the attacks of the Rong, Di and other tribes, so Duke Huan of Qi took up the banner of "respecting the king and repelling the barbarians" and attacked the Shanrong in the north and the Chu Kingdom in the south. He became the first overlord in the Central Plains and was rewarded by the Emperor of Zhou. But he was mediocre in his later years. After Guan Zhong died, he appointed villains such as Yi Ya and Shu Diao, and eventually starved to death in civil strife. Guan Yu couldn't help but shake his head and sigh every time he read this.
When Duke Huan of Qi attacked Chu, his army was extremely powerful and was known as the "Zhaoling Division" in history. The Chu people who bore the brunt of the attack understood the situation best. The "Zhaoling Division" coalition army had a strength of one thousand and hundreds of chariots, which was an unprecedentedly large force at the time. Under the tremendous pressure of the coalition forces, the Chu State was forced to request to join the Qi State Alliance. This incident left a deep impression on the Chu people. In 641 BC after the death of Duke Huan of Qi, the State of Chu, which wanted to seek hegemony, participated in an alliance in Qi State, and Qi State was still the leader of the alliance, which shows the prosperity of Qi Huan's hegemony.
When Guan Yu was reading about Qi Huangong's hegemony and was fascinated, suddenly there was a commotion outside the camp, and soldiers came to report. A general called himself Han Meng, the general of Jizhou, and led his troops to challenge Guan Yu in a single battle outside the camp.
When Guan Yu was called into battle by an unknown soldier, he couldn't help but feel furious. He had long forgotten about the injury to his right arm. He led the red rabbit horse, held up the Qinglong Yanyue Sword, and went straight to the outside of the village to fight with Han Meng. After all, the right arm is not very strong, and the metal wound has already cracked, and it is bleeding profusely. Guan Yu dragged the sword and left. Han Meng was unwilling to give up. He wanted to kill Guan Yu to avenge Jiang Qi, so he chased after him.
At this time, Chen Long heard that Guan Yu was injured and came out of the battle, so he hurriedly picked up his steel gun and came out to respond. As soon as he arrived outside the camp, he suddenly saw Guan Yu dismounting his horse and turning around in a cool way. Guan Yu struck down with lightning with the sword in his left hand, slashing Han Meng into two pieces on the spot.
Guan Yu killed Han Meng with a knife trick. Chen Long led the troops and killed Han Meng's soldiers in one fell swoop. Guan Yu used too much force, so Chen Long rescued Guan Yu and returned to the stronghold for recuperation.
Han Meng's defeated troops returned to the stronghold and informed Chunyu Qiong of Han Meng's death. Chunyu Qiong sighed, thinking that Guan Yu had killed two of my generals in one day! Guo Tuyan said: "Now that we have lost two battles in a row, our morale will definitely be low. We must never leave the stronghold to fight in the field again. The general can give orders and kill anyone who sends troops without permission."
Chunyu Qiong obeyed the orders, and for a while no one dared to fight rashly. On the second day, a Montenegrin army arrived outside the stronghold and did not bother to fight. They just lined up outside the range of the arrows and showed off their power from a distance.
This troop was specially assigned to Chunyu Qiong's camp by Zhou Buyi, who ordered Wu Anguo to lead 10,000 soldiers. It was expected that Guo Tu would never dare to fight. The rest of the troops made a wide turn across the boundary river early and headed towards Yecheng. With the flags fluttering, Chen Long, who has transformed into a dragon ball, is majestic, with Guan Yu on the left and Tai Shi Ci on the right. The corner of the high wall of Jizhou's capital is already in front of you.
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the explanation next time.
