After discussing the war in Liang Kingdom, the court meeting was not over. Lu Yuan talked about another thing.
"At the beginning of the year, for my future plan to go north to Zhongzhou, I sent an envoy to Zheng State, another big country in Zhongzhou with Liang State, to spy on the country's reality.
Just yesterday, the envoy I sent to the State of Zheng in Yuzhou came back, bringing the latest news about the civil strife in Zheng. "
Lu Yuan looked at the ministers, and finally looked at the person below, and said: "Wen Qing, you are the chief envoy of this mission, and you are also the Prime Minister of Honglu Temple. It is up to you to tell the ministers about the latest situation in Zheng State. .”
In the crowd, Wen Shu heard the emperor call his name and stepped out of the queue. After saluting, he said: "Your Majesty, gentlemen, in February of this year, I was ordered to send an envoy to Zheng Guo, the lord of Yuzhou, and took a boat along the river. Go straight down, and finally arrived at Zheng State by sea at the end of February, and then headed to its capital Xinzheng.
Emperor Zheng was very happy to hear that our envoy from Chu State had arrived, and received his ministers solemnly.
During the meeting, after expressing His Majesty's greetings to the State of Zheng, Emperor Zheng also expressed his goodwill to the State of Chu.
Later, he asked his ministers several times about the details of Da Chu and His Majesty's strategy. According to His Majesty's instructions before departure, I explained everything to Emperor Zheng in detail.
After hearing this, Emperor Zheng greatly admired and admired His Majesty's majesty, strategy and achievements.
Regarding the trade between Chu and Zheng, Emperor Zheng also agreed without any rejection.
Then the minister visited a group of ministers in Xinzheng City. The Zheng royal family, headed by Zheng Chan, the ruler of Zheng State, was quite friendly to the minister's visit. Like Emperor Zheng, they expressed goodwill to our great Chu.
However, when I paid a visit to General Zhang Shou of the State of Zheng, his attitude towards Chu was quite cold, and he also expressed hostility to me several times.
Later, I asked someone to investigate, and I learned that twenty years ago, before Zheng Emperor Zheng Lian ascended the throne, he was just the prince of Zheng State, and he competed with his younger brother Zheng Ze for the throne.
At that time, the Zhengguo court was divided into camps because of the battle for the throne, and it was divided into two factions fighting.
They support the eldest prince Zheng Lian and the royal family clan forces headed by the ruling Zheng Chan; they support the third prince Zheng Ze and the foreign relatives and aristocratic forces headed by the general Zhang Shou.
These two factions..."
As Wen Shu slowly told the story, everyone in the palace gradually understood the details of Zheng Guo's internal affairs.
It turns out that when the Zheng State was founded, it was a small country in Yuzhou, ruling no more than two prefectures.
At that time, among the neighboring countries of Zheng State, there was a large country that already ruled one county - Cao State.
Moreover, Cao Guo was still sharpening his sword and wanted to expand outwards with great ambition, and his troops were directed towards the area where Zheng Guo was located.
In the area where Zheng State was located, in addition to Zheng State, there were seventeen small countries.
These small countries are as weak as Zheng. The big ones can only rule one government, and the small ones can only rule three or five counties. Each country is weak and vulnerable.
Under normal circumstances, facing the Cao State that had unified a county, these small countries headed by Zheng Guo could not stop the front of the Chao Kingdom at all, and would eventually be annexed one by one.
But I don’t know whether it was because they were forced to panic, or because there was great wisdom among the countries. Facing the strong oppression of Cao State, the small countries near Zheng State unexpectedly united.
It's a true union.
After retaining their own autonomy over the territory, each small country gave up its country and country, chose to surrender to the State of Zheng, dedicated its territory, and merged with it.
Zheng Guo recognized the autonomy of the kings of the small countries who surrendered to their original territories, and granted corresponding titles.
At the same time, it was also stipulated that the autonomous territories in these countries needed to pay a certain amount of taxes to the court and provide private soldiers in the territories to fight in the event of a national war.
In this way, the seventeen large and small princes near Zheng State completed the preparations for their original monarchs to become vassals in Zheng State.
Those vassal states were also merged into the State of Zheng and became domestic fiefdoms.
Under the compromise of each other, these small countries merged to form a big country that can satisfy the interests of most people.
So in an instant, Zheng State transformed from a small country with only two mansions to a large country with two counties.
Although this big country is very fragmented, with many fiefdoms in the country, the territory that really belongs to the king is still only the second palace of the original Zheng State, and the rest are states within the state belonging to the vassals.
But regardless of the inner and outer details, after unifying nearby small countries, Zheng Guo has essentially become a whole.
And with the title of king, he can integrate the country's resources by collecting taxes.
At the same time, vassal obligations can also be used to concentrate domestic troops to deal with national wars to defend against foreign enemies or expand outward.
With this function, the newly born Zheng State, with nearly twice its size, finally blocked the invasion of Cao State after fighting for several years in the Great Patriotic War.
And through this war, Zheng Guo, who was originally only forcibly integrated and whose people's hearts were still scattered, slowly completed the process of sorting out their people's hearts and gradually shaped the concept of "Zheng Guoren".
Later, in order to strengthen this concept, the monarch of Zheng State even took the initiative to launch an attack on Cao State in the name of revenge after repelling the invasion of Cao State.
Finally, after ten years of long war, he finally led the entire country to destroy this once formidable enemy.
The king of Zheng who led the victory at that time also used the prestige of the victory to move the capital to the former capital of Cao and renamed it Xinzheng, which is now the capital of Zheng.
Taking advantage of the radiation from Xinzheng City, the capital of the country, the royal family of the Zheng Kingdom, headed by the monarch, quickly spread their influence to most of the original Cao Kingdom's territory, extending the royal family's tentacles to all aspects of the new territory.
Most of the fruits of the victory over Cao State were seized by the royal family.
The Zheng royal family also relied on the capital of Xinzheng City and its original territory to integrate a territory directly under the jurisdiction of almost a county, and its strength increased instantly.
It turns out that in the Zheng Kingdom, the vassal nobles who were about the same size as the royal family were suddenly widened, making it difficult for them to threaten the status of the royal family.
In this case, some vassal nobles believed that the royal family was too greedy. It was clear that Cao State was destroyed by everyone, but the benefits were almost eaten by the royal family, and they did not get much of the soup.
Therefore, when the benefits were unevenly distributed, there was great dissatisfaction with the royal family.
The king believed that Zheng now had three counties and was gradually establishing a foundation for hegemony.
However, there were many vassals in the country, and more than two-thirds of the territory was controlled by vassals, large and small. Most of the domestic power could not be concentrated, which greatly affected Zheng's external expansion.
It also greatly threatened the majesty and safety of the Zheng royal family.
Therefore, the Zheng royal family, headed by the monarch, naturally wanted to cut down the vassals, eliminate those vassals, and centralize power.
These two almost irreconcilable conflicts between the king and his vassals, under the constant temptation and fighting between the two sides, almost turned Zheng State into a powder keg.
In the end, the King of Zheng was completely ignited after he forcefully executed the head of the Shangqing family, who was a representative of many vassals in Zheng.
The Zheng royal family and local nobles and ministers were divided into two camps, and a fierce civil war began.
This fight lasted for several years. During this period, there were countless casualties and the Zheng Kingdom was almost destroyed.
But just when the state of Zheng was about to split, suddenly a large country in the south of the state of Zheng, the state of Xun, saw an opportunity and sent troops to invade the state of Zheng.
So I don’t know whether it’s because they are tired from fighting, or whether the Zheng people really agree with the concept of “Zheng Guo”, or maybe both.
In short, facing the invasion of Xun State, the two camps of Zheng State, which were originally at war with each other, united again to resist Xun State.
A crisis that might have caused division or even the destruction of Zheng was eliminated with the help of Xun.
And it was precisely because of the brutal civil war and the crisis that almost destroyed the country that after the reconciliation between the Zheng royal family and the local ministers, they no longer dared to take action rashly, for fear of triggering a second civil war.
Therefore, in the subsequent interactions, both parties maintained considerable restraint. The Zheng royal family continued to recognize the interests of the local ministers in their fiefdoms, and the local ministers also supported the Zheng royal family as usual.
The two parties cooperated sincerely to safeguard Zheng Guo's interests and promote the expansion of this interest group.
For more than a thousand years, after experiencing several crises and twists and turns, Zheng Guo struggled to unify most of Yuzhou and became one of the overlords of the Nine Provinces.
The royal family and local ministers of Zheng State also experienced a series of expansions, and their strength expanded rapidly.
However, the royal family occupies a righteous position in the end, and can always get more benefits from the previous expansions.
So now, there are ten counties in the Zheng Kingdom, with the royal family and the ministers each accounting for half. The strength has changed from the original one to two to the current one to one, forming a balance.
It is precisely because of the balance that Zheng Guo has planted new hidden dangers.
More than a thousand years have passed, and the civil strife that only existed in history books has long since disappeared in the long river of time.
Although the people of the Zheng Kingdom now know that the civil war is terrible, after all, it is just a fragment of history books. They have never experienced it. Who knows the cruelty of it?
“So in the past hundred years, as the strength of the Zheng royal family continued to expand, they began to try to oppress local officials, hoping to cut down the vassalage again in order to centralize power.
In order to protect themselves, local ministers had to form a group to fight against the threat of the royal family.
Decades have passed, and now two major groups, the royal family and the ministers, have formed in Zheng. They have once again begun to fight and criticize in the court, and launched several political purges.
Under these cruel political struggles, the two factions have become increasingly incompatible and difficult to get along with.
Even so, the situation was still controllable. The struggle between the two forces only revolved around the court, using political means and did not touch the bottom line. "
Wen Shu paused for a moment when he said this, and then seemed to recall some unbearable memory, and said with an ugly face: "But in May of this year, Zheng Chan, the ruler of Zheng State, made suggestions to Emperor Zheng.
Please collect all kinds of rare and rare treasures from the country and send them to Chu State as national gifts to thank Chu State for this gift and to show the good relations between the two countries.
When Emperor Zheng heard this, he happily agreed, so he issued an order to the vassals of the counties and counties in the country to select rare things in the territory and present them to him.
After one month, all kinds of rare and exotic objects in the territory of Zheng were selected and sent to the national treasury.
However, during this period, the treasures donated by Yang Shouguo, the son of Taiqiu County and Zheng Guoqing clan, were found to be inferior, and many of them were even fake.
The ruling general Zheng Chan reported to Emperor Zheng, accusing Yang Shouguo of perfunctory royal affairs and using inferior fakes as state gifts, which was a crime that insulted the country's prestige.
He also requested that the title of the prince of Taiqiu County of Yang Shouguo be removed and his fiefdom be taken away, so as to rectify the country's laws and clarify rewards and punishments.
Emperor Zheng agreed to this request..."
Wen Shu continued to talk about the changes in the political situation of Zheng State caused by giving gifts to Chu State.
As Zheng Chan's proposal was approved by Zheng Emperor Zheng Lian, after the news spread, it immediately caused an uproar.
The local officials in Xinzheng City jointly submitted a letter requesting Emperor Zheng to revoke this punishment.
He believed that Yang Shouguo was guilty of using defective products as a national gift, which was indeed an insult to the country's prestige, but he could be executed.
However, the fiefdom in Taiqiu County was the property of the Yang family. It was acquired by the Yang family and was not given by the state.
Therefore, the emperor has no right to take it away.
Otherwise, if the emperor can take away the Yang family's cemetery today, won't he be able to take away my family's tomorrow?
Their fiefdom was not given by the emperor, but their ancestors took the territory as shares and it belonged to their family from the beginning.
The relationship between these ministers and the royal family is not an absolute master-slave relationship, but mostly a cooperative relationship.
Now the collaborators want to seize their equity. How can this be accepted by many ministers?
Therefore, many ministers jointly signed a letter asking the emperor to revoke this resolution.
One can imagine how Emperor Zheng could accept this proposal.
Therefore, the decree to deprive the fiefdom was carried out forcefully.
However, when the envoys were rushing to Taiqiu County to announce the decree, they heard that Yang Shouguo, the son of Taiqiu County, led his three county fiefdoms and raised 30,000 troops to rebel.
Faced with this situation, it was obviously impossible to peacefully deprive the Yang family of their fiefdom.
So the envoy returned to the court and reported the matter to the emperor.
Emperor Zheng was furious, and the ruler Zheng Chan even made strong suggestions, demanding severe suppression to put down the rebellion.
Many members of the royal family also agreed.
The ministers in the court continued to persuade him, saying that as long as the emperor could withdraw his intention to deprive Taiqiu County of his fiefdom, they could let Yang Shouguo commit suicide and express gratitude to his country, hoping to prevent this matter.
But Emperor Zheng still refused.
The 50,000 counter-rebellion troops sent by the imperial court were quickly assembled and sent to Taiqiu County.
This moment became a fuse that fueled the fire.
Seeing that the emperor and the royal family were still unwilling to give in, they must kill the Yang family of Taiqiu. In Zheng State, some officials who were friends with the Yang family of Taiqiu also started to rebel.
In just half a month, two county men, one county son, and one government uncle in Zheng State raised the flag of rebellion.
The royal family seemed to have expected this. When various families rebelled, the local counter-rebellion troops that had been prepared were dispatched immediately.
It didn't take long before three of these ministers who had hurriedly raised their troops were wiped out.
Those who were destroyed were uprooted, their entire clan was implicated, and thousands of people were killed.
This brutal act, as well as the royal family's hostility towards local ministers, aroused great fear and indignation among other ministers who were watching.
So after another petition to the emperor to revoke the order to send troops was rejected, the representatives of the ministers in Xinzheng City finally recognized the reality.
After realizing that everything was irreversible, the ministers headed by General Zhang Shou directly kidnapped the third prince Zheng Ze, who had failed to seize the throne and was confined at home, and took him back to his fief Yongqiu.
"After taking away Zheng Ze, Zhang Shou summoned many officials from the Zheng Kingdom and held a meeting to enumerate the crimes of Zheng Lian, the current leader of the Zheng Kingdom.
Then he made a sacrifice to heaven, announcing that he would no longer recognize him as the master, and instead supported Zheng Ze as emperor, and established a separate court in Yongqiu.
In this way, on July 14, the twenty-fifth year of Shenwu, two Zheng states appeared in Yuzhou.
One is Beizheng, which is located in the north and is dominated by many local ministers. They support Zheng Ze as their king and make Yongqiu their capital.
One is Nanzheng, located in the south, with the royal family as the main body, supporting the former Zheng Emperor Zheng Lian as the king, and making Xinzheng the capital. "
When Wen Shu said this, his throat felt a little dry, but he continued: "Now Beizheng occupies the five counties in the north of Zheng State, and Nanzheng occupies the five counties in the south of Zheng State. Both sides have millions of troops, and they are innately superior. ten people.
The two sides were surrounded by clouds of war and were already fighting.
In the short term, there is no possibility of a winner.
The entire Yuzhou was also divided into three after the split of Zheng State.
Nanzheng, Beizheng, and Jin each occupied five counties and divided the entire Yuzhou equally.
Although these three countries are not weak in strength, they can all be called hegemons.
But they are only small hegemons in the state, and it is difficult to compare with the world hegemony that dominates one state. "
Having said this, Wen Shu paused, with a trace of unbearable expression on his face: "When the Zheng Kingdom was still one, it dominated Yuzhou, and with its size as the world's hegemon, it could naturally block the covetousness of other major powers in the world.
Therefore, the Tang State of Jingzhou and the Xu State of Liangzhou, which were located in the north of Yuzhou, even though they were eyeing the enemy, they were afraid of the strength of Zheng State and did not dare to invade rashly.
But now that Zheng State is divided into two parts and Yuzhou is divided into three parts, and they are not integrated into each other, it is no longer difficult to stop the ambitions of the two countries.
When I left, I heard that Beizheng had already connected with the Tang Kingdom in Jingzhou, and the Jin Kingdom had hooked up with the Xu Kingdom in Liangzhou. They both agreed to cede their northern territories and lead the troops of the two countries southward, preparing to join forces to attack Nanzheng.
In this way, the North lost its territory and the South compensated, and the North Zheng and Jin countries used this method to temporarily avoid the attacks of the Tang and Xu countries, and used the power of the two countries to seek their own interests in the south.
well!
If this happens, the former overlord of Yuzhou will probably die.
And once it is destroyed, how can Beizheng and Jin, who are seeking skin from tigers, survive alone?
The land of Yuzhou will eventually be occupied by the Tang and Xu kingdoms. "
Wen Shu sighed, seeming to be grieving for this overlord who was about to pass away.
I went on a mission to the State of Zheng and was treated with great courtesy by Emperor Zheng Zheng Lian, but I didn't expect that it would end up like this, which is really disappointing.
After listening to Wen Shu's story, other people in the palace also looked at each other in shock. They all felt that the civil strife in Zheng caused by Chu's envoy was outrageous.
Lu Yuan was also a little depressed.
When he sent an envoy to Zheng Guo, he really wanted to establish good relations with the other party and did not intend to cause trouble.
Who would have thought that Zheng Lian, the emperor of the Zheng Kingdom, would cut down his vassal vassalage in the name of returning gifts to the Chu Kingdom, but his methods were so crude that he failed to get things done and instead tore his huge empire to pieces.
It's better now.
The vassal state was not established, but the state of Zheng was about to perish.
When word spread about this, uninformed people found out, and they thought the Chu State had done something to split up the entire empire?
Lu Yuan could already think of how the monarchs, ministers and people in the nine states organized themselves in private.
From now on, envoys sent by the Chu State to other countries will inevitably be looked down upon for a long time.
zw443sx
