Duke Qi was coerced by Cao Mo's sharp sword and was forced to give up the land of Lu. Afterwards, he did not go back on his words and really returned the land and cities to the state of Lu, which surprised all the other countries.
They know very well how low the bottom line of the superiors is, otherwise there would not be so many regicides, killings, revenges, and rebellions in human relations in the offices of various countries.
Which one should I choose, a leader with no moral bottom line or a leader with a very high moral bottom line? I believe that as long as they are not stupid, these princes will choose leaders with a high moral bottom line.
After the Marquis of Qi fulfilled his promise, his reputation was greatly improved. Even powerful vassal states such as Song, Zheng, Wei, and Yan came to support him as the leader of the alliance.
Even the Emperor of Zhou gave sacrificial meat to the Marquis of Qi and ordered him to be the leader of the feudal lords and the overlord of the world.
The Marquis of Qi was recognized by the Emperor of Zhou and began to implement his political policy of respecting the king and repelling the barbarians. He ordered the princes to pay tribute to the emperor again and helped the weak princes to resist the Rong and Di. In the past three years, the prestige of the Marquis of Qi has become stronger and stronger.
The Chu State in the south was also restless at this time. The Chu State was thousands of miles away, but it was only a viscount. The successive Chu kings were very dissatisfied, so this generation of Chu kings once again overrode the king and began to attack the northern countries.
When the news of King Chu's proclaimed king reached the Central Plains, all the countries in the Central Plains turned their attention to it. At the same time, these princely countries were still waiting for the attitude of the Marquis of Qi. This was the highlight moment of the Qi Kingdom, and now it suddenly came out. A Chu king was crowned king, and he was directly on an equal footing with the Zhou royal family. How could this make the high-spirited Marquis of Qi swallow his breath?
After the Marquis of Qi got the news, he was furious and immediately sent envoys to summon the princes to prepare for an attack on Chu. The princes of the Central Plains responded.
After hearing that the Chu Kingdom was proclaimed king, Wang Sheng was probably the happiest person. Originally, Wang Sheng was on guard against Qi, but now that Chu came forward and attracted Qi's attention, he could do a lot of things.
After annexing Wu State, Huai State has almost digested Wu State after these years of development. He now sets his sights on Zhongli State to the west.
Zhongli State was originally a vassal state of Xu State, but since Xu State was defeated by Emperor Zhou and suffered heavy losses and great loss of national power, Zhongli State became indifferent. Later, Chu State rose up and became a vassal state of Chu State.
When the Chu State attacked the Huai State, they borrowed the route from the Zhongli State. The Zhongwu State was close to Han and posed a great threat. Wang Sheng has long wanted to deal with it. In the past, Zhongli State was a vassal state of Chu State. If Wang Sheng took action, Chu State would definitely participate. When the time came, he would fight with Chu State. If Qi State took the opportunity to send troops, he would have no choice but to retreat.
Now that the Chu State is seeking death and arrogating the throne, Qi Chu will definitely have a fight. When the time comes, he can take advantage of this opportunity to annex the Zhongli State.
In order to restrict the Chu State, the Zhou royal family enfeoffed several vassal states with the surname Ji in the land of Han River and Han Yang. Chu State has been fighting with these vassal states for hundreds of years. Several of them have declined day by day, or been annexed, or become vassal states of Chu State. Only Sui State, Tang State, etc. are still barely maintaining.
The King of Chu personally led an army of 50,000 to attack Suiguo, but Suiguo was defeated. He asked Tang, Shen, Qi, and Zheng for help, and at the same time actively defended. However, faced with the suppression of absolute power, Suiguo was defeated all the way, and soon retreated to capital.
Sui Guo sent people to seek peace.
The envoy said: "I follow the country and I am a nobleman with the surname Ji. I have not offended the Chu country or made any mistakes. The Lord of Chu will not attack me!"
King Chu: "I am a barbarian!"
The envoy from Qi soon came to Chu and asked him to remove his royal title and pay tribute to the emperor. King Chu refused without thinking.
The King of Chu clearly remembered the treatment received by the ancestors of Chu when they went to pay tribute to the emperor.
The emperor met with the princes, and the Chu State came with generous tributes, but was actually assigned to guard the bonfire outside the palace. The countries in the Central Plains regarded Chu as a barbarian. How could Chu State be able to swallow this breath?
According to Chu State's thinking, I am so strong, how can I bear this grievance? He directly drove out the envoy from Qi.
The envoy from Qi State rushed back to Qi State in embarrassment. The Marquis of Qi State was furious and summoned an army to form an alliance in Yanggu. All the vassal states in the Central Plains led their armies to Yanggu to participate in the alliance.
After years of development, the prestige of the Marquis of Qi was at its peak. There were more than a dozen vassal states who came to participate in the alliance. The army gathered in Yanggu and jointly elected the Marquis of Qi as the leader of the alliance to rescue Sui and attack the Chu state.
After Chu State learned that Qi State had united many vassal states to attack it, it also began to contact its vassal states and allies to fight Qi State.
The Marquis of Qi led an army of princes to rescue Sui Guo, and the armies of Song and Chen arrived first.
When the King of Chu saw the armies of Song and Chen, he was very disdainful: "Do you think Song and Chen can fight with Chu?"
King Xiong Meng of Chu decisively sent the army to attack, and launched a surprise attack while the armies of Song and Chen were not yet stable. The Song Army and Chen Army, under the command of Song Gong and Chen Hou, not only did not cooperate with each other, but instead fought independently. The Chu army took the opportunity to defeat them one by one. In a clean defeat, the two countries had to retreat hastily.
Fortunately, the Qi army arrived quickly and confronted Chu.
After seeing Qi Chu fighting, Wang Sheng couldn't sit still and prepared to annex Zhongli Kingdom. This time to annex Zhongli Kingdom, Wang Sheng did not plan to use too many troops, but planned to mobilize Wu soldiers.
Wang Sheng asked Wei Jun to lead an army to attack Zhongli State. In order to prevent Zhongli State from noticing that it was Huai State who was attacking, Wang Sheng specifically asked Wei Jun to lead 20,000 Wu soldiers and 3,000 Tengjia troops. Because the Wu soldiers had broken hair and tattoos, they could easily be mistaken for Yi Di. If they were asked to take action, Zhongli would only think that the Yi Di were causing trouble, but would not think that the Huai State was attacking.
Wei Jun followed Wang Sheng's instructions and sent Wu soldiers to attack Zhongli Kingdom. These soldiers all had broken hair and tattoos, and the weapons they used were replaced by Yi and Di styles. Wei Jun immediately led his army to conquer several cities in Zhongli State and defeated Zhongli State's army.
After Zhonghou learned that the Yi and Di rebelled, he was very angry. When would the Zhongli Kingdom be insulted by the Yi and Di? He immediately sent a general to lead an army to encircle and suppress it.
After the Yi and Di people gathered near Zhongli City, Zhonghou ordered Zhongliyuan to lead an army to encircle and suppress them.
In Zhonghou's view, these barbarians were just a mob, relying on their numbers to defeat Zhongli's soldiers. As long as Zhongli's army was dispatched, these barbarians could be easily defeated.
Sure enough, Zhongli's army was dispatched, and as soon as they engaged in battle, the Yi and Di soldiers were defeated. Seeing this situation, Zhongliyuan immediately ordered the army to pursue them. During this period, these barbarians had been harassing Zhongli's country. They must be strangled and then captured as slaves.
The barbarians ran away very quickly. Their weapons and armor were scattered all over the place, and they looked in a terrible state. It seemed that they could catch up with just a little more force, but the barbarians were as nimble as monkeys.
Although they looked miserable, they all ran extremely fast, and they specialized in rugged paths full of thorns. Every time they were about to catch up, those people could always escape with the help of trees and thorns.
The army soon entered a hilly area. After a pursuit, the barbarians may have lost their physical strength and slowed down. However, the physical strength of the pursuing Zhongliguo army also dropped drastically. But in comparison, the barbarians had lost their shields and weapons, and their burdens were light, while Zhongli's pursuit was more costly.
Zhong Liyuan was chasing after him, and the biting wind blew on his face, making him feel a chill. Subconsciously, he looked up at the surrounding rolling hills and the surrounding trees and thorns, and suddenly felt a bad feeling in his heart.
Since defeating the opponent, these people fled all the way, but there were not many real casualties, and the area in front of them was perfect for an ambush.
Thinking of this, Zhong Liyuan's expression changed drastically, and he quickly shouted: "The army stops pursuing!" The messengers around him quickly waved their flags and shouted, "Stop pursuing!"
"Stop the pursuit!"
"Stop the pursuit!"
The soldiers stopped one after another, a little surprised, and the barbarians in front quickly got into the woods and disappeared.
The surrounding mountains and forests suddenly became quiet at this moment. It was so quiet that there was not even a bird song, only a gust of wind blowing from the mountain road.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Zhong Liyuan's forehead, and he immediately ordered: "Retreat, retreat!"
The messenger waved the flag, and the soldiers quickly retreated.
But at this moment, a "bumping" sound suddenly sounded in his ears, which was the sound of a bow string being pulled. The next second. I saw countless bows and arrows shot out from the woods on both sides.
The army was immediately surrounded, arrows rained down from the sky, and a large number of soldiers were shot. Immediately afterwards, a large number of barbarian soldiers were seen rushing out of the mountains and forests. At the same time, arrows rained down from the hills on both sides, and Zhongli's army was in chaos.
"Quickly retreat! Quickly retreat!"
Zhongli's eyes were about to burst when he saw it, but he could only order a retreat. But it was already too late. The mountain road was so narrow that Zhongli's army was stretched into a long snake and could not form an array. Then he could only watch the army being rushed down and cut off by the barbarians.
A large number of Zhongli's troops fell into a tight siege and were then surrounded and killed. The barbarian soldiers who had just escaped also turned around and killed them.
Zhongliyuan fled in embarrassment under the protection of his guards. Zhongliguo's chariot was surrounded by a large army because of the narrow road. It could not move at all and was easily strangled.
In a battle, Zhongli's army suffered heavy losses, and Zhongli fled in panic. At this time, Wei Jun directly sent the Tengjia Army to follow and attack. Zhongli's army had been defeated, and the city was empty. Wei Jun's army was dispatched, and then took advantage of the situation to attack Zhongli City in one fell swoop.
Huai State did not spend any effort at all to conquer Zhongli State, and then directly forcibly moved Zhongli's official offices and ministers away. Anyone who dared to resist was killed. Zhongli's army was also forcibly moved to Wu, and then from A large number of Wu people moved to Wu.
After moving away the upper ruling class, Wang Sheng immediately sent the Huai army and officials to take over Zhongli State, and then took control of Zhongli State in the shortest possible time. Of course, this approach is only temporary control, and it will take at least several years to fully control it.
...
In the eleventh year of Duke Huan, Xiongtong of Chu was proclaimed king, and Duke Huan ordered the princes to attack him. Huai State took chestnuts from the fire and swallowed Zhongli. ——"Historical Records Qi Family"
