Qi Houzhao used the troops of Song and other countries to purge the nobles of Qi's court. Although he gained great power and secured his position as Qi Hou, it also left hidden dangers.
In particular, the allied forces of Song, Zheng and other countries defeated the Qi army in a row, which suddenly took off the aura of hegemony from Qi. You must know that the vassal states of the Central Plains were always under the shadow of Qi State. Now that Qi State was defeated, the princes gradually stopped paying attention to Qi State.
This is what the Huai State wants to see, but the monarchs and ministers of the Huai State feel that this is not enough, and the Qi State needs to continue to weaken. However, because of the Song State, Zheng State and other vassal states, Qi Hou Zhao's position is very stable.
And a more important reason is that Qi Hou Zhao is the prince, and his accession to the throne is justifiable. If the Huai Kingdom, as a remnant of the Yin Shang Dynasty, is discovered to be involved in the succession of princes' heirs, they will probably be attacked immediately.
For the vassal states of Zhou Dynasty, it was nothing to send troops to escort a foreign prince back to his country to ascend the throne, and he would also be praised for his benevolence and righteousness by the vassal states.
Just like the state of Ju escorting the young master Xiaobai back to the country to inherit the position of Marquis of Qi, and finally achieve hegemony. This was the case when Duke Huan of Qi escorted the princes of Wei to rebuild Wei.
Whether it is Young Master Xiaobai or Young Master Wei, this is a legal inheritance, and sending troops to escort is also justified and in line with Zhou etiquette. But if you send troops to help a prince seize the throne after the other party legally inherits the throne, this is no longer an escort back to the country to ascend the throne, but to help other princes rebel.
This is interfering with the internal affairs of the vassal states and is a taboo matter. There is no reason to send troops to forcibly interfere with the normal succession of a vassal state. If this is really done, the vassals of various countries will really never have peace. At that time, every young master with the right to inherit will do this.
You must know that marriage between public families is very common. If you have a maternal clan, others will not have a maternal clan? When the time comes when several young masters invite their respective mother clans to help fight the war and help them inherit the position of princes, then the entire state and Zhou Dynasty will be completely in chaos.
When Huai Guo saw that nothing could be done, he let Huai Guo's spies lurk temporarily.
...
After the Chu State was severely beaten by the Qi State Allied Forces and the Huai State respectively, its national strength was weakened and it was unable to advance either north or east. But after seeing Huai State getting stronger and stronger, I felt very uneasy.
Because of the position of Huai State, especially after annexing Zhongli State, Huai State's threat to Chu State was too high.
The advantage of Chu State over Huai State is that Chu State occupies the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. As long as the navy is strong and cooperates with the army, it can go down the river and divide Huai State in one battle. However, since Huai State has occupied the land of Zhongli, as long as Huai State is willing , can attack from Zhongli at any time and attack the Hanjiang Plain.
If the Han River Plain is occupied by the Huai State, the Chu State will probably come out and fight for its life. You must know that the Han River Plain is the essence of Chu State, with a large population. If it is occupied, Chu State will probably go crazy!
If the Chu State wants to go north to the Central Plains, its retreat may be cut off by the Huai State at any time. Therefore, the Huai State has become the great enemy of the Chu State at this time. If you want to conquer the Central Plains, you must defeat the Huai State first.
How can it be easy just to defeat the Huai Kingdom? The last time the Marquis of Qi summoned a coalition of princes to fight against him, the entire army was defeated by the Huai State. The Chu State even lost three times in a row. How could he win alone?
After some thought, the kings and ministers of the Chu State thought that they should join forces with the Central Plains princes to deal with the Huai State, and they were also preparing to contact another country, the Yue State, to deal with the Huai State together.
The State of Yue was not a feudal state of Zhou Dynasty. It was first enfeoffed by the king of Xia and was established by the descendants of Prince Yu. Seriously speaking, after Chengtang destroyed Xia, the Yin Shang and Yue countries still had enmity.
If the Chu State wanted to deal with the Huai State, it became imperative to form an alliance with the Yue State. So the king of Chu sent an envoy to the country of Yue.
At first, the Yue State did not want to form an alliance with the Chu State and then fight against the Huai State together. However, the person sent by the Chu State was an eloquent person and told the Yue State that after the Huai State annexed the Wu State, it was very likely that it would attack the Huai State. One can attack and destroy the country of Yue.
After all, the State of Yue is located south of the State of Huai and can invade the State of Wu anytime and anywhere. This is a great threat to Huai State. If you don't form an alliance with the Chu State, when the Huai State attacks the Yue State, the Yue State will not be able to resist it. .q.
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When the Wu State was in general, the Huai State army attacked, and the Wu State soon fell apart and was annexed by the Huai State. Wu State and Yue State are closely connected. For hundreds of years, the two countries have often fought battles. Wu State and Yue State are about the same strength.
Huai State can easily destroy Wu State, and it is also easy to destroy Yue State.
The kings and ministers of the Yue Kingdom thought about it and found that this was indeed the case, so in order to prevent the Yue Kingdom from becoming the next Wu Kingdom, the Yue Kingdom agreed to form an alliance with the Chu Kingdom to jointly deal with the Huai Kingdom.
At the same time, because the Yue State was not proficient in battle formations and chariot warfare, the Chu State once again released manpower and material resources to teach the Yue State battle formations and chariot warfare methods. In addition to teaching combat skills, Chu State also taught agricultural technology to Yue State, which improved the strength of Yue State.
The number of people in Yue is larger than that of Wu. After receiving the support of Chu, its national power increased rapidly. But if you want to deal with Huai State, Yue State is not enough. Its army is far behind Wu State. There is so much to learn.
The Chu State and the Yue State formed an alliance and agreed to attack the Huai State. However, it is not easy to attack the Huai State. Even if the Chu State and the Yue State join forces, they may not be Huai State's opponents. Therefore, the best choice is It was the Chu State, the Central Plains princes and the Yue State who jointly took action.
In this way, the Huai State would have to face attacks from the north, south, and west. Even if the Huai State was strong, it would not be able to withstand attacks from three sides.
Since Chu and Huai went to war three times, Huai became interested in Chu. Especially after knowing that Chu State actually has an area of 2,000 miles, which is second to none among the states of Bangzhou. Only the land of Jin State is similar to that of Chu State. Even compared to Qi, the others are far behind.
Huai State sent a large number of agents to Chu State to collect information about Chu State. In the past few years, Chu State's public succession has been very chaotic.
The Chu lords of these generations have not ended well. The younger brother killed the older brother and snatched the throne of Chu Jun. It can be said that it was a chaos. The current Chu Jun is the one who killed Chu King Xiong Tong.
Huai State temporarily ended its plan against Qi State and turned its attention to Chu State. They attach great importance to the Chu State and the Huai State. After all, it has two thousand miles of mountains and rivers, a large population, and huge war potential.
After Xizuo came to Chu State, he began to develop quietly and infiltrate the entire Chu State.
The alliance between Chu and Yue was not widely publicized. It was obvious that Chu wanted to attack Huai at a critical moment, but there were still some signs of large-scale material mobilization.
