At that time, the king of the Zheng Kingdom was Zheng Shenggong. According to the posthumous law, if he is not born in his country, he is called Sheng, and if he does not live in his country, he is called Sheng. Therefore, Zheng Shenggong is obviously an unknown person.
After Zheng Shenggong learned of Chu's idea, he immediately summoned the officials to the palace to discuss the matter. However, what Zheng Shenggong discussed was not how to resist the Chu State, but how to please the Chu State. His first sentence made Ji Zichao, the Prime Minister of Zheng, so angry that he almost vomited blood.
"Gentlemen, how do you think we can quell the anger of Chu State? How about we immediately send the tribute taxes we have owed over the past three years to Chu State? In this way, we should be able to quell the anger of the people of Chu State, right?" Zheng Shenggong sat on the main seat, eyes wide open, looking like he was discussing.
Seeing that Zhu Da was silent (not silent, but dumbfounded and unable to come to his senses), Zheng Shenggong continued: "Well, I'm afraid three years of extra tax is a bit small. How about three and a half years?"
Ji Zichao also came to his senses at this time. He couldn't bear it anymore. He stood up and said: "The Lord seems to be ill. Come! Send the Lord back to the palace to rest!"
"What's wrong?" Zheng Shenggong said timidly.
It¡¯s a pity that no doctor paid attention to him. They were really speechless to Zheng Shenggong. Three years of tribute? How will Zheng Guo spend his finances this year?
Two guards came up and escorted the confused Zheng Shenggong away. Ji Zichao felt a little relieved when he saw Zheng Shenggong leaving. Ji Zichao glanced at all the doctors and said: "Since the Lord is ill, let me preside over this court meeting now!"
"Good!" No one dared to refute, everyone agreed.
The reason why no one objected was that Ji Zichao was the prime minister, and Ji Zichao was from a good background. Ji Zichao is the grandson of Zichan, the famous prime minister of Zheng State. His family has high prestige in Zheng State. Especially Zichan, who had been in power in Zheng for decades, but when he died, the history books recorded this:. The people of Zheng wept and mourned each other as if their relatives had died. .
"Otherwise Ji Zichao is only in his early thirties and has no outstanding abilities. Even if he comes from a big family, how can he become the prime minister of Zheng?" It¡¯s not just the lingering shadow of son¡¯s birth.
Fortunately, although Ji Zichao was young, he was somewhat self-aware and did not make his own decisions. Instead, he asked the officials first. "Defense is no longer possible! Our country, Zheng, is located in the Central Plains, which is flat on all sides.
If you defend the city and disperse your forces, the Chumu people can attack them calmly. But in the field battle, I, Zheng Guo, probably don¡¯t have much chance of winning. What do you think should be done? "
"Although I, the Zheng State, cannot fight in the field, don't forget that the people of the Chu State are not what they used to be. We are not strong enough to fight." A man known for his martial arts said with a loud voice.
"Although what you said is correct, this battle concerns our country, Zheng Guo, and we cannot make casual conclusions." An old man said solemnly.
Ji Zichao asked Lao Cheng solemnly: "What is your opinion?"
"I think we should ask for help from Weiguo. Weiguo and Zheng are connected and should rely on each other! I believe Weiguo also knows that if Chu defeats us, Qi will be of no benefit to Weiguo!"
Ji Zichao thought about it and felt it made sense. But he soon frowned and said, "Weiguo has experienced a lot of civil strife in recent years. Does he have the ability to send troops?"
As soon as Ji Zichao's words came out, others were stunned, and then they remembered the hard life of Weiguo in the coming years.
It has to be said that Weiguo¡¯s level of hardship is not ordinary. Anyone who has watched "Confucius" knows that there is a custom beauty Yi Nanzi in it. Nanzi's level of customs can be said to surpass the beauties in the world. It is said that Kong Dazi once had an affair with her. Of course, the true extent of this is unknown. But no matter what, she was punished for being too customary. He was at odds with the then Crown Prince Wei, who even sent people to kill Nan Zi, but failed and was discovered by Nan Zi.
??Nanzi naturally went to the prince's father, Wei Linggong, to blow pillows. Not to mention that although Nanzi had worn several sizes of different sizes for Wei Linggong, they were all green hats. However, Duke Linggong of Wei still loved Nanzi deeply. As the saying goes, a tiger's poison cannot eat its seeds, but it was not true when it came to Duke Linggong of Wei. Duke Linggong of Wei wanted to kill the prince to vent his anger for Nanzi.
The prince obviously knew what kind of character his father was. Before the guards sent by Wei Linggong arrived, the prince had already fled to the Jin Kingdom and hugged the thigh of Zhao Yang, the ruler of the Jin Dynasty at that time.
Duke Linggong of Wei appointed another son named Dian to be the crown prince. He did not expect this son to be good at everything but stupid in his studies. He actually wants to be a saint, but he refuses to be a prince no matter what. Wei Linggong had no choice but to leave the prince alone and think about persuading him in the future. However, Wei Linggong had no chance. After a few seconds, Wei Linggong drove to the west. Nanzi was afraid that when the prince came back, wouldn't he be worse off than dead? Nanzi immediately followed Wei Linggong's last wish and persuaded Dian Lai to be the official.?Jun. But Dian is really stubborn enough and won't say anything inappropriate.
?? Nanzi had no choice but to appoint another son of the prince as the king, in order to serve as a public servant for the defense. The prince was unwilling to accept that his son would become the king and I would be away from home, so he begged Zhao Yang for help.
Zhao Yang sent troops to escort the prince to Weiguo. He didn't want me to have the heart to be a king, and his son was not bad either. Besides, is Nanzi willing? At that moment, the father and son turned against each other and started fighting. The prince was defeated and had no choice but to escape to a place called Su. Later, after eight years of planning, he finally got the support of some officials, launched a civil strife, and drove Wei Chugong away. When the prince ascended the throne, he was Duke Zhuang of Wei.
However, Duke Zhuang of Wei was really incompetent. He had been the king for three years, but he offended the Zhao family of Jin. Duke Zhuang of Wei in the Zhao family just didn't know how to repay his kindness, but he actually offended himself greatly and was so angry that he sent troops to attack Wei State.
Seeing that the momentum was not right, Duke Zhuang of Wei ran away again. At that time, the four ministers of Jin State were restraining each other and saw that they could not kill Duke Zhuang of Wei for a while. The Zhao family had no choice but to let Duke Wei Zhuang go, withdraw his troops and return home. The people of Wei then appointed Gongzi Banshi, the cousin of Duke Zhuang of Wei, as their king. In the same year, Qi sent troops to attack Wei and captured Gongzi Banshi. They also made Gongzi Qi the king of Wei.
But it was not over yet. The next year, the doctor Shi Manzun was dissatisfied with Gongzi Qi and drove him away. This time when Wei was out of business, he was smarter and came back from Wei in a hurry. It had only been two years since Wei returned from official duties. After experiencing such a hard experience, Wei's vitality was seriously damaged.
In just five years, the king of Wei has changed five times, on average once a year, which is twice as frequent as that of Qi.
Ji Zichao estimated that Wei Guo was powerless to support Zheng Guo. Ji Zichao sighed and said, "Then what other suggestions do you have?"
A Taishi came out and said, "How about asking the Emperor of Zhou for help?"
The State of Zheng borders the land under the jurisdiction of Emperor Zhou, so it would be a good idea to ask Emperor Zhou for help. But there are also strong objections: "It is a problem for Emperor Zhou to protect himself. Will he send troops to support him?"
Taishi retorted: "If you don't even try, the Emperor of Zhou will naturally not send troops to support you!"
Hearing this, Ji Zichao felt that it made sense, nodded and said: "What Taishi said is right, the matter of sending an envoy to Emperor Zhou will trouble Taishi! But Emperor Zhou only has 500 chariots, and I'm afraid he won't be able to send many troops. Look, what are you doing? Are there any princes who can give us Zheng Guo¡¯s support?¡±
"Let's go to Jin! Although the four ministers of Jin are restraining us, we still pay a lot of tribute to them. We should send troops to support us at this time!" A senior official suggested.
When Ji Zichao heard this, he immediately rejected it. "Jin State? Have you forgotten Zhiyao's greed? Compared with Chu State, Jin State is not a good person!"
"What about the Song Dynasty?" Dr. Youdi suggested.
"Although the Song State is not a vassal state of the Han State, it is allied with the Han State. It is dependent on the Han State, and the Chu State is a vassal state of the Han State. The Song State may not dare to send troops to support!" Ji Zichao said worriedly.
When the officials heard this, they immediately felt helpless. It seemed that the only reinforcements were from Emperor Zhou's family, and they didn't know whether they would succeed or not.
Ji Zichao gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, no matter what happens now, do we still have a way out? Let's put aside our prejudices and fight the enemy bravely! Zheng Guo has reached the cliff. Taking a step back will be a huge slander!"
Hearing this, all the officials also made up their minds and said, "We will follow the prime minister to kill the enemy and defend the state of Zheng!"
"Okay, everyone, go back and reorganize the soldiers and prepare for the war! We have no way out in this battle. The prime minister will rush to the battlefield in person and either return in triumph! Or die on the battlefield! If he escapes and comes back, he will be cut into pieces by a thousand swords!" Himeko swore through gritted teeth.
Seeing Ji Zichao swear an oath, all the officials strengthened their determination, and they also swore an oath one after another.
The people of Zheng State, from the ministers to the common people, have all made up their minds. Chu's attack actually aroused the hatred of the same enemy. The Zheng people took out their weapons and mobilized a total of 50,000 Zheng soldiers on the border to prepare for the Chu army's decisive battle.
This time the Chu army was led by Shen Baoxu, who led 60,000 Chu troops to fight, but most of the Chu troops were new recruits. In addition, the devastating blow suffered by the Han State two years ago also destroyed the Chu army's military spirit.
Facing the united Zheng army, Shen Baoxu tried his best to command, but the morale of the Chu army was not high. The Chu army was defeated in the end, but Shen Baoxu was a veteran after all, and finally stabilized the formation and did not allow Zheng Guo to take the opportunity to break through Chu's border. But even so, the Chu army still suffered nearly 10,000 casualties.
This is a result that no one expected. The State of Chu was actually defeated by the State of Zheng, which had always been bullied?
In fact, it is an illusion of the world that Zheng is easy to bully. In fact, the combat effectiveness of Zheng¡¯s soldiers is not weak. Zheng is located in the Central Plains and belongs toA battleground for military strategists. Chu State, Jin State, and Qi State could not avoid Zheng State in their struggle for hegemony. Therefore, if that big country wanted to become the hegemon, Zheng State had to be defeated. But from Duke Huan of Qi to the present, the State of Zheng still exists, which shows that the State of Zheng's combat effectiveness is still good, otherwise it would have been destroyed long ago.
The reason why people feel like they are easy to bully is because Zheng Guo frequently loses battles, but don¡¯t forget it. What countries are most at war with them? In fact, it is not surprising that Zheng was defeated by big countries such as Jin, Chu, and Qi.