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Chapter 92: Sai Palace

King Ling of Chu is the son of King Chong of Chu. After the death of King Chong of Chu, his eldest son came to the throne, King Kang of Chu. After King Kang of Chu died, his son Xiong Lu came to the throne. Xiong Lu worshiped his uncle, who was King Kang of Chu.

His brother, Gongziwei, became Ling Yin. Gongziwei had monopolized power and was ambitious. He went to visit Xiong Lu when he was sick, and when no one was around, he strangled Xiong Lu to death with a belt, and became the king himself, King Ling of Chu.

King Chu Ling got his throne in this way, so he wanted to do something that would make people admire him. So, what would make people admire him the most? The only way is to fight for hegemony.

In 538 BC, King Ling of Chu held a meeting of princes in Shencheng (north of Nanyang City, Henan Province). This was the first time that the Chu State convened a meeting of princes for an alliance. At that time, the Jin State had experienced internal strife among several powerful families and became very powerful.

It's not as good as before, I can only sit back and watch King Chu Ling call the wind and rain.

During the alliance meeting in Shencheng, King Ling of Chu said to Wu Ju, an old minister: "When Duke Huan of Qi became the overlord, he would ally with the princes to attack Chu. Now that I am the leader of the alliance, which country should I attack?"

Wu Ju said: "Ji Zhu and Qing Feng of Qi State killed the king. Now that Ji Zhu is dead, Qing Feng fled to Wu State. Not only did the King of Wu not punish him, he also gave Zhu Fang to him. This is simply encouragement.

You are a traitor and a traitor. Besides, the State of Wu has been harassing our country all these years, and it is time for us to teach you a lesson. Let us summon the princes to attack the State of Wu in the name of punishing Qingfeng. Your Majesty, what do you think?"

King Ling of Chu said: "Okay, let's attack Wu."

As soon as the Shencheng Alliance was over, King Ling of Chu sent his official Qu Shen to lead the troops of Cai, Chen, Xu, Dun, Hu, Shen, plus Chu, to attack Wu.

Zhufang is a place to the west of Wu State and close to Chu State. King Wu gave Zhufang to Qingfeng in order to help Wu State block Chu State. However, Qingfeng had become depressed after the Qi State's massacre.

.After he arrived at Zhu Fang, he indulged in wine and sex all day long and paid no attention to serious matters such as defense. Therefore, when Qu Shen's army reached Zhu Fang, Qingfeng was defenseless. He did so and became a prisoner of the Chu State.

When King Wu got the news, he immediately mobilized his army and prepared to go to war with Chu. Qu Shen found that Wu was prepared and did not dare to move forward. He knew that the princes under him were all small countries, and they were afraid that Chu would be forced to come.

, these princes did not want to fight in the first place. Once a war breaks out with Wu, these small princes will not risk their lives and move forward. When he was hesitating, someone gave him a suggestion: the goal of punishing Qingfeng has been achieved, and he can return to the court with his troops. Qu

Shen felt that it would be better to keep the current victory, so he put Qingfeng into a prison car and took him back to Chu State.

King Ling of Chu felt that capturing Qingfeng was something worth showing off, because Qingfeng was the prime minister of the great eastern country Qi. He wanted to punish Qingfeng to deter his vassal states, so he sent the princes of the vassal states to

They came to watch the punishment of Qingfeng. In order to show his authority, he asked someone to write a bamboo slip, showed it to Qingfeng first, and ordered Qingfeng to go on stage and speak according to what was written on the bamboo slip. Qingfeng agreed.

Wu Ju advised: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's inappropriate to do this. You have no fault, and you can still talk about others. If Qingfeng refuses to accept it and talks nonsense, then the gain will outweigh the loss."

Wu Ju wanted to remind King Chu Ling that he had also committed murder. But King Chu Ling said indifferently: "He has become a prisoner, and I don't dare to talk nonsense even if I think about him." Wu Ju saw that King Chu Ling refused to listen.

, had to give up.

The trial ceremony was quite grand. Qingfeng was tied up and brought to the stage. The Chu people forced him to shout. The content of the shout was what King Chu Ling had written on the bamboo slips in advance:

"I am Qingfeng, a minister of the State of Qi. I killed the king and became the prime minister. That's how I ended up today. Don't learn from me, Qingfeng."

Unexpectedly, Qingfeng came up to the stage and shouted to the audience: "Listen, princes from all over the world, don't follow the prince of Chu. He killed the king of Chu and made himself king. He is so proud of himself that he wants to be the leader of the princes. It is simply ridiculous. Shameless."

When the princes in the audience heard this, some laughed, some whispered to each other, and some even laughed at King Chu Ling in a low voice. King Chu Ling sat on the stage, his face turned blue with anger, and he quickly asked someone to push Qingfeng out and behead him. .

A farce ended hastily.

The next year, that is, 537 BC, King Yimei of Wu sent troops to attack Chu. The Wu army's offensive was strong and they captured three cities on the border of Chu.

King Ling of Chu summoned the princes of Chen, Cai, Xu, Dun, Shen and Xu to prepare for the battle. King Yunchang of Yue got the news and took the initiative to send troops to help in the war. It turned out that Yue State's close neighbor Wu State had been suppressed by Wu State for a long time. King Chu Ling was very happy that Wu was considered an enemy. As soon as he was happy, he personally took command and set off happily with the eight-nation coalition army composed of Chu, Chen, Cai, Xu, Dun, Shen, Xu and Yue.

King Chu Ling had never fought any wars and did not know much about the army. He only saw the banners of his Eight-Nation Allied Forces and the huge lineup, but he did not know that it was okay for the princes of his subordinate countries to wave flags and shout, but not to fight desperately. King Chu Ling In the excitement, he did not pay attention to the Wu army at all. As a result, after encountering the Wu army, he fought two battles in a row and failed. In the end, King Ling of Chu had no choice but to return to Chu in despair with his defeated troops.

After the New Year, it was 536 BC. King Ling of Chu sent troops to attack the Kingdom of Wu again, but failed and returned. King Ling of Chu had no choice but to hold his breath and train his troops at home, without mentioning revenge.

It was also in this year that Gongsun Qiao of Zheng State did something very famous. He cast a large tripod out of bronze and engraved the laws of Zheng State on the tripod. This matter caused a lot of discussion all over the world. .Many princes criticized Gongsun Qiao. They believed that if the laws were engraved on the tripod and published to the world, the people would have a clear understanding of the legal provisions on the tripod, and they could use the law to protect their rights and return the favor. Who will look at the faces of the scholar-bureaucrats? If there is no hierarchy, how can the people be governed?

Gongsun Qiao responded: "I am doing this for the benefit of future generations."

In fact, Gongsun Qiao did this not because he had any foresight, but because he made a wise choice based on the national conditions of Zheng. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zheng was different from many vassal states. It was a country that focused on business. High-ranking officials The nobles often used their power to plunder merchants and landlords. In order to deal with this problem, Gongsun Qiao cast legal provisions on the tripod, thus protecting the rights and interests of merchants and landlords to a certain extent.

Of course, as a politician in the Spring and Autumn Period, Gongsun Qiao would never have imagined that people in later generations would not only imitate him, but also do things better.

As time went by, Gongsun Qiao's incident received more and more praise. King Ling of Chu thought that if he couldn't win on the battlefield, he had to do something to show his face. So he thought of the prosperity of Chu State. A little was enough to show off. Just like that, he began to build Zhanghua Palace.

After the Zhanghua Palace was completed, it was huge and gorgeous, like a city. When King Chu Ling inspected it, he named the highest platform in the palace Zhanghua Terrace. It is said that Zhanghua Terrace is so high that it takes a long time to walk from the bottom to the top.

It rests three times, so it is also called Sanxiutai. There are many houses built in the palace. There are pavilions and pavilions everywhere, and the garden is full of exotic flowers and plants. There are bees flying and butterflies dancing in it. It can be said that there are cornices and brackets when you look up, and you can see the stream and moon bridge when you look down.

Every step you take is a landscape, and every step you take is a cave. It’s so beautiful.

King Ling of Chu sent envoys to inform all countries and called the princes to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. When the princes of all countries saw the magnificent queen of Zhanghua Palace, they were all amazed. King Ling of Chu was greatly impressed.

With a luxurious palace, you must find people to live in it. King Chu Ling collected many beauties from all over the country and lived in Zhanghua Palace. Because he liked beauties with thin waists, the beauties who lived in Zhanghua Palace all had slim waists.

Therefore, the outside world also called Zhanghua Palace "Slender Waist Palace".

The Thin Waist Palace was famous all over the world, which aroused the jealousy of Duke Ping of Jin. He said to the ministers: "The barbarians of Chu used the magnificent palace to call on the princes. Is it a state of Jin that we are willing to lag behind?"

The ministers dissuaded them and said: "The Chu State is renovating palaces and wasting money and people. This is where they are stupid. Why do you want to imitate them?"

Duke Ping of Jin said: "No. The Chu State is showing off its wealth. Our Jin State wants money, things, and people. We are no worse than them in anything. Why don't you build a bigger and more beautiful palace? You guys

Stop talking and just do what I want. Let’s also build a gorgeous palace.”

Duke Ping of Jin insisted on going his own way, so Jin also began to build palaces. Duke Ping of Jin's ambition was to overshadow King Ling of Chu. To this end, he mobilized a large number of soldiers and recruited tens of thousands of migrant workers in turn, spending a lot of money

, and started doing it passionately.

Food from the national treasury continued to be consumed, and the money was used for large-scale construction, which led to tight military expenditures. What's more serious is that strong labor was requisitioned, resulting in a lack of labor in a large number of farmland, and food production was greatly affected.

Duke Ping of Jin watched the palace rise from the ground day by day, feeling very happy. But he did not know that the soldiers and civilians were already suffering terribly. As the project progressed for a long time, there were more and more complaints and objections from both the government and the public.

.

A little story emerged in the middle.

One day, just after dawn, a few people who were building palaces were sitting on a pile of huge stones to rest. The topic of their chat was complaining about the court. While they were chatting enthusiastically, someone suddenly noticed an official approaching from a distance. The man called out in a low voice.

He said: "No, the official is here."

The migrant workers shut up when they heard the sound and hid behind the rocks one after another, just like mice seeing cats.

The official clearly heard someone talking, but when he approached, he saw no one. He was puzzled, looked around, thought he had heard wrongly, and continued on his way. When the migrant workers saw the official leaving, they started talking behind the rocks again.

The official walked some distance away and heard voices again. He looked back and saw only stones but no people in the haze. So the official thought it was the stones talking. He reported the matter to Duke Ping of Jin.

Duke Ping of Jin only thought it was ridiculous and didn't take it seriously at all.

At that time, there was a famous musician named Shi Kuang, who happened to be in the court of Jin State. Jin Pinggong once chatted with Shi Kuang and told Shi Kuang this strange thing. Shi Kuang was somewhat wise. It is said that,

Confucius once asked him for music advice. Shi Kuang knew that Jin Pinggong's large-scale construction projects had caused a lot of complaints. Therefore, he made some comments on this matter.

Duke Ping of Jin asked, "Do you think stones can talk?"

Shi Kuang said: "My lord is building a lot of construction projects, wasting people and money, and the people are complaining, but they dare not speak out. This resentment is attached to the stone, and the stone speaks for the people."

Duke Ping of Jin was shocked. Only then did he realize that he had aroused the wrath of heaven and people.

However, the project has been completed halfway. If it is abandoned halfway, it means that all the previous investment has been wasted. If that is the case, he will not only be resented by others, but also hated by others. That will be even more troublesome. Depressed is depressed. Jin Ping

The Duke ordered to increase investment in manpower and material resources, speed up the progress of the project, and build the palace with quality and quantity guaranteed.

Two years later, the palace of Duke Ping of Jin was finally completed. This palace was larger and more luxurious than the Zhanghua Palace of King Ling of Chu. It was equipped with pavilions, pavilions, rockeries, streams, exotic flowers and plants, rare furnishings, etc.

It can be said that there is nothing unseen, only unexpected. Duke Ping of Jin also imitated King Ling of Chu and collected many beauties and arranged for them to live in them. In this way, the palace came alive. The small bridge reflected the flowing water, and the beauties accompanied the bright light.

The moon is full of flowers, and the fragrance of flowers frightens the bees and butterflies with laughter. Duke Ping of Jin often takes large groups of beauties to play there.

Duke Ping of Jin also wanted to show off. He sent an invitation letter to all his vassal states to celebrate. As the news spread, not only the vassal states of Jin came, but also some vassal states belonging to Chu State.

The representatives came. There were so many people who came, and the scene was spectacular. Duke Ping of Jin was indeed in a great position.

After King Ling of Chu heard about it, he felt very unsatisfied. He thought, I built the palace, and Jin also built it. And it was better than what I built. Isn't this an obvious competition with me? He was right

Wu Ju said: "The Kingdom of Jin is always against us. I think we should just go to the Central Plains and show the princes who is the overlord of the world."

Wu Ju said: "There must be a valid reason for sending troops. Otherwise the people will not be convinced. It is best to attack the guilty ones."

King Ling of Chu asked: "Who is guilty?"

Wu Ju thought for a while and said: "Cai has always been our vassal state, but in the past two years it has followed Jin. Nine years ago, Cai Jun's son killed his father like a prince. Let's use this crime to attack Cai.

.What do you think, my lord?"

King Ling of Chu said: "Yes, this Cai Guo is too shameful. Let's take action on him."


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