Although Zheng Zhuanggong won the victory against the guard, he was not excited at all; The reason for this was not because Gongsun was still jumping up and down in the defense of the country, nor because Lu Yingong rejected his kindness, but because he heard a rumor that King Zhou Ping was going to give half of his power as a secretary to Gong Lin's father.

Zhuang Gong has struggled to deal with Uncle Duan over the years, and has been stranded in China for most of the time; And the imperial secretary should have lived in the royal city to deal with political affairs. Due to the long-term inability of Zheng Zhuang Gong to perform his duties, King Zhou Ping handed over the government affairs under the jurisdiction of Situ Office to Yu Gong Lin's father, although Yu Gong did not have the name of a secretary, but he already had the fact of a secretary - this is also the reason why Yu Shi was able to accompany Wang Shi to defend together.

With the eastward migration of King Zhou Ping, Xiyu also moved to the area of Sanmenxia in Henan, and its land spanned the north and south banks of the Yellow River, and was renamed "Beiyu"; Yu Gonglin's father is the monarch of Beiyu.

Duke Zheng Zhuang would never allow King Zhou Ping to take away his position and power, so he hurried to the royal city. He walked quickly into the inner court, confronted King Zhou Ping and asked, "I heard that the Son of Heaven is going to divide my position to Duke Yu, is there such a thing?" ”

King Zhou Ping was frightened by his momentum, and the fat old man, who was weak and decadent, and who had been immersed in wine for many years, had long since lost his sacrosanct majesty. He did not have the courage to rebuke Zhuang Gong's arrogance and rudeness, but denied the accusation in a flickering manner; But his attitude amounted to a confession of his "crimes".

King Ping's cowardice and incompetence fueled the arrogance of Duke Zheng Zhuang, who insisted that King Ping guarantee his words. The most noble person in the world was forced to retreat by a small earl, and King Zhou Ping, in order to show his innocence that did not exist, actually agreed to sign an alliance with the other party and exchange hostages, so as to resolve the conflict.

In this way, King Ping not only reduced the noble royal family to the status of a small prince, but also aroused the ambitions of the princes.

The two sides chose a date and brought their respective historians, ceremonial officials and retinues to the outskirts of Chengzhou. A piece of land had been leveled and a mould platform had been erected. The Zhou people invited the rank of King Zhou Li (the common great-grandfather of King Zhou Ping and Zheng Zhuanggong) to be offered on it to witness the discord between the two great-grandsons.

After killing the sheep and blood, the ceremonial official read out the covenant, to the effect that: "Zhou Yijiu and Zheng Kousheng swear here: Yijiu will never abolish the position of the secretary of the dynasty of Kou Sheng, and Kou Sheng will faithfully assist the royal family, and if there is a Chongqing Alliance, he will not die well." ”

The letter of the covenant was made in triplicate, one of which was buried in the ground with the slaughtered animal, and one copy was held by the remaining two. Then the two sides exchanged hostages: the hostages provided by the Western Zhou were the prince's father, and the hostages provided by Zheng Guo were the prince's father.

After the ceremony, Zhuang Gong's restless heart calmed down a little.

However, two years later, in March (720 BC), King Zhou Ping died, and the covenant was automatically terminated with the death of the signatory. Prince Zhou, who was serving as a hostage in Zheng Guo, received the news that his father was critically ill and rushed back to Chengzhou day and night, but he still did not see his father for the last time. The old prince, who was known for his pure filial piety, wept day and night, but died of excessive grief before his coronation.

The crown prince's eldest son, Wang Sun Lin, ascended the throne as King Huan of Zhou. King Huan was young and vigorous, and he resented Zheng Zhuang Gong for humiliating his grandfather, and put the responsibility for his father's death on Zhuang Gong's head. The first thing this reckless young man did after ascending the throne was to take away half of Zheng Zhuanggong's power as a secretary and give it to Duke Yu's father, and then leave Zhuang Gong aside and ignore it.

Gong Zheng Zhuang has never looked at Gong Lin with his eyes. This is because the ancestor of Duke Yu, Yu Shifu, caused trouble in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which eventually led to the killing of Duke Zheng Huan; Yu Shifu's son, Yu Gonghan, split the country and set up the king of Zhou to confront the king of Zhou Ping; Father Yu Gong Lin took up the old business of Father Yu Shi again, and was favored by luring King Ping to fall.

Zhuang Gong thinks that the immortality of the Kingdom of Yu is already an extrajudicial favor from God, and Gong Yu has now climbed to the high position of a secretary - this is not God's grace, but God's eyesless.

"Zheng Ren's lifelong exploits were taken away by that villain like this? The Son of Heaven is really stubborn! Zhuang Gong thought so.

The cold war between Zheng Zhuang Gong and King Zhou Huan lasted for a long time. The farther Duke Zheng Zhuang saw him from the royal family, the closer Duke Lin Father became. He felt that the situation was continuing to develop in a direction that was unfavorable to him, so he hoped to reach a reconciliation with King Huan. However, there were rumors in the court that the new king not only did not intend to ease relations, but also wanted to further reduce the power of Zheng Zhuanggong.

Zhuang Gong called the ministers of the public office and decided to teach the young man a lesson that did not know the height of the sky. Doctor Gao Qumi said: "Zheng Bo III was the king, and once he was deposed, the new king was mean and unkind. We might as well support a respected prince as the king, there are so many old princes, what qualifications does Wang Sunlin have to become the Son of Heaven? ”

Uncle Ying Kao had been sucked into the political core of Zheng Guo at this time, and he said: "No, the ethics of the monarch and the minister are more important than the mother and son, and the monarch can't bear his mother, how can he bear the king?" The minister thought that it was still necessary to ask the important ministers of the DPRK and the central government to mediate a lot and get through this period of time before making plans. ”

He said, "The minister thinks it is better to take one of the two." The first thing to do now is to force the Son of Heaven to take the initiative to contact Zheng Guo, even if it is to blame. It was now April, and the wheat in Wendi (now Wenxian County, Henan) was about to ripen, and the minister led a group of men and horses to cut the wheat. ”

Zheng Zhuanggong said: "Just do what the master wants." ”

So he took a group of old soldiers, drove dozens of carts, and swaggered to the outskirts of Wenyi City. The soldiers drove away all the people who were working in the fields, and then threw themselves into the riotous looting. Dr. Wen had never seen such a formation, and he threw his fists and feet at the top of the city, shouting and reprimanding them, demanding that they immediately stop their aggression, but he did not dare to go out of the city.

The sacrificial foot teased Dr. Wen very rudely, so that Dr. Wen could be more emotional when he complained to the Son of Heaven. The sergeants wielded their scythes and harvested the wheat with great skill, filling dozens of carts in a short time. Due to the suddenness of the incident, Dr. Wen was afraid that Zheng Guoren was too powerful, so he was powerless to stop the robbers, so he could only watch them pull the stolen goods and leave.

When the news reached the royal court, King Zhou Huan was furious. He scolded Zheng Guojun's ministers one by one from top to bottom, and then said: "If Zheng Yusheng thinks that he can do anything wrong by relying on the merits of his ancestors, then he is very wrong!" How much wheat is there for the princes of the world?

"If all the princes of the world are like Kou Sheng, I'm afraid that Bugu will have to beg for food everywhere! Everyone should be responsible for their own actions, and Bugu will never forgive Huan Gong and Wu Gong for their exploits! He said a lot of threatening words, vowing to divide the five horses of Zheng Zhuang Gong.

Zhou Gong said with a black shoulder: "From King Ping's move to the east to today, the safety of the royal family has always depended on Zheng Guo. Moreover, now the royal family is declining, and the princes are rising; The royal family will not be able to move an inch if Zheng Guo gets rid of it. The King of Heaven does not go to Zheng Bo but wants to crusade against him, which is simply self-defeating! Think about it! ”

King Zhou Huan was not unaware of the importance of Zheng Guo, but he forgot everything when he was furious. Zhou Gong's words reminded him in time, and after he calmed down a bit, he said, "Okay, forgive him this time." ”

Gong Zheng Zhuang waited for three months, but there was no movement on King Zhou Huan's side. "The absence of a response is a response, but the response is not satisfactory. If the Son of Heaven does not come, let us go again, and go to his door. ”

This time the sacrifice went even further, as if he felt that he was not hated enough: he and his men disguised themselves as merchants, broke into pieces and went to the outskirts of the capital Chengzhou, and took advantage of the twilight to sweep away the surrounding rice crops.

But to Zheng Zhuanggong's surprise, King Zhou Huan still didn't react at all. However, according to the news from the capital, the Son of Heaven was indeed furious, but he was persuaded by Zhou Gong's black shoulder. Zhou Gong said: "Uncle Zheng is still testing your reaction, but there will be no third time." If you remain silent, Uncle Zheng must be uneasy in his heart, and he will take the initiative to ask for guilt when the time comes. The king just needs to wait in peace. ”

Since King Zhou Huan did not express his position, Zheng Zhuang Gong was ready to leave to meet King Zhou Huan; He also had another purpose for this trip, which was to turn over Zhou Gong's hole cards on the black shoulders and figure out why this half-yin and half-yang guy was always attentive to him for no reason.

The departure date has been determined, but a series of events that have happened since then have caused Zheng Zhuanggong's trip to be delayed indefinitely.