During the reign of King Zhao of Zhou, the state of Chu announced that it would terminate its court to meet Zhou Tianzi, no longer pay tribute to the royal family, and severed diplomatic relations with the dynasty. This act led to a formal split between the two major regimes, the North and the South. Long Yan, the king of Zhou Zhao, was furious, and he was ready to personally lead his army to the south, and at the same time issued orders to Yan and Shen to conquer Chu.

Unable to cross the Qinling Mountains, Wang Shi sailed east along the Weishui and Yellow River, and then abandoned the boat in Chengzhou. Wang Shi went all the way south, and the armies of Yan and Shen joined the army of Vachu halfway. King Zhao of Zhou planned to cross the Han River at the state of Deng (present-day northern Xiangfan, Hubei), occupy the state of Lu on the southern bank, and finally attack Danyang.

At that time, the power of the state of Chu had expanded to the Han River Valley. The state of Chu married the state of Deng, and the son of Chu married his sister Deng Mi to the marquis of Deng. The state of Deng was founded in the Shang Dynasty, and the founding monarch was the son of the Shang king Wu Ding. Deng Hou did not have a firm determination to support or oppose anyone, he just wanted to protect his country and people from being harassed, and tried his best to avoid getting involved in the dispute between the two major forces of the north and the south. Based on the above reasons, Deng Hou prefers to be a peacemaker.

However, King Zhao of Zhou would never allow the Deng people to be disloyal to the royal family, and in order to completely cut off the relationship between the Deng State and the Chu State, he even forced Deng Hou to kill his Chu wife.

The tragic reality finally made Deng Hou realize that his ideas were too naïve, and he had to make a choice, and the brutality of King Zhao of Zhou completely pushed him to the opposite side of the Western Zhou.

Deng Hou secretly gathered his closest ministers and friends together and said, "Oh my God, my God! What a great son of heaven, what a wise commander! What a staunch ally! That man would use the blood of a noble woman, a mother who has not yet weaned her child, to assert her authority and protect the lives of tens of thousands of invaders!

"The widow's wife is equivalent to the queen of the Son of Heaven, if someone persuades the Son of Heaven to kill the queen, how will the Son of Heaven react? Obedience will definitely overthrow the royal family and bring down the kingdom of Deng. Although the widow didn't like Chu Zi, he hated King Zhou even more. Because of his atrocities, King Zhou has become an enemy of Deng! ”

The Deng people then devised a vicious plan to eliminate the Huaxia coalition forces.

The coalition forces planned to build a boat bridge (a pontoon bridge made of wooden boats) on the Han River, and the craftsmen immediately began to build boats. The craftsmen used the fish maw glue provided by the Deng people when gluing the boat boards, but the Deng people secretly manipulated the glue, adding a solvent to the finished product, which reduced the fatigue resistance of the fish bladder glue - the surface of the finished boat looks normal, but in fact there are serious safety problems.

At this time, the Chu army and the allies had reached the south of the Lu state. The Chu people decided to block the Western Zhou coalition army on the southern bank of the Han River, but due to the lack of troops, Chu Zi did not want to reveal the whereabouts of the army, so he hid his army in the jungle in the south of the Lu state.

The Chu people were particularly afraid that Deng Hou would side with the royal family. When news broke that Deng Hou had killed his wife to make a stand, the Chu people thought that Deng had formed an alliance with the Western Zhou, and their worries deepened.

But Chu Zi was relieved. Chu Zi said that Deng Hou doted on his wife very much, and he would be restless even if he left his wife for even a moment, let alone hurt her. Deng Hou must have been forced by the Zhou people to kill the killer; Judging from Deng Hou's character, he will definitely revenge the avenger fiercely, everyone just needs to wait and see how things change.

Two days later, Deng's secret envoy came to the Chu military camp - this situation verified the correctness of Chu Zi's judgment. The secret envoy brought a lot of military intelligence to the Chu people; The Chu people formulated a battle plan based on the intelligence and handed it over to the secret envoy.

The combined forces of the war and Chu were still kept in the dark, and they did not know either themselves (the Deng people were disloyal) or the other (the Chu army had reached Hannan); The people of Chu are the opposite. So by this time, there was no suspense about the outcome of the war.

The pontoon bridge was quickly built, and the coalition forces began to cross the river. King Zhao of Zhou still did not trust Deng Hou, and he only asked Deng Guo to provide baggage and miscellaneous labor, and did not recruit combat troops from Deng Guo. At the same time, King Zhao ordered some important figures in the Deng State Office to travel with the army, and these people were nominally observers, but in fact they were hostages.

Coalition forces passed the pontoon bridge in an orderly manner. The Lu of Han Yin attacked first, but the Lu were despised by the coalition because of their small numbers; The coalition forces rushed over to the enemy without establishing defensive positions. The Lu people bluffed and resisted for a moment, then scattered and fled.

The morale of the coalition forces was boosted, and the soldiers chased the enemy in high spirits, completely oblivious to the formation, completely unaware of the danger that was imminent. The Lu people led their pursuers to the ambush of the Chu army, and the Chu army and the allies suddenly rushed out from all directions.

The coalition forces did not expect this situation at all, and there was chaos in the moment. The northern army had absolutely no experience in fighting the southerners: in the eyes of the Zhou, the enemy was a bunch of madmen and shengfan.

At that time, there were many southern tribes participating in the battle, except for the Chu army and the Lu army, which were relatively well-equipped, the others were naked, with broken hair and tattoos, and armed with rudimentary weapons; They are small, agile, fierce, and not afraid of death.

The coalition forces were unable to adapt to the enemy's chaotic fighting for a short time, and because their pursuit was too scattered, the enemy attacked the chariots and standard-bearers first, so the soldiers could not find their own commanders and ranks, and the officers could not give combat orders. When the regular army of the state of Chu attacked the coalition army in a dense formation, the northern army could only turn around and flee.

There was chaos on the pontoon, and the people who had fled back stormed the procession, which was still moving normally, and people were huddled together, and many people were squeezed into the water. When King Zhou Zhao passed the pontoon, the inferior fish bleaching glue provided by the Deng people finally failed due to being overwhelmed, the ship's board cracked instantly, the ship disintegrated, and the entire pontoon bridge fell apart and collapsed in an instant. All the people on the bridge fell into the Han River, and the noble and the low, the water-savvy and the non-water-savvy, the brave and the cowardly all sank to the bottom of the river.

King Zhao of Zhou did not escape the fate of death, and the result of the first southern expedition of the Zhou royal family to Chu was so embarrassing.