In the spring of the fifth year of the reign of Lu Xun (655 BC), the Chu delegation re-entered the imperial capital after more than 300 years of diplomatic interruption between Zhou and Chu.

After the end of the Zhaoling Alliance, the people of Chu felt that although they had lost some face, the result was acceptable. Ling Yin Ziwen said that the state of Chu has only become strong and prosperous because it absorbed Chinese civilization in its early years; Chu has not had normal exchanges with Huaxia for too long, Chu and Huaxia will definitely coexist for a long time, annexing each other is not the ultimate goal and result, and the war is just abnormal contact; There are no two countries in the world that can be hostile to each other for 300 years, and both sides need all-round and multi-level exchanges; Why not take this opportunity to open up the road to China? Only by understanding Huaxia better can you get along better with each other, or defeat each other more easily.

King Chu Cheng then sent a huge delegation to Wangcheng with Qu Wan as the main envoy and Ping Qiqiang as the deputy envoy. However, the official purpose of the envoy announced by the State of Chu was not to meet the Son of Heaven, but to visit the Chinese suzerain.

The arrival of the Chu delegation did cause a great sensation, and countless people spontaneously ran outside the city to greet (onlookers) to see this unique scene in the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the streets and buildings in the city were also crowded with people. The Zhou people are not uninformed, but they have not seen the people of Chu. The Zhou people wanted to confirm whether the "Jing Man" was the rude and rude big black fat man with a leopard head and eyes, broken hair and tattoos, and a fanged necklace around his neck.

But what people see is a solemn and solemn team, and the unique ornaments, patterns, words, and costumes of Chu civilization are vividly displayed in this team. The Zhou people saw the envoys of the Chu State sitting at the bottom of the canopy of the Xuanche, and the tall cloud-cutting crown on the top of the Chu people left a deep impression on the onlookers. People think that the honor guard of the three princes of the Zhou royal family is nothing more than that. On the one hand, the Zhou people opened their eyes, but on the other hand, they were also a little disappointed, because the image of the Chu people did not match the image in the legend.

The envoys first met King Hui of Zhou, visited the ministers one by one, and later visited Cheng Zhou, and stayed for a long time. Qu Wan and Bao Qiqiang were known for their wisdom in the Chu State, and the two quickly collected and spied on a large amount of political information. The Chu people were pleasantly surprised to find that there was not only discord within the royal family, but also between the royal family and the princes, and the people of Zhou Hui hated the most were the Qi people. If it weren't for the experience of this mission, the people of Chu would never have gotten so much inside information.

King Hui of Zhou's hatred for the people of Qi can be traced back to the time when Duke Xiang of Qi sent out his army to attack Wei and expel Wei Qianmu. King Zhou Hui was still a young man with strong blood at that time, and he once advocated sending troops to rescue the guards and fight to the death with Qi Shi. Although he did not make the trip, many of his friends joined the death squads, and all of them died heroically.

After Qian Mu fled back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, he did not speak ill of Duke Qi Huan (the reasons have already been described earlier). Later, the prince and the five doctors rebelled, and the prince fled to Weiguo without success, and he took advantage of the contradiction between the Wei family and the Zhou royal family, and successfully instigated Wei Huigong to go out of the school and drive King Zhou Hui out of the royal city.

Since Wei Guo has always been regarded as the little brother of Qi State, and Qi Huan Gong has adopted a sideline attitude towards the behavior of Wei Guo, King Zhou Hui has reason to think that the mastermind behind the scenes is Qi Guoren.

After the hegemony of Duke Huan of Qi, the princes of China all went to Linzi, and the royal city became crowded (in fact, it used to be like this), which caused King Zhou Hui to be more jealous and resentful (although the princes did not come to the royal city to meet before, but at least they did not go to Linzi).

Due to the above reasons, King Hui of Zhou actually regarded Qi Huan Gong as a competitor and enemy.

Qu Wan couldn't help but be overjoyed, and he took advantage of the private banquet held by King Hui of Zhou for himself to say intentionally or unintentionally: "As a staunch ally of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the State of Chu will definitely spare no effort to help the revival of the Eastern Zhou royal family and return the Emperor of Zhou to the throne of the Chinese co-lord." ”

King Hui of Zhou was overjoyed, and as a result, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty united with the State of Chu to form an alliance that dismantled the people of the Qi State.

Now it seems that the Qi people's method of suppressing the Chu state by "forcing the king of the Chu dynasty" has completely failed, and the Chu people have turned into close and firm allies of the royal family. Qi Huan Gong was annoyed and had to find a strong solution to fight against the two major forces.

As mentioned above, there are also many contradictions within the royal family.

It turned out that King Zhou Hui and the queen had two sons, namely the crown prince Zheng and the prince. The Eastern Zhou royal family has an unavoidable strange circle, that is, the eldest son is the heir, but the younger son is favored - first there is King Zhou Huan and Prince Ke, and then there is King Zhou Hui and Prince Decadence. As a result, when the new king ascends the throne, the brothers will be in rebellion; After the new king put down the rebellion, he forgot the lesson and planted the seeds of turmoil in the heart of his beloved young son.

The prince received far more favor from his parents than the prince; Just like Zheng Wujiang did to Gongshu Duan back then. Empress Hui secretly did not express to King Zhou Hui the intention of appointing a prince as a heir, but King Zhou Hui was afraid of turmoil in the royal family and never agreed.

Now that King Zhou Hui has entered old age, he has been weakened by years of depraved life; Except in bed, he has to be taken care of and supported in everything, and he may even lose his ability to govern at any time. But in King Hui's body, what is worse than his body is his brain, and this old faint king may do stupid things that cause political turmoil at any time. At this time, the prince and his henchmen also hurried to implement the plan to seize the supreme power.

Because the prince has the support of the queen, his power has surpassed that of the prince, and the doctors can't figure out the direction of the situation, so they don't dare to get too close to any prince easily.

Unable to find effective protection in the royal family, Prince Zheng pinned his hopes on Duke Qi Huan. He wrote a letter to Duke Qi Huan, in which he introduced the actual situation of the royal family and told his infinite troubles. Duke Qi Huan was overjoyed and immediately convened a huge alliance to show his position to the royal family and show his muscles.

In August, Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Huan of Song, Duke Lu Xu, Duke Wen of Wei, Duke Wen of Zheng, Duke Cao Zhao, Duke Mu of Chen, Duke Xu and Prince Zheng held an alliance meeting in Weidi. The royal family also received invitations, and the crown prince and the Duke of Zhou were sent by King Hui of Zhou to attend the meeting as observers.

At the meeting, two important resolutions were prepared and passed: first, to honor the crown prince Zheng as the crown prince who could not be deposed; The second is that the resolution requires that the monarchs of various countries should abide by the Zhou etiquette, stabilize the order, and not abolish the elders and the young, otherwise they will not die well (ironically, this curse was finally fulfilled in the Duke of Qi Huan).

But in the early morning of the meeting, people were surprised to find that Zheng Guo's army was still there, but Zheng Wengong himself had disappeared without a trace. Since the procedures of the League had long been determined, the meeting had to be convened in the absence of one person, and many procedures related to Zheng Wengong were temporarily changed or revoked.

In short, this sudden situation made the princes at a loss and made the Duke of Qi Huan lose face - this is the consequence of King Zhou Hui's dismantling.

In fact, everything that Duke Qi Huan wanted to do, King Zhou Hui would spare no effort to make ghosts in secret. This alliance made King Zhou Hui even more intolerable, because Duke Qi Huan openly extended his hand to the royal family and interfered in the family affairs of the Son of Heaven.

"Qi Xiaobai wants to plot the prince? But his own crown prince hasn't done it yet! He didn't open his eyes to see whose son Zheng was! As soon as King Hui of Zhou complained, he secretly summoned the Duke of Zhou (Zai Kong) and asked him to secretly divide the alliance of princes and do more things that would cause trouble to future generations.

The Duke of Zhou followed the crown prince to Shouzhi, and the day before the meeting, he slipped into the tent of Duke Wen of Zheng and conveyed to him the dictate of King Hui of Zhou: "The Marquis of Qi summoned the prince without permission, it is already an extreme disobedience, and the uncle should not be in the same stream as the Marquis of Qi." I will allow my uncle to attach himself to the state of Chu, supplemented by the power of the state of Jin, so that the state of Zheng will not be in danger. ”

King Zhou Hui said what Zheng Wengong wanted to do but didn't dare to do. Zheng Wengong also heard that since he had never been to Linzi since he ascended the throne, the people of Qi were ready to investigate him for "disrespecting the leader of the alliance" at this alliance meeting. Based on the above two reasons, Zheng Wengong decided to run away immediately.

Uncle Kong, the doctor, stopped him and said, "The king must not act rashly, for if he does not trust the princes, he will lose his allies; If you lose an ally, disaster will come; If you ask to join the alliance when you are in trouble, the price you pay will be too great! You'll regret your decision today! ”

Once Zheng Wengong made up his mind, no one's words would work anymore. He said, "Should the princes receive the orders of the Son of Heaven or the orders of the princes?" The Son of Heaven ordered a widow from Chu to Jin, did my uncle want me to disobey his orders and obey a small prince? As a result, he fled with his personal guards that night.