In winter, Cai Muhou came to Xu State; He and Xu Xigong are not only cousins, but also children and in-laws. Cai Muhou only married Xiao Cai Ji to King Chu Cheng the year before last, and Xiao Cai Ji is gathering thousands of favors, and Cai Muhou has become a hot big man in the alliance.

At the banquet arranged by Duke Xu for the guests, Prince Xu and Crown Princess Cai Ji also attended. Cai Muhou is a bright-minded and eloquent person. He first congratulated Xu Xigong and congratulated Xu Guo on not being hurt by Chu State, and then began to drink with his master.

Just when everyone's interest was high, Cai Muhou proposed to meet his newborn grandson. The crown princess took the baby out of the inner bed and handed it to her father, Cai Muhou hugged the child and kissed and teased her, and she was very happy; But he soon began to sigh again and again, lamenting that the world was impermanent, and finally he broke down and cried bitterly.

The cries of the guests ruined the scenery, and the joyful atmosphere was immediately swept away, and Xu Xigong was both puzzled and unhappy. Cai Muhou suppressed his sorrow, choked up and said, "Xu Guo is no longer a pure land!" The widow is very worried about his beloved daughter and grandson, and about all of you. ”

Xu Xigong knew very well what the other party's worries were, but he thought that as long as Qi was there, Xu Guo would be safe; Moreover, the state of Chu will not destroy the state of Xu for thousands of miles, and keep an enclave in the sphere of influence of the Chinese princes.

Cai Muhou responded: "Of course, if there is only one Chu State, of course, it is not a worry, but you must not forget that the Xu State once died in whose hands. Xu is an enclave to Chu, but a close neighbor to Zheng. Zheng Guo was the overlord of the Central Plains fifty or sixty years ago, and even the Qi State had asked for it. Zheng did not decline, it was only because the Qi State became strong that Zheng Guo lost its hegemony. But Xu Guo is still the same as it was back then, if Guo Zheng Guo appears again, a Zhuang Gong-like figure will appear, and Xu Guo will be destroyed.

"Look around Xu Guo! The country is surrounded by Zheng and Cai, and the state of Chu will not tolerate an outlier sandwiched between its alliances. If the state of Chu does not get the state of Xu, it will use the subject state to control it, who is this subject country? It's definitely not Cai Guo! If Chu Jun ordered the destruction of Xu at Zheng Bo's request, could the order not reach Cai State? Can Cai Guo not obey orders? When the time comes, the brothers and nephews of the two countries will kill each other, and it will be the saddest tragedy in the world. With the meaning of the widow, it is better to belong to the state of Chu to ensure the safety of the community. ”

But Xu Xigong still pinned his hopes on Qi Guo. Cai Muhou then said: "Zheng and Cai separated Xu to the west, and Qi invaded Xu first; Moreover, the main target of Qi was Zheng and Cai, not Xu. If you are attached to the state of Chu, the two countries are the barrier to defend the state of Xu; Otherwise, it will become a barrier separating Xu from its allies. ”

Xu Xigong's mood suddenly became very heavy, he hastily ended the banquet, and studied it behind closed doors with several confidants for several days, and finally decided to change his position and switch to the command of the Chu people.

At this time, the Chu division was still stationed in Wucheng (now Nanyangbei, Henan), and Duke Xu followed Cai Muhou to Wucheng to ask King Chu Cheng for his guilt. King Chu Cheng's heart blossomed, but he pretended to have a serious expression on his face.

Duke Xu came to King Chu Cheng in a strange way, he tied his hands and bit a piece of jade in his mouth, the doctors followed in mourning clothes, and the attendants carried the coffin.

King Chu Cheng turned his head to the doctor next to him, and Uncle Xiao said: "When he faced King Wu Keshang, this is how Wei Ziqi came to see King Wu. King Wu later accepted the jade bi, untied him, burned his coffin, performed a purification ceremony, and finally ordered him to return to his official office. ”

King Chu Cheng said: "Although Bugu does not have the holy name of King Wu, it is impossible to do without his mind. He then adopted the way King Wu of Zhou treated Wei Ziqi to Duke Xu and pardoned his "crimes".

The situation is completely opposite now as it was two years ago.

Not only did the State of Qi not surrender to the State of Cai, but instead lost the State of Zheng and the State of Xu, and even King Hui of Zhou stood on the opposite side of the Duke of Qi Huan; It's as if Qi is the culprit of the chaos in the world!

The one that Qi Huan Gong hated the most was King Zhou Hui, because he didn't know what to do, he didn't distinguish between right and wrong, he had no brains, and he had no conscience. Fortunately, King Zhou Hui has now suffered a stroke and is speechless, and he will not continue to do stupid things. Duke Qi Huan was closely watching the dynamics of the royal family while preparing to punish Zheng Guo.

In the spring of the seventh year of Lu Xi Gong (BC553), the state of Qi attacked Zheng. This time, Qi did not notify any country, but attacked Zheng alone; This abnormal behavior caused great fear among the people of Zheng Guoren. The offensive of the Qi army was very rapid, and the Xinmi fortress was quickly captured, and Xinzheng was in danger, but the reinforcements were delayed.

Like all fools, Zheng Wengong did not realize that the catastrophe was coming until his troops approached the city; He couldn't think of anything other than to keep spinning around and throwing tantrums.

Uncle Kong, the doctor, couldn't stand it anymore, he said: "The ancient proverb says: 'If the heart does not compete, why worry about illness?'" (If you are not strong in your heart, are you still afraid of humiliation?) 'The lord can neither be strong nor weak, and that is why he has come to this situation.' The country has reached the point of life and death, please deign to make peace with Qi. ”

Zheng Wengong said: "The widow knows why the Qi people came, wait for me to think about it." ”

Uncle Kong said: "Zheng Guo is not guaranteed day and night, what are you waiting for?" ”

In the end, Zheng Wengong finally held back a bad idea, he said: "It's time to exchange the head of Shenhou for national security." ”

As mentioned earlier, Shenhou has gradually fallen out of favor since the office stole the system. Shenhou originally hated the Chu people - because his compatriots in the Chu State deprived him of the opportunity to continue to degenerate and do bad things in the Chu State, so he became the representative of the pro-Qi forces.

However, after Zheng Wengong decided to defect to the Chu State, Shenhou suddenly changed his body and began to vigorously advocate the idea of pro-Chu. His shameless behavior was strongly disgusted by many people, including the people of Chu and Qi.

During this period, Yuan Taotu's secret letters kept being sent to Zheng Wengong's case, and the information in them was about both Chen Guo and Shenhou, and it recorded a lot of unfavorable content for Shenhou.

Yuan Taotu later wrote in a letter that Shenhou revealed to him that Prince Hua had had been unlucky recently and had basically fallen out of favor; Shenhou is ready to get rid of the crown prince and set up his grandson Gongzi Zang as his heir; If he can't succeed, even Zheng Wengong will be killed together; If it doesn't work out again, he will retreat to the province and contact foreign enemies to attack Zheng Guo.

This letter eventually became Shen Hou's death sentence. But Zheng Wengong hid the letter because he didn't quite believe that Shenhou would be stupid and crazy enough to usurp the throne to keep himself safe (Shenhou deserved to die, but not for the crimes that Yuan Taotu accused). At the same time, as a person who is good at conspiracy and power, Zheng Wengong keenly felt that he should choose an appropriate time to announce Shen Hou's crime, so that his death could be of maximum value.

It seems that the timing was carefully arranged by Heaven to get rid of that villain. The next day, Zheng Wengong presented evidence of Shen Hou's guilt at the court meeting, and the ministers who had suppressed him for a long time knocked him to the ground and angrily exposed his other crimes.

But none of the charges were comparable to treason, and Shenhou was immediately executed, his headless body was abandoned to the city, and his head was sent to the Qi people. Zheng envoy said: "Zheng and Qi have been good for several generations of monarchs, and the widow was only bewitched by this traitor to turn to the state of Chu. The widow now realizes his mistake and kills the culprit to show his determination. ”

Just as Zheng Wengong planned, the killing of Shenhou had a huge political effect: Zheng Guo turned the crisis into safety, the Qi people returned satisfied, the people of Chu were angry, and Yuan Tao smeared blood to wash away the shame.