King Hui of Zhou died on December 12 of this year, and his death was the beginning of the turmoil in the royal family.

Zhou Hui suffered a sudden stroke last year, which caused widespread unease among members of the royal family. Qingshiliao held a grand sacrificial ceremony, and divined the auspiciousness of King Hui. The prince took and Empress Hui secretly contacted his henchmen, preparing to drive the prince Zheng out of the royal city when the old king died. And the crown prince just bowed his head and wept on various occasions, he was worried about his father's life and death, and he was worried about his own future; The only countermeasure he could think of was that as soon as his father died, he would flee immediately, and then return with the army of princes.

But later, Zhou Huiwang's condition gradually stabilized and slowly improved. He only lost some of his limbs and most of his speech; Not only did he eat and drink, but he often drove to the palaces or the villas of the doctors far away from the royal city to recuperate and relax.

In the eyes of others, the health of the Son of Heaven is very stable and will not deteriorate in a short period of time. Because of this, the prince took his attention away from his father and continued his drunken life.

Winter was a good time for hunting, and the prince and his many gentlemen set out from Chengzhou to the northern shore of Shaoshui to hunt, which was dotted with several Chidi tribes with close ties to the Eastern Zhou. The prince took the prince to gallop to hunt in the fields and indulge in wine and carnival. These men kept heading north in pursuit of their prey, and they became farther and farther away from the royal city.

Empress Hui was busy fooling around with her comrades at this time, and she wished to stay away from that obscene and nasty old man, but as a result, King Hui was left with only Prince Zheng by his side. Prince Zheng is indeed a dutiful son, his father has been ill for more than a year, and only he has been by his father's side day and night, serving his father's daily life and coaxing him to be happy.

The winter in Wangcheng was cold and dry, and King Zhou Hui's old problem was committed again, he felt that every inch of skin on his body was itchy and unbearable, and the dead skin on his palms was peeling off layer by layer. He decided to go to a palace near Gongyi to recuperate, where there were hot springs to treat skin diseases.

The prince arranged the trip and accompanied his father to set off. However, when the party was halfway through the journey, it suddenly encountered heavy snowfall, and King Zhou Hui suddenly fell ill due to the sudden drop in temperature, and soon died in a small post station. Prince Zheng sat blankly next to his father's gradually cooling corpse, his eyes blank, as stunned as a wooden chicken.

One of the prince's relatives said: "Although the king of heaven has died, he must not mourn now, otherwise he will give the prince and his followers the truth and bear the charge of murdering the king." I think it's better to continue eastward under the pretense of the king's order, and at the same time ask the Marquis of Qi for help. With the help of the people of Qi, the crown prince will be able to thwart the conspiracy of the prince and ascend to the throne. ”

The crown prince took advantage of the darkness to move King Hui's body into the Xuan car and placed the most trustworthy guards around it. He secretly sent a messenger to Linzi to ask for help from Duke Qi Huan. Early the next morning, the procession continued eastward; In the rest of the journey, the prince entered the Xuanche every day as usual to greet his father, brought the food in, and then brought out the empty plate after eating it himself; The imperial doctor also offered the medicine on time, and the prince was also responsible for drinking the medicine. The prince just extinguished the brazier so that King Hui's body would not stink.

After the procession passed through Gongyi, two of the retinue were found to have mysteriously disappeared, and it was suspected that they might have been taken by wolves or taken away by blind bears, so the captain of the guard ordered to take more precautions. But the prince clearly realized that the two were the inner line that the prince had planted beside him, and they had rushed back to the royal city to report the news.

As the party marched to Cao, a light army of the Qi people arrived to meet them, and the Qi army escorted the team all the way to Cao's Taoyi (present-day west of Juancheng, Shandong), where the Cao had already placed an army and vacated a large area of houses to house the prince and his retinue.

In the first month of the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Lu (652 BC), the monarchs of Qi, Song, Lu, Wei, Xu, and Cao and the crown prince of Chen arrived with an army, and the princes held an alliance with the crown prince Zheng, and the participating princes unanimously supported the crown prince Zheng as king. However, the crown prince had not yet been crowned at that time, and the princes could only call him "little boy". After the meeting, the prince hugged Qi Huangong's thigh and choked up, and called him "Father" with a sob.

There was a hiccup. It turned out that the alliance convened by Qi Guo did not inform Zheng Guo, and its purpose was probably to punish Zheng Guo for the absurd things he had done in the Shouzhi Alliance. Only then did Zheng Wengong realize how stupid his decision was back then—in order to cater to an old faint lord who was about to die, he actually lost the opportunity to form an alliance with the new king. At the same time, he also felt that he was discriminated against by the Qi people, so he was very unhappy. However, this time Zheng Wengong restrained his temper, he hurried over with a guard, and begged Qi Huan Gong to give him another chance to enter the venue, not to let Zheng Ren's hot face stick to the cold ass of his allies, and not to give the domestic pro-Chu faction a pretext to break away from the Huaxia Alliance.

However, Duke Qi Huan said that at the previous meeting, the princes had to temporarily modify the covenant (crossing out the name of Zheng Wengong from the covenant); This time the covenant has also been written, and it cannot be revised again because of Zheng Wengong's reasons; So I'd better ask him to step aside.

But later, under Guan Zhong's persuasion and proposal, Qi Huangong made an exception and gave Zheng Wengong an observer status and allowed him to observe the meeting.

The two people who disappeared near Gongyi were indeed the eyeliner planted by Empress Hui. They felt that the prince was abnormal and behaved strangely, and they only saw people serving food containers in and no one coming out, and there were more and more abnormal things like that.

The two felt that the situation was not good, and fled back overnight to report to Megumi. Empress Hui was a scheming woman, and she had a keen premonition that King Hui should have died, and that the crown prince would go to the east to seek refuge from the people of Qi; She didn't dare to slack off, and immediately sent someone to bring back the prince who was wandering in the Shaobei area.

Early the next morning, when the ministers were holding a court meeting, Empress Hui suddenly broke in, and she immediately announced to the ministers that the prince had "kidnapped" King Hui of Zhou and fled to the East. She said that the Son of Heaven was in a dangerous situation, and the country had reached the autumn of survival, and King Hui would be more dangerous if he was away for a day; She hoped that the royal family would immediately send troops to rescue King Hui and bring the criminals to justice.

Then the whistleblowers were summoned, and they knelt on the ground and answered the questions of the ministers with trepidation.

The ministers looked at each other, and none of them knew what to say. Zhou Gong came out and cleared his throat and said that the accounts of these ministers did not say anything at all; It is safest for the king to stay with the prince, because only the eldest son will not have the evil idea of murdering the monarch; He (Duke Zhou) is the minister of the defense of the country, and before he has figured out the situation, he dared to go out to carry out some action to rescue his father from the hands of his eldest son, which is simply ridiculous! But if the crown prince offends Tianwei, he will definitely be punished. He concluded by saying that he thought it was appropriate to send a team of emissaries to greet the Son of Heaven and find out the situation before making a decision.

The queen had no power to interfere in the affairs of the court, so she had to beg Zhou Gong to send someone to find out her husband's situation as soon as possible. On the spot, the Duke of Zhou appointed several doctors as envoys, asking them to set off after a little preparation, and then he announced the dissolution of the court. While several doctors were preparing for their trip, Zhou Gong secretly told them to delay as much time as possible.

The envoys of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty slowly traveled eastward, and when they saw the prince, the prince had already arrived in Taoyi, and he had enough protective power by his side. The prince was not ready to continue to hide it, so he revealed the truth. When the envoys learned the truth, they did not dare to slack off, and immediately changed into mourning clothes and rushed back to the royal city.