After Xu Guo moved back to Yecheng for the second time, the hearts of the people in this small country were scattered. In the spring, Xu suffered the largest and most costly fire since the founding of the People's Republic of China, but the magnates took only perfunctory relief measures. The results of those measures are a drop in the bucket compared to the catastrophe suffered. The oppression of the Xu people by the public office was still the same, and as a result, the angry countrymen gathered to besiege Miyagi; Xu had to kill a few hapless scapegoats to appease the anger of the people. Therefore, Zheng Guocai made the language of "Xu Guo is going to perish".

Zheng Guoren's prophecy frightened Chu Zuo Yin Zisheng, because he was the protector of Xu Guo. After thinking about it, the prince finally decided to exchange the land of Bai Yu with Xu Guo, so that Xu Guo was moved to the hinterland of Chu State and placed under his own protection.

He said to King Chuping: "For a hundred years, the state of Xu and the state of Zheng have been in a state of hostility. Xu lived in the old land of Chu (Ye originally belonged to Chu), and relied on the protection of Chu to treat Zheng and Jin as nothing, which caused the anger of the two countries. Zheng Guo and Jin Guo are now fighting hotly, if Zheng Guo attacks Xu, Jin Guo will inevitably help; At that time, the state of Xu will perish, and the state of Chu will also lose its land. Why didn't the king move the kingdom of Xu to Baiyu?

Zheng Guo was in the strongest period in history, but Xu Guo still regarded the old Xu (the former capital of Xu Guo, now Xuchang, Henan) as his own land, and wanted to take it back day and night, and constantly stirred up the emotions of the Zheng people. Zheng Guoren joked at Xu Guoren and said: 'We took it by our ability, and you have to take it away by our ability.' And eyed Ye Cheng. The king could not underestimate the temper of the people of Xu, and the state of Chu could not oppose the combined forces of Zheng and Jin. By moving the state of Xu to the hinterland, we can avoid the state of Chu from getting involved in the dispute between the two countries and keep the land of Yecheng. I beseech the King to consider my proposal. ”

King Chuping nodded in agreement and handed over the migration task to Wang Zisheng. In the winter of this year, Wang Zisheng moved the Xu people to Baiyu (in the area of present-day Xichuan, Henan) and expanded the establishment of Baiyu, and the Chu people later renamed "Baiyu" to "Xi".

In the spring of the 19th year of Lu Zhaogong, Yin Chi, a Chu worker, was ordered by King Chuping to move Yinrong (a branch of Lu Hunrong) to the area of Laohekou in present-day Hubei, and raised and strengthened the city wall of Jiacheng (now Jiaxian, Henan) to prevent the invasion of the northern enemy.

All the actions taken by the Chu people above show that the Chu state has abandoned the strategy of continuing to expand northward, and has instead reduced its forces to focus on defense. Uncle Sun Wan then said: "The minds of the people of Chu are no longer seeking hegemony!" Now that they only want to protect the territory created by their ancestors and will not expand, the people of Lu can not worry about Chu trouble! ”

After the Wu people came to destroy the state six years ago, they destroyed the city buildings and moved the population to the Wu state. Originally, the people of Wu believed that the state came from Wu and could not keep its land; Rather than spending money and money on the state (and at the same time preventing the state from starting an uprising), it is better to turn it into a deserted city.

In fact, as long as the people of Wu come to destroy the state, no matter what they do next, it will be beneficial to the people of Chu. The people of Chu laughed at the ruins, moved people from all over the country to clean up the ruins and rebuild their houses, and in this way, the state was built again.

In the summer of May, Xu Miangong fell ill with malaria, and he died shortly after drinking the decoction of the prince's order. Xu Guoren condemned the prince for plotting to kill the first king, and the prince fled to the Jin state. Prince Xu swore that he had not killed the king, and he didn't know what was going on. However, when the envoy of Xu Guo reported to the other countries, he still used the phrase "the prince will stop killing his king", on the grounds that malaria is not a mortal disease, and there is no cure for drinking it.

A gentleman said: "If the monarch is sick, the prince only needs to serve the left and right with filial piety, and the matter of prescribing and dispensing medicine should be left to the doctor." Otherwise, no one can say what happened. ”

To the south of the Chu State, there were many barbarian tribes that were still in the primitive era, and those tribes were called "Baipu". The place where Baipu lives has a vertical and horizontal water system, full of lakes and rivers, remote geography and solid people. As mentioned earlier, not long after King Chu Zhuang ascended the throne, Baipu took advantage of the catastrophe of Chu to make a rebellion, but was defeated by the Chu army. After the destruction of the Chu State, it sent heavy troops to conquer the Pu tribes one by one, build roads and cities, and force the tribes to pay tribute to the Chu State.

During the reign of King Ling of Chu, the tribute and conscription imposed by the Chu state on the Pu people had reached a point where the aborigines could not bear it, and many people fled further south, and their share was imposed on the settlers.

After King Chuping ascended the throne, Baipu sent an envoy to ask the new king to have mercy on their poverty and hardship and reduce taxes. At that time, Ling Yin Douchengran accepted Baipu's bribe and became their spokesperson; Therefore, under the persuasion of Dou Chengran, King Chuping relieved Baipu's burden.

After Dou Chengran was executed, his bribery crime was also exposed, and King Chuping was furious and immediately reinstated the tax order on the Pu people. Pu people have just lived a normal life, but the situation has suddenly changed dramatically. The tax order itself was not harsh, but in order to flatter the king of Chu, the tax officials were impatient and intensified to make the order extremely harsh; The Baipu people were extremely angry, so they secretly made an appointment to start an incident.

They attacked the local Chu people at the same time at the same time, and the first to be killed were officials and soldiers, and then many merchants and civilians were not spared, and some Chu people even lived in the local area for the second and third generations, and had become one with the locals, but they were still implicated in tyranny and killed.

King Chuping knew what virtues those tax officials were (for he had also held relevant positions), and he was very unaccustomed to their style; But the life and death of the Chu people cannot be decided by the barbarian natives. King Chuping decided to wage war against Baipu and gave command to Ling Yin Zifang.

Zibian, an experienced veteran military strategist, saw that the Pu people had completely destroyed the roads, so he took a clipper to patrol the rivers and lakes for a month. He looked at the topography of the waterways and the enemy's defenses, and finally decided to conduct a water battle.

Zifang ordered the collection, repair, and manufacture of ships; Fifty giant ships with three oars and ten original water catapults of the Chu people started construction at the same time. The platform consisted of two triremes as a base, like a catamaran, on which a trebuchet was mounted. To reduce the weight of the trebuchet, the craftsmen split the log in two, hollowed out the middle, and then bonded hoops together to form a wooden tube.

Zifang needs a large number of soldiers with excellent water quality, and the water quality of the soldiers of the Chu State is not bad, but they are still at a disadvantage compared to the enemy. Fortunately, there are still many southern tribes who are loyal to the royal family: they have either been incorporated into the state of Chu or are under the protection of the state of Chu for various reasons. These tribesmen usually live in houseboats, and they walk on flat ground as if they were drunk, and once they are on the boat, they walk like flying and walking on flat ground; The stronger the storm, the more comfortable they are and they are very good pitchers.

Zibian recruited a large number of soldiers from these tribes, trained them in the manner of the Chu army, and asked some people to be selected to train the Chu army.