In February of the twenty-second year of Lu Zhaogong, the doctor of Qi State, Beiguo Qishuai, was a division of Ju. The cause of the war is impossible to verify, Ju Zi Gengyu wants to send out his division to meet the invading enemy, and the doctor Mu Zhi persuaded him: "The commander of the Qi division has a low status, and he does not lead many troops, so he will not ask for too much." The minister thought that it was better to ask for peace with the Qi people; The people of the great powers must not be provoked. ”

But Ju Zi Gengyu has a fierce temperament and is extremely belligerent. He categorically rejected Makiyuki's proposal and led his army to fight a beautiful ambush battle in Shouyu, almost annihilating the enemy. Qi Jinggong was furious and led a heavy army to kill Benju State; Ju Zi felt frightened at this time and had to sign an alliance with the Qi people.

After the two countries reached a reconciliation, Juzi began to live his extravagant and depraved life again. Juzi likes to collect sharp swords, and in addition to collecting famous swords all over the world, he also hired several outstanding swordsmiths to forge swords for him. But he also had a very frightening habit of testing the sharpness of a new sword by killing people every time he got it.

The hapless testers were initially limited to slaves and prisoners. One time Juzi got a sword while hunting, and the retinue didn't have time to find a slave; He tried his sword heart, and even stabbed his own warrior to death with a sword. Since then, the sword tester has expanded to include ministers, retinues, palace maids, and even anyone around them.

The hatred of Juzi is growing in the country, and if anyone dares to take the lead in expelling the tyrant, people are very willing to join the team. In the early summer of the twenty-third year of Lu Zhaogong, Ju Zi threatened to "enter Linzi and capture Qi Jinggong alive" after a drink to entertain foreign missions. Although he knew that he had lost his words after sobering up, he still did not take remedial measures. As a result, within ten days, Ju Zi's bold words spread throughout the East.

The Qi people had already begun to recruit troops, and the Ju people also thought it was time to settle the crimes of the tyrant. There was a warrior named Wu Cun in the country of Ju. One afternoon in late April, Ucun led his countrymen in a coup d'état; The angry people broke into the palace with various weapons, and the palace guards did not resist, Ju Zi and Mu Zhi hurriedly changed into the clothes of the ministers and fled through the side gate. The two wanted to escape from the capital through the West Gate, but the countrymen had sealed the West Gate; Muzhi had no choice but to protect Juzi all the way to the south gate. From afar, the two saw Ucun standing at the gate with a weapon in hand. Ju Zi was suddenly frightened, he grabbed Mu Zhi and said: "Wu exists here, let's go back and find a hidden place and avoid the limelight!" ”

But Makiyuki said, "We must go quickly!" Wu Cun is famous in Dongyi for his bravery, and he will no longer use the killing of kings to increase his reputation! The two of them then looked ahead and passed through the city gate, but Wu Cun only glanced at the two of them, and let them go as if they had not seen anything. Juzi later fled to Qufu, and Lu Zhaogong gave him a small fief, and Geng Yu finally died of old age in Lu State; The people of Qi put Geng Yu's brother on the throne of Ju State, which was for the Duke of Jujiao.

Just after the first month of the twenty-third year of Lu Zhaogong, the ghost of war appeared in the sky above the land of Wu Chu, wandering and refusing to leave for a long time; At the beginning of autumn, the famous "Battle of Zhongli" broke out. This big battle involving the eighth ** team is also known by the world: "a war caused by a mulberry leaf".

Originally, the border of Wu was bordered by Beiliang (now north of Tianchang, Anhui) and Zhongli (now Fengyangdong, Anhui), and the national border was a small river that flowed almost north and south, and many farmers lived on both sides of the river. In peacetime, those border residents often do small business with each other.

The boundary river was blocked by a small hill, so it divided into two branches, and around the hill there was a convergence of a river; The hills are covered with mulberry trees, so the local sericulture industry is relatively developed. In this way, the hill has become the common property of the border people of the two countries, and if one side does not obviously cross the center line to the other side to pick mulberry, the other side will not be too careful.

But in the spring, an unlucky child appeared in each of the two countries, and the two fought over a mulberry tree. The children of Chu suffered a loss, and his patriarch led the people to rush across the boundary river, and the other party also gathered the people to prepare for the attack, so a serious violent incident occurred, and the entire family of the Wu side was wiped out.

The nature of the incident immediately escalated from the villagers fighting each other to the enemy invasion. Dr. Beiliang was furious, gathered his troops to destroy the opponent's village, and attacked Zhongli City Gate.

King Chuping was furious and mobilized the army of Huaishang Zhucheng to destroy Beiliang.

King Wu was furious and decided to erase Zhongli from the territory of Chu.

Chu Ling Yin Zibian said at a court meeting: "There is news that Wu Guang will lead the whole army to attack Zhongli, and I think the news is accurate. Zhongli is the gateway between Wu and Chu, and Wu has the ambition to dominate the world; Wu's acquisition of Zhongli not only opened the door to the northeast of Chu, but also threatened Chen, Cai, Hu, Xu and other states. Once the Wu people obtained the above-mentioned princes, Jiang, Xi, Xian, and Huang (all on the north bank of Huaishui) would inevitably be lost, and the Huaishui spinning thread would be broken through. In this way, the state of Chu was beaten back to the period before the first monarch became king. Therefore, we must unite the princes of Huaishang and devote all the strength of the whole country to fight against the invading enemy. ”

King Chu Ping agreed, and then sent envoys to Chen, Cai, Hu, Shen, Xu, and Dun, asking the six countries to send troops to fight against Wu together with the Chu army.

At the end of spring, Wu Wangyi, Gongzi Guang, and Gongzi Baoyu led three armies to cross the Yangtze River from Zhu Fangcheng, and then marched northwest. Chu ordered Yin Zifang, Da Sima Xue Yue, and Right Yin Nangwa to lead the army to meet the battle. But as soon as the army set off, Zibian suddenly fell seriously ill and was bedridden. Zibian had no choice but to hand over the command to Xue Yue and order him to act according to the original plan and not delay military affairs due to his illness.

Xue Yue wanted to send him to a nearby city for treatment and recuperation, but Zibian insisted on traveling with the army. He said: "The master is only exercising military power on my behalf, and the army cannot be without a commander, and I will die in the army!" ”

After receiving the order, the Six Nations began to assemble their troops. To be honest, the Six Kingdoms didn't care who won and who lost, and they didn't think that once the Wu State won Zhongli, the countries would fall into a "situation from which there would be no return" (this is the words of the people of Chu to scare the people of the Six Kingdoms)". The reason why the Six Kingdoms sent out the division was completely due to the pressure of the Chu State. Among the six kingdoms, except for Chen and Cai, whose armies were led by the doctor, the other four kingdoms were all led by the monarch himself.

The Chu army was an army that could not fight defensive battles, so Xue Yue led the Seven-Nation Alliance to cross the Huaishui River south and take the initiative to attack the Wu army. In late July, the coalition forces took up positions at Zhongli (present-day Fengyangdong, Anhui), where they prepared to meet the Wu army.

But at the critical moment, Ling Yin Zibian died. His death caused a great shock to the allied forces: the morale of the Chu army was low, and the soldiers were grieving and fearful, believing that this was a sign from heaven that the Chu people would be defeated in this battle. The people of the Six Kingdoms looked at the matter in different moods, but they were all optimistic about the outcome of the battle (first, because the Wu army was at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, and second, because they had not been beaten by the Wu people).