In the spring of the fifteenth year of the reign of Lu Dinggong (BC495), Zigong returned to Lu for business reasons. After entering Qufu, he first visited his wife and Kong Li, and then went to handle business. At that time, Yi Yincheng happened to visit Lu State, and his senior brother Meng Yizi invited Zigong to participate in the big gift held by Lu Dinggong for the guests.

During the ceremony, Zigong found that the height of the hands holding the jade exceeded the height of the chest, and the head was tilted high; The height of Lu Dinggong's jade is lower than his chest, and his head looks down at the ground. After the ceremony, he said to Meng Yizi: "Judging by etiquette, both monarchs have signs of death. Then he said a high-sounding truth.

After Zigong finished handling the business, he returned to Weiguo and reported to his teacher what he had seen and heard during his stay in Lu.

In the summer of May, Lu Dinggong died at the age of about 60; This age is the longest-lived in the past dynasties since the Spring and Autumn Period. The crown prince Jiang ascended the throne for Lu Aigong.

After the news reached Weiguo, Confucius reproached Zigong and said: "Ci, you are unfortunate enough to be right, but your words are really too much!" Aren't you your uncle Muzi (the uncle and grandson leopard who is famous for the 'beak of the bird'), aren't you afraid of resentment? ”

In February of this year, the state of Chu destroyed the state of Hu (near present-day Fuyang County, Anhui). Hu was once a vassal state of Chu, but when a great war broke out between Wu and Chu, the Hu people took advantage of the fire to loot several border towns of Chu and capture many border people. After the end of the Wu-Chu War, King Zhao of Chu ordered Hu Zi to send back the captured Chu people. The Hu people were forced to return to the Chu people who could find (some were sold as slaves and did not know where they went) and those who were alive; Next, a large amount of compensation was paid to the state of Chu.

Only then did the people of Chu temporarily forgive the people of Hu. But what Hu Zi did next made the people of Chu unable to do so. It turned out that not long after Hu made compensation, the Wu people built a military fortress near the border of Hu and moved a group of military immigrants. Soon, Wu "merchants" came to Hu one after another, and while they were trading, they sent a message to Hu: "Break away from the Southern Alliance, and Wu will provide military protection for Hu." ”

Hu Zi felt that his self-confidence had returned to his side (of course, it could also be said that he had to return to his side), and he gradually distanced himself from Chu State. The promises made to Hu did not stop at words: Wu helped the Hu people improve the city defense system and build a large number of chariots, weapons and armor, just as the Jin State had done to support Wu. When Beard decided that the time was ripe, he officially announced his departure from the Alliance.

Although the people of Chu were furious, they could only endure it for the time being due to the strength of the people of Wu, and continued to accumulate strength to wait for the opportunity. But the disaster is not alone, the affairs of the Hu State have not been resolved, and the Don State has rebelled again.

As mentioned earlier, after the expulsion of the second secretary of the Jin State, he seized the eastern part of the Jin State; Zheng Guo was afraid that the Jin Guo Office would not be chaotic enough, so he jumped out to help Erqing make the situation even more chaotic. In view of this, Zhisong put forward an idea: why not support a regime in the Central Plains that was close to the Jin State and opposed the Zheng State? Siqing quickly focused his attention on the Don Kingdom.

The state of Dun, located near present-day Xiangcheng, Henan, was originally an ally of the state of Chu. During the great war between Wu and Chu, the Don State did not take any action, neither taking advantage of the fire to rob like the Hu State, nor sending troops to support the Chu State. After the end of the war, the people of Chu focused on hostile countries such as Wu, Chen, Tang, and Hu, so they did not pay attention to the Don state for a long time.

In this way, Zhisong sent an envoy to the Don State and used the means of Wu to win over the Hu State (which was a common method at the time) to pull the Don State into the arms of the Jin State.

But the actions of the people of Don not only put themselves on the blacklist of Chu and Zheng, but also offended Chen Guo. It turned out that the relationship between the Don State and Chen was like the relationship between the Cao State and the Song State, and the Ju State was to the Qi State, and the rights of the Chen State to the Don State were clear and direct, and Chen Mingong certainly could not sit idly by and watch the Jin people destroy the interests of the country.

The people of Chu were very slow to react to the rebellion of the Don State, but Chen Mingong couldn't sit still. He hurried to the capital to meet King Zhao of Chu and asked for permission to attack the kingdom of Don.

The Chu people studied it, and the doctors thought that instead of forcing the Don to submit, it would be better to erase it from the map once and for all, so as not to mutiny again. The plan was passed very smoothly, and the king of Chu Zhao ordered the great prince Sima to lead an army to join forces with Chen's army.

In February of the 14th year of Lu Dinggong, the combined forces of Chu and Chen besieged the Don State. Dunzi sent a distress message to the Jin State, but the Jin State Office was being disturbed by the Erqing rebels; The Jin people were still too busy to take care of themselves, and of course they were powerless to cross the Zheng State to save the Don Kingdom. Within ten days, the coalition army invaded the capital, captured Donzi alive, and divided the land of Don.

The Jin people originally planned to use the Don State to contain the Zheng State, but the Don State was in trouble but could not be saved, and the new allies were destroyed before they could perform their intended functions. This ending is too much to hurt their self-esteem for the people of the Jin Kingdom.

In the same year, Wu's army was defeated at Li Li, and He Lu was wounded and died. His successor, Fucha, vowed to destroy the Yue state, so he shifted his military focus from Chu in the west to the Yue state in the south: he transferred a large number of people of working age from the north back to Gusu and suspended military exchanges with the northern princes.

The actions of the Wu people put the Hu State in a dangerous situation, and also gave the Chu people an opportunity to take advantage of it.

King Zhao of Chu then sent Yin Zixi to lead an army to conquer Hu. The Hu people, who had lost the protection of Wu, were vulnerable and resisted for less than ten days before the Chu army broke through the defensive line; Zixi destroyed the Hu State and brought the bearded leopard back to the capital. King Zhao of Chu gave this noble prisoner of war thirty tenant farmers so that he could continue the sacrifice to his ancestors.

In the summer of this year, after a 50-year period of peace, the old rivals of Zheng and Song broke out again.

The cause of the war stemmed from the struggle between the border residents of the two countries over a mulberry forest. It turned out that in the early Spring and Autumn Period, there was an unclaimed land with a width of 100 miles between the Zheng State and the Song State (which actually belonged to the Zhou royal family). Later, Zheng Zhuang and Song Zhuang signed a peace agreement, which stipulated that neither country should build cities or reclaim land on unowned land without authorization.

The loyal and honest Song Guoren obeyed the agreement in an orderly manner, but Zheng Guoren did not. Under various banners (including defending against the invasion of Chu and Xu), the Zheng people constantly expanded and colonized outward. As a result, two hundred years later, the Song people looked up and found that the Zheng people were about to draw the border outside Shangqiu City.

As a result, the Song people also began to build cities to counteract, and the competition for land between the two sides triggered a series of local conflicts. Zheng Guoren declared ownership of a mulberry forest, and Song Guoren thought that the other party was too deceitful, and even burned the forest clean. As a result, the conflict grew from small to large, and finally annoyed the monarchs of both sides.

In the summer of June, the Zheng general Handa led an army to attack the Song state and defeated the Song army at Laoqiu. Song Jinggong asked Qi Jinggong for help.

Since Zheng and Song both belonged to the anti-Jin alliance, the people of Qi could neither fail to save Song and push Zheng to their opposites. Therefore, Qi Jinggong decided to make a show first, which could not only meet the request of the Song people, but also make the Zheng people accept it when they saw it.

Qi Jinggong first held a meeting with Wei Linggong, and the two announced to the outside world that if Zheng Guo did not withdraw his troops, Qi and Wei would join forces to rescue Song State. Handa had already marched outside Shangqiu City at this time, and he withdrew after receiving the news.