As mentioned earlier, the fourth secretary of the Jin State recovered Lucheng at the end of the fourteenth year of Lu Dinggong and achieved a great victory in Baiquan.

In the spring of the following year, Siqing decided to take advantage of the victory and strive to recover Chaoge within the year. Zhao Ying then confidently led the Jin army east out of Taihang Mountain.

However, when the army was preparing to enter the territory of the Eastern Zhou, it encountered an unexpected obstacle - the Jin people's request for a way was sternly rejected by the Zhou people, which was an unprecedented event. You must know that since the alliance of practicing the earth, only the Jin people in the world have said "no" to the Eastern Zhou people, and the Zhou kings of the past dynasties have all obeyed the words of the Jin people. This incident marked the loss of the last ally of the Jin in the Central Plains.

It turned out that the military and political power of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was in the hands of Liu Huan Gong alone, and the Liu family and the Fan family were married for generations. The marriage relationship brought the two families together as a strong community of interests.

At the time of Shi Ji's expulsion, Liu Huangong, who had been immersed in the power field for twenty years, was not in a hurry to take a stand, because he could not see the direction of the situation clearly. Later, when he saw that the princes of the Central Plains had all become enemies of the Jin State and turned to support the Fan and Zhongxing clans, he decided to turn to the side of the Fan clan and blocked the way for the Jin army to advance eastward.

However, the old fox Liu Huan Gong did not stand in front of the stage in the process of supporting Fan, but hid behind Chang Hong and instructed him to issue and execute orders for himself.

Zhao Ying was furious, and at the same time helpless - he would never dare to risk the world's greatness and invade the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Yang Hu suggested withdrawing the troops first. Because if you want to continue to advance eastward, you can only bypass the Eastern Zhou, so you have to pass through the land of Zheng and Wei, and those two countries are the vanguard of the anti-Jin emergency, and the two armies are eager to fight with the Jin army! Even if the Jin army is defeated, it will no longer have the physical strength to deal with the Chaoge people. Zhao Ying had no choice but to lead the army back to China.

In this way, Siqing could only change the strategic plan: the four temporarily gave up recovering Chaoge and decided to attack Handan first.

When the Jin army went east again, it was already the spring of the first year of Lu Ai. Zhao Ying's division went east to Fukou, and soon captured Wushi City, a satellite city west of Handan, and then surrounded Handan.

After receiving the urgent report from the Handan people, the Duke of Qi immediately issued a rescue order to the princes; He led his army to join Wei Linggong at Qianhou (about 80 miles south-east of Handan), and soon the Lu army led by Lu Aigong also arrived.

However, Zhao Ying was determined to capture Handan, and he built three lines of defense between Handan and Qianhou, preparing to rely on this to block the invading enemy.

Qi Jinggong's original intention was only to deter the Jin army, and he was not willing to lose his troops for the Handan clan, but he was unwilling to return in vain, so he set the target of the attack on Jianpu (now Zhao County, Hebei) in the north. Thorn Pu is located on the only way to and from Handan, and is a military town on the northeast border of the Jin Kingdom; Capturing Thorn Pu is equivalent to tearing a hole in Zhao Ying's defense line.

At that time, the monarchs of Qi and Wei (to exaggerate) were both seventy and eighty years old (this year was the fifty-fourth year of Qi Jinggong and the forty-first year of Wei Linggong). Although neither of them was convinced of the old age, and they both shouted that they would personally go into battle to command the battle, but the generals could not stand the terrible psychological torture, and they were seriously worried about the physical condition of the monarch, for fear that the two of them would "gaba" and die on the chariot again.

In view of the strong demand of the generals for the two monarchs to stay in the base camp, Qi Jinggong had no choice but to order Lu Aigong, Qi Baomu and Wei Kongyu to lead the army north. Bao Mu also sent an invitation to the Xianyu people to join the joint operation, and Xianyu Jun happily led the army to join the battle group. Dr. Thorn Pu sent an urgent report to Zhao Ying, but Zhao Ying was unmoved at all and still concentrated on attacking Handan. As a result, it took less than ten days for the Four-Nation Coalition to take down the isolated Thorn Pu.

Military supplies sent from the Jin State were continuously transported into Wushi City. Zhao built three more forts outside Handan and dug a trench to separate the city from the outside world - it seems that Zhao Ying was preparing to trap the rebels in the city.

In this situation, Qi Jinggong had nothing to do, he had to destroy the city wall of Thorn Pu, take away part of the population, disband the coalition army, and return to Linzi. After the coalition retreated, Zhao Ying quickly sent troops to occupy Qianhou, and strengthened the Qianhou city wall.

The Jin people continued to send more troops to the east. By the time the winter came, the number of Jin combat troops deployed around Handan had reached 50,000.

In the winter of November, Zhao Ying led a light army to raid Chaoge. The attackers detained the euphora of the small suburban town and forced the local farmers to destroy the germinated winter wheat in the fields – meaning that the Asuka would starve the following year. By the time the Chaoge army arrived at the scene of the incident, the saboteurs had fled without a trace.

In the spring of the second year of Lu Ai Gong (BC493), Shi Ji shot Qi Jinggong to ask for food aid. However, the harvest of Qi in the past two years is also average, and there are too many grain rats, and the grain reserves are not very sufficient. Qi Jinggong then replied that when the autumn wheat was ripe, he would definitely provide assistance to Chaoge.

In the summer, Wei Linggong, the vanguard of the anti-Jin Dynasty, died. Previously, the former crown prince Kuai Yu was forced into exile, his wife Nanzi had no son, and Kuai Yu had no half-brother, and the selection of the successor became a big problem.

After Kuai Yu went into exile, Wei Linggong's health deteriorated day by day. His sons all wanted to get involved in the throne, and they competed fiercely with each other. Among the sons, only Gongzi Ying was alone and did not participate in any fighting. Wei Linggong took a fancy to his excellent quality of having no desires and no desires, so he came up with the idea of making him his heir.

Wei Linggong obtained Nanzi's consent, so he lowered his voice and said to Gongzi Ying during an outing: "The widow has no son-in-law, and he will appoint you as the prince." He said that he began to wait for Gongzi Ying's reaction, but Gongzi Ying didn't say a word as if he hadn't heard.

Wei Linggong saw that there were several doctors and entourages beside him, he didn't want to make this decision known to everyone, and he also understood Gongzi Ying's scruples, so he didn't say any more.

A few days later, Wei Linggong summoned Gongzi Ying alone and expressed his intention to him. Gongzi Ying replied: "The son's talent is not enough to preside over the society, so the monarch should choose someone else!" The lady is in the hall, the doctor is in the court, and the scholars are in the country; The monarch issued an order without consulting them, and I am afraid that he will bring shame on himself, so please take it back! ”

Wei Linggong really couldn't figure out why the other sons had to fight for the seats that they had to fight for when they broke their heads were worthless in Gongzi Ying's heart. Wei Linggong felt that his self-esteem had been greatly hurt, and he couldn't help but be angry. He lost his temper at Gongzi Ying, and angrily waved his cane away from him.

Wei Linggong drank a little stuffy wine that night, and when he got up, he stood unsteadily and fell, hitting his head on the pillar, and suddenly fell unconscious. Nanzi hurriedly went to summon Gongzi Ying and the doctors. Gongzi Ying arrived the earliest, and he took Wei Linggong's unconscious hand and tears rained down. Wei Linggong never came to his senses again, and he died before the doctors arrived.

The patriots began to do things for the ancestors, and people came and went in the palace, making a lot of noise for a night, and it was only at dawn that it calmed down. On the same day in the mourning hall, Kong Yu asked Nanzi if Wei Linggong had left any last words before his death.

Nanzi said: "The prince will make Ying the new king." ”

Everyone had already heard of this, and they all moved their eyes to Gongzi Ying. There was no trace of joy on Gongzi Ying's face, he wiped away his tears, and said with his usual serious expression: "I have no desire to become a monarch. Besides, I was by his side when Xianjun was critically ill, and if Xianjun decided to appoint me, I would definitely know. And the sister-in-law of the former prince is here, and I dare not obey my fate. ”