Chapter 58: Chu is originally a barbarian
After the ceremony of enthroning the king was over, Qingji immediately summoned Ji Zha, Sun Ping and Sun Wu to a side hall to discuss matters.
When Qingji told the world that the State , Ji Zha and Sun Wu could not help but change color with rage!
Ji Zha said with a gloomy face: "I didn't expect the Chu people to be so disregarding of propriety, righteousness, and integrity."
"It has only been a month since the alliance between Wu and Chu was signed, and the people of Chu dared to tear up the alliance and send troops to attack Wu! Don't you think Chu is afraid of being criticized and ridiculed by the world?"
shameless!
This was Ji Zha's only feeling about the State of Chu at this moment.
Qingji and Sun Wu looked at each other and smiled bitterly!
Over the past few hundred years, hasn't the State of Chu committed enough fraud, deception, and shameless things?
Chu is originally a barbarian nation!
This sentence was said by the Chu people themselves.
The State of Chu was the first state among all the vassal states granted by the Zhou Emperor to openly declare itself a king!
It is only because Chu culture is so far away from Central Plains culture that it seems incompatible. For example, the Zhou people worship dragons, and the Chu people worship phoenixes, making it difficult for them to integrate.
The Chu State originally originated in the Central Plains. Its tribe used fire as its totem and claimed to be descendants of Zhurong. However, in the early days of the Shang Dynasty, due to the expansion of the Shang Dynasty, the Chu tribe had to migrate southward and finally migrated to the Jingshan Danshui area.
This process lasted for hundreds of years. The Chu people overcame all difficulties and set out on their way. It was truly not easy!
The Chu people at that time had already moved away from the Yellow River civilization and cultural circle in the north, but they still remembered that they were "descendants of Emperor Gaoyang."
However, the Shang people did not think that the Chu State was an old Chinese tribe, because at that time, whether a tribe was barbaric or not was not determined by the tribe’s bloodline, but more by whether the tribe’s cultural customs were in line with the etiquette of the Central Plains!
There is no doubt that the Chu tribe, which had lived in the south for hundreds of years, although looked down on the surrounding tribes with a sense of "we are not barbarians", was inevitably influenced by the surrounding tribes, and thus was far from the development of the Central Plains culture.
In the eyes of businessmen, Chu is undoubtedly a barbarian tribe!
The leader of the Chu people, Yuxiong, always regarded it as a great shame and humiliation that Chu was regarded as a barbarian by the Shang Dynasty. However, the Chu people were too weak to resist the powerful Shang Dynasty.
It was not until King Wen of Zhou invited the Chu tribe to join him in the crusade against the licentious and tyrannical King Zhou of Shang that Yuxiong readily agreed, because he believed that this was an opportunity for the Chu people to return to the Chinese cultural circle and be recognized by the princes of the Central Plains.
So, Yuxiong led the elite troops of Chu to travel thousands of miles to help attack Shang!
After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, Yuxiong was appointed as the fire master because he was a descendant of Zhurong.
After accepting the appointment, Yuxiong worked tirelessly and eventually died of exhaustion as a fire master.
However, this was not the only bad news brought to the Chu people living under Jingshan Mountain!
In the past, Duke Zhou granted fiefs to the Zhou Dynasty based on blood relations, and there were countless people with the surname Ji who were granted fiefs.
However, because the Chu tribe was located in a remote area, was weak, and had no blood relationship with the Zhou royal family, they were not even given the title of viscount!
This was undoubtedly a huge blow to the Chu people!
It was not until the reign of King Cheng of Zhou that the royal family remembered the tribe that had sacrificed almost everything for the King of Zhou's expedition against Shang, and enfeoffed Yuxiong's grandson Xiong Yi as the Viscount of Fifty Li.
Although he is a viscount, there is no doubt that this is of great significance to the Chu people.
This means that the Chu people were finally accepted by the Central Plains culture and finally recognized by their hometown and the cultural orthodoxy in their hearts!
It’s a pity that this is just the Chu people’s wishful thinking.
After Xiong Yi was conferred the title of Viscount, King Cheng of Zhou summoned all the princes to the court to hold the Qiyang Alliance, and Prince of Chu Xiong Yi was also among the invited guests.
But the State of Chu was really too poor at that time!
Even the cattle he used to offer to the ancestors of the Chu State when he was conferred the title of Viscount were stolen from neighboring countries, and he only dared to offer sacrifices secretly at night.
Helplessly, Xiong Yi could only take the peach wood bow for exorcising ghosts and thatch for worshiping gods as a gift to King Zhou and go to participate in the Qi Yang Alliance.
Perhaps it was because the carriage that Chu Zi Xiong Yi was riding in was too old, or perhaps it was because Chu Zi Xiong Yi's language was out of tune with the surrounding princes, and in the end he was not able to enter the palace!
Xiong Yi was appointed as the fire master and, together with the Xianbei king, did three things outside the palace: provide straw, set up watchtowers, and offer sacrifices and guard the fields.
Simply put, it is to prepare wine for the guests, arrange their seats, and light a bonfire, like a modern waiter!
But Xiong Yi had no choice. He believed that the State of Chu was far away and in a low position, and was weak, so he had to surrender.
But this hurt the hearts of the people of Chu. After hundreds of years of pursuit, they still could not be accepted by the princes of the Central Plains. Therefore, after Xiong Yi's death, the succeeding monarchs of Chu were no longer keen on paying tribute to the Zhou royal family.
Later, King Zhao of Zhou used this as an excuse to personally lead six divisions to attack the State of Chu!
Of course, this was just an excuse for the Zhou royal family. Their goal was to wipe out the various tribes along the Yangtze River and control the copper mines in the Yangtze River basin.
What King Zhao of Zhou did not expect was that the Chu people, seeing the powerful Zhou army, did not engage in direct confrontation with the Zhou army.
Instead, they united with the surrounding tribes and relied on the water to fight a guerrilla war against the Zhou army!
Although the Zhou royal family had strong soldiers and horses, they were unable to do anything to the Chu people for a while.
In the Battle of Han River, the Chu people disguised themselves as boatmen and tampered with King Zhao of Zhou's boat and the floating bridge used by the Zhou army to cross the river. In this battle, not only was the Zhou army destroyed, but King Zhao of Zhou also lost his life!
After that, several generations of kings of the Chu State no longer demanded that the princes in the Central Plains accept them, but continued to develop themselves and wait for opportunities.
Finally, the Quanrong invaded and killed King You of Zhou. King Ping of Zhou moved eastward, and the chaotic Spring and Autumn Period began.
While the vassal states in the Central Plains were attacking each other and had no time to take care of other things, the State of Chu conquered the State of Yong in the west and the State of Yangyue in the east, and became a behemoth that the vassal states in the Central Plains could hardly ignore!
In the end, King Wu of Chu not only proclaimed himself king, but also made several of his sons kings, and uttered the famous saying "I am a barbarian, and shall not be given the Chinese titles or posthumous names."
Let me ask you, if there was no such shameless spirit, how could the State of Chu have transformed from a small country with a radius of less than 50 miles into a dominant power with a territory of thousands of miles, thousands of chariots, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and soldiers, and once challenged to dominate the Central Plains?
"My king, the most urgent thing is to think of a way to repel the enemy."
Sun Wu said sternly, "This time the Chu army launched a massive attack, and Han Jun Gandang repeatedly provoked trouble during the king's coronation ceremony. I think these two things are definitely not accidental!"
Hearing this, Qingji frowned and asked, "Changqing, are you saying that Gan Dang's actions may have been instigated by the Chu people? When Chu attacked Wu, the Han army would definitely move south?"
"It's possible."
Sun Wu sighed and said, "My lord, to be honest, this may not be the worst outcome!"
"If at this moment, the Yue Kingdom to the south of our Wu Kingdom and Ji Guang make unusual moves, then our Wu Kingdom will be attacked from all sides. What should we do?"
"Then we should defeat the strongest Chu army before the Great Wu is attacked from all sides!"
Qingji said with a cold face: "However, what I am most worried about now is Ji Guang who controls a small corner. The massive attack by the Chu army this time is most likely the result of the plot by Ji Guang and Wu Yuan..."
No wonder the last time Ji Zha went to Chu, the people of Chu signed a non-aggression pact so easily.
In Qingji's opinion, given the greedy nature of the Chu people, how could everything go as planned?
It turns out that the Chu people had planned this all along!
The State of Chu and Helu were in cahoots with each other!
