During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were many powerful countries among the many vassal states, but Zheng was the first country to dare to stand up and challenge the emperor's authority. Duke Zhuang of Zheng dared to raise an army to openly fight against the court just beca

During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were many powerful powers among the many vassal states, but Zheng State was the first country to dare to stand up and challenge the emperor's authority. Zheng Zhuang Duke only dared to raise an army to openly fight against the court because the emperor wanted him to give some power to others in the court. Not only did he defeat the five-nation coalition forces alone, but he almost killed the Zhou emperor with one arrow.

This arrow not only shot the prelude to the chaotic times of Spring and Autumn , but also made the pretentious Zhou Emperor lose face. As a vassal state with medium strength, Zheng State was obviously not on the list of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period. Why did the State of Zheng dare to challenge the authority of the Zhou emperor first?

made its fortune first, and it was strong and powerful

Although Zheng State did not have strong hard power, it had a long-term founding king. Long before Xirong invaded Western Zhou 's border, Zheng Huan Gong had already seen that the Western Zhou Dynasty's aura had reached this point. For the sake of his own and his close friends, Zheng Huan Gong decisively gave up his current foundation and brought his men to the east of the country to rebuild a world.

In order to obtain high-quality land near Luoyang , Duke Huan of Zheng did not hesitate to borrow land from 公华 and other Dongluo ten countries, which made him have a place to settle down.

After gaining capital for development, Zheng Huan Gong and his descendants used the efforts of three generations to use their identities as princes and royal nobles to slap in the name of Zhou royal family recruiting troops and land, and in fact, they were seeking benefits for their own country. At the same time, Zheng State began to train soldiers on a large scale and sent manpower to recruit soldiers to surrounding countries, expanding its military equipment step by step.

After the army was established, Zheng State changed its previous policy of borrowing land to demarcate the concession, and began to send troops to the ten countries of Dongluo. After easily annexed several small surrounding countries, Zheng's national strength doubled. With the two major strengths of military strength and land area, Zheng began its own path to dominate.

First of all, it launched political invasions against the states of Song, Wei, and several vassal states of Lu. Other countries could only silently endure the act of Zheng's interference in its internal affairs and dare not take the lead in provoking war.

So Zheng State became more active on the Spring and Autumn stage. It transformed from a vassal state that ran away from home and grew into the Central Plains overlord in the early Spring and Autumn Period. It was these factors that brought together that gave the king of Zheng State the courage to not take the emperor into consideration.

Land is connected, and it is easy to cause conflicts

0 After Zheng State expanded its territory, the border had directly reached the edge of the land of the Zhou royal family. It was originally far apart, so Zheng State and the Zhou emperor were able to be at peace. Now that they have become neighbors with adjacent land, some friction incidents on the border are naturally prone to occur, and there are already a relatively tense relationship.

With the growing arrogance of Zheng Wugong and Zheng Zhuanggong, it deteriorated rapidly. Soon after, the conflict between the king of Zheng and the king of Zhou was already well known to everyone. No one on both sides could stand on each other, and the army was ready to go to war at any time. The situation was already tense.

As for why the conflict began, it is difficult to verify, but the existing records indicate that during the reign of King Huan of Zhou, Duke Zhuang of Zheng felt jealous when he saw that the Zhou emperor was very close to the small Guo State. It was the autumn harvest period. When Duke Zhuang of Zheng saw the wheat fields in the Zhou emperor's territory next door ripe, he asked his soldiers to cross the border.

Entering the territory of the Zhou emperor, he openly robbed wheat. After hearing about this, the Zhou emperor was very angry. However, Duke Zhuang of Zheng did not say a word about this matter, and he was simply openly provoking the emperor. From then on, the two of them formed hatred.

When King saw that the powerful Duke Zhuang of Zheng had no sign of what a loyal minister should have, he decided to give his power to Duke Guo to prevent Zheng from being overly powerful and posing a threat to himself.

Mr. Zheng Zhuanggong is a hot-tempered man. After hearing about this, he came to the hall angrily and asked in person why the King of Zhou was acting like this. Seeing that he was coming in a fierce manner, the King of Zhou did not dare to have a head-on conflict, so he had to pretend that there was no such thing and said that he was willing to pledge his son in Zheng State as a human.

So this storm ended temporarily with Duke Guo not daring to speak and the Emperor Zhou was completely suppressed.

By the time King Huan of Zhou ascended the throne, the contradiction between the central government and Zheng had reached an irreconcilable point, so King Huan of Zhou assembled his army and ordered the three vassal states of Chen, Cai and Wei to send troops to form a massive mixed force to march towards Zheng. The Emperor Zhou wanted to use this expedition to scare Zheng and let them learn to respect themselves.

However, the combat effectiveness of the coalition forces was not ideal. Shortly after the head-on confrontation, they were defeated by the powerful Zheng army. The Zhou emperor was also injured by arrows and lost all his face.

started wars everywhere, striving to dominate

In 702 BC, Duke Zhuang of Zheng sent troops to fight for territory for Zheng. This time the target was the Lu State, which was relatively easy to attack. As for the reason for sending troops, it was actually fabricated by Duke Zhuang racking his brains. Duke Zhuang claimed that the State of Lu was very rude to Prince Zheng, so he had to use force to conquer.

As for the truth of the matter, it is to start with Zheng sending the prince Hu to help Qi leads troops to repel the barbarians. Qi was originally at a disadvantage when fighting against the Rong people, so Duke Zhuang of Zheng sent the prince Hu to help with reinforcements. After repelling the enemy, the king of Qi was very happy and prepared to set up a banquet to entertain missions from all countries, and at the same time commend these life-saviors.

. Lu is responsible for the etiquette of banquets and commendation meetings, but Lu ranks Zheng, which has contributed more in this battle, at the bottom. Now Zheng Zhuang Duke, who is very proud, can't sit still.

Zheng State felt that it was not enough to send troops by himself, so he went to win over Qi State and asked them to send troops to attack Lu. The king of Qi State thought about it over and over again, thinking that the matter was caused by himself, and the responsibility could not be pushed over. In desperation, he had to send an army perfunctorily to accompany him.

Lu argued helplessly, saying that he was treated according to the Zhou Li and did not neglect any country's intention, but he did not know that what Duke Zhuang of Zheng was most unwilling to listen to at this time was the word Zhou Li.

Fortunately, the war did not start as expected. Because Qi really didn't want to be involved in the war, he sent someone to invite envoys from Zheng and Lu to negotiate together, and finally ended with signing an armistice agreement. Duke Zhuang of Zheng died of depression a few months later with his dream of dominating the Central Plains.

The king of Zheng Zhuang is a strange man. He was an incompetent minister, not only to contradict the Emperor of Zhou, but even dared to fight against him. However, his rebellion determined the end of the feudal system of Zhou Dynasty, opening up the road for countries to compete for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period.

His whole life is devoted to developing his own country. Even his mother is old and sick, he is unwilling to spend a day to visit.

For his great cause, he can ignore the lives and death of his brothers and sisters, and he doesn't care about his spouse's life and safety. He even attacks his own tribesmen more viciously than others. According to rumors, for the sake of hegemony, Duke Zhuang of Zheng dared to ban the three tribes and kill his nephews.

Although his behavior was not very moral, his desire to build his own foundation can be said to be a good example for the later emperors. Unfortunately, although Duke Zhuang of Zheng was a hero of his generation, he was relatively indulged in his descendants and did not educate him. So after Duke Zhuang of Zheng died of illness, the later State of Zheng experienced the Zhaoli battle and the four sons fighting for the throne. Although

barely stabilized the situation in the end, Zheng State no longer had the huge advantages of the past in front of other countries at this time. After experiencing the situation of a small domineering during Duke Zhuang's rule, Zheng State never had the opportunity to dominate the world again.