2.

There were many small vassal states around the Chu State, and since they were annexed by the Chu State very early, there are few historical records later.

During the Xiong Yi period, the state of Chu and the surrounding princes could still live in peace. There is a power country directly south of the Chu State, and the Gong family is the sub-surname, which is more than 200 miles away from the Chu State. To the southeast is the country of Luo, and the family is surnamed Xiong, which is less than 100 miles away from the state of Chu; In the northeast, the Duke of Lu is a concubine, and the distance from Chu is less than 100 miles; To the east of the state of Lu is the state of Yan (yān); To the northeast of the country of Lu is the state of Deng; On the west there is a valley country; To the west of the country of the valley there is a state of yong (yōng); To the north of Yongguo is the country of Pakistan; There is also a moose (mí) country in the north of Yongguo and east of Baguo; To the east of the Elk country is a wrenched country. In this way, the state of Chu among the many countries, under the leadership of Xiong Yi, kept to itself, was good-neighborly and friendly, so that its subjects could rest and recuperate. Therefore, during this period, the people of Chu were industrious, dedicated, humble, and recuperated, and the people here lived and worked in peace and contentment, and their lives gradually became richer.

However, after Xiong Yi, the state of Chu, which gradually became rich, was no longer so peaceful. Under the careful governance of several generations of monarchs, the state of Chu gradually emerged in the land of barbarians. When the princes of the Central Plains were divided and resisted, the Chu State was wantonly annexed in the south and was like a fish in water. Compared with the Central Plains, there is a vast land here, and many princes with weak power can expand to their heart's content. The successive monarchs of the Chu State continued to annex the surrounding small states, expand their sphere of influence, and make their territory bigger and bigger, from a small fief to a powerful power with a vast territory. In terms of geographical area, it has far exceeded the large countries of the Central Plains.

Here I would like to introduce Xiong Qu, the sixth monarch of the Chu State. After more than a century of long expeditions, the state of Chu has become a solid and rich country. The surrounding small countries are all the territory of the Chu State.

Xiongqu's archery skills are extraordinary. There is a story in the historical legend that Hou Yi shot for nine days, but the "Historical Records" commented that although Hou Yi was good at shooting, he was not as good as Xiong Qu. It is said that Xiong Qu once walked at night and encountered a boulder, which looked very much like a tiger lying down. Because it was dark and he couldn't see whether it was a stone or a tiger, Xiong Qu didn't dare to slack off and hurriedly set up a bow and shoot arrows, because Xiong Qu had great strength, when he looked closer after shooting, the arrows and arrows were shot into the boulder, leaving only the feathers on the tail of the arrows. This legend is enough to prove Xiong Yi's skill.

This monarch who is good at shooting is not a martial artist, but a brave and resourceful monarch.

On the one hand, Xiong Qu inherited the legacy of his ancestors, carefully managed his relations with neighboring countries; On the other hand, it is boldly expanding its territory in the whole army and military force.

The eastern part of the Chu State is the three countries of Deng, Lu, and Luo, which are arranged vertically from north to south, like snakes in the mountains, interdependent, living in harmony with each other, and making appointments with each other. If you hit the head, you can save the tail, and if you hit the tail, the head can save you. Xiong Qu knew that this snake in the mountains was still untouchable. Therefore, although he was ambitious, he pretended to have a smiling face and repaired it year after year, hoping that when he conquered other countries, he would at least let this snake of the mountains maintain a kind neutral attitude. With the iron-clad backing of this side of the ever-mountain snake, when you attack other countries, you will not be attacked by the enemy and be pinned down. Although Yongguo is also a close neighbor, Xiongqu's attitude is completely different.

The rugged road between Yong and Chu was also a surprise attack that was not conducive to a protracted war. Because the supply behind is not very smooth, this time the Yong did not win a complete victory, but this time the Yong after all experienced the team, captured the property, when the Yong country reflected, Xiong Qu had already fled. Xiong Qu later attacked Yangyue and Hubei, which were very smooth and formed a whale swallowing trend, not giving other countries a chance to breathe. In this way, the state of Chu expanded steadily.

The state of Chu is about to move, and the Zhou royal family is still aware of it. Of course, the Zhou royal family was not only aware of the Chu State, but a number of small states in the Barbarian Land. Among them is the country of Hubei, which was annexed by Xiongqu. The state of Hu was a relatively powerful country, and in terms of military strength, it had an advantage over the state of Chu, but the state of Hu angered the Zhou royal family at that time because of the alliance between the monarch and Huaiyi to conquer and annex a series of small states in the southeast. So King Zhou Li sent the "West Sixth Division" and the "Yin Eighth Division" to attack Hubei, and later sent reinforcements to encircle and suppress Hubei. As a result, the army of Hubei was defeated, and the monarch of Hubei was also captured by the Zhou army, taken to Jingjiao, and became a prisoner of the Zhou royal family.

The "Western Sixth Division" mentioned here refers to Zhou Tianzi's personal elite troops. The West 6th Division is an army stationed in the area of Wangcheng Fenghao. An elite army that did not leave Zhou Tianzi's side and fought under the direct command of King Zhou. Therefore, as soon as the Son of Heaven left the capital, there were immediately "six divisions" following the left and right, hugging each other in front and back, and the scene was very majestic. And the "Yin Eighth Division" is the army that the Zhou royal family got up early and stationed in the land of Yin Shang to quell the rebellion. The main task of this unit was to suppress the rebellion of the Yin and Dongyi who dared to resist. Being able to mobilize the "Western Sixth Division" and the "Yin Eighth Division" at the same time to crusade against the Hubei State shows how much effort King Zhou Li put into the Hubei State back then.

Xiong Qu is optimistic about this opportunity. Just when the upper and lower kingdoms of Hubei were in chaos, Xiongqu, the king of Chu, pressed the border in the name of King Qin's assistance in the war, but in fact, the territory of Hubei was included in the territory of Chu. Because the Zhou royal family was too far away from Hubei and it was inconvenient to annex its territory, Xiong Qu happened to take advantage of this loophole.

The state of Hubei originated from the Shang Dynasty. The descendants of the Yellow Emperor surnamed Yao were sealed in the Hubei State, and the Xia and Shang Dynasty were vassal states.

At the end of the Shang Dynasty, the Marquis of E, who was a minister in the court, was listed as the Three Dukes along with Xibo Jichang and Jiuhou. Shang Xuan took a fancy to the daughter of the Nine Marquis and married her as a concubine. But Jiuhou's daughter has a dignified temperament and is unwilling to accompany the king to do those shameless deeds, so in a fit of anger, the king killed the father and daughter of Jiuhou, and made Jiuhou into meat sauce. When the Marquis of Ehou saw that the Nine Marquis had died unjustly, he refused to fight with the king of Xu, and was also killed. This is a tragic scene of the history of Hubei.

In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the hometown of the Eguo was annexed by the Jin State, and the remnants moved south to the north of the Chu State, which is still called the Eguo State.

Because Hubei is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, it is the production area of the Yangtze crocodile and the rich production area of copper ore. It became a place of more concern for the Zhou royal family, when the Zhou royal army fought with the Hubei army and captured the monarch of the Hubei country, Xiong Qu was sitting on the mountain watching the tiger fight.

Xiong Qu saw that the defeat trend of the Hubei State had been decided, so he took the opportunity to lead a large army to attack, nominally to aid the Zhou royal family, but in fact annexed the Hubei State. When he evacuated Hubei, Xiong Qu let one of his sons live here permanently, and named him the lord of Hubei. The homeland of the "Western Sixth Division" and the "Yin Eighth Division" of the Zhou royal family are in the north, and they have no intention of cherishing the land of the Southern Barbarians. also pushed the boat down the river to send Chu a favor. As a result, Xiongqu of Chu easily obtained the territory and subjects of E.

During this period, the state of Chu complimented the Zhou royal family on the one hand, and on the other hand, it embezzled left and right, and expanded its territory on a large scale.

3.

So by the time of King Zhao of Zhou, the relationship between Zhou and Chu began to be tense. Because King Zhao of Zhou saw through the wolf ambitions of the Chu State. King Zhao of Zhou wanted to concentrate all his efforts on attacking the state of Chu.

History records that King Zhao of Zhou went south three times to conquer Jingchu. It can be seen that King Zhou Zhao has the will to destroy Chu. And every crusade is to personally lead a large army to the south, and the momentum is huge.

King Zhao of Zhou first attacked Chu in 985 BC, that is, the sixteenth year of the reign of King Zhao of Zhou. King Zhao of Zhou led the army deep into the Jingchu generation, and when crossing the Han River, he met the "big si", an ancient rhinoceros animal. But not a rhinoceros. It has black fur all over its body and only one horn on its head. In ancient times, it was regarded as a sacred beast, symbolizing auspicious things. King Zhao of Zhou's crusade went smoothly this time, but it did not form a large-scale war with the Chu army. This is also because the Chu army deliberately avoided the elite of King Zhao of Zhou, and adopted a strategy of evasion. Therefore, although King Zhao of Zhou led a large army to gallop between sweat, the Chu army did not suffer great losses.

King Zhao of Zhou's second attack on Chu was in 982 BC, which was also the nineteenth year of King Zhao's reign. King Zhao of Zhou sent the priest Gong Xinbo to crusade against the state of Chu. This time, when the army crossed the Han River, a strong wind suddenly blew, hail and heavy rain suddenly rose. The soldiers who crossed the river were terrified, the boat was in the middle of the river and out of control, and most of the elite "Western Sixth Division" of King Zhao of Zhou died in the Han River due to bad weather. This failure was blamed on the bad weather. The Chu soldiers still did not lose a single soldier, while the army of King Zhao of Zhou suffered heavy losses.

King Zhao of Zhou attacked Chu for the third time, five years later, in 977 BC. This year was also the last year of the reign of King Zhao of Zhou. This time to attack Chu, King Zhao of Zhou's entire army was resumed, and the Zhou people talked about this matter and said vaguely that "the southern tour will not return".

In fact, King Zhao of Zhou's conquest of Chu for many years has made the people of Chu extremely disgusted. King Zhao of Zhou conscripted ships in the local area and wanted to cross the Han River again to defeat the Chu army. As a result, the local shipbuilders deliberately harmed the army of King Zhao of Zhou. They designed a ship dedicated to King Zhou Zhao was glued, the ship sailed to the middle stream, the glue melted, the ship disintegrated, the royal boat that King Zhou Zhao took to the sweat, the glue ship dissolved, and King Zhou Zhao and his important ministers drowned in the water and collapsed. It was the Chu people who rose up to resist Zhou, and the Chu State won without a fight, and King Zhao of Zhou and his subordinates drowned. There are few numbers in the history of Zhou that describe the incident of King Zhao of Zhou: "In the last years of King Zhao, the night was clear, the five-colored light ran through Ziwei, and the king did not return from his southern tour." It can be seen that the Zhou royal family does not want to say much about the shame of King Zhou Zhao's non-return.

King Zhao of Zhou was accumulating southern expeditions, of course, not for the sake of greed for anything, but because of the rise of the Chu State, which caused Zhou Tianzi to be frightened, and he had to lead the army to personally recruit in an attempt to curb the development of the Chu State.

King Zhao of Zhou and his drowning and defeat is a major event in the history of our country. After that, the Zhou Dynasty went from prosperity to decline, and the Chu State became increasingly powerful, gradually embarking on the road of competing with the Zhou royal family.