"Ahh

Just when Meng Qi and Meng recommended the two old men to discuss the candidates, in the Mengshi township, under the shade of a big tree, three Mengshi children around ten years old were surrounding an old man in the clan, listening to the latter tell about the past of the Song Kingdom.

During this period, a teenager sneezed without warning, and his somewhat dazed expression amused the brothers of the same clan next to him.

This old man's name was "Meng 羑 (yǒu)", and he was one of the few old men in the Meng clan who participated in the three wars waged by the Song monarch Ziyan (Dai Yan) and was lucky enough to survive.

"Ah Zhong, aren't you cold?" Meng Yi asked kindly.

The Ah Zhong in his mouth is the person recommended by the elder to the suzerain Meng Qi, Meng Zhong (zhòng).

Meng Zhong is an ordinary member of the Meng clan, not a descendant, but the middle grandson of "Meng Shu" and the second son of "Meng Qu (qú)".

Looking closely at this son, he is about ten years old, with a thin figure, wearing a gray linen coat, the hem is not above the knees, and he is wearing a pair of straw sandals on his feet.

And the most special thing is his eyes, light and gentle, different from those frivolous or ignorant peers in the clan, often showing a bit of thinking, as if he had all kinds of things on his mind at a young age.

Hearing the elder's inquiry, the young man named Meng Zhong stretched out his hand and rubbed his nose, and said with some confusion: "I don't know what's going on, I feel a little itchy in my nose......"

Before the words fell, there was a little friend who was laughing next to him, this young man was about the same age as Meng Zhong, but he was stronger than Meng Zhong, he pointed at Meng Zhong and smiled at Meng Yi: "Isn't it because of the relationship that fell into the river yesterday?" ”

Since the other party was a small partner with whom he had a very good relationship, Meng Zhong rolled his eyes speechlessly, but Meng Yi raised the crutches on the side and knocked on the young man's head lightly, and scolded with a smile: "Heartless boy, if it weren't for you falling into the river, Ah Zhong would have been implicated by you?" Are you still laughing? ”

The stout boy shrunk his neck and said, "I can swim, besides, although he tried to pull me up, it wasn't my fault that his slippery feet were ......"

"You still dare to talk back?" Meng Yan glared and reprimanded, "Do you want the old man to go back and tell your father to clean you up?" ”

As soon as he heard this, the sturdy young man suddenly became honest, but he still muttered complaints such as "I am your own grandson".

He didn't dare to offend the old man in front of him, because this old man was his grandfather.

Seeing him cowering so intimidatingly, Meng Zhong reached out and patted him on the back, and the two looked at each other, and couldn't help laughing, probably remembering the funny scene between the two yesterday.

This sturdy boy is called "Menghu", the eldest grandson of Meng Jin, and one of the two best friends of Meng Zhong on weekdays.

Oh, the boy named Meng Sui is sitting on the ground at this moment, sitting on the right side of Meng Zhong and laughing at Meng Hu's peers who were hit on the head with a cane by his grandfather Meng Jin.

Looking at Meng Zhong in front of him, who was young but could show a bit of seriousness, Meng Yi sighed secretly.

It is no wonder that Meng Yi inadvertently favored Meng Zhong, because during the wars of the Song Dynasty, Meng Yi served as the "family Sima" who commanded the soldiers of the Meng clan, and Meng Zhong's grandfather "Meng Shu" and father "Meng Qu (qú)" were both subordinates of Meng Jin, and both father and son held the position of "chariot officer", that is, a low-level military attache who stood on a chariot and commanded operations in front of the battlefield, and was responsible for commanding the "soldiers of the first vehicle". [PS: One Ride Soldier, that is, the infantry establishment with one chariot as the core, including three armor soldiers standing on the chariot, and seventy-two ordinary infantry. It was commanded by one of the sergeants, the charioteers. 】

But unfortunately, Meng Shu was killed in the war between Song and Qi, and Meng Qu was killed in the war between Song and Wei.

"Alright, alright."

After the three little ones joked, Meng Yan interrupted them and said kindly and majestically: "As a native of the Song Kingdom, you should be familiar with the past of the Song Kingdom, otherwise, if someone asks in the future, although you are from the Song Kingdom, you don't know the past of the Song Kingdom, which will undoubtedly be laughed at by others." ”

As he spoke, Meng Yan began to tell the history of his Song Kingdom.

Regarding the history of the Song Kingdom, Meng Hu did not dare to be interested in it at all, so he urged Meng Zhong and Meng Sui to play with him in the fields, but Meng Zhong and Meng Sui were quite interested in this history.

Especially Meng Zhong.

After all, in this era when there is no way to entertain, listening to the elders of the clan talk about the history of the Song Kingdom and the interesting things that happened in various parts of the world is one of the few ways for Meng Zhong to relieve his boredom.

In Meng Jin's account, although the Song State was a vassal state canonized by the Zhou royal family, as one of the "Three Ke", it was a guest with Zhou and was not a vassal vassal state of the Zhou royal family.

The so-called "three ke" is the number of courtesies practiced by the Zhou royal family to show respect for the descendants of the first three dynasties, and the first three dynasties of the Zhou dynasty are the Shang Dynasty, the Xia Dynasty and the Yu Dynasty - the Yu Dynasty is the "Yellow Emperor Dynasty" and the "Yu Shun Dynasty".

The Zhou royal family canonized the elder brother of King Yin Shang "Wei Ziqi" to Shangqiu, who established the "Song State"; He also enabled the descendants of the Xia Dynasty to establish the "杞 (qǐ) Kingdom"; He also allowed the descendants of the Yu Dynasty to establish the "Chen State". [PS: Qi Guo, that is, the Qi people who are "worried about the sky", and the royal family of Chen Guo, "Chen", that is, the "Tian family" of "Tian Dai Qi", Chen Tongtian in ancient times. 】

Therefore, the so-called "Sanke" refers to the three vassal states of Song, Qi, and Chen, which are guests of Zhou, and their titles are all dukes.

Speaking of the history of the Song Kingdom, when it comes to the history of the Song Kingdom, it is impossible not to mention such a few, namely Song Daigong, Song Xianggong, Song Jinggong, Song Jue Chengjun, and the current monarch of the Song State "Dai Yan (i.e., King Song Kang)".

Let's talk about Song Daigong first, Dai Gong is also a son surnamed Song, named Bai, is a Taoist monarch, and was deeply loved by the people during his reign, so after his death, King Zhou Ping gave him the nickname "Dai", and Song Guonai is the duke of the Zhou royal family, so he is called Song Daigong.

Later, Song Daigong's son-in-law Song Wugong succeeded to the throne, and the latter's second son, "Gongzi Yu", took his grandfather's nickname "Dai" as his clan, so the branch of "Zi surnamed Dai" appeared.

Later, the Song Dynasty who usurped the throne of the "Zi surname Song" "Dai Xi", and the contemporary Song monarch "Dai Yan" are the royal nobles of the "Zi surname Dai" branch.

Since Song Daigong, to the reign of Song Xianggong, the strength of the Song State has been quite strong, and it can be regarded as a medium-sized country that is less than the upper and more than the lower, and during the period, Song Xianggong helped the Qi State to quell the civil strife of the Qi State - that is, the civil strife between the sons of the Duke of Qi Huan - which made Song Xianggong's ambition swell, trying to dominate the Central Plains, which was hostile to the Chu State and attacked by the Chu State for many years.

The most famous of these periods is the "Battle of Hongshui".

When mentioning the "Battle of Hongshui", Meng Yi sighed, because this war was actually very important, if Song Xianggong could defeat Chu at that time, maybe Song would be able to make Song become a real power, or even a real overlord of the Central Plains.

According to the family history of the Meng clan, at that time, Song Xianggong led the combined army of Weiguo, Xu, Teng and other small countries to confront the army of Chu on the other side of Hongshui, and the arrogant Chu army at that time tried to cross the Hongshui under the nose of the Song coalition army, it stands to reason that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Song coalition army to defeat the Chu army, even if the soldiers of the Chu State are braver than the soldiers of the Song State coalition army, but they are attacked during the crossing of the river, they will still be defeated, in Sun Tzu's Art of War this is called "half-crossing and attacking", which is a very favorable situation.

However, Song Xianggong, who was overly benevolent and righteous, actually let the Chu army line up after crossing the Hongshui, and then attack the Chu army, missing the heaven-sent opportunity to defeat the Chu army in vain.

Sure enough, Song Xianggong's army was defeated in this battle, and the Song State lost its position and lost the opportunity to rise.

Because of this, not only did the people of the Song State at that time curse Song Xianggong, but even in contemporary times, the people still 'hated' Song Xianggong because of this, thinking that Song Guo had lost the opportunity to be promoted to a strong country, and they all blamed Song Xianggong's stupidity.

"Is it a pity?" Meng Yan asked suddenly.

Meng Zhong nodded slightly.

He also felt that if Song Xianggong could grasp the opportunity at that time, the Song State would not have no chance to defeat the Chu State and thwart the Chu State's ambition to expand northward.

"Although it is a pity, the state of Chu has not been able to become the overlord of the Central Plains after all."

Brushing his beard, Meng Yi sneered lightly in a tone that seemed to vent his depression: "At that time, it was the Jin Kingdom that became the overlord. ”

Seeing that Meng Yi was full of resentment when he mentioned the state of Chu, Meng Zhong was not incomprehensible.

The reason is very simple, because in the hundred-year-long "Jin and Chu hegemony", the phalanx of Chu has always expanded to the north, and the Song State happens to be in the north of the Chu State, that is, if the Chu State wants to dominate the Central Plains, it will inevitably attack the Song State.

Because of this reason, the Song State was attacked by the Chu State for a long time, and even, because the Song State was rich, countries such as Wei, Qi, and Korea all coveted the Song State, so that the Song State was sandwiched among these powerful countries and struggled to survive.

During the reign of Song Jinggong, although the Jin State, which was the overlord of the Central Plains at that time, had gradually weakened, and the monarch was gradually hollowed out by the Qing clan forces in the country, the Song State still pursued the national policy of "maintaining the hegemony of the Jin State", and took the opportunity to annex the Cao State that rebelled against the Jin and attacked the Song State, so that the territory of the Song State was expanded, as if there was a Zhongxing phase again.

However, unexpectedly, after that, the Song Kingdom fell into the situation of royal civil strife again, and waited for Song Pigong to succeed to the throne, because of this monarch's absurdity, he was robbed of the throne by the powerful ministers.

Zihan, also known as Dai Quecheng, that is, "Song Quecheng Jun" - at that time, Song Quecheng Jun submitted to the Qi State and claimed to be a vassal, so he was not called "Gong" but "Jun".

After facilitating the "Qi and Song Alliance", the Song State ushered in the opportunity of Zhongxing, although the Song Dynasty Chengjun was the emperor to kill the monarch, but it cannot be denied that he was also a rather virtuous monarch, and during his governance of the Song State, the Song State got the opportunity to develop.

However, in the twenty-seventh year of Song Que's reign, his brother Dai Yan rebelled, and Song Kui Chengjun was defeated and fled to Qi.

At this point, Dai Yan became the monarch of the Song Kingdom, that is, the current monarch of the Song Kingdom, because he called himself the king in the eleventh year of becoming the monarch, so he was called "Song Wang Yan".

"Song Wangyan" was born out of thin air, defeating the three kingdoms of Qi, Chu, and Wei successively with a strong hand, which greatly increased the prestige of the Song State among the countries, which gave the Song State a moment of respite.

For the Song Dynasty, the world has different opinions, some believe that the former is the lord of the Song Dynasty, and some scold him as the "reincarnation of the Song Dynasty" - the king of the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty, both of which are mediocre and absurd and unreasonable.

"So, is King Song a good guy or a bad guy?"

Hearing the end, Meng Hu asked abruptly.

Meng Yan smiled dumbly, and after shaking his head, he suddenly asked the three of them, "Then what do you three think?" ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong fell into deep thought.