However, it is said that the Zhou family is immoral, and the princes of the world have supported their own troops, among them, the Duke of Qi Huan reused Guan Zhong, which quickly established the hegemony of Qi and opened the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the forty-first year of Huan Gong, Guan Zhong was seriously ill, and Huan Gong asked who could replace him, and cited Yi Ya, Kai Fang, and Ji Diao, but Guan Zhong refuted them one by one, and told Huan Gong not to get close to the three of them. It's a pity that after Guan Zhong's death, Duke Huan didn't listen to Guan Zhong's words and reused the three of them, making the three of them dictatorial, and ruining the good situation of Qi State. Soon after, Duke Huan fell seriously ill, and the five sons (Gongzi Wuqi, Gongzi Zhao, Gongzi Pan, Gongzi Yuan, and Gongzi Shang) each led their henchmen to compete for the throne.

On the seventh day of October in winter, Huan Gong died of illness. The five princes attacked each other, and the country of Qi was in chaos. After Duke Huan's body remained on the bed for sixty-seven days, Xinli Qijun collected Duke Huan without any loss. But at this time, the country of Qi is not as good as before, and it can no longer command the world.

However, it is said that the northern Jin Kingdom, the territory is vast, and it is located in the Central Plains, and the national strength is extremely strong, but it is a pity that the monarch is mediocre and has not been able to do anything, and when the Duke is dedicated, the Jin Kingdom is even more in decline. The dedication of the public favor and love Ji caused the national politics to be in chaos, and many people in the country escaped, even his son Chong'er also went into exile.

However, this heavy ear has always been benevolent and very loved by the people, and finally with the help of Qin Mugong, he inherited the throne of Jin State for Duke Wen of Jin. After Duke Wen succeeded to the throne, he reformed politics and developed the economy. The whole army is armed and wins the trust of the people. Stable royal family, friendly to the Qin State, and high prestige among the princes. Later, the state of Chu attacked the state of Song, and the Chu army surrounded Shangqiu, the capital of the state of Song. At the beginning of the following year, Jin Wengong led his troops to rescue Song. defeated the Chu army in the Battle of Chengpu and became the second overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Besides, Qin Mugong, who helped Duke Wen become the overlord, also had great ambitions, but Qin was located in the west and had no talents to assist, so Qin Mugong was troubled by this. For this reason, Qin Mugong specially ordered all the ministers to be virtuous, but unfortunately the people who got it were not satisfactory. Until someone recommended Mu Ji's maiden Baili Xi to Mu Gong, saying that he was a rare talent, and people who knew Baili Xi's talent also echoed him.

Seeing so many people recommending it, Mu Gong couldn't help but have some expectations in his heart, and hurriedly ordered someone to invite him, but learned that Baili Xi had fled to Chu State. Qin Mugong wanted to redeem Baili Xi with a lot of money, but he was afraid that the Chu people would not agree. So he sent a messenger to Chu and ransomed it with five ram skins. The Chu people didn't know Baili Xi's talent, and they thought that Baili Xi had offended Mu Gong, so they agreed. When Baili Xi, who was more than seventy years old, was escorted back to Qin, Qin Mugong personally opened the shackles for him and made him the minister of state. Baili Xi recommended his friend uncle again, and Mu Gong readily agreed, and invited his uncle to Qin State and let him be the doctor.

In this way, the Qin State gradually became stronger under the governance of Baili Xi.

It is said that the Qin State has helped the Jin State many times, but the Jin State has never reciprocated, and the Qin State is indignant. In the winter of the thirty-second year of Qin Mugong, Jin Wen Gong was plagued, and when Mu Gong saw this, he sent Meng Mingshi, the son of Baili Xi, and the three generals of Xi Qishu and Bai Bingbing, the son of his uncle, to lead troops to attack Jin, but in the end, they were defeated in Kunshan, and all three generals were captured. Two years later, Qin Mugong sent Meng Mingshi and others to lead his troops to the east, and fought with the Jin army at Pengya, the Qin army was defeated again, and Qin's eastward march was firmly choked by the Jin, so he had to turn to the west.

In the 36th year of Mu Gong, Qin Mu Gong personally led a large army to crusade against the Jin State, and after crossing the Yellow River, he burned all the ferries to show his determination to defeat the enemy. After several major battles, the Qin army captured the king's official and suburb, the Jin army did not dare to fight, and the Qin army crossed the Yellow River from Maojin. Go to the south bank, set up a mark for the soldiers who died in the battle, and then return to China. In the thirty-seventh year, the Qin army set out to conquer Xirong, and with lightning speed, it successively subdued more than 20 small Rongdi countries and dominated Xirong.

Since then, Qin Mugong has become the third hegemon of the Spring and Autumn Period.

In addition, the battle of Chengpu in the state of Chu was not long after worshipping the Jin state, and the son Shangchen succeeded him as the king of Chu Mu. Unfortunately, there are unforeseen circumstances, and King Chu Mu died of a violent illness soon after his reign, and then ascended the throne by his son brigade, which is the famous King of Chu Zhuang.

After King Chuzhuang ascended the throne, he was hunting and drinking, ignoring political affairs, and ordered someone to hang up a big sign at the gate of the palace, which read, "Those who admonish will not be forgiven." The ministers all sighed secretly. But everyone didn't expect that King Chuzhuang did it on purpose this time, in order to divide the loyal annihilation of the ministers in the Qing Dynasty.

After three years, King Chuzhuang finally recognized Zhong Zhen, and then began to rectify internal affairs, employing talented people to promote Wu Ju and Su Cong to key positions. At that time, Ling Yin and Dou Yuejiao of the Chu State were ambitious and wanted to usurp the throne. The king of Chuzhuang appointed three ministers to share Ling Yin's work, weakening his power and preventing Dou Yuejiao from rebelling.

After the state of Chu was stabilized, the king of Chu Zhuang began to use troops abroad, first destroying the state of Yong, and then defeating the state of Song, even Lu Hun's Rong tribe was also defeated by the Chu army. After several battles, the strength of the state of Chu suddenly increased dramatically. Seeing this situation, the king of Chuzhuang couldn't help but imagine that Qi Huan, Jin Wen, and Qin Mu were recognized by the princes of the Central Plains, so the king of Chuzhuang and the border of the Great Zhou Chen soldiers hundreds of thousands, parade and demonstrate, frightened the king of Zhou and hurriedly sent ministers to comfort him.

But even so, the princes of the Central Plains still didn't care much about the Chu State, after all, the Battle of Chengpu was vivid, and everyone still looked at the strength of the Chu State. When King Chu Zhuang learned of this, he was helpless, and after several years of fighting, the national strength was very consumed, so he had to develop the livelihood of Chu with peace of mind.

After the king of Chu Zhuang gave up the battle, he invited a famous hermit of Chu State, Sun Shu Ao, to take him as Lingyin. After Sun Shuao succeeded Ling Yin, he ordered people to reclaim wasteland, dig rivers, and reward production. In order to avoid floods and droughts, he also organized the people of Chu to dredge the rivers to irrigate millions of acres of crops and produce a lot of more grain every year. In the past few years, the national strength of the Chu State has become stronger, and it has successively pacified two civil strife in Zheng State and Chen Guodi, and finally clashed with the Jin State, the overlord of the Central Plains.

King Chuzhuang took advantage of Chen's civil strife and sent troops to subdue Chen. The following year, King Chuzhuang personally led a large army to attack Zheng. But Chen and Zheng were both vassal states of the Jin State, and the Chu State sent troops to the Chen and Zheng Kingdoms to challenge the Jin State and did not recognize the hegemony of the Jin State. As a result, the Jin State did not think much about it, and directly sent a large army to fight the Chu army.

The two armies fought in Qiucheng on the bank of the Yellow River, in this great battle, the Jin people and horses, almost all of them were wiped out between the first battle, after this battle, the Chu State finally washed away the humiliation of Chengpu, and gradually began to be recognized by the princes of the Central Plains. After that, the king of Chuzhuang successively passed on the return of Lu, Song, Zheng, Chen and other countries. Since then, King Chuzhuang has become another overlord after Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, and Duke Mu of Qin.

Later, two major wars broke out between the Jin and Chu countries, and although both ended in Jin victories, Chu still maintained a close match with Jin in the Central Plains. The continuous wars have brought a huge burden to the people of the two countries, and the surrounding small countries are also deeply hated by them. So initiated by Song, two alliances were held, and since then there have been few major wars between the two sides.

When the Central Plains princes' struggle for hegemony was coming to an end, Wu and Yue, which were located in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, also began to develop. Wu Wang reused Sun Wu, Wu Zixu and others, and the state of Wu developed rapidly, especially the strength of the army was extremely strong. Later, the king of Wu took Wu Zixu as the general and commanded the army to attack Chu. The Wu army attacked Chu Duying, and Wu Zixu avenged his father and brother, dug up the tomb of King Chuping, and whipped 300 corpses. As a last resort, the king of Chu had to go into exile, and then he was able to enrich the country with the help of Qin.

After the great victory of the state of Wu over the state of Chu, the king of Wu was very satisfied, so he did not listen to Wu Zixu's words, and marched south to crusade against the Yue state. Goujian, the king of Yue, led his troops to meet the battle, defeated the state of Wu, and even the king of Wu was seriously injured, and when he was dying, the king of Wu instructed his son to avenge him, otherwise he would not be a son of man. The husband remembered his father's words, worshiped Wu Zixu as his teacher, and ordered him to step up military training at night and prepare to attack the Yue Kingdom.

Two years later, Fucha led his troops to defeat Gou Jian, who was surrounded and had no way out, ready to commit suicide. At this time, the adviser Wen Chong hurriedly persuaded him, and then offered a plan to send someone to bribe the minister of Wu State, Bo Xi, in the hope of sparing his life. Gou Jian was at a loss at this time, listened to the discussion of the language, and hurriedly agreed. Then he sent Wen Chong to bribe Bo Xi with the beautiful Xi Shi and treasures, and Bo Xi was greedy for money, and when he saw Wen Chong offering treasures, he promised to take Xi Shi and Wen Chong to see King Wu.

Wen Chong saw King Wu and offered Xi Shi, and Bo Xifu also helped Wen Chong speak. At this time, Wu Zixu stood up and objected loudly, but unfortunately at this time, the husband thought that Yue Guo was no longer in trouble, and he fell in love with the beauty of Xi Shi, so he did not listen to Wu Zixu's advice, agreed to surrender to Yue Guodi, and withdrew the army to Wu State. After Wu withdrew his troops, Gou Jian took his wife and doctor Fan Li to serve King Wu in Wu State, herding cattle and sheep, and finally won the favor and trust of King Wu. Three years later, they were released and returned home.

After Gou Jian returned to China, he was determined to be angry and ready to take revenge. But he was afraid that he would be greedy for pleasure and lose his ambition for revenge, so he slept on a straw pile at night with his pillow on his soldiers, and hung a bitter gall in the house, and every morning after getting up, he would taste the bitter gall, so as to remind himself not to forget the national shame. Moreover, the soldiers outside the gate were ordered to ask every once in a while: "Has the king ever forgotten the humiliation of three years?"

So constantly encouraged, Gou Jian is even more energetic, he ordered the culture to manage the country's political affairs, Fan Li to manage the military, and he personally went to the field to work with the farmer, even his wife is also spinning and weaving. After ten years of hard work, the country finally had enough food and turned weak into strong.

Besides, since Wu Wangfucha defeated the Yue Kingdom, he thought that he had no worries, and since then he has been obsessed with the beauty of Xi Shi and has lived a life of arrogance and luxury. He was also arrogant, and regardless of the hardships of the people, he often sent troops to ambush other countries. He also listened to Bo Xi's bad words and killed his loyal minister Wu Zixu. Before he died, Wu Zixu said, "You must plant a catalpa tree on my grave, so that it can grow up and make a coffin." Gouge out my eyeballs and hang them on the east gate tower of the capital of Wu to watch how Yue Kou entered the capital and destroyed Wu Guo. ”

At this time, the state of Wu seemed to be strong, but in fact it was already going downhill. A few years later, Fucha personally led the army to the north to compete with the Jin State for the lord of the princes, and the king of Yue, Goujian, took advantage of the elite soldiers of Wu State to attack suddenly, defeated the Wu soldiers in one fell swoop, and killed the prince's friend. When the husband heard the news, he hurriedly returned home with his troops and sent someone to ask Gou Jian for peace. Gou Jian estimated that he would not be able to destroy Wu at once, so he agreed. Two years later, Gou Jian personally led his troops to attack Wu for the second time. At this time, Wu Guo was already at the end of the crossbow, and he couldn't resist the Yue [***] team at all, and he was defeated repeatedly. In the end, Fucha sent someone to Gou Jian to ask for peace, and Fan Li insisted on destroying the state of Wu. Seeing that the peace could not be sued, the husband remembered Wu Zixu's advice, and was very ashamed, so he drew his sword and killed himself. Gou Jian went north to join Qi Jin and Yu Xu, becoming the last overlord.

However, it is said that when Duke Wen of Jin returned to the Jin Dynasty and ascended the throne, many people who had been exiled with him also returned to China, and after that, these people gradually became nobles in the Jin State, and the state politics of the Jin State also fell into the hands of these nobles (Zhi, Zhao, Han, Wei, Fan, Zhongshan). The nobles also fell into each other's favor, and the nobles of the Jin Kingdom were only left with the four families of Zhi, Zhao, Han, and Wei. The Zhi clan sent troops to attack the Zhao clan and coerced the Wei and Han clans to send troops. The war lasted for two years, and the Zhao clan lobbied the Wei and Han families to defect, destroy the Zhi clan, carve up the Zhi land, and control the state politics of the Jin state.

A few years later, the three families of Han, Zhao and Wei were divided into Jin, and the Jin Duke only had two places, Jiang and Quwo. The emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty was unable to uphold justice, so he could only crown the three families as marquis.

Since then, the Spring and Autumn Period has ended and the Warring States Period has begun.

(To be continued)