Chapter 59 Chong'er ascends the throne and the iron curtain falls (Part 2)
In the Jin palace, Yan Qing ran in with excitement on his face.
He held up the bamboo slips high in his hand and said, "Sir, the State of Luo has persuaded your elder brother, Prince Chong'er, to recognize your throne and serve you as king."
"What?"
Everyone exclaimed in surprise. They couldn't help but be excited. Prince Chong'er was different. He was the beneficiary of the previous will.
There are two great powers, Qi and Luo, behind them!
If they had not deceived the Duke of Jin, Prince Chong'er would have been the one who should have ascended the throne of Jin.
Now that Prince Chong'er has voluntarily given up the throne and personally come forward to acknowledge Prince Wuzhi's last will and testament, the credibility of this is almost 100%.
Prince Lin and Prince Wu raised an army again in an attempt to kill the king!
No one wants to be recorded in history books as having committed regicide, and changing history is even more ridiculous.
All historians in the world come from the Luo family, and all historical records belong to the Luo State.
The Luo State took history books very seriously and required historians from all countries to write truthfully. Even if some things were difficult to say and could be more obscure, they could not talk nonsense.
The last person who was recorded as regicide and then directly killed the historian, his body had been crushed into mud by the Luo State's chariots.
Luo's insistence on this point was almost more stringent than the patriarchal system. It was the first time in 500 years that the various states saw the king of Luo so angry that he rushed into another country without hesitation and killed the ruling ministers, simply because he killed a historian who recorded truthfully.
There was jubilation in Yicheng, but Gongzi Wu was stunned, "Wuzhi took away Chong'er's throne, but Chong'er acknowledged the will in Wuzhi's hand?
The dove occupied the magpie's nest, so the magpie took the initiative to give the nest to the dove?
Could it be that I have offended Chong'er at some point, so he doesn't want me to ascend the throne?"
This was the only explanation Gongzi Wu could find, otherwise he really had no idea why Gongzi Chong'er acted like this.
Because whether Prince Wuzhi or Prince Wu is the king, it makes no difference to Prince Chong'er.
Gongzi Wu would never have imagined that, mainly because he was too incompetent, he had not been able to seize the throne from his brother in two years. As a result, the situation has now changed to the point where Jin State has to end the chaos within a short period of time.
Prince Chong'er's main support was Qi and Luo. Now Qi and Luo asked him to support Prince Wuzhi. Although he was unwilling, he had no choice and could not help himself.
The most embarrassed person was probably Gongzi Lin. He had just announced that he would join Gongzi Wu in attacking the nobles in Yicheng, but then he heard such news.
The timing was cleverly chosen, a bit like when King Su followed the Three Supervisors in rebellion before his eastern expedition. If he had failed in the end, he would have become a laughing stock in history books.
But the current situation is not something he can control. The Song army has already arrived. Can he just retreat like this?
Wouldn't Song become a joke then? It interfered with the throne of Jin in order to gain the friendship of Jin, but now it failed to push the prince it wanted to promote, and instead offended the future Duke of Jin.
When Duke Song heard the news, his face turned green. What does it mean to lose the rice while trying to steal a chicken? This is exactly what he is like now.
Gongzi Wu and Gongzi Lin were in a dilemma here, but there was another problem in Yicheng. That was that the envoy from Qi mentioned Gongzi Yin very obscurely.
"Sir, it seems that Qi and Luo want us to kill Prince Yin."
There was some hesitation in Zhao Qing's words. Killing a young master is not like killing a cat or a dog. Many young masters would not be killed even if they made mistakes. At most they would be exiled.
"Why would Luo State make such a request?" Yan Gui asked curiously.
She didn't care about Gongzi Yin's life, but she didn't want her son to be charged with fratricide. Moreover, such a request was not Luo Guo's style. She suspected that Zhao Qing wanted to take personal revenge.
“Madam, Luo Guo did not say that he wanted to kill Master Yin.
The envoys from Luo State said that they were worried that Prince Yin would follow the example of Prince Lin and lead Qin's army into Jin State, so they hoped to put Prince Yin under house arrest and prevent him from contacting Qin State.
But I think this is just a lie. It is impossible to prevent Gongzi Yin from contacting Qin by placing him under house arrest. I am afraid that Luo State wants us to kill Gongzi Yin."
In fact, Luo State certainly hopes to kill Prince Yin directly, but this is a prince who has done nothing wrong and cannot be killed at will, so Luo Yan hopes that Jin State can choose a good fiefdom for Prince Yin and prevent him from contacting Qin State.
These ministers were all shrewd people and they could tell what Luo Yan really meant from his words.
Zhao Qing felt that his idea was correct, and said again: "Your Majesty, although this is my guess, Gongzi Yin's mother's family is a noblewoman from Qin. Now Qin is dominating the Western Rong and has also joined forces with Chu.
Because the Qiaohan Pass is in the hands of our Jin State, it is the checkpoint for the Qin State to go east. If the prince borrows Qin's troops to go east, he may cede the Qiaohan Pass to Qin.
Luo State has always been very concerned about the safety of the Qiao-Han Passage, so they hope that we will consider it carefully."
After careful consideration, the safest approach is to kill him directly, so that the Qin State will not be able to intervene at all.
When Yan Gui heard this, she was surprised that Qin was so powerful that it was eyeing the Qiao-Han Pass. Even she knew the importance of this passage, and Qin was also allied with Chu.
She was not a political strongwoman, but the reputation of the State of Chu in the Central Plains was too bad, especially after the Battle of Yanling. Basically everyone would shake their heads when they saw her.
So he immediately said: "The State of Chu has always been rude to the royal family and the princes of the Central Plains. It is a barbaric country.
The State of Qin actually formed an alliance with the State of Chu. It seems that it is also a rude country that disobeys the emperor.
Although I am a woman, I also know to respect the King of Zhou. Since you were born in such a country, you must be a man with wolves and tigers in your heart.
But he was the king's son after all. The king said many times during his lifetime that he was worried that he would not be able to see Prince Yin after his death, and that he would definitely be lonely.
Since the king likes Prince Yin so much, let Prince Yin go to accompany him.
This will not only reflect Gong Ziyin's filial piety, but also make the king feel warm. I have known the king for many years, and this is the last thing I can do for the king."
When she said these cold words, there was actually a warm smile on her beautiful face, as if she did not intend to kill the son of the Marquis of Jin, but really believed that she was considering the Marquis of Jin.
Although they were secretly alert in their hearts, since Yan Gui took the initiative to take the blame for this matter, these ministers were naturally willing to do so.
So they all bowed and said, "Madam, you are truly a wise and virtuous woman.
The king must have known your sincerity, which is why he appointed Prince Wuzhi to inherit the throne of Jin.
The young master will surely be very grateful to you for being able to fulfill his filial duty to his father because of you."
Prince Wuzhi watched helplessly as his brother was killed by his mother and the ministers of Jin State in just a few words, which made him feel a little frightened.
He was a prince of the State of Jin, a member of the Ji clan, with noble bloodline, far superior to these people.
As a result, life and death were decided in just a few words.
Gongzi Wuzhi was not very old and was very cowardly by nature. After experiencing this incident, he was actually frightened and often woke up in fear in his dreams for several days.
The reason why Yan Gui and the ministers decided to kill Prince Yin so quickly was that among the five princes of Jin, without counting external aid, Prince Yin's power in Jin was the smallest and he could be easily killed.
After Prince Lin brought in the Song army, Prince Yin was indeed considering whether to bring in the Qin army into the Jin state.
He didn't expect that someone from Yicheng had come to kill him. Of course, he would not sit and wait for death. He led his retainers to resist, but was defeated.
However, he was not captured. He slipped out through the tunnel and then ran all the way towards the Qin State.
However, Luo State has always been prepared for both situations. When it saw that Yicheng did not choose to put Gongzi Yin under house arrest, but killed him directly.
They informed the general of Hangu Pass, and as a result, Prince Yin was blocked by assassins from Jin State at the foot of Hangu Pass.
"I am a prince of Jin, and I was executed without any fault. Is this what a wise monarch should do?
Isn't it that Master Wuzhi is not worried about being branded as a brother-killer?"
Gongzi Yin desperately and loudly vented his fear, but the assassins who were sent there naturally didn't care about Gongzi Yin's roar, and shot him to death under the wall of Hangu Pass with arrows.
This was the first of the Five Princes to die at the hands of his own brothers. The historian of Jin State covered up this a little for the prince's ignorance.
However, historians from other countries simply wrote down the six words "Jin Hou Keyin Yuhan", using the word "克" to describe the killing between the two brothers, which can be said to be full of irony.
These killers pickled Prince Yin's head and brought it directly back to Yicheng. They wanted to show it to the king, the lady dowager, and the ministers.
When Gongzi Yin's head reached Yicheng, Zhao Qing personally brought Gongzi Yin's head into the palace and showed it to Gongzi Wuzhi and Yan Gui. He looked quite proud.
But at this moment, an accident that no one had expected happened. When Gongzi Wuzhi saw the hideous appearance of his brother's head, he was so scared that he fainted.
It turned out that the young master had been ignorant for these days and was frightened by these ministers who dared to kill his brother in the midst of chatting and laughing.
Now the cold has entered the body and the whole person has a high fever.
In this era, having a high fever is basically like walking through the gates of hell. Eight out of ten people will die instantly. At the beginning, Luo Ren was able to survive only because of the blessing of his ancestors given to him by Ji Zhao.
Now only by using Ji Zhao's item, the medicine talisman, can we ensure that Master Wuzhi can be cured directly.
However, Luo Ci and Luo Yan had no choice but to acknowledge Young Master Wuzhi's throne. Now they wish he would die, so how could they waste a divine weapon to save him?
Character determines destiny.
The timid and cowardly monarch and the strong and cruel mother both died after the intense stimulation, which is quite similar to the mother and son pair of Emperor Hui of Han and Empress Lu.
No one expected that just when the situation in Jin was about to stabilize, the Duke of Jin, who had been on the throne for only two years, would die.
Gongzi Wu and Gongzi Lin became excited again. This was truly a sudden turn of events. They had been about to admit defeat in the fight for the throne, but unexpectedly they had another chance.
So the two of them said in unison: This was not an accident, but Prince Chong'er murdered the king.
The most surprised person was Prince Chong'er. When Luo Guo informed him of the situation in Jin and said that only by recognizing Prince Wuzhi's throne could the interests of Jin be guaranteed, he endured it.
But unexpectedly, Master Wuzhi died suddenly. Who could have imagined such a happy event?
Once Prince Wuzhi died, Luo State would definitely guarantee his throne. That is why Prince Wu and Prince Lin said in unison that it was Prince Chong'er who killed Prince Wuzhi.
However, everything that happened during Prince Wuzhi's lifetime was recorded by historians. Although it is hard to guess that it was the attitude of the ministers that frightened Prince Wuzhi to death, it is clear that his death was related to the murder of Prince Yin.
Prince Wu and Prince Lin were just looking for an excuse, so they decided to join forces to kill Prince Chong'er first. As long as they could kill Prince Chong'er before the State of Luo interfered, the State of Luo would not interfere with the succession of the State of Jin.
When there was civil strife in the royal family, King Xi killed everyone in the royal family, and finally forced Marquis Luo to grit his teeth and acknowledge him as the king.
Now the two of them can naturally use the same means to force Marquis Luo to withdraw from the war of succession. At worst, they can restore relations with the State of Luo after they ascend the throne.
Fortunately, ever since the incident with the royal family that year, the State of Luo has been on guard against such incidents from happening again, and the people who stayed with Prince Chong'er quickly took him away.
Luo Yan led the armies of Luo and Qi to gather at the border of Qi. After receiving Prince Chong'er, he headed towards Jin with great momentum.
Prince Wu was defeated in one battle. Prince Chong'er hated his brother who brought shame to the royal family of Jin State. He announced that he would erase him from the royal family's genealogy and then killed him directly on the charge of causing cholera in the royal family.
The Luo army escorted Prince Chong'er into the capital of Jin with almost no obstruction, and Prince Chong'er announced that he would ascend the throne as Duke of Jin.
Prince Wu was killed and Prince Lin fled to Song State. Chong'er thought of the old story of Duke Zhuang of Song, so he sent a letter to the Duke of Song.
"Prince Wuzhi died of worry because he killed Prince Yin.
It seems that killing your brother will be punished by God.
But Master Lin had committed a serious mistake and should go to heaven to ask his father for forgiveness.
If you kill him in Song and help him meet the ancestors of Jin, he will surely be grateful to you.
The State of Jin will never forget your kindness."
The Duke of Song saw that the situation was hopeless and that Prince Chong'er's succession to the throne was an indisputable fact. Now that Jin and Luo had united again, he was worried that Luo and Jin would use this excuse to attack him. He also saw that Prince Chong'er made implicit threats in the letter, so he killed Prince Lin out of fear.
At this point, the Rebellion of the Five Princes, which had lasted for several years, finally came to an end.
…
Amidst the bloody killing, Duke Wen of Jin ascended the throne, which marked the complete formation of the alliance between Qi and Jin.
After Prince Yin was killed, Qin felt the ill will of Jin, and the alliance between Qin and Chu became closer.
From the dangerous pass of Yaohan between Qin and Jin to the place of Yanling where Qi and Chu met, an iron curtain had descended across the world.
The Ji-Jiang Alliance and the Mi-Ying Alliance, the two largest military groups in the world, fought a desperate battle for two hundred years! ——"Global History of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Volume 3"
I deleted a lot of words, and it feels more comfortable to read. Let’s end this part of the story quickly.
(End of this chapter)
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