After the death of King Mu of Zhou, his son, Ji Bi (yī) Hu, succeeded to the throne. This was King Gong of Zhou. During the reign of King Gong of Zhou, the Zhou Dynasty began to decline. Some people said that it was because King Mu of Zhou loved to travel and spent all his money. This statement was not accurate. King Mu of Zhou brought seven teams of warriors on a tour. Wherever they went, regardless of whether they admired or feared him, they would treat him warmly. King Mu of Zhou did not spend much of his own money. Even if King Mu of Zhou used up all his money, don't forget that King Gong of Zhou had been in power for twenty-three years. He could have created a lot of wealth. The real reason was that Zhou Gongwang was cowardly and had done a few key things wrong.
More than 1000 years ago, when King Xia Jie's Xia Dynasty was destroyed by Shang Tang, King Xia Jie's son, Chun Wei, led a portion of the Xia people to the desert in the north and integrated with the local people. They lived as nomads and developed westward and southward, forming a semi-encirclement of the Zhou Dynasty. They eyed the prosperous Central Plains of the Zhou Dynasty covetously and constantly tried to conquer the Central Plains of the Zhou Dynasty. However, they were all repelled by the powerful Zhou army.
The vassal states within the Zhou Dynasty were also eyeing the Zhou Dynasty's royal power covetously. They wanted to replace it at any moment, but they could not defeat the powerful Zhou Dynasty and did not dare to act rashly.
Under the watchful eyes of King Gong of Zhou, the first mistake he made was to reduce the number of troops directly under the Zhou royal family, automatically helping the nomadic tribes outside and the vassal states inside to reduce the barriers to attack the Zhou Dynasty. The second mistake was to award the land of the Zhou royal family to the vassal states. He abolished the national ownership of the land and privatized the land, allowing it to be sold freely. His original intention was to use the land to please the vassal states, but the result was that it greatly weakened the strength of the Zhou royal family and strengthened the strength of the vassal states. In a world where strength spoke, the Zhou royal family had lost their strength. Not only could they not please the vassal states, but they had also placed themselves in a dangerous situation.
However, Prince Gong of Zhou did not know that he was in a dangerous situation and was still walking further and further on the wrong path.
In the spring of 923 B.C., King Gong of Zhou went to Mi Kingdom (in the area of Lingtai County, Gansu Province) to play. The king of Mi Kingdom, Duke Mi Kang, warmly welcomed him and accompanied him to the edge of Jingshui River. At this time, three beautiful women defected to Duke Mi Kang. "Where are they from?" asked Prince Gong of Zhou.”Duke Mi Kang said,"They are locals. If Your Majesty likes them, I will send them to your palace."”"Sure," Prince Gong of Zhou happily returned to the palace and waited for Duke Mi Kang to send the three beauties.
According to Sima Qian's Records of the Historian, Duke Mi Kang went home and told his mother about this. His mother, Kui, said,""You must offer them to the king. If there were three wild beasts, they would be called a group. If there were three people, they would be called a crowd. If there were three beautiful women, they would be called a charm. When a king hunts, he does not dare to hunt herds of beasts. When the feudal lords went out, they had to be humble and polite to everyone. The king married concubines and not his three sisters. The three women were all very beautiful. So many beauties have come to you, what kind of virtue do you have to bear it? Even a king can't afford it, let alone a small figure like you? The little man who has good things must perish in the end.”However, Duke Mi Kang was captivated by the three beauties and kept them as his concubines.
King Gong of Zhou waited for a year, but did not see Duke Mi Kang send the three beauties over. He sent someone to inquire and found out that Duke Mi Kang had taken the three beauties as concubines. King Gong of Zhou flew into a rage and wanted to send troops to destroy the secret kingdom. The minister quickly dissuaded him."Your Majesty, you can't. The monarch of the secret kingdom is from the same family as Your Majesty.”
It turned out that after King Wen of Zhou destroyed the Mixu Kingdom, he sealed his people surnamed Ji here and asked them to protect the Zhou Dynasty. For so many years, the Mi Kingdom had always been a barrier for the Zhou royal family to maintain their ruling position.
However, King Gong of Zhou did not listen and still led his troops to destroy the secret country and kill Duke Mi Kang.
They were born from the same root and were originally a family. Just because Duke Mi Kang did not offer the three beautiful women who had sought refuge with him to Prince Zhou Gong, he was killed by Prince Zhou Gong. This made many dukes feel a chill in their hearts. King Gong of Zhou's actions set a bad example for the vassal states, giving them an excuse to continue annexing each other.
King Gong of Zhou ascended the throne at the age of thirty-seven. He reigned for twenty-three years and died 900 years ago at the age of fifty-nine. After his death, he was buried in the tomb of King Gong of the Western Zhou Dynasty (now Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province). King Gong of Zhou had dug up the Zhou Dynasty's weakness and laid the root of the Zhou Dynasty's continued decline.
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