After Wu King Fu Chai surrendered to Yue King Gou Jian, he began to actively strive for hegemony in the Central Plains. Wu King Fu Chai first attacked Chen State. The reason for attacking Chen State was that Fu Chai's father Helu asked Chen State to send troops together when he conquered Chu.

, but Chen State rejected Helu's request. Therefore, after King Wu Fucha defeated Yue State, he took the lead in attacking Chen State to avenge his ancestor's hatred.

The State of Chen was a small country between Wu and Chu. Before that, it experienced several civil strife and subjugation, and its national power declined greatly. King Chu Ling once destroyed Chen, and after King Chu Ping seized the throne of Chu King, in order to ease the relationship between the vassal states

, and then re-established Chen. After the state of Wu became strong, King Helu of Wu once summoned Duke Chen Huai to join Wu. Chen Huai Gong was forced to obey the order. Later, Chen Huai Gong was detained in the state of Wu and eventually died there. After Chen Minggong ascended the throne, Chen Huai Gong

In the 14th year of Duke Dinggong of Lu (496 BC), the state united with the Chu state to destroy the Dun state, and Wu King Fucha captured three cities of the Chen state in retaliation.

In the sixth year of Duke Ai of Lu (489 BC), the State of Wu repeatedly attacked the State of Chen, and the State of Chu decided to send troops to aid Chen. However, the sudden death of King Zhao Zhao of Chu prevented the State of Chu from sending troops. Of course, the State of Chen was unable to defeat Wu's powerful military.

, and finally had to surrender to the State of Wu and became a vassal state of the State of Wu.

After King Wu Fu Chai defeated Chen State, he turned against Cai State, which was friendly with Chen State and adjacent to Chen State. Because the king of Cai State was afraid of Wu State's strong military power, he had no choice but to obey Wu State's arrangements. In desperation, Cai State could only

The tomb of the late king was moved away, and the capital was moved to the state.

In the seventh year of Duke Ai of Lu (488 B.C.), the State of Wu continued to advance north, and the two countries of Lu and Song successively surrendered to Wu. The State of Wu requisitioned 100 cattle, 100 sheep, and 100 pigs each from Lu and Song respectively as a feast.

The number of goods exceeded the amount of tribute paid by the two countries to Jin. In the second year, Lu State attacked Zhu State, which had surrendered to Wu, so Wu State sent troops to attack Lu State again. The Wu army sang triumphantly all the way, and successively captured

The Lu State's Wucheng and Dongyang stationed troops on the shores of Surabaya. The Lu State saw that Wu's army was in great power, and at the same time the Qi State, which was close to the Lu State, was dominating the east with great momentum. The Lu State formed an alliance with the Wu State and jointly targeted the powerful Qi State.

The Wu army then withdrew its troops from the State of Lu.

In the ninth year of Lu Aigong (486 BC), in order to transport troops to the north when conquering Qi, the State of Wu built a city and dug a ditch in Han, so that the ditch connected the Yangtze River and the Huai River. The following year, the State of Wu united with the State of Lu, and Zhu

The Qi State and the Tan State attacked the Qi State together. There happened to be civil strife in the Qi State. The Qi people killed the Duke of Qi and issued an obituary notice to the coalition forces. However, the coalition forces did not withdraw immediately until the navy led by Wu State General Xu Cheng was captured by the Qi State.

The army was defeated and then withdrew. Another year later, Wu King Fucha and Lu Aigong attacked Qi again. This time the Wu army and the Lu army attacked smoothly, and successively occupied Qi's Bodi and Yingdi, and confronted the Qi army at Ailing.

Finally, the two sides fought in Ailing, and the Qi army was defeated. The Wu army captured the commander of the Qi army, captured 800 leather chariots, and beheaded 3,000 soldiers. It was a great victory.

In the eleventh year of Duke Ai of Lu (484 BC), before the Wu army defeated the Qi army, King Gou Jian of Yue led his ministers to the state of Wu and congratulated the Wu dynasty on their return for a great victory over the state of Qi. Everyone in the state of Wu was very happy, except Wu Zixu.

People were worried and unhappy. After the Wu army returned from victory, the kings and ministers of Yue entered Wu again to congratulate King Wu Fucha on their great victory. King Goujian of Yue also brought many gifts to King Wu Fucha, which made King Wu very happy. At this time, only

Wu Zixu alone advised the King of Wu to be wary of Gou Jian's intentions.

However, after the defeat of Qi State, King Wu Fu Chai became even more arrogant and complacent. Seeing the humble begging behavior of King Gou Jian of Yue, he ignored the State of Yue. In the 12th year of Duke Ai of Lu (483 BC), King Wu

In an alliance with Lu Ai, King Wu asked Lu to continue the old alliance, but was rejected by Lu Ai. In addition, King Wu sent people to summon the princes of Wei to attend the meeting of princes, but after the princes of Wei killed King Wu's envoy, they broke up with Lu.

The Song State formed an alliance and rejected the alliance with the Wu State. King Wu Fu Chai was very dissatisfied and sent Wu troops to surround the residence of the Marquis of Wei. Finally, under Zigong's persuasion, the King of Wu finally withdrew his troops.

At this time, the state of Wu was already at its peak. The state of Qi, which originally dominated the east, was repeatedly defeated by the Wu army and was not strong enough.

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Dare to dominate the Wu army, but Song and Zheng continued to attack each other, and Jin and Chu were in decline. This made Wu become an unrivaled overlord after going north. Therefore, King Wu Fu Chai actively planned an alliance among the princes.

Fight for dominance in the Central Plains.

In the thirteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu (482 BC), the State of Wu dug a deep ditch to connect the borders with Song and Lu, connecting Yishui to the north and Jishui to the west. In the same year, King Fucha of Wu and Duke Ai of Lu,

Jin Dinggong and representatives of the Zhou royal family met in Huangchi for an alliance. King Wu Fucha and Jin Dinggong competed with each other for the order of bloodshed in the alliance. However, at this time, bad news came from the country of Wu.

The Chinese army captured the capital of Wu and killed King Wu Fucha's son. In order to block the news, King Wu Fucha killed all seven of his cronies who knew about the incident.

At this time, the King of Wu was in a dilemma and was hesitant, so Wang Sunluo persuaded the King of Wu to form a military formation of ten thousand people on the day of bloodshed to demonstrate to the State of Jin. After Jin Dinggong saw the military formation of the State of Wu, out of fear, he ordered Wu to

Wang Fucha sacrificed his life first, which shook the status of the leader of the Jin alliance again. After the alliance, Wu Wangfucha immediately led his troops back to Wu. When the Wu army passed by the Song Dynasty, he set fire to the capital of the Song Dynasty to demonstrate to the vassal states.

.

This alliance was the pinnacle of the strength of the Wu State. The State of Wu had also prospered but declined and was heading for defeat. Before the full-scale attack on the State of Wu, King Gou Jian of Yue continued to show weakness to King Wu Fu Cha, causing the King of Wu to relax his vigilance. At the same time,

The political corruption in Wu State accelerated the transformation of Wu State from strength to decline. The State of Yue continued to bribe Wu State's chief minister, Bo Pe, and asked him to speak good words to the State of Yue in front of the King of Wu.

At the same time, King Wu Fu Chai's lewd pleasures also became an important factor in Wu's defeat. King Gou Jian of Yue gave in to him and presented two beauties from Yue to King Wu, one named Xi Shi and the other named Zheng Dan. Wu

After Wang Fuchai saw Xi Shi's beauty, he said happily: "Gou Jian is so loyal to give me such a beautiful woman!" King Wu was seduced by Xi Shi's beauty and spent a lot of manpower and material resources on her.

She built a Gusu Tower, and the King of Wu drank and had fun with her every day, ignoring political affairs, and the state of Wu became increasingly decadent. In the end, the state of Wu fell directly from the pinnacle of dominating the Central Plains to the point of subjugation. This was the wrong decision of King Wu Fu Cha

s consequence.

The struggle between Wu and Yue for hegemony not only wasted people, money and lost lives, but also unexpectedly promoted social progress. The first navy in Chinese history was born in the Spring and Autumn Period. At that time, the Wu State, located near Changzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, relied on natural conditions to

Conveniently, he established his first navy, which was the prototype of the Chinese navy. Compared with the north at that time, which was mainly engaged in vehicle warfare, the navy had greater mobility and flexibility, so it was often used in battles.

Have greater advantages.

The construction of the navy of the Kingdom of Wu had already begun when Taibo founded the country here, and by the time the throne was passed to the 19th generation Sun Shoumeng, the strength of the navy was already quite strong. The construction of the navy of the Kingdom of Wu was based on

The need to stand on one's own side and compete for hegemony was also due to its natural geographical conditions: Wu State was located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with dense rivers and lakes and intertwined water networks, making it extremely easy to sail ships and train naval forces.

However, although China's naval construction began in the State of Wu, by the time of King Wu Shoumeng, the State of Wu was not the only country with a navy, including Chu, Yue, Qi and other vassal states along the river or coast. They also established their own

However, among these vassal states, Wu's navy is in a leading position due to its long development time, proper training methods, and more advanced shipbuilding technology. The advantages of Wu's navy are derived from its

This can be seen in the process of several wars with other countries. Because wars often occurred between these vassal states, the main areas of war were in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and today's Shandong and Jiangsu areas.

In the Battle of Fujiao, where King Wu Fu Chai defeated Yue King Gou Jian, the key to Wu's victory was its excellent navy. After Wu King Helu died in the battle, Fu Chai vowed to avenge his father and stepped up training of the army. And Yue King Gou Jian

After hearing the news, he ignored the dissuasion of the doctor Fan Li and wanted to take a preemptive strike, so he sent troops to attack the state of Wu. After hearing the news, Fu Cha mobilized all the water and land forces in the country.

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The elite troops fought. The main battlefield of both sides was Fujiao, a small island in Taihu Lake southwest of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The navy of Wu State was well-trained and seized the favorable terrain, so it defeated the Vietnamese army and took advantage of the victory to occupy the capital of Yue State, Yiji.

City. King Gou Jian of Yue only had five thousand soldiers left. He was besieged by the Wu army on Kuaiji Mountain and could not move. In the end, he had to surrender to the King of Wu.

Because Wu, Chu, and Yue are all located in the Yangtze River Basin, the naval operations of the three countries still mainly rely on the Yangtze River and other small inland river basins. At this time, Wu's waterborne troops can only be called naval forces.

The actual scope of combat extended to the sea during the battle with Qi, a powerful country in the east.

The war with Qi took place when King Wu Fucha was in power. At that time, Fucha was very proud of his victory over Yue and wanted to further expand his ruling area. He also thought that there was no opponent of Wu in the south, so he turned his attention to

Qi State, triggered the first naval battle in Chinese history. In 485 BC, Fu Chai, with the doctor Xu Cheng as the commander, divided the sea, and the land and army attacked Qi State. Xu Cheng led his army from the mouth of the Yangtze River and along the Yellow Sea Channel

Heading straight to the Shandong Peninsula.

There are different opinions about the course of this war. Some people believe that Qi did not send troops to fight from the sea; others insist that the armies of Wu and Qi launched a fierce battle in the Yellow Sea. The final result of this war was that the Wu army was

After a long journey, they were exhausted and defeated by Qi. The significance of this war was very great. The Wu army went on an expedition, from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the Shandong Peninsula. The coast was long, and the supply problems, medical problems, ordnance maintenance problems were very complicated. This shows that

At that time, Wu's shipbuilding level and navigation ability had reached a certain level.

Indeed, according to Wu Zixu's ten "Water War Art of War" collected in "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi", the state of Wu already had twelve feet long and one foot six feet wide, which could accommodate twenty-six warriors.

There were three men on the ship, five men in command, four men with spears, hooks and axes, and four servants to shoot at the ship, with one man each, a total of ninety-one people. Moreover, Wu Zixu also imitated the situation of the army at that time and established a strict organization for the Wu Navy.

What is particularly worth mentioning is that in the process of marching north to conquer Qi, the State of Wu built the first canal clearly recorded in Chinese history, namely Hangou, for the convenience of water march.

Before the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River were isolated from each other. There were no natural waterways connecting the southeastern countries such as Wu and Yue to the northern Central Plains countries. This was very inconvenient for the Wu State, which used boats instead of chariots as its main combat tool. Therefore,

King Wu Fucha decided to dig Hangou, starting from the Yangtze River in the west of today's Yangzhou City, and excavating a channel in the northeast direction, connecting lakes along the way, and excavating water channels, extending to Sheyang Lake, and connecting with the Huaihe River five miles north of Huai'an City.

King Wu's original idea was that in this way, he could avoid the pain of traveling long distances from the Yangtze River to the sea and then from the sea to the Huaihe River, and also avoid the risks of marching by sea.

Although the Wu army finally chose to march by sea when they invaded Qi, it cannot be denied that Fu Chai's construction of the canal was entirely for military purposes.

The Wu Kingdom was later destroyed by Yue, but the Hangou built by it continued until later generations. During the Daye Period of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered to "give the Huainan people more than 100,000 yuan to satisfy their desire for extravagance and fun."

Hangou, from Shanyang to Yangjiang". On the basis of King Wu Fucha, Hangou was further renovated and expanded, and Beishen Weir was built at its northern end to regulate the lake water. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty further expanded the old Hangou road, making it

It starts from Jiangdu in the south and reaches Shanyang in the north. Later, on the basis of Hangou, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty recruited 100,000 people to further build Yongji Canal and Tongji Canal, connecting the Jiangnan River, and opened the world-famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, communicating

Transportation between the five major river systems of the Yangtze River, Qiantang River, Huaihe River, Haihe River and Yellow River.

It can be said that although King Wu Fu Chai dug the Hangou out of military considerations, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty later expanded this artificial canal to satisfy his desire to travel south to the south of the Yangtze River, it is undeniable that this canal plays an important role in the north-south transportation of China.

Economic exchanges and even the process of national reunification have played a huge role, and can be seen as a typical example of military promotion of social progress.
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