"Ah Yeh--"

Just when Mengqi and Meng recommended two old men to discuss the candidates, in the village of the Meng family, under the shade of a big tree, three children of the Meng family, around ten years old, were surrounding an old man in the clan, listening to the latter telling the story of the past of the Song State.

During this period, a boy sneezed without warning. His somewhat dumb expression made the brothers of the same clan laugh.

The old man was named "Yǒu", and he was one of the few old men in the Montessori tribe who participated in three wars launched by the Song Dynasty monarch "Zi Yan (Dai Yan)" but still survived.

"A Zhong, did you catch a cold?" Meng Feng asked kindly.

As he mentioned, A Zhong was the candidate recommended by the elder Meng to the sect leader Meng Qi, Meng Zhong (zhòng).

Meng Zhong is an ordinary member of the Meng family. He is not the legitimate clan, but the Zhongsun of "Mengshu" and the second son of "Meng Qu (qú).

Looking closely at this boy, I saw that he was about ten years old and was thin. He was wearing a gray linen cloth, with a hem that was less than his knees and a pair of straw sandals on his feet. Although his face looked quite tender, he could already tell his handsomeness and heroism.

The most special thing is that his eyes are calm and gentle. Unlike those of his peers who are careless or ignorant in the clan, they often show a bit of thinking, as if they have all kinds of thoughts at a young age.

Hearing the elder's inquiry, the boy named Meng Zhong reached out and rubbed his nose, and said in confusion: "I don't know what's going on, but I feel my nose itchy..."

Before he finished speaking, there was a friend who had just laughed and slandered the situation next to him. The young man was about the same age as Meng Zhong, but his size was stronger than Meng Zhong. He pointed at Meng Zhong and smiled at Meng Wang, "Is it because he fell into the river yesterday?"

Since the other party was a friend with him, Meng Zhong rolled his eyes speechlessly. Meng Yu raised the crutch beside him, knocked the boy's head lightly or seriously, and cursed with a smile: "Heartless boy, if it weren't for you falling into the river, Ah Zhong would be implicated by you? Do you still laugh?"

The sturdy boy shrank his neck and said embarrassedly: "I can swim. Besides, although he wanted to pull me up at that time, it was not my fault that his feet slipped..."

"You still dare to talk back?" Meng Yan glared and scolded, "Do you want me to turn around and say to your father and tell him to deal with you well?"

When he heard this, the sturdy boy suddenly became honest, but he still muttered like "I am your grandson" in his mouth.

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

Seeing him shrinking so timidly, Meng Zhong reached out and patted him on the back. The two looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh, perhaps remembering the funny scenes of the two yesterday.

This sturdy young man is called "Meng Hu". He is Meng Hu's eldest grandson and one of Meng Zhong's two best friends in daily life. The two of them, plus another young man named "Meng Sui", are almost inseparable on weekdays and have a very good relationship.

Oh, the boy named Meng Sui is the peers who are sitting on the ground and sitting on Meng Zhong's right and smiling at Meng Hu's head by his grandfather Meng Hu's cane.

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

No wonder Meng Wei inadvertently favored Meng Zhong, because during the wars between the Song Dynasty, Meng Wei served as the "Sima" who led the Mongolian clan soldiers. Meng Zhong's grandfather "Meng Shu" and his father "Meng Qu" were both subordinates of Meng Wei. Both father and son served as "Car Official". They immediately stood on the chariot and commanded the battle in front of the battlefield, responsible for commanding the "One-Car Official". [PS: One-Car Official, that is, the infantry organization with a chariot as the core, including three armored soldiers standing on the chariot and seventy-two ordinary infantry. One of them was commanded, namely the Chariot Official.]

Unfortunately, Meng Shu died in the war between Song and Qi, while Meng Qu died in the war between Song and Wei. Meng Feng believed that he had to take part of the responsibility for the sacrifice of the father and son, so he usually defended the brothers Meng Bo, Meng Zhong, and the brothers' mother Ge.

"Okay OK."

After the three little guys joked, Meng Yun interrupted them and said kindly but majestic: "As a member of Song, you should be familiar with the past of Song. Otherwise, if someone asks you in the future, you don't know the past of Song, but you will undoubtedly be ridiculed by others."

As he said that, Meng Wei began to tell the history of his Song Kingdom.

Meng Hu was not interested in the history of the Song Dynasty, so he kept urging Meng Zhong and Meng Sui to play with him, but Meng Zhong and Meng Sui were quite interested in this history.

Especially Meng Zhong.

After all, in this era when there is no entertainment channel, listening to the elders in 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 boredom.

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

The so-called "Three Ke" is the etiquette that respects the descendants of the previous three dynasties pursued by the Zhou royal family. The first three dynasties of the Zhou dynasty were the Shang Dynasty, Xia Dynasty and Yu Dynasty - the Yu Dynasty was the "Huangdi Dynasty" and the "Yu Shun Dynasty".

The Zhou royal family enthroned the brother of King Zhou of Shang, Weiziqi, to Shangqiu, and established the "Song Kingdom" from the latter; and also established the "Qi (qǐ) Kingdom" by the descendants of the Xia Dynasty; and also established the "Chen Kingdom". [PS: Qi Kingdom, that is, the Qi Kingdom that "Qi people worry about the sky", while the Chen royal family "Chen Family", that is, the "Tian Family" that "Tian Family Represented Qi", Chen Tongtian in ancient times.]

Therefore, the so-called "Three Ke" refers to the three vassal states that were visited by the State of Song, Qi, and Chen, and all had dukes.

Let’s talk about the history of the Song State. When it comes to the history of the Song State, we must mention several of them, namely Duke Dai, Duke Xiang, Duke Jing, Duke Ticheng of Song, and the current monarch of the Song State, "Dai Yan (i.e. King Kang of Song).

Let me first talk about Duke Dai of Song. Duke Dai also has a surname of Song and his name is Bai. He is a wise monarch who was deeply loved by the people of the country during his reign. Therefore, after his death, King Ping of Zhou gave him the posthumous title of "Dai". The State of Song was also the Duke of the Zhou royal family, so he was called Duke Dai of Song.

Later, Song Dai Gong's legitimate son, Duke Wu of Song, succeeded to the throne. The latter's second son, "Prince Zi Sheng", took the posthumous title of "Dai" as his grandfather, so the branch of "Zi Dai" appeared.

Later, Song Ticheng, the throne of "Dai Xi", who usurped the throne of "Zi's surname Song", and the contemporary Song monarch "Dai Yan", were royal nobles of the "Zi's surname Dai".

Since Duke Dai of Song and during the reign of Duke Xiang of Song, Song's strength was quite strong, and it was already a medium-sized country with less than the best and more than the best. In addition, Duke Xiang of Song helped Qi to quell the civil strife in Qi - that is, the civil strife between Duke Huan of Qi's sons - which made Duke Xiang of Song's ambitions expand and tried to dominate the Central Plains. As a result, he was hostile to Chu and attacked by Chu for years.

The most famous one during this period was the "Battle of Hongshui".

When talking about the "Battle of Hongshui", Meng Yan sighed because this war is actually important. If Duke Xiang of Song could defeat Chu at that time, it might have made Song a real power, or even a real overlord of the Central Plains.

According to the family history of the Meng family, Duke Xiang of Song led the joint army of Wei, Xu, Teng and other small countries, and confronted the Chu army across the bank of Hongshui. At that time, the arrogant Chu army tried to cross the Hongshui under the eyes of the Songshui coalition. Logically speaking, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Songshui coalition to defeat the Chu army. Even if the soldiers of Chu were braver than the soldiers of the Songshui coalition, they would still be defeated when they were attacked during the crossing of the river. In Sun Tzu's Art of War, this was called "half-crossing attack", which was a very favorable situation.

However, Duke Xiang of Song, who was overly benevolent and righteous, actually asked the Chu army to cross the Hongshui River and line up the array, and then attack the Chu army, missing the god-given opportunity to defeat the Chu army.

Sure enough, due to the defeat of Duke Xiang of Song, the State of Song lost power and lost the opportunity to rise.

Because of this, not only the people of Song State cursed Duke Xiang of Song at that time, but even in the present, the people still had the people who "hate" Duke Xiang of Song for this reason. They believed that the State of Song had lost the opportunity to be promoted to a strong country, and it was all because of Duke Xiang of Song's stupidity.

"What a pity?" Meng Feng asked suddenly.

Meng Zhong nodded slightly.

He also felt that if Duke Xiang of Song could seize the opportunity at that time, the State of Song would not have the opportunity to defeat Chu and defeat Chu's ambition to expand northward.

"Although it's a pity, the State of Chu finally failed to become the overlord of the Central Plains."

After stroking his beard, Meng Yu sneered in a tone that seemed to vent his depression: "It was Jin that became the overlord at that time."

Seeing that Meng Huo was full of resentment when he mentioned Chu, Meng Zhong was not unable to understand.

The reason is very simple, because in the century-long "Jin and Chu battle for hegemony", the Chu state's square formation always expanded northward, and the Song state happened to be in the north of the Chu state. In other words, if Chu state wants to dominate the Central Plains, it will inevitably attack Song state.

Because of this reason, Song State was attacked by Chu State for a long time, and even because Song State was rich, countries such as Wei State, Qi State, and Han State were all coveted by Song State, so that Song State was caught among these powerful countries and survived with difficulty.

When the reign of Duke Jing of Song was reigned, although the Jin State, as the overlord of the Central Plains, had gradually weakened and the monarch was gradually undermined by the domestic clan forces, the Song State still pursued the national policy of "maintaining the hegemony of Jin" and took the opportunity to annex the Cao State, which rebelled Jin and attacked Song, expanding the territory of Song State, as if the revival appeared again.

However, unexpectedly, the Song State fell into a civil strife again after that. When Song Pigong ascended the throne, because the monarch was debauchery, the powerful ministers took the throne.

Zihan, also known as Dai Ticheng, is "Song Ticheng jun" - at that time, Song Ticheng monarch submitted to Qi and claimed to be a subordinate, so he did not call him "public" but called him "jun".

After promoting the "Ji and Song alliance", the Song State ushered in the opportunity to revive. Although Song Tichengjun was a monarch, it cannot be denied that he was also a very wise monarch. During his rule over the Song State, the Song State had the opportunity to develop.

However, in the 27th year of Song Tichengjun, his brother Dai Yan rebelled and rebelled. Song Tichengjun was defeated and fled to Qi State.

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, hence he called "Song Wang Yan".

"Song Wang Yan" emerged from nowhere and defeated Qi, Chu and Wei with his tough skills, which greatly increased the prestige of Song among the countries, which gave Song a moment of breathing.

People in the world have different opinions about King Yan of Song. Some believe that the former is the lord of the revival of the Song Kingdom, while others call him "Jie and Zhou's rebirth" - Jie is the monarch of the Xia Dynasty's destruction, and Zhou is the monarch of the Shang Dynasty's destruction. Both are foolish and desolate and inhumane monarchs.

"Then, is King Song a good person or a bad person?"

At the end of hearing, Meng Hu asked suddenly.

Meng Feng laughed silently. After shaking his head, he suddenly asked the three of them, "Then what do you three think?"

After hearing this, Meng Zhong fell into deep thought.
Chapter completed!