King of Wu - Liao

Liao, with the given name of Zhou, was the eldest son of Yu Mei, King of Wu, and died in the fifth year of the reign of King Jing of Zhou (515 B.C.). In the 18th year of the reign of King Jing of Wu (527 B.C.), Yu Mei died. Though it was Ji Zha’s (the fourth younger brother of Yu Mei) turn to claim the throne, he resigned the sovereign authority to Liao.In the twentieth year of King Jing of Zhou’s reign (525 B.C.), Liao sent Gongzi Guang to lead the water forces to launch attacks on Kingdom Chu, in order to avenge Qing Feng’s murder. The armies of both parties fought at Chang’an (currently west of Dangtu County of Anhui Province). The Chu army was defeated, and Sima Ziyu (Gongzi Fang) died in the battle. However afterwards, Chu army inflicted a crushing defeat on Wu army, and got Wang Zhou captured. Guang felt so scared that he launched a sneak attack on Chu army and returned with Wang Zhou.On the 23rd year of King Jing of Zhou’s reign, King Ping of Chu killed the prince Jian Fu, Wu She and Wu Shang, Wu’s eldest son. Hearing this, Wu Yuan, Wu Shang’s younger brother turned to Kingdom Wu for help. However, Wu Yuan was not valued, though he stated the benefit of sending forces to suppress Kingdom Chu to Wang Liao, so he then went to Gongzi Guang for shelter. In the autumn of the first year of King Jing of Zhou’s reign (519 B.C.), Wang Liao launched attacks on Zhoulai (a small state in the Jianghuai region in the Spring and Autumn period). Kingdom Chu sent Yin Zixia and Sima Yuanyue to lead the armies of Chu, Cai, Chen, Cu, Dun, Hu and Shen to save it. Seeing the death of Zixia in the battle, the armies lost the fighting spirit. Gong Zi told Wang Liao that those vassals were not of the same mind though they fought the same battle, so let’s attack the armies of Hu, Shen and Chen firstly. Liao agreed with the idea. They fought at Jifu (Chu’s territory, currently the southeast of Henan’s Gushi County), and the armies of Hu, Shen and Chen were defeated, and then the armies of Xu, Cai and Dun. At last, the army of Chu was also crushed.In the second year of King Jing of Zhou’s reign (518 B.C.), Liao sent Guang to send a punitive expedition to Chu. Without forces to garrison the border region, Chu got its Chao (currently Wabu of Hunan Province) and Zhongli (currently the east of Fengyang County) occupied by Wu.In the fourth year of King Jing of Zhou’s reign (516 B.C.), King Ping of Chu died. In the spring of the next year, Liao, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity when Kingdom Chu was arranging the funeral, sent his younger brothers Yan Yu and Zhu Yong to lead armies to attack Chu’s Liu (currently the northeast of Anhui’s Liu'an) and Qian (currently the south of Huoshan County), and sent Ji Zha to stay in Kingdom Jin to observe the move of the vassals. Army Chu cut off Army Wu’s road of retreat to make its return a total failure. Believing that this is a golden chance not to be missed, Gongzi Guang conspired with Wu Yuan. After concealing Jia in a secrete chamber, Guang invited Wang Liao for dinner. Zhuan Zhu entered the feast with a dagger hidden in the fish, and then stabbed Wang Liao. Then Guang ascended the throne, becoming the King of Wu Kingdom, He Lv.