exhume a body and flog it

King Helu of Wu was already happy to see that the two vassal states of Chu had come to him, so he had a leader to attack Chu, and Wu Zixu and Bo Exporter were encouraging him to do so. Sun Wu also said, "I didn't want to rush to fight Chu because there were too many vassal states in Chu and I was afraid there would be obstacles along the way. This time, when Jin met with the vassals, there were 18 states, among which Chen, Xu, Don, and Hu, which were always subordinate to Chu, were all detached from Chu and subordinated to Jin. This shows that almost all the lords of the southeast resent Chu, not only Cai and Tang. Now Chu is so lonely, it is time for us to send troops."

In 506 BC (the 14th year of King Jing of Zhou and the 4th year of Duke Ding of Lu), Helu commanded Nang-li and Chuyi [son of Chuyu] to assist Prince Bo in defending his country, made Sun Wu the general, Wu Zixu and Bo Diao the vice-general, and sent his brother, Gongzi Fugu, as the vanguard, and sent 60,000 troops to rescue Cai by water. Naniwa was defeated, and when he saw that Wu's army was so strong, he hurriedly threw Cai away and ran back.

The Marquis of Cai Zhao and the Duke of Tang Cheng all came to meet King Helu of Wu. They automatically led their soldiers and horses to follow Wu's army to fight Ying. Naniwa had already lost the hearts of the people, and he did not trust others, so there was internal chaos first, and the orders did not work. He had lost several battles in a row and many of his generals were killed and wounded, so he secretly ran away to Zheng to hide.

Seeing that the capital of Ying was difficult to be preserved, King Zhaoge of Chu hastily fled to Sui State [in the south of Suixian County, Hubei Province] with some of his trusted ministers and generals. The army of Wu won five battles in a row. It was a big war in the Eastern Zhou period. The state of Chu had never lost so badly, even Ying, which had been the capital for about 200 years, was lost. Sun Wu, Wu Zixu, Bo Exporter, Cai Zhaohou, and Tang Chenggong escorted King Helu of Wu into Ying. The rulers and generals of Wu then held a celebration in the court of Chu.

The next day, Wu Zixu advised King Helu of Wu to tear down the ancestral temple of Chu. Sun Wu disapproved of this proposition. He advised Helu to abolish King Zhaoge of Chu and make Prince Jian's son, Gongzi Sheng, the king of Chu. He said, "Most of the people in Chu were unhappy with Prince Jian, if the king could make Duke Sheng the king of Chu, the people of Chu would be grateful to the king, and the lords of the kingdom would also admire the king, and Duke Sheng would not forget the king. In this way, won't Chu be a vassal state of Wu forever? This is a way to gain both fame and fortune, please think about it." Helu coveted the territory of Chu, listened to Wu Zixu, and tore down the clan temple of Chu. Wu Zixu was not yet satisfied; he must kill King Ping of Chu with his own hands to relieve his heart of hatred. But King Ping was already dead, so what should he do? He asked Helu to let him dig up King Ping's grave. He said, "You have done me a lot of help, so you can do this little thing yourself.