Qi Henggong wanted to annex the two countries, and he was not strong enough, so he adopted the strategy of Guan Zhong (about 723 BC-645 BC), whose surname was Ji, Guan Shi, Ming Yi Wu, and Zhong Zi, a representative figure of Legalists in the Spring and Autumn Period). People in Lu and Liang countries usually weave silk (silk is a thicker and rougher textile than silk), and Guan Zhong suggested taking the lead in wearing silk clothes, which formed a demonstration effect. And ordered the ministers to change into smoking clothes. Up and down the state of Qi, the people saw clothes worn by princes and nobles, and the people wore clothes made of materials. For a time, the price of Qi won soared, and Guan Zhong also deliberately said to businessmen in Shandong and Liang: You sell me a thousand horses, and I will give you three hundred pounds of gold; Sell ten thousand horses and give three thousand pounds of gold. Attract people from Germany and Liang to transport the money they won to Qi for sale at a high price, and profit from it. The financial "foreign exchange" income of Shandong and Liang countries has risen sharply, and the foreign trade surplus income is rich. The monarchs of these two countries tasted licking their heads and asked their people to weave cotton. A year later, people in Shandong and Liang were almost busy weaving and transporting cotton, thus giving up the main business of agricultural production.

After a while, when the time was ripe, Guan Zhong advised Qi Huangong to suddenly change to silk clothes, forbade people to wear silk again, and closed the border trading ports to prohibit trade. All of a sudden, the materials produced in Lvliang and Lvliang were ignored and turned into waste. However, the national grain reserve is in short supply. Ten months later, "Lu Liang people are hungry, hungry for food", even if the kings of the two countries urgently urged the people to return to agriculture, it was too late to produce food in a short time. As a result, the prices in Shandong and Gu Liang soared and the social economy was depressed. Shandong people and Liang people spend thousands of dollars per stone to buy grain from Qi, while the price of grain in Qi is only ten dollars per stone. The people are full of complaints and have no life. Three years later, Liang, the monarch of Lu, had to submit to Qi.