King Zhaoxiang of Qin
Because King Zhaoxiang had not yet legally come of age (traditionally at the age of 20), his mother, who was now known as Queen Dowager Xuan, became the regent. She was supported by her brothers, Wei Ran and Mi Rong (羋戎), as well as two other sons, Prince Yi (公子悝) and Prince Fu (公子巿), the four of them collectively known as the "Four Nobles" (四貴).
King Zhaoxiang of Qin
Yiqu (義渠), also known as "the Rong of Yiqu" (義渠之戎), was a semi-pastoral, semi-agricultural people residing in the region from north of Jing River to western Hetao. They were historically an offshoot of the nomadic Qiang people living on the grasslands around Long Mountains during the Shang Dynasty, and were frequently at war with the surrounding nomadic tribes like Guifang (鬼方) and Xunyu (獯鬻), as well as the agricultural Huaxia settlements like Bin (豳, the precursor to Zhou). During the times of King Geng Ding in late Shang Dynasty (around 12th century BC), faced with a large Northern Di invasion, the aged Duke of Bin Gugong Danfu led his clan south and relocated to Qishan, and the Bin exodus resulted in the area being occupied by Di nomads hostile and stronger than Yiqu, who temporarily submitting to Xianyun (獫狁). During the reign of Wu Yi of Shang, Duke Jili of the now renamed state of Zhou attacked and evicted the Di presence from lands north of Bin with the support from the Shang court, and made Yiqu subject to Zhou instead. During the reign of Duke Wen of Zhou, Chancellor Jiang Ziya sent ambassador Nangong Kuo to negotiate an alliance with Yiqu, who assisted Zhou in evicting their rival Guifang, while occupied the fertile Longdong region for themselves. This allowed the Yiqu population to prosper, and after learning agricultural techniques and city building from the Zhou people, became significantly influenced by Zhou culture. Yiqu hence transformed into a distinctly different branch from other Xirong tribes, though still retaining the tradition of levirate marriage.