Throughout the Warring States Period, there have been more than 200 battles, large and small. But if we want to talk about the scale of the war, the number of deaths and injuries on both sides of the war, and the far-reaching impact of the post-war on the situation, there is nothing more than the Battle of Changping!
This tragic war shouldn't have happened, or it shouldn't have happened in Changping, nor during this time period. Even if the two military powers of Qin and Zhao have to decide between the two military powers sooner or later, it may not be here and now; especially for Zhao Guo, it is the beginning of Zhao Xiaocheng King Zhao Xiaocheng to fight such a big battle with the power of the whole country. Unexpected.
The origin of the war is because Qin State bullies South Korea, and has nothing to do with Zhao Guo. Qin wanted to attack an important place in Korea. This place was called Yewang at the time, which is now Qinyang City, Henan Province. Yewang is a strategic location for South Korea. The territory of South Korea is like this. Most of the land is in today's Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei. The Yewang is the transportation hub between the South Korean capital Xinzheng and the northern Shangdang County. Once the Yewang is captured by the State of Qin, it is equal to South Korea being cut off. In today's words, Shangdang County has become an enclave. For the weak South Korea, the enclave cannot be held. In desperation, South Korea wanted to cut off the Shangdang County and the 17 counties under him, and wanted to seek peace with Qin.
This was originally a war between Qin and Han. How could Zhao Guo be dragged in? Because the Korean minister Zhang Ping ( Zhang Liang 's father) and the prefect of Sangdang County wanted to make a fuss about Sangdang County. They felt that Shangdang County was going to be lost anyway, and instead of letting the Qin occupy it, it was better to give it to the State of Zhao. Once the State of Zhao takes over the Shangdang County, the State of Qin will definitely be annoyed, and then there will be a violent battle between Qin and Zhao, and there will be damage to the competition between the two powers, which is very beneficial to South Korea.
South Korea Since the Shinbuha reform ,The monarchs and ministers didn't think about how to make the country and the army strong, and they all liked to play with power. Leading the disaster to others and staying behind, this is the nature of Koreans.
At this time, the senior officials of Zhao Guo exploded and discussed whether Shangdang County should or not. Pingyang Jun Zhao Bao advocated not, the reason is: if you want a large county in these 17 counties, it would be equivalent to igniting Qin's anger, and this fire will definitely burn on Zhao, Qin Zhao There must be a fierce battle between Zhao Guo's gains and losses. This is a conspiracy of the Koreans! Mr. Pingyuan Zhao Sheng advocated receiving Shangdang County: He thinks it is not for nothing, why not for a large county with 17 cities? He thinks that sooner or later there will be a battle between Qin and Zhao. It doesn't necessarily matter whether Shangdang County and Qin State can fight Zhao State!
King Zhao Xiaocheng also advocated, so he sent Pingyuan Jun Zhao Sheng to take over Shangdang County!
I worked so hard to start a war, killing and wounding so many people, I was about to pick the fruit of victory; this is a good time, let Zhao Guo pick up a big leak, the cooked duck flew to his mouth. King Qin Zhaoxiang How can I swallow this bad breath? He immediately sent a general with his troops to the Shangdang party, and soon defeated the Shangdang party. But the people who went to the party were not willing to be citizens of the Qin State, and all ran to the Zhao State to seek refuge. King Zhao Xiaocheng sent general Lianpo to settle the refugees, and Lianpo led troops to station in Changping, which is today's Gaoping, Shanxi. The battle of Changping kicked off.
The people of Qin were suffocating a sigh of bad breath, and the coming was fierce. So at the beginning of the war, Zhao Jun didn't fight smoothly. Lianpo lost one after another and retreated. At this time, King Zhao Xiaocheng, who was initially distraught, began to retreat, and he wanted to send someone to Qin to negotiate.
Yu Qing said to King Zhao Xiaocheng:
"Qin Qiang Zhao Weak,Whether or not a peace fight depends entirely on the Qin State. It’s okay for the king to make peace, but instead of sending people to Qin to seek peace, he will first ask the envoys to take precious treasures to unite Chu and Wei. When the envoys of the State of Zhao entered the two states of Chu and Wei, the State of Qin must suspect that the princes of the world would unite against Qin, and they must panic. In this way, peace talks with Qin can be carried out, and Zhao Guo will not suffer!
But Zhao Xiaocheng did not adopt Yu Qing's proposition. Instead, Zheng Zhuxian was sent to contact Qin. Zheng Zhu was a big man in the country of Zhao. As soon as he entered the country of Qin, the country of Qin began to make a fuss about Zheng Zhu's coming to Qin Yihe. They preached loudly, telling the princes of the world that Zhao was no longer able to compete with Qin, and even Zheng and Zhu had come to ask for peace. When the lords of the world saw that Zhao Guo lowered his face and took the initiative to seek peace, naturally they would not send troops to save Zhao. When Qin saw that Zhao was isolated and helpless, he resolutely refused to make peace!
At first, Lian Po came here for the first time. Lian Po, who is rich in combat experience, feels that no matter how hard it is, he will only suffer a big loss. Therefore, Lian Po ordered the construction of strong bases and stayed firm. He and Qin Jun were exhausted, it didn’t matter, it took three years!
Qin’s supply line is too long, and it took three years in Changping without any advantage. However, Lian Po used the tactics of shrinking tortoises, and he did not fight, Qin Jun had nothing to do with him. At this time, Qin began to use to calculate . Fanju used a huge sum of two hundred and forty thousand taels of gold to start a public opinion offensive by buying relevant personnel within Zhao, saying:
"What Qin fears most is Zhao Kuo's son Zhao Kuo, once Zhao Kuo becomes the commander in command, Qin Jun will not have time to escape. Lian Po is too old to deal with. He has exhausted Zhao Guo's food and grass, and immediately insists not to In the future, I will surrender soon."
Lian Po is a local.The royal family of Zhao didn't trust Daidi's generals, and sometimes had suspicions. Therefore, King Zhao Xiaocheng ignored Lin Xiangru's warning and resolutely replaced Lianpo with Zhao Kuo.
As soon as Qin Guo heard that Zhao Guo changed his general, he immediately changed his general. This time they put the most famous general Baiqi to Changping. In order to paralyze Zhao Guo, Qin State did not let the news of Bai Qi's appointment spread out, and gave a death order. Whoever dared to disclose that Bai Qi was the front-line commander would punish his tribe. So at this time, Zhao Guo didn't know that Qin Guo had changed his coach. One is Tu Baiqi, a man who is good at avoiding real attacks, and the other is Zhao Kuo, a passionate young man who can only talk about war on paper, who wins and loses at a glance.
After the hot-blooded young man Zhao Kuoyi arrived, he immediately changed Lian Po's strategy. He led more than 400,000 troops, took the initiative to challenge, and sent out. Bai Qi avoids his edge, actively shows weakness, pretends to be defeated, and retreats one after another. At the same time, two secret troops were dispatched, divided into 25,000 people on the left and right wings. When Zhao Jun left the camp, this team rounded back to the back of Zhao Jun and cut off his retreat. Because Zhao Jun’s more than 400,000 troops were divided into front and rear armies, the two armies were separated by a certain distance; Bai Qi sent another 5000 fine knights, known as the rapid reaction force, and quickly inserted between the front and rear armies of Zhao Jun. , Divide Zhao Kuo’s Zhao Jun into two parts, which cannot be connected to each other. Then, Bai Qi built a copper wall and iron wall in front of Zhao Kuo's march; the crossbowmen were in front, and the heavy infantry was behind, waiting for Zhao Kuo's army to attack.
Zhao Jun was unsuccessful with repeated shocks and suffered heavy casualties. He wanted to retreat, but found that the way of retreat was cut off, so he made a mess. Zhao Jun could not advance, retreat, and was helpless; he had no choice but to follow the example of Lianpo and build a battalion to wait for the government to rescue the soldiers. There will be no rescuers, because the food road has been broken, and Zhao Jun has lost contact with the outside world. and that’s it,Zhao Jun was besieged for more than forty days in a state of lack of food, and the army actually encountered a tragic situation of killing each other and killing and cannibalizing.
King Qin Zhaoxiang heard that Zhao Jun had become a trapped beast. Immediately, the whole country mobilized and ordered Qin to all men over 15 and under 65 to go to Changping on the battlefield. He wanted to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defeat Zhao Guo in one fell swoop. As soon as the Qin army's reinforcements arrived, the encirclement became smaller and smaller, and continued to challenge. In desperation, Zhao Kuo chose the elite cavalry and formed four teams, desperately rushing to all sides; however, Qin Jun refused to fight hand-to-hand, and only used a strong bow and crossbow against Zhao Jun. For a time, Zhao Kuo was killed by an arrow. When the coach died, Zhao Jun collapsed. Four hundred thousand tired officers and soldiers surrendered to the Qin army. As a result, they were all slaughtered by the people. Only 240 minors were left, and they were released to report to the State of Zhao. Zhao Guo was shocked all over the country! In this battle, the Zhao Kingdom lost 450,000 youth troops, and the vital power was basically exhausted, and it was devastated since then!
After the Battle of Changping, many literati in the feudal society of China have made many remarks about the Battle of Changping. Everyone was accusing King Zhao of not accepting Shangdang County, which resulted in a sudden loss of 450,000. Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with accepting Shangdang County itself. This is not necessarily related to Zhao Guo's death and injury of 450,000; even if there is no Changping Battle, Zhao Guo, as a blocker on the road to Qin's reunification, will have to use Zhao people sooner or later. The key lies in the battle between the Qin and Zhao armies, how could they lose 450,000 all at once? This issue is worth discussing!
First, Zhao Guoxia, especially Zhao Wang did not have a mental preparation. In the middle and late Warring States period before the Battle of Changping, Qin and Zhao are the strongest in terms of military strength. Qin has the ambition to unify the world, and it is destined that the coexistence of the two powers cannot be sustained for a long time. Therefore, there must be a fierce battle between Qin and Zhao, a battle of life and death. This is only a matter of time. As for the location of the war, it doesn't matter. But from the psychological point of view of Zhao Guojun and his officials,Obviously, they were not mentally prepared. King Zhao Xiaocheng wanted to fight for a while, and then asked for peace, vacillating back and forth; even if he was not prepared for a decisive battle, this kind of psychology directly affected his decision-making.
Second, In this battle between Qin and Zhao, Zhao is not confident enough. The strength of the State of Zhao lies in the strong combativeness of the Zhao people and the military strength of the State of Zhao. The reform of the State of Zhao was Hu Fuqi shooting, and Hu Fuqi shooting was an increase in military power; however, the weak agricultural foundation of Zhao State has not been improved, and the problem of Zhao State has not been fundamentally solved. The Qin State’s Shangyang Reform was an all-round reform that emphasized military merits and paid great attention to rich peasants. Qin's agriculture is developed, and decades ago, it ate Bashu, known as the country of abundance, and built many irrigation channels, so that Qin's military rations can be continuously transported to the battlefield. The two sides had been in Changping for three years, and each other was exhausted, but Qin did not experience food shortages. But Zhao Guo was short of food. They used to borrow food from Qi Guo , but it was a pity that Qi Wangjian of Qi State did not understand the truth of the death of lips and teeth, and did not agree.
Third, Zhao Wang changed his general and replaced the experienced Lian Po with Zhao Kuo, who can only sit and talk. can only talk about it. The biggest weakness of Zhao Kuo, who is on paper, is that he does not know how to adapt to changes and lacks experience, so he cannot take on important tasks. Many people objected to Zhao Wang's replacement of veteran Lian Po with Zhao Kuo, including Lin Xiangru and Zhao Kuo's biological mother. But King Zhao still rejected the crowd and used Zhao Kuo. Zhao Wang used Zhao Kuo to be helpless; for one thing, he did not trust the deputy, and secondly, because of lack of food and grass, Zhao Guo couldn't afford it.
In short, the Battle of Changping was the most tragic war in the history of the Warring States Period, and both sides put their efforts into the war. Zhao State is about 450,000. Qin Guo later all males over 15 years old and under 65 years old went on the battlefield, and it is estimated that there are about 650,000. This is a war that neither side can afford to lose,It is related to the national destiny and historical trend of Qin and Zhao. Since it is a nationwide battle, fighting is based on the comprehensive strength of both sides, and the strength of Zhao is only in military strength; its comprehensive national strength is far inferior to Qin, so it is inevitable for Zhao to lose this war. It's just that you lose more and lose less. If Lian Po is in charge, he may have lost the war, but the 450,000 Zhao army should be able to save a large portion.
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