There have been many chaotic periods of separatism in ancient Chinese history. Two of them are most talked about. One is the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the other is the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period during the Eastern Anniversary. These two dynasties were both well-known major mergers and turbulent periods in Chinese history. The imperial family was weak and lost control of the Central Plains. The princes from all over the country rose up to fight for hegemony. Before, there were the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemonies and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. Later, there were the trio of heroes competing for the deer, Wei Shu and Wu.
Everyone knows that It was Qin, Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei. After years of war, Qin destroyed the six countries and achieved the first great unification of the Chinese nation in history. It is conceivable that at the end of the Warring States Period, Qin's comprehensive national power was so powerful. However, among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, Chu has the largest land area, Wei has the largest population, and Qi has the strongest economy. Then why did the weaker Qin finally unite China? Today, I will analyze with you the comprehensive national strength of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, and see how the strength of each country has evolved.
The first thing we want to understand is the difference. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Warring States period lasted for more than 250 years, much longer than the Three Kingdoms period, which was less than 100 years old. During this period, the strength of the seven countries is constantly changing, and they have been trying to make their country stronger through reforms. With the development of war and society, different countries have changed from weak to strong, or from strong to weak. Therefore, the ranking of the strength of the Seven Heroes in the Warring States Period needs to be viewed in stages.
05588 Not very powerful, Wei's comprehensive national strength is the strongest among the seven countries. After the "three divisions of Jin", Wei not only inherited the mantle of Jin, but also was the first country to implement reforms among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period. At that time, the monarch of the Wei State was Wei Wenhou. During his 50-year reign, he selected talents, cultivated morality internally and governed martial arts externally, making Wei the hegemon of the Central Plains. After Wei Wenhou's death, his son Wei Wuhou came to the throne and he reigned for 25 years. During this period, he continued to implement reforms and conquered the West, which made Wei's national power continue to rise. By the time Wei Hui, the son of Wei Wuhou’s son, reigned, the State of Wei had dominated the Central Plains for a hundred years. Wei State inherited the legal tradition of the Jin State in law, and had a legal system that was presided over by Li Li and followed by Wei Wenhou. It brought a huge boost to Wei's political environment.
魏文侯
0a0a0#90e0da#0a0a3#90e#39#0a0# Economically, Wei Guo reused Li Di to build water conservancy projects and promoted the successful experience of agricultural and sideline industries, which greatly improved the utilization rate of land resources and grain output in Wei State. At the same time, Wei also encouraged the people to engage in business, increase trade exchanges, and enrich the treasury. In the military, the Wei State appointed Wu Qi and others to train elite infantry by using the martial arts system. Known in history as "Wei Wuchu", it was the most professional and strongest military force at the time, reaching 60,000 to 70,000 in its heyday. people. Wu Qi led Wei Wuzuo to fight in the South and North, and set the "War Seventy-two, a total victory of 64, and the rest are notThe marvelous feat of "winning or losing" has opened up a large territory, including Guan Hui's record of "Wu Qi defeated ten times his own Qin army with fifty thousand Wei army". It can be said that after the early Warring States period For a long period of time, the comprehensive national strength of Wei can be said to be far superior to the other six countries.
李悝
In the middle of the Warring States period, the Wei state gradually declined, and Qi was governed by King Qi Wei and King Qi Xuan until about 286 BC. In its heyday, it replaced Wei as the hegemon in the mid-Warring States period. From the perspective of land area, the territory of Qi was not very large at the beginning of the Warring States period, only about 150,000 square kilometers, but after the war, the land area has been greatly expanded. Population and geographic resources have been supplemented.
齐威王
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Qi country was very developed in industry and commerce at the time, and it can be said to be the richest of the seven countries, with a population of 4 million. During the period of King Qi Wei, he appointed Zou Ji to carry out political reforms, and Tian Ji, Sun Bin was a general. In 353 BC and 341 BC, he fought two battles against Wei, especially in the Battle of Ma Ling in 341 BC. The 100,000 troops of Wei were annihilated and General Pang Juan committed suicide. Qi State directly beat Wei State from prosperity to decline.
马陵之战
314 BC , "The Rebellion of the Son" occurred in the Kingdom of Yan, King Qi Xuan took the opportunity to lead the "army of the five capitals" and the "people of the north", and captured the country of Yan in more than 50 days. In 301 BC, Qi united with Korea and the Kingdom of Wei. Attacking Chu, defeating Chu State. In 298 BC, Qi united Han and Wei attacked Qin and invaded the natural danger Hangu Pass where Qin depended for his livelihood, forcing Qin to cede the land and become a vassal. 286 BC, King Qi Chao The State of Song was destroyed, the State of Chu was invaded to the south, and the State of Chu was invaded to the west, and the power of Qi reached its peak. However, the hidden dangers behind the prosperity of Qi were in 286 BC, when the State of Qi destroyed the Song, invaded Chu in the south and invaded the San Jin At that time, King Qi Yuan even wanted to annex the Zhou dynasty and become the emperor. The princes were shocked, even so terrified to ask for help from the Qin State, leading them This led to the subsequent five-nation attack. General Le Yi led the armies of Yan, Qin, Han, Zhao, and Wei to attack Qi, and went down more than 70 cities to Linzi, the capital of Qi. Later, although the lost ground was recovered and the country was successfully restored, he was also greatly injured. , Basically unable to compete for hegemony in the Central Plains.
齐湣王
0a0a0a3a0a0#39##Just in the period when Weiguo and Qiguo have turned from prosperity to decline, Qin Kingdom was first in 356 BC, Qin Xiaogong appointed Shang Yang to carry out reforms to encourage population proliferation, emphasize agriculture, suppress business, and abolish Shiqing The Shilu system, rewards of military merit, establishment of household registration, and implementation of the method of continuous sitting have gradually developed the originally sparsely populated state of Qin. In 350 BC, Shang Yang carried out deepening reforms again, relying on the interference of the old aristocracy, establishing a new authoritarian centralization system, implementing the system of prefectures and counties to strengthen centralization, attaching importance to agricultural products, and "family giving people enough" appeared Of prosperity. In the next few decades, Qin continued to implement the state policy of Shang Yang Reform and gradually expanded.
商鞅
Just around 341 BC, Wei was defeated several times by Qi. Qin took the opportunity to attack Wei and finally regained the land of Hexi that was previously occupied by Wei in 330 BC. During this period, the State of Qin can be said to have made a fortune in a muffled voice. After Qin Xiaogong’s subsequent three generations of emperors’ efforts, he finally grew to the point where he could stand up against Qi and Chu in the continuous continual integration. The upper hand, although it was once gang-fighted by Shandong countries, the strength of Qin State in the late Warring States period has gradually manifested.
In the battle of Yique, the Qin army beheaded two hundred and forty thousand allied forces of Han and Wei in the first battle, and Han and Wei have since surrendered willingly.
In the battle of Yanying, the Qin army went down the river, and the first battle of the Chu army for 800 years fell.
In the battle of Changping, hundreds of thousands of troops in Zhao State were annihilated by Qin State in one fell swoop.
The overwhelming advantage of Qin in the late Warring States period is well-deserved.
since the decline since the
Zhao Guo, who had always been in the northern corner, gradually emerged. After Zhao Wuling’s "Hufu riding shooting", he gradually became stronger, and with the help of civil servants and generals such as Lian Po, Zhao She, Lin Xiangru, he became the only one in the middle and late Warring States period. A country that can confront Qin head-on. At that time, Zhao Guo had always been in the ranks of "with hundreds of thousands of armors", and the combat effectiveness of the army was very strong. Since the "three divisions of Jin", Zhao has been developing relatively stable. Although it is not as rich as Qi, it has a population of more than 3 million. However, the rise of Zhao was relatively late, and it has been in a position for nearly a hundred years. In the battle of internal conflicts.
The real rise of the Kingdom of Zhao In 307 BC, at that time, the State of Zhao vigorously promoted military reforms, that is, the "Hufu Cavalry Shooting". It only began to use troops after 305 BC. This time was approaching the late Warring States period. At this time, only Zhao Guoneng was in Yanzhao Qichu and other middle schools. Contend with Qin. However, after the Battle of Changping around 260 BC, Zhao’s vitality was severely injured. Although it was still the strongest country among the Shandong countries, after the Battle of Changping, the Seven Heroes of the Warring States had not been able to compete with Qin. Up.
05588 late in the war , There is still a country that has the potential to fight Qin, that is, Chu. Chu State is located at the southernmost tip of the Central Plains. The country has a very large land area, reaching 1.5 million square kilometers at one time. Its population reached 8 million at its peak. It belongs to the ranks of "a million" and has been a big country since the Spring and Autumn Period.
Since the early Warring States period, Chu has been ranked second and third in economic and military terms. Although Chu is compared with the later Qin, both in terms of the number of troops, morale, and weapons and equipment, they are all comparable to those of the Qin army. There is a lot of difference, but in terms of land area, it is still much stronger than the countries in the Central Plains. If all the efforts of the whole country are used, it will be possible to recruit 500,000 or 600,000 troops at full play. In the First World War when Qin State defeated Chu, the State of Qin dispatched about 200,000 troops, and State of Chu dispatched about 250,000 troops, and then the general of Qin State Wang Jian drew his army of 600,000 to defeat Chu State. The Chu army could temporarily reinforce 300,000 troops. ,althoughAlthough only one-third of these people are really capable of fighting, this is enough to show that Chu has absolute advantages over the other five countries in terms of population and number of troops. This shows that Chu's strength was still very strong at that time.
has reached this point Five, and two of Korea and Yan are left. At the peak of South Korea’s history, during the Shenbuhu Reformation in 355 BC, South Korea’s military strength was still not strong, at most tens to 200,000 people , although Su Qin was in six countries when he was envoy It has been said: South Korea has hundreds of thousands of armors, and the world's strong bows and crossbows are all from Korea. Even if the quality and combat effectiveness of South Korea’s military were fairly good, the number was too small. At that time, the population of South Korea was less than 2.5 million. In addition to the poor geographical location, it was surrounded by Wei, Chu, and Qin. There is no room for expansion. Therefore, it can be said that Korea's comprehensive national strength was at the bottom at any time during the Warring States Period, and it was also the first of the six countries to be destroyed by Qin.
to the country of South Korea Difficult brothers and sisters, the land area is a bit larger than South Korea, although it has been claimed to have hundreds of thousands of troops, but it is still a persimmon. Of course, the country of Yan is not like South Korea. It has no chance of rising. In the battle of the Five Kingdoms in 284 B. The king was defeated by Qi’s countermeasures, Le Yi was withdrawn, and the Yan army was defeated by the Qi army in one fell swoop. Qi took advantage of the situation to regain all lost ground, and Yan lost the only chance to grow.
eventually defeated the Six Kingdoms and established the Qin Dynasty, although throughout the Warring States Period During the period, Qin's strength was not always ahead of other countries, but with Shang Yang's reform and the hard work of many of Qin's monarchs, it laid the foundation for the later rise of Qin.
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