In 284 BC, King Yanzhao appointed Le Yi as his general to command the army of Yan, Qin, Han, Zhao, and Wei in the attack. King Qi Dao was proud and conceited, and at first he did not expect that Yan Guo would unite with other countries to attack Qi. It was only when it was discovered that the Yan army had invaded the Qi state that he hurriedly appointed Tanzi as a general, led the main force of the nation's army across Jishui, and went west to resist the enemy. As a result, when the Wu Guo coalition attacked, the Qi army was crushed and defeated. Under the command of Le Yi, the army of the State of Yan chased and defeated the fleeing enemy alone, and chased them to Linzi, the capital of Qi State. Seeing that the isolated city of Linzi was difficult to defend, the king of Qi Yan fled to Juyi and held the city firmly.
After capturing Linzi, the capital of Qi State, Le Yi captured more than 70 cities in Qi State, that is, the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, achieving the effect of basically occupying the territory of Qi State. It is worth noting that Chu did not participate when the Five Kingdoms defeated Qi, that is, only the five kingdoms of Yan, South Korea, Wei, Zhao, and Qin attacked Qi together. So, the question is, why did Chu State not participate in the "Five Kingdoms Conquering Qi"? What calculation did Chu State play?
一
First of all, when the Five Kingdoms attack broke out, not only did Chu not join the coalition forces, but instead sent troops to rescue Qi. When the Five Kingdoms defeated Qi, the reigning monarch of Chu was King Chu Qingxiang, who was also the son of King Chuhuai. Since Chu Huai Wang, the state of Chu has declined. Of course, this is mainly given by Qin. In the case of the Five Kingdoms Fighting Qi, although Yan was the direct beneficiary, Qin was able to weaken the powerful enemy of Qi. Therefore, when Le Yi was fighting Qi, King Chu Qingxiang dispatched the general of Nao Chi to rescue Qi.
Nao Te (?-283 years ago), a "Zhu Te", "Mourning Teeth", "Mourning Teeth", generals of Chu State during the Warring States Period. In the fifteenth year of King Qingxiang of Chu (284 BC), the Yan general Le Yi broke the Qi capital Linzi (now northeast of Zibo, Shandong), and King Qi Yuan fled. He was ordered by the king of Chu Qingxiang to lead his army to save Qi, and was appointed by the king of Qi Dao as Qi Xiang. From the perspective of King Qi Chao, he naturally wanted to use Chu's army to restore Qi. However, the end result was that Nao Chi killed King Qi Dao. Regarding this, in the author's opinion, this may be King Qi's arrogance, failing to give enough respect to the generals of Chu State Naoya, causing the latter to be angry and kill him.
二
Of course, it could also be that Nao Chi realized that Qi had lost most of its territory, that is, it was difficult to recover, so he got rid of the worthless King Qi. After killing King Qi Yao, Wang Sunjia raised his arms in the Qi State Street Market and led the crowd to kill Nao Chi. In this regard, in the author's opinion, through Nao Chi's behavior, we can find that Chu's attitude towards Qi has changed, that is, Chu did not want Qi to be destroyed at the beginning. Because of the demise of Qi State, the confrontation between Qin State and Qi State will be broken, and the Qin State will be the only one.
"Han Feizi·Nei Chu Shuxia" records: "Rang Hou Xiang Qin but Qi is strong, Rang Hou wants to establish Qin as emperor, but Qi can't do it, because he asks Qi to be the East Emperor, but he can become the emperor.
In 288 BC, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty Ranghou Wei Ran first proposed that King Qin Zhao should be emperor. King Qin Zhaoxiang accepted this suggestion in order to promote himself and also to discourage the relationship between Qi and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. In October of the same year, Wei Ran was sent to the State of Qi to persuade the King of Qi Dao to proclaim the emperor. Qin was the Western Emperor and Qi was the Eastern Emperor. Before the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, Qin and Qi were the two most powerful vassals at the time. It was once called the Second Emperor of the East and the West. However, after the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, the Kingdom of Qi declined, and the Kingdom of Qin had no opponents to check and balance. This is naturally a result that the Kingdom of Chu did not want to see.
三
Therefore, when the Five Kingdoms were fighting Qi, the Chu Kingdom chose to rescue Qi at the beginning. It was undoubtedly the right choice. Of course, after seeing that Le Yi had already underwent more than 70 cities, and the King Qi Dao had lost his soldiers. So Naoya chose to kill King Qi Zhao. On this basis, Chu also seized the opportunity to seize the land of Huaibei in Qi. When King Qi Zhao came to the throne, General Kuangzhang of Qi led Qi, Wei and Han forces to make a big break. The Chu army was in Chuisha. From then on, the Chu state had to rely on the Qi state, and sat and watched the Qi state seizing the land of Huaibei that originally belonged to the Chu state.
But when the Five Kingdoms defeated Qi, Chu The country believed that there was no hope for Qi’s restoration, so it took the opportunity to regain the land of Huaibei. Since then, the land of Huaibei has been occupied by the State of Chu. For example, Chu KaolieIn the first year of Wang (262 BC), with Huang Xie as the prime minister, he gave him 12 counties north of the Huai River and named Chun Shen Jun. On this basis, for Chu State, if it can save Qi State, then help Qi State. If it can’t help, take the opportunity to seize Qi’s Huaibei land and avoid conquering Qi in the Five Kingdoms. Nothing in one action.
四
Finally, in the 16th year of King Chu Qingxiang (283 BC), King Chu Qingxiang and King Qin Zhao met friendly in Yanyi. In the autumn of the same year, King Chu Qingxiang and King Qin Zhao met again in Rangyi. After the Five Kingdoms defeated Qi, King Chu Qingxiang was forced to adjust his foreign strategy, that is, he took the initiative to show his favor to Qin, in order to prevent Qin from aggressively attacking Chu. Before the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, Chu could be sold between Qin and Qi and had more options. However, after the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, Qi had fallen from the camp of a powerful country, and King Chu Qingxiang could only show his favor to Qin continuously. In the nineteenth year of King Chu Qingxiang (280 BC), the Qin State attacked the Chu State. The Chu army was defeated and ceded the Chu State Shangyong and Hanbei to Qin State. After that, Bai Qi led Chu's army to launch the Yanying Battle.
In the Battle of Yanying, not only the capital of Chu was destroyed, but also a large area of land was lost. In the face of the Qin army led by Bai Qi, King Chu Qingxiang retreated to the northeast and secured Chen Capital (now Huaiyang, Henan), and moved his capital to Chen Capital. In the thirty-sixth year of King Chu Qingxiang (263 BC), King Chu Qingxiang fell ill, and Xiong Wan fled back to Chu. In the autumn of the same year, King Chu Qingxiang passed away, and Xiong Wan ascended the throne as King Chu Kaolie. In general, during the Five Kingdoms' Conquest of Qi, although Chu did not join the coalition led by Yan, it still gained the land of Huaibei in Qi. However, after the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, Qin was unstoppable, and was able to severely inflict Chu State in the Battle of Yanying, prompting Chu State to further decline. As for the Kingdom of Zhao, the Kingdom of Wei, and South Korea, they have been constantly eroded by the Kingdom of Qin. From this perspective, the Five Kingdoms' Fighting of Qi can be regarded as one of the turning points in the history of the Warring States Period.
