Zhao Kuo was not wronged in the real process of the battle of Changping

I have read many articles on the battle of Changping, and they all reproduce the grand occasion of the year from different angles, and also show the real situation of the battle of Changping from different angles. Recently, Zhao Kuo has rehabilitated many people. Roughly speaking, Zhao Guo's defeat lies in the country's greatest weapon, and Zhao Kuo is just a backstop. I don't want to talk about major strategic issues first, but only discuss the tactical issues of the battle from the battle itself. Let's take a real look at how the battle of Changping was fought. The specific tactics used in the war can clearly see whether Zhao Kuo should be rehabilitated. To discuss Zhao Kuo's tactics clearly, I think we should look at it from the following four questions.

1. The issue of troop strength

First of all, what is the troop strength of this war? Proving troop strength is an important factor in combat. It is generally said that Qin and Zhao invested a total of more than 1 million troops. The key to the source of troop strength is It lies in the population. At that time, the total population of the Warring States Period was about 20 million, Qin accounted for one-third, that is, more than 6 million people, Zhao was more than 200,000 square kilometers, and the population was about 3 million. The total population of the two countries was about 9 million. In the state of regular warfare, it is normal to draw one out of ten. Therefore, it is still possible that the total strength of Qin and Zhao is about one million.

Let’s take a look at the number of troops in the Zhao country first?

According to Su Qin, there are 70,000 households in Linzi, and each household can have three men. "It doesn't wait to be sent out in the county, and Linzi has already got 210,000." Linzi and Handan have always been called together. By the same amount, Handan can produce at least 100,000 people. This is a conservative figure. In addition, Zhao State has five counties: Shangdang County, Taiyuan County, Yanmen County, Yunzhong County, Dai County, and Anping County, among which Shangdang County has 24 counties, Taiyuan County has 37 counties, and Dai County There are 36 counties, which are clearly recorded in historical books. Based on 20 counties per county, there are a total of 120 counties in the six counties of Zhao State. Each county sent 3,000 troops, and 120 counties totaled 360,000. With the addition of at least 100,000 in Handan and other metropolises, it is possible for Zhao Guo to collect 450,000 horses.

However, how many troops can Zhao have in the Changping battlefield? According to later records, Li Mu killed more than 100,000 Huns. Excluding most of the praises, Li Mu’s troops stationed in northern Xinjiang were at least 50,000 to 60,000. In addition, Yan State always harassed Zhao State as a confidant.Zhao Guo also needs to have troops to guard against him. In addition, Zhao Nai must have troops stationed in other places in the Fourth War. It is estimated that the garrison will be fifty or sixty thousand; and from the whole process of Zhao Guo's battle in Changping, there is no one from beginning to end. It is considered that when it is a decisive battle, Zhao will not invest the troops of the country, so a reasonable estimate of the investment in the Changping battlefield is about

is 3/4 of the total force; if it is reluctant to estimate that Zhao will recruit more troops and garrison everywhere No matter how small it is, it is still possible that Zhao Guo has put in about 400,000 troops. For the time being, I accept that Zhao’s total military strength is 450,000 as recorded in the Records of the History.

So how much troops did Qin put in?

Qin and Zhao fought before, the battle of Huayang is 150,000, and the battle of Yique is 240,000. Both the strategic significance and the scale of the enemy are larger than those of the two battles. Qin will not be less than the previous force. It is described from many aspects. Qin also sent all the soldiers of the country; Qin invested 600,000 in the subsequent war to destroy the country, and the national power at that time should be stronger than in Changping, so it should not be too much; plus more than half of this battle. Think that Qin is the Zhao Jun who besieged and killed 450,000. "Sun Tzu Art of War: Conspiracy Chapter" says, "Ten to encircle, and five to attack." Ten times the enemy can consider besieging the enemy. It can't be against the sky, so Qin's troops are no less than 450,000, but it will not exceed 600,000. In addition, the soldiers and horses have not moved the food and grass first. From the perspective of the food and grass supporting the war, the Qin army roughly needs 5 million stone rations from June to September. All counties in Qin have county warehouses for storing grain. When the Battle of Changping broke out, the Qin army left Wuling from the east of the river, and it was only more than 200 miles away to reach Changping. At this time, the work of conveying grain and grass immediately began in the rear. The model was to use the county closest to the front line to provide grain for the army, and the counties in the rear to make up for it first. During the Qin Dynasty, official surveys of the roads between various places were recorded, forming a "journey brief" with a clear mileage. There are such slips in the Qin slips unearthed in Hunan Province, and their recorded journeys even cross several counties. When the grain transportation work began, the Qin Dynasty could levy the most extensive manpower and ox carts for transportation. This can be seen in the book "Book of Merchants" on behalf of the Legalist School of the Warring States Period. To ensure the speed of transportation, it is forbidden for the grain-carrying vehicle to bear the commission for private transportation after it reaches the destination.Need to return quickly with an empty car in order to make another trip. The "Two-year Law" in the early Han Dynasty clearly stipulated that a full-loaded vehicle would travel 50 miles a day, an empty vehicle would travel 70 miles a day, and an empty vehicle would travel 80 miles a day. law justicfication. Because the distance between counties and counties is mostly within 200 miles, both people and vehicles can bring their own rations. They can travel day and night without consuming military rations supplied by the official warehouse. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, this kind of food truck was generally used for carrying rations. Millet with 25 shi, can carry six people at the same time, and transport 10,000 shi with only 400 vehicles. The cycle of transporting rations is 7 days, about 12 cycles of 5 million shi, 420,000 shi per cycle, and the fastest transportation of rations requires 16,800 vehicles and nearly 100,000 people. Sun Ziyun's so-called bring one hundred thousand armours, thousands of miles to feed food, and daily expenses, so you have to check it out. From this it can be seen that many descriptions of Qin Jun's consumption should be consistent with the reasoning of 600,000.

So "The Battle of Changping: A Study of the Largest Battle in Ancient China" written by , Jin Shenghe and Xie Hongxi. Many of the views in are recognized by the mainstream.

2. The problem of capturing prisoners and killing prisoners

The historical records record that Bai Qikeng killed 400,000 pawns of Zhao. If there are fewer casualties and defeat, there may be many reasons. Then there are no tactics. If there are many casualties and lose, then it must have gone through a fierce confrontation, and if there is a confrontation, tactics can be discussed.

According to Chang Silong's argument in the book "Variations", it is untrue that Bai Qikeng Zhao Zuo 400,000 Yu Taniguchi said. "From Gaoping city to the north, to Yonglu area, including Wangbao, Temple Village, Arrowhead, Siege, etc., the Dan River Valley between the east and west mountains should be the main battlefield of the Changping War, and it was also the surrender of Zhao Zuo. Therefore, it should be the place where Bai Qikeng killed Zhao Zu." It is very possible that Qin Jun killed Zhao Jun not by burying him alive, but after killing the corpse in the wilderness. It is a huge project to dig a hole and bury 400,000 people.Later, when Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty passed by, he still felt the tragedy of the battlefield. He built the Skull Temple to see that there should be people who were killed or injured, or that only 200,000 corpses were killed, or that there were not so many corpses in this area. , Or many of the 400,000 were civilians, not all Zhao Jun. The number of 400,000 was not used by Qin to deter the Six Nations, but it is very likely that the Six Nations reported out to encourage the living people to know Qin’s tyranny and the same enemy to abandon. The thought of surrender arrived at Qin desperately. So in general, 400,000 should not be the last remaining Zhao Jun, 200,000 people are more reasonable to be accepted by everyone. Then the casualties of Zhao Jun are around 250,000, this number must have gone through fierce fighting.

In addition, according to Bai Qi's own statement, "Qin Zhu died, the country is empty." First of all, this was when Qin Jun wanted to use Bai Qi again to destroy Zhao, Bai Qi said when Bai Qi was reluctant to go. It was a bit to make excuses and exaggerate the casualties. Suspect, if it is said about Changping, Qin’s casualties are more than 300,000 out of 600,000 troops. Considering the exaggeration, it may be more than 200,000. If it does not only refer to Changping, Qin has suffered more than half of the deaths and injuries after the battle, and the country is empty, then Changping's casualties cannot be calculated at half of 600,000. However, Bai Qi means that the Changping War has suffered a lot of casualties. It should be a fact. With the fighting power of the Qin Army and Bai Qi's consistent record, Zhao Jun should also have a lot of casualties, and these casualties mostly refer to the decisive battle with Zhao Kuo, and from a certain angle, it shows that there is a fierce confrontation with Zhao Kuo.

Again, many archaeological excavations in later generations have confirmed that the confrontation between Qin and Zhao at that time in the Gaoping Danhe area was tragic. Zhao Jun's strength should be on the northern grasslands, and in the Central Plains, it should not be enough to destroy a large number of Qin troops with small casualties. We must know that the Qin Army had already ramped the Warring States Period from its military system to its armaments at that time. There is no such miracle spreading like the Weiwei Rescue Zhao and Qimen Dunjia, so Zhao Jun's casualties should be equal to Qin Jun's, it is impossible to have only 50,000, and the final Zhao Jun regular army should be less than 400,000.

3. The problem of encirclement

On Zhao Kuo’s biggest tactical failure lies in the problem of being besieged by the Qin army. Can Qin Zhen encircle Zhao’s 400,000 with 600,000?

Qin captured Zhao Baili’s Ten Great Wall from Changping Pass to the Gu Pass with 25,000 horses, and cut the connection between Zhao’s main force and his army with 5,000 horses. Even if it only cost 30,000 people to encircle Zhao Baili's main force with the help of the terrain. If Zhao Jun's east and north are one and a half sides, then it is difficult for the south, west and east behind Zhao Jun's army to rely on 50, tens of thousands and 400,000 yuan. It is difficult for Qin and Zhao to fight in the area of ​​Kongcangling, the barrier of the Qin army. According to various accounts, the main force of the Qin army should be located west of the Dan River, where the Qin army's barriers are located. In ancient times, fighting more with less, mostly relying on killing the enemy in the wilderness, killing the opponent's fighting spirit and military strength, or using water, fire, rocks, etc. to use terrain to fight ambushes. The siege lasted for 46 days. With a head-to-head siege, the Qin Army could intersperse between Zhao’s 400,000 troops with 5,000 horses, which meant that Zhao Zilong killed Cao Ying’s seven ins and outs, or all the 5,000 people were burdened. A stunted parachutist, otherwise, don't say that you dare to do it for nothing, you can't even think about it. However, Zhao Junwei was definitely besieged, and it is impossible that some Zhao Jun could obviously escape without running, and then wait for that surrender, and then be buried inexplicably. Qin Zhao was a mortal enemy at the time, and Zhao Jun was sturdy, so he would die in battle, and he would die in battle, and he must surrender after being surrounded by nowhere to choose. At that time, Zhao Guo's rescue could not get in and it would not be unfounded. Therefore, 450,000 will be destroyed but must go through a deadly battle, but it will not be so unbearable to be 5,000 riders in it. So either these records are wrong, the Qin army is more than that, or it is just the vanguard. Either there are not so many people under siege. As mentioned earlier, there are only so many Qin army, so it is very likely that after the fierce confrontation between the two armies of Qin and Zhao, Zhao Jun has not much left and was surrounded by the Qin army, and then starved to death.

In this way, Zhao Kuo’s casualties are actually very large. In the confrontation with the Qin army, Qin 300,000 was not destroyed by 50,000, but it is very likely that Qin 50,000 was destroyed by 300,000. In the end, a civil servant who had 200,000 plus some heroes transported food was sent to Qin Baiqi's butcher's knife.

Fourth, the tactical problem

Finally, we focus on the course of the battle, the tactical level shown by Zhao Kuo in the middle.

As soon as he arrived on the battlefield, he "should be more restrained and easy to set up military officials" (Historical Records · Lian Po Lin Xiangru Biographies), that is, he completely abandoned Lian Po's strategy and tactics and replaced the generals at will.The famous anecdote of Zhao Jun's eight generals admonishing each other to death happened like this. This should be a big taboo of military strategists. Zhao Wang's replacement of generals has already been criticized, but Zhao Kuo is even worse. This is nothing tactical.

The main force of the Zhao army led by Zhao Kuo finally determined to be surrounded by the main force of the Qin army and the strange soldiers in a triangular area of ​​about fifty to sixty kilometers in the Zhou Dynasty of the Xuan family, the Changping Pass, the Guan Yi Xuan family, with Hanwang Mountain as the center; this The area is surrounded by four mountains, and the three waters are obstructed. It should be a dead place, and ignorance of the terrain should be a tactical place.

Compared with Lian Po, it is also in the area of ​​Bailishi Great Wall and Danhe. Lianpo was not attacked by the Qin army and lost the Bailishi, while Zhao Kuo should be empty of Bailishi and Dahe. Liangshan was occupied by the Qin army, and he ran into his pocket. However, in all wars, you should think about defeat before you win, and you must have a good preparation for the key points of the military battle. This is the three lack of tactics.

Look at Zhao Kuo's "Qin army was defeated in detail, and Zhang Erqi's army was robbed. Zhao army won, chasing the Qin wall." His offensive route was to attack Danhe first The place the Qin army must guard, and then crossing the river to hit the Qin army's barriers are also easy to defend and difficult to attack. To cross the river to break the fortress, they are all hard bones to be gnawed in battle. Could it be that the brave will win when they meet on a narrow road? If you don't see any shrewdness in tactics just like this, right? Bai Qi can use the Qibing to borrow the way to copy your Bailishi Changping Pass, and you can take the Xiaocanghe to intercept the rear path of your heavy troop. Wouldn't you also use the terrain to copy a few words to make a strange soldier? This is four. There is no tactical place.

Let's look at Bai Qi stationed in the strategically important area of ​​Wolf City (now Kangying). First, Zhaishang Village, northwest of Jinkangying, is a natural Gaofu. In the center of a highland, there is a famous scenic spot Anzhen Fort, which has an unusually wide view. This move is for the generals. What is more necessary for the army to control the overall situation and plan tactics, and Zhao Kuo gave up the three armies of Han Wang Shanxi. According to local literature, it is said that the three armies were named after the "Zhao Sanjun Command Station" ("Gaoping County Chronicles", page 317, China Map Publishing House, 1992). This place belongs to the front desk of Hanwang Mountain, backed by Hanwang Mountain, you can ascend the enemy; it faces the open land of Yonglu River and Dan River, and can be used for assaults. Instead, he charged ahead and was shot at Taniguchi by random arrows. This is where there is courage and no tactics.

Just as the Zhao army broke through the defense line of the West Qin Army in the Dan River, they drove straight forward, and when the large troops gathered in the Dan River waiting to cross the assault, they found that the front was frustrated by the assault on the deep and deep Qin camp, and their own back was reversed. The food road was severed, and even lost contact between the upper and lower parts, and the Qin army began to fight back. In the rapid deterioration of the battle situation, Zhao Jun was forced to abandon the offensive, retreat to the above-mentioned triangle, hurriedly built barriers and stood there, waiting for rescue. Judging from this result, it is also a phenomenon that the trap set by the Qin Jun allows you to drill. If you are smart, why can't you think of what to do after breaking through Danhe? What if you are copied? How to arm it? This is the place where there is no tactics.

The war is imminent. The military rations should be very important. We look at Guandu and Zhuge’s Northern Expedition. You are not the Huns, you still learn the tactics of attack, and you don't pay much attention to armaments and you fall to death. This is where there are no tactics.

Sun Tzu has another plan to fight against the city, and Zhao Kuo loses the only viable consortium at the time and chooses the invincible strong attack. In fact, it is no longer a famous general or a famous commander. Coupled with the above seven tactics, the Zhao army led by them suffered heavy casualties, and finally fell to a shameful end of being encircled and annihilated. It should be a worthy talk on paper. There shouldn’t be any more vindications. If 50,000 casualties are used to overcome 300,000 losses, that’s false. Fighting hard for 46 days without surrender, that is your Zhao Jun boy's blood or white clearness, not fighting against the trapped beasts is enough to make you starve to death.

So from the point of view of the battle tactics of the Battle of Changping, he should be a god in vain, the only undefeated record, the god of constant victory and kill proudly in the top position. Zhao Kuo had no record, and annihilation in the first battle was helpless and inevitable.

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