In 284 B.C., the biggest culprit of the Five Kingdoms Expedition was actually Zhao

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-30

In fact, the fuse of the 'Five Kingdoms Invasion of Qi' is the same as the 'Battle of Maling' more than 50 years ago, when Korea greatly damaged the vitality of Wei, so that Qi successfully dealt a fatal blow to Wei in the 'Battle of Maling'.

And the 'Five Kingdoms Expedition to Qi' is also a war similar to this, but the protagonist Qi has changed from a former victor to a later loser, and it is also in response to the sentence 'If you come out to mix, you will have to pay it back sooner or later'.

We all know that the State of Qi was very powerful in the middle and late Warring States period ruled by King Qi, defeating Qin and Sanjin in the west, breaking Chu in the south, and Expedition Yan in the north was almost invincible, so King Qi was even more self-proclaimed as 'Eastern Emperor' at that time.

Since King Qi can create such great achievements, of course, he is not the kind of mediocre and incompetent king.

At this time, because Qi and Qin respected each other as the 'Eastern Emperor' and the 'Western Emperor', the other five countries were in a hurry, and the other five countries were forced to form a five-nation alliance to counterattack Qi and Qin.

Because Han, Wei, and Chu were bullied the most by the Qin State at that time, under the mediation of Su Qin and Zhao Xiang Li Dui, the five countries of the 'United States' unanimously pointed their troops at the Qin State.

Seeing that the armies of the Five Kingdoms were menacing, the Qin State did not dare to fight, so it immediately surrendered to the Five Kingdoms and returned some of the previously occupied lands of Han, Wei, and Chu.

And in the east, King Qi is naturally the most concerned about the war of the 'Five Kingdoms Invasion of Qin', after all, Su Qin's matchmaking of the 'Five Kingdoms Invasion of Qin' also has the contribution of King Qi's full funding.

I originally wanted to watch a wonderful show of the falling flowers and flowing water between the Qin State and the Five Nations Alliance, and I could finally benefit from the Qi State, but I didn't expect the Qin State to succumb so quickly, so King Qi was also worried at the moment.

Therefore, under Su Qin's suggestion, the king of Qi thought of a better way, which was to unite the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, and Chu, teach the Song State, which had been a little unruly recently, and finally carve it up, so as to prevent the troops of the 'Five Kingdoms United States' from being transferred to the Qi State.

Because the Song State has been reaping the benefits of the great power competition recently, it not only offended the Wei State and the Chu State, but also sent troops to offend the Qi State.

And Zhao has long been weeping on the land of the Song State, and the biggest goal of the three generations of Zhao Jinghou, Chenghou, and Suhou has struggled all their lives is to go south to seize the land of Weiguo and Song and dominate the Central Plains.

Therefore, because of their respective interests, the four countries hit it off and formed a four-nation alliance to begin a crusade against the Song State.

Although the Song State has always been known as the 'Eighth Hero of the Warring States', it has always been because it is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the land is fertile, and the surrounding powers are relatively balanced.

Now that the balance of surrounding forces has long been broken by Qi and Qin, it is naturally difficult for a place like the Song State to stand alone.

Therefore, under the attack of the Four-Nation Alliance, the Song State was quickly defeated, and the territory was almost completely divided by the Four Kingdoms.

However, because Wei and Zhao annexed some of the richest lands of Song, this naturally caused dissatisfaction among the allied alliance leaders, Qi State.

At that time, Zhao occupied the entire northwestern region of the Song State, including the richest Taoyi, Wei occupied Suiyang and Ningling, the capital of the Song State, and Chu occupied Pengcheng and Xiangcheng of the Song State.

However, the Qi State only occupied some places on the northeast border of the Song State, and even retreated with the Qi army, and the Zhao State and the Wei State also included the Song State lands conquered by the Qi State into their occupied territory.

King Qi was furious, and first took the weakest Wei State at that time, and Wei State immediately withdrew from the occupied Song State because it was not the opponent of Qi State, and suffered a dumb loss.

After that, King Qi began to use Zhao Guo again, but Zhao Guo was unwilling to spit out the meat that had been eaten in his mouth.

After all, the goal that several generations of previous kings of Zhao Kingdom have worked hard for a lifetime has been achieved here by King Zhao Huiwen, how can King Zhao Huiwen give in easily?

Therefore, after discussion, the monarchs and ministers of Zhao State unanimously agreed to send troops to defend the occupied Song land, even if it was a war with Qi State.

Therefore, the largest Qi and Zhao war in the middle and late Warring States period, the 'Battle of Taoyi', broke out.

At that time, the State of Qi dispatched almost all the troops of about 500,000 troops to the Song Dynasty, and the State of Zhao counted many times to increase troops to the front line, and the total scale of troops sent was probably not less than 400,000.

The two countries fought on the Song territory from the end of 288 BC to 285 BC.

Historical Records of the Zhao Family", "Huiwen Wang Chapter", "Warring States Policy", and "Zhuzi Baijia" all have brief records of the large-scale 'Battle of Taoyi' of Qi and Zhao.

From the beginning to the end of this war, although Zhao has been in a state of defense and defeat, Zhao has been increasing troops on the front line, almost repeatedly defeated, and the number of casualties is estimated to be no less than 200,000, and Qi is probably not much better, almost ending in a miserable victory.

We can also compare the Wei state after the 'Battle of Maling' and the Qi state after the 'Battle of Taoyi'.

Therefore, this 'Battle of Taoyi' not only greatly damaged the vitality of the Eastern Overlord Qi State, but also made the Zhao State, which had accumulated national strength for decades, completely lose the strength to compete with the Qin State for hegemony after this war.

If there was no 'Battle of Taoyi', how could there be the 'Le Yi Breaking Qi' and 'Qin, Wei and Chu Three Song Lands' that happened later, but instead the Zhao State, which was closest to the Qi State at that time, could only watch from the wall, and became the least profitable country among the neighboring countries after the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi?

After the end of this 'Battle of Taoyi', the Qin State had become the biggest beneficiary of this war, and began to attack Han, Wei and Chu with impunity, and was no longer afraid that the Zhao State would take advantage of this to attack him.

Therefore, without the 'Battle of Taoyi' between Qi and Zhao, it would have been impossible for the 'Five Kingdoms to Conquer Qi' incident, and perhaps in the future, the two great powers of Qi and Qin would have carved up the world.

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