The first person after the Yellow Emperor

The first person after the Yellow Emperor

The first great man after the Yellow Emperor, without him, the Zhao State would have been finished, how could the Qin State be unified with him?

Wu Qi died, and died vigorously, but where he fell, another reformer stood up vigorously, and his name was King Zhao Wuling.

King Zhao Wuling is a bit like the Duke of Qi Huan in the Spring and Autumn Period, who is suave, heroic, generous and chivalrous;The youth is troubled, the middle is strong, and the late season is not guaranteed.

Therefore, his nickname is "Wu Ling", the "Wu" of the mighty and virtuous, and the "Spirit" of chaos but not damage.

Like Wu Qi, King Zhao Wuling was also a historical figure with ideals and ambitions who wanted to reform society and change the world, and in the end, they were all buried by their own reform ideals.

And different from Wu Qi, Zhao Wuling's reform is greater, more historical, because it represents the grand cause of the great integration of the Chinese nation, on behalf of the broad mind of inclusiveness, so in modern times, Zhao Wuling King has been more and more people with lofty ideals in China to respect and admire, and his mediocre and willful historical image in his later years has also been reversed to a certain extent.

For example, in 1903, when the Chinese nation was in danger of survival, Liang Qichao wrote such an article "The First Great Man After the Yellow Emperor - The Biography of King Zhao Wuling", praising King Zhao Wuling to inspire the people

The first great man after the Yellow Emperor, King Zhao Wuling!

Woohoo, the king of martial arts is like a dragon

So that the master father (King Wuling of Zhao) and eternal years, then the unification of the industry, it will not be in Qin but in Zhao, and the golden silk of Bai Deng, the beacon of Ganquan, or will not be stained by the history of our country.

King Wuling of Zhao with his far-reaching policy, heroic material, risking all kinds of dangers and making all kinds of difficulties, in order to implement military nationalism, can make the nobles obey their teachings, Li Yuan into their customs. In the past ten years, four conquests and eight discussions have made Zhao a first-class country at that time, and the prestige of our folk customs has been promoted outside the territory. The former is beyond the reach of Shanfu and Uncle Fang;After this, there are few things that Meng Tian and Wei Qing can't do.

To make the king of martial spirits and today, Kaiser Wilhelm is the second to be stunned!

Shang Jun (Shang Ying), Bismarck of Qin;And the king of martial arts, Zhao Zhida Peter also.

On the railway station square of Handan City, Hebei Province today, there is a majestic landmark sculpture of the city, that is, the pride of Handan people, the pride of Hebei people, and the king of Zhao Wuling.

The era when King Zhao Wuling was born was the most chaotic era of the Warring States. The Qin State underwent the Shang Dynasty Reform and became a first-line power in the Warring States Period, and through more than 40 years of war against the Wei State, it seized large tracts of land in Hedong and Hexi (Note 1).The state of Qi went through the Zou Ji Reform and the Battle of Maling, and also ranked firmly in the first-line power of the Warring States;The state of Chu changed the law through Wu Qi, and made great efforts in the world of Xuanwei, taking the Three Gorges and Hanzhong in the west, and the sphere of influence in the north reached between Ruying, but due to the fact that the change was not long, the aristocratic power had begun to rise at this time, and the development momentum had slowed down, but the overall strength was still long and short with Qi and Qin, and the strength was only between the two middles. The situation of Sanjin is worse, and they have basically been reduced to second-tier countries. As mentioned earlier, due to a strategic mistake in the old power of Wei, the land of the West River was taken by the Qin State, and it was flattened by the Qi State in the Battle of Maling. After South Korea changed the law, the national power had begun to rise, but a rebellion in the Southern Liang made South Korea suffer heavy losses, and Shen Buxiao also died in this year, which made the South Korean reform come to an abrupt end;In 339 B.C., the Qin army captured Yiyang, the old capital of South Korea, which was "eight miles away from the city and 100,000 soldiers (infantry defenders"), which made Korea slump and never returned to the ranks of powerful countries.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhao family was originally the leader of the Three Jin Dynasty, and the Zhao family head Zhao Jianzi Zhao Ying and Zhao Xiangzi Zhao Wuxian were also eloquent, they used the large mu system and the system of exemption from land tax to win the hearts of the people (Note 2), and used a large number of scholars and bureaucrats, and even implemented the earliest military merit system (Note 3), and published an earlier written law (Note 4), which can be said to lead the representative of the new trend of social change at that time. And this also made Zhao develop rapidly when the three families were divided into Jin, and they were divided into a large number of Hebei territories, known as "there are generations in the north, and the south is known as the clan, which is stronger than Han and Wei". But it is a pity that after the death of Zhao Xiangzi, the ruling class of Zhao was divided into two factions due to strategic differences, one was the northern faction, advocating the development of the northern Daidi (that is, the area of the Datong Plain of Shanxi and the Weixian Plain of Hebei) and the Hetao (that is, the agricultural area of the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia and the area of the grassland of the Yellow River), and the other faction was the southern faction, advocating the development of the Central Plains in the south, and the two factions repeatedly launched infighting, six coups d'état in a hundred years, one monarch was expelled, two sons were killed, and two sons died, which greatly consumed the national strength of Zhao, and as a result, Wei later became the boss of the Three Jin Dynasty in the early Warring States period。 In addition, in these internal struggles, the victorious side was often the southern faction, after all, the favorable living conditions in the Central Plains were more attractive to the nobles of Zhao State, and the capital of Zhao State also moved south from Jinyang all the way south to Zhongmu and then east to Handan in these decades.

However, the southern faction was wrong, and the Zhao state, which had serious internal strife, did not mix well in the fiercely competitive Central Plains, although it fought wars every year (Note 5), but gained very little, and often stole chickens and rice, especially in 354 BC, when the Zhao state failed to annex the land, but was beaten by the Wei state, and the capital Handan was also captured for two years, with heavy losses and almost collapse. Fortunately, later the Wei State was also beaten by the Qi State and the Qin State, and it became weaker and weaker, so it should be the turn of the Zhao State to get back some cheapness, right?

However, this cheap is not easy to beg, because there is a big nail in Zhao Guo's heart, and a big nail has been buried for a long time.

This big nail is the Zhongshan country established by the Bai Di Xianyu clan. This guy struck into the heart of Zhao like a thorn, only the northeast corner intersected with Yan State, and the rest of the territory intersected with Zhao State, thus dividing the territory of Zhao State into two large blocks centered on Handan, an important town of agricultural civilization, and Daijun, an important town of nomadic civilization, which was difficult to transport, and could only be reached by crossing the border of Zhongshan or detouring through Shangdang County in South Korea. This makes it difficult for the north and south resources of Zhao to learn from each other's strengths, and will only contain each other, thus greatly hindering Zhao's development and external expansion.

This Zhongshan country does not belong to the list of the Seven Heroes, but it is more troublesome than the Seven Heroes, in the Spring and Autumn Period, it is the leader of the Bai Di League, and the strong Jin has been at war for a long time, the Jin State has destroyed so many Rong Di, but Xian Yu has never occupied an absolute advantage, and even let Xian Yu establish a country in the Taihang Mountains Zhongshan State, and later Wei Wenhou was strong, sent the famous general Le Yang to destroy it, but after the Wei State weakened, it was restored, not only restored, but also the army became stronger and stronger, with nine thousand military vehicles, and later called the king.

Because of this, more than half of the good drama of the Warring States period was sung, and Zhao Guo was still in vain, and he was aggrieved. What's even more aggrieved is that this Zhongshan country is very powerful in diplomacy, Guo Songtao said in the "Xianyu Zhongshan State Affairs Table" that it "is wrong between the six countries, vertical and horizontal, and cross-control", so he united with Qi Yan and came to harass Zhao at every turn, which made the people of Zhao panic and couldn't sleep well.

And at this time when the grievances reached the extreme, Zhao Suhou, the monarch of Zhao State, died suddenly, and his youngest son Zhao Wuling, King Zhao Yong, took the throne, he was only sixteen years old at the time, and he took over his father's mess with a blank face.

This time it's terrible, the powers stared at the pink and tender Zhao boy, and their saliva was about to flow into a river.

The five giants of Wei, Chu, Qin, Yan, and Qi all sent envoys to visit Zhao and comfort him in the young heart of the young man who lost his father.

However, the old-timers came to see the little nephew, how could they come empty-handed, they each brought 10,000 elite soldiers, full of kindness and bad intentions. It turned out that when the previous three generations of monarchs of Zhao State, Jinghou, Chenghou, and Suhou ascended the throne, a struggle broke out for the throne of Gongzi, and the five countries brought troops to wait and see if they could take advantage of the chaos to bargain.

For these greasy inside, of course, the young Zhao Yong is like a fire: a grand memorial service with swords and swords, the army of the five major powers in the world gathered thousands of miles away in Zhao to remember my father, it is really unprecedented and unprecedented, I am afraid that even Zhou Tianzi does not have this courtesy, everyone is really giving my father face.

Of course, in the face of these giants who take advantage of the fire to rob, it is useless to just play lip service;Zhao Yong needs to use practical actions to prove that although he is small, he is not easy to mess with at all, and it is dangerous to provoke him.

As a result, under the leadership of King Wuling of Zhao and Feiyi (Note 6), a-for-tat rescue operation of the Zhao State was launched.

King Wuling of Zhao ordered that the whole country of Zhao be in a state of first-class combat readiness, and united with allies Han and the Chen soldiers of Song to threaten the rear of Wei. Then bribe the king of Yue Wujiang and make him attack Chu;Bribe the king of Lou to make him hit Yan and Zhongshan;Set their backyard on fire.

Immediately afterwards, King Wuling of Zhao sounded the red alarm and ordered the whole city of Handan to be under martial law, and all foreign ** teams were not allowed to enter the city, otherwise they would be killed. Then the minister of Zhao led the army to escort the envoys of various countries into the city to mourn.

What a 180-degree slalom kick in the air, beautiful!

At this moment, Wei, Yan, and Chu are behind**, and Zhao's national elite is gathered in Handan, and the five giants saw this scene, and they retreated all of a sudden, they never thought that this little kid would be so powerful, so tough, it seems that there is nothing to take advantage of, so they have to announce the successful conclusion of this joint military exercise, let's withdraw!

The threat disappeared while talking and laughing, and the 16-year-old Zhao Wuling King's first performance on the stage of the Warring States period showed his precocious political wisdom, excellent military diplomacy and crisis management ability. Fans screamed wildly, welcoming another very good and powerful character in the world.

King Zhao Wuling does have all the characteristics of becoming an idol, he is young, both civil and military, dashing, extraordinary, according to historical records, he has a red complexion, a dragon-faced beak, sideburns and eyebrows, a lush beard, developed chest muscles, a tiger's back and a bear's waist, ** slender, burly upper body, tall and domineering, and rich and idealistic, it is simply the dream lover of girls, the prince of dark horses.

We will talk about him later that he likes adventure, likes to travel, likes to dream, likes fashion, and will have some small inventions (according to the record of Zhang Dai's "Night Sailing Boat" in the Ming Dynasty, "Diao Dou" was invented by him), and more importantly, he is also very infatuated and loves his family, such a new good man, even I am a little tempted, not to mention those female fans in front of the computer, isn't it?

Let's move on to the situation of Zhao Guo at that time.

At present, Zhao Guozhu is few, internal and external instability, and the top priority is to calm people's hearts and minds and then try to develop.

As a result, King Wuling claimed to be young and retreated behind the scenes to temporarily avoid politics;And appointed the important minister of the clan Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao as the prime minister, to enhance the first dynasty nobles and ministers of the fat and righteous Yu Lu, and set up three "erudite teachers" and "division officials" three to assist themselves, and finally, all the old people over 80 years old in the country are subject to the name of "national elders", and they are comforted by the government every month, and they can be used at any time to supervise the national affairs - this means that they should respect the old and respect the virtuous. Previously, there had been repeated civil strife in the Zhao State in which the prince was vying for the throne, and King Wuling of Zhao had to lower his posture in order to gain more support and support him to do what he wanted.

He was waiting, waiting for the moment when his wings would be full, and he would soar into the sky.

At this time, although the crisis of "Five Kingdoms Seeking Zhao" has been temporarily lifted, however, the situation of Zhao is still very bad - two years before King Wuling of Zhao ascended the throne, because Qin State captured the upper county of Wei State, that is, the area of the plateau in northern Shaanxi, which posed a threat to the territory of the Taiyuan Basin of Zhao State, so Zhao crossed the Yellow River west of Zhao and preemptively attacked Shangjun, but was defeated and killed in the west of the Yellow River. A year before King Wuling of Zhao ascended the throne, Han Ju, a general of Zhao, was defeated by Qi and Wei and died in Sanqiu.

In short, before this, the wars between Zhao Guo and the other six heroes were all more losses and fewer wins, and everyone almost had the meaning of losing Xi.

How can a small, poor, weak, and chaotic country become a superpower?The first step is not to be strong, to be low-key, low-key and low-key.

Therefore, King Zhao Wuling decided to change his strategy - let's not toss, let's make friends with the great powers, no one will offend, Taoguang will cultivate obscurity, make great efforts, and concentrate on economic development and reform and opening up.

King Zhao Wuling wanted to be quiet, but his predecessor, King Wei Hui, was not willing to be lonely. Ever since Wei was beaten up by Qin and Qi, a group of Wei people began to re-examine the current international relations and strive to learn the conspiracy and vertical and horizontal techniques of Xi Guiguzi. And King Wei Hui also learned from the pain, began to reuse the Zonghengjia, and engaged in a big combination. For Wei to seek survival space in the squeeze of the three giants of Qin, Chuqi, and Qi.

So, in the third year of King Wuling of Zhao, that is, in 323 BC, led by Sun Yan, the prince of Wei, a vigorous "Five Kingdoms Xiangwang" movement was launched. At that time, among the Warring States, Qin, Chu, Qi and Wei had already claimed the throne one after another, while the second-rate powers such as Han, Zhao, Yan and Zhongshan had not yet acted, so Wei proposed that the five kingdoms of Wei, Han, Zhao, Yan and Zhongshan recognize each other's thrones, so as to declare the complete independence, sovereignty and equal status of each country, so as to achieve a joint alliance and resist the strong desire of the three giants of Qin, Chuqi and Qi to overthrow the balance of power and seek annexation.

However, for King Wei Hui's request for alliance, King Zhao Wuling did not agree, and he actually did not agree.

Make no mistake, even Zhongshan and Yan, who are much worse than Zhao, are kings, why doesn't he call them kings.

In this regard, King Zhao Wuling's explanation was: "There is no truth, dare to deal with its name!."”

Without such strength, how dare you use such a name!King Zhao Wuling was of course willing to join Hezong, but he was not at all interested in such a showy thing as "being the king". Not only did he not call him king, but he demoted himself from "Hou" to "Hou", and ordered his people to call him only "Jun", a "Jun" who was not domineering at all (Note 8).

King Zhao Wuling's choice is wise, Zhao Guo's current first priority is stability, peace, and development, not to foolishly follow King Wei Hui's ass and coax him, and talk about that kind of thing later, when his muscles grow stronger.

In short, Zhao's current strategy is peaceful diplomacy, if you don't fight me, I won't fight you, let's be good brothers.

And who is currently the most ironclad relationship with Zhao State?It is South Korea (Note 9). Okay, let's make it a little more iron.

Therefore, in the second year (322 BC), King Wuling of Zhao took the initiative to hold a summit meeting between the two countries with King Xuanhui of Han in the district to finalize the long-term strategic partnership between the two countries, and at the same time finalize the details of the marriage between Han and Zhao. Soon, King Wuling of Zhao officially married the daughter of King Xuanhui as his wife and officially became a pro-government.

This is obviously a political marriage, everything is playing the diplomatic card, if you want to say that King Wuling and Han Nu have any feelings, I'm afraid there is nothing at all. But this is the responsibility of a king, which cannot be chosen, and cannot be evaded.

Soon, King Wu Ling and Han gave birth to a child destined to be miserable in this life, Zhao Zhang. Everything is done according to the rules.

Author: Wang Gongjian.