Perhaps when it comes to King Zhao Xiaocheng, everyone will definitely think of the famous "Battle of Changping" in the late Warring States period, and it was this battle that made many descendants almost nail King Zhao Xiaocheng to the pillar of shame.
After all, there is always responsibility for failure, not to mention that King Zhao Xiaocheng is still the loser of the "Battle of Changping".
However, when we analyze the entire reign of King Zhao Xiaocheng, it seems that we find that King Zhao Xiaocheng is not as unbearable as later generations think, but more like a Ming monarch.
When we talk about the monarchs of Zhao State, most of them have an inertia, that is, at the beginning of the succession, they were young and vigorous, and they always wanted to make contributions and do a great career, but most of them would suffer a big defeat, resulting in serious losses in the country, and in the later period, they began to learn lessons.
For example, a few years after Zhao Chenghou succeeded to the throne, he was defeated by the Wei army in the "battle for defending the land", Zhao Wuling participated in the "Five Kingdoms Invasion of Qin" and was defeated by the Qin army within a few years after he succeeded to the throne, and King Zhao Huiwen participated in the "War of the Song Dynasty" and was defeated by the Qi army within a few years after he succeeded to the throne.
The same was true of King Zhao Xiaocheng, who did not long after succeeding to the throne and broke out the famous "Battle of Changping" with the then largest power of Qin.
Moreover, when King Cho Hyo-sung did not participate in the war, many courtiers dissuaded him from coveting the Shangdang region of Korea.
But if we take a closer look at the topography of the Shangdang area, we will basically understand.
If King Zhao Xiaocheng does not accept the "Shangdang", then the Qin State will have to occupy the Shangdang, which means that the Zhao State will give up its strategic place to the Qin State in the west, and the Qin State will attack Zhao State Handan from the Shangdang condescendingly in the futureThis can also be seen in Qin's later war against Zhao.
Therefore, King Zhao Xiaocheng's acceptance of the Korean party is not only at the strategic level but also in front of the national interests of Zhao State, and Zhao Sheng, the king of Pingyuan, naturally sees it clearly before supporting it, otherwise Lian Po, Tian Dan and other famous generals would have opposed it a long time ago.
This "Battle of Changping" broke out unexpectedly, because Zhao Guo could not afford to delay, he was forced to use Zhao Kuo to replace Lian Po, who insisted on defense, and pursued a quick battle strategy, but unfortunately Qin and Zhao's strength were disparity, and finally Zhao State's 400,000 troops were almost wiped out in this battle, but also consumed at least 200,000 Qin troops.
After the Battle of Changping, King Zhao Xiaocheng, who had been hit hard, was forced to submit to the Qin state.
Because the Qin State asked King Zhao Xiaocheng for the cession of six cities, King Zhao Xiaocheng originally felt that Changping was defeated and killed 400,000 Zhao warriors, and he had no shame to see the people of Zhao State, and he had to cede six cities to Qin State, isn't this to nail himself to the pillar of shame of Zhao State from now on?
Therefore, King Zhao Xiaocheng resolutely refused to agree to Qin's condition of cutting off the six cities, and actively liaised with other princes, preparing to form a "joint alliance" to fight against Qin.
Zhao Xiaocheng's move naturally angered the Qin State, so the Qin State once again sent troops to attack the Zhao State.
This time, the Qin army directly descended on the city of Handan, the capital of Zhao.
Zhao Xiaocheng's Zhao State was also faced with the situation that the national capital Handan was besieged again after the Wei State broke through the national capital Handan 95 years ago.
King Zhao Xiaocheng also followed the example of his ancestor Zhao Wuxian, who once held on to Jinyang, and began to defend Handan, and asked Wang Shu Pingyuan Jun to ask the princes for help.
Although the Qin army increased its troops twice and besieged Handan with more than 300,000 troops, under the common hatred of King Zhao Xiaocheng and the army and the people, Handan City was defended this time, and King Zhao Xiaocheng also waited for reinforcements from Chu and Wei.
Under the cooperation of King Zhao Xiaocheng and the armies of Chu and Wei, the Qin army was successfully repulsed, and King Zhao Xiaocheng asked the army to cooperate with the combined forces of Chu and Wei to pursue the Qin army, and defeated more than 300,000 Qin troops in one fell swoop, which made the Qin State suffer a great loss of vitality and did not dare to covet the East for more than ten years.
Zhao therefore also recovered a large number of lost territory that had been occupied by Qin, this war just ended, the northeast of Yan thought that Zhao had no strength after the Battle of Handan, so they sent troops to invade Zhao, as a result of which many years of war broke out between Zhao and Yan.
In the end, under the command of Lian Po and Le Cheng, the soldiers of Zhao besieged the capital of Yan State, and Yan State was forced to submit to Zhao State, and this Yan-Zhao War also ended with King Zhao Xiaocheng completely subduing Yan State.
However, as soon as the Yan-Zhao War ended, the Qin State began to send troops to attack the Zhao State again.
So King Zhao Xiaocheng immediately contacted Chu, Wei, Han, and Yan to form a five-nation alliance to counterattack Qin, defeating the Qin army in one fell swoop, and driving the Qin army back to Hangu Pass.
After the great victory in this "Five Kingdoms Invasion of Qin" war, King Zhao Xiaocheng finally closed his eyes with peace of mind and handed over the baton of Zhao to the next generation.
Throughout the reign of King Zhao Xiaocheng, in addition to the stain of the "Battle of Changping", King Zhao Xiaocheng was almost a monarch who did more than his father King Zhao Huiwen, but it was a pity that the luck was not good.