In the battle of Qin and Zhao Changping, Bai Qi ordered all the soldiers of Zhao to be killed, and a total of 450,000 Zhao troops were annihilated, and the world was shaken. However, there seems to be something wrong with this matter, or that this move of the Qin State is too abnormal.
In the pre-Qin era, productivity was low, and population and land were the focus of contention. In the Battle of Changping, although the Qin army captured 17 cities in Shangdang, a large part of the population of these places fled to ZhaoThe Qin State gained land but lost people
In the long run, if the Qin State can accept these soldiers, whether they become Qin people or become slaves, it will be of great benefit to the development of its national strength. So,What exactly is the reason, so that the Qin State gave up this long-term interest?
Here's why, rigorousThere are also loopholes in Qin Law, the particularity of the Battle of Changping made the Qin State have only one choice.
In the previous article, we have already told the reason for the outbreak of the Battle of Changping, which was an unexpected event. Qin and Korea competed for the Shangdang region, and Feng Ting, the county guard, was unwilling to surrender to Qin, so he led the disaster to the east and dedicated Shangdang to Zhao, so it caused a conflict between Qin and Zhao.
In order to seize Shangdang, the Qin State has been fighting with South Korea for nearly three years, and the national strength has been consumed hugely. The Qin army endured hard fighting, but not durable fighting, which is related to the importance of agricultural production in the laws of the Qin State and the lack of food and grass for the army. It can be said that if there is no intervention of Zhao State, Qin State has already achieved its strategic goal, and after the soldiers are knighted according to their military merits, they must hurry home to engage in agricultural production and accumulate national strength.
However,Zhao's dispatch of troops instantly pushed Qin to a dead end, had to fight, otherwise he had worked hard to make a wedding dress for others for several years, not to mention, the emptiness of national strength would also make the Qin State precarious.
Therefore, the Battle of Changping was a matter of life and death for the Zhao State, but it was also a turning point in the national fortunes of the Qin StateNo one can afford to lose.
In order to win this battle, on the one hand, the Qin State spent a lot of money to counter-plot, and on the other hand, it also secretly sent Bai Qi to replace Wang Yi as the commander, which was a top secret, and anyone who dared to leak the news was beheaded. In this way, Zhao Kuo fought a winning streak for more than a month, and he didn't know that he was fighting against Bai Qi.
But from another point of view, Zhao Kuo is a famous general Zhao Hao, and he has been familiar with military books since he was a childSince Qin Jun's feint can deceive him, he will naturally have to pay a lot of lossesAnd this is also the price of luring the Zhao army into the encirclement.
At this stage of the war, all stratagems are uselessWhat the two sides are competing for is national strength, and it will be interesting to see who can't bear it first. Of course, Zhao Jun, as the encircled party, naturally had to bear more pressure on the transportation of grain and grass.
Many people have no concept of how much it cost to fight a war in ancient times, but in fact, according to the productive forces at that time, it is very clear in "The Art of War".
Fan Xingshi 100,000, thousands of miles, the people's expenses, the public's dedication, the daily cost of thousands of gold;There are 700,000 people who are in turmoil inside and outside, who are neglecting the road and are not allowed to do things.For 100,000 troops, 700,000 families are needed to support them. In the Battle of Changping, Zhao sent nearly 500,000 troopsThe number of Qin troopsRoughly comparable. But Zhao has only been fighting for more than 5 months, while Qin has been fighting for more than two years before, and the domestic people's livelihood is witheringKing Qin Zhaoxiang came to the front line in person, and did not hesitate to add a knighthood to the local peopleas a way to boost morale. This way of promotion is already an exception for the Qin State's strict "military merit system".
At the same time,The Qin state also disregarded agricultural production, once again requisitioned a large number of young people over the age of 15, on the one hand to deliver grain and grass for the front line, on the other hand to cover the grain and grass of Zhao State, cut off its grain and grass, and vowed to trap the main force of Zhao State in Changping.
The Zhao army was without food for more than 40 days, even to the point of killing each other, which can be described as miserable. Zhao Kuo broke through the siege and was killed, and the Zhao army surrendered. At this point, the state of Zhao was defeated, and the state of Qin was victorious.
But,A new problem has arisen, how to deal with accepting so many pawns at one time?
The Qin State paid a great price and won the war, and these pawns could fill the gap in productivity, what seemed to be a good decision was not a problem in other countriesIt's tricky for the Qin State.
Is it a lack of food?Or is it a fear of the "loyalty" of the pawn?None of this is the problem.
Although the Qin State was temporarily short of food, it was not impossible to feed these people, and if there was not enough food at home, they could also go to other countries to buy grain, which was a routine operation during the Warring States Period.
At that time, the people actually did not have any concept of family and country, and there was not much difference between Qin Min and Zhao Min for them. No matter how poor they were, these soldiers could be used as slaves, given to the lords' families, or simply dragged to repair the city walls, which was also the usual practice for prisoners of war at the time.
The problem lies in the Qin law, that is, the "military merit system" of the Qin state, which has very strict standards for calculating military merits.
In the state of Qin,How important is a knighthood?It is directly related to the standard of living of the people. Different titles correspond to different fields, the higher the title, the heavier the reward, one person gets the knighthood, the whole family benefits, you can be exempted from servitude, slaves, you can be an official, you can have a "tax estate" and so on. Even slaves can offset the punishment of the whole family by receiving knighthoods for military merit.
WhileKnighthoods are obtained mainly through military merit。ForOrdinary soldiersIn addition, if you behead a person during the battle, you can be promoted to the next level, and the acquisition of these low-level titles is relatively simple, so in order to change their fate, Qin soldiers are often very brave when fighting.
However, when the Qin pawn accumulated the title, he changed from a soldier to a teamCommander, the standard of promotion changed from personal bravery to commanding talent.
For example, the commander of a hundred-man squad is called a "hundred general", he needs to command a hundred people to meet the enemy in formation, cooperate with the battle, and not be overwhelmed by the enemy, but also need to accumulate combat merits through decapitation. However, the enemy army he faced was also a formed army, and the victory or defeat of the battle depended very much on its command ability and the quality of its soldiers.
The most important thing is that when calculating the merits of war, there is also a criterion of "surplus theory", that is, the number of beheadings must be greater than the battle losses. ”For example, if there are 5 people in a team and 2 people are killed in battle, then only by beheading more than 2 people can the "profit theory" be achieved and the battle merits can be calculatedIf less than 2 people are beheaded, not only will they be useless, but they will also be punished. Of course, the larger the size of the team, the higher the standard of "profit theory".
After understanding such a system, let's look at the Battle of Changping.
After Bai Qi became the commander, in order to lure Zhao Kuo into the encirclement, the Qin army feinted many times, and these were all battle losses. And the final victory was not achieved through corps combat, but cut off the grain and grass of the Zhao army and forced it to surrender.
The Zhao army totaled about 500,000, most of which surrendered, while Bai Qi said that after fighting the party and Changping, more than half of the Qin soldiers died, that is, more than 250,000 were killed in battle. This shows that the number of beheadings of the Qin army must be seriously insufficient, and may even be much lower than the battle losses. On the contrary, Qin Luli's military exploits are calculated by "beheading", not "prisoners of war".
This problem is serious!If there is not enough beheadings to calculate the merits of battle, then the soldiers will not be able to obtain knighthoods, the commanders will not be able to achieve the "profit theory", and even the battle losses will be greater than the beheadings, and they will be punished.
According to Qin law, it is ridiculous to fight a great victory that is related to the fortunes of the country, and in the end the army is useless but guilty.
At this time, the Qin army urgently needed to be beheaded. However, for beheading, Qin Law also stipulates that good people cannot be killed, and those who use women, the elderly, and children as beheadings must be severely punished. SoThe Qin army often "kills prisoners" when fighting. Although the "killing of prisoners" is not very in accordance with the regulations, after all, it is difficult to determine and the impact is small, so one eye is turned and one eye is closed.
Therefore, the Qin army that participated in the Battle of Changping must not be able to accept such a large-scale surrender of Zhao State, in their eyes, these are all military exploits that can change the fate of their family!
Although Qin Lu does not support "killing prisoners", butBai Qi found a reason, he gave the example of going to the party, saying: ".Zhao pawn repeatedly, if he didn't kill him, he was afraid of chaos. In this way, the Qin army has 450,000 beheadings that can be counted for battle exploits.
The court of the Qin State naturally understood the key to this, acquiesced in the Bai Qi approach, gave up long-term interests, and first stabilized the hearts of the people, and used this to motivate the soldiers, boost morale, and prepare for the next attack on Handan, the capital of the Zhao State.