Many people should be familiar with the history of Qin's annihilation of the Six Kingdoms. Especially in recent years, with the popularity of several TV series set in the Great Qin Empire, this history has become more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
In the long history, people are generally familiar with the frontal battlefields of the Qin State, such as the Battle of Changping, Qin Shi Huang and other classic battles. However, we tend to ignore the economic war against the Six Kingdoms.
In fact, war is a continuation of politics and, more importantly, an economic competition. Before defeating the Six Kingdoms head-on, Qin had already defeated them in an economic war. Qin Shi Huang's war that swept through the Six Kingdoms was a direct reflection of Qin's victory in the economic war.
In addition, there are also many economic reasons hidden behind many major historical events in the process of Qin's annihilation of the Six Kingdoms. The economic war between the Qin State and the Six Kingdoms actually dates back to before the Shang Dynasty changed the law.
If you want to develop eastward, you have to deal with the Jin state. Because the territory of the Jin State was in the present-day Shanxi region, which happened to be located on the east side of the Qin State, it was impossible for the Qin State to bypass the Jin State as long as the Qin State wanted to develop in the Central Plains region.
In order to obtain a passage to the east, the Qin State tried various means, but failed to do so. In the end, they realized that they could not achieve eastward exit unless the entire Jin kingdom was destroyed.
Therefore, from the late Qin Mugong period, they shifted their focus to the development of the west. The Jin State took advantage of this advantage, knowing that if the Qin State was allowed to go deep into the Central Plains, it would be a great annoyance for the Jin State.
Although the Jin state is strong, it also faces many challengers, and if these countries join forces, the Jin state will be in a very dangerous situation.
For its own security, the Jin State took measures to blockade the Qin State west of Hangu Pass, which involved many fields such as culture, economy, and military. In terms of economy, as long as the Qin State wants to conduct ** with other countries, basically most of it has to go through the Jin State, and the Jin State makes huge profits from it, which causes the Qin State to continue to suffer economic losses.
In addition, the Jin State also slandered the Qin people among the countries of the Central Plains by spreading news, saying that they did not understand etiquette, and prevented talents from all countries from entering the Qin. This blockade and smear lasted for hundreds of years, and until the early Warring States period, the Qin state was still unable to escape the suppression of the Jin state.
Because most of the ** channels need to pass through the territory of the Jin State.
After hundreds of years of development, the Qin state found that the situation had changed in the early Warring States period. The powerful Jin State ** was the Three Kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei, which was undoubtedly a huge opportunity for the Qin State.
In the past, the Jin State was like a mountain, blocking the way for the Qin State to advance eastward, but now that the Jin State is **, can the Qin State take this opportunity to develop to the East? An entire Jin State cannot be defeated, but will the last third of the Jin State be the opponent of the Qin State?
As a result, the Qin State tried to attack the Wei State, as a country after the Jin State, the Wei State inherited the territory of the Jin State, and bordered the Qin State, just east of the Hangu Pass.
Therefore, in order to advance to the east, the Qin state quickly launched a battle with the Wei state.
The confrontation, which was originally thought to be a disparity in strength, turned out to surprise everyone. 50,000 Wei recruits successfully defeated 500,000 Qin troops, and this battle is the famous Battle of Yin and Jin in history.
Why did the Qin State suffer such a heavy defeat in the Battle of Yin and Jin? The reasons behind this are naturally complex, but they can be broadly boiled down to two aspects. First of all, the Wei state had already undergone reforms, the social system surpassed that of the Qin state, and the national productivity and army combat effectiveness were also superior.
Secondly, for nearly two hundred years, the Qin State has been blockaded in the west by the Jin State, the resources have been continuously plundered, the country has not been able to develop, coupled with the fact that the law has not been changed at that time, it is still dominated by a slave society, whether it is the social system or the national productive forces, it cannot be compared with the Wei State.
The Qin State was taken by surprise in the battle with the Wei State, and not only the first team was hit hard, but the other countries were also stunned. In everyone's impression, although the Qin State was barbaric, it was at least powerful, and it was also one of the four great powers in the Spring and Autumn Period.
However, after this battle, everyone began to suspect that the strength of the Qin State did not seem to be as strong as imagined. From this point of view, everyone naturally wanted to directly destroy the Qin State, because the land of the Qin State was extremely attractive to all countries.
However, the only major powers bordering Qin at that time were Wei and Chu, and Chu was forced to join forces with Qin because they were badly attacked by Wei. Under the alliance of Qin and Chu, although Wei was very strong, it was unable to annex the entire Qin state for a while, and at most it could only let the Qin state cede a large area of land.
At this time, the Qin State was at a critical juncture of life and death, and if it continued to decline, it was very likely to face the danger of losing the country. Wei, on the other hand, hoped to take this opportunity to completely eliminate the threat from the west.
In the context of that era, Qin's economic war against other countries officially began. At first, the Qin state suffered a heavy setback in the process of its rise and was almost in danger of the country's demise.
At this time, Shang Ying, a key figure in the Wei state, stepped forward and offered the Wei state a unique and risky strategy. Shang Ying later presided over the reform of the law in the Qin State, which made the Qin State stronger, but in fact he was originally a student of the Wei State's Prime Minister Uncle Acne.
Although his status in Wei was not high, he put forward two suggestions for the high-level of Wei to destroy Qin: one was to use the geographical advantages of Wei to continue the economic blockade of Jin; The second is to take advantage of Wei's hegemony and geographical advantages to exert pressure on other countries to ensure that Qin cannot conduct large-scale ** with other countries.