Why didn't Wei destroy Qin? Is King Wei short-sighted?
In 383 B.C., a new Warring States era began, and a major battle broke out.
In this year, Zhao Guo waved his army to attack the country, and the history of defending the country has a long history, which can be traced back to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Unfortunately, during the Warring States period, the Wei State had already declined, and it was difficult to compete with the powerful Zhao State.
Fortunately, Weiguo, as a small country, has a unique survival strategy. In the early Warring States period, Wei followed Wei as his big brother, and was able to preserve himself when Wei took the lead in changing the law to become the undisputed overlord.
Wei Guo barely survived under the protection of his eldest brother, however, the top power Zhao Guo chose to take action against him, breaking the previous alliance between the three countries. As the eldest brother, Wei was faced with the choice of protecting his younger brother and keeping his allies, and in the end, Wei decided to send troops to help defend the country and start a war with Zhao.
In the face of the powerful Wei State, the Zhao State was under great pressure, and finally suffered a crushing defeat in the battle around Qingfeng County, Henan Province, and the Wei State successfully supported the younger brother. Although the scale of this battle of Wei and Zhao that took place during the Warring States period was not large, and the number and scale were not as large as those of the famous battles that followed, its impact may have been more far-reaching.
Because the outbreak of this war marked the rupture of the Three Jin Alliance, and at the same time changed the relationship between Wei and Zhao from an alliance to a hostile one.
Historically, most history buffs have a disdainful attitude towards the choices made by Wei at this critical moment. Prior to this, the alliance of the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei was so strong that it suppressed almost all other great powers.
In this alliance, Wei became the undisputed leader due to its national strength. Just a few years earlier, in the Battle of Hexi, Wei defeated Qin's 500,000-strong army with 50,000 recruits, a battle that not only weakened most of Qin's elite, but also shook the world.
Therefore, later generations of history buffs generally believed that Wei should resolutely maintain the alliance of the Three Jins, maintain good relations with Han and Zhao, and then go all out to eliminate Qin.
If Wei can successfully annex Qin and control the entire Guanzhong, then its national strength will be like a tiger, and even surpass the Jin state back then. With more war resources and a higher margin for error, Wei may be able to sweep the world and unify the world.
However, all this came to naught because Wei took the initiative to turn against Zhao State. After that, Wei fell into an embattled predicament, and its powerful national power was gradually exhausted, and eventually went into decline.
Therefore, later generations unanimously agreed that this was the biggest decision-making mistake in the history of Wei.
Why did Wei take the initiative to sabotage the Three Jin Alliance and choose to confront Zhao? Is this really the biggest mistake in the history of the Warring States? Or is it because of Wei Wuhou's incompetence and short-sightedness?
If the Marquis of Wei Wuhou had chosen to continue to form an alliance with Zhao and maintain the Three Jin Alliance, would it have been possible for Wei to be more certain in destroying Qin?
Once in the late Spring and Autumn period, the Jin state existed, and in the early Warring States period, the Wei state was part of history. The famous Battle of Jinyang took place between the four strongest families within the Jin Kingdom.
The Zhi family and the Han Wei family joined forces to besiege the Zhao family, but the Zhao family successfully killed the Zhi family after contacting the Han and Wei families privately. This battle changed the political landscape of the Jin state, causing the Han, Zhao, and Wei families to divide the power of the Jin state.
Due to the balance of power of the Han, Zhao and Wei families, they finally chose to join forces to carve up the Jin Kingdom.
The division of the three families is not an instantaneous event, but a process that lasts more than ten years or even decades. In the process of partitioning, the three families also need to constantly rip and exchange territories, making the land enclosed to them complicated and scattered.
During the period when the Jin Kingdom was strong, the lands of these families were often intertwined. With the ** of the Jin Kingdom, the three families need to concentrate their territory as much as possible. After decades of wrangling, the Wei family eventually gained control of the border areas of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, and although the territory was still somewhat scattered, there was at least one ruling center.
After the Wei family solved the turf problem, they began to recruit talents from all over the world. At this time, Weis, as the father of Wei Wuhou, was in charge of the Wei family and successfully attracted talents from all over the Central Plains.
In the process, Li Kui's arrival brought about changes and reformed the social system for the Wei state. As a result of the successful reforms, the Wei state was already very powerful before it was formally established.
Moreover, the internal system of the Wei family was very advanced, far surpassing that of other old vassal states. It was in this historical context that in 403 BC, the Wei family united with the Han and Wei families to jointly put pressure on the Zhou royal family, and finally succeeded in forcing Zhou Tianzi to officially canonize them.
From this moment on, the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei were officially founded, and they were united because of history. Immediately afterwards, the Three Kingdoms formed a more powerful Three Jin Alliance, and the overall strength was stronger than that of the Jin State back then.
In this day and age, the situation of other great powers is not ideal. The Tian family of the Qi State took control of the power, and was busy usurping the throne, so they had no time to deal with external affairs, and they had been defeated by the Three Jin Alliance before, so they didn't dare to speak up.
The Qin State is experiencing four generations of chaotic government, the old aristocracy and the monarch are vying for power and profit, the top is unstable for a long time, and the national power has been steadily declining.
The state of Chu, a southern country that was once almost wiped out by the state of Wu, is in slightly better condition than other places after a long period of recovery. However, its national strength remains questionable.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the power of the Chu State was suppressed by the Jin State, and now, the strength of the Three Jin Alliance is even better than that of the Jin State back then, and the Chu State is naturally unable to compete on the frontal battlefield.
After the founding of the Three Jin Alliance, except for fighting a decisive victory with the Chu State, most of the rest of the time was busy with internal affairs rectification. The Wei state was no exception, in addition to carrying out reforms, it also had to deal with the occupied Zhongshan state, and began to train new armies and form professional armies.
In general, the current situation of the state of Chu is not optimistic, and its prospects on the frontal battlefield are not optimistic in the face of the powerful Three Jin Alliance and the military reforms of the Wei state.
Wei Si, the founding monarch of Wei, died in 396 BC and was succeeded by his son Wei Zhen as Marquis Wu of Wei. The Wei high-level officials believed that this change of monarch did not cause any turmoil, because Wei Wuhou had previously been systematically trained as an heir, and was educated by a bunch of famous teachers arranged by his father at a very young age.
As Wei Wuhou grew up, Wei Wenhou provided him with a wealth of practical opportunities, including leadership positions during Wei's annexation of Zhongshan. After the annexation of the Zhongshan Kingdom, the Marquis of Wei Wuhou was appointed as the Zhongshan Jun, responsible for the complete integration of the country.
His talents in both civil and military affairs were excellent, both in terms of learning and military affairs. As the new monarch, Wei Wuhou is undoubtedly good news for Wei.
Before Wei Wenhou died, he also left behind a strong team, including the top minister Li Kui, the great ruler Ximen Leopard, and the undefeated military god Wu Qi. At that time, the Wei State was full of talents, which made other countries envious.
As long as the Marquis of Wei Wuhou can make good use of these talents, the expansion of the Wei state will not be a problem.
Soon after the Marquis of Wei Wuhou succeeded to the throne, the chief minister Li Kui died, which brought a lot of problems to the handover of the country's work. The new monarch Wei Wuhou had just ascended to the throne and was not yet familiar with government affairs.
Therefore, over the next two years, the top management of Wei State has been familiarizing himself with the business. After the Marquis of Wei Wuhou was fully familiar with the government and politics, the Wei state began to show its strength. At this time, Wei had the solid foundation laid during the reign of Marquis Wen of Wei, with a strong army and advanced systems, as well as two powerful allies, Korea and Zhao.
In this case, it would be a strange thing for Wei not to expand. As a result, starting in 393 BC, in the next seven years, Wei continued to expand externally, and the means of expansion were very rough, basically without using any strategy, and directly relying on strong national strength to overwhelm the other party.
In 393 BC, Wei adopted a two-front strategy, launching attacks on both Qin and Zheng. This move not only allowed Wei to successfully contain Zheng's key areas, but also defeated Qin.
After the end of the war with Qin and Zheng, Wei took the initiative to form an alliance with the other two countries, Han and Zhao, to jointly fight against Chu. Under the combined attack of the Three Jin Alliance, the state of Chu was quickly defeated, and eventually lost most of its territory in the Henan region, including the military town of Daliang, which is now Kaifeng, which was also pocketed by the Wei state.
In the early Warring States period, Daliang belonged to the Chu State. However, the attack of Marquis Wu of Wei made it Wei territory. During the reign of his son, the Wei state officially moved its capital to Daliang.
The state of Chu was defeated, which made the two great powers of Qi and Qin restless. They didn't want to see the Chu state defeated, so when the Chu state took the initiative to seek their help, the Qin state sent troops to attack Korea, the weakest of the Three Jin Alliance, and the Qi state contained the three Jin from behind.
Originally, the three kingdoms of Qi, Qin, and Chu formed a temporary alliance, but this was different from the situation when the Chu state became the overlord during the reign of King Chu Zhuang in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Chu state could only barely protect itself. At that time, the strength of the Three Jin Alliances was evident.
In the next two years, the Triple Alliance was targeted by the three kingdoms of Qi, Qin, and Chu, and the pace of expansion was forced to stop. However, the Wei state became more and more courageous, and the mood for domestic and foreign expansion was high.
More than two years later, when Qin invaded again, Wei fought a brilliant defensive counterattack.
In the Battle of Yin and Jin, 500,000 Wei soldiers defeated the 500,000 Qin army head-on, which greatly reduced the overall combat strength of the Qin State, and the Hexi region was occupied by the Wei State. The battle shocked the world, because before there had never been a situation in which a powerful country had been defeated head-on by tens of thousands of people from another country.
As soon as the news came out, the whole world was in an uproar, and the combat effectiveness of Wei was reassessed. Many people began to question whether such a Wei state could defeat the three great powers of Qi, Qin, and Chu in the confrontation of the Three Jin Alliance, and finally unify the world.
This was a goal that was not achieved in the heyday of the Jin Kingdom. However, at this critical juncture, Wei Wuhou made a decision that was despised by many in later generations. He stopped attacking Qin and turned against Han and Wei.
This decision of Marquis Wu of Wei completely changed the fate of Wei.
Whether Wei Wuhou's decision was wise or not, let's think about it from another angle. Looking back at several other major countries at the time, we can find some similarities. For example, the ancient power of Qin was once glorious during the Spring and Autumn period, but due to the suppression of the Jin state, the Qin state was unable to advance eastward.
As a result, the Qin state changed from an incremental market to a stock market, and the nobles could only squeeze the people or compete for power in order to gain more benefits. This internal strife led to a continuous decline in Qin's national power.
In the period of the alternation of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, this contradiction finally broke out. There was an incident in the Qin State in which the ministers joined forces to force the monarch to death, which was known as the "Four Generations of Chaotic Government" by history.
This civil strife lasted for a full sixty years, during which time the Qin state's top leaders continued to be in turmoil and the country's power declined significantly. This was also the main reason why Wei was able to win easily when it came to war with Qin.
At that time, the soldiers of the Qin State were very oppressed by the nobles, and there was also infighting between the nobles and the monarch. Under such circumstances, it is a miracle that the Qin State was able to defeat the Wei State!
Although Qin's weakened power provided the possibility of annexation for Wei, if Wei continued to attack Qin, would it really be possible to achieve full annexation and become stronger?
I'm afraid not, because next to the Qin State, there is a much more interesting and powerful state, the Yiqu State. Although the Yiqu State was not conspicuous among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States and was even annexed by the Qin State in the middle of the Warring States Period, its existence undoubtedly had an impact on the decision-making of the Wei State.
The strength of the Yiqu State was especially obvious in the period of the alternation of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Although they were not as powerful as the Qin Shang Dynasty after the reform, this did not prevent them from dominating the Xirong position.
The predecessor of Yiqu was one of the Xirong who destroyed the Western Zhou Dynasty that year - Dog Rong. In the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, Yiqu continued to grow, and finally swept through Xirong and established a powerful regime.
During the period of the four dynasties of the Qin State, the national strength of the Yiqu State reached its peak, and the actual control area was close to 200,000 square kilometers.
At that time, except for the state of Chu, there was no country with a larger territory than the state of Yiqu. Therefore, if Wei continued to put pressure on Qin and tried to eliminate it, Yiqu would send troops from the north and west to join forces with Wei.
In this way, Wei may wipe out Qin, but it will certainly not be able to fully control Qin, and Yiqu will occupy at least half of the territory. And after the Yiqu State expands its sphere of influence to the Guanzhong Plain, it will become the new opponent of the Wei State, and may even be stronger than the Qin State, giving the Wei State a headache.
Therefore, for the Wei state at that time, the best option was to keep the Qin state. After the Battle of Yin and Jin, the 500,000 elites of the Qin State were defeated by the Wei State, and the Qin State had been weakened.
A half-crippled Qin state can not only defend Wei against the Yiqu state from the west, but also no longer pose a threat to Wei.
Wei was able to draw more troops to expand, and it was more advantageous to keep Qin than to annex it entirely. As an old power, Qin has a deep foundation. If Wei forcibly exterminated Qin, it would not only suffer great losses on its own, but would also cause dissatisfaction among neighboring countries.
Therefore, Wei Wuhou chose to digest the occupied Hexi region first. However, after the civil strife in Yiqu, the pressure on the Qin state decreased, and the Qin state itself ended the high-level chaos and carried out the Shang Yang reform, and a few decades later, the Qin state rose to become the most powerful enemy of the Wei state.
Wei Wuhou's expansion plan: go west to Qin, south to Chu, and east to Qi. However, plans don't always keep up with changes. After the Qin State failed, Wei Wuhou turned his attention to the Chu State and the Qi State.
Compared to Qin, Chu and Qi were obviously better targets for expansion. However, the Tian family of Qi was preparing to usurp the throne, and there were many contradictions in the country, which seemed to be the best target for expansion.
However, if Marquis Wu of Wei wanted to annex the state of Qi, he had to first deal with the small states bordering the state of Qi, such as Lu, Song, Zheng, Wei, etc.
Although these countries were only second-rate or even third-rate small countries during the Warring States period, once united, their overall strength should not be underestimated. Coupled with the support of the Qi State behind it, it is also quite difficult for the Wei State to gradually eliminate these small countries and then annex the Qi State.
And for the Chu State in the south, it is even more difficult. Compared with Qin and Qi, the situation of Chu was the best at this time. Although it was suppressed by the Wei State before, the overall scale is still huge.
To annex the state of Chu, with the strength of the state of Wei at that time, it was absolutely impossible to achieve it easily, and at most it could only adopt a gradual offensive strategy.
If Wei wants to destroy Chu like Jin, I'm afraid it will face a long script. Although Wei could suppress Chu for a long time, due to the large territory of Chu, Wei was never able to defeat it completely.
Therefore, Wei needed to rely on other forces, such as supporting other countries like the Jin state, in order to truly defeat the Chu state. But even so, it will take decades for Wei to complete its goal of annexing Chu.
Therefore, no matter which direction Wei chooses as the main direction of attack, it will be a long and difficult process.
With such a long span of time, who can guarantee that there will be no accidents in between? It was good for the ancient state to make plans, but it was obviously impractical to make a plan that spanned several decades.
In contrast, it may be better to target your allies first. From the perspective of Wei Wuhou, the current Wei State has far surpassed Han and Wei in terms of national strength.
When the three families were divided, the reason why the three families were willing to unite and jointly carve up the Jin kingdom was mainly because none of them had the ability to fight with the other two at the same time.
But now the state of Wei already has such capabilities. This means that it is entirely possible that Wei will directly annex Han and Zhao and restore the territory of the Jin State at that time. Once the backstabbing allies were successful, Wei would no longer be a threat in the north, at most only attacked by the Huns on the steppe.
In the early Warring States period, the population on the grassland was not large, and the pressure on the Wei State was actually not great.
It is much more difficult to turn the other cheek with the allies than to eliminate the Three Kingdoms, and it is even more risky to unite with Han and Zhao, and there is no way to ensure that they will not betray for their own safety, and Wei must stop it before problems arise.
Among the two countries of South Korea and Zhao, Zhao is more suitable as an annexation target, because South Korea is strategically located and has a diversion effect on the enemy country, while Zhao is just dragging its feet and does not have much significance.
At that time, the strength of Zhao Guo was not very strong, and compared to Zhao Guo after the completion of the Hufu Cavalry Archery Movement, Zhao Guo at that time did seem relatively weak. Although Zhao and Wei divided the Jin State together, Zhao Liehou, the first monarch of Zhao, did not have the same vision as Wei Wenhou, the first monarch of Wei.
Therefore, when Wei Wenhou was busy recruiting talents and carrying out internal reforms, although Zhao also attracted some talents and carried out some reforms, Zhao's reforms were mainly focused on selecting talents, saving finances, etc., and did not involve land issues.
Zhao tried to reform, but because he went in the wrong direction, the effect of the reform was limited and little is known. They mistakenly believe that they have completed the reforms. It was not until the middle of the Warring States period that they realized that their backwardness was due to the fact that they did not make changes.
However, other countries have already completed the reform of the law, and there is no chance for Zhao to change the law peacefully. As a result, King Wuling of Zhao focused on reforming the army, while reforms in other areas were postponed.
This practice led to loopholes in the Zhao system, which could not provide strong resource support. Therefore, in the later Qin-Zhao confrontation, Zhao was easily defeated by Qin.
Not to mention, the state of Zhao at that time did not significantly improve its national strength because of the failure of the law change. Then, Zhao State fought with Zhongshan State again, and originally expected Wei State to become a "bird" and reap the benefits of the fisherman.
However, he never thought that Wei Wuhou's performance was too good, and he directly swallowed Zhongshan Kingdom alone. This led to the simultaneous establishment of the Three Jin Dynasty, however, after that, the Wei State quickly left the Zhao State behind.
What's even more bizarre is that after the death of Zhao Liehou, the first monarch of Zhao State, due to the young age of his son, his younger brother Zhao Wuhou ** was temporarily replaced. After the death of Zhao Wuhou, people turned to support Zhao Liehou's son Zhao Jinghou to take over.
The domestic inheritance was chaotic, and Wei took the opportunity to meddle in Zhao's internal affairs. After the end of the Yin and Jin Wars, Wei made backstabbing allies the main strategic policy of the state. When the Marquis of Zhao died, the state of Zhao supported the son of his brother Marquis Zhao Liehou as the new monarch, but the son of the Marquis of Zhao was unwilling to succeed to the throne and asked for support from the state of Wei.
The civil strife in Zhao brought opportunities to the Wei state, which was far greater than the battle of Yin and Jin.
The victory in the Battle of Yin and Jin brought challenges to the annexation of Qin by Wei. However, the situation in Zhao is different. The state of Zhao and the state of Wei have been closely linked for a long time, and the time of ** is not long.
If Wei can take this opportunity to intervene in Zhao's internal affairs, it can gradually penetrate Zhao after success, and finally realize the annexation of Zhao. Once the state of Zhao is annexed, there will be no problem in restoring the territory of the Jin state that was even larger.
Who would miss this opportunity?If someone else is in the position of Wei Wuhou, they will make the same choice. Therefore, Wei Wuhou then vigorously intervened in the succession of Zhao, but due to the unity within Zhao, Wei Wuhou's intervention ultimately failed, and Zhao Liehou finally consolidated his position and did not give Wei Wuhou the opportunity to control Zhao's internal affairs.
In this year, the Marquis of Wei Wuhou made some decisions that affected the national fortunes of the Wei state. One of the most important was to force Wu Qi to leave the Wei state. Wu Qi was the right-hand man of the Wei state, trained a powerful new army and defeated the Qin state in the Battle of Yin and Jin.
However, as time passed, Wu Qi's prestige grew, which made Wei Wuhou feel threatened. Although killing Wu Qi can eliminate future troubles, it will disappoint everyone.
Therefore, forcing Wu Qi to leave is the best choice.
After leaving Wei, Wu rose up to Chu and accepted Wei's reforms in full. In just a few years, the strength of the Chu State increased greatly and it was no longer suppressed by the Wei State. From the perspective of the power struggle, there was nothing wrong with Wei Wuhou's move, but from a strategic point of view, it was indeed a major mistake.
The Marquis of Wei also released a prince of Qin to return to China to fight for power, with a similar purpose to interfering in Zhao's internal affairs, but this prince of Qin was extremely capable and managed to break free from Wei's control and quickly put Qin's internal affairs in order, ending Qin's chaos for four generations.
During the reign of Qin Xiangong, in order to stabilize the relationship between Wei and Qi, Marquis Wu of Wei took the initiative to show favor to the Tian family and helped them obtain titles from the Zhou royal family, thus officially creating the era of the Tian family's Qi State.
Although several things happened almost at the same time, no matter which way you look at it, Wei Wuhou's decision was correct. These measures were of great benefit to the short-term interests of the Wei state.
From a strategic point of view, these four events caused far-reaching damage to the Wei state. This kind of far-sighted strategic thinking is probably difficult for ordinary generals to understand. If you only look at the matter of meddling in Zhao's internal affairs, Wei has already torn up with Zhao and directly sent troops to attack Handan.
This approach is undoubtedly one of the reasons for Zhao's counterattack. Two years later, Zhao attacked Wei's ally, Wei, not only to teach Wei a lesson, but also to expand his sphere of influence into the heart of the Central Plains.
The growing contradictions between the Wei and Zhao states eventually led to the rupture of the Three Jin Alliance. Wei was defeated in a battle with Zhao and found itself in a situation where it was surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Looking back at this period of Wei Wuhou's history, we can see that he made many correct decisions tactically, and every step was in the interests of Wei. However, in the long run, these decisions led to the collapse of the Wei state.
This example shows us that a country needs a good strategist who can formulate a strategy that is in the long-term interest of the country, rather than focusing only on immediate interests.
Wei Wenhou did a good job in this regard, while Wei Wuhou was slightly lacking.