The history of the struggle of the six generations of monarchs of the Qin State From the Shang Dynasty to the unification of the world
In the middle and late Warring States period, the Qin State passed"Shang martingale change"began to rise rapidly. However, why did the Qin State, which had never had a traitorous male, take more than 120 years to complete the unification of seven generations? The reason is that when the Qin State rose, the six states of Shandong, including Wei, Qi, and Zhao, were also very powerful. The six states of Shandong united to resist the eastward advance of the Qin state, so the Qin state, which was the enemy of the world, was never able to establish a convincing advantage in front of the six states of Shandong.
In fact, there were six generations of monarchs before Qin Shi Huang, mainly Qin Xiaogong, Qin Yingqu Liang, Qin Huiwen Wang, Qin Yingyiren, Qin Wu Wang and Qin Zhaoxiang Wang, among which Qin Wang Yingji is the *** monarch, they annexed other countries again and again at the same time, steadily developed their own national strength, so that Qin defeated the six countries one after another during the Qin Shi Huang period and dominated the world.
Qin Xiaogong: The further decline of Wei's national power reduced the pressure on the eastern part of Qin.
During the reign of Qin Xiaogong, he reused Shang Ying, implemented law changes, rewarded farming and warfare, moved the capital to Xianyang, established the county system, strengthened the centralization of power, opened up ways to promote production, and made Qin embark on the road of prosperity and strength with comprehensive law changes. However, during this period, although the Qin state completed the reform, the weakening of the national power only laid the foundation for the rise of the Qin state. Qin still has a long way to go if it wants to dominate the world, and the first opponent it faces is the overlord Wei in the early Warring States period.
Although the Jin state, the overlord of the Central Plains, collapsed during the Warring States period, the nascent Wei state put no less pressure on the Qin state than the Jin state. The loss of territory in Hexi not only blocked Qin's eastward advance, but also forced Qin to keep the enemy out of the country. Although Qin Xiangong launched many wars to recover Hexi, in the face of the hegemony of Wei in the early Warring States period, Qin was always in a state of suppression.
Qin took advantage of the war between Wei and Zhao and Qi to quickly complete the reform, and took advantage of the siege of Xiangling by the coalition forces after the Battle of Guiling of Wei to capture Shaoliang and Anyi in the west of the Wei River, but the Qin State, which had just completed the reform, was obviously unable to compete with the Wei State. After the victory in the Battle of Xiangling, Wei quickly regained the lost territory in Hexi, and although Qin was still not Wei's opponent, it was only because of the exhaustion of national strength that Wei switched from strategic offensive to strategic defense of Qin.
In 342 BCE, Wei suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Maling in the later years of Qin Xiaogong, followed by successive defeats of Qi, Qin, and Zhao, leading to a protracted war. After the death of Qin Xiaogong, King Huiwen of Qin led the Qin state to seize the strategic location of Hexi.
King Huiwen of Qin: The Five Kingdoms forced the Qin state to abandon its eastward expansion and focus its strategy on the north and south.
After the death of Qin Xiaogong, his son Yingyiren inherited the throne, and although he destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he retained the fruits of the Shang Dynasty reform. After he secured the throne, he instructed Gongsun Yan to defeat the Wei army in the Battle of Diaoyin, and the land west of the river fell into the hands of the Qin state. After the defeat of Wei, the Three Jin Dynasty negotiated peace with Qi and Chu, and the six states of Shandong gradually formed a joint anti-Qin trend.
In the face of the cooperation of the Shandong authorities, King Qin Huiwen used Zhang Yi to sever cooperation through Lianheng. When Zhang Yi failed to convince King Hui of Wei, Qin attacked Wei in 322 BC, capturing Quwo and Pingzhou, forcing Wei to abandon cooperation. At the same time, King Wei Hui believed that Hui Shi's strategy of uniting Qi and Chu against Qin had failed, so he appointed Zhang Yi as his prime minister, with the main purpose of using Lian Heng's power to eliminate Lian Heng.
In 319, King Hui of Wei, with the support of the five states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, and Han, expelled Zhang Yi on the grounds of Qin's eastward expansion and Zhang Yi's crossing of the border, and appointed Gongsun Yan as prime minister"Merge"Policy. In the following year, under the leadership of Gongsun Yan, the five kingdoms of Wei, Zhao, Han, Yan, and Chu jointly elected King Huai of Chu as the leader of the column, organized a coalition army to attack Qin, and formed an alliance with Yiqu to attack Qin from the flank, forming a preemptive offensive. As a result, the Qin army defeated the Jin army of the Three Kingdoms in Xiuyu, and the Jin army waited for work at ease, and Yi Qu delayed time, and about 250,000 people were killed.
Although the Five Kingdoms' attack on Qin ended in failure, the situation faced by Qin at that time was also extremely dangerous, and if you were not careful, you would be in danger of losing the country. Therefore, in order to avoid a more violent reaction from the foreign powers, the Qin state was forced to shift its strategic center of gravity north and south, and then expand its power by destroying Shu, defeating Chu, and seizing Yiqu, so as to continue to annex Wei's power while eliminating behind-the-scenes threats.
King Wu of Qin: Continue to consolidate his power by rectifying his internal affairs, and try to expand eastward again by capturing Yiyang.
Although his posthumous contribution was not large, his contribution to the Qin State was not small. In the early years of his reign, with the help of Yue, he pacified the state of Chu, eliminated the threat of the state of Chu to the southeastern part of the state of Qin, and further expanded the power of the state of Qin by suppressing the rebellion of the state of Shu, setting up prime ministers, revising the frontier, revising the law of field endowment, dredging rivers, building embankments, and repairing bridges.
With the stabilization of the domestic situation and the increase of national strength, King Wu of Qin began to organize another crusade to the east, this time to Yiyang, an important military city in Korea. Yiyang was the most important barrier between Zhou and Korea, blocking Qin's eastward advance. In order to be able to leave Hangu Pass, the Qin army needed to take control of Yiyang to ensure the smooth transportation of supplies and troops.
Therefore, King Wu of Qin first used Prime Minister Gan Mao to destroy the Han-Wei alliance, so that Wei agreed to send troops to help Qin attack Han. As the main general, Gan Mao led a large army to kill 60,000 Korean troops, captured Yiyang in Korea, and established Samcheon County. The Qin army then crossed the Yellow River, captured Wusui, and built a city at Wusui. King Xiang of Han was forced to send his brother Brother in Black to Qin to apologize for his sins and negotiate peace with Qin.
After King Yingdang of Qin destroyed Yiyang, he was very close to the king of Zhou, so in the eighth year of King Zhou (307), King Yingdang of Qin led his troops to the capital of King Zhou, becoming the second after King Chuzhuang"Won the Central Plains"of the monarch. You must know that the nine looms are a symbol of national strength and the majesty of the Son of Heaven. Although King Yingdang of Qin eventually died as a result of the abolition of the Ding, this act undoubtedly greatly shook the legitimacy of Zhou Tianzi's rule.
King Zhao of Qin: Qi and Zhao withdrew from the struggle for hegemony, and Qin defeated the Six Kingdoms of Shandong.
King Zhaoxiang of Qin continued the eastward expansion strategy of King Wu of Qin, and after ascending the throne, he frequently used troops against Wei, Han, Chu, Zhao and other countries, and successively conquered Busan, Yangchun, Fengling, Wusui, Liangcheng, Xiangcheng and other places. In the third year of King Qi (298 BC), the kingdoms of Qi, Han, and Wei feared the eastward advance of the Qin state. In the third year of King Qi (298 BC), the three kingdoms of Qi, Han, and Wei, fearing that Qin would continue to advance eastward, once again united to attack Qin. The war lasted for three years, and the combined forces of Qi, Wei, Han, Zhao, and Song, under the leadership of the Qi general Kuang Zhang, finally broke through the Han Pass, forcing the Qin state to return the Wu Sui to Korea and the Fengling to the Wei state.
After the defeat, King Zhaoxiang of Qin had to regroup the states of Chu and Qi and make friends with them. After years of preparation, in the twenty-first year of King Zhou (294 BC), he took advantage of the fact that Chu and Qi had no time to take care of the Central Plains, and once again marched eastward to attack Han and Wei. He first wiped out the 240,000 troops of the Han and Wei coalition forces in the Battle of Yique, and in the following years, he captured 61 cities in Korea, including Wanyan and Deng in Korea, and Huan and Qiao in Wei. In the following years, he captured 61 cities in Korea, including Wanyan and Deng, and Huan and Yi in Wei. Han and Wei regressed one after another. At the same time, King Qin Zhaoxiang and King Qi Zhao were called the Eastern and Western Emperors, aiming to sever the relationship between Qi and other countries.
Su Qin persuaded King Qi to abdicate and unite with other vassal states to fight against Qin. In the twenty-eighth year of King Zhao of Zhou (287 BC), Qi, Zhao, Wei, Han, and Yan again jointly attacked Qin. However, due to the different intentions of the allies, the offensive ended in failure, and the Qin state was forced to withdraw its troops. After that, the Central Plains fell into chaos again. Taking advantage of the opportunity of Qi to break through Jin and Chu, Qin united with Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and other countries to attack Qi, and successively broke through 73 cities of Qi, greatly weakening Qi's national strength.
After the state of Qi withdrew from the competition, the state of Qin continued to advance eastward, although the state of Zhao increased in strength, and in 269"Battle of the Huns"defeated the Qin State. But King Qin Zhaoxiang adopted Fan Ju's"Outbred and close attack"Strategy, first defeated the Chu army in the Battle of Yanling, captured the Chu capital, and then annihilated the Wei and Zhao coalition forces of 150,000 in the Battle of Huayang, and captured the Chu capital Nanyang. In"Battle of Huayang", he annihilated 150,000 troops of the Wei-Zhao coalition and captured the Nanyang region. In"Battle of Changping", he annihilated 450,000 Zhao troops, leading to the establishment of the three kingdoms of Jin, Chu, and Zhao, and the destruction of the newly established Zhao state.
After the Battle of Changping, King Zhao Xiaocheng formed an alliance with Qi, Wei, Chu, Han, Yan and other states to reunite his troops to resist Qin. In the fifty-sixth year of the reign of King Yu of Zhou (259 BC), King Zhaoxiang of Qin saw that Zhao refused to give up six cities, so he gathered an army of 200,000 to attack Zhao. The Battle of Handan lasted three years, and Qin was defeated by the arrival of Wei and Chu reinforcements. After the defeat, Qin made peace with Zhao and sent Ying Yiren to Handan as a hostage. After that, King Zhaoxiang of Qin continued to attack the Three Jins, defeating the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Wei one after another.
King Zhaoxiang of Qin reigned for 56 years and defeated the six kingdoms of Shandong one after another. Although the national strength of the Qin State was exhausted after years of war, and the opportunity to unify the world was almost lost, the Six Kingdoms of Shandong were more exhausted than the Qin State, especially the fiasco of the Qi State and the Zhao State, which began to force the Six States of Shandong to suppress the national strength of the Qin State.
Qin Xiaowen Wang Yingzhu and Qin Zhuang Xiangwang Yingzichu: Resist the Six Kingdoms and further restore national strength.
Although the reigns of King Qin Xiaowen and King Qin Zhuang Xiang were short, they played an important role in bridging the gap between King Qin Xiaowen and King Qin Zhuang Xiang. King Xiaowen reigned for only one year (only three days after his official accession to the throne), but he stopped attacking the Shandong states, allowing the Qin state to recover its national strength to a certain extent.
After King Xiang of Qin Zhuang ascended the throne, the princes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty agreed to attack Qin. When King Xiang of Qin Zhuang learned of this, he ordered Lü Buwei to lead an army to destroy the Eastern Zhou kingdoms, and then continued to implement King Xiaowen's strategy of recuperation and recuperation until the third year of King Xiang of Qin Zhuang (247 BC). At the same time, the restored state of Qin once again launched a large-scale attack on the state of Wei, sending troops to rescue the state of Wei and defend the crown prince Xinlingjun and the four kingdoms of Zhao, Han, Chu, and Yan.
The Qin army engaged the Coalition of Five Nations south of the Yellow River. The Qin general Meng An was defeated and fled. Xinlingjun led the coalition army to attack Hangu Pass, and the Qin army stayed behind in Hangu Pass. After this battle, the Xinling monarchy leaned towards the government and the opposition, and was deposed by the King of Wei. After handing over the military power, Xinlingjun was depressed, drank and had fun all day long, and finally died of alcohol.
After three years in power, King Xiang of Qin Zhuang died, and Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne. Lü Buwei continued to adopt the strategy of distant and close attack, and in a few years, he attacked Wei four times, three times Han, and one time against Zhao, captured Shangdang County, recovered Taiyuan County, and cut off the connection between Yan and Zhao and Wei and Han. To the surprise of the Qin army, the Qin army immediately concentrated its elite troops and launched an attack on the strongest Chu army in the coalition army.
After the rule of six generations of Qin kings, the six kingdoms were no longer able to resist the Qin state, and even if they were united, it would be difficult to defeat the Qin state. After Qin Shi Huang came to power, he used Li Si to propose"Destroy the princes and become emperor"、"Dominate the world for years"to intensify the attack on each of the six countries, so that the six countries have no chance to reunite. After Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne, he used Li Xi to propose"Destroy the princes and become emperor"、"Dominate the world for years"to intensify the attack on the six countries, so that the six countries will no longer have the opportunity to act in unison.