This work is a contribution to the column of the Museum of History, representing only the personal views of the author; this work is not a rigorous historical academic research, for reference only; unauthorized, prohibited second transmission, violators will be investigated.
The author of this article: Wei Yan, the King of Hui of Great Wei
What have I come to do? High Lying Dune City.
There are ancient trees on the edge of the city, and the sound of autumn is continuous.
Lu wine can not be drunk, Qi Song empty feelings.
Sijun Ruowen water, the mighty send the southern expedition.
- "Send Du Fu Under dunes" Li Bai
In the above verse, "Lu wine must not be drunk, And Qi Ge is empty and full of affection" uses the allusion of "Lu wine is thin and Handan Wei" in Zhuangzi, and the Chu state attacks the Zhao state because the wine offered by the Lu state is not good. Of course, this matter is still questionable, because Chu and Zhao are not bordering countries, and the two countries have a good relationship in history. However, the State of Wei had really taken the capital of the State of Zhao, and the People of Zhao remembered it deeply.
The familiar deeds of King Hui of Wei began.
In 354 BC, this opportunity came. Zhao Guo attacked and defended, taking Qidi and Fuqiu Castle. It was so powerful that it built a city of Gangping near the Weidu, so much so that a strategist in the middle of the Warring States period described this scene and even said that "the defenders of the country did not dare to go out of the east gate to cut firewood." Moreover, according to Mr. Yang Kuan's research, the fine wine offered to wei by the state of Lu, weiguo, Korea and song in this year was not as good as in previous years, so some people in wei suspected that Zhao guo's attack on weiguo made those small countries waver, and if they did not fight a battle at this time, they would make Wei lose their prestige in front of small countries, and at the same time they would lose the rich Sishang land in hand. Therefore, King Hui of Wei decided to attack Handan and give Zhao Guo a way to dismount.
A man named Ji Liang heard that King Hui was about to attack the State of Zhao, and before he could do anything, he turned back to the State of Wei on the road, met King Hui of Wei, and said, "I came to the Kingdom of Wei today, and I met a man on the main road, who was about to go north in a carriage, and said to me: 'He is going to the State of Chu.' I said, 'You're going to chu, why are you going north?' He said, 'My horse is good.' I said, "Although the horse is good, this is not the road to the Chu kingdom." He said, 'I'm much more prepared.' I said, "Although I have prepared a lot, it is not the road to the Chu kingdom." He said: 'The driver is very skilled. The better the technology, the farther away he is from the Chu Kingdom, and now the king's actions want to become the overlord, and his behavior is to win the trust of the world. Relying on the strength of the State of Wei and the elite of the soldiers, he attacked Handan so that the land would expand and his name would be honored. The more such actions the Great King, the farther [you] are from the cause of domination. It's like going north to the Chu Kingdom. This is the origin of the idiom "the opposite of the north".
The Wei army soon reached Handan and laid siege to it. The State of Zhao was relatively weak relative to the State of Wei, and soon the national strength was exhausted, and emissaries were sent to the State of Qi for help. The following year, the State of Qi sent two armies, with Tian Ji as the main general and Sun Zhen as the military division, and the headquarters led 80,000 soldiers and horses to rescue Handan; the other route applied to Tian Ji to order the Qi king To order Gao Tang and Qi Cheng to attack the Wei state of Pingling and confuse the Wei army. However, in the face of the powerful Wei Wu pawns, the soldiers and horses of the two doctors were quickly defeated. Therefore, Tian Ji used the strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao", first dispatched "light vehicles" to attack the outskirts of Daliang, and used Wei Wushu to despise the mentality of Qi's skill, lured the Wei army back to aid Daliang, set up an ambush at Guiling, defeated the Wei army, and captured Pang Juan, which is the famous Battle of Guiling. However, this was a small setback for the State of Wei at that time, and only defeated the partial division of the State of Wei, and failed to break the main force of the Wei army. The Wei army still arrogantly broke through the city of Handan, which greatly shocked the Zhao state and also made the Zhao state in danger. However, the State of Zhao struggled to resist with the national strength of the reform for more than 40 years, and the State of Wei never formed an absolute advantage over the State of Zhao. The following year, the Qi army attacked Xiangling and Guyang, and since the Wei-Han alliance had been formed before, King Hui of Wei joined forces with the Korean army to defeat the Qi army, and the State of Qi had to ask the Commander of the Chu State Jing She, who was marching north, to mediate, and finally barely reduced its losses.
In recent years, the western border of the Wei state has also been very magical. In 359 BC, the State of Qin began a new round of transformations with Shang Martin as the left commander (the Foundation had been laid for the Qin Xiangong Transformation). By 352 BC, the effect of the change had begun to appear, and Shang Martin took advantage of this opportunity to secretly attack the wei capital of Anyi, and it was successful, and in 351 BC, he attacked Guyang north, which was also successful. At this time, King Hui of Wei saw that the situation in the west was not right, and the situation in the east was relatively relaxed, so he decided to negotiate peace with Qi and Zhao. The following year Pang Juan returned to China, which is what I said above, Jingshe mediated the Three Kingdoms, and at the same time allied with Zhao Chenghou on the Zhangshui River, returned Handan, and stopped the war. After the State of Wei had completed its mediation, it quickly launched a counterattack to the west, recaptured Anyi, and besieged Dingyang in the Qin state to the west. Qin Xiaogong was shocked and feared that the Wei army would march again, so in the same year, he met with King Hui of Wei zaitong, and Wei used this as an excuse to force the State of Qin to negotiate with it, which also taught the State of Qin a lesson.
The State of Wei drew a draw with the four countries that participated in the war, which showed the national strength of the reformed State of Wei, but did not get substantial benefits and land, but only maintained its own relative hegemony, but instead the State of Chu, at that time, King Xuan of Chu adopted Jing She's suggestion, sent troops in the name of saving Zhao, and captured some land in the south of the State of Wei. Therefore, the interest groups are really very dissatisfied, and they urgently need land revenue and interest cash.
At the same time, the victory of the Wei state was also attributed to the mature diplomatic operation, and the relatively stable relations between Wei and Han played a very important role in this war. Although this is only a routine operation, a means to continue the father's generation, but in the current situation where both countries border the Huaisi region, the relationship is actually very delicate. This was also one of the triggers for the subsequent Battle of Maling.
From 350 BC to 344 BC, before the meeting of Feng Ze, there was a brief peace, and although the action of The Wei Hui King was unknown, he did not dare to relax, and had been accumulating strength and waiting for the opportunity. Because in the Qin Kingdom, XiaoGong, with the help of the Wei scholars left by Shang Martin and Xiangong, silently implemented his own reform method, improving the county's official office step by step, and "abolishing the well field, opening up the mo", and increasing the scale of the official handicraft industry. Due to the death of Zhao Chenghou, Zhao Yu and Zhao Yu competed for the throne, and finally Zhao Yu succeeded, known as Zhao Suhou in history, and Zhao Yu fled to Korea. However, the legitimacy of Zhao Suhou was a bit low, and at this moment it was a period of instability in the power of the Zhao state, so Zhao Suhou continued the pro-Wei policy of zhao Chenghou in the late period, continued to ally with the state of Wei to consolidate power, and went to see Zhou Tianzi, hoping to gain the recognition of Zhou Tianzi. Because the State of Qi suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Xiangling, it was in a hurry to expand the Great Wall of Qi, and at the same time it was constantly expanding the achievements of the reform of the bureaucracy. South Korea is busy practicing the Law of Non-Harm – a change that is not profound on the surface, but is actually very influential.
Only the Chu state and the Yan state, there was no obvious movement. The State of Yan can understand, after all, the boundaries of the State of Yan are too remote, and at this stage, many historical materials have been lost and there are not many cultural relics. The State of Chu was in a state of silence for most of the Warring States, belonging to the type of "not erupting in silence, perishing in silence". At this time, during the reign of King Xuan of Chu, this duke left only a faint back in history, although there was no great merit, but the suspension of the army and the people maintained the upward trend of the Chu state after the Wu Qi change. Jiang Yi, a descendant of the nobility who came to the State of Chu from the State of Wei, saw clearly the power structure of the State of Chu: King Xuan of Chu hid behind Zhao Xi Qi, who handled practical affairs in the front, creating the illusion of a fox and a tiger. He seems to be very timid, but in fact, the Chu state will not become the target of all countries like the State of Wei in the war of annexation, but it will have a rather vertical and horizontal color.
But in any case, the State of Wei was already on the way to maintaining its hegemony of expansion. Along with the changes in the geopolitical situation, King Hui of Wei himself could not suppress the ambitions of all interest groups, and could only follow their direction. As Ji Liang said above, once the State of Wei expanded beyond a point, it was like the man who drove his horse north to the State of Chu, getting farther and farther away from hegemony. But at that time, Wei Hou really had no way to brake off, just like the German Second Reich after Bismarck's departure, and could only continue along the road of expansion until he was crushed to pieces.
In short, although there is not much movement in the open, all countries have hidden their own small plans. The storm that followed was already hard to avoid.
At this time, Wei Hou also had a question in his heart, how to guide Wei Guo to continue to move forward?
Resources
[1] Yang Kuan, History of the Warring States
[2] Yang Kuan, Chronicle of Warring States Historical Materials
[3] Shen Changyun, Draft History of the State of Zhao
[4] Liu Xiang (Western Han Dynasty), Warring States Policy, Wei Ce IV
[5] "Sun Bing's Art of War: Capturing Pang Juan"