Introduction: During the Warring States period, the Qin state fought with one enemy and six enemies, and how was the war to destroy the country? In fact, there are three major plates, Wang Qi, Wang Ben, and Meng Tian who have the heaviest task
After the Qin King Yingzheng succeeded to the throne, the Qin State has become very powerful because of the efforts of successive monarchs, and after the Succession of the Qin Dynasty, the national strength of the Qin State has reached its peak, so in 20 and 30 BC, the Qin King Yingzheng launched a war to destroy the country, with the strength of the Qin State as a country against the six kingdoms of Shandong.
The final result of this war is known to everyone, the six kingdoms of Shandong were powerless to resist the offensive of the Qin state, one after another collapsed, and finally the six kingdoms of Shandong were unified by the Qin state, the Central Plains civilization and the establishment of the first centralized feudal dynasty, China's society also officially changed from a slave society to a feudal society, and China's historical civilization has entered a new stage. However, although the Six Kingdoms of Shandong were already very weak at the end of the Warring States period, these countries were all princely states divided by the Western Zhou Dynasty, and they all had a certain national background and strength.
Today, we will mainly look at the strategic deployment of the Qin State, after the launch of the War of Annihilation, the 600,000 troops of the Qin State were divided into three major parts, respectively, the three major theaters of war, and through the close cooperation of the three major theaters, the war of annihilation of the country was completed step by step.
The first was the Yan Dynasty War Zone led by Wang Qi. Among the three major theaters, the Yan Dynasty Theater of Operations was the most frequent and difficult one. It was mainly facing the Yan and Zhao states in the north, and the reason why the form of this war zone was more difficult was because of the particularity of the two countries of the Zhao and Yan states.
These two countries were located in the north of the Central Plains civilization at that time, the connection with the Xiongnu was extremely close, the terrain environment was extremely complex, and the forces of the two countries were very likely to flee to the land of the Xiongnu if they were not careful, so that they could not cut the grass and remove the roots, and they might even find another piece of land to establish a country again, and the unification of the Central Plains would be seriously hindered.
In addition, the Zhao state it faced was a country that advocated force, although the country was seriously hit in the Battle of Changping, but the whole country did not completely collapse, and later Zhao Jia of the Zhao royal family led the remnants of the Zhao state to the north to establish a daiguo, which brought great obstacles to Wang Qi's plan.
Therefore, among the three major war zones, the burden on Wang Qi's body can be said to be the heaviest, and his task is also the most difficult to complete. However, Wang Qi did not live up to the trust of the Qin king Yingzheng, and not only led Li Xin, Zhang Handan and a group of other great talents to eliminate the established Daiguo, but also forced the Yan state to the Liaodong region, cut off their ties with the Xiongnu, and finally annihilated them in one fell swoop, and the entire northern region was pacified. Later, Wang Qi, together with Meng Tian's troops, built a strong fortification between the Central Plains and the Xiongnu, allowing the State of Qin to pacify the State of Chu in the south without any worries.
The second was the Central Plains Theater led by Wang Ben. The biggest difficulty faced by the Central Plains Theater was the State of Wei, which was a great power in the Central Plains, from the old princely state of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Jin State, with a very deep historical and cultural heritage, and because of the Li Wu Transformation Law in the early Warring States period, the entire country had a strength that surpassed other countries.
Therefore, although the State of Wei had been extremely decayed, the country was more difficult to deal with than other countries. In addition to the national strength of the State of Wei itself, its strategic position is also very important, in the Warring States Era, the State of Qin and the State of Qi in the east are both great powers, but the two countries do not have directly adjacent land, so the contact between the two countries is very difficult, and what must be passed through in the middle is the State of Wei, so if the State of Qin wants to go east to destroy the State of Qi, it must take the State of Wei.
Therefore, the main goal of the Central Plains Theater is to solve the Wei state, otherwise the unification plan of the Qin state will not be implemented, but for the Wei state to have a strong national strength as a support, the Qin state has only 600,000 troops up and down the country, distributed in various theaters is already stretched, if a solid frontal battlefield confrontation is carried out, it is likely to fail. If the war against Wei fails, it is likely to affect the success of the Qin state's plan to destroy the country, and even the efforts of the successive monarchs of the Qin state will be wasted, so the Central Plains Theater is also the most unique form of warfare among these theaters.
At that time, Wang Ben chose to attack by water, and forced the king to surrender by flooding the girder, and then destroyed the State of Wei in one fell swoop. In fact, this plan was not first proposed by Wang Ben, and the previous Zongheng family Su Li and the Duke of Wei, Xin Lingjun, had mentioned this method, but the Wei state monarch did not pay attention to it, so that when the water finally broke the embankment, he was still asleep. Therefore, although the situation facing Wang Ben was more severe, his task was completed exceptionally perfectly.
The third is the Jiuyuan Theater led by Meng Tian, which actually did not participate in the war of annihilation, and in the entire plan for the annihilation of the country, it played a kind of reserve force, and the most fundamental purpose was to deter the Xiongnu in the north, prevent the Xiongnu from going south to deal a devastating blow to the Central Plains civilization, and also prevent the Xiongnu from taking advantage of the chaos in the north when the Central Plains civilization was engaged in internal struggle.
In addition to this aspect, Mengtian's Jiuyuan Theater troops also bear the heavy responsibility of the reserve army, if other theaters need troop support, Mengtian needs to cooperate with the generals of the various regions to redeploy and deploy military strength, so although Mengtian did not participate in the war of annihilation, his role in this war was also very important.
After all, no matter how the Central Plains civilizations fight, it is the integration and development of the Central Plains culture itself, but if it is ruled by the Xiongnu, it will be a disaster for the entire Central Plains culture, so the role played by Meng Tian is actually more important than Wang Qi and Wang Ben, and what he protects is the orthodox culture of the entire Central Plains and the foundation of the entire Central Plains civilization.
Therefore, although the tasks of the three major theaters are different, they are equally important in the war of annihilation, and without close cooperation between them, the Qin state will not be able to pour out 600,000 troops in the country to fight against the Chu state in the south, let alone spare no effort to pacify the Baiyue region.
If this is the case, the direction of the Central Plains civilization will become confusing, and China's history is likely to follow a different path, so Wang Qi, Wang Ben and Meng Tian may not appear in history often, but their contributions to the entire history of China cannot be ignored.
References: Warring States Policy, Zuo Zhuan, etc