The Yin Shang Dynasty, which had been established for nearly 600 years, began to decline when prince Huan was received, and at this time, the Zhou tribe in Guanzhong, under the hard work of King Wen Jichang and King Ji Fa of Wu, constantly encroached on and annexed the shang dynasty's vassal states, gradually forming a pattern of "three parts of the world have two". At this time, the Shang Dynasty's million-strong army was on an expedition to yiren in the Huai River Valley, thus providing a good opportunity for the Zhou tribe to destroy the merchants. In 1046 BC, King Wu of Zhou led an army to attack the empty hinterland of the Shang Dynasty, with a total strength of 45,000 troops.
During the reign of King Shang, the country declined sharply
Mengjin was only a stone's throw away from the shang dynasty's capital, the imperial court, so when king Huan heard the news, he immediately panicked. At this time, the million-strong army was still on the battlefield of conquest of Huaiyi, there were not enough elite troops in Chaoge City to resist the enemy, and in addition to the fact that there were no available chariots, infantry alone could not resist the powerful cavalry of the other side, so from the very beginning, the balance of victory had tilted towards the Zhou army.
However, in the face of a menacing enemy army, the king was not willing to sit still, so he quickly armed a large number of slaves and prisoners of war, together with the army guarding the capital, and went to Makino to meet the battle. Regarding the total strength of the Shang army, historical records are mixed, according to the "Historical Record" is 700,000, but there are also many historical records that are 170,000. But in any case, the Shang army was at least far superior to the Zhou army in number, and if there was no accident, it could completely contain the other side's offensive.
Map of the situation of the King of Wu
However, as soon as the two armies came into contact, the situation suddenly changed, and in the face of the Zhou soldiers and tall and strong chariots like tigers on the following mountains, the "slave army" of the Shang Dynasty, which had no fighting spirit, was completely defeated, and desperately ran back in order to escape, thus also rushing the elite divisions behind the line to pieces. In this way, the Battle of Makino ended in an unexpected way, and King Wu of Zhou took advantage of the victory to pursue and quickly surrounded chaoye. Knowing that the general situation was gone, in order to avoid being humiliated after being captured, the King of Lu raised a fire and set himself on fire in Lutai, at which point the Yin Shang Dynasty collapsed.
For more than two thousand years, historians have liked to tout the King of Wu as a just battle, and it seems that the Zhou army effortlessly defeated the "one-man" King Shang. In fact, this is a big lie. Because according to the "Book of Shang", the battle scene between the Zhou and Shang armies was extremely tragic, facing the powerful Zhou army, the "slave army" of the Shang Dynasty suffered extremely heavy casualties, which was really a river of blood, so that the long pole weapons were floated up. It can be seen from this that the King of Wu is by no means a just battle, but only the use of elite weapons to kill the King of Wu.
The Zhou army defeated the Shang army at the Battle of Makino
Koshi was in charge of his brigade, Wakabayashi, and would be in Makino. There is no enemy against our division, the former disciples turn against us, attack the north of the rear, and the blood drifts with pestles. A coat of arms, the world is set. See Shangshu Zhoushu Wucheng.
What also raised questions about the "righteousness" of King Wu was his actions after entering the song. Moreover, after the defeat of the King of Qiu and the self-immolation, King Wu of Zhou led his army into Chaoge, and then took the body of the King of Qi to vent his anger, not only shooting three arrows in a row, but also cutting off his head to show the public. Just as the so-called "death is greater", King Wu of Zhou's humiliation of the body of King Huan now seems to be very despised, and the reason why he did this was largely to retaliate for the imprisonment of his father King Wen in the past, which belonged to the communiqué of personal vendetta.
King Wu of Zhou then led the princes to cut down the silk. He also sent troops to Makino. On the day of the koshi, the soldiers were defeated. He walked in, climbed the deer platform, dressed in his precious jade clothes, and went to the fire to die. King Wu of Zhou then beheaded the head and the white flag of the county. See Historia, Vol. III.
When the king of Shang saw that the general trend was gone, he raised a fire and set himself on fire
Moreover, since King Wu of Zhou was fighting against the King of Zhou under the banner of "hanging the people and cutting down crimes", after the latter was deposed, it was reasonable to abolish the harsh government, comfort the people, and restore stability to the situation in the world as soon as possible. However, the purpose of King Wu of Zhou's destruction of the shang was obviously not to do so, but to arrest a large number of freedmen as slaves after wantonly killing Shang officials and people. According to historical records, more than 170,000 merchants were killed, and more than 330,000 slaves were reduced ("107,770 out of 100,000, and 230,000 prisoners of 300 million.) See Yi Zhou Shu Shi Prisoner).
Because the real purpose of King Wu of Zhou was to plunder land, wealth, and slaves, after the fall of the dynasty, a large number of Yin merchant immigrants, unwilling to accept the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, fled to remote areas in droves, and tens of thousands of them fled to the Korean Peninsula with King Huan's uncle Jizi and established a state there. In addition, the commander of the conquest of Huaiyi, You Houxi, led the remnants of the army to flee across the sea after the fall of the country, and finally reached the Americas, becoming the ancestor of today's Indians, and creating a brilliant Mayan civilization (French scholars Acosta and Chini have a detailed discussion on this).
After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the merchants, more than 500,000 merchants were killed or reduced to slavery
The Yin merchant immigrants who remained in the mainland were also extremely reluctant to accept the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, so not long after the death of King Wu of Zhou, Wu Geng (the son of King Huan), who was given the title of Marquis of Shao and ruled the homeland of Yin Shang, launched a rebellion with the intention of restoring the homeland, but unfortunately was eventually suppressed by the Zhou Gong. Afterwards, the Duke of Zhou handed over the emigration of Yin Merchants to the management of King Huan's brother Weizi and established the State of Song, at which point the situation gradually stabilized.