The Great Qin Empire is the first unified dynasty in the history of our country, and the story of Qin Shi Huang sweeping away Liuhe is believed to be heard by even children. However, for the battles after Qin Shi Huang established the Qin Dynasty, I believe that not so many people know about it.
Two thousand years ago, Qin Shi Huang spent 10 years to conquer a place. And two thousand years later, this place has become the richest place in China! Do you know where it refers? Let's get the mystery out of it.
This place is the ancient land of Baiyue.
In ancient times to the Qin Dynasty, the coastal area south of the Yangtze River was known as the Land of Baiyue, and the indigenous tribes living here were called Yue people by the pre-Qin Central Plains people ('Yue'' and 'Yue'' were common, also known as Cantonese), and because of its large number of branches and tribes, it was called 'Baiyue''.
After establishing the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang did not stop his ambitions, and he set his sights on the land of Baiyue
According to the Huainanzi, the Qin army divided into five routes, one to capture Dong'ou and Minyue (Zhejiang and Fujian), two to attack Southern Guangdong (Guangdong), and the other two to attack Xi'ou (Guangxi). The Qin army attacked Zhejiang and Fujian in one way, with a strength of about 100,000 troops; attacked two guangzhous in four ways, with a strength of about 400,000 troops.
Historically, Qin Shi Huang launched a war against Baiyue three times, and its main tomb was the war between the Qin Army and the Luo Yue Army, and these three times were collectively known as the "Three Expeditions of Qin Shi Huang to Lingnan".
Of the three wars, the most important and tragic was the first. The war lasted five years from 219 BC until 214 BC.
In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang appointed Wei Tu Sui as the main general and Zhao Tuo as his deputy general, and sent them to lead an army of 500,000 to conquer Baiyue.
However, because of the dispersion of Baiyue, the Qin army divided into five routes: the first route was to march eastward from present-day Jiangxi to capture Dong'ou and Minyue; the second and third roads were to capture Nanyue, the second road was through present-day Nanchang, and the larger Yuling Ridge entered northern Guangdong; the third road was through present-day Changsha, following the Riding Tianling to Panyu; the fourth and fifth roads into Guangxi and attacking Xi'ou, the fourth route into MengzhuLing into Present-day He County, and the fifth road into present-day Guilin via YuechengLing.
And instruct that if you encounter a big enemy, you can attack it after joining forces.
Among them, the targets of the two Qin armies on the West Road were present-day Guangxi and northern Vietnam, and compared with the other two Qin armies, the encounter of the Qin army on the West Road could be described as very tragic.
Under the leadership of Tu Ju, the Qin army attacked and fought fiercely all the way, but it burned and looted, and did not understand the people.
This wrong approach also provoked the resistance of the Yue people, and when the Qin army went deep into the Yue land, their supplies became more and more difficult, and the weather became hotter and hotter.
As a result, the Yue people went deep into the jungle to negotiate with the Qin army. And because the Yue people took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain and took advantage of the fact that the Qin army was not prepared, they attacked the Qin army camp at night, and the Qin army suffered extremely heavy casualties, and most importantly, the main general Tu Ju was also killed. Helplessly, the Qin army had to stop attacking the Ouyue people in this area.
Due to the killing of the commander and the large number of casualties of the generals, the two Qin armies of the Southern Expedition were severely damaged, occupying the Qin army in Guilin and Xiang County, so they had to guard the city wall day and night to prevent the Yue people from sneaking attacks.
In the case of logistical supply difficulties, the Qin army also had to change from a strategic offensive to a strategic defense in order to preserve its strength and choose the opportunity to fight again.
According to the Huainan Zi, the Qin soldiers "ambushed the corpses and shed hundreds of thousands of blood", and the qin army commander Tu Sui was killed, which also forced the Qin army to "stay in a useless place, and then could not retreat", so that "three years of undoing the armor and relaxing the crossbow, so that the supervisor Lu could not be paid".
At that time, the two sides had always been in a situation of confrontation. According to academic discussions, the number of Qin casualties after that battle was about 300,000, while the remaining 100,000 or so people all retreated to the eastern border of Guangxi.
However, the casualties of the Ouluo army, which caused heavy casualties to the Qin army, were also very heavy, so they did not have the strength to continue to attack. As a result, the two sides formed a confrontation situation for several years.
This situation continued until Qin Shi Huang solved the problem of supply.
In 214 BC, after the Lingqu grain route was fully opened and the logistics supply was guaranteed, Qin Shi Huang once again gathered 100,000 soldiers, and the remaining 200,000 Qin troops appointed Ren Hu as the main general and Zhao Tuo as the deputy general. March into Baiyue again.
Due to the experience gained from the first engagement, the Qin army's second march was much faster, and the Hundred Viet Cong was facing less than 6,000 people at this time. Therefore, the Qin army hardly encountered any major resistance and occupied the entire territory of Lingnan.
After that, the land of Baiyue was incorporated into the territory of the Qin state and set up as three counties. In order to protect the land and the people, Qin Shi Huang also ordered Ren Hu and Zhao Tuo to lead a large army to stay in the land of Baiyue.
Qin's war against Baiyue was an important part of Qin Shi Huang's unification war. It laid the basic pattern of China's unified multi-ethnic centralized state, and thus China's land area has also increased by more than 1 million square kilometers, which has promoted the integration of the Chinese nation and laid the foundation for the development and construction of the two Guangzhous.
And the barren land of that year has now become the richest Guangdong Province in China, and it should be said that it should be thanked to Qin Shi Huang
Reference: Huainanzi