Introduction: In the Warring States era, if the Yan Kingdom did not change its generals, could it unify the world? Is the golden table exchange really worth regretting? Not really! Why? Royal politics is key
The Warring States era has always been an era of ups and downs and a constantly changing strategic pattern, in this historical period, countless wars have surged onto the stage of history along with the wind and sand of history, and with the occurrence of these wars, the pattern between various countries has undergone continuous changes. Even the State of Yan, which had not done anything in the Warring States period, had launched large-scale wars, and this country had laid siege to more than seventy cities and pools in the State of Qi, and had attacked Linzi, the capital of the State of Qi at that time, and almost destroyed all the State of Qi.
But it was also at this time that King Yan Zhao, a generation of heroes of the State of Yan, died, and his son King Hui of Yan succeeded to the throne, and after King Hui of Yan succeeded to the throne, he had a lot of suspicions about the generals who commanded the army, and he did not trust his generals, especially at that time, Le Yi had already attacked the State of Qi but did not destroy the State of Qi, which aroused the suspicion of King Hui of Yan.
Under the influence of many ear winds, King Hui of Yan finally replaced Le Yi with a knight robber at the Golden Terrace, and after the raider served as the commander of the State of Yan, the Yan army was gradually defeated, and the advantage created by Le Yi no longer existed, and finally was defeated by the Qi army led by Tian Dan, and the State of Qi also recovered from the state of near annihilation, lifting this time of the crisis of annihilation.
This seems to be a very regrettable result, because in the minds of many people, if the Yan Kingdom did not change the strong collar from Le Yi to a horse robbery at that time, then the Yan State is likely to perish, the State of Qi will become a major princely power in the Central Plains, its land area and permanent population will double, this will become a country that can compete with the major princely states in the Central Plains, and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States will also become six in that time period, and the State of Yan will also be a country that has created history. However, it was because of the change of generals of the Yan kingdom, Yan Hui, that led to the final defeat of the Yan kingdom.
Therefore, in their view, this result is very regrettable, but is the truth of history really like this? Is Yan Guo's golden platform exchange behavior really worth regretting? Or, if the State of Yan had not changed its generals at the Golden Terrace, would the State of Yan have been able to destroy the State of Qi? We will focus on this problem today.
If we want to know the answer to this question, we must know three things, the first is what is the fundamental reason for the YanGuo to organize the activity of Le Yi Vaqi? What was the political tradition that the Second Yan State had been pursuing at that time? The third is what is the choice after Leyi is replaced? Knowing these three questions, the final answer is clear at a glance, so we will analyze this problem from these three aspects today.
The Yan state launched the war only out of personal vendetta
The first question is, what is the fundamental reason for the activity of The Yan State organization Le Yi Vaqi? In fact, between the State of Yan and the State of Qi, just like the State of Qin and the State of Wei at that time, the adjacent land area of the two countries was very vast, which doomed the conflict of interests between the two countries to be very serious, because the territorial disputes were often more severe than other interests, so there was a deep hatred between the State of Yan and the State of Qi.
However, throughout the Warring States period, the State of Qi has always been strong by the State of Yan, which is a country located on the coast of the East China Sea, and the economy of this country is far more developed than that of the State of Yan, because it is located on the coast of the East China Sea, and its economic and trade situation is more diversified than other countries. Since the founding of the State of Qi, maritime trade activities have been very developed, and because of this, a lot of economic wealth has been created for the country of Qi, and the national strength of the State of Qi has always been very strong by relying on these economic wealth.
Therefore, in the struggle of the State of Qi, the State of Yan has always been in a weak position, and this state has been maintained for hundreds of years. The struggle between countries is often much more complicated than the dispute between people, and a little carelessness will involve hundreds of years of grudges between these two princely states, which can even shake the foundation of the entire country, so the Yan state will not fight with the Qi state until the last resort. Therefore, even though the Yan kingdom had always suffered losses in this dispute, it had never taken the last step, but this state of affairs had changed during the time of King Qi.
King Qi Was a very violent monarch and a very short-sighted man, he had organized the Six Kingdoms Alliance, but this time it was a conspiracy, when he put the armies of the other five countries as cannon fodder on the front line, he took this opportunity to destroy the Song State, and occupied a lot of land in the Yan State, not only that, he also killed the strong leader of the Yan State when he sent troops, and threatened the King of Yan Zhao at that time with the life of the soldiers.
In the face of such a great shame and humiliation, King Yan Zhao must not be able to bear it, but in view of the poverty and weakness in the Yan Kingdom, King Yan Zhao could only submit to the State of Qi at that time; after all, he was still a monarch with great talent and great strategy, who secretly changed the law in the State of Yan, recruited general talents such as Le Yi and Ju Xin, and then organized the other five countries to carry out the Qi activities together with the tyranny of the State of Qi, that is, the Le Yi Qi we mentioned above. So in fact, the fundamental reason why King Yan Zhaowang let Le Yi carry out the Qi campaign as a general was actually revenge, for the hatred of the Yixue Yan kingdom being bullied by the State of Qi.
This was completely different from the war of annihilation launched by the State of Qin at that time, and the fundamental purpose of the war launched by the State of Qin before the reign of the King of Qin was to attack the city strategically, expand the land area of the State of Qin, increase the number of permanent residents of the State of Qin, and thus enhance the comprehensive strength of the State of Qin and prepare for the eventual eastward expansion of the State of Qin and the unification of the Central Plains.
However, the goal of the State of Yan was not on these objective reasons, his war at that time was only for revenge, in order to retaliate against the State of Qi, so in the very beginning, the Army of the State of Yan fought very fiercely, the places where it passed were basically lifeless, the Army of the State of Qi was also very heavy casualties, and the wealth accumulated by the State of Qi over the years was basically plundered.
It can be seen that the most fundamental purpose of the Yan Kingdom is actually to vent the hatred in his mind, and he did not take protective measures against the land and ponds at that time, because the root cause was that he did not want to occupy the land, and even we can say that he only wanted to destroy it. Therefore, the answer to the first question has been analyzed to be very clear, and the most fundamental factor in the Yan State to launch a war is actually for revenge.
The State of Yan has always adhered to the rule of the king
The second question is, what is the political tradition that the Yan State has always pursued? The State of Yan is a country that has always adhered to the tradition of the royal way, since the beginning of his founding of the country, the political tradition of the State of Yan has not changed, and even under such a tradition, the State of Yan has had a large period of historical gaps, in that period of history, the mediocre state of Yan even the historians can not find a little bright spot, even if they want to give the State of Yan a little historical ink they can not do.
Therefore, only a few records can be made on the succession of the throne of the Yan kingdom, and other major historical events such as the Yan kingdom are completely unrecorded. This is an interesting historical phenomenon, how can a country have such a long historical gap? According to the research of historians, this historical gap lasted for nine generations, that is, no major historical events occurred during the reign of the nine monarchs of the Yan Kingdom, which can only show that the national development of the Yan State was very stable and unchanged.
And we can infer from what zhao Gongyi did after the founding of the state that the Yan state had always abided by the royal road policy at that time, in fact, if the Yan state had abided by a policy like the qin state, it would have been absolutely impossible to do nothing in such a long historical period.
According to the historical records, the Yan state not only did not have major historical events, but also did not annex any vassal states in the entire Warring States period, which mentions a principled proposition under the royal political tradition that the Yan state observed, that is, to oppose any oppressive state subordination, that is, to oppose the annexation of the country through war, and to oppose the conquest of a country through war, which exists by oppressive means.
Therefore, the State of Yan never annexed other princely states in the form of war, even if there was a bloody feud with the State of Qi and the State of Zhao at that time, and the war between this country against the State of Zhao or the State of Qi was never a war with the intention of destroying the country. This is why Le Yi did not destroy the State of Qi after attacking the capital of the State of Qi, Linzi, and had a very great relationship with the political tradition of the State of Yan, because under the policy of the State of Wang, it did not allow the State of Qi to submit to the State of Yan because of the oppressive war, and if Le Yi did so, it would be contrary to the most fundamental political system of the State of Yan.
Le Yi's golden platform was replaced, in fact, Le Yi had already seen through the politics of the Yan country
The third question is, where did Le Yi go after the Golden Stage was replaced? In fact, after Le Yi was originally replaced, he fled to the Zhao Kingdom, note that we are using escape instead of going here, what was he worried about at that time? Many people believe that because King Hui of Yan was suspicious of Yue Yi, he would replace him, so Le Yi must be worried about being suspected by King Hui of Yan and causing his life to be in danger, so he would flee to the Zhao Kingdom.
This is one of the reasons, but it is not the most fundamental reason. Why? Let's look at another thing that happened after the change of gold. It is worth noting that Le Yi was indeed replaced by the suspicion of King Hui of Yan, but after this, King Hui of Yan realized his mistake, and he apologized to Le Yi very rarely, which is a very interesting historical phenomenon.
Imagine that in an era when class was so highly valued, as in the Warring States period, it must be very rare for a monarch to be able to apologize to his courtiers, and a monarch realized his mistake and sincerely demanded that his courtiers come back, and if the courtiers returned and encountered danger, what kind of crime would the monarch bear? Maybe no one can do anything with him, but he will also lose his credibility from now on, which will be a major blow to Yan Guo.
Therefore, King Hui of Yan can sincerely apologize to Le Yi, even if he can't reuse it as before, he will definitely keep his life worry-free, and Le Yi did not have any great achievements in the Zhao Kingdom, but Le Yi was firmly opposed to returning to the Yan Kingdom, why is this? Why did Le Yi resolutely not return to the Yan Kingdom?
In fact, if we deeply analyze the historical truth at that time, we will find that Le Yi did not take a dismissive attitude towards king's book of King Hui of Yan, but he returned to the book very seriously, and the most mentioned in his reply was how he defeated the Qi army and how to transport all the wealth accumulated by the State of Qi over the years back to the Yan Kingdom. How to fight with the combined forces of the other five countries without mentioning his siege of the State of Qi for six years is worth pondering.
If Le Yi was the one who suggested that the Yan army besiege the State of Qi, and if Le Yi was very sympathetic to the long-held policy of the Yan State, then why did he not mention anything in his reply to King Hui of Yan? This can only show that Le Yi did not approve of this behavior, and his siege of the State of Qi for six years was not actually his intention, but there was no way under the pressure of the monarch. And for such a country, LeYi is convinced that it will never change, and under the political tradition of the royal way, it can only become more and more decayed, what is the future of such a country? Therefore, Le Yi chose not to return to Yan.
In fact, knowing the answers to the above three questions, it is not difficult to understand why the behavior of the Yanguo Golden Terrace is not worth regretting. Because this is actually an act that will definitely happen in the State of Yan, or under the political tradition of the royal road that the State of Yan adheres to, even if Le Yi leads the army, even if Le Yi has been sticking to the battlefield of the State of Qi, the State of Yan cannot destroy the State of Qi.
The Yan state originally launched the war only to avenge the qi state, but only to vent the hatred in its heart, and the war that was born from it would be extremely disillusioned, but the Yan state was a country that adhered to the political tradition of the royal way, so these two behaviors were actually very contradictory, and the royal political tradition of the Yan state was handed down from the founding king.
Therefore, this shows that the initial war method similar to the war of annihilation of the Yan state cannot be continued for a long time, and once its mode of warfare is changed, it means that the attitude of the Yan state to the State of Qi has changed, and once the political attitude has changed, it means that the Yan State has once again embarked on the old road of sticking to the political tradition of the royal road.
Under such a policy, the State of Yan could not destroy the State of Qi no matter what, so the change of generals in the Golden Terrace was just an excuse, and even without this historical event, the State of Yan would absolutely not be able to destroy the State of Qi on the basis of sticking to the royal road.
References: Warring States Policy, Zuo Zhuan, Shi Ji, Zizhi Tongjian