When it comes to the history of the Warring States, we can't avoid the State of Wei. In that era of great change, it was the first country in the Warring States Seven Heroes to change the law, although it was not as thorough as the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, but because of its early change of law, it became the first powerful country among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, and once dominated the early Warring States period.
However, the powerful state of Wei, which was strong and prosperous, quickly weakened after the Battle of Maling, and was given by the State of Qin to take what it wanted, and withdrew from the stage of a strong country.
It is worth mentioning that just two years before the Battle of Maling, the State of Wei was still the overlord of the Warring States, and King Hui of Wei was even in Fengze to ally the princes, and regarded himself as the lord of the princes' alliance. So how did it go into decline because of a war?
In fact, the Battle of Maling is just a lead-in, frozen three feet is not a day's cold, dominating the princes for nearly a hundred years, the decline of the Wei state is not only the power of this battle.
First of all, in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the original Spring and Autumn Five Powers all declined. Because of infighting, the national strength of the State of Qi has not improved; the State of Chu has been greatly frustrated because of the war with the State of Wu, and the capital city has been destroyed and the tombs of the kings have been planed; the State of Jin has been divided into three because it was overthrown by the Secretaries of State. That is to say, in the early Warring States period, no princely state was particularly outstanding, and each country maintained a relative balance.
In such a context, Wei Guo took the lead in standing out through the change of law. At that time, Wei Wenhou was an ambitious Ming emperor, and under his leadership, the State of Wei took Zhai Huang as his counterpart and reformed the maladministration; used Le Yang as a general to attack the State of Zhongshan; and appointed Li Wu to change the law, teach the Fa Jing, and govern the country according to law. As a result, the Wei state prospered and entered a period of rising national power.
In 413 BC, the State of Wei used troops against the State of Qin in the west, taking full advantage of the land west of the Qin State, causing the State of Qin to retreat to the west of Luoshui to defend. Then led by Le Yi's ancestor Le Yang, he crossed the Zhao State and destroyed the Zhongshan Kingdom, causing the Zhao State to be angry with it.
In 404 BC, the State of Wei again used troops against the State of Qi in the east, beating the State of Qi to the point of being angry and afraid of the State of Wei. In 375 BC, the State of Wei occupied the land of Luyang by attacking the State of Chu.
At this point, the State of Wei could be regarded as a strong rise and ascended to the top of the princes. As the saying goes, the gun shoots the head bird, and Wei Guo becomes the target of everyone.
In fact, the country of Wei, the geographical environment is not good, it is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the surrounding powers are numerous, not to mention Qin Zhao, that is, the State of Qi in the east and the State of Chu in the south, neither of which is easy to deal with.
Therefore, from the perspective of geographical environment, the State of Wei is a place of four wars, and the situation is not dominant. The strength of the State of Wei was entirely dependent on its advanced system, strong military strength, and the wise leadership of several generations of leaders of the State of Wei and a large number of able subjects such as Wu Qi and Li Slang, plus the alliance of the Three Jins, mutual help and mutual assistance, and finally created the first hegemony of the Warring States. Compared with the State of Qin, which later sat in Guanzhong and controlled Bashu or crossed Jingxiang, even the State of Chu that controlled Wuyue, or the State of Qi, which occupied the land of Qilu, the State of Wei could not afford to lose.
Therefore, if the State of Wei can always remain strong, it will not be a problem. As long as the State of Wei is slightly weak, then it will face the challenge of all countries rising up and beating up the falling water dogs.
During the reign of King Hui of Wei, because he was bent on dominating, uniting the princes, and dominating the world, he had the great dream of the Spring and Autumn Period. As a result, the State of Wei not only confronted Qi Chu, but even the Three Jin Alliance, which was the basis of its national stability, was abandoned by him. First the Zhao state was beaten, destroying its capital city of Handan, and later korea was beaten, if it were not for the Battle of Maling, the state of Qi would have defeated the state of Wei, and South Korea was estimated to be doomed.
And it was precisely because of bullying Zhao Guo and South Korea that it brought difficulties to Wei Guo twice in a row.
In 354 BC, the State of Zhao sent troops to attack the Wei State, winning successive battles and seizing a lot of territory, which was a good prospect. However, because Wei Guo recognized Wei Guo as his eldest brother early, Zhao Guo was attacked by Wei Guo. Of course, helping the younger brother out of the way is only one of the reasons, the State of Wei and the State of Zhao already have contradictions, the State of Zhongshan, which was previously destroyed and occupied by the State of Wei, was later restored, and a large part of the reason is that the State of Zhao is obstructing from it, and the State of Wei has long wanted to retaliate.
Therefore, he took this opportunity to send troops to attack the Zhao state. At that time, the Wei general Pang Juan led an army to besiege the capital of the Zhao state, Handan, and the Zhao state was invincible, so he could only send emissaries to Qi Chu and other countries for help.
The State of Chu had been beaten many times by the State of Wei with the Younger Brother of the Three Jins many times, and was unwilling to wade through muddy waters; the State of Qi sent troops to help because of the need for hegemony. Led by Tian Jisun Zhen, he rescued Zhao Guo.
Although it is said to be a rescue, it is actually an ambush. Because for the State of Qi, it does not matter whether Handan is broken or not, mainly to overthrow the State of Wei, they are more willing to see the State of Wei attack Handan and then go to save the State of Zhao. In this way, it not only saved the Zhao state and fulfilled the agreement, but also let wei and Zhao kill both sides and lose at the same time, and the state of Qi benefited from it.
After the invincible Wei army suffered this great defeat, it was naturally beaten by the countries and fell into the water. First of all, the first was the Chu state, which had not sent troops at the beginning, which was originally aimed at reaping the benefits of the fishermen; in addition, the two wall-headed grasses of the Song state and the Wei state had already defected to the state of Qi, and the three kingdoms formed a coalition army to launch a fierce attack on Xiangling.
See? Even Wei Guo's younger brother, Wei Guo, was betrayed in an instant, which showed how much trouble Wei Guo had.
This is not the end, the State of Qin, which had been suppressed by the State of Wei at the beginning, also saw the opportunity to send troops to attack the State of Wei and defeat the Wei army. At this time, the State of Wei could be called embattled.
However, as the first hegemon of the Warring States, the State of Wei showed great strength in the face of adversity. The general Pang Juan did indeed have two brushes, which stabilized the Wei army's position and first attacked The Zhao capital to force the Zhao state to form an alliance under the city. Then they united with Korea and formed a wei-Han coalition army to defeat the combined forces of Qi, Wei, and Song, forcing the State of Qi to seek peace, and the State of Chu saw that things were not good, and immediately withdrew. After solving the dilemma in the east, the State of Wei began to clean up the State of Qin, and after a fat beating, the State of Qin had to make peace and return all the land.
After that, the State of Wei still firmly occupied the hegemonic position of the Warring States.
In general, after the great defeat at the Battle of Guiling, although the State of Wei was dangerous, it reversed the defeat with its strong strength. But at the same time, this also cost Wei Guo years of accumulation of family foundation, money and food, army, all of which were greatly damaged.
From then on, the State of Wei began to decline, and even had to build and strengthen the Old Great Wall on the edge of the Yellow River to prevent the Qin State from attacking.
All in all, at this time, the Wei state already wanted to be weak, and they could not withstand another "Battle of Guiling".
However, Wei Guo was not aware of his current situation, and King Hui of Wei was still dreaming of his hegemony. In 344 BC, King Hui of Wei followed Yu Shang's persuasion and went to the marquis to claim the title of king. At the same time, he united with the princes to meet zhou tianzi in the hope of becoming the overlord of the princes like the Duke of Qi Huan.
However, at that time, some countries, led by South Korea, did not want wei to dominate, so they did not participate in the alliance, and the two countries turned against each other.
In 342 BC, the State of Wei attacked Korea, and Korea sought the help of the State of Qi. Then it was Sun Bing and Pang Juan, the so-called division brothers, who started the rivalry. Then Sun Bing repeated the same trick and "encircled Wei to save Han" again, and the result was still the same as ten years ago, the Wei army was ambushed in Maling, the whole army was destroyed, and the commander Pang Juan killed himself. 100,000 Wei Wu pawns were completely destroyed, and Wei Guoyuan was seriously injured.
At the same time, a similar script was staged again, and the princes began to beat up the falling water dogs again.
The western Qin state seized the land west of the Wei state hexi, and the southern side was defeated by the chu state and lost eight cities, in order to:
"The east was defeated by Qi, the west lost more than 700 miles to Qin, and the south was humiliated by Chu."
This time, The Wei Kingdom never turned the tables again, because they didn't have that strength.
And all this stemmed from Wei's almost idiotic foreign policy. A land of four wars, a country with no strategic buffer zone. He even dared to expand blindly, so that he angered the princely states and was beaten by the masses. When the State of Wei beats up other countries, there is usually a third congress to rescue it; and when the State of Wei is beaten, often no country will save it. No matter how strong the national strength is, it cannot help many countries from fighting wheel wars with it, and decline is inevitable.
In addition, there is another important external reason, that is, the rise of the Qin state, the State of Wei, as an old rival, the first to face its sharp edge, is always beaten by fat. The State of Wei has since declined rapidly.
Of course, we know that the rise and strength of the Qin state is not a qualitative change, but a quantitative change is the "Yu Lie of the Sixth Dynasty" after the Shang Martingale Transformation Law. Similarly, the decline of the Wei state was not certain by a war. What's more, the scale of the Battle of Maling was not as large as that of the later Five Kingdoms. Therefore, it can only be said that the Battle of Maling was only a setback to the expansion of the Wei state.
In "The Fission of the Great Qin Empire", there is a passage before the Wei state attacked Han, and Pang Juan sighed:
"If the temple is defeated, the battlefield will be victorious."
Explain the wei state's wrong hegemonic strategy, pushing itself step by step into the abyss. Moreover, Pang Juan also said, "The nations are plotting to cut down, and the State of Wei has fallen behind." "It appears that the State of Wei had already declined in strength before the Battle of Maling, and the Battle of Maling magnified the weakness of the State of Wei, attracting other princely states to attack and weaken.
At first, the State of Wei was too pampered, no longer looked at the State of Qin in the eyes, and gradually snubbed han and Zhao, and only wanted to compete with Qi Chu for hegemony. After the capital was moved, there was no danger to defend around, and there was no strategic buffer in the land of the four wars.
If after the Battle of Hexi, the opportunity was taken to destroy the Qin state, not to move the capital, with Anyi as the center, to integrate Hedong and Hexi, to attack from afar and closely, and to gradually encroach on Han and Zhao, there would certainly be a big change in the future.
Because if the State of Wei occupied the land of Guanzhong, it would have a real rear, rather than defending the country on all sides. If the Qin state is annexed, it can be played according to the script behind the Qin state, taking the land of Bashu, leveling the canal, and then joining forces with Qi Chu to encroach on Zhao Han.
More critically, because the State of Wei was already located in the Central Plains, its eastward obstacles were much smaller than those of the State of Qin. Destroying Han Zhao and dominating the Three Jins alone would be relatively simpler. After Zhao Han finished eating, the three granaries, Zhao's cavalry, and Han's arsenal were all attributed to the State of Wei, and with the passage of time, the Economy and military of the State of Wei would become stronger and stronger.
It is not impossible to unify the world.
But then again, Wei Guo had done well enough. After all, the strategic vision of this thing is not everyone has, unified the world at that time did not dare to think, everyone in the eyes of the more important is to chase the deer in the Central Plains, dominate the princes. Wei Guo had indeed done it. Moreover, compared with the State of Qin, the State of Wei, as the land of four wars, had an innate disadvantage, and its final decline was also reasonable.