Bai Qi, one of the four famous generals of the Warring States, is another outstanding military figure in China's history after Sun Wu and Wu Qi, and a representative figure of the "Bing Family". Why was he called "killing god", and why did he look up to the sky and sigh when he killed himself?
When he was born, the national strength of the Qin state was already very strong. When he grew up, it just so happened that King Qin Zhao had formulated a plan to advance east to defeat the Three Jins and unify the world, and he was in urgent need of strong generals, so King Qin Zhao promoted many talents from civilian origins and enlisted in the army in baiqi. In the thirteenth year of King Zhao of Qin, Bai Qi served as the commander of Zuo Shu and led an army to attack the new city of Korea.
The following year, the combined han and Wei armies held The Han Dynasty and prevented the Qin army from advancing eastward. Bai Qi served as the main general, adopting the strategy of first weak and then strong, avoiding real attacks and fighting false battles, and the main force of the Qin army went around to the rear of the coalition army and repeatedly broke through the coalition army detachment and the rear defenders. In the end, the Qin army annihilated more than 240,000 Han and Wei troops, captured the Wei general Gongsun Xi, and seized territory east of Anyi in Korea to the Qianhe River. Bai Qi became famous in world war I and was made a national lieutenant.
In the fifteenth year of King Zhao of Qin, Bai Qi was promoted to Daliangzao, led troops to attack the State of Wei, and successfully took 61 large and small cities and pools of the State of Wei, which laid the foundation for the eastern part of the State of Qin to go out of the country. Bai Qi was familiar with the art of war, was good at using soldiers, and made many battle achievements. In the "Battle of Chu", the capital of the Chu state was captured, Yingcheng, and finally the Chu state was destroyed by the Qin army, and Bai was named after the world and was given the title of Wu'an Jun.
In the 34th year of King Qin Zhao, Bai Qi led an army to attack the Zhao and Wei allies who came to support Korea, capturing the generals of the Three Kingdoms, 130,000 enemy troops were beheaded, and 20,000 Zhao troops were drowned. In the forty-third year of King Qin Zhao, he attacked the Korean city of Jingcheng, captured five cities, and beheaded 50,000 Korean troops. In the forty-seventh year of King Zhao of Qin, the Qin general Wang Gong attacked Korea, captured Shangdang, and then attacked Zhao, and the "Battle of Changping" broke out.
The Qin army was like a broken bamboo, the Zhao army was gradually defeated and retreated, and the western wall of the Zhao state's defensive line of tens of miles north and south of the empty warehouse was completely fallen. Later, under the deployment of Zhao General Lianpo, the two countries fell into a war of attrition that lasted for three years. King Zhao of Qin secretly sent Bai Qi to the front to lead the army, and at the same time, Zhao Guo replaced Lian Po with Zhao Kuo.
In the face of Zhao Kuo, who was reckless and light on the enemy, arrogant and self-assured, and could only talk on paper, Bai Qi decided to adopt the strategy of "retreating to lure the enemy and divide and annihilate." As a result, Zhao Kuo was really deceived, and zhao Guo's grain transportation road was cut off. After 46 days of food shortages, zhao jun was so hungry that he even began to kill each other, and the army's heart was extremely unstable. After many failed breakthroughs, Zhao Kuo personally led the elite troops to battle, and was killed by the Qin army, and the Zhao army was greatly defeated. The Zhao army, which had no main general, surrendered one after another.
Bai Qi and his subordinates were worried that the Zhao army was capricious and left a curse, so they designed to bury all 400,000 Zhao soldiers alive and kill them, leaving only 240 young Zhao soldiers to return to report the letter. In the "Battle of Changping", the Qin army killed and captured a total of 450,000 people, and severely damaged the main force of the Zhao state.
Bai Qi wanted to take advantage of the victory to pursue, but was persuaded by Qin's corresponding Hou Fan Ju to persuade Qin Zhaowang not to let him make battle merits again, because he would make a high contribution to the lord, and Qin Zhaowang was also worried about this, so he did not agree with Bai Qi's plan. Bai Qi also formed a bond with Fan Ju because of this incident. In September of the same year, the State of Qin again sent troops to attack the State of Zhao, and when Bai Qi was ill and could not move, King Zhao of Qin sent the Tomb of the Fifth Doctor to attack Handan.
In the first month of the following year, Wang Ling's attack on Zhao was not smooth, and the State of Qin sent heavy troops to support it. As a result, about 40,000 Qin troops were killed in battle. After Bai Qi recovered from his illness, King Qin Zhao wanted him to serve as the main general to attack Handan. Bai Qi said: "It is not easy to attack Handan, if other princely states send reinforcements, they can reach Handan in one day, and the qin reinforcements are far away." If they should cooperate with each other inside and outside, the Qin army will be defeated. Therefore, no troops should be sent to attack Handan. King Qin Zhao had no choice but to let Wang Gong take over the position of Wang Ling.
Handan could not be attacked for a long time, and the State of Chu and the State of Wei led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the Qin army, and the Qin army suffered heavy casualties. After Bai Qi heard about it, he said to King Qin Zhao, "When the Great King did not listen to my plan, what was the end?" When the King of Qin heard this, he was furious and forcibly let Bai Qi send troops. Bai Qi refused the King of Qin on the grounds that he was seriously ill.
Three months later, the news of the defeat of the Qin army came again, and King Qin Zhao forced Bai Qi to send troops immediately, and there must be no mistakes, and Bai Qi had to take the illness out on the expedition. When he arrived at Duyou, King Qin Zhao, after consulting with Fan Ju, thought that Bai Qi would not obey the order for a long time, so he sent an emissary to give him a sword and order him to kill himself.
Before Bai Qi killed himself, Yang Tianchang sighed, "What sin have I committed against Heaven that ended up like this?" After thinking about it for a while, he said: "In the Battle of Changping, I tricked hundreds of thousands of Zhao troops who had surrendered alive, which was enough for me to die. Actually, I would have been damned! After saying that, he committed suicide, which was November of the fiftieth year of King Qin Zhao.
Bai Qi served as the main general of the Qin Army for more than 30 years, captured more than 70 cities and beheaded more than 1 million enemy troops. According to records, a total of 2 million people died in battle during the Warring States period, and half of them were beheaded in white, which was a veritable "killing god" and made a great contribution to the unification of the Qin state. After Bai Qi died, the Qin people took pity on him and built ancestral shrines in various places to worship him.