The Battle of Yique was a major battle between the Qin state and the combined forces of Han, Wei, and Eastern Zhou, so named because of its location in Yique. In this battle, the general of the Qin army became famous in a battle, 240,000 allied troops were slaughtered, why was the Wei and Han coalition forces vulnerable?
When the State of Qin was preparing to march eastward, it sent a large army led by the general Bai Qi to march eastward, when the State of Wei and Korea allied themselves to form a 240,000-strong army, led by Gongsun Xi to resist the Qin army. At that time, the strength of the Wei-Han alliance was more than double that of the Qin army, and the weapons were well-equipped.
Korean crossbows were very famous during the Warring States period and defeated many opponents. Whether in terms of momentum or strength, the Wei-Han coalition army was stronger than the Qin army. Coupled with the fact that the Qin side was led by the fledgling Bai Qi, he was recommended by the chancellor Wei Ran as the commander of Zuo Shu, and as the vanguard of the attack on Korea and achieved initial victory, he was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of leading 100,000 troops to fight a decisive battle with the Han and Wei forces.
In this great battle, the combined forces of Han and Wei were powerful and posed in a much more powerful formation than the Qin army. The Korean army and the Wei army are arranged in a glyph, with the Korean army taking the lead and the Wei army behind the palace. According to Gongsun Xi's tactics, he wanted to lure the Qin army to attack the Han army from the front, and the Wei army took the opportunity to encircle the two flanks to form an encirclement. However, Bai Qi saw his plan and took a feint attack head-on, and the main force directly went around to the rear to attack the Wei army.
At this time, the main general Gongsun Xi hesitated, not knowing which of the front and rear was the main force of the Qin army, Gongsun Xi's hesitation directly caused the Wei army in the rear to be defeated, and then the main force of the Qin army formed an encirclement with the pretending army in the front, and the Korean army was surrounded and annihilated. Bai Qi used a small number of troops to break through the Han and Wei alliances, and became a famous general at that time. The reason why the Han and Wei coalition forces failed had a lot to do with improper internal communication, and after the Wei army on one side was secretly attacked, it failed to get effective support, which led to the final defeat.