With 300,000 dead and wounded and thousands of miles of bleeding, Qin Shi Huang paid a huge price just to exchange for this land!
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he made many military actions: to the south, to pacify the land of Baiyue; to the north, to defeat the Xiongnu tribes. Among them, the war with the Baiyue tribe suffered the greatest losses. How big is it? The First Emperor sent a total of 500,000 people that year, and only 100,000 people remained alive in the end; the wealth paid during this period was innumerable. So, what was the purpose of the First Emperor paying such a big price? What did he end up with?
The first question is very simple, Nanping Baiyue, its essence is to expand the territory. After the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Six Kingdoms, its territory also expanded from Xianyang (that is, the area around present-day Xi'an) to the surrounding areas. However, even with the territory of the other six countries, Qin's land area was only to occupy the northern territory as much as possible; however, the south, which was thousands of miles away and had vast land, had not yet been included in Qin's territory. As the first emperor of the ages, how could Qin Shi Huang allow the fertile land of Baiyue to be thrown out of his sight? Thus, there was the "Battle of Qin Attacking Baiyue".
As for the second question, "What did Qin Shi Huang get from this war," we must first look for the answer from the war itself.
The so-called "Baiyue" belongs to the area south of the Yangtze River on a large scale; if you look at it in a small area, it is probably the area around Lingnan today. "Baiyue" is not a country, but a large primitive group of people gathered and lived together by countless tribes. Because of the natural advantages of geographical location, before the Qin, Baiyue did not depend on the Son of Heaven, nor did they have to rely on anyone, they maintained a primitive way of life, so they have always been called "Southern Barbarians" by people who do not understand the Baiyue region, which means "southern barbaric tribes". However, Baiyue had lofty mountains and mountains as a natural barrier to resist foreign enemies; near the East Sea, with abundant rain and fertile land, these two points alone were enough to make the First Emperor send troops.
In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang ordered the general Tu Sui as the main general, leading 500,000 horses and horses, divided into five roads, and going south to Baiyue. In the Huainan Zi, it is recorded that "the Qin army divided into five roads, one to capture Dong'ou and Minyue, two to attack Nanyue, and the other two to attack Xi'ou." It can be seen that Qin Shi Huang really laid down his blood, and it seems that it is imperative to attack Baiyue.
From the Battle of Chibi during the Three Kingdoms period, it is not difficult to see that the outcome of the war will be different in different environments. Even though the activities of the Qin army have been fighting everywhere for the first emperor over the years, in the final analysis, it is only in this area of the north, and the time is far away from Baiyue, in addition to the discomfort of the geographical environment, the hot weather is also a big blow to the Qin army in the north all year round. It was recorded in the Huainan Zi that on the way to the Qin army to conquer Baiyue, because of the weather, a small number of people in the army were infected with the plague, which was then transmitted to other people in the army, and when they arrived at their destination, the number of soldiers lost due to the plague could be said to be huge.
However, these difficulties did not overwhelm the experienced Qin army. As soon as the Qin army reached Baiyue, it overwhelmingly captured Dong'ou and Minyue, which is today's Zhejiang and Fujian. The victory in the first battle gave the Qin army great confidence, and they firmly believed that it would not be long before this group of "southern barbarians" could be solved. However, the army led by the main general Tu Sui was attacked by the local Ou luo army when it attacked Xi'ou (present-day Guangxi). The Ouluo army is different from the armies of Dong'ou and Minyue, these two places have always lived in the tribal way of life of primitive society because of ethnic groups, while Xi'ou has already established two large Fang states because of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, so whether from the command level or from the extremely high quality of the Xi'ou army, it is not comparable to the armies of Dong'ou and Fujian and Vietnam. Therefore, under the circumstance that the light enemy and the terrain of Baiyue were not familiar with it, the Qin army was defeated, and the main general Tu Sui also remained in the landscape of Baiyue forever because of his assassination.
Later, Qin Shi Huang sent Ren Hu and Zhao Tuo on a campaign. These two men learned the lessons of Tu Sui and soon captured Lingnan, incorporating Baiyue into Qin's territory, and making great contributions to the expansion of Qin's territory.
After the war, some people counted the number of casualties on both sides: on the Qin side, there were about 500,000 people who went out on the expedition, but only about 100,000 people survived; the Baiyue side lost nearly 200,000 people. This battle cannot be described as tragic.
At this point, qin shi huang got what he got from the southern conquest of baiyue, I believe everyone is very clear. The southern conquest of Baiyue was almost an affirmation for the ambitious Qin Shi Huang, which not only represented Qin Shi Huang's determination to expand his territory; it was also an important part of the basic opera of the centralized state he built; in addition, he also obtained nearly 1 million square kilometers of land in the Baiyue region. No matter from which aspect, Qin Shi Huang was definitely the biggest winner of this war.