Chaos and death of Zhao.
——— Sun Haohui's "Great Qin Empire"
The State of Zhao was a relatively powerful princely state in the Warring States period, especially after the middle of the Warring States period, the State of Zhao almost carried the banner of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong against Qin, and was the main force of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong against Qin. In terms of military strength, it has a superior strength with the Qin State, and it can be said that it is the only country in the middle and late Warring States that can be compared with the Qin State.
Moreover, the State of Zhao was a princely state established after the three branches of the Jin Dynasty, the real founding time was relatively short, and there was no deep ideological shackles like the State of Yan or the State of Chu in terms of the form of state rule, and the overall development situation was relatively novel and relatively easy to innovate.
However, what is not in line with the strength of the Zhao State is that he was the second country to be destroyed by the Qin State in the Warring States Period, so how did the Zhao State, which was the main force of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong against the Qin, bury its excellent situation? In fact, the main problem lies in the deformed development of the Zhao state.
First, Shang Wu is belligerent
Zhao State is a country with relatively strong folk customs, which may also be related to its own geographical location, the Zhao State is located in the northwest of the Central Plains, adjacent to the Rong Di Xiongnu and other ethnic minorities, these forces are also in the conquest of successive years, over time, the Zhao State has also formed a martial folk style, which led to the country more advocating force, for the development of military strength is very dependent, in the Zhao State was just established when it showed a sense of strength.
Later, with the development of Zhao Wuling's strength and rapid development, zhao guojun turned most of its national energy to the development of military strength, and neglected the development of administrative and economic development.
However, the development of a country can not rely only on military strength to be able to win, and the strength of military strength does not mean that the war can achieve absolute victory, many protracted wars are actually comprehensive strength, in addition to the combat capability of the army, the monarch's ability to rule, the country's economic support ability, the army's support system support capabilities, and so on are the key to determining the success or failure of the war.
And if these aspects are not done well, strong military strength is actually a waste, a waste of national energy and development resources. This point was vividly reflected in Zhao Guo.
For example, in the Battle of Changping, the top military strength of the Zhao State before the Battle of Changping was actually capable of competing with the Qin State, but after a long confrontation, the Zhao State's national strength was empty, and it was not able to continue to support the front-line combat, if the war continued to be consumed, the Zhao State was about to be dragged down, so the King of Zhao was anxious to end the war, and in desperation, he could only arbitrarily use Zhao Kuo who focused on the direction of attack to replace the lianpo of the implementation of the defensive policy, resulting in a fiasco in the Battle of Changping.
Therefore, the martial tradition of the Zhao State is not a good thing, although it can help the Zhao State to enhance its military strength, stimulate the enthusiasm of ordinary people to join the army, and also enhance the belligerence of the soldiers, but it also allows the Zhao State to devote most of its energy to the military, ignoring the development of other aspects, so that the national road of the Zhao State has become more and more deformed.
The neglect of other development directions led to unhealthy trends in other aspects in the development process, and spread rapidly throughout the Zhao state.
Second, advocate strong arguments
The State of Zhao was a country that was not inclined to civil rule, which still led to loopholes in the process of selection or appointment of officials, in fact, the red people around the nobles or monarchs of the Zhao State in that era basically relied on strong arguments to ascend to the throne. What is a strong argument? Saying that it sounds good is called eloquence, and saying that it is not good is unreasonable to make trouble.
For example, at that time, Pingyuan Jun's disciples once debated on the topic of "how many ears do people have", which can make people laugh, in this debate, people who advocate having two ears can not argue that people have three ears in any case, and Pingyuan Jun, as one of the four princes of the Warring States at that time, as the largest nobleman of the Zhao Kingdom, was proud to treat such people as guests, which shows the customs of the Zhao Kingdom at that time.
Another example is Lin Xiangru, in the meeting of Zhao and Shichi, Lin Xiangru's behavior can be roughly reduced to two points, one is sophistry, the other is to force with death, which is a manifestation of Zhao Guo's advocating strong debate at that time, through reasonless debate to show his so-called talent, in order to gain the favor of nobles or monarchs.
As a result, the zhao state's government and public were filthy, and few of the civil servants were really talented people, and the reason why they would be appreciated by the monarch was mostly because of strong arguments, and among the few celebrities in the Zhao kingdom, most of them were also famous for debate or advice.
The eloquence embodied in Mao Sui's self-recommendation does not need to be described in detail, such a person looks very ornamental, but the contribution that can actually be brought to the country is very small, which is why after the meeting of Zhao and Shichi, Lin Xiangru almost did not appear in the public eye again. In this way, how could the political environment of the Zhao State not be chaotic?
Third, the chaotic court
When the monarch of the Zhao State admired the people who advocated strong arguments and let them still occupy high positions, the political trend of the Zhao State had gradually begun to change, because the biggest characteristic of this type of person was that they were clever in their tongues, manipulating right and wrong, and the words they said seemed to be very reasonable.
However, they cannot make a concrete contribution to the development of the country, and some people will even use the so-called eloquence to blind the monarch's eyes, and even more will mutilate Zhongliang. For example, Guo Kai in the last years of the Warring States period, some people say that Guo Kai was the biggest traitor in the Warring States era, and the demise of the Zhao state was inseparable from Guo Kai.
Guo Kai has a mouth that is extremely good at manipulating right and wrong and provoking dissension, and it is his remarks that frame the two most important generals in the Zhao Kingdom: one is Lianpo, and we have all heard a saying called "Lianpo is old, can still eat or not" that at that time, after Lianpo went to other countries, the King of Zhao once sent someone to invite him.
However, guo Kai later spread rumors that Lianpo's energy and physical state were not as good as before, like King Zhao depicting a look of wind and candles, so that King Zhao gave up the idea of using Lianpo arbitrarily again.
Another was Li Mu, who, after accepting bribes from the State of Qin, kept saying bad things about Li Mu in front of King Zhao, believing that Li Mu was in collusion with the enemy army and trying to find a cholera to find the government of the country, successfully getting King Zhao to recall Li Mu, and later by continuing to make rumors that King Zhao appointed Sima Shang instead of Li Mu, and secretly killed Li Mu.
After Li Mu's death, the Zhao state no longer had a general who could take on great responsibilities, and its strong military strength became a decoration. But in fact, Guo Kai was only a microcosm, and what he represented was a courtier who could only speak quickly but had no real ability to govern the country in the Zhao Dynasty at that time, and was also the most critical factor in the defeat of the Zhao State.
brief summary:
Therefore, we can see from the above-mentioned narrative that the excellent situation in which the Zhao Congress buried itself has a great connection with its own development, and the excessive advocating of the strength of military strength makes the Zhao state ignore the development of administrative and economic aspects, and after the military strength is strong, it is found that there is not enough economic ability to support it, the large-scale war is weak, the support is not guaranteed, and the army is powerful but unable to play.
At that time, almost all the people in the government and the public were quick to talk about it, and there were no civil servants who could really formulate plans and planning systems for the country, resulting in top-heavy development.
However, the confrontation between countries is more comprehensive strength, only military and no economy and politics, such a country is equivalent to a person with only one leg, in any case, it is not better than a person with sound limbs, so the failure of the Zhao state is actually a mistake in decision-making in terms of development, if it can take into account the development of military, administrative, economic and other aspects like the Qin state, I believe that the Zhao state has the strength and opportunity to compete with the Qin state.
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